The hallway was smoke-choked and trembling, filled with students screaming and sprinting toward exits that no longer seemed safe. Kaida pushed forward, ducking under a broken light fixture that sparked and hissed above him.
His shoulder ached from the earlier fall, but adrenaline numbed it. His thoughts spun in a whirlwind of heat and plaster dust, but one name anchored them.
Olivia.
He shoved past a toppled trash bin, stumbling toward the next intersection.
“Kaida!”
The voice was barely audible through the chaos, but he knew it immediately.
He turned. Mishell stood just a few feet away, hugging her arms, her eyes wide with terror. Her knees trembled as she took a cautious step toward him.
“I—I can’t—” she started, voice cracking.
BOOM!
A section of ceiling above them split. A jagged piece of it plummeted toward them with a horrifying hiss of crumbling stone.
Kaida froze.
“MOVE, DUMBASS!!” a voice bellowed.
WHAM!
Kumuna crashed into them like a freight train, shoving Kaida and Mishell out of the way just as the chunk of concrete slammed into the floor behind them, spraying shards and dust.
Kaida hit the ground with a grunt, rolling once before catching himself.
He blinked up at Kumuna’s grinning, dust-covered face. “Told you I’d save your life one day.”
“Perfect timing,” Kaida coughed.
Tsubaki rolled in behind them, panting and red-faced. “You guys okay?! What the hell is happening?!”
“I don’t know!” Kaida pushed himself upright. “But we need to find Olivia! She was supposed to be in the front building—has anyone seen her?!”
Kumuna shook his head. “Haven’t seen her. But if anyone’s outside already, it’s her. Girl’s got instincts like a damn wildcat.”
“Then we need to get outside,” Kaida said, eyes scanning the hall. “Now.”
The group bolted for the nearest staircase, Kaida leading the way. His legs were heavy, not from exhaustion but dread. They turned the corner and found the stairs—
Blocked.
A massive piece of the ceiling had collapsed across the entry, twisted metal bars poking through concrete like ribs. Fire crackled somewhere below.
“Next one!” Kumuna barked.
They doubled back, racing through the corridor. Another tremor rocked the floor beneath them. Kaida felt it in his bones. The air buzzed with instability, as if the very foundation of the school was cracking beneath their feet.
They reached the second staircase.
Also blocked.
Twisted piping. Scattered lockers. Debris burning along the edges.
“W-We’re trapped…” Mishell whispered, clutching her sleeves. “We’re really… trapped…”
Tsubaki moved toward her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
“We’re not trapped,” she said calmly, even though her voice trembled. “We’re going to find another way. You’re okay. We’re all together.”
Mishell’s hands went to her ears as her breathing grew rapid, eyes darting.
Kaida looked up and down the hallway, frantic. His eyes landed on a long stretch of classroom windows.
“What about the windows?” he said. “If we can break one, maybe there’s a ledge, or—”
“Bro.” Kumuna squinted at him. “Did you forget what floor we’re on?”
Kaida paused.
“…Right. Fifth.”
“And last I checked, I can’t fly.”
Another tremor hit. Stronger. Violent.
CRACK—CRASH—BOOM!
The hallway floor split like dry clay beneath their feet.
“WATCH OUT!” Tsubaki screamed.
The entire section collapsed.
Kaida screamed as gravity swallowed him. The ceiling vanished above, replaced by a tunnel of debris and smoke.
SLAM!
He hit something hard—maybe a desk, maybe a support beam—and bounced off it like a ragdoll.
THUD.
The world spun. Air knocked from his lungs. Then silence.
Dust filled his mouth and eyes. He coughed, rolled, groaned.
“Ghh—”
He forced himself up on trembling arms. His head pounded. His body screamed in protest.
“—guys…?”
The air was thick. Choking. He squinted through it.
“Kumuna? Tsubaki?!”
A grunt from nearby. “Still here,” came Kumuna’s voice, weak but alive.
Kaida turned and saw him, slumped near the edge of a broken table, one arm dangling at a sick angle.
Kumuna winced as he tried to move. “Pretty sure that’s not supposed to bend like that.”
Kaida crawled toward him—but stopped as another shadow moved in the haze.
“Tsubaki?”
She staggered into view, holding Mishell, who was dazed and bloodied. A thin trail of red ran down from her temple. Her eyes were barely open.
“I’ve got her,” Tsubaki said, teeth gritted. “She’s alive. She’s breathing.”
Kaida stood shakily. “We have to get her out of here.”
“I know,” Tsubaki said, adjusting Mishell in her arms. “But if another quake hits—”
CRACK.
The ceiling above gave way.
“NO—!”
Tsubaki shoved Mishell with all her strength—hurling her aside—just before the debris fell.
CRASH!!
It all came down.
A wall of rubble crushed the spot Tsubaki had stood.
“TSUBAKI!!” Kaida screamed.
Kumuna lurched forward despite his arm. “NO! No no no—”
KA-THUNK!
A massive steel beam fell next, blocking their path to where she had been. Dust plumed up like smoke.
Kaida staggered forward. “Tsubaki!”
No answer.
Nothing but falling ash and flickering light.
A cough—weak.
Kaida spun around.
Kumuna was hunched over Mishell, shielding her as more debris rained down.
CRASH—CRACK—BOOM!
A locker tipped. A chunk of ceiling shattered beside them.
Kumuna looked up at Kaida from the rubble, his face streaked with dirt and panic.
“Kaida—get out of here!”
“NO! I’m not leaving you—!”
“Go!!”
Then it happened.
The entire floor buckled.
A groan echoed through the bones of the building—a death rattle.
The structure gave way.
Kaida screamed as the ground dropped beneath him. Light disappeared.
Everything moved in slow motion.
The pressure. The sound. The chaos.
He watched Kumuna and Mishell vanish in the falling dust, his hands just out of reach.
“NO—!”
CRACK.
Kaida fell.
SLAM!
Head-first into something hard.
And then—
Black.
A nothingness so complete it swallowed sound, breath, time.
Until—
A voice.
Not male. Not female. Something in between. Calm and vast, like a tide pressing on his soul.
“You won’t die.”
A gasp tore from Kaida’s throat.
His eyes opened—
And saw darkness.
No ceiling. No rubble. No pain.
Just… void.
Endless black.
A soft blue glow pulsed in front of him.
A screen. Floating.
Letters appeared, one at a time.
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