The subway was a meat grinder - screams, the crackling of metal, the smell of blood. Toji moved through the slaughter as if he himself was part of the chaos, until his gaze caught on a girl, which the blow of the monster threw against the concrete wall. She went limp, and in the next moment the monster's paw was already reaching for her body. The subway was drowned in roaring and rumbling - mages and creatures were destroying everything around, turning the cars into a crypt. All civilians were already evacuated, except for that girl. Toji continued to move through the chaos with confidence and precision, not wasting any unnecessary movement. He could have walked on, but his gaze was drawn to the fallen figure of a girl, thrown against the wall. She was unconscious, defenseless, too fragile for this slaughter.

He hesitated for just a second. It was enough to trigger an unwanted feeling in his chest. A brief flicker of pity crossed his eyes. Toji clenched his teeth, dismissing it in his mind, but when the monster's claw reached for her body, he moved faster than he could have anticipated.

The blade tore through the creature's flesh, and hot blood gushed from its throat.

“Damn it...” — Toji said curtly and picked her up. He carried her like a sack, his face expressionless. But something was nagging at him, an unpleasant feeling that he shouldn't be doing this.

At home, he dropped her on an old mattress. He took off his jacket and splashed water on her face, crouching beside her.

— “Wake up.” — he commanded hoarsely, glaring — “I don't have a blink here.”

He pretended that he was annoyed by everything that was happening, as if she were just a random burden that he had dragged along with him because she happened to be close to him. But his fingers, which were still clasping the flask, still remembered the warmth of her skin, and there was too much that he would never admit to.