3.30. Burn.

Y/N didn't immediately return to his apartment.

He knew it was dangerous for him to be out on the street like this. Who knew what Kuroi had control over now? With a megacorporation like L/N Tech under him, he practically had infinite resources.

But Y/N really needed a break. Just... a rest from everything.

First, he visited the nearby park.

It was early in the afternoon. Cloudy grey skies hovered above, tinting the entire world grey. But the park was still beautiful, rows upon rows of neat trees and bushes. Y/N wandered down a well-maintained gravel path, eyes fluttering over the nearby plants.

Barely anyone was out. The park was eerily quiet, save for a few workers chatting as they blew leaves off the path behind Y/N. Y/N liked it. He liked the silence, the lack of people. Slow as he liked, he walked a big loop, taking in every little detail and just... calming himself down.

The air was cool, and flat. Little wind. A squirrel raced across the path in front of him. Y/N tracked it across the floor, halting his walk as the small animal bolted up the side of a tree. Briefly, the squirrel looked towards him, black eyes staring wide. And then it ran away. Y/N continued walking.

Later on, he walked the streets. Y/N didn't have a location in mind - he just chose a random direction and began walking. The city streets were more lively than the park had been, with people standing on the pavement or walking at a brisk pace. Y/N didn't do either, leisurely ambling down the side of the road.

Eventually, he stopped, turning off the road. He walked down a side path, through an open courtyard, and towards a building.

His head craned up, trying to see inside the huge glass building. It was more wide than it was tall, a weird curved shape that reminded Y/N of a peanut. A giant, glass and metal peanut.

Y/N shrugged, and went in.

Practically nobody was inside. Y/N walked into a huge lobby area, the room several stories up. The entire place was glass and marble, with a statue closed off by red ribbon on one side, and a receptionists' desk on the other.

"Welcome to the National Art Centre," A voice called out. Y/N glanced to one side. A suited man was standing behind the desk, looking at him curiously. "Can I help you, young sir?"

"No..." Y/N murmured. "I'm just here to look around."

The man smiled. "Alright, sir. Enjoy."

Y/N continued walking.

Over the next few hours, Y/N explored the museum. He'd spent hours outside, the afternoon giving way to a dark sunset. The museum was all glass on the outside, and so Y/N took a seat at the cafe, watching as the light bled from the sky. The grey clouds darkened fast, dropping lower and lower in the sky as they blotted out any trace of the daylight. The weather was worsening, and worsening fast. But inside, it was calm and quiet.

It was pretty much an empty museum. A few tourists, a few foreigners, and a few elderly people, but besides that, nobody. Y/N was probably the youngest person there - something that drew quite a lot of the staff's attention.

"Here."

Y/N glanced up with surprise. A cafe worker placed a glass mug on a round plate in front of him. It was filled with a light yellow-green liquid. The worker smiled at him. "It's herbal tea."

Clearing his throat, Y/N's eyes narrowed slightly. "Why...?"

The lady just shrugged, smiling. "It's not often teenagers come here by themselves. Usually, it's on school trips. And besides, there's no business right now, so I'm basically on break."

"So... tea?"

"Yup." She nodded sagely. "Do you want it?"

"Sure..." Y/N mumbled. He took hold of the cup, the tea warming his palms through the glass. "Thank you."

Shaking her head slightly, the worker headed back to the cafe counter. "Don't thank me."

Y/N hesitated. He turned his eyes to the sky, where even more clouds were gathering. It was likely to be a storm. A bad one, by the looks of it.

A very bad one.

He didn't know just how bad it would be.

🥕🥕🥕

Y/N stood in front of the home he had lived in for the past eleven years.

He'd done everything there. He'd been taught how to live by himself. He'd slowly learnt how to work the appliances, how to clean the floor and wash the bedsheets properly. From his young age, he'd survived in that apartment, completely by himself.

He'd been happy to leave it for Ascension, closing the door behind and locking it with a small key. A spare key was hidden above the door, in a crevice filled with spider webs but no spiders. One key he'd taken with him.

