"Can you see them?! There's so much dust I can't make anything out!"

"Jirou, what are their positions?! We can't see in this mess!"

The short haired hero gritted her teeth and sprinted to a ditch, sliding down the slope into an area with less dust in the air. She pressed her finger to the communicator in her ear while she sank one of her earjacks into the ground.

"Gimme a minute guys, I'll let you know!"

She listened intently for vibrations, tuning out the ones she recognized as her classmates. They'd been ambushed once again, this time by a random group of villains wanting to claim glory from the League of Villains by snagging their prey: Yuuei Academy's Class 1-A. Go figure.

These guys were no joke, however, as they'd already leveled a city block and made quick work of clearing any obstacles in their way of getting to the rising heroes. The class had been on a field trip of sorts, split into two groups to learn how to manage coordination and communication with a team in a giant crowded city.

What a hassle that turned out to be.

A flurry of footsteps ran straight for her and snapped her from her thoughts. Her earjack swiftly pulled out of the ground and plugged into her boot speaker, sending amplified waves of her heartbeat in the enemy's direction.

She relayed what positions of the villains she could over the communicators as she sped back up the slope, trying to at least give her classmates an advantage in the low visibility.

"Is anyone near my position right now? I've got a villain on my tail and-" was all she managed to get out before being snagged around the middle, the air forced from her lungs right as she reached the top of the small crater.

"So you can detect us, huh? Figured there'd be at least one of those quirks in that school," a high-pitched yet snarky voice hissed casually, as if Jirou wasn't trying to desperately suck air back into her body. Before she could make any split second decisions, her body felt as if it was being crushed like an empty soda can. She couldn't even find enough oxygen in herself to cry out in pain.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of your friends whether they know our positions or not."

Her earjacks were pinned beneath whatever heavy thing was wrapped around her body, almost like a boa constrictor that had managed to catch its prey. Just as that thought passed through her mind, a painful set of fangs sank into her, the bite reaching from her shoulder blade to her collar bone. The pain that tore through her body was excruciating, worse than anything she'd ever felt. Black spots filled her vision. Eventually the hold on her body slipped away and she was left standing there, teetering on the edge of the deep ditch behind her.

"JIROU!"

She didn't have the chance to decipher who had called her name so loudly. The second after she witnessed a blinding yellow light shoot through the dust and hit whatever thug had attacked her, Jirou's body swayed and took a head first dive backward over the steep ledge.

Kaminari wasted no time or thought before he lunged after the falling girl. His arms instinctively wrapped around her whilst attempting to tuck her head into his chest, set on protecting her from the impact. The hillside was steep, but was by no means a 90 degree angle. They hit the hard earth with speed and began a fast and treacherous decent down the slope. Kaminari bit his tongue painfully as he tasted dirt and iron, his ankle bashing against a giant piece of rubble that sent a sharp throb through his leg on the way down.

They finally came to an abrupt halt after what seemed like forever, Kaminari groaning when he felt an upturned stone poking his back. Having the wind severely knocked out of him, he eased his head up to check whether he had spared Jirou the same discomfort. His arms had done the trick, apparently. She was unconscious, but still alive.

A less than ideal situation, but he'd take it.

He gingerly stood up, and pain shot up his leg the moment he put pressure on his left foot. Ok, so that's a no go, he thought.

The sound of a fight grew closer, and without being able to tell if it was friend or foe, he didn't want to chance getting caught while both Jirou and himself were out of commission. With great difficulty, he eventually managed to pick the girl up and hobble to the nearest structure that looked stable enough to stay upright, but dilapidated enough to not look like a hiding spot.

Setting Jirou on the ground in the closed off, damaged office front of a building finally gave him a chance to take a look at her, and his blood ran cold.

Jirou's breathing was shallow, and her skin looked clammy enough to worry him. The area around the bite she must've gotten from the guy he torched was spotted with purples and blues, already forming bruises against her pale skin.

