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“Think of the person who matters most to you right now.”
Kaminari’s head was swimming, and Midnight’s words practically sailed right past his mind, but his train of thought managed to latch onto enough of the words she was saying to comprehend her advice.
The person who matters most… “Right now…” His voice was lost in the stampede of pro heroes rushing forward, and he stumbled. His peripheral vision detected Ectoplasm and a few other heroes charging past him toward the battlefield, soon joined by Midnight as well, but his feet stood rooted in their place for just a moment.
His brain compelled him to look back. His chest pounded, his head swirled, and there was something in his heart that ached. Made it feel like it was about to pull itself apart. His knees felt ready to buckle beneath him in his panic so he turned around desperately, and he felt his eyes search the crowd for somebody, someone… I want to be with you guys… with you…
As though picking up on his despair and panic, a familiar voice responded to his pleads. It resonated in his ears, low but clear and determined. Get it done, Chargebolt!
Kaminari felt his breath rattle out of his lungs before he nodded and turned his face to the front lines. That was the push he needed.
He sensed a burst of electricity further ahead, a power he knew so well yet felt unnervingly different from his. Someone in the enemy’s ranks was an electric quirk user, and a powerful one, at that. He dodged a blast before reaching an arm out. Let’s try and conduct this shit, Denki.
He let the enemy’s sparks course through his arm, and he swore he saw lightning flash before his eyes. It sucked out his breath, and when he breathed in again, his body was on fire. The good kind, like he was on a drug-induced high; he could barely feel the danger in front of him. His trepidation vanished, and he felt so, so buzzed. Kaminari stood before a burly man crackling in blinding sparks, but through his tinted visor he saw they were unfurling from his limbs. This guy’s grand attack was getting sucked up… by Chargebolt. He couldn’t help the grin that came over his face. If he successfully subdued this general or whatever he was, the heroes behind him could pass safely. The mission would go that much more smoothly.
He let out a grunt as he threw one arm to the sky, focusing his pose into a conducting rod. The sky crackled above his head. The face of the man before him contorted into a frown, then devolved to panic. Kaminari let out a laugh. This electricity was practically nothing to him. It wouldn’t short-circuit his brain, much less fry his body. His opponent was utterly outclassed, and, from the look on his face, they both knew it.
“Alrighty now, one big guy completely neutralized!” he felt his voice crackle. “Now let’s mop up the others real quick so the fellas behind us don’t have to worry!”
Cheers and battle cries erupted around the boy on white-hot fire.
“Kaminari! Oi, Kaminari, please—!”
His eyes shot open and his upper body sprung from the ground. A wave of nausea fell on his head and spots danced across his vision. He could only discern his immediate surroundings, which were littered with cement debris. There was blood on his forearms. How’d that get there?
“Kaminari!” A pair of arms embraced him from the side. When Kaminari’s senses came to, he realized they were slim arms, wiry and battle-hardened, but soft nevertheless. “You’re okay, thank god.” He breathed in the smell of comfort itself.
“Jiro?” He managed to rasp without stuttering. He winced immediately. Oh, god, his voice was so sore and hoarse, he sounded like a chainsmoker on his deathbed. “Did we win? Is everyone okay? What happened?”
Her arms pulled away a bit and Jiro’s typically hooded dark eyes were flashing with concern and fear, yet unwavering stability. Those eyes—they were his heroine. “We won, for now, s-so don’t worry… I—we, we got scared you might’ve… gone.” Her voice choked into a whisper and she looked away, clearing her throat. She retracted a hand to hastily wipe at one of her eyes. Debris? Or… “A-anyway, I’m glad you’re alright,” she mumbled.
