Chapter 1: was that cannon fire, or is my heart pounding?
Chapter Text
was that cannon fire, or is my heart pounding?
---
9:00 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
“In our superhuman society ...”
Kaminari Denki watches Thirteen speak, attention elsewhere. He’s bored, much too bored, and his fingers tap impatiently against his legs as his ADHD comes into play.
“... all Quirks are certified and stringently regulated. Because of that, we often overlook how unsafe they can actually be.”
Thirteen’s words float in through one ear then out the other, discarded in his mind like useless clumps of space junk. The bus ride was bad enough - Denki’s tired of waiting, he wants to start doing things.
“Please don’t forget that if you lose focus, or make the wrong move, your powers can be deadly …”
Denki will admit, it’s hella cool to meet another well-known hero in the flesh. Denki’s so used to seeing heroes on the screen, too large for life, that UA feels like a fever dream - him wandering through hallowed halls, legendary heroes walking right past him. He met All Might. All Might! It all feels too good to be true.
“... even if you’re trying to do something virtuous, like rescue someone.”
Denki’s fingers tap faster - he doesn’t bother trying to still them. His leg begins to bounce relentlessly, and Iida turns his head, the narrowed eyes behind clear glasses clearly displaying his thoughts on the constant movement. Denki just shrugs helplessly, flashing his class president a sheepish smile.
“Thanks to Aizawa’s fitness tests, you have a solid idea of your Quirk’s potential.”
Aizawa-Sensei scares him. Denki figures that he always will. With his dead, emotionless poker face, his large, racoon-like eye bags, and his ruthless tendencies coupled with his occasional manic smiles, he truly makes an intimidating figure. The fitness test from the first day was quite the ordeal - Denki was never in danger of being expelled, but the situation was still incredibly stressful for him. He ended up in the middle, like always, not spectacular but not terrible either. Average. Just like he always is.
(but he isn’t. Kaminari Denki isn’t average. He’s a failure, last place hiding behind flukes and cheats)
“And because of All Might’s combat training, you likely experienced how dangerous your powers can be when used against other people.”
Denki already knows that. His electricity can be dangerous - he’s shocked enough people with ridiculously high voltages as a young kid to know that fact intimately.
“Carry those lessons over to this class. Today, you’re going to learn how to use your Quirks to save people’s lives.”
Finally! Denki hopes the speech is coming to a close and they’re going to finally get started with the exercise. Denki doesn't want to spend his entire time at the USJ standing around and listening to passionate speeches. He wants to move, he wants to do something.
“You won’t be using your powers to attack enemies or each other, only to help.”
Denki can live with that. He isn’t battle-hungry like Bakugou.
“After all, that’s what being a hero is all about. Ensuring the safety of others.”
Class 1-A dissolves into aggressive clapping, with Uraraka at the helm. Denki claps along - Thirteen’s speech was kinda cool.
“And that’s all I have to say,” Thirteen finishes. “Thank you all for listening.”
“Thank you, Thirteen,” Aizawa replies gruffly, adjusting his scarf and taking a step forward as he prepares to speak. Excitement thrums through Denki’s veins, as alive and adrenaline-inducing as his own electricity.
“Right. Now that that’s over …” Thirteen trails off, something strange and unidentifiable in their tone, something that has Denki tensing prematurely. Aizawa’s eyes, along with the attention of the entirety of Class 1-A, follow Thirteen’s gaze.
Denki’s excitement is suddenly doused, cold chills snaking down his back
“What is that?”
Purple and black coalesce together, vivid and thick with tendrils that snake through the air, swirling together into a mass of darkness that hovers above the ground.
From the blackness emerge fingers - one by one they curl around the edges of the strange mass, chipped fingernails and dry skin pushing at the apparently solid colors, forcing whatever it is open wider.
Denki’s mouth goes dry, air caught in his throat and mouth, so unnaturally thick he can taste it. Or maybe that’s just the bile that rises in his throat as red emerges from the portal, a glowing red eye that makes Denki want to scream.
“Get back!” Aizawa-Sensei yells. “Stay together, and don’t move!”
Aizawa-Sensei’s words don’t register, floating through his head, ignored just like Thirteen’s were - but for completely different reasons. Aizawa-Sensei stays cool and calm, eyes lighting red and hair rising.
“Thirteen, protect the students!”
“What’s going on?” Midoriya, ever brave, ever curious, questions. “Has the training started?”
“Stay back!” Aizawa hisses as Midoriya steps forward. “This is real. Those are villains,”
Yellow eyes glow, cat shaped and wrong, inhuman and cloaked in a purple-black warp that can’t be normal, can’t be right. Denki’s seen some real crazy quirks before, but this … this isn’t right, something’s gone terribly, horribly wrong.
“How perplexing,” The strange thing says, eyes scanning the crowd. For a second, yellow eyes land on Denki and he freezes, fingers stilling against his thigh as his heart stops.
The eyes pass over him quickly and Denki finds it in himself to breathe again.
Fingers, hands, red eyes, dry skin. The yellow-eyed thing’s companion, blue haired and young, much too young, steps forward, something akin to anger sparking in his eye. It’s a little too maniacal to simply be called anger.
“Where is he?” His voice, raspy and gritty, grinds through Denki’s head. His fingers twitch. “Where is All Might?”
All Might.
Where is All Might? Where is Denki’s teacher, Denki’s hero?
“I do not believe he is present at the moment, Tomura,” ‘Tomura’ saunters forward,
“He’s not here?” ‘Tomura’ questions. “I went through the trouble of bringing so many friends-” His hand sweeps out, and suddenly, Denki becomes aware of a mass of people that definitely were not there just a second ago.
Villains, Denki thinks. These are villains.
“-who’re eager to meet him. They want All Might. The Symbol of Peace,” The villain’s voice is mocking, and he shakes his head, laughing, as if there’s something funny about all the things All Might has done to keep Japan safe. All the things he had done to earn his title. A tiny bit of Denki’s fear erodes into anger. Midoriya stands by his side, fuming.
“I can’t believe he’s not here,” The villain shakes his hand, adjusting the hand, the dead hand that covers his face. “Maybe if I kill a few kids, he’ll come out to play?”
“Thirteen,” Aizawa-Sensei whispers harshly. “Get them out of here. Alert the main campus.” Aizawa frowns, the expression instilling a sense of dread into Denki, who stands just a few feet behind his Sensei. “Actually, if they’ve got the ability to block our sensors, then they might be jamming our regular communications, too. Kaminari, try using your Quirk to contact the school.”
All of a sudden, Denki finds too many eyes on him, crawling over his skin and burrowing into his subconscious. He sucks in a shaky breath.
“Yessir!” He tries to keep his voice steady, flashing his Sensei a wobbly smile. Aizawa-Sensei studies him, the frown never leaving his face, but whatever he plans to say next is cut off as the yellow-eyed villain begins to speak again.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” It - he says smoothly. “We are the League of Villains,”
The League ... of Villains? Denki doesn’t like the sound of that. From the looks of it, neither does Aizawa-Sensei.
“I know it’s impolite, but we decided to invite ourselves to this haven of justice-” Hands of darkness stretch out wide in an almost welcoming gesture. “-to say hello.”
Denki’s breath hitches.
“And besides-” The villain continues. “-isn’t this a fitting place for All Might, the Symbol of Peace, to take his last breath?”
Midoriya’s hands curl into a fist and the beginnings of green electricity spark around his palm.
“I believe he was supposed to be here today, and yet I see no sign of him,” The villain frowns - or at least he would have, if he had a mouth to frown with. “There must’ve been some sort of change in plans we could not have foreseen,” His shoulders droop down. “Ah well. In the end, I suppose it doesn’t matter. I still have a role to play.”
Denki tenses.
“I’ll scatter you across this facility, to meet my comrades, and your deaths!”
‘Tomura’ laughs.
---
9:30 AM
Monday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Mountain Zone
Denki leaps forward, a nasty form of adrenaline too unlike his familiar electricity for comfort spurring him quick enough to dodge another life threatening hit. It’s barely sunk in yet, it has barely registered for Denki that these men are trying to kill him. This isn’t a training exercise.
They want him, and all of his friends, dead.
“These fuckers are terrifying!” Denki yells to Jiro honestly. “My whole life just flashed before my eyes. I think I saw the grim reaper! What’s going on?” Just the sight of Jiro and Yaoyorozu calms him down - he’s familiar with Jiro from combat training, she’s capable and powerful, and that knowledge slows the rapid beat of his heart. Yaoyorozu, on the other hand, while more of an unknown to Denki, still brings him a sense of comfort - he knows her as his class vice president - she’s smart. Her calm is infectious and just looking at her confident face instills a sense of hope within Denki.
Denki watches Jiro send a powerful soundwave at an incoming boulder. He watches Yaoyorozu take down yet another incoming villain. For a moment, he deludes himself. He believes he’s safe.
“Right now-” Yaoyorozu says, ignoring his question as she jams a metal baton into the stomach of a pink-haired gunslinger, who’s gun lays discarded on the floor. “-we need to focus on getting away from these villains.”
“Then make a weapon for me!” Jiro’s armed with a knife, courtesy of Yaoyorozu. Yaoyorozu, of course, has her baton. Denki has not yet been supplied with a weapon.
Turns out, he will not be.
(Would things have changed if Yaoyorozu had given him a weapon to defend himself? Probably not, Denki reasons. It was all his fault, in the end.)
“You’re the one with electric powers,” Jiro retorts, kneeing an attacker in the crotch. Denki winces. “Just zap ‘em so we can run?”
Denki’s never felt more useless.
“Were you not paying attention during combat training?” Denki snaps, the tension catching up to him as he shocks another villain. “Some partner you were.” He backpedals back to Jiro’s side. “I can cover my body with electricity, but if I try to shoot it out, it’ll go everywhere! I’d take you guys down along with them!” Yaoyorozu frowns, looking thoughtful. “Or did you want shock treatment today?” Denki asks Jiro, almost snidely as he continues to fidget. “I can’t even call for help because there’s still interference jamming the signal!” Denki releases a shaky breath. “I’m counting on you two. I’m no help in this situation. You’ve gotta get us outta here. Please!”
Jiro scoffs. The sound is almost comforting.
“You’re a real damsel in distress, aren’t you?” She sighs, knocking out another wave of villains. She darts forward and grabs Denki’s shoulders.
“New plan. You’re my human stun gun.”
“Seriously? Come on-” Denki is shoved into an upcoming villain, his electrical aura seeping into them almost instantly. The villain screams, the sound sending bile up Denki’s throat, but he forces himself to stay calm. “Huh. This is actually working.”
“You are exhausting,” Jiro informs him. Denki waits until the two villains he’s touched fall unconscious, before jumping away from the bodies. (living bodies, they’re alive, they’ve got to be. Denki didn’t discharge enough electricity to kill them. They’re fine. They’re alive. Their bodies still make his stomach roll.)
“You’re lucky that worked out so well,” He nearly growls at Jiro, just a little miffed that she’d push him out into the open like that. He tries to keep his voice light hearted, though.
Jiro just curls her lip slightly.
“Sorry,” She says. “Next time I’ll ask before saving our asses,” Denki just shakes his head. Same ‘ol Jiro. “Damn it, Kaminari!” She yells, ear jacks lashing wildly, almost as aggressively as Aizawa’s scarves. “You couldn’t have asked for some kind of aiming gear when you put in your costume request? I mean, come on!”
“It’s ready!” Yaoyorzu yells, confusing Denki. What, exactly, is ready?
Denki turns around to see … a blanket? He’s still confused. It’s a large one, he supposes, but … what exactly are they supposed to do with a large blanket?
“It takes me a little longer -” Yaoyorozu pauses, panting. “To create an object this big!”
The villains seem to share Denki’s confusion.
“A blanket?” One question, voicing Denki’s thoughts.
“Is it supposed to be a shield?” Another asks, a mocking tilt in their voice. Yaoyorozu stays confident.
“You’re looking at a sheet of insulation, one hundred millimeters thick,” She informs them, only a little smug. “Go, Kaminari!”
“Yaoyorozu is so badass,” Jiro comments as she is forcibly tugged under the blanket … sorry, sheet of insulation by Yaoyorozu.
Denki smiles. He turns towards the villains.
“Now that I don’t have to worry about hurting my friends-” He says, trying to sound confident. In truth, he’s a little bit scared. He hopes this will work. “You guys are fried!”
“You can do this!” Denki can’t tell if it’s Jiro or Yaoyorozu yelling out encouragement - it’s probably Yaoyorozu.
“Don’t fuck this up!” - and yup, that’s Jiro.
Denki steps forward.
“Indiscriminate Shock-” Power thrums through Denki as he shouts, desperately attempting to keep his voice from wobbling.“1.3 million volts!”
---
10:15 AM
Monday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Mountain Zone
Kaminari Denki does not die a heroic death.
If he’s being honest, Kaminari Denki’s not entirely sure how exactly he dies.
He remembers knocking out all the villains with a powerful electrical shock. After that, everything’s a little fuzzy. He remembers the familiar fog that comes from his quirk settling over his mind.
He remembers Jiro and Yaoyorozu, their blurry figures whispering intelligible words that go through one word and come out the other.
Then he remembers a large hand on his collar, his feet dangling up in the air. A low, cruel, ugly laugh that has Denki’s muscle tensing, disregarding the fact that in his addled state, he can’t even properly process the situation. Denki’s mind screams danger, but he’s not aware enough to acknowledge it.
“Kill each other-”
Fingers wrapping around his throat, digging ugly red indents into his pale white skin.
“Fight to the death. And no quirks, got it? Use your powers and I’ll kill your friend over here,” A vicious shake has Denki’s brain rocking against the confines of his skull.
The heroes will come. That’s what Yaoyorozu says.
The heroes will come.
And they do come, it’s just … well, they don’t come quick enough.
At first, Yaoyorozu and Jiro just stare at each other, hands clenched and body tense. A hand squeezes tighter around Denki’s neck, and as he chokes and coughs Jiro makes the first move.
Denki remembers blurred figures, play-fighting that quickly turns deadly as the villain grows impatient.
Denki remembers screams. He remembers blood and pain and helplessness and weak blows that quickly grow stronger.
Denki remembers the way Jiros’s earjack pierces straight through Yaoyoruzu, impaling her eye and emerging from the other side of her skull.
He remembers sobs and tears and guilt, ugly and vivid.
He remembers the way Jiro cradles Yaoyorozu’s body as she’s impaled from behind.
He remembers the feeling of strong hands wrapping around his throat and squeezing the life out of him.
He remembers the way blackness crowds his vision, leaking from the corners like a vignette.
Kaminari Denki dies from strangulation.
A few hours later, Kaminari Denki wakes.
---
3:05 PM
Monday, March 13h, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.
“Congratulations, Kaminari Denki! Welcome to your hero academia!”
Present Mic’s voice, loud and boisterous, cuts through Denki’s daze, piercing through his head and summoning him from the depths of his unconsciousness.
He falls to his knees almost instantly, clutching desperately at his neck as he attempts futilely to breathe. It’s a couple seconds later when Denki realises he’s having no trouble breathing. He realises that there are no fingers digging into his neck, no hands wrapped around his throat choking the goddamn life out of him.
Denki’s alone.
Not just that, he realises.
Denki’s alive.
---
Chapter 2: if beauty was time, you'd be an eternity
Chapter Text
if beauty was time, you'd be an eternity
---
3:10 P
Monday, March 13th, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.
“Congratulations, Kaminari Denki! Welcome to your hero academia!” “Congratulations, Kaminari Denki! Welcome to your hero academia!”
“̵̞͎̘̐͑͠C̸͊̓o̵͑͋̕n̵̡͇̫͒͝g̸̫͊̕r̸̢͖͎͋͌͒ä̵̞͔̝́͊̐ț̴̘̻̈́̐̕u̵̐͝l̵͇̦͓͐͑ä̵̝͓́̽͐t̴͊̓i̴̫̘̙̿̚̚o̵̐͋͌n̵̪͔̐̓̈́s̸͊ ,̸̙͉͊̕͝ K̵̞͖͇̐͝a̵̡̡̦͒͒m̴̘͑̈́̚i̸͝n̵̟͝͠͠a̴͋͒͝r̵͇̼͖͌̐̿i̴͔̓͌̐ D̴̼̔̚e̸̢̼͓̔͑̒n̸̕k̸̙̻̫̐i̴͑!̵̘̦̽͋ W̴̡̻͔̐͆̚e̴͇̦͓͊͋l̴̚͝c̵͕̽͝o̴͕͆̓̈́m̵̞̝̦̽͊͐e̵͕͖̪̐͝ t̸͎̼͕̓̽͠o̵̘͇̘̒̈́͆ y̵̒̐o̴̝͆͝u̵̙͖̠͐̓͠r̵̡̟̽̓̐ h̵e̵͉̠̓͌̿r̵̢͍̈́̕͝o̴͍̦͎̕͠͝ a̸̓͌c̴̻̻͇̈́͋͝a̸͇̓̈́d̴e̸̒m̵̟͕͑ḯ̴̡͍̟͝a̵̞͖͉̽̒͝!̴͇͎͍͋̓͒”̸
Denki’s hands wrap protectively around his throat as he sobs silent tears, his nails digging new indents where the old ones used to be.
I’m alive.
I’m alive.
I’m alive.
The words repeat like a mantra in Denki’s head, echoing around his skull as he dry-heaves. Blood, blood, all he can see is blood bright and hot and ugly, cherry-red that stains his hands even though he knows there’s nothing there.
He's alive. Denki breathes slowly.
He's alive. He flexes his fingers, releasing his death grip on his throat.
He's alive.
… how the fuck is he alive?
Denki stumbles quickly to his feet, ignoring the ways his knees burn from newly formed bruises, the way his throat flexes from phantom pain.
Present Mic’s form, holographic and three dimensional, floats in front of Denki’s face. He continues to rattle on about rescue points and leaderboards and other such nonsense that Denki doesn’t care to listen to because he's already heard it.
Kaminari remembers.
He remembers everything.
He remembers all of this. He remembers the day he got his UA acceptance letter, remembers the way he cried tears of pure euphoria as his dreams finally began to resemble something reachable. Something possible.
Denki’s crying for an entirely different reason now.
His hands shake and his body trembles as he takes in every last detail of his plain, ordinary room. He soaks in beige walls, yellow blankets and that pikachu plushie his father bought him for his fourth birthday.
Denki wraps his arms around his midsection, cheeks wet from tears and frame still wracked with violent shivers.
Was it a dream?
God, Denki hopes it was a dream. A vivid hallucination, an ugly nightmare. It has to be.
It has to be.
(it wasn’t a dream)
---
8:30 PM
Monday, March 13th, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Musutafu, Japan
Denki eats dinner with his mother. She’s barely even there, her eyes in a faraway place, her phone glued to her ear.
Offhandedly, he mentions his acceptance into UA.
“Uh huh,” She says. “That’s great, honey. Don’t forget to do the dishes,” Denki sighs, not surprised in the slightest. That’s the same way it always goes.
The same way it went last time.
Denki’s had this barely-qualifying-as-a-conversation conversation before. He’s had it. He’s lived it. He’s been through this before.
He’s been through this before.
He remembers the gnawing disappointment, the absent look in his mother’s eyes.
Though, in all honesty, Denki’s glad his mother’s distracted her mind in a palace far, far, from here. That way, she doesn’t notice the way his hands tremble while he eats, the way he flinches at the slightest sound.
The way tears well up in his eyes and panic encroaches on him from all sides.
I’m alive.
I’m alive.
I’m alive.
He's alive.
He's alive.
He's alive.
(But he shouldn’t be)
Denki wishes he could be like his mother, wishes he could be somewhere far, far away from here.
(Denki shouldn’t be here)
(̷̾͂̆̅D̶̽̊̄͑͗̚e̷̓̈́̋̑̓̒̊̌ñ̶̛̆̀̓͆̒͆̈́̔̚͝͝k̴̨̛͖̲̅͗͗̆̃̑ǐ̷͆̓́̍̔̋̀̄̆͋͑̍͝ ̷ s̶͝h̷͎͕̗̟̟̟̓̆̂̉͑̌̓̕ö̵̆͗͆̈̅͑̽͝͠u̵͋́l̷͍̹̮͉̠̥̫͕̠̅͋̏͆̌ḑ̸͍̦́̂̾͌͐̃̄͑̚̕ ̷͌ b̴̔̅̓̉e̶̊͋͝͝ ̶̃̆̐̐̂̾̅ d̸̛̅̌̋̓̌̄̇̀̀͆ẹ̵̛͔̾̀̎̄̇̽ā̸̘̝͖͓̖̜̖̝̪͕̪͉͉͊̚ͅd̷̛̪͈̑͐̏̈́̏͐̽̓̕)̶̘̚
---
11:00 AM
Monday, March 20th XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan
In Denki’s personal opinion, he’d done an absolutely spectacular job at ignoring everything that had happened.
He ignores practically everything.
He goes to school.
He ignores his classmates.
He does his homework.
He ignores the niggling feeling in the back of his head that he’s done these assignments before.
He eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
He ignores the way his stomach screams in protest and nausea snakes up his esophagus as he remembers blood, blood, blood.
He says goodnight to his mom.
Ignores the way she looks right through him. (just like she alway does)
He goes to bed.
Ignores the nightmares that keep him awake, ignores how every night he ends up writhing in his bed, covered in cold sweat and trying desperately to force down screams.
In Denki’s personal opinion, he’s a fucking master at ignoring his problems. It’s around a week later, however, when Denki realises he can’t keep going on like this. School’s ended, he’s stuck at home alone for ridiculously long periods of time with nothing to do and he’s half sure he’s going insane.
He throws his pikachu across the room, watching as it bounces against the wall and slams face first into the ground.
Is he a time traveler? Is that what's going on? Was he given a chance to make things right?
If so, how? Why? Was it someone’s quirk? Was it something else entirely?
Why him?
Denki has so many questions it’s almost like his head is bursting with them, horrible migraines ripping any sense of peace away from him.
In the end, Denki decides to settle with time travel.
Time travel.
He’s a time traveler. That’s pretty cool, right?
Right?
Denki imagines the way Jiro’s eyejack pierced straight through Yaomomo’s skull, remembers the feeling of death from asphyxiation, and abruptly decides that maybe, just maybe, time travel isn’t as cool as the movies make it seem.
So, Denki thinks slowly, What next?
What does he do?
No one will believe that he’s a time traveller. Not even his own mother. He’d had enough scenarios of ‘the boy who cried wolf’ after growing up in a household where all he wanted was his mother to notice him.
And this, well. This leaves Denki with a slight problem.
A slight problem that takes its form in Denki’s untimely death - no, Denki's untimely murder.
In maybe a month, Denki is going to die. The USJ will happen and the League of Villains will appear and Denki will die a horrible, painful death.
And so will Yaoyorozu.
And so will Jiro.
And maybe the rest of Class 1-A.
So. How can Denki stop it?
An ugly feeling settles in Denki’s chest as he realizes that he can’t.
There’s nothing he can do to stop the USJ, not now. He has no proof of anything. He doesn’t know anything - about the League of Villains, the attack - nothing. It won’t work. No one will believe him. The USJ is too important of an activity for them to just skip it on the whims of a stranger. He can’t just go up to UA, the most prestigious, high-security hero school there is, and give vague details about a villain attack that may or may not happen.
Denki can’t stop the USJ.
So he just … he has to bide his time. Wait and see. Wait and see if everything goes the same way it did last him.
And if it does, well.
He’ll cross that bridge when he comes to it.
(and above all, he’s making sure he doesn’t die this time. Dying, he decides, is a thoroughly unpleasant experience that he has no wish to repeat again)
---
7:30 AM
Monday, April 10th, XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
On his first first day of UA, Denki arrives ten minutes late.
On his second first day of UA, Denki arrives thirty minutes early.
His anxiety has been building up steadily over the past week, and as he approaches the large Class 1-A door he has the inexplicable urge to cry. He wants to turn and flee.
Denki doesn’t know how he’ll handle facing his old classmates. The problem isn’t his classmates - he barely knows them at all - no, the problem is people in general. He can’t bring himself to act in the same exuberant way he normally does, not with the way memories lurking in the corner of his mind.
It’s pathetic. He dies once and he’s a complete mess.
He’s read time travel books where the heroes have to live through the bloody apocalypse before coming back to change things. They’d seen horrors Denki couldn’t compare to and they still managed to stay strong and get things done.
Meanwhile Denki finds himself completely wrecked after one traumatic experience.
Denki steels himself, taking a deep breath. He arrived early for two reasons - one, so he could do something, even walking to school so he could shake off his nerves, and two, so he could avoid any possible interactions with anyone. He’ll use the next thirty minutes to gather his bearings and prepare for the day.
Of course, nothing Denki does goes to plan. He walks into class only to stop abruptly in the doorway as he’s greeted by the absolutely wonderful sight of his two favourite people.
Iida, sitting straight and still.
Bakugou, rowdy as always, yelling about something or other.
The first thing he thinks while seeing the two argue, explosions sparking on Bakugou’s palms;
Bakugou’s so cool.
And he is, he really is one of the fucking coolest people Denki's every met. A bit of tsundere, a slight (big) jerk, but still one of the coolest people Denki’s ever met. #1 in the exams, with a badass quirk, he’s probably the most promising hero-in-training in Kaminari’s class. Other than maybe Midoriya, of course.
And his quirk really is badass - explosions! How cool is that? The most hero-worthy quirk Denki’s ever seen.
Denki wishes he could have a quirk like Bakugou’s - instead of his worthless, albeit flashy, quirk that he can’t even use without frying his own brain.
The second thing he thinks;
Well, fuck.
Of all people, (other than maybe Jiro) Iida and Bakugou were probably the last people he wanted to see. But, in all honesty, he probably should’ve expected this - knowing Iida, the trusty class prez probably arrived at school much, much earlier. He understands why Bakugou would’ve done the same - although it seems out of character it was rather the exact opposite. Though he acted like a delinquent, Bakugou was anything but.
Denki sighs, just as Iida and Bakugou finally notice him.
“Hey, Dunce Face!” Bakugou yells and yeah, that brings back memories.
Oh, the memories.
“What the fuck are you doing standing in the middle of the fucking doorway like a fucking idiot?”
“It’s disrespectful to linger,” Iida chides, evidently having given up on attempting to police Bakugou’s vulgarity.
“Sorry,” Denki apologizes, offering a small smile as evidence of his sincerity. He steps through the doorway, instantly gravitating to trusty ol’ seat no. 7 - a good distance away from both Iida and Bakugou.
Iida jumps to his feet.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, fellow student!” Iida declares loudly, exactly like the robot Denki remembers him to be. He stands up, steps forward, sticking out a hand. “I’m Iida Tendy from the Somei Private Academy!” Denki holds back a laugh and finds some of the tension draining from his shoulders.
I’ve already met you. That’s what he wants to say.
Instead, he smiles a little wider, ignoring the way his eyes burn.
“It’s nice to meet you, Iida-Kun!” Denki says, ignoring the hand and instead choosing to clap Iida over the shoulder in a friendly greeting. “I’m Kaminari Denki! No history of private schools to speak of, unfortunately,”
“What’s your quirk?” Bakugou instantly demands.
“You can’t just ask that!” Iida yells instantly. “It’s rude!” Denki laughs, rubbing the back of his neck.
“It’s okay,” He sticks up his thumb. “My quirk is called Electrification!”
“Electrification?” Iida echoes.
“Sounds fucking lame,” Bakugou comments.
“My quirk is exactly what it sounds like - it gives me the ability to generate electricity and cover my body in it. I’m basically a living phone charger,”
“That sounds like a very useful quirk!” Iida replies. “Especially for heroics!” Denki chuckles slightly.
“Not as useful as it may seem,” Denki admits. “I can only generate a certain amount of electricity - if I go past my limit, my brain’ll short-circuit!”
“Fucking lame,” Bakugou grouches. “Fifteen fucking years and you can’t even control your own goddamn quirk properly?” Denki winces minutely.
“You!” Iida yells. “Stop this! You must respect your classmates!”
“What’s there to respect?” Denki sinks into his chair as the two dissolve into argument, quietly wondering how the hell they can be so loud.
It’s that line of thought that eventually leads Denki to the yellow sleeping bag in the corner of the room.
Aizawa-Sensei.
The sleeping bag is bright and yellow and obvious and Denki finds himself questioning how he missed it last time.
Denki draws circles on his desk with the pads of his fingers as his mind drifts. Time passes and others begin to enter the classroom, but Denki ignores it, choosing instead to wonder as he stares at the sleeping bag - what happened to Aizawa-Sensei?
He remembers the way Aizawa-Sensei jumped straight into the fray to protect them. He was obviously outnumbered - the villains had the advantage.
Denki wonders what happened to him. Did he win? Did he die?
Denki supposes it doesn’t really matter either way.
Denki is snapped rather abruptly out of his thoughts when he hears Iida’s voice, loud, so loud, right by his ears.
“Midoriya! You realised there was more to the practical exam, didn’t you?”
“Huh?” Denki turns to see Midoriya, poor, anxious, Midoriya, looking as anxious as he normally does as Iida confronts him.
“You must be very perceptive,” Iida tells him. “And I completely misjudged you, I admit. As a student, you’re far superior to me,”
They’re talking about the practical exam - but for the life of him, Denki can’t figure out the details. What is Iida on about this time around?
Denki marinades on that for a while - but he doesn’t get much time. As chatter steadily builds, the clock continues to tick, and Denki realizes rather suddenly that class has already started. Denki’s gaze drifts back to the sleeping bag - only to realize it’s already open, it’s occupant missing.
“If you’re just here to make friends, then you can pack up now,” Denki stares at the all-too familiar form of Aizawa-Sensei.
Oh my god, it’s Aizawa-Sensei. Messy hair, tired eyes, disheveled clothes and all.
This whole situation is surreal.
“Welcome to UA’s hero course,” Aizawa-Sensei says, and deja vu floods through Kaminari, vibrant and vivid.
Aizawa-Sensei stalks forward.
“It took eight seconds for you all to shut up,” Aizawa tells the class. “That’s not going to work. Time is your most precious commodity here. Rational students would understand that.”
Murmured confusions run through Denki’s class.
“What’s going on?”
“Is that a jelly packet?”
“Who the hell is this guy?
“Hello-” Aizawa-Sensei says, sounding very, very done with his life. “I’m Shouta Aizawa. Your homeroom teacher,” Aizawa-Sensei scrubs a hand over his face. “Right, let’s get to it. Everyone, get changed into your PE uniforms,”
“What?” Several students crow. “Why?”
“Today, we’ll start with a quirk apprehension test,”
“A quirk apprehension test?” Ashido whines from Denki’s left, in seat No. 2. “But what about orientation?” Denki wants to facepalm - he can’t believe he and the rest of Class 1-A were so dumb. Aizawa-Sensei radiated pure danger - why couldn’t they read the signs?
“If you really wanna make the big leagues,” Aizawa starts, pinning Ashido with a sharp glare. “You can’t waste time with pointless ceremonies. Here at UA, we’re not tethered to our traditions. And do you know what that means?”
Denki does.
“That means I get to run my class however I see fit,” It’s right about then that Denki realizes that Aizawa’s eyes have settled on him. Denki shudders. Aizawa-Sensei is terrifying.
“Get changed,” Aizawa-Sensei orders. The class scrambles to their feet. As Denki races towards the door, he feels the lingering gaze of Aizawa-Sensei on his back.
Denki wants to slam his head into a desk. God, what has he done now?
---
8:15 AM
Monday, April 10th, XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
Exercise Fields
Throughout the Quirk Apprehension Test, Denki can feel Aizawa’s eyes on him. It’s extremely unnerving. Nonetheless, Denki does his best to ignore him.
He’ll admit, he didn’t try very hard in the test. Aizawa’s expulsion threat was, admittedly, a great motivator - and knowing it was a fake drained Denki’s will. He put little effort into the test, ending up in the last five just like last time - though he’s at 17 instead of his typical 16.
Everything else goes the same as it did last time. Bakugou steals away first, Midoriya lands last. Aizawa still antagonises him during the ball throw just like last time.
Denki’s always felt a strange sort of silent camaraderie with Midoriya. They both have unpredictable, relatively powerful quirks that they can’t control. Midoriya definitely has it worse. Sure, Denki fries his brain, but at least he doesn’t break his fucking bones. He broke his arm once as a child and spent an hour sobbing his eyes out. Midoriya does it regularly.
He can’t imagine that sort of drive, that sort of determination and passion. Bakugou and Midoriya - they’re truly something else.
“By the way,” Aizawa drawls as Midoriya sniffles behind Denki. “I was lying. No one’s getting expelled. That was just a logical ruse to make sure you lot gave it your all during the tests,”
Denki smiles at the familiar line.
Meanwhile, Yaoyorozu tilts her head.
“I’m surprised you guys didn’t realize this sooner,” She comments. “I’m sorry. I probably should’ve have said something,”
Jirou had been right. Yaomomo was pretty cool. She wasn’t just a pretty face. Denki couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed it initially.
“We’re done for the day,” Aizawa-Sensei says with a tired sigh. “Midoriya and Kaminari, you two stay. The rest of you, go pick up a class syllabus from the classroom. Read it over before tomorrow morning.” Denki freezes. Midoriya, he expected, but why him?
Denki was getting increasingly more concerned that he’d fucked up somehow. His worries crowded his thoughts as the rest of Class 1-A disappeared.
“Midoriya-” Aizawa starts. “Head over to the Infirmary and get the old lady to fix you up. Things are gonna be tough tomorrow, when your actual training begins. Make sure you’re prepared,”
“H-hai, Sensei!” Midoriya stutters with a bright grin, running off to do just that.
Leaving Denki alone with Aizawa-Sensei.
The air seems to drop at least ten degrees as Aizawa-Sensei’s eyes flash red.
“Do you think this is a game?”
“Sorry?” Denki genuinely has no idea what his Sensei’s talking about.
“Do you think this is a game?” Aizawa-Sensei repeats, glaring. He doesn’t elaborate.
“N-no?”
Aizawa-Sensei raises an eyebrow. “I’ve been watching you during the test-” I’ve noticed. That's what Denki wants to say. Denki wants to laugh, crack a grin, make a joke, do something, but he feels frozen. “I was watching you this morning, too. You noticed me in the morning almost as soon as you came in,” Denki laughs weakly.
“You were in a bright yellow sleeping bag, kinda hard to miss,”
“None of your classmates seemed to notice me,” counters. “And I’m an Underground Hero - no one notices me unless I want them too, but you did,” Denki fidgets.
I saw you because I already knew you would be there. I knew where to look.
That’s what Denki wants to say. He can’t say that, though. He can’t.
“What can I say, I’m pretty perceptive!” Denki says instead. Aizawa-Sensei’s eyes narrow.
“You also noticed that my Expulsion threat was a ruse,”
“Very perceptive,” Denki corrects. “And anyways, Yaoyorozu did too.”
“That’s true,” Aizawa-Sensei relents. “But let me tell you something you probably didn’t realize. My expulsion threat wasn’t a ruse.” Denki stills.
“But you didn’t expel Midoriya,”
“I didn’t expel Midoriya because he proved himself at the last moment,” Aizawa tells him. “He got a lucky save. I have no problem expelling my students, even on the first day of the year. Last year, I expelled my entire class of freshmen students,”
Denki stares, moth agape.
“So, Kaminari,” Aizawa-Sensei continues. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t expel you right now,”
“Expel me?” Denki asks, incredulous. “I didn’t get last. If anything, you should be expelling Midoriya,”
“Midoriya showed potential,” Aizawa-Sensei counters. “Meanwhile, you didn’t even try,”
“I tried!” Denki defends himself on instinct.
“Did you now?” Aizawa questions. “I didn’t see you put in any effort. You spent all of your time observing your classmates and lazing away. Didn’t I already tell you that time is precious?” Denki opens his mouth then closes it, unsure of what to say. “You can’t be a hero if you choose to half-ass everything. You have potential, I can see it, but it’s pointless if you don’t use it - if you don’t even bother to try and cultivate it.”
Weirdly enough, Denki thinks that might be the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to him.
Aizawa-Sensei thinks he has potential. Denki thinks he might actually cry. Sob theatrically, like the protagonist of a hero movie - or maybe even a time travel one. Maybe if he does, Aizawa will back off?
“So tell me, Kaminari,” Aizawa-Sensei repeats. “What’s the point of you being here if you don’t even try? Why shouldn’t I just expel you right here on the spot and save the both of us a whole lot of time and effort, hmm?”
Denki swallows, shifting uncomfortably.
“I-” Denki hesitates. He sighs. “You’re right,” He eventually says. “I wasn’t giving it my all today,” Denki smiles sheepishly. “I guess I wasn’t taking this seriously enough. But I don't think this is a game, not at all, man. I really do want to be a hero,” Denki pauses, trying to think of something someone like Midoriya would say. Aizawa Sensei’s eyes drill through him, watching, judging. Denki imagines hands on his throat, a crushing sense of helplessness.
During the USJ, Denki couldn’t do anything.
He needs to get stronger.
“I have an uncontrollable quirk that I still can’t use properly. I’m not the best academic wise, and I have a lot of places I need to grow in,” Denki takes a breath. “But I will grow. I’ll get stronger, and I’ll become a hero. Maybe not the best, but I am going to be a hero,” Denki laughs nervously. “And I can’t exactly do that if you expel me so, er, … don’t?”
Aizawa-Sensei stares at him silently.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three.
“Problem Children,” Aizawa-Sensei grumbles under his breath. “I’ve got a whole lot of them this year.” Denki tilts his head, shifting from one foot to another. Aizawa looks back up at him. “Well? What are you still doing here?”
Relief floods through him. He doesn’t know what he’d do if he actually got expelled. On the first day!That would’ve been ridiculously tragic.
