Kaminari doesn't think he's going to wake up this time around, but he does. He comes too surrounded by white; white walls, white lights, white floors, and for a moment he thinks he's finally passed on. His breath hitches as thoughts of being stuck in some sort if blindingly white limbo fill his head before he begins to recognize his surroundings. Slowly, as he blinks owlishly, he takes in the hustle and bustle of a hospital and he groans. He hopes this pattern of passing out and waking up in different places doesn't become a habit.

He pushes himself up off the hospital floor, desperately searching the familiar area for the one face he needs to see. Nurses are running back and forth but not one of them happen to be his mother. He bites his lip in frustration at the sting of tears. He needs to stop crying. He's already cried more in the aftermath of the USJ attack than he has in the past year. With a sigh, Kaminari begins the slow trek through the hospital, trying to figure out why exactly he woke up here. A part of him hopes it's because he so desperately wants his mother. He wants to hear her voice soothing away his fears. He wants to feel her arms around him, squeezing as she comforts but he doesn't think it's really that easy.

He's so lost in his own head that he doesn't notice the others milling about. It's not until he glances up, eyes locking on to the dead stare of the man in front of him that he realizes he's not the only lost soul wandering about. He let's out a yelp, stumbling backwards in horror. A whimper slips out as he stares wide eyed at the figure looming over him. He's gaunt, jaw hanging down at an unnatural angle. He's covered in a mix of dirt and blood, clothes ripped and tattered to reveal torn flesh and exposed bone. The man does nothing but stand there and all Kaminari can do is stare in horror. It feels as if his heart is pounding through his chest as he tries to scramble away and if he wasn't currently shaking in terror, he'd ponder the irony of a ghost having a heartbeat.

He's so scared. Kaminari doesn't think he's ever been this scared before, but he can't look away from the man in front of him. He's paralyzed with fear; his mother had given him first aid lessons especially after she had found out his plans to enroll in a hero course but nothing she had ever taught him about trauma patients could have ever prepared him for this. He's stuck staring, frozen in shock and he can't shake himself out of it. He can't breathe, air stuck somewhere between his lungs and the middle of his throat and he can't get away.

"Oh sweetheart." A feminine voice shushes him. "It's alright."

Kaminari blinks as hands gently cradle his face and he's automatically leaning into the first touch he's felt since this whole mess started. Soft fingers turn his face, moving his gaze away from the man and the first thing to fill his vision is black, curly hair. His mind automatically goes to Midoriya, the only person he knows with hair that curly but it's not the green haired boy. It's a woman. She's thin, almost willowy with kind eyes and gentle hands. She's wearing a hospital gown and has frail but determined look about her and she's so much better than man. Her hands are running through his hair, crooning softly in an attempt to calm him down.

"That's just Takashi. He can't hurt you. He doesn't even know we're here."

He looks up in confusion, not understanding. It takes him a minute before he works up the courage to even speak to her. "I don't understand. Why can't he see us? He's dead just like we are, isn't he?"

Her face crumbles, eyes turning sad and quiet for a moment before she's pulling him up to his feet and leading him away from Takashi. She guides him down the corridor, turning into a less populated hallway and stopping in front of a closed door.

"My names Shioreta Hana," She gives him a small smile and he shakily returns it. "but you can call me Hana."

"Kaminari Denki." His voice is quiet as he introduces himself. Her slow intake of breath startles him ad he gives her a questioning look.

"Kaminari? Like the nurse?"

"She's my mother."

There's a lump in his throat as he answer's and she nods in understanding. There's a brief pause of silence before Hana takes his hand and leads him into the room. The noise of confusion he makes is audible because laying in the hospital is Hana. She's hooked up to several different tubes and machines but it's clearly her.

"You're not dead, Denki. If you were, I wouldn't be able to interact with you and Takashi would have seen you."

For the second time in a short period Kaminari feels everything he's known come crashing down around him. There's a feeling of elation but it's short lived because he's still so confused and scared. Hana pulls him closer to the bed, a sympathetic look on her face as she tries to help him understand.