Kaminari felt the tension in his shoulders unwind just a bit and he broke away from staring at her. “Oh, ha, sorry if I worried you guys,” he managed to chuckle. “Uh, how long was I out? And, um, where’s everyone else?” He looked around at the rubble, at his hands. His palms were scraped and half-charred. Probably from that damn Dabi guy… He recalled having seen Tokoyami fly over to aid Hawks in confronting the blue-flamed villain. He didn’t remember much else afterwards. And damn, his left arm hurt, like it was having its own migraine. Had he broken it?
“I’m not sure how long you were out… Maybe an hour… and a half or so?” Jiro’s gaze followed Kaminari’s as he scanned the remains of the villa around them. Far away, he spotted Midnight helping a paramedic lift one of the students from class 1-B onto a stretcher—Kendo. She was limping. “From what I’m hearing from the pros, the operation was overall successful. We captured most of the Paranormal Liberation Front members stationed here… both sides sustaining a lot of injuries. We heard back from the Hospital Raid teams about half an hour ago—they managed to contain the High-End Nomus and arrest the Doctor. I’m not sure about the League of Villains leader, though, but that’s for another day… And don’t worry! Our entire class has been recovered and everyone’s just helping with first aid and getting bandaged up.” She looked at her feet. Kaminari noticed her boots were in pretty rough shape. One of her speakers looked busted entirely, and her jeans were littered with scrapes.
His brows furrowed. Her earphone jacks looked pretty scraped up, too, and he wondered if maybe she’d rushed to scout around and check on everyone’s status the moment the raid was over. He could envision her stumbling around the villa remains, plugging the ends of her ears into the ground here and there for sounds of heartbeats, breathing, voices… Was that how she found him, too?
He looked up at Jiro. “Are you okay?” His voice sounded more serious than he expected and he could see it startled her.
“What? Yeah, I-I’m fine,” Jiro mumbled, turning to meet his gaze. Their eyes wavered before blinking away. “I’m surprised you’re not a blabbering ‘hey, hey’ idiot like you normally are after a fight.” She chuckled.
Kaminari’s face relaxed into an easy smile. Her teasing had none of the usual bite to it. “Hey, maybe I’ve outgrown my idiotic phase finally. My development arc is well on its way!”
“Well, congrats, Chargebolt.” Jiro punched his arm lightly and—oh, that hurt.
He couldn’t stop himself from groaning.
“Oh, fuck, sorry, are you okay?” Jiro immediately withdrew her arm and didn’t seem to know what to do with her hands. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. Let’s get you up and onto a stretcher or something. You need to get yourself checked out.”
Kaminari laughed until he thought he saw Jiro’s ears turning pink. The concern in her voice was doing strange things to his pulse, as was the hand that helped him onto his feet. “Oh, nah, ha, I’m good. Just, uh, sore arm, you know.” He sounded a little less suave than he wanted to be, but he blamed it on his dizziness. He willed his pulse to calm and tried to avoid looking at Jiro again. Her ears can’t pick up on my heartrate if we’re standing a foot apart, right? Were his cheeks turning red? He hoped not.
He glanced over, giving in to his impulses. The person who matters most to me right now… Something tugged at the insides of his chest, bringing certain fond memories to mind. When he’d heard her sing for the first time in the Class 1-A dormitory lounge, so novel yet so reassuring and unmistakably her… and when he’d performed up on that big school festival stage by her side and his nerves nearly got the best of him… until his gaze met hers, that is, and her anxious smile brought the corners of his lips to his ears because, hell, he couldn’t lose his shit when Jiro Kyoka had to keep hers together before singing to an audience!
And about two hours ago, when all I needed to hear was her words, pushing me to do my best. And here she was now, right in front of him, dancing in scattered light that peeked through the branches overhead. His heart swelled despite his fatigue. All of the jokes and the teasing and playful jabs aside, this was the person he’d grown to depend on and trust and, in time, grown to want to protect. Right here.
She froze and turned around to look at him when she sensed his footsteps had stopped following hers. “Oi, Kaminari?” She cocked a brow and the corners of her lips pulled into a lopsided smirk. Aren’t you going to keep up?
