Static Rhythms

Chapter three

Later that night.

The medics moved fast, lifting Jirou onto a stretcher with practiced hands. Her face was pale, but her eyes were open...barely. Denki didn't dare blink as they wheeled her out through the rubble.

He wanted to go with her. Run beside her. But Aizawa hand clamped gently on his shoulder, grounding him.

"She's stable. You did good, Kaminari."

The word's barely registered. His ears were still ringing, not from the explosion, but from fear. The silence when she hit the wall.

Then he saw it. Her phone, half buried in the debris, screen cracked but still glowing faintly.

Denki picked it up with shaking fingers, the screen glitching slightly under the spiderweb fracture. A video still playing. The one she'd mentioned. The demo she said he inspired.

He swallowed hard and hit play again, kneeling there alone in the wreckage.

It started soft. A slow, pulsing bass line. Then her voice which was raw, low, and real cut through the static like a heart beat wrapped in thunder.

"You spark the silence out of me...even when I short-circuit quietly...you're the rhythm in the chaos I can't mute..."

Denki stared at the screen, his eyes burning. She'd finished it. She'd meant it. Every word, every note.

He smiled weakly, whispering, "you're such a badass, Jirou."