And he'd been even happier to return to it from Ascension. Standing there in front of the door after hundreds of days of agony, it felt like a dream. To be able to fish the spare key from where it lay in the crevice, untouched for years.

Walking inside, it'd been even more like a dream. Every inch of every surface was covered in dust. Cobwebs stretched across every corner of the room. The light switch flicked on under his fingers, a crisp noise that illuminated the room like some strange version of heaven.

Y/N had appreciated every part of his house. After arriving home from Ascension, he'd spent days on end cleaning every part of it. The windows... the floor... the doors... every inch and crevice was vacuumed, wiped down and sanitised.

His house had been with him after that as well. He always woke up in the same bed from nightmares, crying out as he clutched at his blankets. He would always walk the same route to the sink, take a glass of water from the same cupboard, and drink it while staring out of the same window at the nightlife of Tokyo.

Y/N had... disliked his house then. But he stayed, because where else was he supposed to go? And he still cared about it, and cleaned it almost religiously. And when things started getting better, when he would be able to get some sleep, when he would be able to lie in bed with a smile, he loved his little apartment.

Then Bluelock had come. And he'd made so many more memories. Walking through the door soaking wet to find the letter lying on the floor. The relief at being able to go back to his home, the joy of cleaning it again after months away.

And the lightening of his heart when he realised the house was his. No more parents paying for it. No more interference. It was his, and nobody else's.

Laughing as Chigiri grabbed hold of him during one of the horror movies they'd watched. Gagamaru, raiding his fridge without a care in the world. Late nights hunched over his computer, laughing with Hiori and Niko on some random video game. And waking up each morning, reaching for the nightstand to check any messages people had sent to him in the night.

Throughout the last eleven years, Y/N had lived in the same house.

He'd had memories galore. Bad memories. Happy memories. Memories that nobody should have to have, but he did. Memories that some people would love to have.

His house had been the one constant throughout his life. Maybe it was a little sad, or strange, but Y/N hadn't realised truly how much the place he lived was. It was one of the few things he'd had, one of the few things Y/N could truly call his own.

Y/N's life had changed dramatically over the years. But his house hadn't. Y/N still cleaned the same crevices he had when he'd just started living in it. He still ate at the same table he'd done at the very start. He still woke up in the same bed, sometimes trying to turn off his alarm on the nightstand, sometimes just lying there and smiling up at the ceiling.

Y/N's eyes were blank.

The sky above was dark. Midnight clouds swirled over the skyscrapers. It was just barely evening, yet no sunlight pierced the thick cover that lowered itself over heaven. Lightning cracked the sky into hundreds of blackened pieces, white webs lancing across the clouds.

The trees writhed around him, perpetually shoved to one side as wind twisted through the branches. Rubbish bins clanged, toppled by the sheer force. Litter scattered across the road, instantly snatched away by flurries of air.

A TV aerial snapped away from a nearby building. The crash of metal was lost amongst the howling in Y/N's ears. The world was drained of colour, everything in dim shades of black and grey as the clouds churned above him.

And the rain.

Water poured off of buildings, dripped from lampposts and rooftops, collected in oily puddles on the floor. In the lack of light, it could've been ink. Or blood.

Rivers of water flooded down the pavements. Y/N's feet were practically in a stream, the water rising over the rubber of his shoes to seep into his socks.

Rain collected in gardens. Rain collected on balconies. Rain collected on the ground, pounded any soil to mud, formed dark pools underneath the grass.

Y/N's clothing was drenched. His hair was plastered to his forehead, sticking to the side of his head. Water ran down it, rivulets running down his cheeks, down his neck, soaking into his shirt. It collected in his eyelashes, dripped into his eyes.

His shirt stuck to his chest, hanging heavy on his shoulders. His trousers were exactly the same, all his clothing weighing him down, down, down, down.

His entire body was shivering. Pale skin, purple lips, hair rising, nose reddening, limbs trembling.