“I said get going,” Aizawa growls.
Denki squeaks, turning tail and fleeing. Not very heroic, he’ll admit, but in the absolutely terrifying face of Aizawa-Sensei, Kaminari Denki says fuck heroism.
Anyways, he’s got time. He’s not a hero yet, but, well, he will be.
(if he doesn’t die in the USJ, that is)
---
11:45 PM
Tuesday, April 11th, XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
Denki, very conveniently, forgot about the USJ. It completely slipped his mind - only coming back to him when he sits in his classroom, mentally preparing himself for his Hero Basics Training class. As he does so, he suddenly remembers just who teaches his Hero Basics Training class.
Red eyes. “He’s not here? I went through all the trouble of bringing so many friends who’re all eager to meet him. They want All Might. The Symbol of Peace.”
All Might. The Symbol of Peace. Denki’s teacher.
Denki’s fucking teacher.
There is going to be a villain attack. In two days. Two. Days.
On Thursday, at the USJ, a group of villains are going to attack. They are going to try to kill All Might. They are going to try to kill the rest of Class 1-A. They are likely going to kill Aizawa-Sensei.
They are going to kill Denki.
It’s around the time of that wonderfully morbid thought when a brush of fingers against his shoulder shoves him rather forcefully back into reality, which, uh, rude.
“S-sorry,” Midoriya stutters. “I, uh, I didn’t mean to spook you,” Denki blinks, slowly. Why is Midoriya talking to him?
Not that he’s complaining or anything. It’s just odd. Midoriya’s probably the most popular kid in their class. Or he will be? No, maybe he still is.
Fuck, this is confusing.
“No problemo,” Denki replies with a smile, finger gunning. “What’s up, Midoriya?”
“I was, um, I wanted to ask, if it’s not too private - this may seem i-invasive and I don’t want to seem rude-” Denki almost rolls his eyes.
“Midoriya.” He says. “Chill, man. Whatever it is, just ask. If it’s too personal, I’ll just tell you that,”
“R-right,” Midoriya flushes, cheeks turning red. “I was just wondering - what did Aizawa-Sensei want to talk with you about, yesterday, after the Quirk Apprehension Test?” Ever curious, that’s Midoriya.
“We just talked a bit about my quirk,” Denki says, the lies running smoothly off his tongue. “You may already know, but I have a bit of trouble controlling my quirk - a lot like you, actually, no offense. If my output of lightning is too large, it can literally fry my brain,” Midoriya’s eyes widen.
“Really?”
“Yeah,” Denki nods seriously. “It can sometimes be really bad. Normally it just leaves me sort of brain dead for around an hour. Aizawa-Sensei and I were just discussing my quirk a bit and figuring out a way for me to get better with it. I’m a bit behind,”
“Wow,” Midoriya murmurs, not for one second doubting his words. “Aizawa-Sensei really cares about us, doesn’t he?”
He does. He really, really does.
Denki doubted it before, but now, after watching him jump straight into a group of dangerous villains to protect them - well, now, Denki understands.
Denki nods.
“Yeah,” He says with a small smile. “Yeah, he really does,”
“I AM-” The entire class, Denki included, freezes. “-coming through the door like a normal person!” All Might strides into the classroom - if it were anyone else, Denki would snicker, but this is All Might. His idol. Everyone’s idol.
“Hey, look!” Midoriya whispers aggressively. “He’s wearing his Silver-Age outfit!” Denki blinks in confusion.
“Welcome to the most important class at Yuei High,” All Might says, and the class preemptively cheers. “Think of it as Hero-ing 101!” More cheers. Denki feels hyped.“Here, you will learn the basics of being a pro. And what it means to fight in the name of good!” The cheers are loudest now.
“Let’s get into it. Today’s lesson will pull no punches!” All Might laughs loudly, his voice echoing. “Today, you’ll be participating in your first combat training class. But before that - one of the keys of being a hero is looking good!”
“Your costumes, designed by our Support Department, based on your Quirk registration forms and the requests you sent in before school started. Get yourselves suited up, then meet me at Training Ground Beta!”
All Might and Class 1-A’s enthusiasm is infectious. Denki whoops in excitement, jumping up to join the crowd, any thoughts of the USJ fading away.
---
12:00 PM
Tuesday, April 11th XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
Ground Beta
Denki expected the Battle Trials to go the same way they did last time.
They don’t.
It starts the same way it did before. Bakugou and Midoriya’s vicious fight, Todoroki’s complete takedown - everything’s the same.
But then everything deviates from its previous path, and it’s all because of Denki.
Everything was going fine until it was Denki’s turn. Denki thought it would be fine, but he forgot who his partner was.
Jiro.
He forgot who he had to go up against.
Yaoyorozu.
He does fine, he manages to push down the fear and anxiety - at least until Yaoyorozu ambushes them while Jiro is searching for the bomb with her earjacks.
Jiro spins around, her earjacks lashing out.
“Kill each other-”
Denki’s mind screams.
“Kill each other-”
Denki isn’t sure when he realizes that he isn’t breathing.
“Kill each other-”
Denki collapses to his knees, clawing at his throat, he can’t breathe, he can’t breathe, he can’t fucking breathe-
Jiro killed Yaoyorozu.
Jiro killed Yaoyorozu.
Denki’s crying, his nails dig hard enough into his fragile skin to make himself bleed. Why can’t he breathe?
Blood, there’s blood everywhere, it’s pink and translucent because of Jiro’s tears.
“Yaoyorozu!” She screams. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m sorry-”
“-sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry-” the words tumble out of Denki’s mouth.
“Please don’t go,” Jiro sobs.
“Kaminari?” Someone says. “Kaminari? Can you hear me?” Fingers touch skin and Denki jerks back,villain, villain, danger, blood-
“I’m so sorry,” Jiro says as she dies.
Denki screams and lurches forward, electricity crackling around him. A bright flash of yellow blinds him.
There’s a scream.
Then the yellow fades, and the world goes black.
---
1:00 PM
Tuesday, April 11th, XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
Rikabarī Gārusu Hokenshitsu
When Denki wakes, he’s alone.
At least, that’s what he thinks. It takes him opening his eyes and sitting up to realize that both Aizawa-Sensei and Recovery Girl are standing a few feet away from his bed, discussing … something in hushed tones.
Bed.
Why is he in a bed? He’s in the nurse’s office, the infirmary - why is he in the infirmary? Denki wracks his brain and comes up blank.
“Er,” Denki says slowly, instantly grabbing the attention of both adults. “What’s going on?”
“You’re awake,” Aizawa-Sensei states.
“Yeah, it looks like it,” Denki pauses. “Was there a reason why I was … well, not awake?” Aizawa-Sensei narrows his eyes.
“You don’t remember?” … Now, that wasn’t what Denki wanted to hear. That spelled out bad things for him - for everybody really.
“Remember what?” Denki asks carefully. Aizawa-Sensei ignores him and turns to Recovery Girl, which, come on! Whatever it was that he was missing, it couldn’t be that bad, right?
Right?
“It’s not uncommon,” Recovery Girl murmurs.
“What’s not uncommon?” Denki demands. He really hates this, he hates the way they tiptoe around him like he’s a landmine.
“Memory loss,” Recovery Girl replies. “After a panic attack,” Denki frowns.
“Panic attack?” Denki questions.“Who had a panic attack?”
“You did,” Aizawa-Sensei replies bluntly. “During your Battle Training,”
And suddenly, it all comes back to him. Denki jerks out of his bed, stepping out on bare feet to the floor.
“Is Jirouall right?” He asks immediately, nausea building up in his stomach. He lost control of his quirk, he electrocuted Jiro, he can’t see her anywhere-
“Jiro is fine,” Aizawa-Sensei interrupts his mini panic. “She suffered from a mild case of electrocution. She was just released to go back to class not too long ago,”
“Oh,” Denki stills. Recovery Girl swings her cane.
“You better get back in bed, young man,” Recovery Girl orders. “You’re not fully recovered yet,” Denki sits back down. “Lie down.” She orders. Denki quickly does so, tilting his pillow so he can see them both.
“Recovery Girl,” Aizawa says. She huffs.
“Fine, fine, I’m leaving,” And why is she leaving? Why has everyone been leaving Denki alone with Aizawa-Sensei?
Aizawa-Sensei walks forward, sitting on the edge of Denki’s bed. He stares, and seriously, what is up with Aizawa-Sensei and staring? Jeez. You could speak, you know.
“Hi,” Denki eventually says, voice ridiculously high-pitched as we waved a hand pathetically. Aizawa-Sensei just raises an eyebrow.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
Aizawa leans forward and flicks Kaminari on the forehead. “Problem Child,” He mutters.
“Ow!” He whines. “What the heck?” He rubs his forehead. “I’m the one who just had a panic attack, shouldn’t you be being nice to me?” The phrase ‘panic attack’ feels so foreign to him. Odd and strange and wrong.
Denki doesn’t have panic attacks.
“And why is that?”
“Why is what?”
“Why did you have a panic attack, Kaminari?” Denki stares at Aizawa-Sensei for a couple seconds. He can’t come up with a good enough excuse, so he just chooses to say nothing, averting his gaze.
Aizawa-Sensei sighs.
“There’s no shame in it, you know,” Aizawa-Sensei tells him. “Panic attacks are things a lot of people have to deal with, especially heroes,”
“But I don’t have panic attacks!” Denki blurts. “That’s not - I just don’t,”
“But you did,” Aizawa counters. “And again, there’s no shame in it. Being embarrassed about things you can’t control isn’t logical,” Denki blinks, slowly.
“... okay,” He eventually relents. “That’s fine. Whatever,” Aizawa-Sensei sighs again, sounding even more tired this time around.
“Kaminari,” Aizawa-Sensei says.
“Aizawa-Sensei,” Denki parrots.
“Kaminari, I’m your teacher,” He says, sounding undeniably awkward. “I know this topic may be uncomfortable, but the UA staff is here to help. If you talk to us about your triggers, we’ll know how to help you and what to avoid,”
“I don’t have triggers,” Kaminari protests. “It was a one time thing. Honest,” Aizawa-Sensei’s eyes narrow further.
“I don't believe you,-" That's great "-but I won’t pry further,” Thank God. “But I am required to ask. Are you safe at home, Kaminari?”
Denki splutters.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Aizawa-Sensei’s eye twitches.
“It’s a very simple question,” Aizawa-Sensei replies. “I don’t think you are, given you don’t display any other signs of domestic abuse, but your classmates did report you repeating the words ‘I’m sorry’ continuously, so I do have to ask,”
“No!” Denki instantly says. “No, no, no way. I’m perfectly safe at home,” Denki looks at Aizawa. “Perfectly. Safe.” He adds, just to be sure Aizawa-Sensei gets it, because this is ridiculous.
“Alright,” Aizawa-Sensei says. “Well, that’s all I have to say for now. But just so you are aware, all of the teachers here at UA are safe spaces for you, not just me. You can come to talk to anyone of them, even Recovery Girl. I’m admittedly not the best at this stuff, but I’m always an option if you want.’There’s also Hound Dog, who doubles as a therapist, if you ever need someone to talk to,”
“... right,” Denki says slowly. “I’ll keep that in mind,” His eyes drift towards the clock. “When can I go back to class?”
“You won’t be going back to class,” Aizawa-Sensei replies firmly. “You’re taking the rest of the day off. We’re calling your mother and you’re heading home,”
“What?!” Kaminari protests. “But I’m perfectly fine!”
“You just had a panic attack,” Aizawa-Sensei replies. “Regardless of what you say, that’s serious. You need some time. So you’re not going back to class, not under any circumstances.”
“My mom won’t be able to pick me up, though,” Denki tries. “She’s at work,”
“She’s your mother. I’m sure she’ll be willing to take a few hours off to get you home and help you at,”
“No, no, no, you don’t understand. She’s really, really busy. I can’t inconvenience her like that, seriously,”
“How do you normally head back home?”
“I go on the train,” Denki replies. Aizawa-Sensei sighs.
“You won’t be going back to class,” He says. “You can stay here and rest in the infirmary until the school day ends,” Denki relaxes slightly. “But just so you know, your mom will still be called,”
“That’s fine,” Denki says instantly.
“Take care of yourself, kid,” Aizawa-Sensei says in response, heading towards the door when Denki decides to make a stupid, not so well-thought out decision.
“Aizawa-Sensei?” Aizawa-Sensei pauses.
“Yes, Kaminari?”
“We’re - this … this thursday. What are we doing in class?” Aizawa-Sensei tilts his head.
“On Thursday?” He clarifies.
“Yeah,” Denki says. “Thursday,” Aizawa-Sensei stares for a few seconds.
“We’re doing rescue training,” He answers. “Why?” Denki ignores the question.
“Will the rescue training take place at Training Ground Beta?”
“Why?” Aizawa-Sensei asks. “What’s going on?”
“Just answer the question,” Aizawa-Sensei arches an eyebrow. “Please?”
“No,” He eventually relents. “We’ll be taking a little field trip,”
“Off UA grounds?”
“Yes,”
“Will it-” Denki pauses. “Wherever we’re going, will we be safe?” Something like concern flashes through his eyes.
“Of course, Kaminari,”
“Are you sure?” Denki insists. “What if ... “ he lets the silence stretch, pretending to think for a couple seconds. “What if villains were to attack? Would we be safe?”
“No villain would be stupid enough - or powerful enough - to attempt an attack on UA students,” Aizawa-Sensei tells him.
“But what if?” Denki knows he’s coming off as paranoid, crazy, almost, but Denki has to do something. He can’t just sit back and let the USJ happen.
“We’ll be safe,” Aizawa-Sensei assures him. “UA will be providing the best of security for us. And anyways, Thirteen and myself will be there to protect you - and if it makes you feel any better, All Might will be there as well,”
“No, he won’t,” Denki blurts. At those words, Aizawa-Sense’s limit for strange and vague statements seemed to have been exceeded.
“Kaminari,” Aizawa-Sensei says sternly, taking a seat once again. “Where is this coming from?” Denki opens his mouth. He closes it. He opens it again.
“I-” Denki pauses. “I guess I just - It’s stupid, isn’t it? I just can’t help but worry that something-” Denki feels his hands shoot up and trace against the delicate skin of his throat. “That something will go wrong,” Aizawa-Sensei sighs, face softening slightly, almost imperceptibly.
“Kaminari,” Aizawa-Sensei repeats, his emotionless, dead tone becoming something of a grounder for Denki. “Nothing’s going to go wrong, alright?”
But something is.
Everything’s going to go wrong, and Denki doesn’t know how to warn Aizawa-Sensei.
“Kaminari,” Aizawa-Sensei repeats yet again, as if seeing the way Denki slipping into panic again. “I told you, everything’s going to be alright. All Might will be there - and if it makes you feel any better, I could ask Present Mic, Snipe or Midnight to attend with us,”
Denki stares.
“Really?”
“Really,” Aizawa-Sensei replies. “If this is getting you that worked up, it’s easy enough to arrange for an extra chaperone. It wouldn’t hurt to have a bit of extra security,” Denki looks up at Aizawa-Sensei. Really looks at him.
He may not be able to stop the USJ as a whole, but - maybe, just maybe, he can still change things. An extra chaperone won’t solve all his problems, but - someone like Midnight, who could easily knock out all her opponents - well, it’ll raise Denki’s life expectancy by a whole lot.
This is the best Denki can do. Above all, this is a chance - however miniscule it may be.
“Thanks,” Denki manages. “Thank you, Aizawa-Sensei,”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever, kid,” Denki’s half sure that behind the scarf, his teacher’s smiling.
---
8:05 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
Aizawa-Sensei, the manipulative opportunist, ends up emailing his mother and forcing him to take an extra day off. He’s kinda disappointed - he missed both the Class President Elections and the whole Exit Sign Iida debacle - but he supposes it doesn’t really matter. He’s seen it all before.
But what does matter - today.
Because today is the USJ.
Denki has been in a panic the entire morning. He doesn’t know what to do. Hopefully, Aizawa’s come through on his promise and brought an extra chaperone - but will an extra chaperone even be enough? Will they be able to change things or will everything go just as horribly as it did last time?
Denki grips his pencil, nails digging indents into the wood.
“Today’s training will be a little different,” Aizawa-Sensei says to start the class and oh my god Denki wants to hurl.He wants to scream, he wants to cry, he wants to break down and demand the field trip be called off.
He arrived five minutes late to class today - partially in order to avoid having to talk to anyone about his little freak out during Battle Training, and partially because he had been debating the entire morning over whether or not he should go at all. Aizawa-Sensei had offered the option - but Denki couldn’t take it. He couldn’t.
He had to be at the USJ. HE couldn’t leave his class alone to die.
Not that he’d be doing much help anyways. Denki is fucking pathetic. He was given the chance to go back and change things and he was failing utterly at it.
“You’ll have four instructors.” Denki freezes. Four. Four. “Myself, All Might, Snipe and another faculty member will be keeping tabs on you,” Denki wants to cry - Snipe is coming. Snipe is coming. Aizawa-Sensei actually got another chaperone!
But will it be enough?
“Sensei!” Iida yells. “What kind of training is this?”
“Rescue,” Aizawa explains. “You’ll be dealing with natural disasters, shipwrecks, things like that,” The class dissolves into excited murmurs. “Quiet! I’m not done yet.” The class falls silent instantly. “What you wear during this exercise is up to you. I know you’re all excited about costumes, but keep in mind that you haven’t fully adjusted to them yet, and they might limit your abilities.”
This special training’s at an off-campus facility.
“This special training’s at an off-campus facility-”
So we’ll be taking the bus to get there.
“-so we’ll be taking the bus to get there.” Denki trembles. It’s happening, it’s going to happen, The USJ is happening. “That’s all. Start getting ready,” The pencil in Denki’s hand snaps as the class surges forward.
Nobody notices.
(except for Jiro)
---
8:30
Thursday, April 13th, XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
The bus ride is absolute torture.
Denki ends up next to Jiro, which is terrible for many different reasons.
“Hey, Kaminari,” Jiro whispers as the bus begins to move. “What’s wrong?” Denki blinks.
“What do you mean, what’s wrong?” He asks. “Nothing’s wrong.”
“I can hear your heartbeat,” Jiro tells him. “It’s running like a rabbit.”
“... sorry,” Denki says.
“You don’t have to be sorry,” Jiro replies. “I’m just wondering what you’re so freaked out about,” Denki shrugs. “I also wanted to talk to you about the Battle Trials,” Denki winces.
“Sorry about what happened then,” He says. “I really didn’t mean to shock you,”
“It doesn’t matter,” Jiro says. “It’s fine. I wanted to let you know that there’s no hard feelings,” That pulls a smile out of him.
“Thank you,” He replies. Jiro nods in response and they settle into a comfortable silence. At least, as comfortable as it can be with Denki’s apparently infectious panic. Denki understands - even he, with his normal, average hearing, can hear the way his heart slams against his ribcage. He can feel it, too, and it’s not pleasant, not at all.
They’re about to arrive when Denki loses it.
“We can’t go,” He says abruptly. Amongst the chatter on the bus, his words go mostly ignored - by everyone except for Jirou, who sits right next to him. Jirou blinks, slowly.
“What?”
“We can’t go,” He repeats. “We have to stop the bus,”
“What are you talking about?” Jiro asks. “You’re not making any sense,”
“We can’t,” Denki repeats, knowing he sounds nonsensical. “It’s all going to go wrong, we can’t go to the USJ!” Jiro’s brow furrows.
“Are you alright, Kaminari?” She asks. “Should I get Aizawa-Sensei?”
“No!” He says abruptly. Fuck, he sounds crazy. He takes a breath. “I’m sorry. I just - I’m fine. I’m fine,” He repeats it in his head, grasping onto the words.
Jiro looks at him oddly, not quite believing his words.
“Alright,” She says eventually, settling back into her seat, still watching him warily. “If you need any-”
“I don’t,” He says quickly. “Thanks, but I’m fine,” He smiles. “Seriously,” Jiro nods again, slowly. For a couple seconds, Denki thinks he might actually be fine.
Then the bus slows to a stop.
“We’ve arrived!”
---
9:00 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
Thirteen stands, tall and proud. Aizawa-Sensei lurks in the back of the crowd. Snipe lingers by the side. All Might is absent, just like last time.
“A shipwreck. A landslide. A fire. A windstorm, etc.” Class 1-A watches with rapt attention. “I created this training facility to prepare you to deal with different types of disasters. I call it the Unforeseen Simulation Joint-”
Denki sucks in a breath.
“But you can call it, USJ!”
---
Chapter 3: you take my breath away
Summary:
So this is more of a short filler chapter than anything, but I promise we will get to the actual plot eventually.
Chapter Text
you take my breath away
---
9:00 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
“In our superhuman society ...”
Kaminari Denki watches Thirteen speak, attention elsewhere. He tries to listen - or at least, triers to appear to be listening, but he can’t bring himself to tear his eyes away from the clear air where the League of Villains will soon arrive from.
“... all Quirks are certified and stringently regulated. Because of that, we often overlook how unsafe they can actually be.”
Thirteen’s words float in through one ear then out the other, discarded in his mind like useless clumps of space junk. The bus ride was bad enough, his anxiety of the massacre soon to come sneaking up his throat, fear rooting itself into Denki’s brain.
“Please don’t forget that if you lose focus, or make the wrong move, your powers can be deadly -. even if you’re trying to do something virtuous, like rescue someone.
Denki can recall the events of the original USJ with ease - Thirteen gives their speech, and that - that’s when they attack. Thirteen’s speech isn’t long, maybe five minutes, tops -
Which means Denki has less than five minutes to get his class out of the USJ.
Snipe and Aizawa-Sensei stand together, and Denki watches them, fingers twitching incessantly. He has to warn them - the only question now, is how.
“Thanks to Aizawa’s fitness tests, you have a solid idea of your Quirk’s potential.”
In hindsight, maybe Denki shouldn’t have waited this long. He should’ve told Aizawa-Sensei back at the Infirmary.
Would Aizawa-Sensei have believed him?
Denki has to admit, he’s not entirely sure. He can now say without a doubt that Aizawa-Sensei truly cares about his students, expulsion threats aside. But care and trust were two wholly different things.
This wasn’t something Denki had the time to worry about right now, though. He had other things to worry about - namely, the murderous villains who were about to attack any minute now.
Denki fidgets, stuffing his hands into his pants pockets - as fingers brush against the side of his phone case, Denki is struck with a sudden, and in his opinion, genius idea.
“And because of All Might’s combat training, you likely experienced how dangerous your powers can be when used against other people.”
“Aizawa-Sensei,” Denki whispers, after snaking his way to the back of the class.
“What is it now, Kaminari?” Aizawa-Sensei asks.
“Something’s wrong,” From his side, Snipe raises an eyebrow. Aizawa-Sensei, meanwhile, just raises an eyebrow.
“Kaminari-”
“I’m serious!” Denki insists. “My phone’s not working. I tried sending a text to a friend-”
“In the middle of class?”
“- but for some reason, it didn’t go through. I have data, and my phone was working the entire bus drive, so that seemed odd. I tried calling someone, but that didn’t work either. Eventually, I tried using my quirk, but it was almost like something was jamming any signals from getting through,”
Ok, Denki knows he’s being a bit obvious here, but to hell with it. He needs to get everyone out of here, now. He can deal with the following suspicion later. “Carry those lessons over to this class. Today, you’re going to learn how to use your Quirks to save people’s lives.”
Both Snipe and Aizawa-Sensei pull out their phones. Aizawa-Sensei frowns - maybe Snipe is frowning too - with the mask, who really knows?
“Nothing’s working,” Aizawa-Sensei says, frown deepening. “We should get my class out of here.” Snipe raises an eyebrow - at least, the tone of his voice implies that he does. Denki really couldn’t be sure.
“It’s probably just a bug in the system,” Snipe replies. “Or maybe there’s just no connection in the area. Don’t you think an evacuation is a bit of an overkill?”
“If it was something as simple as that, then Denki’s quirk should’ve worked. But it didn’t, which means something else is going on here. Until we figure it out, we need to get my students back to where they’re safe.
Denki wants to cry in relief. God, he loves Aizawa-Sensei.
“You won’t be using your powers to attack enemies or each other, only to-”
“I’m sorry to interrupt, Thirteen,” Aizawa-Sensei drawls. “But something’s come up. Class 1-A, we’re cutting this field-trip short.” Confused whispers emerge from the classroom as Thirteen tilts a cushioned head.
“What’s going on, Aizawa-Senpai?”
Senpai? If Denki wasn’t so stressed, he would be laughing.
“I’ll explain everything back on the bus,” Aizawa-Sensei replies. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Denki wants to scream, watching as Aizawa-Sensei herds the class towards the exit. “Right now, we need to leave,”
“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” Denki freezes, the familiarity of the voice sinking into his brain.
The Warper.
The air in front of Denki begins to glitch, purple bleeding into transparent air. Golden eyes emerge from the darkness, and Aizawa-Sense’s eyes light up red.
Snipe wraps a hand around his gun as ‘Tomura’ appears. Tomura and the Warper block the exit. Villains appear in masses behind them.
Denki trembles and the Warper steps forward.
“I’ll admit, I’m surprised you managed to discover our presence,” It wasn’t enough, though. It wasn’t enough.
Denki’s so stupid, so stupid. He should never have let it come to this.
He should’ve just told Aizawa-Sensei the truth before they ended up in this godforsaken situation.
“The alarms aren’t going off,” Snipe realizes. “Kaminari was right,”
“But it is of no matter,” The Warper continues. “There is no escape for you now. You are just a little too late,”
“What’s going on?” Kirishima asks.
“Get back,” Aizawa-Sensei orders. “These are Villains!”
“Enough small talk,” Tomura grinds out. “Where is he? Where is All Might?”
“He does not seem to be present at the moment, Tomura,” the Warper says. “I’ll admit, it is very perplexing. According to the schedule we retrieved, All Might should be here as well - yet the only two heroes I see are Thirteen and Eraser Head.”
“Snipe,” Aizawa-Sensei whispers. Denki leans forward so he can “Get a smoke grenade ready. When I give the word, fire it. Thirteen, use the confusion to get my students out of here,”
“Where is he?” Tomura demands. “I went through all the trouble of bringing so many friends …” Denki feels his muscles lock up at the familiar line. “... who’re eager to meet him,”
“Senpai,” Thirteen whispers. “There’re too many of them. Even with Snipe, you won’t be able to fight them all,”
“I won’t need to,” Aizawa-Sensei replies. “Snipe and I will just be distracting them. Once my students are safe, alert the main campus and call for backup. We’ll hold them off until them,”
“Maybe if I kill a few students, he’ll come out to play?”
“Kids,” Aizawa-Sensei hisses, loud enough to be heard by the class but not the villains. “Be prepared to run. Follow Thirteen and don’t look back,”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all,” the Warper continues. “We are the League of Villains. I know it’s impolite, but-”
“Now, Snipe!”
“Follow me, Class 1-A!”
Smoke erupts along with chaos as the loud echoing bang of Snipe’s gun bursts eardrums. Screams bang through Denki’s head as his vision is stolen away by the gray clouds that spread far enough to
Denki is frozen.
A sharp shove to his shoulders has him stumbling, breaking out of his rigor.
“Kaminari,” Aizawa-Sensei hisses, waving at smoke as he does. “Run,”
Denki snaps to his senses and runs, pushing through a crowd as he coughs. The smoke is thick and unbearable and catches in his throat but he ignores it, chasing after the blurry silhouettes.
And then the smoke is gone, disappearing as if it was never there in the first place.
“Now, now,” the Waper drawls, gold eyes flashing. “It isn’t polite to interrupt people while they’re talking, now is it?”
“Villains!” Tomura yells. “Attack!”
“Class, stay near Thirteen. Snipe, with me!”
“Fuckers!” Bakugou yells. “You think we’re going to stand around and let you kill us?”
“Bakugou, don’t-” Aizawa-Sensei is ignored as Bakugou leaps forward, palms sparking. The Warper easily dodges, teleporting behind Bakugou, adjusting his posture so he has both Class 1-A and Bakugou in his sights.
Bakugou continues to attack, but to no avail. Bakugou is the strongest kid in their class but the Warper dodges every attack with easy composure.
Aizawa snarls.
“Stupid problem children,” Aizawa-Sensei’s eyes flick to the approaching mass of villains. “Snipe. Deal with the Warper. I’ll hold off the other villains.”
“What’re you gonna do?” Midoriya instantly protests. “You can’t fight them on your own! There’s too many of them? Even if you can nullify their Quirks, your fighting style’s not suited for this! Your power works best in stealth scenarios and one-on-one fights. THat’s not gonna help with a group,”
Denki presents you Midoriya, hero-nerd extraordinaire.
Midoriya does bring up some pressing points, though.
Aizawa-Sensei just smiles, a maniacal, terrifying smile.
“You can’t be a pro if you only have one trick up your sleeve,”
Denki’s sure if his night wasn’t already cluttered by repeats of his own death, Aizawa-Sensei’s smiles would haunt his dreams.
Aizawa begins his approach - before stopping and turning to Snipe.
“Snipe,” He says. “Don’t hesitate. Make the shot if you need to. Try to avoid any fatalities, but if it’s between my students and the Villains, choose my students,”
“You got it,” Snipe confirms with a salute, right around the time the Warper grows tired of dancing with Bakugou. Aizawa-Sensei disappears just as black surrounds Bakugou’s neck and he’s somehow hoisted into the air, held by the throat by hands made of mist.
Snipe cocks his gun, levelling it with the Waper’s hand - or where its hand should be. Denki’s breath catches in his throat - how can Snipe shoot something made of mist without hurting Bakugou in the process?
Kirishimia, foolish yet brave, jumps forward. The Warper doesn’t even take his eyes off Bakugou, simply outstretching a hand and summoning up a portal that Kirishima falls straight through.
He doesn’t come out the other side.
He doesn’t appear anywhere, not from another portal somewhere else in the near vicinity. He’s just gone.
Denki’s stomach rolls.
“You live up to your school’s reputation,” The warper admits, speaking half to Bakugou, half to the rest of Class 1-A. “But you should be more careful, children. Otherwise, someone might get hurt,”
The Warper lets go of Bakugou, throwing him across the USJ. Bakugou’s up in seconds, snarling and cursing, but the Warper pays him no mind.
“I’ll scatter you across this facility-”
No.
Oh no.
“-to meet the rest of my comrades-”
Fuck.
Denki launches himself forward, tackling Snipe backwards. Snipe and Denki collide with the floor, just as the ground where they had just been standing disappeared, replaced by several black portals.
“What in the-”
“And your deaths!”
---
9:30
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
“Shoji!” Denki yells in relief when he recognizes the familiar form of his fellow classmate. He watches him punch straight through a crowd of villains with all of his fists.
Iida whirls around and kicks a particularly tiresome villain in the head.
“Got them? Anything?”
“Where is everyone?” Uraraka asks. “Are they alright?”
“They’ve been scattered across the facility,” Shoji reveals. “They’re fighting other villains. But from what I can see, they’re doing fine,”
“Thank god,” Iida breathes.
“What do we do, though?” Sero questions. “This guy’s not affected by physical attacks, he can apparently teleport stuff, and both Aizawa-Sensei and Snipe-Sensei are busy fighting,”
“And losing,” Denki notes with an uncomfortable twist of his stomach. “They can’t last much longer against so many villains."
“Class President,” Thirteen calls. Iida spins around as Thirteen approaches.
“I have a job for you,” Iida stands straighter. “Run to the school and tell the faculty what’s going on here.” Iida frowns instantly. “The alarms aren’t sounding, and our phones and radios are useless now. One of these must be to blame. Even though Eraser Head is canceling people’s Quirks left and right, we’re still completely sealed off from the outside world. Likely, whoever is causing this interference hid as soon as they warped into the USJ. They could be anywhere. Impossible to hunt down,” The severity of the situation hits Denki. “It’ll be faster for you to run and get help than for us to find whoever’s jamming communications,”
Iida’s frown deepens.
“Yes, but -” Iida hesitates. “It would be disgraceful for me to leave you all behind. I can not abandon my classmates!”
“Iida,” Sero intervenes. “You have to do this,” Sato nods.
“Go, Exit Sign. There are lots of alarms outside. That’s why they’re keeping us all trapped inside the USJ, right? As long as you can get outside, they won’t follow.” Denki nods, clapping Iida on the back like he did the second first time they met.
“Blow this bastard mist away with those Engine Legs!”
“Use your Quirk to save others,” Thirteen encourages. “Be a real hero!”
“I can help you out!” Uraraka chimes in. “Just like I did back at the cafeteria!”
“There we go,” Denki says with a smile. “It’s a plan,”
Maybe things will work out after all.
“You are in dire straits, and this may be your only option-” the remaining members of Class 1-A whirl towards the Warper, who stands a good distance away from them, watching. “-nonetheless, are you really so foolish to strategize in front of your enemy?”
“Class 1-A,” Thirteen whispers. “Get behind me.”
Thirteen steps forward. “It won’t matter if you know what we’re planning -” Thirteen says confidently. “Not when I’m done with you!” Thirteen steps forward. “Black Hole, activate!"
The air began to twist, snaking towards the Warper.
“Ah, Black Hole,” the Warper tilts his head. “Such an astounding power … however,” the Warper takes a step back, outstretching a hand. “You’re a rescue hero, Thirteen. Skilled at saving people from disasters. Consequently, that means you have little fighting experience or battlefield awareness,”
A portal appears. Two.
One in front of Thirteen, sucking up their Black Hole.
Another right behind them, straight in front Denki and the other members of Class 1-A, separating the class from the hero.
Thirteen howls.
Denki can’t see anything, can’t see anything but blackish purple. He can only hear, hear agonised screams and a cruel, low, laugh.
“How unfortunate,” the Warper drawls. The portals disappear, and Denki is greeted by the site of a blackened corpse. “It seems you’ve turned yourself into dust,”
There’s no blood, no body, just dust, and the tattered remains of a hero costume.
“No!” Uraraka sobs. Denki shudders, stepping away, bile snaking up his throat. He stumbles to the side, puking his guts out because Thirteen is dead.
“Iida!” Someone yells. “Go!” It’s Snipe-Sensei, who stands on the ground level of the USJ, a gun in his hand as he points it towards the Warper’s head -no, not towards its head - towards its neck. The metal brace - the only thing solid on the Warper's body.
“Run!”Uraraka demands. “Run, Iida!”
“I’ll be back in a flash!” Iida promises. “I’ll keep you safe!” Iida darts forward. The Warper leaps forward, snarling. Snipe prepares to fire and Denki freezes.
“Snipe-Sensei!” He yells. “Wait!”
Snipe-Sensei fires.
A bullet, not a smoke grenade, spirals towards the Warper.
Iida’s hands outstretch - he’s so close, five steps, maybe six and he’ll be at the door.
Like Thirteen’s Black Hole, the bullet is intercepted by a portal - a portal that appears right by Iida’s head.
The bullet impales itself in Iida’s skull with a loud bang that has most of the Villains in the near vicinity freezing.
Snipe freezes.
Iida falls.
The Warper laughs.
“No!”
---
10:00
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
Denki’s second death isn’t all too different from his first.
He doesn't die a hero. He dies a hostage, he dies a burden. (he dies in a way a child never should)
“Oh, by the way, hero,” ‘Tomura’ smirks. “I am not the final boss,”
Denki watches from afar.
“What do you think of him, EraserHead? He’s the bioengineered anti-Symbol of Pace,”
The Noumu is truly the most horrifying thing Denki’s ever seen.
Large, black, and muscular, vaguely humanoid and covered in scars. A pink brain is exposed at the top of it’s head, large eyes on either side of it. A large beak for a mouth with razor-sharp teeth that don’t quite fit in its mouth.
It breaks Aizawa-Sensei’s bones like twigs.
“Kurogiri. Did you kill Thirteen?”
“Yes, Shigaraki.”
“All Might’s not even here. How annoying." A pause. Well. We might as well wreck his pride,” Shigaraki leans forward. Aizawa-Sensei continues to scream and Shigaraki watches with rapt attention.
“No!” Denki yells on instinct. “Aizawa-Sensei!”
“Now, what do we have here?”
“Another hero student,”
“I can see that, Kurogiri,”
“He’s the one who alerted Snipe and Eraserhead of our technological interference,”
“Bring him here,”
“Kaminari!”
“You’re so cool, EraserHead,”
“Kaminari, run!”
“If anyone moves, I’ll kill the kid,”
Fingers wrap around Denki’s throat, tight and scratchy, the fifth finger hovering right above a vein. Electricity crackles from Denki’s palm, and the fingers tighten.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,”
Denki freezes.
“I’m bored. Noumu, kill EraserHead,”
“No!”
“We might as well head out now. What a bust. We’re back to the Title Screen, aren’t we?” Shigaraki sighs, free hand scratching at his neck.
The fifth finger comes down.
Kaminari crumbles.
---
3:05 PM
Monday, March13th, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.
“Congratulations, Kaminari Denki! Welcome to your hero academia!”
Denki stumbles forward, gasping. Present Mic laughs. Hands shoot up to his throat, brushing desperately at the skin there.
“Congratulations, Kaminari Denki! Welcome to your hero academia!”
Denki trembles, shivering, hands wrapping around thin, pale skin that seems to shake under his touch. His fingers curve into claws and Denki digs his nails into his skin, scratching aggressively until he bleeds, until the red-hot pain is enough to convince him that he really is alive.
“Congratulations, Kaminari Denki! Welcome to your hero academia!”
Denki’s alive.
Denki’s alive.
He shouldn't be but he is, back again, barely a month until he is fated to die again.
“What the fuck is going on?”
Chapter 4: if you're a bird, I'm a bird
Notes:
y'know, I used to always be internally annoyed with fic writers when they took super long to post (come on, how long could it possibly take to finish one chapter?) but I'm currently rethinking everything right now. What is writing? What are words? Is anything real?