"Oh shit, was that poison?! Did he poison her?! This is bad, ohh man, this is bad," he began to panic aloud to himself. He put his hand to his ear, realizing he had lost his communicator in the fall. Jirou's was still on her, but it was busted beyond repair.

Kaminari watched helplessly as Jirou suffered, her face twisting in pain before it smoothed out to discomfort. He had to look away to recollect his fraying nerves at the sight. Maybe she could sleep it off, and when she woke up they could figure a way out of the battle without becoming liabilities to their friends.

It's okay, the pros were on their way. They'll bring help. We're gonna be fine. We just need to hold out a little longer!

One glance at Jirou's ashen face and the flame of hope stirring in his heart was doused to nothing but embers.

"Dammit!" he cursed, a burning sensation taking residence behind his eyes. Despair began to fill his chest like a sinking ship taking on water. He felt useless while he watched the girl beside him not stir an inch.

He froze. Jirou wasn't moving an inch.

Her chest wasn't even rising.

Kaminari scrambled to her side in a millisecond, his trembling hands flying over her body unsure of what to do. He was hyperventilating, he knew, as he felt the panic overtake him.

"Fuck, Jirou, breathe!"

He grasped her shoulders with fervor, not able to help the tears that spilled over his cheeks when the hearing hero's head limply rolled to the side. He quickly laid his ear against her chest, right over where her strong heartbeat should be. So strong he always thought he could hear it every time she sat next to him and talked in class, or whenever he teased her and she got flustered prior to stabbing him with her earjacks. Especially when he told a good joke that caught her off guard, causing her to send a genuine smile his way.

Perhaps that was just his own heart pounding in his ears all those times. Maybe it's normally difficult to hear someone else's pulse through their chest. He hopelessly tried to convince himself that was true, for he heard nothing but silence.

"This can't be happening…" his voice cracked loudly in the eerily quiet, crumbling building. His fingers gripped the girl's clothes tightly to anchor himself to them, afraid of pulling away and having to face the cold reality in the form of her not yelling at him for clutching her so close.

"Holy shit .." he wheezed. "No, w-wait, Jirou-"

With a strangled gasp, sobs wracked his body while he hunched over his limp classmate in shock. His muffled cries were all that echoed back to him in the dark and dusty shelter, digging his face into the front of her shirt while he held her close, grieving; for all the time he'd taken for granted with her, for the lost chance for them to grow together and graduate to become pro heroes. For the amazing woman his friend, fellow hero, and possibly love couldn't grow to be.

And she was gone, just like that.

He stilled.

No.

He wrenched himself from her body, teeth grit and eyes shining with tears.

Not yet.

Dredging up whatever small reservoir of knowledge he retained from school on emergency first aid, Kaminari flung his jacket and gloves away haphazardly. Sweat dripped down his face, taking place of the drying tears. He needed to focus right now.

Bending over her on his knees, he ripped open the front of Jirou's shirt and inwardly apologized to her. "You can kill me for this all you want when you wake up!" He promised out loud, grinning shakily like he'd seen Midoriya do so many times before. He faltered momentarily when he caught sight of her bra after pulling the clothing away, but his determination outweighed his embarrassment and time was of the essence.

Breathing in and out deeply to calm his buzzing nerves, he conjured electricity to his hands. Concentration wasn't his strong suit, but he focused all his mental fortitude into keeping the voltage in check. He couldn't fuck this up.

"150 VOLTS!"

Crackling energy lit the dark room in an almost blinding glow, Kaminari doing his damndest to keep a condensed and continuous surge of electricity spread evenly over his palms. He pictured the emergency aid video in his mind when they showed defibrillation, and with another surge of determination, pressed his hands over Jirou's skin.

His heart leapt into his throat the moment her body jolted and arched. He quickly pulled his hands back, waiting a few seconds to see if the shock was enough to do any good. He had felt his quirk flow through her body for sure, but it was the first time he'd ever tried so he couldn't know what to expect.