"Technically we died but we weren't gone for very long before they got us back." She's gazing down at herself in the bed with wistful eyes. "We're alive but we're stuck."

"What do you mean stuck?" His voice is quivering as he tries to keep with all this new information.

"We can't get back in. When our heart stopped, we left our bodies, but we never made it back before they brought us back. So, we're stuck."

She turns to Kaminari, grabbing his hand and bringing his attention down to his wrist. Her fingers pluck delicately at the space above his joint and a thrum resounds throughout his body. His eyes dart down to his wrist and he immediately tries to yank his hand away and out of the string looped around his appendage. It's white and shiny, reminding him of the florescent lights he had awoken too earlier, and its laying draped across his hand and hanging down by his thigh to lead out past the door.

"That's your tether. It's what connects you to your body."

Hana gestures to her own connecting her wrist to her physical body. "As long as your tether is intact and connected you can find your way back."

Kaminari tucks away that bit of information for later, hungrily devouring any sort of answers Hana can tell him. Her gaze turns serious as if she's about to tell him something important and he leans closer, attention solely fixated on the other.

"The tether connects you. You can wander away and leave wherever your body is but not for too long before it snaps you back like a rubber band. Don't let that happen too many times or the tether will start to fray. If it breaks you won't be able to get back into your body."

She steps forward and her hands come up to grasp his shoulders. Her fingers dig into his soft skin.

"Listen to me and remember this, Denki. There are things out there that will try to break your tether. Takashi couldn't see you but that doesn't mean worse things can't. Your body is an empty vessel at this point and there are things out there that will try to take advantage of that. I've seen people find their way back in as long as their tether is intact. Do not let it break."

His head bobs up and down as he frantically nods. There's so much information floating around in his head right now and he's trying and failing to process it all. It's a lot. It's almost too much for him to comprehend and he has so many questions.

"Hana, how long did it take for the others to get back?"

He wants to be told that he can wake up in his body within a day, but he knows just by watching Hana stare sadly at her own body that it won't be that easy. She all but confirms his fears when she answers.

"Sometimes it was a few days. Others took years. Some… some never do. It just depends."

He deflates at the answer. Hana reaches out once again to pluck at his tether.

"Go and follow it. The most important thing for you right now is to see for yourself. You're not dead. There's still some hope."

He doesn't want to leave her. He's just met her, but Hana had immediately become a lifeline that he wants to cling to and never let go of, but the woman is ushering him out of her room. Her hands coax him back out into the hallway and he stands there for a moment, lost. He turns to Hana and after a reassuring smile is sent his way, he turns back to follow his own tether.

It doesn't take him long to recognize the section of the hospital he's found himself in. He knows the ICU like the back of his hand. His mom had been working as a nurse in the department for practically half his life. He follows the tether until it stops outside a door and he pauses. A part of him is too scared to go into the room but he steels himself. He wants to be with his mom. He wants to see his classmates again, to hang off of Kirishima as he teases Bakugou. He wants to joke and laugh with Sero and Ashido. He wants so much so badly it hurts but he can't help but to think back on what Hana had told him. What if he never makes it back?

He bounces on the balls of his feet, shaking off his nerves. This is the first step to trying to get his life back and he's had enough of being afraid. With that thought, he moves forward and steps into the room. He almost immediately regrets his earlier bravado. It's disorienting, seeing himself lying still in a hospital bed and hooked up to different machines. His eyes stray towards the breathing tube down his throat before they lock onto the blonde figure sitting next to his bed. She's still in her scrubs, hair disheveled with blood shoot eyes. She's clinging to his hand and she has dried tear stains running down her cheeks. Kaminari Hikari looks the worst he's ever seen her and that hurt's him more than anything. That she sat in here by herself and cried over him. The tears that he had told himself he wouldn't shed begin to spill over and he kneels in front of her as the sobs break lose.

"Mom." His voice cracks as he pleads to ears that won't hear his call. "Mom, I'm scared."