I'm really sorry it took me literally forever to get this chapter out. Apparently, writing is hard. Who knew?
Anyways, thanks for all your comments and kudos - they're a great motivation to at least force me to attempt to get chapters out in a timely manner (though I failed utterly this time around). In return, here's 16k+ of Denki being a mess. Have fun!
(on another note, I have a current fever dream of getting the next chapter out by this Saturday or Sunday. We'll see how that goes)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
if you're a bird, I'm a bird
---
4:15 PM
Monday, March 13th, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.
All Might.
In the end, it all comes down to All Might.
Denki is sitting by the side of his bed, head in his hands and hands covered in blood from the scratches on his neck. His tears are wet and gross and mixed with blood, smearing a sticky pinkish liquid over his face, but really, Denki can’t find it in himself to care.
Denki knows he should get up. Knows he should wash his face, bandage his neck, scrub the blood off his hand for the off chance his mother gets home early, decides to check up on him. Or ask him to do the dishes.
But Denki doesn’t.
Instead, he stays on his bed, Present Mic still rattling behind him as he stares at his wall, blank-eyed.
All Might.
It’s all painstakingly simple.
Denki’s died.
Twice.
So Denki comes to the rather obvious conclusion - he’s stuck in a time loop, of sorts. He dies, time rewinds. Happy Death Day style, a Before I Fall replica.
… considering the end to both of those movies, Denki isn’t feeling too great about his current situation.
But.
There is one difference between his situation and the individual horrors of Tree Gelbman and Samantha Kingston.
One person, to be specific.
All Might.
The more Denki thinks on it, the more definite he becomes.
He can’t stop the USJ - this much Denki knows. He still stands on the same grounds - no one will believe him, with his incredulous stories of time travel. Even in this wonderful world of quirks, Denki knows that would be a bit of a stretch for anyone and everyone. He also knows that just a couple of extra chaperones will never be enough, not with the hulking monster that is the Noumu.
No, extra chaperones won’t work.
But there’s a difference between one UA staff member and the Number One Hero in the country. In the world, even.
Bio-Engineered Anti-Symbol of Peace or not, not even the Noumu is strong enough to defeat All Might.
So all Denki needs to do? Ensure All Might attends the field trip.
That’s all he needs to do to survive.
The only question now - is how?
---
3:45 PM
Friday, March 18th, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.
Denki paces around his room like a seasoned detective, footsteps click-clacking against the floor.
How?
It’s been five days, but Denki still hasn’t figured it out. It seemed much easier in the movies - Sherlock Holmes would pace around for a few minutes before snapping his finger as the solution came to him.
But Denki isn’t Sherlock Holmes - he isn’t even close.
With a sigh, Denki collapses back into the chair by his desk, shoulders slumping.
What on earth is he supposed to do?
He’d thought it’d be easy, once he came to that oh so simple conclusion, but really, it wasn’t as simple as it seemed.
He didn’t know why All Might missed the field trip, he didn’t have any way to find out that reason - no way to reach him, no way to find him - Denki was fucking helpless..
What the hell is Denki supposed to do?
He doesn’t -
He just doesn’t know.
There’s nothing that he can do - not until the UA year starts - but will that be too late?
Will he be able to fix the problem, whatever it may be, in three days?
He’ll only have one class with All Might, the Battle Training, and that - that won’t be enough.
But what else can he do?
---
4:00 PM.
Friday, March 31st, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.
UA is about to begin.
The USJ is approaching.
Denki has a plan.
He just hopes to god it works.
---
7:30 AM
Monday, April 10th, XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
Denki’s third first day is uneventful. Painless. Easy.
With every step he takes, he feels fear worm it’s way into his nerves. He feels his memories clash against each other, and at times, Denki begins to realize he’s blurring time - mixing up the past, the present, the future.
And he’s only been through two loops so far.
Denki’s pathetic.
All those heroes from Denki’s stories go through hundreds of loops, and they still manage fine. They’re in double digits and still dealing with the entire situation with ease. Meanwhile, Denki’s here, not even at five, and still a mess.
But he makes it through the day.
He’s sure Aizawa-Sensei notices something suspicious, but after last time, Denki puts every last iota of effort into the Quirk Apprehension Test. He doesn’t do much better than he usually does, landing at No. 15, but given Aizawa-Sensei doesn’t approach him afterwards, Denki's taken it as a win.
(Denki would never admit it, but he feels a strange sense of … loss, at the lack of red-eyes burning into the back of his head. He doesn’t miss Aizawa-Sensei’s terrifying aura, but maybe a little part of him missed seeing just how much his Sensei cared for him)
Denki doesn’t talk to anyone, and no one talks to him.
Well. That’s not entirely true. A few people (namely Kyoka, Ashido, and occasionally Iida) attempted to interact with him, but after his total non-response, they left him alone.
They probably think he’s a jerk, but Denki can’t bring himself to care. Can’t bring himself to force words out of his throat when all he sees when looking at their faces are their mangled corpses.
So Denki goes through his day in complete solitude, and the day passes in a flash.
He leaves school, but the feeling (the terror, the dread, the wrongness that worms his way into his bones, the deja vu that haunts his memories) doesn’t go away.
The dread, the terror.
( It never goes away, and Denki’s starting to believe it never will)
---
11:45 AM
Tuesday, April 11th, XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
Today’s the day.
Denki smiles grimly.
Today’s the day he enacts his plan. He won’t know if it works, not till the day of the USJ, so he has to do his best. He has to make sure this works.
His plan is simple.
“I AM … coming through the door like a normal person!”
Here we go, Denki thinks with an ugly mimic of a smile and a weak, half-assed cheer.
Here we go.
---
12:45 PM
Tuesday, April 11th, XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
Ground Beta
This time around, the Battle Trials go exactly like they’re supposed to. Denki plays his part, this time.
He ignores the way nausea crawls through his body every time he sees Yaoyorozu’s Snow White-like features, ebony black hair and pale skin. Ignores the way his throat constricts every time he sees the blood that isn’t there, the red liquid dripping down her eye-socket and staining snow-white skin.
Ignores the way Jirou’s earjacks make his heart skip a beat, ignores the way his heart breaks through his ribcage, cracking his bones if he ever dares to take his eyes off her for even a second. Ignores the way his brain screams danger , ignores the way the future bleeds into the present.
At this point, Denki’s sure he’s seen almost half the class die - staying near Shigaraki and the Noumu exposed him to fresh new horrors.
Even still, he’ll never forget the first.
He’ll never forget the way he died, the way they did, too.
He couldn’t forget, not even if he wanted to.
(part of him wants to, to forget. The other part of him laughs at just how selfish he really is. Denki won’t forget, he won’t, he can’t. He refuses to forget the blood, the pain, the screams, because those memories are the only chance he has. Denki is weak. Denki isn’t fit to be a hero, he’s realising this now, but he doesn’t care. He’ll do whatever it takes to save them, even if that includes the loss of his mind, his sanity, even his life. Denki doesn’t care. Not anymore.)
No, he doesn’t forget, but manages to keep his heart locked in his chest, to force the nausea back down to his churning stomach.
His team loses, like they did both times before, and that bothers Denki more than he thought it would.
Why would a basic training exercise matter at all to Denki after what he had seen? After what he had gone through?
It shouldn’t, but it did.
The exercise shows off just how weak, how useless he really is. Compared to real villains, he’s nothing but an ant in the way, a bug to crush underfoot. But even compared to his fellow classmates, he’s weak.
Last time around, he practically swore to Aizawa that he’d get stronger, but, what can he do?
Denki is weak.
He’s pathetic.
His quirk doesn’t work properly, neither does his brain. He isn’t smart, he isn’t intelligent, he isn’t talented.
He needs to be better but he just can’t, and the Battle Training was a perfect, painful reminder of that fact.
But it doesn’t matter.
It doesn't matter.
Maybe after all of this is over, Denki’ll consider dropping out, but right now, it doesn’t matter.
None of this matters. Denki takes a deep breath, feeling the heavy inhale rattle through his esophagus.
“All-Might Sensei?” Denki begins once the battle trials are over and everyone has cleared out of the room. ( Bakugou and Midoriya’s fight was as intense as always. The first time around, Denki didn’t think too much of it. Just the two gods of the class having it out with each other. But watching it for the third time, Denki knows there’s a story here. There must be some sort of background. After the incident at the Quirk Apprehension Test, after watching Bakugou and Midoriya’s brief, explosive interactions, Denki’s sure there’s something more going on - but the what is evading him.)
All-Might tilts his head, eyes swiveling towards Denki. A smile immediately pops up on his shadowed face.
“Yes, my boy?” Denki can feel his heart in his ears. He thought he had, but it’s obvious he hasn’t gotten over the novelty of having the No. 1 hero as his teacher.
“I, uh, - I was wondering if you could help me with something?” All Might’s smile, impossibly, grows wider.
“Of course! How can I help?” All Might’s voice is loud and booming, even during one on one conversations.
“Well, I - it’s about your quirk, actually,” All Might siffens, something that doesn't go unnoticed by Denki. Although he hasn’t improved much between loops, one thing he has been working on was his spatial awareness - especially after his conversation with Aizawa-Sensei. He’s no prodigy, but has improved - enough to easily be able to identify obvious body language such as this.
Denki’s not sure what about his Quirk has All Might so on edge, but he supposes it makes sense. Contrary to popular belief, the No. 1 hero seems to be an incredibly private person. No one even knows his name, so Denki can understand why discussing personal information (and there’s nothing more personal than quirks, not really) such as this could make him uncomfortable.
Or maybe Denki’s overthinking this. Misreading the entire situation.
Even still.
“Your quirk, and mine, actually, to be more specific,” Denki adds as a cautionary measure. All Might shoulders relax - only slightly, though, only slightly. He’s still wary.
“Oh?” All Might says. “Well, go on,”
“Well, as you probably saw during the Battle Trials, I have an electricity quirk,”
“Right,” All Might nods. “Electrification. A very useful quirk, especially in heroics,” Denki feels the coming of a smile and the sweet words, but forces it down.
“Thank you,” Denki says. “However ideal my quirk might be, though, I have a tiny little bit of a problem. It’s kind of embarrassing to admit it, honestly, but the thing is - I can’t control my quirk properly. Whenever I try to discharge large amounts of electricity, I literally toast my brain, leaving myself functionally brain-dead for at least a few hours,”
“Ah,” All Might says. “I see. Well, that is a problem - but don’t ever be ashamed of such a thing, my boy! We all have things we need to work on,”
“Yeah, that’s true, I guess,” Denki murmures, doing his best to sound as unsure as possible. “It’s just that everyone in 1-A is so cool, y’know?” Denki laughs, rubbing the back of his head and ruffling his hair. “Everyone here is just so - I dunno how to describe it - so unreal. Incredibly talented. They’ve all earned their place here. Hell, 6/10 of the Top 10 from the entrance exam were from Class 1-A. Bakugou, Kirishima, and Ochako made up the Top 3. Everyone here deserves to be here, and I just - I feel like I made it here on a fluke. An accident. And I feel like I’m falling behind,”
Denki knows that if he wants this to work, he has to garner sympathy. He has to make his plight believable, and to do so, he needs to make it true. So he stays close to the truth as he stares pointedly at his shoes.
And it seems to work, as All Might’s bright smile shifts to something else.
“Kaminari-shōnen,” All Might starts with, and hey, who the hell is he calling young? Sure, sure, All Might’s an adult and he’s but a wee hero-in-training, but still. Who actually uses ‘shōnen’ as an honorific?
Denki fumes just a tad, and then realizes that All Might actually remembered his name and all those feelings of resentment seem to float away.
“You’re right that you have a long way to go. But you do. No one here expects you to be perfect. No one expects you to come in ready to go, already hero-material - that’s why we have an entire school! To train you, to help you become the best hero you can be. And hey, maybe you’re right. Maybe you’re a little behind the rest of your class, but don’t ever say that you don’t deserve to be here. You passed the entrance exam, same as anyone else, and you earned your place here. Don’t ever think otherwise.”
Denki can feel actual, honest-to-god tears burning in his eyes. He was expecting pity, yes, but, well - All Might was on an entirely different level.
Denki doesn’t belong here.
He’s no hero. If All Might knew about the USJ, he would agree, but - it’s still nice to have someone believe in him.
Ok, let’s be honest, it’s not just nice. It’s an incredible feeling, a rush of dopamine that Denki wants to latch on to and never let go of.
“Thank you,” Denki says. “You have no idea how much that means to me,” And All-Might smiles, that Symbol of Peace smile, and for a second, Denki’s sure that he knows exactly how much it means to him.
“And I have to say,” All Might says. “I respect you a great deal for this. In this area, at least, you’re a step up from all of your classmates,”
Denki stares.
“Huh?”
“The entirety of Class 1-A is made up of exceptional students, with exceptional quirks and exceptional control over those quirks - other than a few, but you’re certainly not alone in that category, so don’t worry too much about that. One of the main problems, though, lies in students like Bakugou-shōnen and even Midoriya-shōnen.” Denki really can’t fathom where this is going.
“... and that problem is?”
“Pride,” All-Might replies. “Young Bakugou, for example. He is going to be a great hero, I can tell. He’s got a great quirk, he’s hard-working, he’s dedicated, he got first on the exam. But even he has places to grow in - but because of his pride, he thinks he is too good for help. Or, he thinks he shouldn’t need. He thinks he should be perfect at everything instantly, and everything else is a failure. Even Midoriya is very similar - he is much more modest, but he never asks for help. He always attempts to figure things out for himself,” All-Might smiles. “But you, Kaminari. You recognized your own areas of growth, recognized what you need to work on, and instead of keeping it to yourself, trying to deal with it yourself, you approached me for help - and that is exceptional in itself,”
Denki’s eyes burn once again.
“And on that note,” All Might continues. “What exactly can I do to help you?”
“Huh?”
“I’ll be the first to admit - I don’t really have a lot of teaching experience, so maybe Aizawa would be the one to talk to, but - you approached me directly, so I assume you had something in mind!”
“Right.” Denki shakes his head a few times, snapping himself out of his funk. “Right,” He repeats. “I did have something in mind, actually. I’ve been thinking a lot about your quirk recently. Yours and Midoriya’s,” All Might freezes
“What does Midoriya-Shōnen have to do with this!” Denki shrugs.
“Your quirks are similar, that’s all. Fundamentally different, but still similar,”
“How so?” All Might asks.
“Well, you both have strength-slash-enhancement quirks, though Midoriya’s focuses on single body-parts, while yours is full-body,”
“Full-body?” All Might repeats. “What do you mean?”
“Well, let’s be honest here - your literal eight pack - hell, ten-pack, is frankly unrealistic. I might be wrong, but I’m pretty sure your muscles are an effect of your quirk,”
Two blonde eyebrows shot up.
“Anyways,” Denki says. “The point is, your quirks are very similar in the sense that you’re also discharging energy- a different sort of energy that Midoriya channels into individual body parts, and that you spread across your entire body,”
“That … is a surprisingly accurate assessment, Kaminari-Shōnen,” Denki laughs, wincing as his voice cracks.
“Yeah,” He mumbles. “Thanks,”
“I’m serious, my boy, that was very impressive. Midoriya-Shōnen loves quirk analysis, so I think he’d be very interested to hear what you have to say,”
“Really?” Denki thinks over what he knows about Midoriya, the quiet muttering.
Yeah, Denki eventually concludes. Midoriya seems like a quirk-analysis kinda kid.
“I’m not really good at quirk analysis, I just - our quirks are kind of similar, so I can understand the gist. I mean, all three of our quirks stem from energy discharge - we call upon power within ourselves. I mean, I generate electricity within myself, and then put it into action. I dunno if you guys generate power or just draw from it, but either way, I think our quirks stem from the same sort of idea - which is exactly why I am came to you for help,”
“Right, of course,” All Might says. “That makes sense,”
“Yeah. See, the thing is, I call upon generated electricity and cover my body with it. It’s kinda similar to how you use your quirk, which was why I was thinking you might be able to help me learn how to control it,”
“That was very smart of you, Kaminari!” Denki’s been called many things over the years (dunce, brain-damaged, defect) but never, ever, smart.
He supposes UA is an opportunity for new experiences.
(like death, for example. True fear, true pain. That was something he’d never understood before)
“Thanks,” Denki says again awkwardly, watching his fingers twitch and twist by his side. His leg bounces down ever so slightly. “Anyways, the point of this whole conversation. On Thursday this week, we’re going to the USJ for rescue training,”
All Might’s eyes widen.
“You know about that? I thought it was supposed to be a surprise?” Denki wills himself to stay calm - he was prepared for this. All-Might wasn’t even accusing him of anything, he was just curious.
“It was,” Denki admits with another smile. “I overheard Aizawa-Sensei talking about it. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, I swear, it just kinda … happened.”
All-Might laughed, loud and boisterous.
“Not to worry, my boy, it happens to the best of us.” All Might shakes his head. “Correct me if I’m wrong, Kaminari-Shōnen, but I believe you want me to help you with your quirk during rescue training?”
Denki nods. “If it’s not too much trouble, of course,” He says. “I mean, I’d overheard you’d be a chaperone there, and it’s a chance for real, hands-on training in a supposedly huge area. I wouldn’t have to worry about completely short-circuiting UA’s electricity - and, of course,” Denki pauses. “I know you said not to be embarrassed at all, but I, uh - I don’t really want the rest of the class to know that I’m getting extra help.”
“Of course,” All-Might says. “I understand. Well, I’d love to help you, Kaminari-Shōnen. I’ll ask Aizawa-Sensei if he can clear some time for us to work one on one during our rescue training,” Hopefully, hopefully, this would be enough to get All Might to the USJ on time. Aizawa-Senswei has said that All-Might was just late, but never specified the reason. Said that he’d show up later. If something serious had happened, Aizawa-Sensei would’ve told the class he wasn’t coming.
All Denki had to do was successfully guilt-trip All Might into ensuring he arrived on time. If he had a student in mind, he’d put more effort into getting there. He wouldn’t want to let the poor, pitiful student that had come to him for help down.
Of course, if All Might had run into something unavoidable, like serious traffic or a dangerous villain attack, then Denki’s plan wouldn’t work, but, well, he had to try something. What else could he do?
“Arigatō, All-Might Sensei!” Denki says with a bow.
“Kaminari-Shōnen,” All-Might says as Denki turns to go.
“Yes?”
“I was wondering if you could help me with a little something?” Denki freezes.
All-Might wants his help?
He has a bad feeling about this.
“Of course!” He says anyway. “Although I'm not sure how I could help you, of all people…”
“It’s actually not me I need you to help,” Denki tilts his head. “I was wondering if you could help Midoriya-Shōnen,”
“Midoriya? How could I help Midoriya?” In terms of power, they were leagues apart.
“As I’m sure you’ve noticed, Midoriya also has a lot of trouble controlling his quirk.”
“Yeah,” Denki agrees. “I certainly have. Poor guy, honestly. He must be in so much pain every time he uses his quirk,”
“That is exactly the problem. LIke you, he can not control the … ‘output’, of his quirk. You seem to have a very deep understanding of his quirk - if it is not too much trouble, could you take some time to talk with him?”
“Oh. Of course, I’d be glad to - though I’m not sure how much help I’ll be. Midoriya’s way smarter than me.” All Might frowns, but nods.
“Any effort would be appreciated,”
“Alright, I can always try!” Denki replies with a smile. “Is there a specific time you have in mind, or-?” Denki has to say, the relationship between All Might and Midoriya is pretty strange. Denki’s only been through three full days of UA (seven, if you want to count the whole time travel thing) and he can already tell there’s something going on between the two. All Might seemed to favor Midoriya, somehow.
If this time travel shit’s done him one favour, it’s opening his eyes a little to the world around him. After going through one almost-week of UA focusing on only himself, he’s started to observe the others around him more carefully. And Midoriya, well - everything going on in Class 1-A seems to revolve around Midoriya.
Midoriya’s a strange guy, in Denki’s humble opinion. Strange things seem to happen around him, but, well, Denki refuses to dwell on it any further. It’s not important.
None of this is important. All the strange occurrences happening around Midoriya are coincidences, plain and simple.
At least, that’s what Denki keeps trying to tell himself.
Listen, end conclusion - whatever crazy shit’s going on with Midoriya, between him and All Might and him and Bakugou - Denki wants absolutely nothing to do with it.
He’s got enough on his plate already.
“Does tomorrow after school work for you?” All-Might’s reverberating voice snaps Denki out of his reverie.
“Yeah, yeah, of course!” Denki shoots All Might a thumbs-up. “That works fine,”
“That’s good, then,” All-Might says. “I’ll see you then, Kaminari-Shōnen,”
“Right,” Denki says, still a bit lost amongst a sea of thoughts. “I guess you will, All-Might Sensei,”
---
7:30 AM
Wednesday, April 12th, XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
They have Class President elections once again, just as Denki was expecting.
For a second, Denki basks in the normality of it all, the welcoming sense of familiarity that comes from the occasion. For a brief, fleeting second, Denki can delude himself into believing that everything is perfectly. Fucking. Fine.
And then Iida practically sobs in delight at the reveal of two, not one, not zero votes for him, and joyfully, almost tearfully thanks his two anonymous supporters, and all of a sudden Denki realizes that he mindlessly voted for Iida, the guy he knew would become their class president eventually.
It’s such a miniscule, meaningless change, but suddenly, Denki doesn’t feel so fine anymore. He realises that the election isn’t normal - how can it be, when Denki’s gone through it twice already?
How could anything ever be normal ever again, after what he had been through?
Feeling a mix of vicious emotions curdling in his stomach, clawing at his skin from the inside out, Denki excuses himself from the classroom to go to the bathroom.
He doesn’t return.
(Denki doubts anyone noticed he was missing)
---
12:30 PM
Wednesday, April 12th, XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Ranchi Rasshu no Meshi-sho
Denki’s a people person.
This is something he knows about himself. He thrives on human interaction, and requires daily conversations to keep himself going.
Despite that evident fact about himself, Denki’s pretty sure he hasn’t had a single conversation with anyone in Class 1-A, at least in this loop.
And, Denki’s gonna be completely honest here, he wants it to stay that way. Especially during his normally chaotic lunch periods.
He’s a people person. That’s true. But, erm, he also likes food, and he’s pretty sure if anyone from Class 1-A got near him while he tried to eat, he’d probably puke. Vivid remembrance of corpses and all that.
So Denki purposefully dodges all of his classmates, heads to the opposite side of the cafeteria after grabbing his lunch, (and god, at this point, Denki’s 100% sure Lunch Rush is an actually god because what human could make food this good?) finding a gloriously empty table and sitting down with a hood over his head and his eyes trained downwards. He hopes to god that he’s successfully exuding ‘stay the fuck away from me’ vibes, because goddammit, Denki just wants to enjoy his lunch.
That's why he’s less than amused when a lunch tray slams against the free space of table right around him.
Denki looks up, and, well, at least it's not a 1-A student?
The student standing before him is not familiar, not in the slightest, and that is a strangely refreshing feeling.
He’s got slick blonde hair, bangs that hover over periwinkle blue eyes. A smug little smirk tugs at the corners of the guy’s lips, though Denki’s not entirely sure what he’s got to be smug about.
Periwinkle blue eyes have always been a sign of bad things to come. Everyone always fawns over the gentle colour, but Denki’s the only one who thinks of the actual flower. Flowers of death, they’re called. Not exactly symbols of joy.
But Denki’s not one to judge prematurely, so he looks up, opens his mouth, maybe to greet the guy, maybe to say something else entirely, but before any words can escape his throat, the little smirk turns to a full-blown grin.
“Aha!” The boy yells triumphantly, victory flashing through his eyes. Denki’s still not entirely sure what’s going on. “Just as I thought! Welcome, fellow Class 1-A hater!”
The first thing Denki thinks - who the hell does this boy think he is, welcoming him? The blondie’s the one who came up to his table. If anything, Denki should be welcoming him.
(and yes. Blondie. You might say that Denki’s hair is also blonde, but to be completely frank, it’s more of a yellow-gold. Blonde is not nearly a brilliant enough descriptor for Denki’s brilliant hair)
The second thing Denki thinks -
What?
“What?” He says aloud. “Who’re you?”
“Don’t worry,” Blondie says, ignoring Denki’s question. “I understand.”
“Understand what?”
“Don’t worry,” Blondie repeats. “I’ve got you all figured out,”
“You have?”
“Yeah!” He exclaims, sounding way too happy with himself. “You’re sitting on the opposite side of the cafeteria, as far from your fellow classmates as possible!”
Denki narrows his eyes.
“Maybe I just don’t like people?”
“If you didn’t like people-” He continued, monologuing like a movie-villain. “You would’ve flat-out ignored me, like you did to that alien girl who came up to talk to you not so long ago. But you didn’t, which means you don’t just dislike people, you specifically dislike people from Class 1-A. Which makes you and I two of a kind, my friend,”
Denki feels strangely offended.
He doesn’t dislike his classmates. He just can’t stand being around them right now.
… okay, Denki’ll admit, that sounds pretty bad.
But he doesn’t want to be two of a kind with this strange, relatively good-looking psycho.
“Monoma.” Someone hisses, and Denki startles.
Oh great. Now he’s got two people intruding on his peace.
Damn, he’s really starting to sound like an introvert here. Which is a problem. No offense to introverts, of course, every person to themselves - however. The thing is, Denki’s a full-out extrovert. It’s in his blood.
If Denki had to choose any worst consequence from the time-travel, it’s gotta be this. Denki’s a social butterfly, and all this traumatic shit has ripped off his wings.
Copperish hair falls in a side pony-tail, bright teal a vivid contrast to ‘Monoma’s’ periwinkle.
Denki thinks he prefers the teal.
“What?!” Monoma exclaims, his hands thrown up defensively. “I didn’t even do anything!”
“Stop bothering ... “ Kendo trails off. “Sorry, who are you again?” Denki bits his lip to keep in a laugh.
“Kaminari,” He says. “I’m Kaminari Denki, from Class 1-A,”
“Right!” She continues, just as passionately as before. “Stop bothering Kaminari, here! Really, stop bothering Class 1-A as a whole!”
“I wasn’t-”
“Kendo - that is your name, right?,” Denki interrupts. Kendo nods in response. "Monoma wasn’t bothering me at all, don’t worry about it. He just came to … say hello, I think,”
“I told you," Monoma mutters. "I'm not completely incorrigible.
“Really?” Kendo echoes. Then frowns. “Wait. How’d you know my name?”
“I remember you from the entrance exam,” Denki answers. Strangely enough, he’s being truthful. “You were No. 5 on the leaderboard, right?”
“I - yes, I was,” She replies.
“Congratulations!" Denki says with a grin. "That’s really impressive.”
“You think?” Kendo asks with the beginnings of a smile.
“Yeah, seriously. You did really well. Your quirk is also hella cool,” Kendo laughs.
“Thank you, Kaminari-San” Denki feels a familiar sort of smile spread across his face.
“Call me Kaminari!” He tells her. “We’re all fellow students here, there’s no need for honorifics,”
“Well then, Kaminari, are you sure Monoma over here wasn’t bothering you?”
“I wasn’t!” Monoma protests - no, whines.
“He wasn’t, he wasn’t, I swear,” At Kendo’s skeptical expression, Denki elaborates. “Seriously, he wasn’t.”
“Alright,” Kendo drawls, still skeptical. “If he really isn’t bothering you, would you mind if the two of us sat with you?”
“Uh - sure, sure, of course, that’d be great! But - you don’t want to sit with your own classmates?”
“Neither do you,” Monoma points out.
“That’s … true, I guess,” Denki admits.” Well, sit down then. Though, I do feel the need to clarify, Monoma, I don’t hate my class,”
“You don’t think they’re crazy attention-seekers?” Monoma asks, genuinely, as if that was a normal thing to ask.
“No!” Denki exclaims. “They’re all pretty cool people. And seriously, man, what’s with this class rivalry? The whole ‘a’ and ‘b’ thing is just to separate the amount of kids for convenience - I’m like, ninety-nine point nine nine nine percent sure the classes were created by coincidence. It’s not like one class is more talented than the other,”
“So you don’t hate Class 1-A?” Monoma asks, one more time, for clarification.
“No, I don’t,’ Denki confirms.
“Oh really?” Someone says, and oh shit that’s not Monoma.
Two pink hands slam down against the already wounded table, and Denki winces at the sound. His eyes trail up reluctantly to meet the black-and-gold of Ashido’s.
“Hello,” Denki mumbles weakly, trying not to sound too dejected. All he wanted was a peaceful lunch period. Was that really so much to ask for?
Evidently so, Denki realises, fingers clenching against the wood of the table. Pink, light pink, what an interesting skin colour.
So painfully easy to confuse with red.
“I’m gonna figure you out, Kaminari-kun,” She declares, and somehow, the added honorific made the situation seem so much worse.
“What.” Denki responds intelligently.
“You an enigma,” She continues. “A paradox, even,”
“What.” Denki repeats, still unsure of what the fuck was going on.
“You claim you don’t hate Class 1-A-”
”I don’t!”
“You do, though,” Monoma retorts.
“Yeah!” Ashido says, and hell, she’s practically yelling.“You do! You’ve been carefully avoiding everyone in our class, you haven’t spoken a word all of the three days we’ve been here, and you literally run into the cafeteria then freaking hide so you don’t have to talk to any of us!”
Denki has to admit, when she lines up all the evidence like this, it does seem like a pretty damning situation for him.
“Ha!” Monoma exclaims. “I was right!”
“You’re not helping,” Denki tells him seriously.
“And it’s not as if you’re shy, either!” Ashido continues, and seriously, what happened to inside-voices? “You seem pretty friendly with these two over here, and let them sit with you, but you never let any of us get anywhere near you!”
“Ok, I know this looks pretty bad, but-” Both Monoma and Ashido ignore him. Kendo shoots him a sympathetic look.
“So, in conclusion, you obviously have some sort of twisted vendetta against everyone in Class 1-A-” Okay, does anyone else think ‘twisted’ is going a little too far? Even ‘vendetta’ is a bit of a stretch. Denki doesn't have a vendetta. It’s just trauma.
“-for no apparent reason. And that’s not all, Kaminari Denki!”
Ah, fuck. What now?
“Not only that, but there’s something strange about you, Kaminari-Kun! Despite all the evidence telling me that you hate Class 1-A-” what was this, a fucking detective show? Ashido's messing up the genre of their lives completely. This isn't mystery. It's either an action movie or a time travel comedy.
Without the comedy, Denki decides after a few seconds of deliberation. Definitely without the comedy. “-you defended us when this blonde asshole was being a jerk," Monoma wisely stays quiet at that comment - Denki is not granted that luxury.
“Yeah, that’s cause I don’t hate you guys, like I’ve been trying to tell you!”
“Then why do you avoid us like ants avoid ant traps?”
”What kind of analogy is that?”
“You seem to have some problem with us, but you still defend us. You sit quietly in class, but seem to have a relatively loud personality in reality. You’re always watching individual members of the class, analyzing, almost, but you look away as soon as any of us look towards you-” what did she think he was, a stalker? A secret agent? “-not to mention, you barely tried at all during hero basics training-” which, excuse her, he totally did. It’s not his fault he’s just a tad bit pathetic. As he said, he wasn’t totally cut out for this whole hero thing- “and after, you spent like, fifteen minutes talking to All Might alone!”
Okay, so maybe she’s the stalker here.
“So what is all of that supposed to mean?” Denki asks, determined to cut this off before it went too far.
“It means that there’s something strange about you, Kaminari-Kun. You’re hiding something, and I’m telling you now - I’m going to figure it out!”
Denki leans back, fear and something else building his stomach. He opens his mouth to retort, to deny, to do something ...
And that’s when the alarms went off.
---
12:45 PM
Wednesday, April 12th, XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
So maybe, just maybe, the whole ‘dying two times in an unexpected villain attack’ thing was making Denki a tad bit paranoid, but, well, as much as he loves the Exit Sign Iida debacle, now he can't help but think there was something suspicious going on there.
Despite the possible paranoia, Denki wasn’t the one to push himself to that conclusion. No, it was his odd conglomeration of acquaintances (Monoma, Kendo, and Ashido) that led him towards that (Discovery? Realisation? Suspicion?)
… whatever it was.
It all started with the alarms, loud and vicious. As they rang, Denki had the strangest thought - a thought that wasn’t so strange to him, but, in hindsight, could seem very odd to other people.
Denki didn’t want to evacuate.
Because of the whole debacle with Monoma and Ashido, Denki barely got to eat any of his lunch. He just wanted food. So why should he evacuate on a false alarm? Why shouldn’t he just stay here and eat his lunch?
He didn’t realise that for others, this wasn’t a false alarm. This was real.
So he didn’t move, content to eat his food even amongst the chaos.
“Kaminari!” Ashido had yelled, screeching over the alarms but still barely audible. “What are you doing?”
“Eating,” Denki replied simply, looking down at himself. “What does it look like I’m doing?”
“We have to evacuate, Kaminari!” Kendo told him, face grim. “UA’s security has been compromised!”
“Compromised?” Denki scoffed. “Who’d be stupid enough to attack UA? It’s probably just someone from the press - they were flocking around outside earlier this morning,”
“The press?” Monoma hissed.“How would the press get through the top-notch security of UA? UA is one of the most secure buildings in Japan - what civilian would be able to break in?”
“Not to mention, what journalist would even go that far?” Ashido demanded.
“Don’t be stupid,” Monoma continued. “Get up!” And with that, Denki had been ushered hurriedly out of the cafeteria like a foolish child.
He went without complaint, despise his reservations, too lost in his head as he considered their words carefully. Now, the drill long over, Ashido, Kendo, and Monoma had apologised, realising he was right.
But now, Denki wasn’t all too sure.
The points they had made were all reasonable. UA’s security was insane. How would a civilian break in?
Even if there was someone with an applicable quirk for the situation, what journalist would go that far, as Ashido had said?
Denki would have argued, argued that some journalists would go that far. He’d seen some crazy people.
But.
But.
Illegal quirk usage, in public, destruction of property, property that belonged to UA, a hero-training school, of all things.
That seemed too risky. Dumb, even.
The consequences for that journalist would be incredibly severe. It just didn’t make sense. The risk was too high.
But for a villain, the flocks of the press siphoning all the attention away would’ve been the perfect opportunity.
Denki would’ve argued against that - what villain would be stupid enough, powerful enough, to attack UA?
But then he remembered the USJ, remembered the tragedy in vivid detail, and remembered, almost painfully, that UA wasn’t as invincible as it seemed from afar.
Maybe Denki is going too far, maybe it’s all just paranoia, but something didn’t seem right. And with the USJ just a day away, well.
He has to figure out what had happened today, what had really happened, or he’d never be able to stop thinking about it.
Denki sighs, rubbing his temples. He’ll just have to add it to his consistently growing list of problems he has no idea what to do about.
Fuck, Denki’s really not the best at this time travel shit, is he?
---
1:20 PM
Wednesday, April 12th, XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
After the press(?) debacle, students were quickly sent back to classes. Denki finds himself in English class. Denki’s already been taught this content before, just a few months ago in his mind, so by the time he steps through the door, by the time he takes a seat, he’s already resigned himself to mind-numbing boredom.
He crosses his legs, tucks in his shoulders and stares at the wood of his desk like it’s the most interesting thing in the world. From his peripheral vision, he watches as Ashido shakes her head in disappointment, but Denki steadfastly ignores her. He doesn’t need this, any of this, right now. He has much more important things to worry about right now.
He ignores the way his stomach twists at the thought of Ashido, of anyone in Class 1-A thinking he hates them, or hating him in return.
But, Denki would rather they hate him than have to see them dead. He needed to spend all his time and focus on dealing with the USJ, and he couldn’t exactly do that if he had to deal with his own miserably weak psyche, his inability to stay composed.
His nails scratch and crack against his desk as Ashido’s eyes burn into his skin like acid.
“Heeeeeeeey, Little Listeners!”
Denki freezes.
“Aaaaaare yooooou ready-”
No.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
“For English class!?”
---
1:40 PM
Wednesday, April 12th, XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
Around thirty minutes have passed, and Denki’s sure he’s not going to make it to the end of the period. Present Mic’s voice is like a serrated blade, dragging dangerously across Denki’s skin, across the hollow column of his throat.
“Congratulations, Kaminari Denki!”
“For verbs, you typically use the suffix ‘ing’-”
“Welcome to your hero academia!”
Denki’s heart beats erratically, twisting against a cage of bones. Present Mic’s speaking, but his words fly right over Denki’s head - all he can think about is hands wrapped around his throat, nimble fingers stealing away his air.
His own fingers twist and tap, curl into fists to rip nail-shaped wounds into his skin, imitations of the red indents that spun around his throat like a pretty necklace.
“Congratulations, Kaminari Denki!
All he can hear is screams, all he can see is an ugly, maniacal smile, fingers curved into knives, nails dirty, skin chipping.
“Welcome to your hero academia!”
(redredred) eyes, wide, and bloodshot.
“Congratulations, Kaminari Denki!”
A laugh, ugly and brutal (maybe if I kill a few kids, he’ll come out to play?)
“Welcome to y̴̛̟̼̑̉̾͌̽͆̈́ô̸̻̗ų̷̯͈̗̪̜̅ŗ̶̛̻̩̙̳̲͎̈́ ̵̧͉͍̰̬͐͒̽͋̏̽̃̑h̷͇̊͒͝ė̷͔̃̐͋̒͝r̵̈̂̏̇͠ò̸̪͈̯̥̩̦͑̍͗̉͒ ̴̼͕̠͕̐̔̿͑̾͒̆͝a̷̤͐́c̶̛̀͆̉̚a̶̐̐͝ď̴̥̰̳̙ȅ̴̡̨̞̤̈́͂̆͊͝͠͝m̶̛̛̙̔̊̾̔̎i̸̲͈͖̋̎̕͠a̶̮͉̱͒̓̓̈́́̓͝,”
Glitter gold eyes, a warped smile. (It’s a pleasure to meet you. We are the League of Villains)
“Congratulations, Kami-”
“-nari? Kaminari! Are you alright?”
