Search and Rescue

"SOMEBODY HELP!"Akane picked up another splintered fiberglass panel, hurling it aside. She worked furiously with both hands, even though she had nearly no grip in her throbbing left arm. Between the tears and the dust, she could barely see what she was reaching for.Three interminable seconds later, Kaito joined her on the pile. "Are you alright?!" He grabbed the other side of a short beam that Akane was trying to lift, tossing it to the ground a meter or so away."No, and I don't care!"There was room in Akane's frantic mind for only two things right now – that Ranko just had to be alright, somehow, because she'd finally found happiness and deserved to enjoy it, and that if she wasn't, it would be her own fault. She was the one who sent Ryoga after her. Of course, she had no idea what he would do, but if she'd thought about it long enough, she could likely have guessed.Two more bystanders joined the group as they continued trying to excavate the two people trapped under the rubble. They were only on the pile for a few moments before the shrill woooo of a siren came to a stop behind them and a loud voice boomed behind the group over a speaker mounted on the red ladder truck."This is Tokyo Fire and Rescue, we need to ask everybody to step back and let us work."The two bystanders stopped their work. One of the firefighters walked up to Kaito, putting her hand on his shoulder. "Sir, we need you to step back."Kaito shrugged her hand off. "My son is in there!"The first responder nodded. "And we're gonna get him out for you. But we're trained to do this without making it worse under there for them, and you're probably not. So for your son's sake, please let us take over." Kaito nodded, begrudgingly giving ground.A male firefighter approached Akane, and she didn't even look up at him. "I'm not leaving."The firefighter shook his head vigorously, most of his face obscured by the respirator he wore. "Ma'am, we know you're worried, but the best thing you can do for them is to step away."Akane threw a chunk of concrete in his direction, forcing him to duck under it. "You want me to move? You're gonna have to kill me."A second firefighter, a mammoth of a man that Akane hadn't seen approach, wrapped his arms around her from behind, pinning her arms to her sides. He lifted her with his back, holding her almost a half-meter off the ground as she screamed and wailed and fought. "LET ME GO! I have to get to her…"He carried Akane to the open rear door of an ambulance, plopping her down on her feet."Let me go! Please!"The firefighter put each of his hands on one of Akane's shoulders, steadying her. He took note of the fact that she winced when her left arm was touched."Ma'am, I need you to listen to me. My team and I are going to do everything we can to help anybody who is hurt in there. But I can't have you going through there like a bull in a china shop. This is delicate work now, and it requires special tools and training to make sure nobody else gets hurt. That includes the folks under all that mess, it includes you, and it includes my team and me. Every second we have to spend managing you and treating our people who get hurt because of a loose cannon is a second we can't spend helping your loved ones."I know you want to help, but I give you my word, the best thing you can do to help right now is to stay back, answer my team's questions as best you can so we know what we're working with, and let our paramedics treat you so you're in good enough shape to look after whoever we pull out of there."Akane nodded dimly. "Okay. But please hurry."The firefighter turned, jogging toward the pile and speaking into the radio mounted on his shoulder. "This is 113 incident command, civilians are clear. Let's get digging out there. This stuff is still settling, so everybody be safe!" Voices started sounding off in response when he released his push-to-talk button. "We're on it, Cap!"A woman in a blue polo shirt and darker blue cargo pants approached Akane from behind. "Hey, ma'am, I'm Paramedic Toshida. Do you mind if I check you over real quick?"The stunned girl shook her head, handing the paramedic her left arm. "I think it's broken."The medic poked at her forearm, noting what did and didn't pain her. "I think you might have dodged that, but we'll need an X-ray to make sure. In the meantime, I'm gonna put an air splint on it for you just in case. What's your name, honey?""Akane." She winced as the inflatable sleeve was tugged around her arm and pressurized."Good to meet you, Akane. Did you see what happened?" She continued to look over Akane, feeling for her pulse in both of her wrists.Akane pointed with her uninjured arm. "The pillar gave way and it came down sideways. There was, like an indentation in the ground, and that's where I last saw them, right there under where that big red thing is." She