As if to answer him, her head lulled once more to the side and he swore under his breath. Every hero class, simulation, and rescue drill they went through in school flashed through his mind, Kaminari trying his hardest to pick out anything useful. A CPR training session that he only barely stayed awake through a few weeks back surfaced, and working quickly, he began compressions beneath her sternum. Without breaking his momentum, he leaned over hurriedly and blew into her mouth.

"COME ON!" he yelled, the stress and urgency of the situation ringing clearly through his voice. He lifted his hands again, charging himself up. "330 VOLTS!"

If no one came to help them, it was up to him. I'm the only chance Jirou has right now, I can't let her down! he thought to himself as he watched her chest jump again, then immediately went back to compressions.

The longer he kept it up, though, the heavier the weight settling in his gut grew. He couldn't afford thinking of if he was doing it wrong, or if she was too far gone to even respond to help. He was too busy to be distracted by the suffocating feeling of hopelessness bearing down on him. Too stubborn. Jirou called him thick-headed all the time, but it was all that kept him going at that moment.

The sleeve of his t-shirt was drenched in sweat from using it to wipe his face several times over. Between using his quirk in their battle and making himself a human defibrillator, he knew he was reaching his limit. Electricity and carefulness weren't commonly found in the same sentence for a reason, and his brain was feeling the fatigue at keeping up the precision needed for resuscitating.

After leaning back with a choked breath, he bent to listen for her heartbeat. The roaring of his blood in his own ears drowned out any sounds he searched for, but that was just another lie he told himself.

Too intent on listening for her heartbeat and checking to see if she was breathing, Kaminari was oblivious to his surroundings. It wasn't until there were heavy footsteps about 50 yards from their hideout that he heard multiple voices shouting his and Jirou's names. He turned his head to the entryway, barely processing that it was his friends' voices before responding.

"We're i…" he started, the words getting stuck in his dry throat before he cleared it and tried again. "We're in here!"

Not sure if they heard him, but sure if Shouji was among them they'd find them soon, his focus turned back to his ministrations on his friend. Her face was scuffed and pale, but he could practically imagine her opening her narrow eyes and calling him an idiot for bawling over her. The thought brought more moisture to his eyes.

"Our friends are here, Jirou. It's gonna be okay."

With renewed vigor, the young man lifted his arms again for another charge.

"Kaminari! Thank God, man, what were you-"

He recognized Kirishima's voice first, and without looking away from Jirou's face, yelled, "GET HELP!"

"W-what? What's going on-"

"JIROU NEEDS HELP, GET HELP!"

By that point, more footsteps had arrived behind him. He heard Kirishima bark out orders to get a medic, or Recovery Girl if she's near, and a few of the people took off again. He couldn't breathe in relief though. He knew they wouldn't make it back in time if he didn't do something. It had already been too long.

Arcs of electricity began to gather in his palms, illuminating the grungy building and the classmates behind him. The few students that stayed behind circled around to confront the reason for his quirk activating, but he dared not pause even after hearing several gasps.

"Breathe, Kyouka, please ," Denki pleaded, placing his hands once more on her near bare chest. "550 Volts!"

The hospital was quiet.

Looking out the window was boring when it was the only thing you were allowed to do for several consecutive days. Friends had come and visited bringing schoolwork, well-wishes, and a sense of normalcy. Family had also been frequent, obviously frantic with concern, but ultimately happy the battle had turned out alright.

Well, for the most part.

The hospital's white walls were something one could grow to dislike very quickly, though, especially when everyone tiptoed around your room like you were fine china ready to break at any second.

Jirou knew firsthand.

It'd been 3 whole days since she'd woken up in the hospital closest to where the attack happened. The first day, she was put under evaluation with tests, blood draws, and fervent healing from Recovery Girl. The old woman quietly healed her, asked how she was feeling, and told her to rest well before taking her leave to visit other patients. Not having much desire to disobey her, she promptly fell asleep early that night.