Denki jerks to a standing position, shoving his chair back. It slams into Kirishima’s desk, who startles.
“Woah, man. You alright?”
The words float through his head, grind into dust then fall to the ground, forgotten. Denki stares at Present Mic, golden glasses staring right back at him, a frown on the man’s lips. He’s stolen the attention of the class, now - he can feel all of their eyes crawling over his skin.
“P-present Mic-Sensei?” Denki manages to croak out. He knows he sounds pathetic, he can hear the tremor in his own voice, but he ignores it. He ignores the way Jirou’s corpse looks, laid out across the desks, the way Yaoyorozu seems to fall back from an unseen blow. He ignores the blood all over his hands, ignores the walls closing in all around him.
Ignores Tomura Shigaraki, who lurks in the front of the class, fingers just a hair's breadth away from Present Mic’s neck.
“Yes, Kaminari?” The man asks gently, his quiet voice a contrast to his normal screams. Shigaraki flickers, his fingers distorting, and then, all of a sudden, he isn’t there anymore.
There’s no more blood on Denki’s hands, no more hands around his throat, yet Denki can still feel them, warm liquid dripping over cold skin, nails digging into tender flesh.
“Can I go to the bathroom?” He asks quickly. Denki’s not sure where he’s actually planning to go. All he knows right now is that he needs to get the fuck out of this classroom, away from everything and anything before he loses it.
Present Mic stares at him for a couple seconds, unsure. As every second ticks by, Denki feels his heart rate increase. From the obviously confused glances Jirou is sending him, she feels it to and goddamn it Denki just remembered Jirou’s fucking quirk. She was probably listening to him silently panic the entirely class and she was sitting right next to him, bloody hell-
“Go ahead, Kaminari,”
“Arigatou, Sensei,” Denki says with a bow.
Then he runs from the classroom like he’s running for his life.
----
2:10 PM
Wednesday, April 12th, XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
Denki knows he should maybe go back to class, but, he’ll be honest, he’s not really feeling up to it. He can’t bear it, the suffocating air, the familiar faces, Present Mic’s voice. It’s all just too much for him.
So he wanders around, almost mindlessly, because he can’t just stay in the bathrooms either. Not alone, with empty stalls and creaking doors, not where his mind can all too easily creep up and get the jump on him.
No, the bathroom wouldn’t work, so Denki plays a game of stealth instead - sneaking across the campus, avoiding teachers and other staff members and praying to god he isn’t caught. Denki would rather not have to explain why he’s playing Mark of the Ninja with UA as his battlefield - not to his scary-as-fuck teachers. (Present-Mic-Sensei, with his goddamn voice. Snipe, whom he’s watched commit indirect suicide. Hound Dog, who could bite Denki's head off easily with his monster jaws and equally monstrous teeth. Power Loader, who just looks fucking shady. Aizawa-Sensei, who, well - did Denki really have to explain that one?)
Perhaps the universe just hates Denki, (seriously, was he a serial killer in his past life or something? cause this was getting ridiculous) for right as he turns the next corner, he runs straight into his favourite person on earth.
Springing back, Denki stumbles, trips over his own feet, smacks his head onto a wall then manages to regain his balance.
“H-hey, Aizawa-Sensei,” Denki croaks out.
“Kaminari,” Aizawa-Sensei replies, with an unamused arch of his left brow. Goddamnit, exactly what right does Aizawa-Sensei have to be so utterly terrifying? “Shouldn’t you be in class?”
“I was going to the bathroom, actually,” Denki says with an awkward laugh.
“The bathroom isn’t this way,” Aizawa-Sensei replies with a deadpan stare.
“Oh, come on,” Denki whines. “That’s fu-freaking ridiculous. The UA campus is humongous, are you telling me there’s not a single bathroom in this direction?”
Silence.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three.
“There is,” Aizawa-Sensei admits. “Right around the corner,” Denki stares at Aizawa-Sensei incredulously.
“Then why did you call me out?” Denki throws his hands up in the air in frustration. He feels like he should be speaking in more moderation, but Denki feels too frazzled, too out of it to care about angering his terrifying demon of a teacher.
“Present-Mic texted me,” Aizawa-Sensei tells him. “Told me you were acting strange in class, and that you’d been gone for over thirty minutes. He sent me to make sure you were alright,,” Denki freezes.
“Of course he did,” Denki almost forgot just how much UA teachers seem to care about their students. It was touching at times, but at the moment, it was mainly annoying. “Of course,”
“So,” Aizawa-Sensei says.
“So,” Denki replies. “So what?”
“Are you alright or not, kid?” Denki stares, outright gapes at Aizawa-Sensei for a couple of seconds.
“What do you think?” Denki practically hisses. “I broke down, in English, in front of my entire class, then ran away like a coward and have spent the past thirty minutes wandering around the school like a bloody idiot! How do you think I’m doing, Aizawa-Sensei?”
“Hmm,” Aizawa-Sensei doesn’t answer, just tilts his head. He waits for a couple seconds.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three.
“Alright, are you done?” Denki takes a deep breath.
“Yes,” He decides. “Yup, I’m done. Should I just go back to class now?” Which is something Denki would really rather not do, on second thought.
“No,” Aizawa-Sensei says. “I don’t think that’d be a good idea,” And that makes two of them. “Anyways, your English class is basically finished.”
“Ah,”
“Ah,” Aizawa-Sensei replies dryly. “So.”
“So,” Denki repeats.
“Is there a particular reason why you broke down in English, in front of your entire class, then ran away like a coward and spent the last thirty minutes wandering around the school like an idiot?”
“Yes,” Denki replies, because he does have a reason, a perfectly justifiable reason.
Just not one he can tell Aizawa-Sensei without sounding like a crazy person.
“Are you going to tell me that reason?”
“Nope,” Denki says with his trademark smile and equally trademark awkward laugh. “I think I’m good,”
“Kid,” Aizawa-Sensei says sternly. “Is this reason going to be detrimental to your learning?”
“No,” Denki replies, this time with more confidence. “Okay, yeah, maybe this time it was, but it won’t be, not again. I swear, I’m fine, I just - this week hasn’t been great for me,” - not untrue- “Thanks for the … concern, but I’m fine, really. I can figure out my shi- … sorry, stuff, myself and I promise this won’t happen again.
“Alright,” Aizawa-Sensei concedes with a shrug. “Is there anything you need from either me or Present-Mic, or anyone else, really, to maybe help with this reason?”
“Nope,” Denki repeats. “Nope, I’m good,” Then he pauses.
An idea, sudden and bright like a lightbulb bursting with electricity, electricity Denki can feel buzzing under his skin.
“Actually,” He says suddenly, watching as Aizawa-Sensei’s eyes narrow as he turns to Denki attentively. “There is one thing,”
“Oh?”
“The … incident, during lunch today,” Denki starts slowly. “You guys said it was just the press,”
“We did,” Aizawa-Sensei agrees, wonderfully vague, words chosen carefully.
“Was it really just the press?”
“Is there a particular reason for you to think it’s not?” And wasn’t that an interesting response to his question? Maybe Denki wasn’t being paranoid. Maybe there really was something else going on here.
“It was just - well, the whole thing just seemed odd. I mean, sure, it could’ve been a crazy reporter, but whoever it was would’ve had to have a really strong quirk to break into UA, right? And that - well, illegal quirk usage against a Hero School? I’m sure the consequences of that would be really severe - and, well, it just seemed kind of dumb, y’know, to do something like that in broad daylight? I mean, sure, people are really crazy about All Might, but that crazy? I’m sure there are people who are that crazy, but they tend to come in moderation, if you get my meaning. It all just seemed strange,”
“If it wasn’t the press, who else would it be?"
“I dunno,” Denki says with a dismissive shrug, trying to calm his erratic heartbeat. “Maybe a villain or something. I know it sounds unlikely-” Aizawa-Sensei cuts him off.
“Why would a Villain infiltrate UA?” Aizawa-Sensei asks. “They didn’t attack anyone, they didn’t cause any harm, so why would they go through all that trouble? What makes you think it could’ve been a villain?”
“Well, it seems like the perfect opportunity. Using the press as coverage so no one would even think twice about the whole thing. And as for motive, well … I’ll admit, I didn’t really think that far ahead, but I suppose they could’ve done it for multiple reasons. Maybe just to figure out how to successfully break in. Maybe to steal something - information, security plans, something like that. Maybe just to prove they can.” Denki would continue his mindless tangent, but a clap cuts him off.
Claps, plural, actually. They’re strangely muted, like cloth against cloth, but still sharp, loud and echoey in the gaping halls of UA.
“That was very impressive, Kaminari,” Says a voice, right into his ear.
Denki screams, a shrill, girly sound that he’d never admit to making as he jumps backward, spinning around to be greeted by a … rat? A stoat? A bear?
Ah, shit. Denki realizes on further examination. That’s the principal.
“Erm-” Denki forces his jaw closed and tries to seem less … terrified. “Uh.” Denki finds it in himself to offer the principal a small bow. “Aisatsu, Nedzu-Sama,”
Nedzu’s beady little eyes seem to glimmer.
“There’s no need for honorifics,” Nedzu says instantly. “Human displays of respect mean nothing to me,”
“Erm,” Denki repeats, still staring. “Right,” Behind him, Aizawa-Sensei sighs.
“Nedzu,”
“Yes, Shota?”
“Stop scaring my student,” Nedzu laughs, equal parts pleasant, equal parts horrifying. Denki instantly decides he never wants to hear the sound again.
“I was being welcoming,” Nedzu retorts. “Putting him at ease. “
“Nothing about you puts anyone at ease,” Aizawa-Sensei grumbles.
“What a buzzkill, Shota,” Nedzu replies with an ever-present smile. “There really is nothing to be so tense about, Kaminari,” Denki jumps when he hears his name. “I really had no intention to scare you. I just sometimes miscalculate just how weak the human psyche is, especially one of a teenager. But, well, we all make mistakes, right?”
“Right,” Denki repeats, internally wondering if he still has a chance to run.
“Anyways,” Nedzu continues. “I have to say, very astute observations on your part, Kaminari. I must admit, I’ve very impressed,”
“You are?” Denki asks carefully, not sure if this was a good thing or not.
“Indeed,” Nedzu replies. “You’re quite right, after all. The break-in was not done by a simple reporter, no - this was the work of a villain, plain and simple,” Denki feels his heart stop, freezing in a fear that froze his electricity too.
“Do you know who did it, then?” Denki asks, trying desperately to make sure his voice doesn’t tremble. Two villain attacks. Two in the span of a week. It can’t be a coincidence.
It can’t..
No. Denki tries to calm himself. If it was the League of Villains, they wouldn’t even need to break down the gate. They could just get Kurogiri to teleport them inside.
“That, I’m afraid, is still a work in progress,” Nedzu tilts his furry head. “Perhaps you could be of help, Kaminari?”
“Oh, I doubt I could-”
“We don’t know much about the situation,” Nedzu admits. “We know that the villain in question broke in under the cover of the press. They ruffled through some papers, searched some rooms, ultimately only taking a few class schedules,”
Schedules. Fuck. Denki feels the panic coming back with a crash. Schedules.
(yellow eyes glow, cat shaped and wrong, inhuman and cloaked in a purble-black warp that can’t be normal, can’t be right. “How perplexing. According to the schedule we retrieved, All Might should be here as well - yet the only two heroes I see are Thirteen and Eraserhead)
“Kaminari?” Nedzu asks. “Is there something wrong?”
“No,” Denki chokes out. “No, sorry. I just - sorry, I got a little distracted. So you know they took a schedule - do you know exactly how they got in?”
“We know they used their quirk to disintegrate our security gate,”
“Disintegrate?”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Tomura Shigaraki. It was Tomura Shigaraki. Tomura Shigaraki broke into UA, stole the schedule to prepare for the USJ which was just tomorrow.
Tomura Shigaraki was here, in this very school, possibly just rooms away from where Denki had been during the time.
Tomura Shigaraki had been here.
Here, here, in this very school, where Denki thought he was safe. He could’ve hurt anyone, could’ve killed hundreds of students with just a touch before anyone was any the wiser.
Tomura Shigaraki’s red eyes gleam in the corner of Denki’s vision and he stumbles backwards, swivelling around as he watches the man’s dry lips twist into an ugly, evil grin.
Fingers wrap tightly around Denki’s throat, once again, like a second layer of skin, and the skin below begins to flake, begins to disintegrate beneath his fingers and once again, like always, Denki can’t find it in himself to fucking breathe-
Denki doesn’t even realize he’s practically choking himself, ripping his own skin apart, until firm hands wrap around his wrists and pull them away from his skin. A sharp voice cuts through the haze, and his vision, blurry with tears, clears just a bit.
“Kaminari. Kaminari, can you hear me? Look at me, kid. Come on. Kaminari.”
Aizawa-Sensei’s blurred figure comes into focus, and Denki lets in a ragged breath. He can breathe. (he shouldn’t) He can breathe. (he shouldn’t)
Everything’s alright. (Denki shouldn’t be able to breathe. He’s supposed to be dead.)
“That’s right,” Aizawa-Sensei says, approval layering his tone. “Deep breaths, Kaminari. Slowly, alright? Just take it easy,” It takes a couple of seconds, but eventually, eventually, Denki manages to get his chaotic breaths under control. Aizawa-Sensei’s grip loosens, then drops, hands detaching from his wrists.
“My, my,” Comes Nedzu’s voice. “I certainly wasn’t expecting that. I’m sorry if I was … Kaminari. Are you alright?”
“I’m-” Denki sucks in another breath. “I’m fine. Fine,”
“Are panic attacks the new standard of ‘fine’ in this day and age?” Aizawa-Sensei questions, eyebrows raised. Denki swallows around the lump in his throat.
“I don’t-” Denki presses his eyes shut, fighting tears. “I just- this wasn’t a panic attack, alright?” Nedzu raises a paw.
“I’m afraid you’re wrong on that one, Kaminari. A panic attack, at least in medical books, requires at least four of the following symptoms: A sense of impending doom, inexplicable fear, crying, an uncontrollable heart rate, shortness of breath or hyperventilation, chest pain, sweating, trembling, dizziness, nausea, detachment, numbness, and many, many more, and I can already tell you that you displayed much more than four of those symptoms,” The lump in Denki’s throat grows even more profound.
“I’m not-” Denki can’t deal with this right now, he can’t. “It was nothing, alright?”
“There is nothing to be ashamed of, Kaminari,” Nedzu says. “Panic attacks are not very abnormal in our line of work. I’m less curious about the panic attack itself, more intrigued by the cause of it,” Behind him, Aizawa-Sensei’s gaze darkens.
“Kaminari, if you know anything about this villain, it’s incredibly important that you tell us,”
“I don’t!” Denki says quickly. “Really, I don’t, it’s just-'' Denki takes a step back, breathing in again, hands going up to rub the raw skin on his throat. “Disintegration has never been a good … topic for me.” At Aizawa-Sensei’s curious glance, and Nedzu’s invasive one, Denki elaborates. “I had a bad experience with a similar quirk, once, and I just- I’m sorry, about that,”
“It’s quite alright, Kaminari,” Nedzu says. “If you ever require a confidant, Hound Dog and all the other UA staff members are open for you. I’d say I was too, but I don’t figure any student would wish to talk about their feelings with me,”
“You’re right about that one, at least,” Aizawa-Sensei mumbles. Then turns to Kaminari, a frown on his face. “You should head over to Recovery Girl, get those scratches checked out.” It’s then Denki realizes there’s blood dripping down his throat, spilling down to his collarbone.
It’s almost enough to send Denki over the edge again, but he keeps a tight grip to his sanity - through no lack of effort on his part.
“I’m fine,” Denki says instantly, because he is fine and he doesn’t want to see Recovery Girl. Not again. “I don’t need to see Recovery Girl. I’m more worried about the whole villain infiltration thing.”
“There’s nothing you need to worry about, Kaminari,” Aizawa-Sensei tells him. “We’ll deal with it,”
“It’s still something that affects me,” Denki counters. “Something that directly affects every student here at the school. I understand why you’re not giving the truth, but we do deserve to be warned of a potential danger, right?”
“There won’t be a repeat of this situation,” Aizawa-Sensei says firmly. “And you kids are not in any immediate danger,”
“How can you be sure?” Denki retorts. “What schedules were stolen?”
“Class schedules for both Class 1-A and 1-B,” Nedzu responded. “A schedule for the rest of the semester,”
“They could be planning the perfect chance to attack,” Denki points out. “How can you be sure they won’t try this again?”
“We’ll be beefing up security around here,” Aizawa-Sensei tells him. “Nedzu here was going to get right on that. Anyways, this villain won’t be stupid enough to try the same trick twice. We’ll be prepared if they do,"
“What if he doesn’t attack us while we’re on campus?” Denki questions. He needs to point them in the right direction. “Somewhere where we’re more vulnerable. The USJ, for example,”
“What?”
“We’re taking a field trip tomorrow. What’s to say they won’t try to attack us then, when we’re away from the main campus, away from safety?”
Aizawa-Sensei sighs.
“You’re not wrong, Kaminari,” Aizawa-Sensei admits. “How did you know we had a field trip tomorrow, though?”
Ah. Shit.
The lies come to Denki easily.
“All Might told me,” Denki tells him. “We were talking about quirk exercises, and that kinda led to the field trip,”
“Right,” Aizawa-Sensei nods. “All-Might mentioned something about wanting to work one-on-one with you during the USJ,”
“Back to the main point though,” Denki insists. “How can you ensure our safety off campus if you can’t even ensure it here?”
“You’re making good points, Kaminari,” Nedzu says. “If you’re really worried about it, we could remove you from the field trip?”
“No!” Denki instantly protests, before taking another calming breath. “I want to go on the field trip, of course I do. I’m just worried.”
“Reasonably so,” Aizawa-Sensei agrees. “Ignore Nedzu. If it would be of any help, I can invite some extra chaperones. Just in case,” Denki feels something close to hope spread in his chest. If All-Might’s there, along with extra chaperones - well, they’ll have a chance. A real, fighting chance.
“That’d be great,” Denki says with a real smile, something he hasn’t done for a while. “Thank you, Aizawa-Sensei.”
“No problem, kid,”
“Well,” Nedzu interjects. “Kaminari, you should probably be heading back to class soon. It’s entirely up to you whether or not you’d like to stop by Recovery Girl - something I’d highly suggest you do, but I suppose my opinion doesn’t really matter in this scenario. Either way, I would highly suggest you’d hurry up if you don’t want to miss even more class time,”
“You’re right,” Denki agrees. “Arigatou, Aizawa-Sensei, Nedzu-Sensei,.” And with that, Denki is leaving. He’s not running for his life, not this time, but, well, he certainly isn’t just walking
---
2:15 PM
Wednesday, April 12th, XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
Rikabarī Gārusu Hokenshitsu
“Kids these days,” Recovery Girl chides. “No self preservation, I swear. Have you no respect for your own bodies?”
Both Denki and Midoriya stare at the ground, thoroughly chastised.
You can imagine Denki’s surprise when he arrived at the infirmary to find it not as empty as he expected - instead occupied by one of his class. Midoriya stood, in all his glory, with a broken, purple arm hanging by his side.
“How the fuck,” Denki had said ntelligently. “We were in English?!” Midoriya just shrugged.
Recovery Girl, unsurprisingly, was unamused with them both. As she treated them, she lectured, not holding back an inch.
She’s still lecturing them, even now, when they’ve already been treated.
“Erm, Recovery Girl?” Denki interrupts. “We kinda have to get to class now,” Recovery Girl harrumps.
“Yeah, yeah, back to the hellscape. Really, what is Shota doing to you lot? I bet at least one of you will be back by the end of the day.” She huffs. “Take some candies, dears,” She says, shoving hard candies into both of their hands. The normally kind phrase has bite to it, sounding incredibly passive aggressive.
Denki and Midoriya walk in silence down the hall, towards their homeroom, where some hero will proceed to lecture them about some hero-related topic. It’s that time of day, afterall.
Eventually, Midoriya, god bless the guy, summons up enough courage to break the silence.
“K-kaminari-S-san?”
“There’s no need for honorifics,” Denki says instantly, then winces the moment he realizes just how much he sounds like Nedzu. He smiles what is hopefully an easy-going smile. “We’re classmates, after all,”
“Well, uh, Kaminari - All Might said that the two of us might just maybe be working together after school? I might be wrong so I’m sorry I really hope I’m not being pushyoroverbearingoranythingIdon’twanttoseemrudeor-”
“Midoriya, dude.” Denki says. No matter how many times he hears it, he never gets used to Midoriya’s word-vomit skills. “Chill. You’re right. All-Might and I talked about it - we’re gonna train together after school today, hopefully learn some new things about each other’s and our own quirks.”
“R-right,” Midoriya says. “Arigatou, Kaminari-San!”
“Didn’t I just say to drop the honorifics?” Denki asks. “Also, what the heck are you thanking me for?”
“For agreeing to train with me! I know I can be a little bit of a handful and a bit much to deal with especiallywihtmycrazyquirkthatbreaksmybonesandAizawaSenseialreadyhatesmeandgodsI’msobadatthisherothing-”
“Midoriya.” Denki rubs his temples. “Okay, firstly, there’s no need to thank me. We’re going to be helping each other out. It’s a symbiotic relationship, y’know? No thanks needed. Secondly, though your quirk is incredibly crazy, it’s also really cool. So don’t feel down about that. My quirk’s also uncontrollable too - that’s exactly why we’re helping each other out. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. Thirdly, Aizawa-Sensei doesn’t hate you, he cares about you, which is why he gets annoyed when you break your bones - because he doesn’t want to see you hurt. I know he’s scary, but he truly has your best interests in heart,” Denki takes a deep breath. “Finally. Try to slow down a little when you’re talking, alright? You can also speak with more confidence. You also don’t have to say sorry literally every other word. You have nothing to be sorry about, alright?”
Midoriya blinks.
“A-alright,” He says. “Arigatou, Kaminari!”
“I’m sure somewhere in that tangent of mine I told you that there was no need to thank me?”
“Right,” Midoriya admits bashfully. “Sorry. Um, any-anyways, All Might told me to tell you that we’re gonna train after school at Ground Beta, so - whenever you’re ready you can meet us there if that works for you of course I don’t wanna impose-”
“That works fine,” Denki interjects smoothly. “In fact, it sounds perfect.”
“R-really?”
“Really. And I’d love to continue this conversation, but we probably should hurry. I really don’t wanna miss anymore class. I’m already behind enough as it is.
“That’s probably a good idea.” Midoriya agrees.
If there’s one thing Denki can appreciate about Midoriya, it’s the fact that he never asked. Midoriya never asked why he left class, why he disappeared, why he missed so much class in the first place. Midoriya never asked why he showed up to Recovery Girl with scratches on his throat and blood under his nails, why he’s now walking back to class with bandages wrapped snugly around his neck.
Midoriya never asked.
Unfortunately, the rest of Class 1-A is not nearly that considerate.
--
2:55 PM
Wednesday, April 12th, XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
For the rest of the day, Denki is bombarded with questions, all throughout class. The worst part is - Denki can’t even bring himself to be mad at his fellow students, for he knows, with perfect clarity, that if their situations had been reversed, Denki would’ve been doing the exact same thing. He’s a curious guy by nature. So is the rest of Class 1-A, evidently, and he can’t fault them for that.
(it’s funny, how much more self aware time travel makes a person. Really, it’s all doing wonders for Denki’s self-esteem)
It’s unnerving, at first, uncomfortable, Denki would go as far as to say suffocating. But it gets better, gets easier, and sooner or later Denki finds comfort in the attention, finds comfort in the fear of something that isn’t death.
Denki finds comfort in the way the lies spill from his lips, easy and careful and perfect.
The class passes by without much information sinking into his head - (like they always would, even before the USJ) - and soon enough, the class comes to an abrupt end and Aizawa-Sensei steps up onto the podium-like structure in the front of the class.
“Before we dismiss you,” Aizawa-Sensei says. “I have a quick announcement to make. Class 1-B will receiving the exact same announcement at this very moment - the information I’m about to give you is meant for your two classes and your two classes only, so I don’t want to hear anyone talking about this outside of class.”
Curious mumbles spread through the class, hushed whispers and inquisitive eyes.
“As I’m sure you all noticed, there was a security breach earlier this afternoon, during your lunch period. Many of you acted admirably in keeping order - just as a reminder, it’s always important to remain calm during scenarios like these. Panicking is illogical and only serves to worsen the situation.” Several heads turn towards Iida, who beams at the recognition.
“You’ve probably heard that the cause of the alarm was a media break-in. It wasn’t. This was the work of a villain,”
The whispers turn into loud exclamations, panic and something else. Meanwhile, Denki sits and he smiles, happy his words were taken into account.
“UA has the scenario under control, and we are currently working on identifying and apprehending the villain in charge of the attack. In the meantime, we’ll be improving security around campus. There is nothing, I repeat, nothing, to worry about - but the decision of the UA staff was that you deserved to know, so here I am.,”
“Wait!” Iida yells. “If there has been a villain attack, would it not be prudent to inform the entire school of the potential danger? Why just our two classes?”
“The villain in question stole class schedules for both Class 1-A and Class 1-B. Your classes are the only ones directly affected, which is why we’re telling you in the first place. We don’t know enough about the situation, so we’re keeping it private to prevent panic. If you have any other questions, you can - don’t ask me, actually. Ask Nedzu, or any other staff member, they’ll probably know more than I will. That’s all for now. Class dismissed,” With that, Aizawa-Sensei strides out of the room, without one look back, one look towards the chaos he instigated.
Class 1-A jumps out of their seats, converging into groups. Denki takes that as his chance - his chance to get the hell out of there before someone inevitably comes up to him. Not that he can actually leave the school - he has to meet with Midoriya and All Might. But he can at least lurk around campus, away from other people for the next ten minutes - Aizawa let them out early, after all.
Denki doesn’t get very far with that plan, unfortunately. Almost as soon as he darts towards the door, a silhouette with periwinkle dots in shadows of a face waiting by the hall catches Denki’s eyes.
Monoma.
Well. Denki contemplates turning and walking back to his seat, when he hears a loud and bright;
“Kaminari-Kun!” The voice garners both Monoma and Kendo’s attention. They all turn around, towards Ashido, who comes running towards them.
She grabs Denki’s arm, dragging him outside the classroom to where Monoma and Kendo are standing.
“Isn’t this crazy?” Ashido exclaims. “A villain, an actual villain broke into UA,”
“Yeah,” Denki mumbles. “I guess you three were right. Thanks for knocking some sense into me, back then,” And Denki seriously means that. The more he thinks about it - Tomura Shigaraki had been here, in UA. He would’ve avoided places crowded by students, to avoid being caught, so Denki had been safe amongst crowds of other kids, with Ashido, Monoma, and Kendo. But if Denki had stayed, stayed there, in the cafeteria, alone, there was always the chance he would’ve run into Shigaraki.
He wouldn’t have made it out of that encounter alive, so he’ll be eternally grateful to these three.
“It was no problem, Kaminari,” Kendo says.
“That’s what friends are for, no?” Ashido asks. “Anyways. While the whole villain thing is in-sane, we have more important things to talk about.”
“We do?” Kaminari, Monoma and Kendo speak in unison.
“Yeah,” Ashdio replies. “Obviously. We never got to finish our conversation - Kaminari, you never got around to telling us why you hate Class 1-A!”
“Right!” Monoma declares. “That’s true.”
“Well, Kaminari?” Three pairs of eyes swivel towards Denki, and he swallows nervously.
“Didn’t I spend the entire lunch period explaining why I don’t hate you guys?”
“Your explanation was sort of lackluster, Kaminari,” Kendo tells him.
“Oh, come on!”
“She’s right,” Monoma agrees. “All you did was deny the prospect. You never gave any other plausible reason to support yourself, no reason to explain your behavior towards your class other than resentment,”
“Yeah!” Ashido crows. “What he said!”
“Also,” Monoma adds on second thought. “What’s with the bandages? Did Class 1-A have extra, exclusive training today? As expected from-”
“Nope!” Denki interrupts quickly. “No. We didn’t - this wasn’t - nope.” Monoma’s eyes narrow. “It wasn’t, I swear! This happened during English!”
“What sort of english classes are you having?” Kendo asks. “Is Present Mic really that crazy?”
“No, that’s not -” Denki sighs. “It happened during English but the reason why it happened is completely unrelated to English as a class,” Monoma’s eyes narrow further.
“You’re being evasive,”
“I’m always evasive,” Denki retorts.
“That’s not really helping your point, Kaminari,” Kendo points out.
“We can talk about Kaminari’s mysterious injuries and mysterious breakdowns-
“Breakdowns?”
“-later on, but right now, I want Kaminari to stop avoiding my questions! Seriously, what’s up with you, man? We all think you’re pretty cool but you avoid all of us like the plague and I wanna know why!”
Denki stares at Ashido for a few seconds.
“You guys think I’m cool?”
Ashido stares back, incredulous.
“Is that the only thing you got from that entire rant?”
Denki winces.
“Look,” He says. “I don’t hate you guys, I really don’t, it’s just-” I’ve seen you all die before and I can’t look at your faces without seeing vivid images of your dead bodies. “-it’s just, I kinda feel insecure around you all,” Denki blurts out.
Ashido’s face contorts in confusion. “What.”
“Well, it’s just - y’know my quirk, right?”
“Right,” Ashido says with a nod. “The badass electricity,”
“Not so badass, actually,” Denki admits. “I don’t have a lot of control over it, so I can’t use it well without hurting myself and others. Compared to the rest of you guys, the best of the best, I’m kind of … pathetic, y’know?” Denki’s on a stream, now, he really is.
“Pathetic,” Ashido echoes, almost mindlessly.
“I know it’s stupid of me,” Denki says. “And I know it’s no excuse to treat you all so coldly, but I just - I’ve got nothing going for me. I’m not smart, I never have been - my ADHD gets in the way of everything. I’m a defect, can’t even use my own quirk properly - I just feel so out of place here. I’m sorry,”
Ashido gapes.
“You - you - are you kidding me right now?”
“Uh …” shit, was that not believable enough? Denki had spoken from the heart, so he’d hoped that would’ve been enough to tide him through- “No?”
“You’re one of the coolest people I’ve ever met!” Ashido yells. “Your quirk, uncontrollable or not, is super cool. You’ve got this whole badass mysterious, quiet sort of vibe to you. You’re chill, you’re casual, but you’re also pretty smart. You stayed calm and composed during the alarms, even if you were wrong about the whole press thing. You’re not scared of Aizawa-Sensei, you did well on the quirk apprehension test, and you’re just - how could you be avoiding us all for a reason as stupid as that?”
“Erm,” Denki says intelligently.
“I have to agree with Ashido-San,” Kendo says. “You should be more confident in yourself,”
“1-A isn’t all that cool, anyways,” Monoma adds. “There’s no reason you should feel out of place,” Denki splutters.
“Right.” Denki manages between laughs. “Thanks, Monoma,”
“God,” Ashido says, shaking her head. “And here I thought you were some stuck-up jerk. How could you do this to me, Kaminari-Kun?”
“I - I mean-”
“Sh sh sh,” Ashido interrupts. “I don’t even want to hear it. It’s already settled,”
“What’s settled?”
“You need to make some friends,” Ashido tells him. “We should all meet up somewhere after school - Monoma and Kendo included. I still have to convince Monoma that Class 1-A is the fucking best,”
“Ha!” Monoma mocks. “As if,”
“That would be fun,” Kendo agrees.
“I can invite some other Class 1-A kids too. That way, you can get to know us all better - seriously, we're not nearly as cool as you seem to think we are. We’re all just teenagers, normal teenagers,”
“I really appreciate this, Ashido,” He says. “But I can’t,” Ashido frowns.
“Why the fuck not?”
“I have to meet with All Might today, after school,” He explains. Three pairs of eyes turn towards him, once again.
“All Might?!” Kendo and Monoma exclaim.
"Damn, still so unfair that 1-A gets All Might and we don't," Monoma mutters.
“Why?” Ashido inquires. Well, Denki could say quirk training, but he really doesn’t want to mention Midoriya - that would lead to more questions, and it seems that Midoriya and All-Might are trying to hide their mentor-student relationship …
“I told you I felt I was behind on a lot of things, right? Well All Might’s helping me catch up on some things - classwork, quirk training the likes. We’re meeting today, after school.” Denki’s web of lies is really growing - though this one isn’t a lie, not entirely. A half-truth, more like.
“Ah, shit,” Ashido says. “Well, that makes sense. How about tomorrow, then? We can go out for boba - there’s a really good place near here that I know,”
Denki should say no.
He really, really should say no. He doesn’t want to get close to people, he doesn’t know if he can handle it.
He doesn’t know if he’ll even make it through Thursday at all. He doesn’t know if any one of them will.
He should say no.
“That sounds perfect,” He says instead. “Does that work for you two as well?”
“Yup,” Monoma pops the p. “Normally I wouldn’t associate myself with your class, but Kaminari, you’re at least relatively decent,” Denki blinks.
He is?
“I would enjoy coming,” Kendo adds. “Even if it’s just to make sure Monoma doesn’t get out of hand,”
“Hey!”
“Well,” Denki says. “I’ve probably got to get going. I’ll see you all tomorrow, then?”
“See ya!” Ashdio grins, and Denki’s heart twists.
It’s going to be okay. Everything was going to be okay.
He’s going to make it through the USJ, and hell - they probably aren’t going to go out for boba, not tomorrow, but - he’ll make sure they’re all alive to go out another day.
USJ, here he comes.
---
3:10 PM
Wednesday, April 12th, XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
Ground Beta
“Alright,” Denki drawls. “So. What exactly are we supposed to be doing?” All Might, Midoriya, and Denki himself are standing awkwardly in a circle by the entrance to one of the literal skyscrapers that make up Ground Beta.
“I’m not really sure,’ All Might admits. “I’ll be the first to admit - well, maybe second, after Aizawa, that I don’t really have much teaching experience. I figured the two of you will be able to help each other out somehow?”
“Somehow,” Denki echoes.
“Just try your best,” All-Might tries. “You two can use this space however you please - it’s practically been built to be destroyed, so don’t worry about that. Try not to cause each other too much harm - and Midoriya, I would appreciate it if you attempted to keep the bone-breaking to a minimum? Recovery Girl’s one injury away from castrating me.” At that, Denki chuckles. “I don’t want this to seem awkward, so I’m just gonna step out to the side - I’ll be around, so just call out if you need me,”
All Might does just that, disappearing in a split second, and Denki can’t help but feel slightly peeved. Sure, No. 1 hero and all, but he definitely wasn’t joking when he said he wasn’t the best at teaching.
“So,” Denki says. “Hey, Midoriya,”
“H-hey,” Midoriya pauses. “I - I think we’re supposed to be talking about quirks?”
“Yup,” Denki agrees. “I think so. I’m not sure about the specifics, but …”
“All Might said you might be able to help me with uh, with my quirk? I think that’s what he said, at least…”
“No, no, you’re right, I’m just afraid he was ever so slightly … Well, wrong. I’m really not sure how much I’ll help I’ll be - I was really just comparing our quirks,”
“Really?” Midoriya asks. “How? Anything you say might be of help,”
“Well, I just -” Denki pauses. “Hmm. I’m supposed to be helping you control your quirk, right?”
“Or at least avoid breaking my bones,” Midoriya offers. “I still can’t figure out a way to use my quirk properly,” Midoriya looks down at the floor. “I know. It’s stupid.
“No, it’s not. Neither can I remember? That’s kinda why I’m here,” Denki leans back. “Well. Maybe I’ll be able to help a little more if you explain your quirk to me?”
“It- it’s uh, actually really simple,” Midoriya admits. “A strength enhancement quirk,”
“I’ve gotten that much,” He tells Midoriya dryly. “But how does it work?”
“I-I guess I just have a lot of excess energy inside,” Midoriya says in explanation. “I can feel it, within me. I just have to call upon it, if that makes sense? Force it outside of me by channeling it into certain body parts. But if I use too much of that energy, it’ll strain and break my body - hence the broken bones and all.”
“Ah,” Denki says. “Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. That’s actually really similar to how my quirk works - I just have excess electricity rather than strength,” Denki tilts his head. “Well, you’ve probably already thought about this - but I mean, why do you only channel it into certain body parts?”
Midoriya stares.
“What?”
“I mean, you only put in your power into like, punches, for example, like how All Might does, but, uh - why? Is it like a specific requirement of your quirk or something?” Midoriya’s still looking at him like he’s got a second head, so Denki continues. “Well, I mean, couldn’t you just … spread the energy out? If it’s too much strain on individual body parts,you could do what I do - spread the energy over the entire surface of your body.” Midoriya still doesn’t say anything. “Midoriya? Dude? Are you alright?”
“Kaminari!” Midoriya practically screeches, all semblance of social anxiety gone. “You’re a genius!”
“I - I am?” Denki asks.
“It all makes sense now!” Midoriya crows. “It’s like a microwave! A plate, in a microwave!”
“Huh?” Did his classmate hit his head or something?
“Kaminari, don’t you understand?” No, he really didn’t. “I’m a taiyaki!”
“Er … Midoriya, I’m not sure what I said wrong, but I’m pretty sure you aren’t a cake - or any type of food, just in general. Like, 99% sure. Maybe 95% sure. 90? The point is, I don’t think you’re edible.” Midoriya laughs awkwardly, seemingly coming down from … whatever that was.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Midoriya says awkwardly. “I - it’s like a large plate, in a turning microwave, y’know?”