“Oh, y-yeah,” he breathed, and followed her toward the road. The red-and-blue lights of dozens of police cars engulfed them.
The medic pulled away with an, “All done!” and Kaminari inspected his arm. He’d gotten splints in the past and was reminded of the awful stiffness. He made a quick mental note not to put any pressure on his left. His head still hurt, but it was just a minor concussion, no big deal. He’d been through worse as a kid. He nodded as the medic reminded him to get to the hospital as soon as he could for an X-ray and cast, then thanked her as she rushed off to help another hero.
“I guess it’s lucky it’s your left arm and not your right that’s broken,” Jiro murmured beside him on a displaced chunk of cement. She was bandaged up all over the place, but otherwise seemed fine. “And we’re both lucky we got away without any major injuries.”
“Yeah, I’m worried about Midoriya, though,” Kaminari muttered. “He and Bakugo in particular always go way too hard.”
Jiro grinned. “I guess it’s a good thing you have a hard limit.”
“Hey, what’s that s’posed to mean?”
“You know exactly what it means,” she laughed, and Kaminari had to repress the urge to laugh with her. Her eyes caught his, and her cheeky grin faltered. “Do you remember how you got knocked out, by the way?”
He blinked. “Um, nah… I only remember having faced the electric quirk guy, and conducting his sparks up to the sky… and then I remember seeing Tokoyami because Dabi was attacking Hawks further ahead, and…” His brows furrowed in thought as he concentrated. He’d heard yelling and explosions… the ground rumbling beneath their feet…
“That’s as far as your memory goes, huh?”
“Yeah.” Kaminari smiled. “Maybe instead of turning me into an idiot, my quirk turned me into an amnesiac.”
“Pfft.” Jiro swung her legs back and forth. “Well, I heard from Midnight you really dealt some damage out there.” She looked at her tattered boots but Kaminari’s eyes lingered on her half-hidden face. He felt the urge to tuck her hair behind her ears and push aside her bangs, but it was overshadowed by the butterflies in his stomach at her compliment. “You seemed really scared, but you did it. I’m proud of you.”
She looked at him, and he was frozen in place gazing into her dark eyes. Get it done, Chargebolt.
“I-I—maybe that came out sounding patronizing and s-stupid,” she sputtered. “That’s not what I meant, ha…” She sounded… so incredibly shy. It was like she was talking into a mic in front of a crowd. “It’s just because—‘cause you sounded pretty freaked out in the past when it came to fighting and all that, I was just impressed you managed to get over your fear, yeah? And put your abilities to the test out there—” she stopped herself from rambling, pursed her lips, and clenched her fingers into fists on her lap. Kaminari thought for a split second to reach over and unfurl those hands and hold them in his.
Instead, he managed to get out, “Nah, no, it didn’t sound condescending or anything like that.” He looked away from her hands and forced a chuckle. “You’re just sayin’ I looked super cool, aren’t you?” He flexed his arm—his right one—for emphasis, but the laughter in his eyes made way for a more somber gaze directed at his feet. “To be honest? I don’t know how I would’ve fared if it hadn’t been for you.”
What am I doing? What am I saying? What is she going to think? He sounded pathetic, and needy, and totally in love with her—
Suddenly her arms were around him again, and this time, he instinctively hugged back. “Jiro?” He could feel his face heating up, and he swallowed.
And as quickly as she’d hugged him, she pulled back and sat down, this time a foot away from him. “S-sorry, that was kind of weird of me.” The red in her ears followed all the way down her earphone jacks. “Just, um… ignore that. Maybe I’m a little tired.”
Kaminari’s face was bright red, he could feel it. “Oh, uh. Yeah, ha, of course, sure.” Totally. She’s tired, I’m tired.
“I’m going to check if Momo is around,” Jiro said, just a little too quickly. “So, uh, see you later?”
“Y-yeah, okay, see you!”
