Bzzt, bzzt.
Jirou grumbled, as she tucked a stray lock of purple hair behind her ear. The lights in Musutafu were horrible, constantly flickering and blowing out. It made actually seeing where the hell she was going super annoying.
She never normally came to this town, despite it being home to some of her fellow classmates as she had never had much reason to. Those that lived here she wasn't all that close to and it was hardly near her own home by means.
She was only in the town due to a mix-up with the local train stations, causing her to need to come through the city to get a train back to U.A., after visiting her home.
Her lips curled upwards the tiniest fraction as she recalled her fathers over the top reaction to her showing up. The man was a complete and total dork sometimes but he was her father and she loved him. Fortunately, her mom was much more subdued.
It had hardly been a long visit, they had just been catching up but after 3 months without seeing them, she was happy she had gotten to.
A car honked its horn as it speed past her pulling her out her thoughts and making the girl cupped her ears in pain as her quirk amplified the noise massively. 'Agh, jerk!'
Her 'resting bitch face' as the others always referred to it immediately returned and she grumbled once more. She would normally listen to music on her phone with one of her earjacks while the other kept her alert to her surroundings but her phone had died on the train and she hadn't brought her MP3 player.
Muttering a few choice swears under her breath she picked up her pace and tried not to focus too much on thoughts of any kind of sound. It would prove to be in vain though and as would always happen when she focused on her quirk, the noises got even louder. Her quirk was basically attuning itself subconsciously to pick up more and Jirou hated it.
Constantly she flinched and shuddered at random noises she picked out. Buzzing of flies and chirping of crickets. Small crackles from tv's in peoples houses, and more.
Bzzt.
Crackle.
Chirp.
Bzzt.
Crackle.
Chirp.
Sob.
Chirp- wait, sob?
Jirou stopped and focused, trying to tune out the other noises to no avail. It was faint, imperceptible to anyone who didn't have her level of auditory perception, but someone was definitely crying.
Normally, she would force herself to shrug it off and walk away, it wasn't the first time she had picked up on someone going through an emotional time. They were always in their houses or with other people, and even despite that, she was a complete stranger to these people, they would probably just be weirded out if she did say anything.
Something about this though, it refused to let her walk away. Instead she slowly followed the source. More than just being concerning, something about these tears were familiar and she had no idea why.
She rounded the corner and realized the tears sounded as though they were higher up, so she turned her gaze to the roofs.
As it turned out, it was for the best her phone was dead, otherwise she might of never picked up on the sound, and she wouldn't of seen what she was seeing now.
Her eyes went wide, hand shot to her mouth for just a moment.
It was hard to make out, thanks to the horrible lighting but upon the ledge of a roof, holding onto a railing on the wrong side, was a shadowy silhouette. If that wasn't concerning enough, what she heard now that she was closer definitely was.
"Just jump and everyone…it'll be better…"
The thoughts hadn't even finished forming in her head when she shouted.
"DON'T!"
The shadow moved, clearly startled. and Jirou flinched. At the back of her mind she berated herself for doing something so stupid, risking making the man trip. It was definitely a male judging by the voice.
"Ji-?!" The silhouette made to ask something but stopped and seemed to consider something. For some reason, they adopted a deeper tone before contacting. "W-who are you?!"
Taking a deep breathe to try to calm herself (it didn't work, oh god it wouldn't work she wasn't trained for this, whatthehellwasshesupposedtodo,ohgod-) "Jirou, Kyoka. I'm a U.A. student. Just, don't jump ok?!"
"Why shouldn't I?" He asked the question softly, quietly and Jirou almost felt suffocated in the defeat of that one question alone. "It's what's best."
"That's not true!" She immediately countered despite her lack of knowledge, cringing at the unnecessary 'probably' her brain added against her will. "Y-you've got friends, or family, right?"
"Yes…" their voice, while still deep, was much quieter now. Another sob escaped and the girl felt a needle pierce through her heart with it. She had to strain to hear it but he followed up. "M-mom…Hell even two b-brothers and a dad depending on how you count them…"
"And they will be devastated if you jump! You shouldn't do that to them!" Jirou briefly wondered if it wasn't too low to say something like that in this situation but she was more concerned with just making sure the guy didn't jump. (And oh god, she felt like she was failing, was she failing, shecouldn'tfailwiththis,ohgodnojustpleaseendthisnightmare-)
"T-they'll move on….e-eventually….and then, everyone will be safe…"
"Safe? Is there someone after you or something?" She asked. Safe from what? A villain? "I'm a pro hero in training, if you just don't jump I could help you all, I promise-"
"It wouldn't help. Being p-pro's is….the problem." The deep voice slipped and once more a feeling of familiarity washer over her. What the hell was she missing here? Wait, also that meant this guy was…
"You're a pro?"
"No, in training like-like you…" another sniffle, another knife through the chest. "I just…won't e-everyone to be h-happy and i'm the r-reason they can't be…."
