On weekends and holidays, the shopping mall filled with a lively bustle that felt just a bit more relaxed than usual.
In the open atrium plaza, an event for children was underway, and toddlers holding colorful balloons dashed happily around their parents. From a nearby bakery drifted the sweet aroma of freshly baked pastry and caramelized sugar. Beneath the gentle hum filling the building, an unfamiliar Western pop song kept a cheerful beat.
For some, it was a day off spent with family.
For others, a place to meet a lover.
And for me—Naoki Aiba—it was supposed to be nothing more than an ordinary day spent running an errand for my mother.
"Detergent, batteries... and Koharu's notebook, right?"
I compared the contents of my shopping bag against the checklist on my phone.
Two refill pouches of detergent. A twelve-pack of AA batteries. As for the notebook my younger sister, Koharu, had asked for, I had gone out of my way to snap a photo in the aisle and text it to her for confirmation, so there was no danger of picking the wrong color and getting chewed out.
My mother had left early for her shift at the hospital, and Koharu was apparently meeting up with friends in the afternoon. There was no need to rush home.
As long as I didn't forget the errands, I could drop by the bookstore. I hadn't eaten lunch yet either, so grabbing a bite at the food court before heading back sounded like a solid plan.
Running errands had felt like a drag before leaving the house, but once I was actually here, it wasn't bad at all. I didn't have to match anyone else's pace; if a shop caught my eye, I could stop, and if nothing did, I could just keep walking.
I wasn't so starved for company that walking alone felt lonely, nor was I so friendless that I could only ever do things by myself.
For me, this balance was just right.
Adjusting my grip on the bag, I looked around for an escalator to the lower floor when bright laughter drifted over from up ahead.
"Come on, I'm telling you it'd look amazing on you! You could totally pull it off, Serina."
"It's not about whether it looks good. If I wear something like that, I won't even be me anymore."
Drawn by the familiar voices, I glanced casually in that direction.
In front of a trendy clothing store, four high school girls in uniform were clustered together. A career guidance seminar had been held for certain students today, so they had probably stopped by on their way home.
Among the four chatting happily, the girl standing in the center commanded attention above all. She exuded such a striking, glamorous aura that you could pick her out instantly even from across the floor.
Softly waving, bright ash-beige hair. Slightly sharp eyes framed by long lashes, and a delicate, well-proportioned face. She was tall for a girl, making her stand out effortlessly even surrounded by her friends.
Serina Mikage.
A sophomore at my high school, and a gyaru so famous that barely anyone at school didn't know who she was.
While her bright hair and striking looks drew eyes, what truly made her legendary was her thorough, uncompromising hatred of guys.
If a boy tried to talk to her, she put up an immediate wall, refusing to carry on the conversation unless strictly necessary. Rumor had it that when an upperclassman got cocky and tried to put a hand on her shoulder, she slapped it away and glared him down without giving a damn about the crowd around them.
The stories might have been slightly exaggerated, but her ruthless attitude toward boys was undeniably real.
Not that it mattered to me in the slightest.
Mikage was in a different class, and I had never spoken a word to her. We had probably passed each other in the hallways, but the odds of her recognizing my face were practically zero.
A friend held an outfit against Mikage's chest and turned her toward a nearby mirror.
"See? It's super cute! I bet guys would like this one way better, too."
"Like I said, why do guys even factor into how I dress?"
"You might actually land a boyfriend, you know?"
"Don't want one. What's so great about getting compliments from a guy?"
"And here she goes again."
When Mikage pouted in annoyance, her friends broke into cheerful laughter.
It was a completely different expression from the cold front she put on around boys. While her headstrong vibe remained, she evidently laughed quite a lot like an ordinary girl her age around people she trusted.
Thinking it would be rude to keep staring, I looked away.
That was all.
We hadn't spoken, nor had we even crossed paths. We just happened to be in the same place, and I happened to catch sight of a girl from my school.
If nothing else had happened, I would have forgotten about Mikage within minutes.
Stepping onto the escalator, I slowly rode it down. Looking over the railing from the atrium, the food court was still packed even past peak lunch hours, with customers wandering around carrying trays in search of empty seats.
At this rate, just finding a table would be a battle.
Should I just whip something up after getting home, or kill some time and wait for the rush to die down? Musing over my options, I reached the first floor. But right as I stepped off the escalator, the overhead lights flickered faintly.