“You don’t put large plates in a microwave,” Denki retorts, almost mindlessly. “They won’t turn,”
“Exactly, Kaminari, exactly! The plate won’t turn!”
“Erm,” Denki stares. “I have to admit, I’m a bit lost here, Midoriya,”
“That’s alright!” The greenette says with a sunny grin. And then he goes into full-speed mumble, words speeding like bullets past his lips, hands waving wildly.
“Midoriya, are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m better than okay,” Midoriya tells him. “I’ve seen the light. See, it’s exactly as you said, Kaminari. You don’t put large plates into a microwave. Let’s say you’re microwaving a taiyaki - because the plate won’t turn, only parts of the taiyaki will get warm. I’ve been trapping my energy into single body parts, putting a large plate into the microwave of my quirk! I thought that’s what I needed to do to control it, but I was wrong - I don’t need the plate at all! All I need is the microwave and the taiyaki, spreading that heat evenly across the taiyaki and warming it!”
“Right,” Denki finally says. “I guess that makes sense,”
“Wait, wait, let me try it! Kaminari, you might want to take a couple steps back,” Denki does that gladly, taking large bounds away from the green-haired teen. Midoriya takes a deep breath, eyes fluttering shut and lips pursed tightly. For a few seconds, Denki thinks nothing’s gonna happen - and then, all of a sudden, green.
The veins under Midoriya pulse turning a bright green, unadulterated energy flowing under his skin. Green electricity begins to crackle from his skin like the beginnings of static. “Five percent,” He hears Midoriya whisper under his breath. The electricity grows stronger, and stronger, until it’s solid and thick, wrapping around him with large tendrils of green.
“Woah,” Midoriya says, eyes flickering open as he takes a look at his own body.
“Woah is right,” Denki replies, equally awestruck. “What the heck, Midoriya? You’re freaking awesome!” Midoriya smiles, then the tendrils flicker, and the green begins to fade. For a second, Midoriya just stands there, seemingly too shocked to make a sound.
And then;
“All Might!” Midoriya screams. “All Might I did it! I can control One for All now! I used my quirk without breaking my bones! All Might!”
All Might comes rushing around the corner of the building, startled.
“Midoriya-Shōnen, are you alrig-”
“All Might!” The boy practically sobs. “I did it!” All Might seems to understand the subtext.
“That’s wonderful, my boy,” He looks up at Denki. “Thank you, Kaminari-Shōnen. I told you you would be of help, didn’t I?”
“I guess you were right,” Denki admits with a shrug. “Midoriya, that was so incredible, your quirk really is ridiculously cool,” Denki laughs. He feels warm and … content, almost, at being able to help a classmate. Midoriya seems leagues away from Denki, and in a sense, he still is, but it feels … different, now. A good different, though. “Not to ruin the moment, or anything, but I have to ask - what’s the deal with you two? You guys seem pretty close. Did you know each other before? Also, what’s One for All?”
Midoriya and All-Might stiffen, simultaneously. The action is almost contagious, for Denki feels an instantaneous need to do the same, shoulders tensing imperceptibly.
“What?” All-Might asks.
“What you just yelled, Midoriya,” Denki continues, albeit warily. “You were all like ‘All Might! I did it! I can control One for All now!’. What was that all about?”
“One for All, it’s, well.” Midoriya hesitates. “It’s my quirk,”
“Huh?” Denki frowns. “Isn’t your quirk strength enhancement?”
“It is,” Midoriya confirms. “I just call it One for All. That’s what I named it.”
“Oh,” Denki replies. “Is there a particular reason, or …?”
“Well, I’ve always wanted to be a hero,” Midoriya explains. “And with this strength, well, it’s not just my own. I want to be able to use my strength for everybody, for it to be a power for everyone. Hence, ‘One for All’.”
“Wow. How ... profound of you, Midoriya," Midoriya shrugs.
“As for our connection,” All Might continues. “You’re right. I did know Midoriya before UA - I saved him from a villain attack around a year ago,”
“To, uh, to clear this story up a bit,” Midoriya elaborates. “It’s probably important to tell you - I’ve been quirkless for, uh, well, most of my life,” Denki’s gaping is obvious this time around.
“What?!” Midoriya flinches ever so slightly, but Denki catches it.
“I, well, you’ve seen my quirk. It’s too powerful for my body - even what you just saw, what you helped me with, was only around five percent of my real power. I can’t control more than that,”
“What the heck,” Denki can’t wrap his head around that - how powerful is his classmate, really?
“So my quirk prevented itself from activating to protect my body - if I’d gotten it earlier, I probably would’ve blown off my limbs,” This time around, it’s Denki’s turn to wince. “I actually only got it during the entrance exam - “ before Denki can even begin to fathom that, Midoriya continues. “ - and that’s all thanks to All Might, helping me train my body before the exam,”
“Ahh,” Denki nods. “That makes sense. I’m sorry for prying,”
“It’s no problem, Kaminari-Shōnen,” All Might reassures him. “Your curiosity is understandable,” Something stirs in Denki’s gut, but he keeps his mouth shut and smiles.
He can’t help but think, for the rest of the day, that All-Might and Midoriya were lying to him. Lying through their teeth, through pretty smiles and green electricity.
But Denki shakes off the thought.
What would they have to lie about?
---
8:05 AM
Thursday, April 13th, XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
Denki is calm.
No, calm isn’t the right word. Numb might suit him better.
It’s today. The USJ is today. Denki’s bones are stiff, he’s half-sure all the muscles in his face are dead, but the familiar panic that has, in a sense, become his most constant companion, is gone.
It’s unnerving, but in a strange way, it makes sense.
He either succeeds or he doesn’t.
(and it won’t matter if it doesn’t, for if he doesn’t he’ll just try again)
“Today’s training will be a little different,” Aizawa-Sensei says to start the class and Denki doesn’t even have to try hard to keep his heartbeat steady. He eyes Jirou from the corner of his vision.
“You’ll have four instructors. Myself, All Might, Midnight and another faculty member will be keeping tabs on you,” It’s not Snipe this time, Denki notes with that same sort of numbness. He forces the hope down - he won’t let himself feel anything, not yet.
“Sensei!” Iida yells. “What kind of training is this?”
“Sensei!” Iida yells. “What kind of training is this?”
“Rescue,” Aizawa explains.
“Rescue,” Aizawa explains. “You’ll be dealing with natural disasters, shipwrecks, things like that,” Aizawa-Sensei’s voice fades to the back of Denki’s mind like white noise - last time, the familiarity of everything, the identical sentences coming from Aizawa-Sensei had freaked him out. Now, he feels comfort.
He knows what is going to happen. That knowledge is a comfort as much as it’s a torture.
This special training’s at an off-campus facility.
“This special training’s at an off-campus facility-”
So we’ll be taking the bus to get there.
“-so we’ll be taking the bus to get there.” Denki doesn’t tremble. He doesn’t shake, he doesn’t panic. He just smiles, laughs with the crowd, cheers with his classmates.
He smiles through the numbness, through the worry, through the pain, and this time around, no one notices.
(not even Jirou)
---
8:30
Thursday, April 13th, XXXX
1713 Junkyōsha Avenue, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Yūei Kok’ō
He doesn’t sit next to Jirou, not this time around. The change is enough to snap him back into the here and now.
He still doesn’t panic, though. Ashido chatters away next to him, about this and that and Bakugou’s abs which - well, she’s not wrong. Bakugou’s got some ridiculous abs.
He either succeeds, or he doesn’t.
He either succeeds, or he doesn’t.
Denki repeats it like a mantra. There will be no consequences, even if he fails. No consequences, not for long. No consequences, as long as Denki dies.
(there will be a consequence. Denki’s consequence. Denki’s punishment. No matter how far he runs, how matter how much time rewinds, the memories never leave him. A blessing and a punishment, he thinks with a silent laugh. Crime and retribution. Maybe he’s really dead, and this is just his purgatory?)
He looks at Ashido, who’s moved on to ranting about Yaoyorozu’s ‘god given beauty’ (in Denki’s opinion, her beauty isn’t god given - after all, she’s the god here. She’s smart, she’s talented, she’s beautiful, and her quirk is out of this world. An unfair combination, if Denki’s being honest)
He doesn’t want Ashido to die, he realizes, which shouldn’t be a realisation at all. Denki tells himself that it doesn’t matter, for if everything goes wrong, he’ll just go back. (he doesn’t want to die). He can just bring her back.
He doesn’t want to see her die.
He doesn’t want to see Yaoyorozu die either.
Or Bakugou.
Or Midoriya.
Or anyone, really. (Denki doesn't want to die)
He wants to get through this, with a nasty shock and traumatic memories, but alive. He wants everyone to get out of here alive, no matter what it takes.
He wants to meet Ashido and Monoma and Kendo afterschool.
Oh, how Denki wants.
But in the end, it’s not up to him.
All-Might’s not on the bus. That’s not a testament to anything, given each time, All Might was supposed to meet them there.
No, it’s not up to Denki.
It’s up to All Might. Their lives are hanging in a tentative balance, and it all depends on whether All Might shows up to even out the scale.
Denki feels a laugh bubble up, force its way out of his lips, ugly, electric, and near hysterical.
All Might.
Denki laughs and laughs and laughs, ignoring the way Ashido eyes him warily.
In the end, it all comes down to All Might.
Notes:
I'll admit, there are parts of this chapter that I'm not entirely happy with - but I didn't want to wait any longer to post. I hope, if you got to this point, it was at least semi-decent and readable. Thanks for reading!
Chapter 5: if nothing lasts forever, will you be my nothing?
Summary:
USJ round 3
Notes:
... so, anyone remember my fever dream from the previous chapter?
Well, that obviously didn't go to plan, it's been over a month and I'm terribly sorry. That's just how it goes, sometimes. (I really need a concrete updating schedule, but honestly, I'd never be able to stick to it)
Anyways, it's USJ time! I'm completely unexperienced in writing fight/action scenes so this entire chapter might be complete crap buuuuut hopefully it at least makes sense and is relatively readable. I promise, next chapter we'll go back to the angst and the dialogue and the character interactions (the few things I'm actually in good at)
Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
if nothing lasts forever, will you be my nothing?
---
9:00 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
“In our superhuman society …”
Denki would be scared. He should be scared.
But Denki can’t bring himself to feel anything but safe, not with the No. 1 hero but a few feet away from him.
“… all Quirks are certified and stringently regulated. Because of that, we often overlook how unsafe they can actually be.”
Sure, he’s nervous, how could he not be?
Denki considers doing exactly what he did last time - warning them, giving them even just a few seconds of forewarning.
But he decides against it. He stays still, he stays quiet. This time around, he’ll let things run their course. For with All Might here, how could they possibly fail?
Yes, everything is going perfectly in Denki’s humble opinion. He knows, like always, Aizawa-Sensei will fight tooth and nail to keep them all safe. Midnight’s quirk will be incredibly helpful - Denki feels a thrill run under his skin just thinking about it. Against huge mobs of villains, Aizawa-Sensei is at a severe disadvantage, but with Midnight’s aid, he should be able to get out unscathed. (Alive, Denki corrects mentally. Maybe they’ll all come out of this with a few scars, but as long as everyone is alive, Denki will take it as a win)
“Please don’t forget that if you lose focus, or make the wrong move, your powers can be deadly …”
Denki is also incredibly grateful for a chance to get to listen, really listen, to Thirteen’s speech. After watching them die, he finds himself automatically treasuring every word they speak. They died protecting Denki, and the rest of Class 1-A like any true rescue hero would.
“… even if you’re trying to do something virtuous, like rescue someone.”
At the very least, he can appreciate their public-speaking skills. Battle-awareness (or lack thereof) aside, Thirteen knew how to give a damn good speech.
“Thanks to Aizawa’s fitness tests, you have a solid idea of your Quirk’s potential.”
At this point, though, Denki thinks he’s getting pretty close to having their entire speech memorised. He imagines how the class would react, if he were to stride into the USJ and give Thirteen’s speech before they could.
It’d be hilarious, even if just for a little while.
“And because of All Might’s combat training, you likely experienced how dangerous your powers can be when used against other people.”
Maybe, just maybe, after this is over, Denki can take some time to relax. Return to the person he used to be, y’know? Back to the person he was before all of this.
The extrovert, the joker, the class clown. Unable to express that side of him, Denki felt like a part of a whole, missing his core.
“Carry those lessons over to this class. Today, you’re going to learn how to use your Quirks to save people’s lives.”
Maybe once this was all over, he could go back to the old him.
Was that even possible?
“You won’t be using your powers to attack enemies or each other, only to help.”
Denki knows this really isn’t the time to spend being introspective. He’s sure, by now, the League of Villains is already here, waiting for the perfect chance to strike.
But, let’s be honest here, Denki would rather not think about that. He doesn’t want to go through all this shit again, but he knows he has to, so he’s doing everything he can to take his mind off of it.
Hopefully, this will be the last time.
No, not hopefully - it will be. With All Might here, it will be.
(it has to be)
“After all, that’s what being a hero is all about. Ensuring the safety of others.”
The claps are loud, loud enough to drown out his thoughts.
But not for long, for they soon come back with a vengeance after what happens next. Or, more accurately, what doesn’t.
Because nothing happens. Absolutely nothing. Now, normally, that would be a sign of good things to come, but-
Where the hell are they?
If Denki’s memory is correct, and it is, the League of Villains showed up right after Thirteen finished their speech.
But they’re not here. There’s no shadow-portal, no Tomura Shigaraki, nothing. Which is, in the mildest terms, concerning.
Something is wrong. Something is terribly, horribly wrong, and Denki feels that numbness dissolve into fresh, bleeding panic.
Denki knows the future, that is his biggest asset, but right now, things aren’t going the way they’re supposed to.
Denki’s knowledge is his power and that power has just been stolen away from under his nose.
Denki sucks in ragged breaths as he attempted to re-salvage some of his control, some of his apathy, but he can’t.
Alright.
Alright.
Denki really needs to get a hold of himself.
So. Fuck letting things run their course. Maybe the villains are, for some unidentifiable reason, late. That just means Denki has a chance to prevent the tragedy in its entirety, right?
Of course, if they weren’t late in any of his other loops, this means Denki must’ve done something to trigger that. But what could he have done?
What has he done?
Something has gone terribly wrong and Denki just can’t figure out what the fuck it is -
“Kaminari, for the love of god, is this another panic attack?”
Denki jumps back in surprise as Aizawa-Sensei’s face materialises right in front of his own.
“What the heck?!” Denki exclaims. “Don’t just sneak up on people like that!”
Aizawa-Sensei arches an eyebrow.
“I wasn’t sneaking,” He refutes. “I was standing right in front of you. Are you alright?”
“Fine, fine,” Denki manages, waving a dismissive hand. “Just lost in thought.”
“Right,” Aizawa-Sensei says, disbelieving. “Well, the class is splitting up into groups, groups I just recited and asked you to split up into.”
“Oops,” Denki mumbles with a sheepish smile. “Sorry about that. What are the groups again?” Nothing’s happened yet. They're splitting up into groups but nothing’s happened yet.
Are the League of Villains just not coming at all?
But why? None of this makes any sense.
“You, Midoriya, Yaoyorozu, Aoyama, and Tokoyami are a group. Later on, after some of the more important exercises, you’ll split up to work independently with All Might in the Mountain Zone.”
“Ah,” Denki closes his eyes for a brief second. “Right. Thank you,” Still no sign of the League. Denki can barely breathe with the anticipation that is still stuck in his ribcage. It’s not a nice feeling, a nasty conglomeration of negative emotions beating up against his bones.
“Kaminari,” Aizawa-Sensei repeats. “Are you sure there’s nothing wrong?”
“No!” Denki interrupts shrilly. “Shit, wait. I meant yes. I think. Yes, I’m sure, everything’s splendid, what the hell am I saying?”
“Ahh, the apprehensiveness of youth!” Denki bit back a scream, squeezing his eyes shut for a second to avoid glaring daggers at Midnight. His nerves were frayed enough as it was, he didn’t need this. “I remember the days when I was but a child, too scared to approach my homeroom teacher. There’s really nothing to be afraid of, Kaminari. Shota over here’s a big ‘ol softie on the insi-”
“Nemuri,” Aizawa-Sensei interrupts. “Shut up.”
“How cold, Shota!” Midnight whines. “Anyways, kid, what’s wrong? You’ve seemed pretty out of it.”
“Everything,” Denki replies - and he isn't lying. “Everything is wrong and I hate everything.”
“Ahh, you sound just like Shota in his teenage emo phase!”
“Nemuri-”
“I don’t think he ever actually grew out of it,” Midnight notes with a sharp-toothed smile. “The stories I could tell you, Kaminari, oh the stori-”
“Kaminari-San,” Yaoyorozu, unlike others, at least has the courtesy to tap his shoulder to warn him of her presence. Aizawa and Midnight stop their bickering as Denki turns around to face Yaoyorozu. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but are you ready? I don’t mean to rush you, but Thirteen is waiting, so if you are ava-,”
Denki was trying to listen to Yaoyorozu, he really was, but his attention was quickly snatched away at a hint of purple appearing in the corner of his eyes.
Familiar, dark, swirling purple.
“Midnight, behind you!” Denki yells as a bullet, a projectile, some sort of deadly-looking weapon spun from the darkness, missing Midnight by a hair's breadth and sailing over the heads of the rest of Class 1-A.
In seconds, All Might, Thirteen, Aizawa-Sensei and Midnight are all tensed, battle crouches with weapons out as they turn to face the new threat.
From the darkness emerges an eye, bloody and glowing.
The anticipation, the panic disappears, replaced with dread, terror, relief.
Denki fought back both a panic attack and a smile.
The League of Villains had arrived.
---
9:13 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Flood Zone
Denki’s electricity lashes under his skin, practically begging to be let out as his panic rises and he sinks further under the water. Water and Electricity - never a good combination.
Denki and Drowning wasn’t a good combination either. Denki and dying was probably the worst.
Denki understood now, why everything had been wrong. It was because of Midnight. Midnight’s quirk is, apparently, the perfect one for dealing with hordes of villains such as the lot the League of Villains had brought along.
Midnight was an unexpected player, a hidden power-up, and the League of Villains had attempted to take her out of the game before it even began.
They failed.
It was about then when Denki had had hope that everything would be alright.
But then;
Tomura Shigaraki, red-eyed and vicious.
“I’ll scatter you across this facility-”
Kurogiri, yellow-eyed and sly.
“To meet my comrades-”
And a group of heroes - All Might, Midnight, Aizawa-Sensei - the best of the best who only realised what was happening when it was much too late.
“And your deaths-”
Then the floor, disappearing as portals appeared beneath their feet.
Denki hadn’t had time to react, not like last time. He hadn’t been able to do anything - just watch as the world fell away under his feet and he went crashing down into nothingness.
And he kept falling, through the nothingness, continuously and endlessly until it was almost a relief when the black ended and cold air whipped against his face.
Denki plummeted through the air, the water breaking his fall as he slammed straight into the ocean.
the Flood Zone, Denki thinks mindlessly as he begins to sink.
Which leaves him here, now, sinking through the water as other silhouettes flicker around him. Denki is so dazed, so disoriented that, for a good few seconds, he forgets about the whole ‘not drowning’ thing and lets his body fall, lifelessly.
And then his situational awareness and survival instincts kick back in and he starts kicking at the water furiously, hand clawing nothing in an attempt to regain the air he’s lost.
Denki knows how to swim but he’s too panicked, and nothing’s coming out right. He’s kicking and heaving but nothing changes - his lungs keep burning until they’re ready to burst, his electricity is halfway through his skin and ready to explode.
And then a flash of green - no, a glow of it, and a hand grasps around his and suddenly he’s being pulled towards the surface.
Water meets air and Denki gasps, choking out mouthfuls of water as he breathes in a mouthful of sweet, sweet air. There are tears on his cheeks - or that could just be remnants of the water.
“Kaminari!” Midoriya whisper-yells. “Are you alright?”
A few more coughs, a few more hacks, and Denki sucks in one, last, deep breath that shakes his diaphragm and rattles his ribcage.
“Yeah,” He croaks out, arms whirring under him as he begins to tread water. “Did anyone fall here with us?”
“I think all of us in the same group fell through the same portal,” Midoriya explains. Since we were all grouped up together,”
“Ah,” Denki realizes. “Where is everyone else?”
“Midoriya-San!” Someone yells. “Kaminari-San!” He and Midoriya spin around, eyes following the voice to a large white boat floating in the middle of the simulation-ocean. Aboard it stands Yaoyorozu, Aoyama, and Tokoyami.
“I guess that answers your question, Kaminari,” Midoriya replies. “We should probably get out of the water,”
“Good idea,” Denki agrees.
“Here,” Midoriya says, offering Denki an arm. “You look a little worse for wear. I don’t want you to go back under."
“Thanks, Midoriya,” Midoriya beams -how can he be smiling, at a time like this? How can he smile, so happily, so genuinely? Denki can’t even begin to fathom it.
It takes a rope, and the combined strength of Aoyama, Yaoyorozu, Tokoyami and Dark Shadow to get them aboard the boat, but they make it.
“Are you two alright?” Yaoyorozu questions, eyes scanning over both of them. “I can make medical supplies if either of you require them,”
“Don’t waste your juice,” Denki heaves. “I’m fine.”
“I’m also alright!” Midoriya asks. “Thank you, Yaoyorozu-San,”
“No problem, Midoriya-San,” Yaoyorozu replies.
“What do we do now?” Denki finds himself asking. “Do we just wait around here?”
“We can’t do that!” Midoriya protests. “The heroes might need our help!”
“All Might, AIzawa-Sensei, and Midnight are all there,” Denki refutes, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach. “We’d only get in their way,”
Along with the students, Kurogiri had scattered other villains to deal with them. Just like the first time, when Denki fell into the Mountain Zone.
But there were no villains here.
Had they just gotten lucky?
Maybe Denki was just being pessimistic, but he really didn’t think that was the case.
“All that awaits us there is darkness and death,” Tokoyami agrees. “I agree with Kaminari. I do not believe it would be wise for us to venture towards an area with danger awaits. We are safe here.”
“I’m not so sure about that part,” Denki admits. “Kurogiri said ‘I'll scatter you across this facility to meet my comrades and your deaths’. Doesn’t that imply that there would be someone waiting here for us?”
“You’re right,” Yaoyorozu agrees with a frown. “I wonder what’s going on."
“Either way,” Denki continues. “It’s probably safer here than back where Aizawa-Sensei and the other heroes are. Did you see those villains?”
“We should help Aizawa-Sensei and Midnight-Sensei, though!” Midoriya insists.
“Midoriya may be right!” Aoyama declares. “They came here to kill All Might, did they not? They must have some sort of dastardly plan to achieve such a feat."
“Fumi!” Dark Shadow crows.
“Not now, Dark Shadow,” Tokoyami says, barely sparing his companion a glance.
“They’re well-trained heroes, Midoriya-San,” Yaoyorozu tells him. “And Aoyama-San, All Might is the No. 1 hero.I ’m sure they’ll be fine.”
“As I said,” Denki repeats. “We’ll only get in their way."
“There has to be a reason, though,” Yaoyrozu mumbles. “For them to be so confident. It’s concerning, at the very elast.”
“But,” Denki continues, shooting Midoriya a glance. “If these villains have some power on par with All Might, then we’d have no chance against them anyway."
“Fumi!” Dark Shadow repeats. “Fuuumi~”
“Hush for a bit, Dark Shadow,” Tokoyami orders as Aoyama begins to speak.
“It’s not very hero-like-” Aoyama starts. “Or honorable, for us to hide.”
“Would you rather die?” Denki questions, almost harshly. “That kind of stuff doesn’t really matter as much here. There’s no one watching but the villains that broke in here, who are, in case you haven’t noticed, trying to kill us.”
Aoyama pauses. “You’re right, mon ami,” Aoyama agrees. “I apologize. That was stupid of me,”
”Fumi!” Dark Shadow yells one final time. ”There’re people! Bad people!”
“Dark Shadow?” Tokoyami turns towards his companion as their discussion trails off.
”Bad people!” Dark Shadow repeats. “Bad people in the water!”
Five pairs of eyes swivel to the water around them, and sure enough, there are people.
Bad people.
Villains.
Hordes of them, surrounding the boat like sharks having just scented blood.
They begin to close around the ship with jeers and shouts and Denki and the others instinctively back away from the railing.
The heroes would defeat the villains, there was absolutely no question about that. The only question here was whether they could do it fast enough to save the lives of Denki and the other members of Class 1-A in the process.
---
9:17 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Mountain Zone
“They … aren’t attacking,” Denki realizes after a few, fearful seconds. And it’s true - the villains have surrounded the boat, blocking all pathways for escape, but they don’t move. They stay quiet, a conglomeration of deadly intent but cautious hesitance.
“What on earth are they waiting for?” Aoyama questions as the five hero students continue to back away slowly. They don’t have anywhere to go, though, something Denki is realizing quite suddenly.
Is this how he’s going to die, this time around? Is he going to drown to death? Be ripped apart by the sharp teeth of the shark villain, speared through by the claw-tipped fingers of another?
However he goes, Denki decides, he wants it to be painless. He wants it to be quick.
Most of all, he doesn’t want to have to remember it.
But he will.
He knows he will.
“They’re … waiting,” Yaoyorozu repeats. “For us. They’re waiting for us to attack them, first.”
“Whatever for?” Tokoyami questions. “I loathe to admit it but we are at a clear disadvantage here. They are trained villains, adults, and they outnumber us. Would it not be easy for them to do away with us?”
“They’re adults,” Midoriya murmurs. “That’s true. They have the advance, in terms of numbers, physical strength, and experience but -“
“But?” Denki prompts as Midoriya trails off into mumbling.
“There’s still one more important factor,” Midoriya continues. “Quirks,"
“That’s right!” Yaoyorozu explains, practically jerking forward in realisation. “Our quirks! They don’t know our quirks, so they’re being cautious. Waiting for us to reveal our quirks so they know what to deal with.”
“They won’t wait forever,” Denki warns. “They’ll get tired soon enough.”
“We need a plan,” Yaoyorozu declares. “Eventually, they’ll attack us. We need a plan to defeat them.”
“How?” Denki asks. “How can we defeat all of them?”
“Our one advantage, of course,” Midoriya explains with a determined smile. “Our quirks.”
“For starters,” Yaoyorozu begins with a nod of agreement towards Midoriya. “Let’s all explain our quirks to each other. It’s important for us to get a sense of what we’re working with,” Nods and quiet murmurs of agreement. “I’ll start. My quirk is called ‘Creation’. I can create any non-living thing from my skin. I have to know the molecular structure of what object I’m making, so that is a limitation, but I have quite a large expanse of knowledge, so I’ll be able to make many different types of weapons and other useful objects.”
Denki recalls the insulin blanket from his first run of the USJ.
“How long?” He asks.
“I’m sorry?” Yaoyorozu tilts her head.
“How long does it take for you to make objects? If we’re in a fight, we’ll be on a time limit.”
“You’re right, Kaminari-San,” Yaoyorozu says with a nod. “I didn’t even think of that. It depends largely on the size of the object, along with the complexity of molecular structure. The bigger the object, the longer it takes. Smaller objects, like knives, spears, other sorts of weapons with simple molecular structures, I can make in a few seconds.”
“That’s a really cool quirk, Yaoyorozu-San,” Midoriya says. There’s a faint splattering of pink over Yaoyorozu’s cheeks - Denki would have thought she’d be used to hearing things like that, at this point in her life. Her quirk is supremely cool. “I’ll go next. My quirk is a strength enhancement quirk that, well, enhances my strength. As, uh, I’m sure you all know, my quirk is difficult to control and I’ve often broken my bones attempting to use it. Thanks to Kaminari, though, I’ve learned to use it without breaking my bones, so hopefully, I’ll be able to help out much more today."
“It seems you are very knowledgeable on quirks, Kaminari-San,” Tokoyami notes with a tilt of his yellow beak.
“Not really,” Denki admits with a shrug. “I just notice things.” Tokoyami narrows dark, dark eyes at him for a long stretch of silence, before eventually moving on.
“My quirk, as I’m sure is obvious, is my companion, Dark Shadow. He is sentient, with a mind of his own, so please refer to him by his name and not just as ‘Tokoyami’s Quirk’. It offends him.” Denki barks out a laugh.
“Of course,” He agrees. “It’s nice to meet you, Dark Shadow.” Dark Shadow whips around in what Denki thinks is excitement.
“Nice to meet you too, Denki!” Tokoyami sighs.
“Dark Shadow. You’re being rude.” Dark Shadow wilts. The sight makes Denki’s heart pang. Who knew a creature of darkness could be so cute?
“How?”
“You can’t refer to Kaminari by his first name. He hasn’t given you permission,” Tokoyami looks up towards Denki. “I’m sorry about him. He doesn’t care for Japanese traditions. Or any human traditions, actually."
“It’s fine,” Denki assures Tokoyami. “Really. He can call me Denki if he wants to, I don’t mind.”
“Anyways,” Tokoyami continues. “He is weak to light. With the darkness, he grows stronger. I’m afraid we won’t be of much help at the moment, at the peak of day."
“Me next!” Aoyama is like a child, Denki realizes. He reminds Denki of himself, and that’s a terribly annoying fact. “My quirk is called Navel Laser! It is rather self explanatory, is it not?”
“Your utility belt,” Denki mumbles. “Why do you have it?” Aoyama winces.
“My quirk wreaks havoc on my stomach when I use it!” Aoyama explains. “The utility belt helps me use it without, well … destroying my stomach,” Aoyama sighs. “It is ridiculous, I know."
“Not at all,” Denki finds himself saying. “I’m pretty similar to you, in that account. My quirk is called Electrification. I can discharge electricity and different voltages, but if I use too much electricity, I fry my own brain and leave myself helpless,” Denki laughs, sheepish and weak. “I don’t think I’ll be much help either. I can emit electricity in a range, but it’ll shock all you guys too, since I don’t control where it goes. To shock only the villains, I’d have to touch them directly and that might be little hard, give our current situation.”
“Actually,” Midoriya begins, eyes lighting up. “I think you’ll be a lot of help, Kaminari.” Denki raises an eyebrow.
“How so?”
“I’ve got a plan,” Midoriya declares. “Denki, how much electricity can you release without hurting yourself?”
“Anything under around a million volts,” Denki explains. “My strongest is 1.3 million volts - but I can already tell you I’m not doing that. It’ll fry my brain, and I don’t want to be helpless, not right now,”
He’s not going to have a repeat of last time.
“You won’t need to,” Midoriya assures him. “I think around 50 volts is enough to kill a normal person, and as heroes, we don’t want to kill. In terms of long range, though, we’ll need much more electricity, but the water should spread the current and amplify it. Yaoyorozu!”
“Yes, Midoriya-San?”
“Do you know how to make an electricity amplifier?” Yaoyorozu nods.
“I do,” Yaoyorozu says. “I’ll start making it now.”
“Wow,” Denki murmurs. “You really know everything, don’t you?”
“The plan is simple,” Midoriya says. “And it has to be enacted before they attack. If we use an electricity amplifier, Kaminari can channel his electricity into the device, then straight into the water, shocking all of the villains in the water with a strong enough voltage to knock them out. We can take that time to escape!”
“That’s perfect, Midoriya!” Denki exclaims. “Now we just have to-“
“Move!” Tokoyami yells, just as a large wave of water hits the boat, slicing straight through the middle. Midoriya and Yaoyorozu dive to one side of the cut, Tokoyami dragging Denki and Aoyama to the other.
“Fuck!” Denki yells as the boat shakes, the two halves of the boat shaking.
“Kaminari!” Midoriya yells. “We have to do this before we’re submerged in the water!”
“What the hell are they talking about?” Denki hears a villain snarl.
“Does Yaoyorozu have the amplifier?”
“They’re climbing the boat!” Aoyama yells shrilly. “If we’re going to do something we should do it now!”
“ Come out come out, little hero students!”
“Kaminari!” Yaoyorozu yells. “Catch!”
The amplifier, gray and circular with red, blue and yellow wires swirling from its edges.
“Everyone get away from the water!” He yells, just as one of the villains hops the railings.
“Well well well,” A red-haired woman with red eyes and a sharp-toothed smile drawls as she steps forward. Her movements are jerky and dislocated, almost, and, on the second look it becomes obvious that it’s not just water dripping from her arms - it’s her skin too. “Now what exactly are you going to do with that?”
Dark Shadow lashes at the women and his claws run straight through rippling liquid in the form of a human. Her face seems to bubble as she continues to laugh. Tokoyami recoils.
“Now, Kaminari!” Midoriya demands.
Denki grabs the wires. He barely feels as they dig into his skin, coating the edges in blood.
“How many volts?” Denki yells.
“Five hundred!” Midoriya screams back.
“Alright, here we go!” Denki closes his eyes, breaths in, and breathes the electricity out. He can feel it, thrumming through him, just as alive as Dark Shadow. It snakes through his arms, through his veins, down towards his hands and out his fingers. The amplifier begins to screech and shudder and shake.
“Heads up!” He yells, and chucks the device into the water.
The world lights up in yellow, and the boat falls apart.
---
9:23 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Flood Zone
For a few seconds, Denki genuinely thought he was dead.
As lights pushed aggressively against his eyelid, the sound of his breathing so faint he could barely hear it, Denki waited for Present Mic’s voice to cut through his eardrums.
Instead, what he got was intelligible, deafening screams.
“Kaminari!””
“Kaminari-San!
“Kaminari, wake up!”
”Kaminari!”
Denki jerks awake, eyes flying open and weak electricity crackling from his palm. Choking and heaving, Denki’s chest constricted as light stabbed his eyes.
He falls back towards the ground, arms over his head.
“Why’re you all so loud?”
And then it registers to Denki who’s sitting around him, where he is, and exactly what was going on.
It registers to Denki that he is not, in fact, dead, and he’s most definitely not back in his room, months in the past.
He’s still in the USJ with all the others and he isn’t dead yet!
Denki jerks back up into a sitting position, the blurry figures of Midoriya, Yaoyorozu, Aoyama, Tokoyami and Dark Shadow coming into focus.
“Huh,” Denki mumbles. “I’m alive."
“You are,” Yaoyorozu agrees. “I’m glad you’re alright, Kaminari-San. You worried all of us.”
“I think-” Denki says as he drinks in his surroundings - they haven’t gone far, all collected in a little group on the land right by the Flood Zone. “-that after what we’ve just been through, you can drop the honorifics.”
Yaoyrozu agrees with a smile, but her words drain away at the back of his head as Denki fully perceives the Flood Zone.
The wreckage of a boat, fitting for its name.
Then a river, littered with bodies floating to the surface, bobbing up and down. There’re fifty or sixty of them, all floating lifelessly.
Denki stumbles to his feet, ignoring the wave of dizziness and nausea that hit him like a sledgehammer, sudden and blunt with an impact force that should’ve sent him falling back to the ground. It’s only sheer force of will that keeps him standing.
“Are they-” Denki chokes on his words. “-they aren’t dead, are they?” A hand rests gently on his shoulder - it’s Tokoyami.
“They are not,” He says. “Simply unconscious. There is no need to worry, Kaminari-San,”
“How do you know?” Denki insists.
“I sent Dark Shadow to check,” Tokoyami explains. “He could not check all of them but if the electricity was not enough to kill half of them, it stands to reason that the other half should be fine, as well.”
“There’s nothing to worry about, Kaminari,” Yaoyorozu reassures him.
“You did just what I told you to,” Midoriya elaborates. “And I made sure it wouldn’t be enough volts to kill anyone. We are heroes, after all.”
“You were absolutely magnificent!” Aoyama declares.
Denki feels his heart rate slow, his electricity dying down as he sinks back to the ground. He sits cross-legged.
“Right,” He murmurs. “Thank you. I’m sorry, that was stupid of me."
“Nonsense!” Aoyama denies.
“It makes perfect sense,” Yaoyorozu agrees. “If any one of us were in your place, we’d be worried, too.” A pause. “And while, of course, I am glad they are alive, they are just unconscious which means eventually, they will wake up. I’m not sure how long it will take, but I believe it would be wise for us to get as far from here as possible."
“Where should we go?” Denki asks.
“Back to the central plaza.” Midoriya says immediately. “I know what you all said, about getting in the hero's way, but we should at least try to help where we can, right? I mean, we can’t stick around here, so we might as well.”
“Midoriya is right!” Aoyama declares.
“You might be right,” Denki agrees. “But I might have a better idea.”
“Oh?” Yaoyorozu questions.
“Midoriya’s right about two things,” Denki starts. “We can’t stay here - and we are heroes, so we should be trying our best to help.” Denki wants to go hide, wants to stay safe and get out of here alive. But he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he didn’t use his foresight to save everyone, not just himself. “Helping the heroes is one thing we could potentially do, but I still think we’d just be getting in their way. Aizawa-Sensei wouldn’t want us anywhere near the main villains - he’d only be worried about protecting us.” He’d seen that happen, more than once. Denki couldn’t let anything happen to his sensei. “And anyways, the heroes can take care of themselves. But our classmates? We’ve gotten lucky - we all have strong, offensive quirks, and we were in a situation that helped us make good use of them. There are plenty of our classmates with defensive quirks - people like Hagakure or Mineta or Koda - who are perfectly capable students but might be at a huge disadvantage right now.”
“Kaminari is right!” Aoyama declares. Quick to change sides there, Denki notes, but doesn’t comment. “We should most definitely assist our classmates!”
“That’s a good idea, Kaminari!” Midoriya agrees. “We should definitely help as many people as we can!”
“If I remember correctly from the layout map Thirteen had-” Yaoyorozu begins and Kaminari definitely doesn’t remember that. He supposes he was rather caught up in his own internal panic. “-all the different zones surround the Central Plaza in a circle. The Flood Zone is surrounded by the Downpour Zone, to our left, and the Conflagration zone.”
