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Touma knew he was running out of time, that the building would collapse at any second. The battle was still raging outside, one stray attack would cause everything to cave in above him. He couldn't just ignore it though, couldn't turn his back to the young girl who asked about her pet, because he knew how much a pet could mean, how much a non-human friend was worth. Fire was spreading through the building, torn cables and missed attacks by Greymon the culprits, and Touma coughed, leaned down to avoiding breathing in the smoke. He heard meowing from one of the rooms, from under the couch. He laid down on the floor, tried to lure the cat out. The cat meowed again, curled up further under the couch. It was getting hot, too hot for either of them, and the walls were creaking around them.
”I'm sorry, but I can't just leave you like this”, Touma said.
He crawled closer to the couch, stretched his arm under the couch. The cat hissed, clawed at him, but he managed to grab it, held it against his chest.
”I know, I'm scared too. But we're getting out now.”
He pushed himself up, the floor creaked, broke, and he fell. He wrapped his arms around the cat, had to protect it. The fall was short, only one floor, but he landed wrong, landed too hard. Pain flared through his body, caused him to scream. The cat got scared, tried to break away, but Touma held it in a safe grip and curled around it as he fell to the floor. Pieces of the ceiling fell down, landed over him, tore at his skin and clothes. He tried to gather himself, had to get out. The sounds of the battle came closer, hit the side of the building.
The building couldn't take it. It started crumbling and Touma had approximately five seconds to get somewhere safe. There wasn't enough time, but there was a bed right next to them. He wouldn't be able to fit under it, but he rolled towards it anyway. Pain shot up from his legs, made darkness swirl infront of his eyes and he had to stop moving, focused on breathing for two seconds. He grabbed the mattress, pulled it over himself and used his body to shield the cat. Huge pieces of concrete and wood landed on top of the mattress, pressed him toward the ground. Dust and smoke filled the air and he coughed, could barely breathe. He tried moving, tried creating more room for himself, but he was stuck, was nailed to the spot. Everything was painful, each movement made it harder to breathe, made darkness swirl closer. He couldn't tell how injured he was, but he knew it was bad.
”Masaru”, he coughed out, hoping that his partner was wearing the communicator, that he was listening to it. ”I'm in...”
He breathed in another cloud of dust and got overtaken by a cough attack that left him out of breath. He groaned, clung to consciousness because he knew the moment he fainted he would be out of time, knew that if he fainted he wouldn't come out alive. Panic started clawing in his chest. The cat pressed closer, purred against him, it's claws stuck in Touma's shirt. Fire was still going around them, louder and louder as it got closer, as it consumed more and more of the building. He tried to drag them out, push them in any direction, but something sharp cut into his back, into his thigh and he choked on a scream, stopped moving. The cat purred louder, let out a loud meow.
”Masaru will”, Touma coughed, ”he'll find us.”
He just hoped it wouldn't be too late. It was getting harder to stay awake. His eyes closed, he forced them open, but they closed again. Sounds were getting harder to hear, disappeared along with the world as unconsciousness pulled him closer. He thought he could hear Masaru cheering, but maybe it was just a hallucination, his brain granting him one last happy thing before his time was up. Darkness engulfed him, unconsciousness pulled him under. There was only nothing.