For a split second, the brightness dipped.
Since the power recovered immediately, most shoppers around didn't seem to notice. Even so, a few people looked up in confusion, eyeing the ceiling fixtures.
Then, it happened again.
This time, the lights flickered longer and more rapidly, buzzing like failing fluorescent tubes.
"Is the power going out?"
A young mother walking nearby spoke to her husband.
"It came right back on, so it's probably fine, right?"
There was no sense of urgency in their voices.
I also figured it was just a temporary glitch in the electrical system. In a facility this massive, minor equipment hiccups were bound to happen occasionally.
With no reason to linger, I turned toward the exit when a faint vibration resonated through the floor beneath my feet.
Thinking it was an earthquake, I looked around, but the tremor vanished almost instantly. Neither the suspended signage nor the displays in the shopfronts swayed.
"Did you feel that just now?"
"Not sure. Maybe a delivery truck pulled into the basement?"
A different parent and child were murmuring a brief exchange.
The mother looked around uneasily, but her child was tugging her arm, waving a balloon and begging to visit the plaza event.
An instant later, a muffled bursting sound echoed from deep within the building.
It wasn't deafening. It was a heavy, dull thud, like something massive collapsing behind several thick concrete walls.
The bustling mall fell dead silent for a single heartbeat.
People froze in their tracks, turning toward the source of the noise. But when no further shock followed, conversations resumed one by one.
The store clerks exchanged bewildered looks, but perhaps eager to keep the crowd calm, they returned to assisting customers as usual.
I started walking again.
Maybe I was just being paranoid.
Right as that thought crossed my mind, an unnatural stench caught in the back of my throat.
Something was burning.
It wasn't the smell of charred food from a kitchen. It was drier, a foul, acrid reek that felt as if it were coating the inside of my nose with a thin film.
I turned around slowly.
Deep down the main corridor, near the ceiling, a haze of pale gray smoke was drifting across.
"...Smoke?"
Someone's mutter acted as the catalyst, alerting everyone nearby.
Shoppers looked up all at once. The smoke, so faint at first it could have been mistaken for an optical illusion, began to crawl outward along the ceiling.
It wasn't thick yet.
Even so, it was no trick of the light.
Seconds later, an electronic chime sounded overhead, and a woman's calm recorded voice began to play, instantly feeding the unspoken dread in the air.
"Attention, please. An equipment abnormality has been confirmed inside the building. Please follow the instructions of the staff and remain calm."
The word "fire" was never spoken.
Nor was there any order to evacuate.
Given such vague guidance, people looked at one another in indecision, unsure whether to stay put or head for the doors.
"An equipment abnormality? What does that mean?"
"Is it a fire?"
"They didn't tell us to evacuate, though."
Pockets of confusion erupted everywhere.
The staff seemed equally in the dark, fumbling with their radios while urging nearby patrons to wait.
I gripped the handles of my shopping bag tighter.
I should get out.
Even if it wasn't a fire, there was no reason to stay. If the situation was uncertain, getting outside while it was still safe was the only sensible choice.
The moment I turned toward the exit, the lights overhead strobed violently.
A massive power surge rippled across the ceiling, and in the next breath, every light in the building died.
A wave of shrieks tore through the crowd as darkness swallowed the mall.
Seconds later, the emergency lights snapped on, casting a dim, reddish glow over the concourse. Almost simultaneously, the deafening wail of the fire alarm tore through the building.
"A fire has broken out. Please follow the staff's instructions and evacuate the building immediately."
A clear, unambiguous evacuation order.
The atmosphere ruptured.
The crowd that had been waiting passively surged toward the exits all at once.
At first, it was just a hurried walk. But when someone saw the wall of smoke rolling in from the back of the hallway and broke into a sprint, the human tide completely broke down.
"Don't push!"
"There are kids here!"
"Stop running! The exit is right this way!"
The clerks shouted until their voices cracked, but their words were utterly drowned out by the blaring alarm, the pounding of hundreds of feet, and the chorus of crying and screams.
I was swept into the mass of people, shoved inexorably toward the doors.
Everyone was trying to move in the same direction, yet with every collision of shoulders and bags, my body was thrown violently side to side. When someone tripped up ahead, the people behind couldn't stop in time, setting off another chain of screams.