“The people in the conflagration zone might be at the worst disadvantage,” Denki theorizes. “Having to deal with active flames as well as different villains.”
“You’re right,” Midoriya agrees. “But Tokoyami might be weaker there - the flames might hurt Dark Shadow."
“We are at the peak of day,” Tokoyami repeats. “The sun is shining, and it will not go down anytime soon. In most of the zones, I will be at a disadvantage, so do not worry about Dark Shadow and I. We will make due.”
“None of us have quirks particularly suited for fire,” Midoriya notes. “Unless … Yaoyorozu, can you make a fire extinguisher?”
“Of course,'' she replies. “It was one of the very first things I learned. I figured it would be useful one day. It’ll be harder to make, since I do have to make the actual exterior as well as the carbon dioxide and nitrogen inside the extinguisher, but I can make one.”
“Can you make a hose?” Aoyama questions.
“No,” Yaoyorozu shakes her head. “Or, well, I suppose I could make the shape of it, but we don’t have a running water source, and I can’t make endless amounts of water.”
“A fire extinguisher might be helpful.” Denki agrees. “But isn't there a feature that keeps the flame burning?”
“It will have been deactivated now,” Midoriya points out. “If we were going to work there, we would have had to put out the fire somehow.”
“True,” Denki agrees. “ I do think the conflagration zone might be harder, but that just means our classmates there are suffering more.”
“That’s a good point,” Midoriya says with a nod. “We should head there now,”
“Would you like for me to make the extinguisher now or when we arrive?” Yaoyorozu questions.
“It’s better to be prepared,” Denki says. “You should make it now.”
“Alright,” Yaoyrozu agrees. “This should take around five minutes. Then we can head to the conflagration zone,”
“I can’t wait,” Denki murmurs.
---
9:27 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Conflagration Zone
Jirou, Uraraka, Ashido and Iida are shoulder to shoulder, forming a protective circle around a barely visible Tsuyu.
Gray-white acid flies through the air as Iida darts forward to directly take down villains with super-powered kicks. Jirou’s ear jacks are lashing around everywhere, and a good few Villains are floating aimlessly above aggressive flames, courtesy of Uraraka.
They work well as a team, but they are hopelessly outnumbered, Denki can tell.
They were losing.
“Alright,” Denki says from where the five of them are crouched behind a building, away from the main group of villains. Smoke, dark and grey and thick, hides them from view. “What’s the plan?”
“I don’t think you should use your electricity here,” Midoriya advises. “Fire acts as a carrier for electricity. I think it would be a bad combination.”
“That’s probably smart.” Denki agrees.
“I won’t be able to use Dark Shadow either,” Tokoyami notes. “But I do believe we all already know this.”
“I made weapons for you two,” Yaoyorozu says. “Swords are hard to deal with without proper practice, and guns are too dangerous, as well as hard to make, so I made daggers. They’ll at least provide you with some form of protection.”
The daggers are long, stretching from the tip of Denki’s fingers all the way past his elbow. They’re light, but sharp, and Denki smiles.
“Thank you.” Denki says. “These are perfect.”
“I can’t come up with a foolproof plan to take them all out at once,” Midoriya admits. “I think our best best would just to go out and fight - to help Uraraka and the others in every way we can. Aoyama and I can at least use our quirks to defend ourselves, and Yaoyorozu can put out the fires when she can.”
“We’ll have to just wing it,” Yaoyorozu agrees grimly. “But let’s try to stay together. We don’t want to lose anyone. This is dangerous.”
“Tokoyami,” Denki begins. “We should help get Tsuyu out of here. They’re forming a protective circle around her - her quirk must make her extra sensitive to flames.”
“That’s a good idea, Kaminari,”
“Come on!” Midoriya hisses, voice pitching upwards. “We can’t keep waiting around. We have to help!” And with that, Midoriya sprints forward, and fuck, couldn't the guy calm down just a little? He really is the definition of impatient and Denki had a terrible feeling that it would get him killed.
“I’m going to go with Midoriya,” Yaoyorozu says. “Aoyama, you should come with me. Tokoyami, Kaminari, you two might be able to take them by surprise. Getting Tsuyu out of here is a good idea.”
“You can count on us!” Denki tells her with confidence he isn’t feeling, sticking up two thumbs as if that will make him feel any better.
Once the two are gone, running into the fray, Denki turns towards Tokoyami.
“You’re probably much better at stealth than I am,” Denki admits. “Would you like to lead the way?”
“It would be my pleasure,” Tokoyami says with what might just be a smile.
---
9:30 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Conflagration Zone
“Ashido!” Denki hisses as she headbuts another villain. Denki winces as her horns cut through the guy’s forehead, blood dripping down her face. The circle has spread, now, with Midoriya and the others helping, and everyone’s spread out, fighting.
Ashido jumps in surprise, and Denki and Tokoyami have to duck down to avoid a spray of acid.
“Kaminari-Kun?” Ashido exclaims. Her voice is hoarse, tinged with both exhaustion and relief.
“Yeah!” He whisper-yells. “Let’s not kill me today, please.” Ashido barks out a weak laugh. “Ashido, where’s Tsuyu? We’re trying to get her out of here so she can recover.”
“Thank god,” Ashido breathes. “I’m so glad you’re- behind you!” Denki whips around, the dagger in his hand as he stabs forward blindly. It shoves itself through the arm of an oncoming villain, who snarls, dropping what looks to be a knife of sorts. There’s a gaping hole in his wrist, dripping blood as Denki yanks the dagger away. Denki gags as the man howls in pain.
“Come on!” Ashido yells. “Follow me!”
---
9:33 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Conflagration Zone
Iida fights to protect an unmoving, unconscious Tsuyu, his hand wrapped around the arm of a villain with sharp spikes for hair. The spikes whirl around, shooting dangerously close towards Iida’s throat.
Denki doesn’t think. He jerks forward, tackling Iida out of the way as he slashes the dagger wildly, cutting through stone-like hair. Fire licks at Denki’s skin, searing pain imprinting itself on his skin. Denki ignores it.
The villain jerks back and Denki pushes forward, grabbing her wrist with his hand and directing just the right amount of electricity into her skin. She convulses with a shriek.
“Thank you, Kaminari-San,” Iida heaves.
“Get Tsuyu and let’s get out of here.”
“I can’t leave my classmates-”
“Iida,” Denki interrupts. “Tsuyu can’t survive in these conditions. We need to get her out of here.” Iida's face twists before he nods, lifting Tsuyu up.
Tokoyami runs over, sparing Tsuyu and Iida a glance.
“Follow me.” Tokoyami demands.
“Ashido, are you coming?” Denki asks. She shakes her head.
“I’m going to help the others.”
“If you can,” Tokoyami begins. “It might be wise to convince them to leave. It is too difficult to fight in these conditions. Too dangerous. If the villains do not kill you, the smoke and fire might.”
“Tokoyami, where’s Dark Shadow?” Denki asks.
“I absorbed him back,” Tokoyami explains. “He wasn’t dealing with the flames well.”
“Will he be alright?” Tokoyami nods.
“He just needs time.” He turns to Tsuyu. “She will need more than that. It is time for us to go. Good luck, Ashido-San.”
---
9:35 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Conflagration Zone
Denki is glad, for a chance to fucking breathe. He hadn’t realised just how terrible the smoke had been until they left it behind.
Tsuyu is still lying motionless, deathly pale and burning to the touch - red welts covered her skin, her dark green hair charred to a black and the tips and remnants of tears littering her cheeks -
But she was alive. And that was what mattered.
“I have to go back.” Iida says immediately after a few, gasping breaths.
“Tokoyami,” Denki rasps. “Can you stay with Tsuyu? Iida and I should head back in, but someone needs to watch over her.”
“I will not let her out of my sight,” Tokoyami reassures him.
“Alright.” Denki says. “Let’s go, Iida.”
---
9:37 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Conflagration Zone
His dagger sinks into soft flesh as Iida pants on the flour behind him, cradling what seems to be a broken wrist.
“We have to keep moving,” Iida says.
---
9:41 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Conflagration Zone
Blood drips down Denki’s arms, nasty cuts littering his upper torso. Denki kicks a villain in the stomach, shocking another before turning and fleeing.
---
9:44 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Conflagration Zone
Yaoyroozu swings the fire extinguisher. It collides with the head of an incoming villain with a crack. Yaoyrozu looks like she’s about to throw up, but she forces a smile.
“Are you alright, Kaminari?”
---
9:47 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Conflagration Zone
An ear jack wraps around Denki’s wrist, jerking him out of the way of a bat towards his head. As they run, Jirou heaves and coughs.
“Where are the others?” She asks.
“I don’t know,” Denki admits. “It’s too hard to keep track of everyone, with all the smoke.”
“Fuck,” She curses. “Fucking hell.”
The two duck as some sort of projectile whizzes over their heads. Jirou sighs, raking a hand across a tired face.
“Stay close."
---
9:51 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Conflagration Zone
Denki loses Jirou all too soon. The fire is spreading, enclosing in around Denki. The smoke grows thicker by the second.
It’s getting harder and harder to breathe.
---
9:54 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Conflagration Zone
Uraraka’s brow is creased in concentration, villains floating over her head.
“Uraraka!” He yells. “Drop the villains. We all have to focus on getting out of here!”
“But what about the others?” She demands.
“I don’t know where they are,” Denki admits. “But we have to get out of here before we all die from fucking smoke inhalation!”
The villains come crashing down to earth with screams and thuds.
---
9:56 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Conflagration Zone
They can’t find the way out.
There’s too much smoke
---
9:59 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Conflagration Zone
Green lightning, familiar screams, and an All-Might worthy smile.
“Follow me!” Midoriya yells.
---
10:00 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Conflagration Zone
They are all coughing and heaving and helpless on the ground. Two are unconscious and everyone’s injured.
But all ten of them are there. All ten of them are alive.
Denki smiles.
They’re alive.
---
10:05 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Conflagration Zone
“Is everyone alright?” Yaoyorozu calls eventually.
“Nope!” Denki yells back, lying facedown on the floor.
“Definitely not,” Comes a groan from Jirou, who’s lying face up right by Denki’s side.
“Could definitely be better,” That one’s Uraraka, who’s on her knees cradling her stomach, a hand over her mouth and green painted over her cheeks.
“I’m fucking dead.” And that’s Ashido, who’s quite the ghastly sight. Her skin is covered in acid burns, ugly and red, skin stretched so far you can see right through it. . Denki’s honestly quite surprised that she’s still standing - and she is standing, straight up, with her head held high and pain in her eyes.
Yaoyorozu manages a weak laugh.
“I suppose I should rephrase that.” She admits. “Do we have everyone?”
“All ten of us.” Midoriya confirms. His green hair is matted with remnants of blood - whose blood, Denki’s not entirely sure. He hasn’t broken any bones, though, which Denki takes as a personal achievement.
Denki takes the fact that he’s still alive as the biggest achievement. If his body wasn’t sore all over, if his lungs weren’t filled to the brim with smoke, he’d probably be up on his feet, cheering.
“And is anyone suffering from potentially fatal injuries?” Yaoyorozu furthers.
“Tsuyu and Aoyama are in need of medical attention,” Tokoyami speaks up. “Tsuyu has been badly burned, and Aoyama is suffering from quirk exhaustion.”
“Well.” Denki says. “Fuck.”
“I don’t think there’s anything we can do to help them at the moment.” Yaoyroozu agrees with a frown. “If anyone else has any other minor injuries, I can try to make some sort of medical equipment to assist.”
“Iida’s hurt his wrist,” Uraraka pipes up.
“Don’t worry about me,” Iida instantly interjects. Yaoyorozu ignores him, examining a hand that’s twisted the complete wrong way. Denki winces.
“We should definitely splint it,” Yaoyorozu says. “I’ll make some medical tape for you.”
“Anyone else?” Uraraka calls.
“If you know how to make electrical tape-” Jirou begins from beside Denki. “-my earjacks have frayed a bit, so that would be helpful.”
“Got it.” Yaoyorozu says with a nod. “Ashido, I’ll make some bandages and ice packs for you. They’ll help relieve the pain of your burns, even if just a little bit.”
“Thanks,” Ashido croaks. “You should do the same thing for Tsuyu, as well.” Yaoyorozu nods.
“Tokoyami.” Denki calls. “Is there anything Yaoyorozu could make to help Dark Shadow? Like an umbrella or something?” Tokoyami stares.
“An umbrella?” Tokoyami echoes. Denki splutters.
“I mean, that was just a random example, but Dark Shadow needs darkness, right? Weak to light and all that?”
“I … suppose,” Tokoyami relents. I’ve never tried using an … umbrella in order to retain Dark Shadow’s powers, but I suppose it could work.”
“There’s no harm in trying?” Denki offers weakly.
“One umbrella, coming right up,” Yaoyorozu calls from a flurry of sparkles, pulling out some medical tape and tossing it to Uraraka. “Could you wrap Iida’s wrist?”
“Of course.” Iida’s wrist in her hand, Uraraka looks up. “Anyone else need anything?” She looks around, her gaze landing on Midoriya. “Any broken bones, Deku-kun?”
“Nope!” Midroiya exclaims with an unreasonably bright grin. “All my bones are intact!”
“And what about you, Kaminari?” Yaoyorozu questions, walking over to hand Jirou the electrical tape. “Do you need anything? You seem to be covered in a lot of blood.”
“Just some cuts and bruises, here and there,” Denki reassures her, offering a weak smile. “Nothing serious. Don’t waste your energy, Yaoyorozu. Make sure to take care of yourself, as well. You don’t want to exhaust yourself,” Denki smiles a bit more, a little more genuine. “You’re our ace in the hole, Yaoyorozu. We need you.”
Yaoyorozu smiles back.
---
10:14 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Conflagration Zone
It takes ten or so minutes for them to gather their bearings and treat their wounds. Yaoyorozu has passed around water bottles and Denki can’t help but marvel at … well, everything about her. She kept a calm, cool head throughout everything, and despite the obvious exhaustion written over her face, she still stands strong, doing everything she can to help the rest of them.
Everyone is still tired. Everyone is still recuperating. Aoyama and Tsuyu still have not woken up, and Denki has to be the one to disturb the peace.
“I really hate to do this,” He says, reluctantly pushing himself up into a sitting position. “But I don’t think we can stay here for any longer. We don’t know how many villains there are, or how many we were able to defeat. The longer we stay here, the more danger we’re putting ourselves in. We’re sitting ducks right now.”
Yaoyorozu sighs.
“Kaminari is right.” She admits. “I don’t think we can stay here,”
“Then where do we go?” Ashido asks. “There are villains everywhere, aren’t they? We’ll be in danger no matter where we go.”
“And how do we move?” Midoriya questions. “With both Aoyama and Tsuyu to carry with us …”
“How will we transport them safely?” Iida adds.
“I think-” Denki pauses. “I think we need to get them medical help, just as Tokoyami said.”
“And how do you propose we do that?” Jirou asks.
“So here me out for a bit,” Denki begins. “I think that our best course of action right now would be to get out of the USJ- and before anyone says anything, let me continue.” Denki forces himself to his feet. “Tsuyu and Aoyama are seriously injured. We don’t know how badly the burns aer affecting Tsuyu, not with her quirk. And Aoyama has to wear an entire utility belt to use his quirk - we don’t know just how much he may have damaged his stomach,” Denki sighs. “Not to mention, we’re … hopelessly outmatched right now. We’re all really lucky to have survived, up till now, but sooner or later we’ll run into a villain that even we can not defeat. We’re not heroes, yet. Just heroes in training.”
“So you want us to run?” Iida asks, incredulous. “What about our other classmates? How could we leave them behind?”
“We’re already half the class,” Denki points out. “There’s ten of us here. And given we all fell in groups of five, we know everyone in our class has someone to rely on. We have to trust that our other ten classmates can take care of themselves.”
“They’re not heroes, though,” Jirou says. “That’s what you just said. We’re all just heroes-in-training.”
“We can get them help,” Denki continues. “That’s why I think we should leave. If we can get past the main villains, get out of the USJ, we can get back-up. There’s nothing we by ourselves can do - or at least, there’s not much. But if we can get more heroes here? All of our classmates, along with All-Might, Aizawa-Sensei and the others will have more of a chance.”
“Kaminari’s right.” Midoriya intercepts. “It’s not just our classmates that need help, it’s the heroes, too.”
“All Might’s here.” Ashido says. “The villains can’t possibly be winning,”
“The villains came here to kill him,” Midoriya retorts. “They must have something planned. And All Might, however powerful he may be, is still one person. Getting other heroes here would be a good idea.”
“Not to mention, as Kaminari said, we can get Tsuyu and Aoyama help,” Yaoyorozu agrees.
“And however wrong it may seem-” Denki adds. “-we’ll still be getting half of our entire class to safety.”
“It will be difficult,” Tokoyami points out. “It is very likely the villains are guarding the exit.”
“But if we can get past the exit-” Midoriya mumbles. “I don’t think they’ll follow us. They’ll want to keep all of their forces concentrated inside the USJ,”
“So if we manage to make it out,” Denki summarizes. “We’re home-free.”
“But we’re kind of handicapped, at the moment,” Ashido points out. “As Midoriya mentioned before, we’ll have to figure out a way to carry Tsuyu and Aoyama safely. We can’ t just leave them behind, but they will slow us down.”
“Dark Shadow is quickly regaining power,” Tokoyami says. “If needed, Dark Shadow can carry one of our injured. It will not prove to be much effort for him, and he will be able to keep at least one of them out of the villain’s reach.”
“And I can attempt to make a stretcher,” Yaoyorozu adds. “I don’t know how helpful it will be, across rough terrain, but it’s always an option.”
“What about that portal guy?” Uraraka questions with a frown. “He can create many portals all at once. If he notices us, I don’t think we’ll have any chance.”
“Then we have to make sure he doesn’t notice us,” Denki replies. “We have to make sure we avoid the boss fight shit going on in the central plaza.”
“We’ll have to deal with and dispatch of villains quickly and quietly,” Tokoyami notes. “It will be incredibly difficult.”
“If need be-” Yaoyorozu says with a frown. “- and I really hate to say this, but some of us can be used as a distraction, to help others get away.”
A seed of a plan begins to bloom in Denki’s head.
“Iida.” Denki begins. “I know your wrist is broken - or, at the very least, sprained - but do you think you could manage carrying Tsuyu? Over your back or in your arms.”
Iida looks over to where Tsuyu lies, curled up into herself.
“I think I can,” He says. “It might slow me down a bit but I can manage.”
“What are you thinking, Kaminari?” Yaoyorozu asks.
“Iida is the fastest one here, with his engine legs.” Denki explains. “And we can’t leave TSuyu and Aoyama here, they’re too vulnerable. Tokoyami is also probably the stealthiest out of all of us. If Dark Shadow can carry Aoyama, and Iida can carry Tsuyu, then really, we only have to focus on getting those two out of there. Iida can run back to UA to get help.”
“I can not leave you all behind!” Iida instantly protests.
“Iida,” Denki says, looking him in the eye. “You’re our class-rep. You’re the best person for this job, and though it might not seem like it, this is the best you can do for our class. Not to be harsh or anything, but right now, with that wrist, you won’t even be much good in a fight. This is our best option.”
“I have to agree,” Yaoyroozu says. “If Iida, Tokoyami, Tsuyu and Aoyama are gone, there will still be six of us to distract the villains. If everything goes smoothly, maybe all of us will be able to get out anyways,”
“The only way out of the USJ is up the main staircase,” Midoriya notes with a frown. “Someone will be sure to notice us, running all the way up.”
“I suppose the main issue is making sure Kurogiri doesn’t notice us.”
“Kurogiri?” Yaoyorozu questions.
“The portal guy,” Denki mumbles, ignoring a pang of panic. “That’s his name, I think. At least, that’s what I heard the red-eyed guy say,”
“Ah,” She says.
“Wouldn’t this ‘kurogiri’ be guarding the exit?” Ashido questions.
“No.” Midoriya refutes.. “He seems to be one of the main villains. If he’d gotten all the kids out of the way, he would have joined the main fight against the heroes.”
“Hopefully, the hero's will serve to be our biggest distraction.” Yaoyorozu adds. “None of the villains will want to take their eyes off the actual heroes in this scenario,”
“We might not have to take the stairs!” Uraraka declares suddenly. “I could float you guys up the side if we need to!”
“Would that be less noticeable or more?” Jirou questions. “I think a few floating hero students would catch someone’s eyes.”
“We could try going through the zones?” Yaoyorozu suggests. “It might prove dangerous, but if we go around the zones, we’ll be able to avoid the central plaza completely. Right now, we’re right next to the Flood Zone, where Kaminari, Midoriya, Aoyama, Tokoyami and I were just at. Past the Flood Zone is the Downpour Zone, and right next to the Downpour Zone is the staircase.”
“Going through the zones might be too dangerous.” Denki points out. “We’ll run into more villains that way. But I think you’re onto something - right now, we’re right outside the conflagration zone, but we can’t really see the central plaza. The USJ is just too big. And if we can’t see the villains from here, that means the villains can’t see us either. If we travel on the outskirts of the zones, we’ll hopefully be able to avoid both the villains in the zones and the villains in the central plaza.
“I dunno about that,” Jirou sits up. “I could see the Flood Zone from the Central Plaza - at least, the edge of it. At the very least, we’ll have to cut right through the Flood Zone to avoid being noticed.”
“We could try going around the back of the zones?” Uraraka suggests. “I don’t know if there’s actually any space between the end of the zones and the walls of the USj, but if there is, we could sneak behind both the Flood Zone and the Downpour Zone.
“That’s actually a really good point, Uraraka!” Midoriya realises. “The Downpour Zone is an entire dome. It might be a tight fit, but there has to be space between the back of the dome and the USJ walls.
“There were cliffs in the Flood Zone,” Tokoyami tells Midoriya. “I believe they lined up right against the wall of the dome. Going behind the Downpour Zone would require us to climb over those cliffs,”
“That might work,” Yaoyrozu interrupts. “With Kaminari’s electricity, we knocked out most of the villains in the Flood Zone. They might have started waking up, so climbing over the cliff would actually be safer. It’ll also be far enough away that even if any Villains spot us, the main villains won’t pay us much attention, and the other villains would have to travel far to reach the cliff.”
“Climbing with Tsuyu and Aoyama might be hard,” Ashido points out. “Not to mention Iida’s injured wrist.”
“I think there was a staircase by the side of the cliffs,” Midoriya says. “I remember seeing it. We can get up on the cliffs that way - and I’m sure with the eight of us, nine, if you count Dark Shadow, we’ll manage to take care of Tsuyu and Aoyama.”
“Then, once we cross the cliffs, we can either go around the side of the Downpour Zone, or even possibly consider going over it,” Denki adds.
“Over it?” Yaoyorozu questions. Then tilts her head. “That’s actually not a bad idea. Again, we might be more noticeable, but it’d grant us quick access to the staircase using Uraraka’s quirk.”
“It’ll also grant us the element of surprise,” Iida adds. “If we were to come in from the side, whatever villains waiting for us there would most definitely be taken by surprise
“We’d have to move fast,” Denki notes. “Once we get on the staircase. Once we’re up there, we’re sure to be noticed by the main villains soon enough. But it won’t matter if we’re fast enough and get Iida, Tsuyu, Tokoyami and Aoyama out of there before they notice.”
“We’ll get a chance to reassess our situation from on top the Downpour zone, or even from atop the cliffs,” Yaoyorozu adds. “We’ll be able to see whatever villains are guarding the entrance from there, and we can make a proper plan for how to deal with them quickly and efficiently.”
“I like this plan,” Ashido says.
“It’s probably our best chance,” Denki agrees.
“We should probably get on with it,” Jirou interjects.
“We should all take five more minutes to get our strength back,” Yaoyorozu instructs. “And then we’ll begin.”
Denki can only pray that all of this would end well.
(even he couldn't predict the outcome of today)
---
10:26 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Flood Zone.
“So.” Yaoyorozu says, peering through the self-made telescope from where they’re perched atop the cliff bordering the Flood Zone. “From what I can see, there're seven villains standing by the door.”
“Any ideas as to their quirks?” Midoriya asks.
“Well-” Yaoyorozu tilts the telescope. “-one of them seems to have silver-like skin - possibly iron, or some other sort of substance.”
“Alright,” Denki says with satisfaction. “So we’ve got one with iron skin. Next?”
“There aren’t a lot of them that seem to have obvious physical representation of their quirks,” Yaoyorozu admits. “Oh! Well …”
“Yes?” Iida prompts.
“There seems to be one with … with no mouth. Or eyes.” Denki stares.
“No mouth,” Denki repeats, incredulous.
“Actually-” Yaoyorozu says. “It seems that his mouth has been … sewed shut? There are stitches where his mouth is. Same with his eyes,”
“Well.” Ashdio says. “That’s creepy as hell.”
“Any ideas as to what the quirk could be?” Midoriya asks.
“He’s a fucking needle man.” Ashido shudders.
“Ah!” Yaoyorozu exclaims. “His fingers. Or his nails, in particular, they seem to sharpen into needles.”
“So something to do with stitching,” Jirou sums up. “Next?”
“There’s really nothing else. One of them has red eyes, but I don’t really think that means anything.” Yaoyrozu sighs, shoulders slumping.
“What else can you tell us about them?” Denki asks.
“Well. They’re four men, three women. Most of the men are pretty bulky, though two of them - the needle guy, and one other, seem to have relatively weak physiques.”
“What about the girls?” Ashido asks.
“Erm - oh! I can’t believe I didn’t see this.” Yaoyorozu shakes her head. “Well, one of the ladies seems to have green scales? Not full-body, just bits over her neck, appearing above her collar, and scales on her wrists too.”
“Mutation, then?” Midoriya confirms.
“Probably.” Yaoyroozu agrees. “The scales seem to be rippling, as well - at some points, they almost seem transparent. I’m not sure what that means exactly, but it must mean something.”
“Any other important information?” Iida asks.
“The second woman seems to be very cautious- she’s constantly looking around, and isn't letting her guard down. The woman with the scales is jumpy - she keeps talking to different people.” Yaoyorozu leans forward. “Two of the men are … playing cards? The iron skin man and another man, tall, lanky, black-haired, no obvious quirk. They’re both obviously easily distracted. Then there’s the needle-man - he’s just standing, unmoving. Maybe there’s a part of his quirk that lets him sense things? Either way, I don’t really know what he’s doing.” Yaoyorozu pauses. ‘Then the next two - there’s the red-eyed guy, who’s sitting down and appears to be meditating, then a blue-haired - oh! The blue haired woman just pulled a gun out of thin air. Possible pocket dimension?”
“Thanks, Yaoyorozu,” Denki says. “So. Anyone got a plan?”
“I was rather hoping you’d have one, Kaminari.” Tokoyami admits.
“Huh?”
“Yeah, man.” Ashido agrees. “You’re the one who’s good at this.”
“Huh?” Denki repeats.
“Tokoyami and Ashido are correct!” Iida declares. “You are the one who came up with this initial plan!”
“Along with Yaoyorozu and Midoriya, though.” Denki protests.
“But the initial ideas were yours.” Yaoyorozu points out.
“And you were the one to convince all of us to follow through with it!” Midoriya points out. “It was the same when we were stuck in the Flood Zone. You’re good with people, Kaminari!”
“Right.” Denki says, almost unbelievably.. “Thanks, I guess. But in terms of actual strategic planning, I’m no good at that.”
“You’re adapting well, though,” Yaoyorozu points out. “Out of all of us, you’ve been the calmest. Your skills in strategy aren’t the best, but you’re adapting well to your current scenario. You learn through trial and error - and you have good base ideas, which lets Midoriya and I further develop them,”
“And you seem to be the best at dealing with real-life situations.” Iida admits. “All the rest of us are, to a certain extent, overzealous.”
“We didn’t truly understand the weight of the situation.” Tokoyami agrees. “You were the one to force the reality of the situation into our head.”
“If anything-” Jirou adds. “-you’ve got the best survival skills out of the lot of us.”
“Which is why I was asking you,” Tokoyami concludes. “Do you have any ideas of what we should do, Kaminari?” Denki ignores the warmth, the contentment identical to the feeling he experienced just the day before, when he helped Midoriya with his quirk.
He’d never felt useful, so when he began to, he ignored the feeling.
“Right.” Denki says. “Well. Um,” Denki turns to where he can see the staircase looming in the distance. The exit, their hope. “There’s seven of them, eight of us. We’re all exhausted, Ashido can’t use her quirk anymore, and Iida’s injured, so they’re both inherently limited. Dark Shadow will be carrying Aoyama, so he’s out of the picture. I suppose, for the iron-skin guy - none of us will be able to hurt him except for perhaps Midoriya? With your strength, you might prove to be a match against him.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Yaoyorozu says with a smile. “Continue, Kaminari.”
“What is this, Analysis 101?” He grumbles. “Anyways. Erm. Needle Man. I have no idea what we’re supposed to do about needle man, we don’t really have a basis for his quirk so there’s not much to think about there? We don’t know their individual quirks so we can’t really get a good basis. There’s a chance that the diligent lady Yaoyorozu mentioned might notice us while we’re crossing the dome, but she probably won’t go out of her way to attack us, given her job is to guard the entrance. She’ll only really be a problem once we arrive there, but it might take away our element of surprise shit.” Denki narrows his eyes. “From the dome to the staircase, we’ll have to use Uraraka’s quirk to float over all those trees and nature and stuff. They might notice us then, which could be a problem. Erm ….” Denki tries to think. “We’re trying to use ourselves as a distraction, so it’d probably be best if everyone but Iida, Tokoyami, Tsuyu, Aoyama, and potentially Uraraka went in first. If we were to run down the stairs, we could potentially clear the entrance a bit, but we’d also be running straight towards the Central Plaza, which is a big no no. Not to mention, at least a few of the villains are sure to realise that we’re purposely drawing them away, which defeats the entire point, so I mean … we’d probably have to focus more on incapacitating the villains rather then leading them away.” Denki sighs. “Yeah, I’ve got no clue. Sorry guys.”
“You’ve actually got a lot of clues, Kaminari.” Yaoyorozu refutes. “Those were all really good points.”
“All I did was list all the things we can’t do,” Denki points out. “We still have to make an actual plan.”
“But you ruling out possible options was actually really helpful!” Midoriya reassures him. “Actually, I think I’ve got a plan.”
Denki didn’t like the look in Midoriya’s eyes.
---
10:40 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Downpour Zone
This time, the adrenaline slicing viciously through Denki’s veins bore no resemblance to his electricity. It was cold, unfamiliar and tainted with fear, a bitter taste Denki couldn’t get out of his mouth as he and Midoriya continued to sneak around the Downpour Zone.
“I hope whoever’s in there is alright.” Yaoyorozu comments with a grim frown from where she and Ashido follow close behind.
“I’m sure they are,” The reassurance is pointless and meaningless but Denki feels the need to give it anyway. A weak smile shows that while she doesn’t believe it, Yaoyorozu still appreciates the feeble effort.
Echoes of screams from a vicious fight reach them all the way from the Central Plaza as they continue to creep. By the time they reach the very bottom of the staircase, Denki can see the blurry shapes of figures in the distance - can make out the outline of the hulking mass of the Noumu.
It’s moving so fast it remains a black blur in the air. Denki turns away from the scene as a familiar sort of panic bursts up within him.
He doesn’t want to know who it’s fighting. He doesn’t want to know who is winning.
He doesn’t want to know. He just needs to focus on the task at hand.
“All right.” Midoriya says. “Here’s where we split up.” He turns to face Yaoyorozu and Jirou. “You two remember the plan?”
“Of course,” Ashido says, with a roll of her eyes and a wince. “You spent like, half-an-hour explaining it to us.” Yaoyorozu sighs.
“We know what to do, Midoriya.” Yaoyorozu interrupts. “You can count on us.” Yaoyorozu offers a small smile, her eyes meeting Denki’s. “We’re counting on you two too.”
“You can do this!”
“Don’t fuck this up!”
Denki breathes through the flashbacks.
He can do this.
Denki ignores the way his blood freezes and his heart stops, the way the conflicting memories crowd in his head, reality distorting before his very eyes.
He can do this
He has to.
–-
10:30 AM
Thursday April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Flood Zone.
“The plan is simple,” Midoriya begins. “See, it’s just like Kaminari says. Our best option would be a distraction, to somehow lead the villains away from the entrance - but the villain’s would likely realise our plan.”
“So what do we do?” Iida asks.
“We’re going to put our own twist into the plan.” Midoriya explains. “Or, well, two twists. “See, the normal plan would be to have one distraction, leading the Villains away, while the real escapees escaped. But instead of that, what we’re going to do is have two distractions - we’ll have one distraction, to allow some of us to seemingly attempt an escape - but those people will just be an extra layer to the distraction, leaving Iida and Tokoyami to escape after their escape plan is foiled.”
“What.” Ashido says intelligently. “I literally didn’t understand a single word you just said.”
“That’s okay!” Midoriya replies with a bright smile. “It’ll all make sense in time.”
Denki resisted the urge to facepalm. “I thought you said the plan was simple,” He grumbles.
---
10:41 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Staircase
“You alright, Kaminari?” Midoriya asks as Jirou and Yaoyorozu left to hide by the side of the staircase up to the entrance.
“Never been better!” Denki shoots him a smile that’s weak, even by his standards.
“We’re going to be fine,” Midoriya reassures him as they both look up.
Denki can almost believe him.
---
10:31 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Flood Zone.
“We’ll go in pairs,” Midoriya begins. “Each pair will have a specific role to play.”
“Get on with it, already,” Jirou prompts.
“First, obviously, Tokoyami and Iida. Technically, you’re a quartet - you’re going with Aoyama and Tsuyu, but I’m counting them as a separate pair in my mind, just for clarity.” Midoriya leans back. “I’ll explain each pair's roles in a second.”
“After you give us our pairs,” Ashido agrees. “Which you’re taking a long time to do,”
“Sorry!” Midoriya squeaks. “Ochako you’re with Jirou,” Ochako goes for a high five - Jirou just raises an eyebrow. “Ashido and Yaoyorozu, you’re a pair.” Ashido bounds over to Yaoyorozu’s side. “And lastly, Kaminari and I!”
Denki shudders.
---
10:43 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Staircase
Each step up the staircase grew harder and harder, painfully slow and agonisingly terrifying.
The staircase was tall enough that as long as he and Midoriya walked quietly, they wouldn’t be noticed. At least, not until they reached at least halfway up - possibly even sooner, if any of the villains crept close to the edge. Since most of them were clustered right by the door, Midoriya said that they’d have at least a partial element of surprise.
Denki felt that this entire plan was structured way too much on luck. Luck, Denki knew, was fickle and unreliable, and just the smallest misstep could send this whole thing tumbling to the ground.
There were too many unknown factors. They didn’t know the villain’s quirks, how skilled they were, anything. They were running in blind and that was something that was quickly becoming unbearable to Denki.
Each step Denki took, they grew closer and closer to a fate even Denki could not foresee.
—
10:32 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Flood Zone
“As I said before,” Midoriya continues. “Each pair has a very specific role they need to play. Iida and Tokoyami, you two will solely be focusing on escaping. Jirou and Ochako, you’re going to be assisting Iida and Tokoyami. Yaoyorozu and Ashido, you’re going to be our main distraction.”
“Midoriya.” Denki says. “Could you please stop carefully avoiding you and I whenever you explain anything? You don’t always have to say what we’re doing last.”
“I’m just explaining it in order!” Midoriya protests, then frowns. “Actually, wait. Technically, we’d go first, so maybe I should’ve been doing this the complete opposite way around- wait, frick-”
”Midoriya.” The dude obviously has problems. Mumbling problems, self-confidence problems, rambling problems, anxiety problems - he’s really just one big, green-haired problem.
“Right, right, sorry.” Midoriya winces. “You and I will be another form of a distraction, though in my head I’ve sort of got us labeled as an attack force.”
”Attack force?!”
Midoriya shrugs. “We have the most … what’s the right word, offensive quirks out of this current group.”
“So what exactly are we doing to warrant us being named the attack force?”
“It’s quite simple, really,” Midoriya says, but Denki knows not to believe a word the green-haired problem says. His definition of simple is obviously worlds apart from Denki’s. “We’ll walk up the stairs and when we reach the top, we’ll attack the villains there.” Midoriya offers a smile. “Hence, ‘attack force”
Denki thinks Midoriya’s smiles are going to give him heart attacks.
---
10:44 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Staircase
Midoriya’s plan goes awry before they even reach the top of the staircase.
They are about half-way up when the first villain spotted them. Denki’s fingers tremble around Midoriya’s trump cards hidden beneath the jacket of his hero costume.
They are about half-way up when Denki gets a good look at the Ashido dubbed ‘needle man’. Yaoyorozu was right - the man’s mouth is sewn shut.
His eyes are the same, the same blood red string. Unlike his mouth, his eyes are held just a fraction
Denki’s pretty sure that the gap only leads to empty eye sockets. Somehow, though, Denki’s sure that the man can see him. Especially as the red threads tremble and tense as the man’s lips stretch into an ugly, terrible smile.
“Maa maa, Hariito-Kun~” A voice drawls, dripping and toxic. Her voice is loud and echoey, sharp and audible from halfway down the stairs. Gun in hand, blue hair that sickeningly reminds Denki of Iida, and lips smeared with lipstick the same color as ‘Hariito’s’ threads. “You should come play with us? What’s so interesting down the-'' She trails off. Her eyes are not-quite gold, and Denki can see his own eyes in hers as hers meet his. “Down there,” Her voice pitches up into something of a giggle.
“Finally!” She exclaims, voice purposely pitched loud enough so that he and Midoriya can hear it.. “Hey everyone, look what we’ve got here!” Her smile morphs, much too large with teeth too sharp for such a delicate face.
