Join my patreon to support me: ROCKS_D_ABEL
Join my discord if you wanna discuss and just hang out: discord .gg/SmDkyDW6
***
Jiro didn't know whether she was the luckiest girl in the world or the most cursed. Life rarely liked giving her a definite answer, it usually just left her guessing.
The events of the previous days had seemed like a blur to her. After the encounter with the crazed villain alongside Max, she'd return home to the worry of her parents. They'd probed her with so many questions, Jiro had thought she was being interrogated for a grevious crime.
Then came the news: her parents said they were going to visit her grandparents out in the farm. Jiro had hesitated, her last experience with the farm wasn't exactly a…pleasant experience, for both her and the animals. The local livestock seemed to hold an eternal grudge against the girl, especially the chickens.
But she had missed her grandparents, they always had the best stories. She entertained a sudden thought, maybe her and Max could visit too if they had time. The statement made the girl blush in embarrassment as she quickly shook her head of the thought.
So they traveled.
They arrived there quite late in the night. Jiro and her parents settled in and she slept in her guest room and all seemed well. But the next day, it was then that Jiro's world would fall apart.
The next morning, Jiro stretched to the satisfying crack of her spine. Her hair, messy and tangled in clumps she wouldn't bother to start straightening out. She glanced at her phone, her brows furrowed as the realization hit her.
"Argh darn it…forgot to tell Max that I'm out of town." she grumbled. The thought had slipped her through the course of yesterday.
Jiro grabbed her phone, earjacks plugged into it as she dialed his line, the phone sliding into her pockets. She let out a long yawn, heading towards the bathroom to freshen up. She paused when the line went dead, the mechanical voice saying the number was switched off.
"Did he forget to charge his phone again?" she muttered, rolling her eyes. It wasn't the first time he had done so. The boy with technology was a recipe for disaster. Jiro still remembered when he tried to stab the T.V because a horror film was on when he came over.
"Whatever, I guess I'll just call him later." she muttered. Jiro paused, before letting out an amused snort. "He'll be surprised when I tell him I'm not in town. He might even try to trek all the way here himself."
Quickly freshening up, she went downstairs.
***
"Morning." Jiro yawned, trudging down the stairs.
Jiro blinked, receiving only silence. 'Is no one home?'
Entering the living room, her parents and grandparents had gathered round the TV. It was an old one, ancient even. She had never really liked it, loathed it even. It was loud, annoyingly louder than was necessary and always followed with a static, high-pitched sound that made her want to rip her ears off.
"What's going on…" she spoke, but the question died in her throat as her eyes stopped dead on the TV screen.
A news lady was relaying the news, her face shaken and marred with dread.
"We…we've received confirmation." the woman stammered, her voice trembling. "The Shizuoka Prefecture… a district once known for its peaceful neighborhood…has been struck by a devastating catastrophe of…of unknown…pro…proportions".
Jiro's heart skipped a beat. Her eyes widened. The screen cut to an aerial view of the wreckage. She could hear the gasps from her parents and grandparents. Where her neighborhood had once stood was now nothing but a empty space. In the center of the ruin sat a colossal, impossible handprint—as if a god had simply decided to crush that specific patch of earth.
Her eyes fell down the screen. Jiro found herself shaking. The number of deaths shook her very core. 12,402 people. dead
She even saw the now giant handprint that was in place of her previous neighborhood.
But all her thoughts were currently on one singular person. "M…ax."
Jiro now truly hated the Television more than ever.
***
It was a national disaster, something just unexpected. The city, the country, mourned for its people.
Jiro sat motionless in the guest room of the farmhouse, her eyes bloodshot as the tears had run dry no matter how much she forced them. She felt empty. Lost.
Outside, there was a city-wide lockdown, so the family's stay here would be extended for a while at least until the lockdown had been lifted. But Jiro didn't care about any of that. She didn't care about the news, the lockdown, or any of that.
The door creaked open. It was intended to be as soft as possible, but to Jiro's sensitive ears, the sound was a piercing screech. She hated at this point the abilities of her quirk.
"Jiro." Her mom called softly.
Jiro didn't lift her head up.
The weight of her bed shifted slightly as Mika sat on the bed, she could feel her mom hesitate before deciding to keep a small distance.
"Jiro…I know you're devastated." she began, talking as softly as possible," I know you miss him. I miss him too. God, I saw that boy as my own too. But starving yourself isn't the way." Her mother's voice was filled with nothing but concern for the girl as she felt her hand on her shoulder. "Don't do this to yourself. Max…Max wouldn't want this and so would me and your father. Please."
"I…" Jiro's voice croaked out, "I…don't know what to do mom."
Tears she thought had dried up, flowed down her face. Mika didn't say another word, her arms wrapped around the girl as she embraced her daughter as she softly comforted the crying girl.
***
The next day, Jiro sat in her room once again, in the same position once again. Downstairs, her parents were with her grandparents. The ban remained indefinitely. Schools nationwide were on holiday, a news, any other day would have normally filled her with elation, now just didn't move her.
She stared down at the phone gripped in her hands. The phone rang and rang and rang, until it ended with the same tone. 'The number you have dialed is switched off.'
Hope was a wretched thing.
Over the past few days, she had called Max's number in the hope that he too, like her, had by chance traveled…gone somewhere…survived.
It was a wishful thought as with each call, the chance of that happening was slimming down bit by bit, like sand pouring out your hands no matter how tightly you clenched.
She sighed as her shoulders slumped, the last bit of her energy draining away. But then her phone rang.
The girl jumped, her heart nearly leaping into her throat as her eyes widened in anticipation. Though, it faltered slightly as she stared at an unrecognized number. But still she decided to have hope.
Her chest thundered loudly in her chest like it wanted to break free from its bony cage. She stared at the phone. Minutes felt like hours to the girl. Her thumb shook as she placed it above the answer icon and pressed…
"…Max?"
She whispered. She didn't even know whether the person on the other line was even him or just a random classmate of hers. But she said his name anyway.
The minutes trickled by until she heard the most beautiful voice she had ever hoped to.
The person she loved. The person she had fallen in love with since she was a child. A voice whom she thought dead, now filled her with nothing but joy and relief.
"J…Jiro.?"
***