Right beside me, a young child started wailing.
The mother pulled the child close to shield them, but the crush of the crowd had them pinned, unable to move.
"Go ahead of me!"
Bracing my shoulder against the surging pressure from behind, I twisted my body to carve out a narrow gap for them.
"I'm so sorry—thank you so much...!"
Tucking her child's head against her chest, the mother bowed frantically and melted into the crowd ahead.
Even in those few seconds, the burning stench had thickened. The smoke accumulating overhead blurred the corridor into a murky white, transforming the unlit mall into a nightmare unrecognizable from minutes ago.
The exit wasn't far.
According to the glowing signs, just one more turn down this hallway would lead outside.
Telling myself that, I steadied my breathing and pushed forward.
A paper bag dropped on the floor was trampled instantly, spilling clothes and boxed goods across the tiles. When the owner bent down to scoop them up, a man with her grabbed her arm and yanked her to her feet.
"Leave it!"
At his furious shout, several other shoppers looked down at the belongings they were desperately clutching.
The shopping bag in my hand suddenly felt like dead weight.
Inside were detergent, batteries, and Koharu's notebook. Even if I lost them, they were just everyday things that could be replaced.
Without further hesitation, I set the bag down against the wall.
The light-blue notebook peeked out through the plastic. Koharu would probably give me grief, but once she heard what happened, she would understand.
Following the green glow of the emergency signs, natural light began to pierce the smoke at the far end of the corridor.
Just a little farther and I'm out.
Spurred by that glimpse of daylight, the crowd surged forward, shoving hard from behind. My feet almost tangled, but I managed to keep my balance and burst through the open exit with the rest of the mob.
The moment the outside air hit my face, I exhaled the breath that had been trapped in my chest.
It was supposed to be a warm summer breeze, but coming out of that furnace of smoke and heat, it felt shockingly cold.
Coughing, I put some distance between myself and the building, making my way toward an open patch of asphalt.
A massive crowd of evacuees had already spilled across the parking lot. People were weeping, calling out for family members, or trembling with phones pressed to their ears. Security guards and mall staff sprinted back and forth, shouting at everyone to stay clear of the structure.
The wailing sirens grew rapidly louder.
Moments later, several fire engines roared into the lot, their flashing red beacons painting the building walls and the pale faces of the crowd in rhythmic crimson.
I braced both hands against my knees, trying to get my ragged breathing under control.
The depths of my lungs stung, and a raw, dull ache gripped my throat. But I didn't have a scratch on me, and I had made it out to safety on my own two feet.
I survived.
It took a few moments for the reality to sink in.
While trapped inside, my mind had been consumed entirely with getting out. But the instant I reached safety, all the tension drained out of me, leaving my knees weak.
Just as my breathing began to level out, my phone buzzed in my pocket.
"Naoki, did you finish shopping? Koharu wants to double-check the notebook color again."
It was a text from my mother.
Staring at the screen, I didn't know how to answer.
If I told her I was caught in a fire, she would drop everything at the hospital to come running. It would throw Koharu into a panic, too.
I still didn't know the full scope of what was happening.
I had only inhaled a bit of smoke and wasn't injured. Deciding it would be better to call once things settled down, I pocketed the phone.
Looking up, I saw black smoke billowing from an upper-floor window, staining the peaceful holiday sky. Crowds of shoppers gazed up at the building, frozen in disbelief.
As soon as the firefighters arrived, they began unloading gear and debriefing the guards and employees. Their movements were crisp and precise, barking orders in taut, controlled voices.
Watching the scene in a daze, I casually scanned the crowd around me.
Neither my family nor my friends were here today. There was no one I needed to look for.
And yet, my eyes unconsciously tracked the people around me.
A crying child.
An elderly couple clutching each other's shoulders, confirming they were unharmed.
A middle-aged man furiously berating a staff member.
And three high school girls huddled together, clutching their phones with white knuckles.
My gaze locked onto them.
It was Mikage's group—the girls who had been laughing in front of the boutique earlier.
There had definitely been four of them.
Now, there were only three.
Their faces were drained of color as they frantically scanned the crowd. But within their circle, that bright hair—impossible to miss anywhere else—was nowhere to be seen.
A sharp prickle of dread lodged in my chest.