"Sir, come on, there's no way it's your fault!" She said, and finally realized there was bile in her throat. "And even if it somehow is, this isn't the answer!"
"N-nothing….will work like…like this will though…." A deep breath (and still it didn't do a thing to calm her.) "And…this is…W-what everyone's a-always thought I sho-should do anyways…"
Jirou felt her face go pale. She really hoped that was an exaggeration. "Please, don't! This ISN'T the answer! There's got to be some other way, there's no reason you need to die! And-"
She didn't get to say what she had in mind next, as a shaky rattling breath from the silhouette and another sob. "I..I don't….Jirou I'm scared...I'm so scared."
"That's ok, it's ok to be scared!" She said, as her brain made its own comments about being terrified right now. "As long as you don't jump, then I can help make sure that all the fear goes away."
"Why…why…"
A heartbreaking, pained sob.
"Why is it-it always us, Jirou?! Why do I h-have to keep brining t-the bad guys to us?!" Jirou felt hear heart constrict and her brain reboot. 'What?!'
The voice fully dropped the deep tone, changing to normal and finally Jirou realized where the familiarity was coming from. Her face went pale.
"I-I just…want to n-not be…t-the victim for once…."
Looking at the silhouetted form once more she had no idea how she hadn't realized. It yet. The slim yet tone physique, the round face, the unruly hair. It felt as though a truck hit her when the realization struck.
"Midoriya?!"
"H-help…please…" The crying got worse and the voice confirmed it. After all the pressure, Jirou's heart finally shattered as a single tear of her own started to flow down her cheek.
Her classmate, her friend was on the verge of jumping, and if she hadn't been randomly in town, no one would be stopping him. "I'm s-scared…i…I don't…..I can't move…Please he-help…."
"Stay right there, please!" She shouted up and hoped to god he would listen. Rushing forward she tired the door to the building and cursed when it was locked. The boy had probably got up via his quirk, something she couldn't do. Looking left and right to see if anyone would try to stop her first, she braced and ran straight into the door, barging it open.
She hissed in pain, having almost definitely dislocated something but she didn't care. She was in and Nomu himself wouldn't stop her getting to the roof. It took just a few minutes to climb them all but it felt like eternity.
Finally, she was in front of the only door blocking her way to Midoriya. Taking a running start, she put all her force into a kick, managing to get this door open much easier. 'Thank good for lazy manufacturers.'
She rushed out and saw, still holding onto the railing on the wrong side, sobbing his eyes out was Midoriya. She rushed forward, and quickly wrapped an arm around him, helping him climb back over. "Come on, i'm here, it's fine."
Once he was over the girl let go, backing up for a moment and finally getting a good look at him. He wore normal casual clothes and physically he was fine. His cheeks glistened from the many tears that had already wetted them and his eyes were extremely red.
Emotionally, Jirou didn't even want to think what a mess he was.
In fact there wasn't much she cared to think about as her own tears started to fall and a crooked, broken smile of relief came onto her face.
There was only one thing that she needed to think about.
Her friend was safe.
Within seconds she closed the distance between them once more and wrapped him as tight in her arms as she could. She knew someone would question her 'goth rocker' image right now but she just nearly lost her friend, so they could go stuff it.
She was going to hug him and she refused to let go until she had gotten him to proper safety.
T-thank you…" He barely whispered and yet it sounded so strained… "Thank y-you so much…."
She knew it probably wasn't the right time to ask, but the question slipped out regardless. "Why…."
"I-I told you. It's m-my fault bad guys are a-always after u-us." He said and Jirou just clung on tighter.
"That's ridiculous, its there fault, not yours!" She said and the boy was silent for a moment. The girl then remembered something the boy said and her breath hitched."Izuku…what….what did you mean this is what everyone thought you should do?!"
He froze up, and the girl pulled away (though still held on as she looked at him). In his eyes was a fear and sadness she had never seen before. She didn't even register she had called him by his first name. "…."
"I've never once thought anything like this, and I guarantee you neither has Uraraka or Iida or anyone in….class…."
Realization struck and Jirou felt a rage burn within her soul. The boy just looked at the floor. "Kacchan….isn't the only one."
"Who?" She demanded, a little more harshly than necessary as she wrote her mental 'kick their ass if you ever meet them' list.
"Pretty much everyone before U.A., except mom I guess." He said sadly. "Even my dad left cause I was worthless. Most of the teachers didn't hide they felt the same…"
Red. Red was exactly what the purple haired girl was seeing at this point. Shaking her head slowly she tried bot to think about how exactly she was going to murder Bakugou. "You are anything but worthless ok? You are…unfairly smart and strong, not to mention unbearably nice. Everyone at U.A. would have been devastated. I know you probably think we would of 'gotten over it' but you're wrong. Please…."
She barreled into him once more.
"Just don't you dare EVER leave us."
"I….I won't. I promise. I'm….so, so sorry."