The second day, her parents were let in to visit. Jirou never thought she'd seen her mother and father cry more than that day, but for whatever reason, she weeped into their shoulders just as much. Her mother brought her extra clothes, and they all discussed with the doctors when she would be discharged before they left, promising to be back the next day.

On the third day, she finally heard what happened from her classmates that came to visit her. Momo took the lead and recounted the events up until where they had all been separated, that point on being where her memory turned hazy. All she could recollect was pain, falling, and weightlessness. Then everything going black.

Jirou looked down at her hospital nightgown as her fingers lightly ran over where the scar now residing on her chest was hidden. The doctors sure had their work cut out for them, if that was anything to go by.

She gave her friends a slight smile, touched by their concerned looks, when she realized why the visit seemed so off to her.

"Where's the idiot?" she asked in a joking manner. At her friends' strange expressions, she continued. "Did he not wanna come with you guys? That guy, I swear.. Doesn't even wanna get off his ass and visit when I'm on my deathbed, huh?"

Jirou chuckled at the prospect of getting to give Kaminari hell for being a lazy ass. His expressions were always funny. She wished he would've come just so she could see his dumb face. Maybe seeing him after his quirk limit would make her feel better about being stuck in that hospital room.

Kirishima coughed, drawing the earphone hero's attention to the redhead. She noticed the grim expressions on the group's faces, and her playful demeanor melted into worry.

"Kaminari is the one that found you first," Kirishima started. Sero, Mina, Momo, and Uraraka looked either at him or at other parts of the room. Midoriya, Bakugo, Shouji, and Iida all kept their eyes on her. "Before we found you two after the pros had gotten there and dealt with the villains, it seems Kaminari had taken you to shelter to hide.. And was trying to resuscitate you."

She looked at Kirishima in confusion. "What…?"

"Your heart stopped. You were technically dead for who knows how long, and Pikachu brought your ass back from the grave," Bakugo deadpanned, his arms crossed while he watched her.

"Kacchan! You have to be more gentle-" Midoriya tried to reason with the explosion machine, but he snapped back.

"Ain't nothing getting done with you all walkin' on eggshells actin' like she's gonna keel over any minute! She's alive, right?! That's all that matters now," the blond seethed. They were all a bit taken aback by Bakugo's biting words, but having been his classmates for so long, they could pick out the underlying worry in his tone.

Iida took over from there. "He'd been giving you CPR and electric shocks to stimulate your heart. It seemed he was at it for quite some time before we found him." He adjusted his glasses and his eyes softened just a bit. "He saved your life. He was very much shaken up by this ordeal."

Jirou stared at them in shock. The doctors had told her she had been on the brink of death, but she figured she was saved by a medic or a pro hero. But Denki…?

The room grew quiet as they waited for their words to sink in. They'd all seen how torn up the class's resident goofball was over the last few days. The way he had crumpled in relief and exhaustion after the last shock had gotten her heart beating again. How he refused to be treated if it meant he had to ride in a separate ambulance than her. He'd only finally passed out in the hospital waiting area into his friends' arms after the doctors told them Jirou was stable.

"That stupid ass walking phone charger is still moping around, I bet. For fuck's sake," Bakugo mumbled as he turned and stomped out of the room without a proper farewell.

The rest of the teenagers followed Bakugo's exit one by one, each taking time to tell the punk rocker to get some rest, feel better, and that they'll see her at school when she got back.

Kirishima was the last to leave. He stepped outside the doorway and turned to look back at her, looking like he had something to say. Jirou waited as his mouth opened, but was left confused when his eyes were drawn to something just outside in the hallway. He looked surprised for a second, then an encouraging grin spread across his face. He gave Jirou one last wave before he swiftly moved down the hall.

The scar on her chest almost seemed to tingle, pulling her attention from the door and towards her hospital gown. She deftly untied the loose string holding the cloth on the back of her neck, letting the material slide down until it bunched around her arms, holding it just above her breasts.

