Hitman: Chapter 18

Shuichi gripped at the pavement, tears still flowing due to the horrid site that was in front of him. "YUKI!" He screamed loudly. Assuh stood behind him looking up at the hotel, which was burning ablaze in a fire.

"Oh my God.." Assuh said simply, then stammered "D-did they get out? Are they all right?" Shuichi didn't answer, he could only stare in horror, speechless and breathless. Assuh quickly ran to the burning building, standing closer to it. The moment he stopped, he saw Shuichi run past him, running into the building. "Shuichi!" Assuh yelled for him, grabbing for his arm, but with no succession.

Shuichi hurried through the building, running up the stairs not worrying if they would break or not. He ran up flight after flight after flight. The whole time bits of flaming debris would fall on him, burning his skin. He didn't care. The whole time he ran through the building he screamed one thing, he screamed for his Yuki, and prayed for his safety. "Yuki! Please, please be okay! Please, dear God, let him be okay!"

He finally reached the room he and his lover shared only hours ago, the wooden door on the floor, off of the melted hinges. He ran through the doorway and saw Yuki laying in bed. Shuichi quickly went over to him and picked him up, laying him over his shoulder, the fireman carry. He ran back the way he had came, running down the flights of stairs, running through the hallways and the lobby, finally reaching the exit.

He gently lied Yuki on the ground, laying his ear to Yuki's chest. "Come on Yuki.. Please.." Shuichi had no knowledge of CPR. He felt Yuki's arm for a pulse, there was a light one, and a light heartbeat to match. Shuichi quickly reached in his pocket, pulling out his cell phone and dialed emergency. When he was put through, he quickly told them the situation and location, and the fact that there were definitely people left in the building.

In about 10 minutes, the building was surrounded by firetrucks and ambulances. The firemen worked to put out the fire and going in the building, coming out with people wrapped in blankets with oxygen masks on, some of the firemen carried people over their shoulders like Shuichi had done with Yuki.

Yuki was laying on a stretcher in front of an opened ambulance, Shuichi stood at his feet watching, tears in his eyes. The paramedics had an oxygen mask of their own on Yuki's mouth, making him breathe. Shuichi looked back at the building in time to see Suguru being carried out on the shoulders of a fireman. K was next, a blanket wrapped around him and an oxygen mask on.

A cough was heard. Shuichi quickly snapped his head back to Yuki in time to see his eyes opening slowly and him raising up, coughing and taking his oxygen mask off. "Sir, please, lie down." A paramedic instructed Yuki, however he was ignored as the blond man stood up from the stretcher. He looked around, saw the firemen, the ambulances, the building still on fire, then saw Shuichi. He walked over to the singer and enveloped him in a tight, loving embrace. "Shuichi.." Yuki said, burying his face in the pink locks that he was so familiar with. Shuichi started crying into Yuki's chest, holding him tight. "Yuki... My Yuki." He held him tightly.

"How are the others?" Yuki asked, looking around.

"I don't know yet.." Shuichi answered. Yuki took his hand, leading him through the large crowds of people, searching for Suguru and K.

They reached another ambulance, a little ways away from the one Yuki had been at. On the stretcher sat the golden-haired, gun-crazed American. He was laughing and cutting up with the paramedics, an oxygen mask over his mouth. When he noticed Shuichi and Yuki, he smiled broadly at them. "Hey guys," he said cheerfully. "good to see that you're all right."

"K, thank goodness you're alive." Shuichi said happily.

"You thought a little fire would get the best of me, Claude K. Winchester?"K smirked. "There's no way. I've been through hell in back, it's going to take a lot more than a few flames to get me down." Shuichi and Yuki both smiled at him, glad to know that he still had his sense of humor, and his egotistic self was just as it always was. "But, uh," K's expression suddenly changed to a seriousness. "where's Suguru?"

"We haven't found him yet." Shuichi stated, looking about the hotel's parking lot at various ambulances and stretchers.

"I'm sure he's fine, just a little shaken up." Yuki said back, still watching K.

"Well, I'm all right I assure you." K said, smiling again. "Go find the little green haired man, I'll be doing what I can to help anyone out here."

Shuichi and Yuki went about looking around for yet another person. Knowing that Yuki and K was okay made Shuichi believe that Suguru would be just fine as well, Yuki thought the same thing seeing as how K was joyful and cheery.

They reached one ambulance that had closed up their doors, and no stretcher was out in front of it.
"Excuse me," Yuki said to one of the paramedics. "have you seen a green haired male?"
The paramedic looked sorrowful and put a hand on Yuki's shoulder. Yuki hated physical contact, especially with people he didn't know or had just met, but ignored it. "I'm sorry. The smoke was too intense for his lungs, he suffocated." A cry was heard from Shuichi, Yuki quickly looked back to him in time to see him fall to his knees for the second time that early morning. He started sobbing uncontrollably. Yuki only stared in disbelief at the man whose hand was still rested atop his shoulder.

Assuh stood beside that same ambulance, hidden from the view of both Shuichi and Yuki, when he heard the words "he suffocated" he quickly ran from the side of the vehicle and found a spot a while away from all the noise and sirens. He pulled out his cell phone and quickly dialed. The person on the other end picked up at the second ring.

"What is it?" The male voice said gruffly, sounding highly annoyed for being interrupted at six in the morning.

"Hideo, Suguru's dead." Assuh said back.

The man on the other end snapped to attention. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Assuh replied. "he suffocated due to the smoke. Your plan worked. Now all that's left is their manager and this Yuki guy."

" 'Yuki'? Who's this 'Yuki'?" The man asked. "I thought it was only Hiro, Suguru, their manager, and Shuichi?"

"Yuki is Shuichi's lover, his boyfriend. He's very protective over the pink baka, he won't let anyone get near him without scowling at them." The man explained hastily.

"Jesus Christ, you mean we still have two more?"

"Yes, Hideo. Two more."

"Get the job over with, and bring me the singer." Hideo sighed on the other end.

"Yes sir." Assuh hung up the phone, slipping it back into his pocket.

Hideo Unimuzo and Takeo Hiroshima, Japan's most deadliest criminals. Hideo wanted Shuichi, and Takeo's job was to get Hideo what he wanted -- even if it meant working as a guitarist under the name, Assuh Voon.