Kaminari watched her turn to leave.
“Hey,” he called after her.
She looked back. He mustered the nerve to say—
“Take care, yeah?”
Jiro blinked. A smile crept onto her face. “Yeah. You, too, Denki.”
Denki… She called me by my first name! He cried internally. Holy crap! His heart was pounding. At two in the morning. He knew he needed to get some sleep (his body was absolutely exhausted), but his brain wouldn’t shut off. He felt the irrational urge to check his phone, to see if by chance she’d messaged him, but he shook it off as best as he could. Shut up, look, don’t get too excited. She just thinks you’re a decently close-enough friend to be on a first-name basis with, just like Asui or Yaoyorozu. That’s no big deal. You’re cool enough to know not to get excited over something like that!
To his sleep-deprived brain, though, it was definitely something exciting. Oh, and she’d hugged him, too… She’d hugged him tightly despite her timid nature, and she smelled at first of dirt, but then also of her, of a home. He shoved his face into his pillow to try to take his mind off of it… and cursed at himself when he felt a sharp pain shoot through his arm. Dammit, he’d forgotten to limit his movement to rest his arm properly. What a pain. But when he turned to lie flat on his back and stare at his dorm room ceiling, Jiro’s face was all that came to mind, and it put his heart at ease.
Maybe it was cool to just remain friends. That was perfectly good and fine as it was. Anything other than friends could be weird, after all. In fact, maybe it would be a huge mistake to try to force anything besides their existing platonic bond and friendly banter.
Wait… am I in love with her?
He’d admitted to her the significance of her encouragement to spur him onward, laid bare how much he appreciated her strength and ability to save him from his own nerves. Not just today, though, he knew. In general… in training, during classes, during the school festival practice sessions… through thick and thin. He blushed at the thought of her slim, calloused fingers correcting his guitar fingering.
***
“That’s the F minor chord, remember?” she said. “You want F major.” She nudged one of his fingers onto the board and smirked as she pulled away. “There.”
He tried to strum, but his forefinger suffered from being pressed against all six strings. “Ow, fuck,” he cursed.
Jiro laughed. “Ah, yeah, the bar chords are a pain at first… They’re not so bad if you keep practicing, though.”
He looked up at her and grinned. “Well, I guess I’ll just keep at it ‘til I’m a pro at these, then.” His heart danced when she snorted at his overconfidence.
“Alright, well, it’s getting a little late, so maybe we should call it a night,” she told him, collecting some scattered sheet music on the bed.
Kaminari pouted. “You kickin’ me out of your room?”
Jiro rolled her eyes dramatically. “Oi, don’t forget we’re only in here because Bakugo was adamant on hogging the other room for solo practice time.” She whapped the sheet music over his head playfully.
“Ah, man, d’you really gotta cut the fun short, though?” He heaved an exaggerated sigh. “Alright… I was goin’ to ask you for help learning the bridge of the song, but I guess if you value a healthy sleep schedule over music…” He shuffled his feet and pocketed his guitar pick too slowly to be serious about packing up and leaving.
“The bridge, huh?” He could hear the gears in her head turning. “Kaminari, you really want to learn that part too? That’s jumping ahead of schedule…” She mumbled something about strum patterns before grabbing a notebook off the top of her dresser. Notes for Kaminari had cute lightning bolts and a little cartoon electric guitar drawn on the cover.
Kaminari grinned and stopped short of putting the guitar away. He cocked his head. “You goin’ to let me stay a second longer to get a move on with practice?”
Jiro turned to look at him and raised a brow at the challenge. Her eyes pondered for a second before focusing back on his. “You’re on.”
***
Yeah, maybe I do love her. His eyes, after probing the ceiling for another few minutes, finally settled. His ears relieved him of his own thoughts with the clear memory of Jiro’s voice instead. He thought maybe that, the moment before he fell unconscious, he imagined the sound of Jiro saying, I love you, too.