With the newfound information imparted to her from her friends, she saw the scar with a new appreciation. She gazed at the web of scarred tissue, connecting at the point just over her heart. Looking at it now, she could easily tell the lighter colored skin was reminiscent of streaks of lightning branching outward, a few small lines just climbing over her collarbone to barely graze her neck.

Nearly jumping out of her skin when there was a knock on the doorframe to her room, Jirou whipped her head up to tell the person to get out - but before she could even say a word, her eyes met a very wide pair of their own.

A very tired looking Kaminari stood just within her white walled room, a wide and entranced gaze stuck on her frame. After the initial shock of seeing him, Jirou realized with a start the state of her undress along with just where he was looking, and felt heat rush to her face.

"Get-!"

"I'm sorry."

If she wasn't best known for her hearing abilities, Jirou might have thought she had heard him wrong. Pushing her bashfulness down, she took in his appearance again.

He was leaning on a crutch, with what looked like thick bandaging around his left ankle. Other than that, his injuries didn't seem anything but minor. His posture, on the other hand, was what concerned her. Shoulders heavy looking and hunched, bags under his eyes, hair ungelled; he didn't look anything like his usual pretty-boy self.

She hadn't realized he'd gotten closer while she observed him until he was right next to her bedside, still staring at her bare shoulders. She felt something click in her mind as she finally recognized that he was staring at her new scar.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, still holding eye contact with the twisted skin he'd created.

Warmth enveloped his hand and shook him out of his trance enough to investigate the cause. Her smaller left hand held his own in a tight grip and squeezed until he looked up to meet her eyes. Jirou's cheeks were flushed with an annoyingly cute pout on her lips, but her eyes held nothing but sincerity.

"Don't be," she told him sternly. Her fingers squeezed his hand again and again, until finally his muscles twitched and squeezed back.

He set his crutch on the end of her hospital bed before taking a seat, never letting go of her hand. She was embarrassed and her face was warm, but it was nice.

"I didn't know it would leave a scar, if it makes any difference," Denki mumbled and looked to the side, scratching his head with his free hand.

"It doesn't." She let out a bemused huff. "Recovery Girl said she healed as much as she could, but some scars can't be completely removed, not even by her." Smirking at him, she teased, "It makes me look cool, though, doesn't it?"

"You're always cool," he responded, not missing a beat.

Right as she was about to lose her composure and start sputtering about how he was an idiot for saying stuff like that, he asked her a question that nearly gave her recently restored heart an attack.

"Can I… listen to your heartbeat?"

Jirou couldn't tell if he was serious or not, but the look on his face told her he was being absolutely genuine. Who was this sincere and embarrassing guy, and where did he put her brain-fried dumbass? This wasn't the same idiot that she always laughed at in class when he fell asleep and accidentally transferred his notes to his face!

Taking a deep breath and honestly questioning herself, she swallowed and nodded sheepishly. She decided to hastily tie her hospital gown back around her neck before it became even more awkward, though.

Kaminari had the decency to look embarrassed as well, at least, while he leaned carefully against her clothed chest. Holding his breath, he finally flattened his ear against her, and was immediately met with the loud ricketing pulse of Jirou's heart, ready to burst out of her ribcage. He could feel the rhythmic pulsating on the side of his ear, traveling through his entire nervous system and jumpstarting his own heart to start pumping in tandem.

"Thank Go..." he broke off in a strangled whimper. Jirou looked down at the top of his head in alarm, only to see his face twisted into an alarming mess of relief, happiness, grief, and tears.

"W-why are you crying, you idiot?! What are you trying to pull, you-! You…" the girl began berating him. Her sight grew misty as she watched his reaction, imagining the same boy shedding tears over her while desperately listening for a pulse from the very same chest.

"Idiot," she muttered, only to snake her arms around his shoulders and cry into the top of his dumb yellow head.