In a split second, she pulls out a gun.
In a split second, Midoriya opens his mouth to scream.
There’s a crack.
A bang.
And then a bullet, flying right towards Denki’s head.
—
10:33 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Flood Zone
“Kaminari and I will serve as the first form of distraction.” Midoriya explains. “We’ll attack the villains straight on, keeping their attention on us.”
“First form?” Yaoyorozu questions.
“You and Ashido will be the second.” Midoriya continues. “We’re going to make the villains think that Kaminari and I are distracting them so Yaoyorozu and Ashido can escape.”
“So we can escape?” Ashido questions.
“That’s the second layer of deception,” Midoriya explains. “The villains will suspect that Kaminari and I are the distraction, drawing their attention away from you and Yaoyorozu. Our ‘plan’-” Midoriya curls his fingers into air quotes. “Will eventually fail, and the villains will redirect their attention to Yaoyorozu and Ashido, while in reality, Yaoyorozu and Ashido are just another distraction, giving Iida and Tokoyami a chance to escape in the chaos.”
Jirou frowns. “This feels unnecessarily complicated.”
Midoriya just shrugs. (-the bastard)
---
10:46 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Staircase
There’s a crack.
A bang.
And then a bullet, sailing harmless past his head. Denki, however, is not foolish enough to believe that that’s through any fault of his own. The blue-haired villain, decked out in a villain costume even worse than Yaoyorozu’s has perfect aim. If she had been aiming for him, Denki’s sure he’d be dead by now.
She laughs a villain-laugh, the so-called ‘Hariito’ smiles a villain smile and Midoriya, like the exemplary hero he is, springs them both into action. The bullet-proof vest (courtesy of Yaoyorozu) bites into his chest as Midoriya grabs his wrist and forces them both forward with superhuman speed.
A shot, a scream, and a supersonic kick, aimed at blue eyes on a breakable, human skull.
Denki jumps away from Midoriya, turns towards Hariito, but he’s already gone. Denki’s uneasy, but doesn’t have time to worry about it, as the other five villains are now up and on alert.
Bang.
A gun falls to the floor, and Denki grabs it. A needle pierces a vein, digging deep into his skin, and the threads wrap up his arm.
Crack
The gun falls again, this time caught by the strings and goddamn it Denki can’t even see where they’re coming from. The strings tighten, digging into metal.
A smash, a crack, a thud.
Then the gun blows up and all of a sudden Denki’s very afraid for his arm.
A thud, a click, a grunt.
Denki activates his electricity, and y’know, he’s pretty sure string is not an electricity conductor - which makes it all the weirder when the electricity wraps around the string and seems to travel across it, and suddenly-
A grunt, a howl, angry and pained.
The string loosen and Denki jerks backward, falling down a few steps, his knees brushing against sharp edges. Blood drips from his arm, diagonal cuts decorating his arm in pretty patterns.
A crack, a hiss, a scream.
Denki doesn’t have time to recover, stumbling to his feet just as a hand, silver and curled into a fist flies towards his face.
A scream, a snap, a curse.
Denki realizes too late that Iron is an electricity conductor, dodging another iron-skin punch, this time with electricity crackling from the arm.
Something sails towards his head from a completely opposite direction and Denki dodges again, still not entirely sure what he’s dodging.
A curse, a screech, a laugh, and Denki lets his electricity go wild. How much electricity will it take to knock out a man made out of iron?
A lot, it turns out, and it takes Denki three whole minutes and an iron-inforced punch to his stomach to get rid of the guy.
A laugh, a slice, a smile, and needles are whirling towards his head once again. Denki doesn’t have the speed to dodge him - they’re ten, embedding themselves in his legs and arms.
A smile, a scream, a zap, and his electricity snaps across the strings as they drag through his skin.
Denki meets Midoriya’s eyes, Yaoyorozu and Ashido hidden in the reflection of his pupils, and silent understanding passes between the two as two more villains dodge one of his supersonic, skull-breaking punches.
Denki reaches into his jacket, pulling out a small, hand-sized cylindrical object that the strings immediately attack.
A zap, a bang, a boom, and the smoke bombs go off.
---
10:33 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Flood Zone
“Admittedly,” Midoriya muses. “The smoke bombs might be a bit of a risk.”
Yaoyorozu looks up from where she’s pulling them out of her arm. “The villains in the central plaza will surely notice.”
“Then why are we using them?” Denki and Ashido demand, nearly simultaneously. Ashido’s a little off.
“It’ll give us a better chance of escape, if the villains can’t see us properly.” Midoriya explains. “Jirou should be able to lead the others fine, even amidst the smoke, but the villains won’t have that same advantage.”
“And if the central plaza villains do notice?” Uraraka asks. “I thought we were trying to avoid them at all costs? Even Bakugou couldn’t touch that mist guy.”
“Kurogiri,” Denki finds himself correcting.
“Kurogiri,” Uraraka corrects.
“I thought about it for a bit.” Midoriya explains. “And they probably won’t bother intervening. They have villains stationed by the exit so they don’t have to deal with guarding the exit. Even if they see the smoke, they’ll probably just assume the villains up there have got it covered.”
“Probably.” Denki echoes. “I don’t really like the sound of that.”
“I think it’s necessary,” Midoriya says almost apologetically. “The space is too small for anyone to sneak past the villains without one of them noticing. The smoke bombs will mask our presence - if the villains notice Tokoyami and Iida, we’re pretty much done for. They outnumber us, they’re stronger than us, and we’ve got two unconscious people. If the villains attack either Iida or Tokoyami, Aoyama and Tsuyu will be left unprotected, and we, quite frankly, can’t risk that.”
“You’re right,” Denki concedes.
“I’m still confused about one thing.” Jirou interrupts. “What’s the point of Yaoyorozu and Ashido, if there’ll be smoke obscuring the area?”
“When the smoke bombs go off, I’ll bet at least two of the villains will stay close to the door.” Midoriya explains. “They’ll know we’re trying to escape, so they’ll stay close. Yaoyorozu and Ashido, your job will be to distract them, lead them away from the door, giving Iida and Tokoyami a perfectly clear path.”
“You said we’d be by the side of the staircase,” Uraraka notes. “I assume I’ll be floating Iida and the rest of us up and over the side of the staircase when the smoke bombs go off?”
“Exactly!” Midoriya nods with a smile.
“How will we know when to go?” Jirou asks. “If Yaoyorozu and Ashido will be performing a fake escape, we wouldn’t want to interrupt them midway and ruin the entire thing. With the smoke, we won’t be able to see what’s going on, especially from all the way down the entire staircase.”
“Can you hear dog whistles, Jirou?” Midoriya asks, instead of answering her question like a normal person. Jirou narrows her eyes, unamused.
“Yes,” She answers eventually.
“There’s your answer.” He replies. “I already know that Yaoyorozu has the capability of creating dog whistles-” (and how exactly does he know that?) “-so, if it is alright with her, she can make them and we can use it. When Yaoyorozu and Ashido have successfully cleared the exit, Yaoyorozu will use the dog whistle, and that will be your key to escape.”
“I’m not a dog,” She says eventually.
“Today you are!” Denki’s fingers itch with the urge to facepalm.
“This seems to be a very complex plan,” Iida notices. “WIth quite a lot of risks.”
“I know!” Midoriya agrees. “But we’re also trapped in a supposedly secure facility with possibly hundreds of malicious villains, I think just being in here is a risk in itself.” Denki had actually been doing a fine job in ignoring that, but Midoriya just had to go on and bring it up again. “And anyways, don’t worry, Iida. If everyone does what they’re supposed to do, and everything goes to plan, we should be perfectly fine.”
---
10:49 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Staircase
As pink smoke fills the air (and honestly, fuck Ashido - if she absolutely had to bully Yaoyorozu into making coloured smoke, she could have at least chosen something slightly less noticeable. She said it would lighten the mood. Denki disagreed.) Denki can’t help but think that everything has not gone to plan. They’re only, what, five minutes into the plan but they’ve already taken to long to set off the smoke bombs and the villains noticed them way too early and blood’s already dripping down Denki’s skin, warm and familiar.
Knowing Midoriya, though, everything that had not gone to plan is probably something that was already in the plan. The guy is scarily smart - though Denki’s still not sure how he feels about this frankly ridiculous plan. Surely they could’ve come up with something simpler?
Fingers wrap around Denki’s wrist and jerk him out of the way of … something. Denki can hear scrapes, scratches, screams, but he can’t figure out what the fuck is going on.
“Follow me,” Midoriya whispers. Denki doesn’t have much of a choice, Midoriya dragging him through smoke that smells like cotton candy - a nice change from the Conflagration Zone smoke, Denki’ll admit.
“Where’re we going?” Denki hisses.
“Away.”
“Away where?” Denki demands. “How can you see anything?” All Denki can see is disgustingly bright pink and the blurry outline of Midoriya’s rather short frame. How could the guy be short and muscular at the same time? To Denki, who was moderately tall and relatively thin, (a stringbean, as some would say. A stick, even, if you really wanna go that far) that was an offense that Denki took personally.
“We need to get out of their way, and hopefully, lead a few of the villains away.”
“For all you know, we’re leading them right to Ashdio and Yaoyorozu, or even Jirou and the others. We don’t know which way we’re going!”
He supposes that Ashido will be reveling in the perfect camouflage right now. Bitch.
“I do.” Midoriya replies stubbornly.
“Midoriya-” Denki begins, staring at the place where their two hands connect. He needs to get this out, just in case he dies again. “-you’re a real stubborn piece of shit, y’know that, right?”
Midoriya just laughs. Presumably smiles his brighter-than-the-sun smile. Denki can sense it. He can’t see it, though, not through the pink smoke that clogs the air.
Denki’s never going to be able to get the smell of cotton candy out of his nose. Or the memories of Midoriya’s smiles out of his head.
Fuck his life, honestly.
“Kaminari,” Midoriya says, and the fingers around his wrist tighten.
Denki sighs. “What now, Midoriya?”
“Don’t be afraid.” Midoriya replies. “You don’t have to worry.”
“I think I do,” Denki retorts. “Have you seen the situation we’re in?”
Midoriya just smiles, and this time, Denki can see it, even through the smoke.
And then;
A scream.
A shout. A burst of light.
And then the smoke, as it begins to fade.
---
10:33 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Flood Zone
“Any questions?” Midoriya asks.
“I have one.” Jirou raises an ear jack. “Let’s say, hypothetically, your plan happens to work-” and damn Jirou is really laying the sarcasm on thick. “-and Iida and Tokoyami escape. They’re home free, everyone’s happy, the fucking smoke finally evaporates or whatever the fuck smoke does. What happens then?”
Yaoyorozu tilts her head. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, we’ll still be in that little, enclosed area, with seven dangerous villains who we just admitted we wouldn’t be able to beat. What the fuck are we supposed to do? Stand there and die?”
Midoriya blinks. “Hopefully, the smoke will last for a good amount of time, enough time to give us a cover to escape-”
“And if it doesn’t?”
Midoriya shrugs. “Simple. We don’t want to fight, so the next best option would be to get the hell out of there.”
---
10:50 AM
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Staircase
“Run!” Midoriya yells as the smoke clears.
Iida and Tokoyami are already long gone. Yaoyorozu and Ashido jump away from the closest villains, while Jirou and Uraraka spin around from where they border the exit.
It worked.
Denki wants to break down into tears, maybe even laugh hysterically. It worked.
Denki’s never doubting Midoriya ever again.
“Fuck!” The iron-skinned villain swears. “Two of the kids escaped!”
“Four, actually,” Another villain, the red-eyed one, corrects, and Denki takes this moment of a somewhat stalemate to observe his surroundings.
Uraraka and Jirou stand just a few precious feet away from the door.
The iron-man and the red-eyed stand by the door, the red-eyed man two steps outside.
Yaoyorozu and Ashido stand off to the right - Yaoyorozu holds a sword, pointed rather precariously at the blue-haired villain, who holds a sword of her own. Yaoyorozu’s hands tremble, and blue eyes glint with amusement.
Ashido’s back to back with Yaoyorozu, standing face to face with a mouth full of fangs and a neck covered in scales. The lizard-like villain (mutation quirk, probably. Do lizards really have fangs though? Denki doesn’t really want to know ) stands unnaturally still, slitted eyes watching as Ashido trembles.
He and Midoriya are standing right in the middle of the little platform. Two villains on either side of them - one plain-looking, black haired guy with no obvious quirk and a vicious smile. The other has something akin to a spear pointed at Midoriya’s throat, and Denki’s heart is in his.
And of course, you can’t forget Hariito, who stands one step down, his back to the entire debacle going on behind him. He guards their one exit, calm, collected, unmoving. The cuts on Denki’s arm burn.
Nobody moves.
Everyone is waiting for someone else to make the first move. Denki looks to Midoriya, but he too is still, throat bobbing as he swallows.
No one dares to make a sound.
Until someone does.
“Now-” Kurogiri begins. “What on earth is going on here?” And Denki freezes, pure, unadulterated terror snaking up his skin like the clouds of black mist that are creeping around Denki’s feet. Midoriya tenses even further, if that’s even possible.
“Four of the hero students escaped.” Iron-man growls. Golden mist, a poor excuse for eyes, darken.
“So you’ve failed?” Kurogiri questions, voice still deceptively polite.
“It’s not our fault,” The blue-haired villain swings her sword absentmindedly. Yaoyorozu flinches backwards. “The pretty little hero students came up with a plan! It was a pretty good one, too.” Yaoyorozu watches her through careful, narrowed eyes. “I’m serious! You all were very smart. I’m impressed.”
“Who’s side are you on?” Lizard-lady mumbles.
“Class 1-A is filled with remarkable students,” Kurogiri notes. “You all have a very bright future,” A head of mist tilts. “If you have any future at all, that is.”
Denki stills, body curling into itself as Kurogiri’s eyes spin towards him. The mist ripples.
“You.” Kurogiri says, and his eyes glow. Midoriya’s eyes fly towards him, wild and green.
Denki forces himself to breathe. “Me?” He manages unsurely, trying to keep his body still and his smile strong. Everything’s going to be fine.
Denki looks at Midoriya.
Everything’s going to be fine.
(Midoriya’s still not smiling)
“You’re very perceptive,” Kurogiri compliments. His voice is kind, warm, but Denki’s blood is still ice-cold.
“Am I?” His voice trembles, and Denki can’t help but curse mentally. How fucking pathetic can he be?
“You noticed my presence before anyone else did,” Kurogiri notes. “Even before three trained pro-heroes. You were able to warn Midnight of my attack.”
Ah. That’s right. Denki did do that.
Fuck, why did he do that?
“You were in my line of sight.” Denki offers. “And not in theirs.”
“Fair enough,” Kurogiri relents. “It’s still rather curious, don’t you think?”
“Is it?” Denki’s voice wavers, and for a second, for one, awful second, he thinks that Kurogiri must know.
Then Denki nearly laughs at his own stupidity. How would that train of thought even go? Oh, that kid noticed my presence before everyone else. How could that possibly be?
Oh, he must be stuck in an endless time loop reliving his death again and again, therefore giving him almost prophetic knowledge of the USJ attack.
Denki scoffs - mentally, of course. He doesn’t need to further aggravate Kurogiri. Is he even aggravated? With his ever-polite, mild-mannered voice, Denki can’t really ever tell for sure.
Kurogiri stalks forward, and all the villains around him seem to freeze. “You were tense, even before I appeared. You were not scared, but there was something akin to anticipation in your eyes,”
Denki’s body, blood, even his fucking brain freezes, every bodily function coming to a sudden halt.
“And it wasn’t just you,” Kurogiri notes. “Your Sensei, even All Might. They were all on high alert - or at least, higher than they’d normally be on a normal school field trip.” Denki tenses at the following senses. “And then, of course, there’s Midnight.” Kurogiri’s eyes bore straight into his kill. “Midnight was not supposed to be here.”
It’s a statement, not a question, but then again, why would it be a question? They had the fucking schedules.
They didn’t react this badly with Snipe, though.
Denki sucks in a trembling breath, and then, all of a sudden, Kurogiri is right up in his face.
“You know,” Kurogiri says, voice deceptively polite, deceptively light, deceptive and pleasant. “It’s almost like you all seemed to know we were coming, hmm?” Denki wants to say something, words lingering on his tongue, but he can’t bring himself to force them out. All he can do is stand there and shake. “But no, I suppose that’s silly of me. How could any of you have possibly known?”
Fuck, scratch everything, maybe Kurogiri does know.
“Anoh, Kurogiri-Sama?” Kurogiri leans back, eyes flickering towards the blue-haired villain, who’s twirling her sword actively now.
“Yes, Soranako?” Sora-na-ko. Denki tries out the syllables in his head, his attention grasping desperately onto something that isn’t Kurogiri.
“Not that watching you terrorize hero students isn’t immensly entertaining-” Which, hey, Denki takes full offense there. “-but what do we do now?”
If Kurogiri had eyebrows, he’d be raising them. At the following silence, Soranako sighs and elaborates.
“Ne, do we chase after the hero students who escaped, kill these ones, or what? My arms are getting tired.”
“There’s no point in chasing them,” Kurogiri sighs, mild disappointment in - well, Denki would say his eyes, but his eyes don’t really show anything but menace. The disappointment comes from everything else - the posture, the stance. Kurogiri is most definitely not pleased, and that makes Denki’s heart skip a beat. “They’ll already be halfway to UA by now.”
“And what about this lot?” Soranako questions, waving her sword in Yaoyorozu’s face. “Can we kill them?” Can we, not do we. For a second, Denki had almost forgotten the situation they were in.
These were villains.
A few more seconds of silence and Denki’s ready to tear his hair out as he watches Kurogiri’s eyes trail across his face.
“No,” Kurogiri eventually says. “Don’t kill them.”
She pouts. “Why not?”
Kurogiri looks up. “That’d be rather rude,” He chides. “Why not let them watch the death of their beloved Symbol of Peace first? We’re running out of time, anyways.”
Kurogiri’s words break the dam, and all of a sudden, Midoriya is moving.
Midoriya jerks forward, green electricity crackling from his palms as he grabs the spear up by his throat and snaps it in half.
”Liar!” Midoriya snarls. “As if villains like you could ever hope to beat All Might!”
”Midoriya!” Denki hisses, because right now, they are in now place to start a fight.
“Midoriya’s right!” Ochako crows, eyeing the villain in front of her, and honestly, Denki can’t understand them. Are they all insane?
Not that Denki didn’t agree, but still.
“It’s funny that you even thought this plan would work,” Jirou spits. “All Might wouldn’t fall to some second rate villains like you lot.”
“All Might’s the No. 1 hero!” Ashdio chimes in. “You don’t stand a chance against him!”
”Aww,” Soranako croones. “How heartwarming.”
Yaoyorozu doesn’t flinch at the swing of her sword, not this time. “You’ve already failed,” She says. “Our classmates will warn the main campus, and then it’ll really be over for you.”
“All the more reason-” Kurogiri’s voice is dark, and so is the mist that coalesces beneath all of their feet. “-to speed this up, don’t you think?”
No, Denki really fucking didn’t.
---
10:52
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Central Plaza
Denki collides with the ground, Midoriya falling by his side seconds later. Then comes Yaoyorozu, Ashdio, Uraraka, and Jirou, who falls last, ear jacks whipping around her.
The villains all fall on their feet, which makes Denki bristle for some unknown reason. That’s hardly his biggest concern right now.
Shigaraki looms, hands casting terrible shadows all over his face.
“What is this, Kurogiri?”
“The smoke came from these hero students.” Kurogiri tells Shigaraki. “They created a diversion in order to allow four of their fellow classmates to escape.”
Shigaraki’s red eyes gleam. His eyes spin to the seven villains standing in front of Denki and the others.
“You let them escape?” He demands.
“It wasn’t our fault,” Soranako drawls. “They had a-”
She doesn't get to finish. Lightning-quirk, (oh, the irony) Shigarki darts forward, five fingers outstretched, and then all the blue is gone and Soranako crumbles.
“You’re annoying,” Shigaraki tells her ashes.
Denki doesn’t get a chance to process - well, any of that. Shit hits the fan much, much too quickly.
“Kaminari!” Someone yells, and Denki spins around to see Aizawa-Sensei, dodging a blow from -
-from the Noumu.
The force of the punch hitting the ground shakes Denki and the others, sends Aizawa-Sensei and Midnight flying. All Might is the only one left standing.
Unconscious villains litter the air, and Midnight’s mist drifts across the ground. It forms a cloud around the Noumu, but the Noumu continues on, undeterred.
“What the hell are you six doing ?” Aizawa-Sensei yells. “Get out of here!”
“Focus, Shota!” Midnight hisses.
The three heroes dance around the Noumu, like flies around a human. They’re good at evading, but - but they aren’t more than a mere annoyance.
Even All Might seems to be holding back his punches. He isn’t moving as fast as Denki has always seen him move, he isn’t using any of his powerful punches.
It almost seems like -
-like he’s losing.
“Now do you see?” Kurogiri asks - practically mocks. “Your precious Symbol of Peace-” the mist of his eyes spin like pinwheels “-your glorified No. 1 Hero,” If he had a mouth, he’d surely be smiling, a wicked, terrible smile. “-is going to lose.”
All six hero students, Denki included, stare at Kurogiri, before morbid fascination drags their eyes back to the hero fight.
“Kaminari-” Midroiya’s hands wrap around Denki’s wrist. Nails dig into his skin. “Kaminari, Kaminari, we have to help him.”
“It’s okay, Midoriya,” Denki whispers, as lightly as he possibly can. “It’s okay, it’s All Might, he’s going to be fine.”
“No-” Midoriya shakes his head, eyes wild. “No, no, Kaminari, he’s running out of time,” His eyes are wild and desperate. “We have to help him.”
“What can we do?” Denki asks. “What can we do?” He repeats.
“Tomura,” Kurogiri says. “The hero students will be bringing back up soon. We should finish this.”
“Alright.” A head raises, and Shigaraki’s smirk of glib satisfaction is visible even through the hands blocking his face. “Noumu!” The thing freezes, and All Might lands a punch - the creature barely twitches. “Kill All Might.”
---
10:55
Thursday, April 13th XXXX
ウソの災害さいがいや事故じこルーム
Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu
The Central Plaza
All Might’s death is horribly anticlimactic. He goes down from a single punch, and Denki wants to scream at the … at the simplacy of it all.
All Might is gone before he even hits the ground.
When he dies, his body flickers, and Denki is left staring at an unfamiliar corpse. Skeletal, pale-
-dead.
Midoriya screams, moving towards the body. Denki holds him back as Uraraka collapses and Jirou screams. Yaoyorozu just watches with something like horror in her eyes.
The League of Villains are gone before anyone can even move. The back-up team arrives much, much too late. When they break down the doors all Denki wants to do is scream.
”Where were you?” He wants to demand.
”You’re too late,” He wants to collapse to the ground, wants to start sobbing like Midoriya is.
Aizawa-Sensei, injured and all, runs to their side. The heroes split up, at least three surrounding Denki and the others.
Aizawa-Sensei crouches down by Ashido, eyes raking over her burns. Midnight gathers Yaoyorozu and Ochako in her arms, hugging them close.
Snipe walks over to Midoriya and himself. Midoriya’s shaking, sobbing, rubbing his eyes as if it’s all just a fever dream. Denki watches as he presses his fingers deep into his eyelids.
Denki, meanwhile, is still. Denki is unnaturally still, unnaturally calm, his eyes staring forward into nothing. (he failed)
Snipe leans down, slipping a hand down his shoulder and all Denki can see is the non-existent bullet embedded in his head. (Denki failed. Again)
“Are you alright, kid?” Denki wants to laugh. How the fuck could he possibly be alright? (he fucking failed)
How could he possibly be alright? Someone fucking explain it to him. How could he possibly be alright?
The Symbol of Peace is dead.
The Symbol of Peace is dead.
The Symbol of Peace is dead.
The Symbol of Peace is dead.
Denki doesn’t know how many times he has to repeat it until realization begins to slam its way into his head. An ugly idea begins to form as Denki stares at the bullet in Snipe’s head.
It’s not real, but it tells Denki all he needs to know. He could almost smile.
The Symbol of Peace is dead, but -
-but he doesn't have to stay dead. Denki can fix this.
He can fix this.
Lightning-quick, (and oh, the fucking irony) Denki jerks forward and grabs one of Snipe’s guns from his utlity belt. He’s stumbling away from the man before he can react.
“Kid-” Snipe moves forward, Denki raises the gun to his head.
“Kaminari?” Midoriya asks, snapping out of his stupor. “What are you-”
“I can fix this, Midoriya,” He says through blurry eyes (when did he start crying?) “I can fix this.”
“Kaminari!” Aizawa-Sensei yells, jerking away from Ashido and spinning around. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m sorry Aizawa-Sensei,” Denki isn't really sorry. “But I can fix everything”
“What on earth are you talking about?” Aizawa-Sensei demands. Uraraka is crying. Midnight’s quirk is activating once again. Yaoyorozu’s horror is trained on him.
“I can fix this.” Denki repeats mindlessly. His eyes drift to All Might’s corpse. (it all comes down to All Might, doesn’t it?) “I can bring him back.”
Aizawa-Sensei takes a step forward and Denki cocks the gun. Aizawa’s hands are up, his eyes trained on Denki like he’s some sort of wild animal.
“You can’t bring him back,” Aizawa-Sensei repeats, carefully, assuredly. (if only he knew what Denki knew) “He’s dead. Death is permanent, Kaminari.”
Denki just smiles, a single finger curled around the trigger.
“Not for me.”
A scream, a sob, and then -
(and part of Denki is angry, that nothing, for him, is permanent. He thinks of Ashido and Monoma and Kendo and their boba trip that’s never going to happen. He thinks of Midoriya and Yaoyorozu and Jirou and nearly breaks down at the fact that once again, they will not remember him. But they will be alive. They will be happy, safe, better than they ever could be with the symbol of peace dead. And to Denki, that’s all that matters)
Bang.
Notes:
Hariito 針糸 (針 - 'hari', meaning needle, + 糸 - 'ito', meaning thread)
Soranako 空な子 (means 'empty child' - 空 - 'Sora', meaning sky. Together, with な, it becomes 空な, 'sorana', which means empty. The 子 (ko) at the end just means child. Space or spatial can also be loosely translated as 空)
Happy Holidays everyone! No promises, but hopefully the next chapter will come in sooner than a month.
Chapter 6: i think I'd miss you even if we'd never met.
Notes:
So uhhhhhhh .... it's been a while. I'm so sorry for the half year break, I definitily wasn't intending to wait that long to post. I still can't really give myself a concrete update schedule or deadline, but I do promise that if I ever choose to abandon this fic or go on hiatus, I'll post a notice immediately.
As always, sorry in advance for any typos or other mistakes - I don't have a beta and this is kind of a monster of a chapter, so there's probably a lot of errors and such.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
i think I'd miss you even if we'd never met
---
3:05 PM
Monday, March 13th, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.
"Welcome to your hero academia!”
This time around (and what time is this? The fourth? All his tries seem to be blurring together) Present Mic’s voice is nothing but a sweet relief.
This time around, Denki doesn’t cry, or scream, or even panic. He doesn’t stay still, dazed, he doesn’t break down and take his anger out on a pikachu stuffed toy that’s still perfectly intact despite the several times Denki’s ripped it apart in the past (the future, Denki’s mind corrects. Multiple futures).
No, Denki doesn’t do any of that. This time around, when Denki comes to, he allows himself a few seconds to gather his bearings, a few seconds to breathe through the pain of a killer migraine and the non-existent bullet in his head-
And then Denki’s standing up, ignoring the pain (because it doesn’t exist, not really. It’s all in his head) and pushing any unnecessary emotions aside, because, well-
Because Denki’s got a fucking job to do, and he doesn’t care how many goddamn loops it’s going to take. Denki is going to fix everything. It doesn’t matter how many times he has to die - he’ll be damned if he lets a single member of Class 1-A die.
(After all, he didn’t kill himself for nothing.)
Maybe an hour later, Denki paces around his room like a seasoned detective, footsteps click-clacking against his floor, and an awful, ugly sense of deja vu creeping through his body, catching on his bones, snagging on his ribcage and curling comfortably around a heart beating so slow you could almost think it dead.
Denki is stuck once again with the how. The past urgency of the situation that had sparked through his veins, pushing his feet to move, step by step, had now dulled into a painful lethargy.
There was no urgency, not anymore, and that was both a blessing and a curse.
There was no urgency, not anymore - how could there be, when Denki could just reset and fix everything if anything were to ever go wrong. Denki has an infinite amount of chances, and he was planning to use as many (hopefully as little) as he needed, but, of course, then came the how.
And, of course, there’s the whole dying thing. Denki is, of course, willing to do whatever it takes to save his classmates, but, well, dying was a thoroughly unpleasant experience that he had no desire to repeat if it could be helped - which, of course, he knows it can’t - and therein lies the problem. Denki’d been pushing aside the memory of his suicide with no lack of willpower, but Denki knows, he knows with an ugly sort of certaintiy that it would all begin to creep up on him eventually - and, well, the smaller the amount of traumatic experiences, the better all around.
(Denki hopes that, however he dies this time around, it’s painless and quick. Anticlimactic. Forgettable. Because if there’s anything Denki wishes he could do, it would be to forget)
Eventually, after wasting god knows how much time, Denki decides he’s got to do something.
He sits his pacing ass down on his rolly chair, slides into his desk and forces his shaking legs still. If he can’t manage to keep himself contained while he’s by himself, how will he even begin to manage once he enters UA?
Denki pulls out stray pieces of paper out of a littered desk, kicks a pen out of the carpet as he leans forward. (he really should invest a few days into cleaning his pigsty of a room. It never mattered much before, but now, after tripping over stray books and clothes while pacing, after struggling to find anything that may be of any use in solving his curtain dilemma - well, after all that, he’s beginning to rethink his old outlook on the situation.)
He clicks his pen, (once, twice, thrice) before pressing the tip against his paper. Black ink bleeds into the paper, and Denki has to shake his head, rub his eyes when the black turns red.
(fuck, he’s really pathetic, isn’t he?)
Denki shakes his wrist, squeezing his eyes shut. When he pries them open, the red turns black once again. A breath, another, and Denki’s squeezing the pen so hard he thinks it will break. (luckily enough, he doesn’t have the strength for that)
Denki loosens his grip ever so slightly, tearing his eyes away from the ink blotch on his once pristine white piece of paper.
Alright.
Alright.
For starters, Denki needs to figure out what he already knows, so as he finally stills the trembling of his fingers, Denki begins to write.
(that’s not the only reason Denki pushes his pen to paper to record his loops. What Denki doesn’t tell himself, what he knows, is the true reason he writes, is because, despite what he tells themself, Denki can’t bear to forget. Can’t bear the possibility of losing track, because he knows he’s already slipping)
Loop # 1:
Denki’s handwriting is messy, like it always is, but that doesn't really matter. The harder it is for other people to read, the better.
Denki looks back at the paper. What had happened in the first loop?
The first word he writes below the heading -
Jirou.
Then Yaoyorozu - she was there too.
He remembers it all too clearly.
He remembers him too.
He called himself ‘Tesla’. Denki hadn’t seen him in any other loops, but Denki figures, given he killed him once, he was important enough to write down.
Tesla:
Quirk: electricity(?)
He remembers the ugly skull mask, the green bodysuit, the empty grey eyes.
And with that, Denki realises he doesn’t remember too much of the man at all. Nothing helpful, at least. He knows that Tesla is immune to his electricity, and strong enough to strangle someone with one hand, but that’s about it.
He probably was the one messing up communications too which … now that Denki thinks about it, might actually be helpful - but only if he can find Tesla, and beat him, with enough time remaining to call for help (before it’s too late).
Denki finishes off with rather disorganised notes and nothing of any true help.
Loop #1.
Jirou. Yaoyorozu.
Tesla:
Quirk: electricity(?)
Killed in the Mountain Zone (by Tesla)
Denki bangs his head against the desk, and this time, his pen really does snap. There’s pen tip and ink all over his hands, but he ignores it (ignores the way the ink feels like blood, dripping down his hand - he’s a mess, a complete and utter mess. How will he ever handle seeing his classmates?) His nails rake into wood and he tries to quell his irritation with deep, meditation-esque breaths.
His notes aren’t entirely useless. He knows, at least, that if he doesn’t change anything, doesn’t interfere, he will end up in the Mountain Zone with Jirou and Yaoyorozu. He knows that if he ever needs to use his electricity in that area again, that it won’t work against Tesla. If he ever lands in that same situation again, he won’t be taken hostage.
Denki takes another breath, and then fishes out a new pen.
He needs to think about what information will be useful.
The League of Villains.
His hand moves by itself - K - U - R - O
Kurogiri.
Quirk: Portals?
He remembers Kurogiri, much too much. He remembers awful gold eyes, he remembers Snipe, falling to the ground, dead.
Used his quirk against both Thirteen and Snipe.
Observant? Smart?
Denki rakes his mind for anything that might be important.
He’s polite.
Denki wants to slam his head down again. How the fuck was that important?
Wears a suit. Golden eyes? Weird-ass metal brace.
Denki sighs at his own inane commentary.
Cares about Shigaraki?
It might be a bit of a stretch, but Denki was sure that Kurogiri concerned himself over Shigaraki’s wellbeing, at least to an extent. Denki already knew that the lives of allies weren’t important to the league of villains - Shigaraki had killed Soranako without even thinking.
The hundreds of villains in the USJ were all expendable.
Kurogiri, Shigaraki, and the Noumu are the only ones who aren’t.
Shigaraki Tomura.
Hands? (kinda creepy) Red blood red eyes, blue(ish) hair.
Insane (bloodthirsty)
Killed Aizawa-Sensei Good fighter? (hand-to hand, close distance)
Quirk: Disintegration (five-finger activation?) *like Uraraka
Leader?????????
Even Denki is ashamed of his excessive use of question marks, but he’s unsure. Kurogiri advised Shigaraki on what to do, instructed him and led him, but at the same time, when Shigaraki gave an order, Kurogiri listened.
And the Noumu did too, and that was perhaps all that mattered.
Noumu
Strong enough to beat All Might.
Beak thing? Wears beige shorts.
Exposed brain?
Quirk: ?????????????? mutation? Something to do with the beak? Super strength? Regeneration? Gigantification?????
Killed All Might. Doesn’t talk. (Can it even talk, with that beak?) (Why am I so stuck on the freaking beak?)
Follows Shigaraki’s orders. Unbeatable.
Denki stares down at his paper, mulling over how useless all of his notes were. He had information, that’s true, but not enough.
That’s what he’ll do then, Denki decides with a grim sort of smile. He’ll dedicate this loop to gathering as much information on the League of Villains as possible - so that maybe, in future loops, he can actually stand a chance
Denki rips up his paper, and the shreds fall into his carpet, creating even more of a mess to clean.
Denki sighs.
He’ll gather as much information on the League of Villains as possible once he’s cleaned his fucking room.
---
9:30 - 1:30
Wednesday, March 15th, XXXX
Saitama Prefecture, Japan
Fujimino Junior High
School is …
Not great.
Denki had thought he was prepared, but he hadn’t been, not really. Denki doesn’t understand why school, which had once been painful but tolerable, had now become suffocating and unbearable.
The first problem; the people. There were too many people. Hordes of them, practically, a jarring contrast from the twenty-student classes of UA.
UA is an elite high school. Of course they have smaller classes.
Yet Denki had somehow forgotten what it was like to be stuck in packed-full clases, surrounded by so, so many people whom he couldn’t recognize, so many noises that blended together and scratched at his eardrums - it was just too much and Denki’s honestly surprised that he’s still breathing.
(it’s even worse when some of his old friends come up to try to talk to him. It’s only been a day since they’ve seen Denki last, but Denki hasn’t seen them for months. Denki has died. Thrice. How can he speak with them as if nothing’s wrong? How can he tell them the Kaminari Denki they know is dead, three times over?)
The second problem; panic. Fear. Paranoia. Whatever you wanted to call it - whatever it was, it was getting worse by the day, and the hordes of people he mentioned earlier? They weren’t helping in the slightest.
The slightest sound would have him spinning around, eyes searching the room for a threat that wasn’t there.
A shadowy figure catching the corner of his eye would disappear into a crowd of other students, keeping Denki on edge for the next fifteen or so minutes.
The bell, signalling the beginning of lunch, shocks Denki so terribly he nearly falls out of his seat.
“What wrong with you? You’ve been acting odd.” Denki forces a shrug, keeps his eyes on the floor as he exits the classroom..
(what is wrong with him? And there is something wrong with him, Denki can tell. Something is horribly, terribly wrong - but as Denki twists open his lock, meeting Kurogiri’s golden eyes in his locker mirror - well, Denki takes a breath, turns away, watching as Kurogiri disappears, and for a little while - well, Denki knows he can pretend that everything’s alright, even if it’s just for a little while longer)
Lunch rolls around, and Denki finds himself lost in his thoughts, a truly dangerous phenomena.
It is not normal, Denki reasons, to be seeing things that aren’t there. (Kurogiri only disappeared for a little while - he’s back with a vengeance, now)
It is also not normal, and probably not all too healthy, to be too stuck on the smell and taste of blood, too distracted by the press of metal against his skin that feels all too like a gun to actually be able to force any food down his throat. Denki hasn’t eaten in a while, and he has no plans to eat anytime soon, which he can admit is unreasonable - it’s not like he’s got any hidden trauma related to food , at least the Class 1-A thing had a reasonable excuse - and he knows he can’t not eat forever but …
Well, it’s not like anything in the run-down cafeteria of Denki’s public school could even begin to compare to Lunch Rush’s meals, so he thinks he can get along just fine with snacks and quick bites here and there until he reaches UA.
