| The One That Got Away ~ Katy Perry |

The stench was intoxicating. The hot smell left me nauseated. The blaze almost blinded me, and I wondered how I survived when the person my entire life revolved around was gone. Blown up with the fire, and away with the wind that lapped at the flames, carrying them further, widening the perimeter.

The mall was ablaze, the wind keeping the fire alive. The mammoth ads and the fancy lettering for the name of the mall were high up on the building, where the fire had not reached yet. Within a few seconds, or minutes, I knew the fire would throw the hoardings off of the wall. My eyes watered as I stared into the glow. Not just from misery.

The gargantuan fire peeled off the skin of the mall, noisily and slowly. It lasted forever, as I sat, legs sprawled in front of me. For a long, long time. I could hear people running about behind me and beside me, but my brain fazed them all away.

I looked up towards the entrance. If I rush inside... maybe she'll still be there. Maybe it's not too late yet.

And then I saw him. And it all made sense. The curse presence she told me she could feel, and then the spontaneous combustion. The Osama bin Laden of cursed spirits, Jogo.

From the grey smoke coming out of the top of his head, I knew it was him.

I, a grade four Jujutsu sorcerer, wanted to rip him apart and I knew I had the strength to do it. So I picked myself up. My legs were shaking. My body had been blown to the side of the street by the blast but my heart had run inside to die with her.

Our eyes met.

The Mt. Fuji looking trash, the lowest of the lows of all cursed spirits. The geriatric-looking piece of shit! A literal skidmark on this world!

Our eyes met, and I know mine never wavered because I can still paint his ungodly, malevolent face with his one eye, single eyebrow, old man wrinkles, and corks for ears. I could draw it all in detail. Fuck it, I could sculpt him!

I know I was walking forward because he had stopped in his tracks and was getting bigger. Weird how I remember all these absurd details from that evening! And not the relevant details like...

Why was I late? Why did Nobara and I even choose the mall for our date? What did she have to buy? How did I get my scars? Why couldn't I have died in her stead?

"Stop walking!" I heard Toge's voice. It was directed at me, I suppose, for I stopped walking. Against my will.

Jogo flashed a trashy grin at me before walking away.

I was released from the binds of Inumaki's cursed speech when the ad hoarding that I had been eyeing for so long hurtled towards the ground. Only about a hundred meters ahead of me. Hot flames emerged from it, blowing in a different direction than mine. And I still don't know how I got my scars.

And then I saw her. The light of my life, the only woman worth living for. And she was on fire. How could I still tell it was her?

How could I not? She's the love of my life. And, she'll always be.

She was calling out to me, waving her hand. The bright orange flames were charring her skin - the image would forever haunt me. She was saying something. I couldn't hear her over the chatter of the rushing mob around us, so I inched closer. Toge's words couldn't stop me anymore, even if he tried.

"Why... didn't... you... come?" Nobara asked. Her voice was croaked. It sounded like the crackling of a fire. "We... should...have... died... together... Maki-san... I won't be able to... survive... in... the afterlife... without you... Come, Maki-san." She opened her arms wide. "Come... die...with... me."

What a beautiful request! A lover's demands. How could I say no?

So with a smile, I stepped forward and into her embrace.