pointed."Okay, Akane. That's great. That's actually really good news. Did you see how many people were under there?"Akane bit her lip, nodding. "Two. My… my girlfriend, Ranko. She's eighteen, red hair, wearing a blue dress with sunflowers on it. And a little boy. Hoshi. He's maybe six, seven? Wearing a gray T-shirt."The paramedic nodded. "That's perfect. Great job. Thanks, Akane." She pressed the button on the side of the little black speaker velcroed to her shoulder, relaying what Akane had told her. As she did, Izumi and Kaito joined her near the back of the ambulance.Izumi rushed forward to her, stopping when she saw the inflatable cast on Akane's arm. "Have you heard anything?" She sounded positively overwrought. "Not yet. They're working on it." Ranko's sister nodded, sniffling.Akane tried to center herself. Tried to find some inner strength to draw upon. She could not be there for Ranko right now, but if Ranko were out here, she would want to be supportive to Izumi. So, that's what she could do to help Ranko right now."Listen. I've known Ranko longer than you girls have, and she's gotten out of more scrapes than anybody has a right to. If anyone could be okay in there, it's her. And I'm sure she's looking after Hoshi, too. She loves that little guy." She hoped her false confidence had been convincing for Izumi, because it wasn't doing anything at all for herself.Izumi nodded. "I… I need to find a phone and call mama."Kaito gave her a tight squeeze. "Let me, baby. You stay here and wait for Hoshi. He's gonna need you when they get him out of there." He sped off after his fiancee's nod of acceptance.The speaker on the paramedic's shoulder buzzed to life. "113 incident command, we think we've got something here! We need a winch at my location, northeast corner of the pile!"Akane and Izumi both snapped their heads toward the pile, and Akane reached down to squeeze Izumi's hand.With a loud buzz, the ladder of the fire truck extended at a 45 degree angle over the pile, and a firefighter carried a braided steel cable with a large hook on one end up to the top of it. He dangled it between the top two rungs of the ladder, so it lowered straight down onto the pile. Akane saw him take the cable and carefully slide down onto the pile."Hey, Ranko! Hoshi? I don't know if you can hear us, but this is Tokyo Fire and Rescue. We're coming to get you out of there! Try to make some noise if you can!"He wrapped the cable twice around a large segment of the steel pillar, hooking the cable to itself. He reached for the radio on his shoulder again. "113, start her up! Nice and slow!"With a mechanical whir, the cable began to reel into the truck, and the pillar started to move centimeters at a time. They moved agonizingly slowly for fear that any pieces of the carnival ride that were resting on the metal column would shake loose and become projectiles all over again.The firefighter disappeared under the beam, and time seemed to stop for the two women. After the longest thirty seconds of Akane's life, the paramedic's radio sputtered with static. "113, this is Fukoya. I've found them."The firefighter lifted a piece of rebar, using it as a lever to lift the last piece of debris that covered the rut in the earth that Ryoga had created with his Breaking Point technique. Under the fiberglass shell of the gondola boat, he found a young woman curled up as tightly as she could be, face down in the dirt. Her hair was gray from dust. Her knees, elbows and the top of her head were all touching the ground, but her back was arched as if she was laying on top of something. A tiny black sneaker peeked out from under her right hip.The radio crackled again. "I'm bringing one out now. I'm gonna need help for the other one." Izumi and Akane looked at each other in terror. One of them was going to be relieved soon, and the other would have even more cause to worry. With the steel column raised by the makeshift crane, they could no longer see the part of the pile where the firefighters were working.The paramedic's shoulder crackled to life with sound again. "113, Fukoya. I'm out. Where's my backup?!" The radio beeped loudly.Akane's eyes darted from one side of the pile to the other, searching for any sign of Ranko. While she was looking to the mound's left side, she heard a call from her right. "Mama!"Izumi turned her head frantically. "Hoshi! Oh, thank the gods!" The little boy ran up to her, and she enveloped him in her arms. She looked him over head to toe with trembling hands, finding scrapes and cuts but nothing serious. Izumi was sure that the firefighters had checked him over already, but she was his mother and that was her job. "Baby, I'm so relieved to see you. Are you okay?"Hoshi nodded as Izumi picked him up in her arms. "I'm fine, mama!" He turned his head back toward the pile."But Auntie Ranko won't wake up."