But he didn't notice any of it.

Y/N's eyes were fixed forwards. Unblinking, even as more water threatened to spill into his eyes, and wind attempted to tear him from the ground. His feet, pretty much underwater, didn't move. He made no attempt to get inside, to get dry and protected from the wrath of the storm.

No, he just stood there. The front of his face was lit up orange. Even as the wind screamed, and rain poured, neither of them could stop what was happening in front of him.

A pillar of fire. That's what it was. A vision into hell, kitchens and living rooms and bathrooms and bedrooms all alight, all burning furiously. Constant steam rose from the building, more like black smoke as it rose upwards to join the clouds once more.

It wasn't just his apartment. It was the entire block. Hundreds of apartments. People flooded from the front door, screaming with burns, sobbing in the rain. Y/N didn't move.

The thunder cackled overhead. More lightning pierced the clouds, illuminating the scene in a horrifying, nightmarish white light. It faded, and the glow of the fire returned. Back to hell. Back to watching hundreds of people's lives go up in flames, consumed in an instant.

A section of wall gave way completely. The apartment above it came crashing down. Flames exploded, heat reaching Y/N even from where he stood. Was he too close? Maybe. Screams exploded right after, drowned out by the storm. Embers were flung high into the air, dissipating in a millisecond.

Burning debris rained from the stories above, scattered across the grass. Some of it landed at Y/N's feet. Some of it landed on his arms, burning right through his clothing. Pain exploded across his body. But he just stood there, letting the rain douse the fires.

More lights. Y/N closed his eyes for a second. Why was it always more lights? These ones were blue and red. With it came sirens. Uniformed men rushed past Y/N, holding a hose. He could have laughed. There was enough water coming down already in the rain.

"Why isn't it going out?!"

"Terrorist attack? Maybe a gas leak?!"

"The police are five minutes out!"

"The building could collapse! It isn't safe!"

"Ma'am, is everyone out?"

"Shit, there's still people in there! Third floor!"

"We have to get in there now!"

"Look at it! It's a purposeful fire... burning way too well to be a normal one. Gasoline? Petrol? Maybe some alcohols, kerosene... whatever it is, there's enough fuel in there to last a lifetime."

"So it was deliberate?"

"Hard to tell. And the evidence is burning down right in front of us."

"Get in there!"

"Save them!"

One of the men rushed towards him, holding a box of medical supplies. "Kid, are you okay?!" He spoke into a radio. "I've got a boy in front of me, probably in shock. Burns on body and arms from debris."

Y/N waved him off. "I'm fine." His voice was dull. "Toss me some bandages. I'll take care of myself."

"Kid, are you serious? You need medical attention... these burns aren't gonna heal well!"

"Don't you have more serious cases to attend to?"

The man hesitated. His eyes flickered between the injured boy in front of him, and the screaming groups of people being supported as they made their way out of the burning building. It was obvious who was in more need.

Eventually, he cracked. Clearly not happy with it, he took a step away. "Just stay here, okay? We're gonna get more personnel here in a few minutes, and we'll take you to hospital. Just have this for now."

He shoved a waterproof poncho into Y/N's arms, and sprinted off to the other casualties. Y/N didn't make a single move to put it on.

Y/N was impassive. He stood in the rain, ankle deep in water, watching as firefighters desperately tried to reach people inside.

Impassive even as more of the building collapsed, hundreds of tonnes of material crashing to the ground.

Impassive as the screams doubled, the crying grew louder, the sound of sirens filled his ears, and overhead, the storm rumbled with spiteful laughter.

Deliberate... Gasoline... purposeful...

"Don't go, Y/N. I swear on my life, if you do, I'll ruin you." Kuroi's quiet voice echoed in his ears, burrowed into his brain. "If you run now, I will burn everything you are running towards to the ground."

He should've known better than to think Kuroi would let him go.

Y/N was impassive, as he watched his apartment- his house- his home burn to the ground.

And wondered.

Would it be him burning next?