Maybe I was just missing her. If she had taken a different exit, she could easily be on the other side of the building or in a different parking lot. Or maybe she had headed straight to the first-aid tent after getting separated.
Right.
In a complex this huge, everyone wasn't going to end up in the exact same spot.
Just because I couldn't see her didn't mean Mikage was trapped inside.
My head understood the logic, but the knot of unease refused to loosen.
"Still nothing..."
One of the girls lowered the phone from her ear.
"Try calling again!"
"I've tried a dozen times! It just keeps ringing!"
"Maybe she's around the back? Maybe she got out and is looking for us right now!"
"Then why isn't she answering her phone?!"
The girl who shouted clamped a hand over her mouth a second later.
She wasn't angry. She just had no idea how to contain the terror building inside her.
Another girl spoke up, her voice trembling.
"Where was the last place we saw Serina?"
"The second floor. We were together for a bit after we left the shop."
"How far did we get together?"
"I don't know...! The alarm went off, people started running, everyone was pushing... When I looked back, she was gone."
Listening to their frantic exchange, I pressed my lips into a hard line.
None of them had seen Mikage make it out.
She hadn't just gotten separated outside; she had disappeared midway through the evacuation.
A security guard hurried over to the three girls, rapidly taking down her name, clothing description, and last known location. Scribbling notes on a pad while double-checking the details, he raised his radio to his mouth.
"All units, potential trapped individual: one female in her teens. Last seen on the second floor, west wing. Wearing high school uniform, approximately one-seventy centimeters, light hair. Her three companions have evacuated safely."
Finishing his transmission, the guard set his jaw and sprinted toward the incident command post where the firefighters were assembling.
Watching him run off, one of the girls took a desperate step back toward the building.
"Wait!"
Her friend grabbed her arm in a panic.
"I have to go look for her! What if Serina is still in there—?!"
"You can't! If you go back in, you'll get trapped too!"
"Then when are the firefighters going in?!"
Her agonizing scream cut through the chaotic noise of the parking lot.
The firefighters weren't just standing around. They were unpacking rescue gear, laying out floor plans, and interrogating staff about the seat of the fire and the spread of smoke. Entering a blazing building blind was suicide; they had to confirm the layout first.
I understood that rationally.
Even so, for those waiting, every single second felt like an eternity.
The smoke pouring from the facade was growing darker and thicker by the minute. The black plume that had been rising straight up caught the wind, rolling sideways and swallowing the upper-floor windows.
I began weaving through the crowd, searching for Mikage.
Near the triage area.
Around the cluster of store managers and staff.
By the information desk set up for separated families.
I even circled around to the far side of the parking lot, stopping every time I caught a glimpse of light-colored hair. But every face that turned around belonged to a stranger.
What the hell am I even doing?
The thought crossed my mind.
I had never even spoken to Mikage. Just going to the same high school didn't make us friends or acquaintances. Even today, I had simply ended up at the same mall and caught a passing glimpse of her outside a shop.
There was zero reason for me to be this invested.
I should leave it to the professionals and go home. If an amateur tried to play hero, it would only add one more casualty to the rescue count.
That was the smart thing to do.
By every standard of logic, that was the right answer.
And yet, I couldn't get her face out of my head.
The way she had laughed off her friends' suggestions, declaring that she didn't care about impressing guys. The way she had openly voiced her opinions without giving a damn what anyone thought—a bit standoffish, maybe, but brimming with vibrant, unapologetic life.
Less than an hour had passed since then.
A girl who had been laughing naturally just moments ago might now be trapped entirely alone on the other side of that suffocating black smoke. I couldn't bring myself to accept that reality.
If I could just confirm with my own eyes that she made it out, that would be enough.
I could breathe a sigh of relief, laugh at myself for overreacting, and head home.
So please, just be out here somewhere.
Praying silently, I scanned the sea of evacuees one more time. Right then, an urgent voice crackled from a nearby security guard's radio.
"Attention all personnel. Female teenager not accounted for among evacuees; high probability of entrapment. Last confirmed on the second floor, west wing. Wearing high school uniform, approximately one-seventy centimeters, light hair. The three companions have—"
The description taken from her friends earlier was being relayed to every guard and first responder on site.
That was all the confirmation I needed.
She wasn't in the crowd.
The truth I had been trying so hard to deny offered no more room for doubt.
Serina Mikage was still inside that building.