Denki can also admit that it is not, in fact, normal, for him to be eating alone.
As he’s sure he’s mentioned before, Denki is (was) the living definition of a social butterfly. When he made the shift last time around, it didn’t really matter - no one in UA knew what, for him, would be normal, so they couldn’t exactly call him out about it. (excluding Ashido, of course. She knew no shame nor social expectations)
However, here, Denki’s got plenty of friends. Plenty of people who the resets didn’t, well, reset. They still know (knew) him.
Which means they won’t let him eat alone.
Refusing them would’ve led to more questions, more attention, more eyes he couldn’t shake off. So he agreed.
Which means Denki is not sitting alone, as he might’ve wished. Instead, he’s sitting in a small, meant-for-six table with what, twelve other people?
Denki is suffocating.
Two pairs of shoulders press against his, on either side, like unbreakable walls slowly closing in and sure, maybe he’s overreacting, but he also can’t fucking breathe, so where does that leave him?
Denki continues to suffer in silence (because how could he begin to explain what was happening to him, how could he even put any of this into words-) but it isn’t silence, not really.
People are talking (loud loud loud) around him and Denki can’t hear his own thoughts. Midoriya is screaming, yelling at him (Kaminari, don’t!) but Denki can only hear a faint echo.
Denki is not normal. Denki is half sure he’s going insane.
Denki is weak. He’s pathetic, and falling apart at the seams. He understands that the loops are affecting him, they would affect anyone, but he really needs to get his shit together. He’s overreacting. He needs to be better, get stronger, so he can be the hero his classmates need. (Denki’s a lost cause. Why did he ever think someone like him could be a hero?)
Yet despite Denki’s newfound resolve, strong as steel, strong as All-Might (who maybe isn’t as strong as Denki once thought) that rests beneath his skin, Denki feels himself curl inwards, feels his fingers tremble and his pathetic human skin chafe as it serves as a barrier between Denki’s so called resolve and the rest of the world.
“Kaminari?”
“Kaminari.”
It’s just one word, just a name, but Denki can’t help but flinch at the sound of Aizawa Sensei’s voice. He can’t help but feel the walls close in around him, his own helplessness relentlessly eating away at his psyche, because Denki has so many people depending on him (even if they don’t know it), so many lives in the palm of his hand and he is going to fail. Denki is a failure, a fuck up, and he couldn’t even save himself, so how can he hope to save any member of Class 1-A? Denki is going to fail, and it won’t just be him who will have to deal with the consequences. Every single member of Class 1-A will suffer for his short-comings, and pay for them with their lives.
Denki stands up, startling the two people beside him (they flinch away, and Denki pretends he doesn’t see them). His hands are smack down against the table, his nails jagged, his fucking fingers tremble because Denki can’t make them stop-/em>
Absent-mindedly, Denki realises everyone is watching him.
“I need to go to the bathroom.” He manages eventually, uselessly. He’s climbing over the bench and darting to the exit long before any of them can get out a word otherwise. (maybe Denki wishes they’d stop him.)
He runs straight out of the cafeteria. He keeps running.
He runs and runs and runs until he realises that he isn’t running anymore, until he isn’t at school anymore, until he’s back at the USJ fighting for his life.
Denki doesn’t know where he is. He feels the cool press of metal against his back, the feel of a carpet below his legs, but he can also feel fire, flames licking up his legs and torso. He feels unbearable heat and pain as the silence dissolves into unintelligible screams.
“You’re the one with electric powers! Just zap ‘em so we can run!”
“Some partner you are-”
“Go, Kaminari!”
“Kaminari?”
“In our superhuman society …”
“What is it now, Kaminari?”
“I don’t think he can hear us.”
“We need to leave.”
“Maybe if I kill a few kids, he’ll come out to play?”
“I think he’s having a panic attack-”
“Kaminari, for the love of god, is this another panic attack?”
“What do we do?”
“I’ll scatter you across this facility-”
“Snipe, don’t hesitate.”
“-to meet my comrades-”
“Midnight, behind you!”
“-and your deaths!”
“Don’t touch him! His quirk’s electricity, right? He’ll probably shock you.”
“We can’t do that! The heroes might need our help!”
“I can turn my skin into metal-“
“We’d only get in their way-”
“You’ll just scare him more!”
“I apologise. That was stupid of me.”
“Hey hey, why don’t you just use your quirk?”
“Bad people! Bad people in the water!”
“No.”
“They’re not attacking.”
“You’re the mind-control guy, aren’t you? You can calm him down.”
“What on earth are they waiting for?”
“I’m not using my quirk against someone-“
“It’s not very hero-like-”
“You’d be helping!”
“-or honourable for us to hide.”
“-especially without their consent.”
“Come out come out, little hero students!”
“Well, he’s not really in a position to be consenting to anything , now is he?”
“They aren’t dead, are they?”
“We should get a nurse or something.”
“We should most definitely assist our classmates!”
“More people might scare him more! That’s not very courageous of you, you know? If you can use your quirk to help him, then it’s selfish not to.”
“I can not leave you all behind!”
“You don’t know anything about selfishness. Or about me. And anyways, there’s no guarantee my quirk will even work, not when he’s like this.”
“-we’re not heroes-”
“You can try, though!”
“It’s probably our best chance.”
“We should probably just get on with it-”
"Oh, for the love of- Kaminari. Kaminari, can you hear me?”
“Anyone got a plan?”
“I was rather hoping you’d have one, Kaminari.”
“Kaminari?”
“Huh?”
“He can’t even hear us. There’s no point, my quirk won’t work unless he responds. Just go get a nurse-“
“You can count on us.”
“Try again! I’ll try and shake him!”
“We’re counting on you too.”
“Wait, don’t-“
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Death is permanent-”
“KAMINARI!”
Hands across his shoulder then flaring pain in his skull. Denki can feel every inch of the bullet as it sinks into his skull. His head rings with static.
He can barely hear himself screaming, electricity ripping viciously from his body, shooting around the hallway. The metal lockers are the perfect conductor and Denki just keeps screaming -
“Calm down!” And all of a sudden, the static fades - the lights in the hallway going out with it.
Everything goes dark, and blissfully, terribly silent.
For a second, he feels himself just drifting along, his breath coming out in slow gasps. He can’t move, he can’t think, he just breathes till it forces his head-rare down.
It doesn’t last.
Whatever it was breaks and Denki feels everything overwhelming again, because all of a sudden he can feel again. Vividly, viciously, his surroundings slam into him. The jarring occurrence is enough to send him into another panic — or at least, it would’ve been, had Denki not been so very painfully aware of those surroundings - and just as aware of the two sets of eyes watching him from the darkness.
Denki counts every breath, watching his chest rise if only to reassure himself that he is alive, that he’s fine (he’s not) , that everything’s going to be alright (it won’t).
“Kaminari.” One of his two spectators says from … somewhere in the hallway. At least, Denki’s assuming they’re in a hallway - he’ll be honest, he’s not entirely sure. “Are you alright?” The voice is nearly a yell and Denki winces as the sound seems to bang into his skull.
The entirety of this situation makes Denki want to break out into self-ridiculing laughter, but he can at least acknowledge that that would only make them more concerned, this time for his sanity rather than his general wellbeing.
“I’m alright.” It’s a lie, and Denki and the two others know that, but Denki forges on. A deep breath in, a deep breath out. “I’m alright.” He repeats. All that does is solidify the already standing idea that he is not, in fact, alright. “Thanks for your guys’ help, I really appreciate it.”
“Yeah, that’s great and all-“ This is the second one of the two, and he doesn’t sound amused. “But now that you’re ‘alright’-“ His voice is layered in thick sarcasm. “Do you think you can get the lights back on?"
“Uh.” Denki says, looking around. “About that …”
“Great,” Thing #2 mutters, and goddammit Denki really needs to figure out what their names are.
“They’ve got to have a backup generator somewhere.” Denki manages to say. “A teacher’ll probably figure it out.” Deep breaths, Denki. He breathes, steady and slow, so slow you could say he wasn’t breathing at all.
“So.” Thing #1 says eventually. “What the hell happened to you?” … and there came the inevitable questions. He supposes it was too optimistic for him to think they might just let it go.
“Sorry about … all that.” He says eventually. “I just had a bit of a minor freak out, that’s all.”
“Minor?” #1 asks.
“I’d hate to see what a major one looks like.” #2 mutters dryly. “I think you knocked out the power of the entire building.”
“Alright,” Denki admits. “It wasn’t all that minor, and I’m sorry. I just … I don’t always do too well in crowded areas. Normally, I can manage fine, today I was just a bit on edge.” Denki shoots them what he hopes is a reassuring smile. “Thanks again for helping me.”
“You’ve got a very strong quirk.” #1 says.
“Thanks,” He replies, even though it doesn’t seem to be a compliment. More of an observation, even a challenge, but Denki ignores that bit, instead looking up as the lights flickering on.
Thing #2, with the gravity defying purple hair, looks up at the flickering lights with equally purple eyes. “Finally,” He mutters. Denki’s seen this guy around a couple of times. They don’t share any classes, he doesn’t even know the guy's name, but the purple hair is quite the identifying feature.
Thing #1, meanwhile, he knows.
=Well. Not really. He knows him the way he once knew Itsuka Kendou - from the top ten charts of the entrance exam. Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu (and isn’t that name a mouthful?), ranked 8th on the entrance exam.
… or who would be ranked? Has that happened yet?
No, the entrance exams have already happened. His results have already come out. This is something he knows simply from knowing, not because of his multiple loops. (It’s a little refreshing, he’ll be honest)
Denki would likely have thought about that a little more, if his thoughts had not been (quite rudely) interrupted by Denki’s irate, not-so-happy Sensei.
“Kaminari Denki!” Denki winces internally at the loud sound. If the looks of Tetsutetsu and Thing #2 are anything to go by, it hadn’t been as internally as he’d hoped.
“That’s me,” Denki offers the man a wobbly smile. His eyes seem to bulge ever so slightly.
“Would you like to explain why the entirety of the school’s electricity shut off?” And of course, there’s no question about who did it. Who else has a handy-dandy wreck the school’s electricity bill quirk like him? And it’s not like he’s not notorious for being largely unable to control his quirk.
Denki sighs. He can get away with a lot at this school, but he knows this time around he’ll be getting out with a detention, at the very least. <
“Yup, that was me,” He says, as if there was any question. “I’m su~uper sorry.” He draws out the u, pops the p. “Lost control of my quirk again.” A perfect smile, a sheepish laugh. He watches as the man deflates like a dying balloon.
He won’t get any real consequences. He knows this. A perk of having a hero’s perfect quirk, and one of three to get into UA’s hero course. He may be the dunce, the idiot, the class-clown, but he still got into UA, making him something of a god at his middle school.
Or at least, it had made him something of a god. The administration knows, the school knows (because of course they do), but Denki hasn’t gotten around to bragging to his friends about it. As far as his classmates know, they’re only two people who got into the UA hero course - Testutestu being one of them. Denki is content with being (mostly) unknown for a little while longer.
“Of course you did,” The man mutters bitterly, shaking his head. “It’s a wonder you even got into UA in the first place-” And well, there goes that secret. Not that he was even trying to keep it a secret in the first place, but he’s still kind of offended, especially as he watches Testutetsu’s eyes widen, purple-hair Aizawa look-alike (seriously, at least Aizawa has his quirk as an excuse, but what’s up with this guy? How does his hair just casually deny gravity?) stiffening. Testutetsu’s obviously surprised, but he gets over that surprise soon, the side of his mouth ticking up and his hand curling into a fist. Denki would be worried, but Testtestu doesn’t seem angry. Just passionate.
Purple-hair, Thing #2, meanwhile, seems tense. His shoulders are locked, a frown planted on his face - just a little deeper than what Denki thinks is his resting face.
“Detention.” The man says, and Denki just nods. “Afterschool, for the rest of the week.” And detention isn’t that bad. It tends to be hell, having to sit still for so long, no talking, no moving. It always drives Denki up the wall, but he’s gotten detention … a lot, over the past three years, and he’s got homework he needs to do anyway.
“Cool.” The man’s eye twitches, but he sighs, and Denki knows the issue’s been dropped.
“Wait!” Nevermind, he guesses the issue hasn’t been dropped. Denki watches as a classmate whom he vaguely remembers (blue-hair, water-manipulation. He and his sister were the literal real-life manifestation of waterboy and lavagirl) walks out from … behind a locker? Outside of a classroom? Denki doesn’t know where he came from, and he winces internally because what if this guy saw?.
Tetsutetsu and Twilight Sparkle seemed content to keep quiet over his ‘minor freak out’. What if this guy wasn’t?
“Sorry,” The guy says, and he doesn’t look fucking sorry. “I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but I was in the hallway when the lights went out -” god-fucking-dammit “-and it wasn’t Kaminari’’s fault!”
Denki pauses.
He blinks.
“It’s not?” He and his Sensei say in sync, because what on earth is this guy talking about?
“Is there another student with an electricity quirk here whom I’m missing?” His sensei asks, raising an eyebrow.
“No.” The guy admits. “Denki’s electricity was what caused the blackout, but it wasn’t his fault!” … and Denki has to say, weird way for the guy to try to tell the truth, but at least he cares? Though, on second thought, Denki really, really, really doesn't want this guy to care. He doesn’t want anyone to care. He’s doing perfectly fine.
“Uh-huh.” His Sensei seems to be just as confused as he is, with a tad more scepticism.
“It was Shinsou’s fault!” The boy says, pointing at Twilight Sparkle, and oh, so his name is Shinsou? He thinks he prefers Twilight.
A second passes and then Denki’s brow furrows as Shinsou tenses even further.
“Huh?” Denki’s confused. Is he the only one who’s confused? Tetsutetsu seems to be confused, so he’s not the only one. His sensei looks confused as well.
In fact, Shinsou seems to be the only one who doesn’t look confused.
“He’s got a mind control quirk,” The boy continues on. “He can brainwash people. He’s done it to people before, and I saw him use his quirk on Kaminari!”
Denki is struck still for a few seconds, still stunned by the sheer absurdity of the statement.
“Is that true?” His Sensei says with a frown, looking between Denki, Testutetsu, and Shinso. “Kaminari, you should’ve told me-”
“Hold on a second.” Denki interrupts, as the horror kicks in. “That’s not true. That’s not - no.” Denki blinks a few times, trying to get a handle on his words.
His sensei pauses, unsure. “So Shinso didn’t use his quirk on you?”
Denki frowns, glancing at the snitch beside him. “No, he did, but he was using it to help me. I had already lost control of my quirk, and he used his to help me regain control.”
“He’s probably just making you say that.” Water-boy says matter-of-factly, and by god Denki wants to punch him in the face. “He could’ve brainwashed you into thinking he was just helping you!”
“Bullshit.” Tetsutetesu snaps out, vitriol dripping from his tone. “Don’t talk about things you don’t know, fucker. Shinso used his quirk to calm Kaminari down and that’s it.”
“Still,” Their Sensei murmurs. “That’s non-consensual, illegal quirk use.”
“And if Kaminari was already under his control, you don’t know what else he could’ve done!” Denki and Tetsutetsu share a look of something akin to shock. Maybe it’s horror.
Shinso just looks resigned.
“That’s ridiculous.” Denki insists. “He was helping me.”
“Did you give him your consent to use his quirk?” His sensei questions. Denki’s frown deepens.
“No, but-“
“Then there are no buts,” His sensei insists.. “Regardless of his intentions, that sort of quirk use is illegal. You can’t just be using your quirk without care-”
“Then me electrocuting the school is also illegal quirk use!” Denki exclaims, throwing his hands up. “We’re just kids. This isn’t that big of a deal!”
“He could be making you say that,” Waterboy says nonsensically.
“There still has to be consequences.” His sensei continues. “Things like this are grounds for expulsion, or a balck mark on your record at the very least-”
“Then you’d have to give me the same consequences!” Denki insists, knowing full well what that means. You can’t get into a hero school with a black mark for something like misuse of your quirk, especially against other people. That stuff can ruin your future, and Denki isn’t content to let Shinso suffer the consequences of something he didn’t even do. What kind of hero would he be, if he let something like that slide?
“I used my quirk as well.” Tetsutetsu snaps viciously. “If you punish Shinso, you better punish all of us.” Denki frowns for a second, because when the heck did Testutetsu use his quirk - and what even was his quirk - but he ignores that in favour of watching his Sensei’s reaction.
His sensei looks confused, or maybe even angry, for eventually, he relents. “Fine!” He declares. “If you all want to be punished together, then so be it.” And that’s when Denki panics, because how could he not panic? What if his acceptance to UA is rescinded? Something like this is an adequate basis, and Denki’s not exactly the highest scorer - if he’s thrown out, then what the hell is he supposed to do? “Detention, for all three of you, for the rest of the week!” (Denki pretends he’s surprised)
The rest of his day passes in a mindless blur, until Detention rolls around and all of a sudden Denki is alert and knee-deep in panic.
This feels like the start of a bad movie, Denki thinks mindlessly. One set in a high school. With bullies and crappy power dynamics. Basically everything without the pretty girls, which were those movies only redeeming qualities. (The bullies always tended to be various degrees of pretty as well, but Denki always masterfully ignores the abundance of hot guys in favour of hating them, like he’s supposed to)
Shinso, Testutetsu, and Denki are all in detention, all because of one certain somebody. (That somebody is Denki, if you couldn’t catch his drift)
The teacher (not his Sensei, who landed them here in the first place) gives them your typical detention “no taking, no moving, no breathing” sort of speech - without the demonic laugh and long yardstick Denki would expect from the genre.
Maybe toss in a blood quill or two, Denki suggests mentally. Spice things up.
After her speech, the teacher (a middle aged lady with a tight bun and pressed clothes- I mean, what else were you expecting?) walks out, like all the teachers who are supposed to be supervising the kids in detention in all of the movies, leaving those very kids to their own devices.
A plot device, to be specific. A plot device that, in this all-too real-life scenario, will probably see Denki in a not-so-great situation, by the looks Tetsutetsu and Shinso are sending his way.
In this scenario, Denki is unsure whether he’s the protagonist, the antagonist, or just another plot device. Maybe the protagonist is Tetsutetsu, with shining silver skin as a protagonist’s halo and a top-ten scoring in the entrance exam, who was unfairly caught up in other people’s problems because of his heroic spirit. Maybe the protagonist is Shinso, with his tsundere scowl and bitter demeanour - he’s an underdog, and who doesn’t love the underdog, the one who is discriminated against and crushed underfoot only to eventually rise back up again.
When the teacher finally departs, there is silence. Her shoes click-clack against the floor, on and on, fainter and fainter as she slowly makes her way down the hallway - it’s only when her footsteps disappear completely does the action begin.
And now, the movie really starts, as both Tetsutetsu and Shinso turn towards Denki, looking up from whatever work they may or may not have been doing. The passionate hero, the tsundere underdog, and a boy who didn’t know better than to get involved.
Here, Denki is nothing more than a fool.
“You’re going to UA?” They both ask instantly, differing tones, same question, and Denki blinks. Of all things he suspected they would focus on, UA was not one of them. Sure, top hero school and all, but they were teens in their last few months of middle school. Denki sort of suspected more issues with the whole detention thing, especially after they had done nothing but try to help him.
“… yeah?” Somehow, Denki feels like he’s giving the wrong answer. Maybe this is a trick question?
“In heroics?” They ask, once again in unison - and it would’ve been creepy, if not for the completely different people speaking. Tetsutetsu speaks loud and fast. He looks passionate, eager, and it comes through in his voice. Shinso, on the other hand, just looks dead inside, his voice a lazy, drawled monotone with hints of bitterness that Denki picks up the way a hawk finds its prey - with practised ease. If there is anything Denki knows, he knows people.
“Mmhmm,” Denki confirms. “I’m in class 1-A,” Denki adds, if only in an attempt to calm Tetsutetsu down. He knows for a fact that Tetsutetsu is in 1-B, and Denki hopes that this revelation will let the guy down enough that he stops looking at Denki with that look in his eyes.
“I suppose you would be-“ Shinso mutters, no, sneers, oh so bitter, venomous and lethal. “-with a quirk like yours.” And Denki is used to being considered nothing more than a flashy quirk - to an extent, Denk even knows it’s true, so he doesn’t flinch, just nods in agreement.
“Yeah, my quirk really carried. Perfect for the entrance exam, honestly.” Denki makes the admission with practised confidence, with an easy smirk and a not-quite arrogant look in his eyes, making the two think he’s bragging, instead of just admitting to his own failings. He keeps his tone light, though, friendly enough - he does want to get on either of these two’s bad sides - or at least, any further onto Shinso cause the guy’s staring daggers into him with the subtle finesse of someone who does it every day. With the ease of someone who is used to hating everyone.
“Why aren’t you in the top ten?” Tetsutetsu demands. “With a quirk like yours …” Tetsutetsu trails off, meaning implied.
“Nah,” Denki replies, shaking his head and laughing as if the idea is completely and utterly ridiculous - and it is. “You two got a front-seat demonstration- I don’t have a very good control over my quirk, and I could’ve seriously hurt someone if I went wild - so I just got the points I needed and kept to myself. Easier for me, honestly. Wasn’t even tired by the end of it!” Denki has a feeling that what he’s saying will be taken no way but negatively, but he can’t find a proper way to say it without it sounding like an arrogant bitch or a half-assed hero.
His predictions come true, as Tetsutetsu frowns, eyes seemingly boring into his soul, while Shinso scoffs once again.
“Of course,” Shinso mutters. “With such a powerful quirk-“ Shinso spits out the word like it’s a curse. “-you wouldn’t even have needed to try at all, would you?” Another scoff. “I guess Sensei was wrong - how could any hero school not accept someone like you?” And Denki is used to these sort of accusations, he is, but the bitterness in Shinsou’s voice is vicious and Denki feels his smile waver ever so slightly.
“I guess you’re right,” Denki says, instead of the many things he might’ve liked to say instead, because how can he argue? How can he argue that he’s worth anything, how can he argue that he’s worth being a hero if all he’s done so far is fail? “Anyways.” Denki is eager to move on from this subject. “I’m sorry again, to both of you, especially you, Shinsou. It’s really unfair that both of you got in trouble for something I did and I’m really sorry.”
“Don’t apologise for something that isn’t your fault” Tetsutetsu replies easily, like any well-meaning protagonist would. A heart of gold, or in this case, steel. “It’s that fucking coward who stuck his nose in other people’s business.” And there, the undercurrent of steel, no pun intended - the strong soul and thirst for justice that makes him him. He’s the hero people will look up to when the determination in his eyes sparks a fire in the eyes of others. He’s a hero, plain and simple. He is everything Denki is not. (Denki can’t help but wonder - if it had been Tetsutetsu, in Class 1-A, if it had been Tetsutetsu, who had been given a second chance, if it had been Tetsutetsu, who got into Class 1-A instead of Denki - would things have changed? Would things change? Denki has no doubt that Tetsutetsu would find a way to save everyone) “He was an asshole. It wasn’t your fault, Kaminari, but I am sorry that there was nothing more either of us could do, Shinso.”
“Don’t apologise.” Shinso says sharply, near angry, and Denki knows there’s a story behind that venom. Denki’s already beginning to piece that story together. “It’s nothing I’m not used to.” And that, that statement is different - it isn’t full of the contained bitterness Denki would expect - it isn’t the careless words that slip through the lips of someone oh-so-tired, someone too tired to care what his words might instigate someone the purple eye bags are, befitting of the hair and eyes had told Denki he was - no, that’s not it at all. The words are deliberate, taunting, even, and Denki doesn’t like where this might be going.
“Doesn’t make it fucking better.” Tetsutetsu snaps up, rising to the hidden challenge resting in Shinso’s words.
“And what would you know?” Shinso responds, still waiting, still vicious.
“We’re going to be heroes.” Tetsutetsu says. “One would hope we’d know the difference between right and wrong.”
“One would hope.” Shinso snipes back. “All your heroism got you two was detention. Maybe you should’ve kept your damn mouths shut.” And Denki supposes, Shinso is something of an ironic anti-hero, or even a villain with the most tragic backstory. Denki has sealed the loose ends and he’s already all too clear about what that tragic backstory might be.
Bullying, discrimination, Denki can see it all in his eyes and his heart twists at the malicious purple. (aren’t those kinds of backstories reserved just for movies, for books?)
One boy with a hero’s quirk, one boy with a villain’s. One boy, handed everything on a silver platter, one boy, who made it into a hero school without even trying, one boy, with a perfect quirk, and then one boy, with nothing.
If Denki was Shinso, Denki thinks he’d hate himself as much as Shinso does.
“I’m sorry,” Denki says, and this time, he thinks Shinso knows what he’s really apologising for.
“No,” Shinso replies easily. “You’re not.” And then the teacher walks back in and they’re both back at their seats and that’s that, a throwaway encounter that will never repeat itself, a conversation that should never have happened in the first place.
A conversation that never should have happened, but a conversation still, one that Denki will never forget - even if Shinso does ten times over.
And that’s that, Denki supposes, with a dark sort of bitterness that could never compare to the type in Shinso’s eyes.
---
3:30 PM
Thursday, March 16th, XXXX
Saitama Prefecture, Japan
Fujimino Junior High
Denki’s got detention for the rest of the week - which wouldn’t be anything noteworthy if not for the fact that both Tetsutetsu and Shinso have it with him.
Today, though, they aren’t alone. A smattering of random kids, some whom Denki recognizes, some whom he does not, scatter themselves across the classroom - Denki sees a few familiar faces, but he makes an instant beeline for the empty row of seats by the back of the classroom.
What Denki was most certainly not expecting when he holed himself up in the corner was for two of the most fresh of those familiar faces to approach him. He really didn’t take Shinso for the type - sure, he can sort of understand Tetsutetsu taking the spot right in front of Denki, he seems like the kind of guy, but Shinso? Not only is Shinso a total introvert, (Denki knows these things - he knows people, remember?) but Denki is just the kind of person Shinso hates. From the bitterness, to the perfectly timed reaction, Denki is almost certain Shinso wanted to be a hero. And he already has a sinking feeling about how that went.
Which is why Denki can’t fathom why the guy would willingly sit next to him, making just a few seconds of heavy eye contact before taking his seat.
Denki is surrounded, and out of near instinct, his body tenses, muscles locking up, preparing him for conflict.
A conflict that, incidentally, never comes - Denki spends the next five minutes staring intently at his desk, waiting for their teacher to inevitably leave and for the two to turn towards him.
The teacher does leave, (really, what is she thinking, leaving a bunch of rowdy teenagers alone in a classroom during a supposed detention? Though Denki supposes that, with the sheer amount of kids in the class, once anyone starts talking, she’ll be able to hear from a mile away) ,but then -
Well, nothing. Denki’s surprised for a second, and he spends a good chunk of a minute staring at the back of Tetsutetsu’s head - but when nothing proceeds to happen, Denki falls back into the silence.
He guess he had been being stupid, Denki supposes as he turns towards the homework he’s spread out across his desk. There’s absolutely no reason for him to psychoanalyse Tetsutetsu and Shinso’s decision to sit by him.
Denki still does, though. If there’s one thing Denki’s supposed to know, it’s people, and one of the most unbearable things is to not know. (at least, more unbearable than having to sit still in a classroom and do homework without movement, action, and Denki much prefers agonising over a mystery than going stir crazy)
Denki breathes deeply, bouncing his leg. Up, down, up, down.
Just one more day.
Denki’s going to be fine.
---
3:30 PM
Friday, March 17th, XXXX
Saitama Prefecture, Japan
Fujimino Junior High
A day later, one more detention, and Denki’s opinion has changed drastically.
Denki is not going to be fine.
Up, down, up, down - Denki’s leg is bouncing relentlessly as he taps his pencil onto his desk, over and over, again and again. The repetitive motions aren’t really helping, and Denki’s other hand twitches where it lays not-quite dormant on his thigh.
Denki wishes he had a fidget toy of some sort. He’d gotten a new set of pop-its recently, and what he wouldn’t give to have them by his side now. Not that his teacher would’ve let him bring them into detention even if he’d remembered to bring them. This was detention, a time for reflection and work, not free time, absolutely no distractions allowed - and fidget toys were distractions, his ADHD a handy excuse.
He probably could’ve snuck them in his book bag, though. It’s not like the teacher’s bothered to stick around and watch them.
Denki’s electricity buzzes unhappily against his skin - his quirk isn’t sentient, not like Tokoyami’s, but Denki’s always felt like his electricity has a life of its own. He generates it, after all, creates it - it is an intrinsic part of him, and much like him, it hates sitting still. His electricity is always in motion, and at the moment, in a rather shocking occurrence, it isn’t his memories of the USJ that is making Denki, and his electricity, feel inexplicably and inescapably trapped. The feeling isn’t something he’s unused to - after all, Denki is not exactly unused to consistent detentions, but somehow, this week is worse. Denki supposes it does come back to the USJ after all - the sheer panic that, at the moment, lies dormant, is an ever constant presence, and every sense is heightened. Denki is paranoid with a hyper focus he never thought he was capable of and it’s awful, and all those ugly things are making something that really isn’t that bad (it is bad, it is, Denki’s just gotten so used to it he can’t differentiate between right and wrong and tolerable and bad and awful) into absolute hell. Denki’s been holed up in his room for the last week, too, mindlessly stirring over ways to prevent a seemingly inevitable future (Denki finds it cruel, that he’s being forced to relive something he can not stop. What had he done to deserve this?) , and because of that, Denki hasn’t gotten a chance to detox, so to speak. To go out with friends, to practise his quirk out by that one abandoned area near the forest where there’s no one he could potentially hurt and sure, that’s by his own choice, but nonetheless, the effects are hitting him hard.
Not to be cliche or anything, but Denki can feel the walls closing in. There’s simply no better way to describe his current dilemma.
Denki’s really debating letting a sliver of electricity out, even if it’s just to shock himself back into focus. He lets a bit of it out to run against his skin, and his hair raises as his arm prickles with instinctive goosebumps. Electricity immunity is not a perk of Denki’s quirk, but he uses his quirk enough that he has a significantly higher tolerance than most.
Up, down, up, down - Denki focuses his electricity into his fingers, and the pencil taps faster and faster-
“Would you stop that?” Shinso side eyes him, his voice a vicious whisper.
Denki’s fingers still around the pencil, and he feels his body go perfectly, agonisingly still. For a few seconds, Denki tries to keep still, keeps his body frozen in place. Shinso watches him with something like concern bleeding into his eyes, but Denki doesn’t notice. He’s too preoccupied with all the warring emotions inside him, nowhere near another breakdown but curdling into something awful that’s easily stealing his breath away.
“Right,” Denki says after the silent staring grows unbearable. He relaxes his shoulders and sits back into his chair. “Sorry.”
Shinso looks at Denki, scrutinising. Denki expertly dodges his eyes. He squeezes his pencil and places the top against the paper of his maths homework.
Eventually, Shinso looks away. Denki breathes an only slightly audible sigh of relief, his hands going lax around his pencil.
Denki isn’t sure when his leg will start bouncing again. It starts with subtle, discreet, inaudible up down movements.
A few more minutes pass. His fingers start twitching against his thigh, and he doesn’t bother to forcibly still them - it’s not
the pencil, and it’s not making any sound, so it should be fine.
Denki isn’t entirely sure when he picks up the pencil again, when he starts to twirl it around his fingers the way someone might spin a sword.
The first tap, no reaction. The second tap, the classroom remains silent. The third step, and Shinso shoves his chair backwards, chair legs scratching against the floor as he pins Denki with a glare.
“Sorry?” Denki apologises preemptively.
“What is wrong with you?” Shinso hisses. Tetsutetsu drops his book onto his desk with a thud.
“Stop being an asshole.” He tells Shinso, then proceeds to turn to Kaminari. “What wrong with you? Are you alright?”
“Why wouldn’t I be alright? I’m just fidgety, that’s all.”
“He isn’t talking about your-“ Shinso eyes Denki with distaste. “-fidgeting. He’s talking about the whole static thing you’ve got going on over there.”
“Static?” Denki questions, because he’s getting the sense that this is some sort of dig at his quirk but he doesn’t really know what his quirk has to do with any of this … oh. Denki looks down and it all clicks into place.
He’s sparking. The restlessness has really gotten to him - his hairs standing up and small bursts of electricity are dancing along his skin.
Denki breaths in. He breathes out. He tried to tamp down all the energy inside of him, but it’s all just too much. He just can’t do it - so he finds the next best alternative. Denki sends a spark of electricity out of his fingers, jabbing them into his inner thigh and twitching slightly as he shocks himself. Denki relaxes back, a self satisfied twitch of a smile making its way over his face as he notes the way his sparking disappears. The restlessness isn’t gone, not completely, but it’s more bearable now, and really, that’s all Denki needs.
“Sorry about that,” Denki says, looking up and swallowing nervously at the looks Shinso and Tetsutetsu are giving him. Shinso looks almost bored, like he always does, but his eyes are trained on Denki and widen every so slightly, as if he can’t believe what Denki’s just done. He still retains some of his murderous aura from earlier.
Tetsutetsu, meanwhile, eyes him with blatant horror and abject concern, an expression that makes Denki’s stomach roll. He doesn’t like that look.
“What the hell was that?” Tetsutetsu asks, reminding Denki that this isn’t Kirishima. The two are undeniably similar, but where Kirishima is careful and kind, Tetsutetsu is … rougher, around the edges. He’s still kind, with a selfless nature, but he’s more … aggressive than Kirishima would ever be.
“It was nothing.” At two identical sceptical looks, Denki rectifies his statement. “Ok, it wasn’t nothing, but I’m electricity proof or whatever. It’s kinda my quirk. A little shock here and there helps me focus - and it doesn’t harm me the way it would harm a normal person.” Denki can’t even bring himself to be too defensive. Like he is often when he turns his quirk against himself, Denki is beginning to feel lazy. Lethargic, even. Definitely not up to social interactions.
“Bullshit” Tetsutetsu declares, but doesn’t push. He lets the subject drop, so Denki doesn’t bother arguing his side, ridding Tetsutetsu of any other suspicions he may have. It’s too much work. What’s the point, anyway? (If anything goes really wrong, he can just reset, can’t he?)
“God,” Shinso nearly hisses. “You’re really a mess, aren’t you?”
“Yeah,” Denki says with something like a laugh. “I kind of am, aren’t I?”
Shinso stares.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three.
“Damn it,” He mutters. “You aren’t supposed to agree with me. Now I feel like an asshole.” It’s almost accusatory, but Denki can’t help but laugh.
“You make no fucking sense.” Tetsutetsu tells him matter-of-factly, and Denki pauses mid-laugh. What the hell? What is he supposed to say to that? Where did that even come from?
“Huh?”
“It doesn’t make any sense!” Tetsutetsu repeats, throwing his hands up. “Why the hell didn’t you tell anyone?”
“Sorry?”
“You’re loud. YOu’re popular. Everybody in our goddamn school knows you. Everyone knew you were applying to UA. You just wouldn’t shut up about it. It was kind of annoying, honestly.”
“Wow.” Denki says in the face of his brutal honesty. “Thanks for that. Really needed to hear it.”
“Everyone assumed you’d been rejected.” Tetsutetsu continues, ignoring the interruption. “It made the most sense. You just stopped talking about it all at once, and people assumed. I assumed. But you were accepted. You got into the top hero school in the country, hell, the entire world. Yet you haven’t told a single person what I thought would be the perfect topic of conversation for someone like you.” And just what exactly that supposed to mean, Tetsutetsu?
“At first, I assumed you just wanted to keep it personal, only with a few friends. But you haven’t told any of your friends, even your close ones! They all think you’ve been rejected too!”
Denki doesn’t know what to say to … any of that, so he just blurts out the first thing that comes to mind. “You’ve been talking to my friends?”
“You got into the top hero school in the entire fucking world.” Tetsutetsu repeats. “But it doesn’t seem to mean a goddamn thing to you. Were you really just that confident? You didn’t even fucking try in the goddamn entrance exam, but here you are. Are the rest of us really just worthless to you? Are the rest of us just nobodies?” Tetsutetsu is practically heaving at the end of his rant. “Heorism is my life. But it doesn’t seem to mean anything to you.”
“It does!” Denki insists on instinct. “Of course it means something to me!” Both Shinso and Tetsutetsu look at him almost sceptically
“There are people who would kill to be in the place you are now.” Shinso says, and Denki feels like he’s going to throw up. “UA is the hardest school to get into in the world but you don’t seem to care about any of that.” Shinso’s eyes are accusing and bitter, Tetsutetsu is angry and lost and Denki really, really doesn’t want these two to think he’s some stuck up asshole who doesn’t care because he does care, he cares so much it hurts he just doesn’t y’know how to show it or express it anymore because he feels like a part of him, that part of him, is gone.
But Denki can’t bear the thought of them leaving this conversation and thinking so badly of him, even if this conversation might not exist soon enough, so Denki starts talking and tries to do what he did with Ashido.
“It’s not that I don’t care.” Denki starts, trying to ignore the eyes boring into his head. Denki is hurting and hurting and hurting but he forces the words from his lips. “I do care, I really do, it’s just … it’s kinda tiring, to keep up with people’s expectations. It’s like you said, Shinso - I’m a mess.” Denki holds back a hysterical laugh as the words just start spilling out. “ I can’t control my quirk properly. It’s a wonder I got into UA in the first place. It was more of a fever dream than anything but now I’m here and I just - how the hell am I even going to survive? I can’t be a hero. I’m not cut out for that sort of thing. I’ll probably fail in the first week. If I tell people I got into UA, the best hero school in the country, in the world, they’ll expect things for me. And I’d rather be the kid who got rejected from UA than the kid who was accepted into UA only for UA to realise what a screw up he is and kick him out before he even makes it through his first year.”
“Damn,” Shinso says when Denki finally finishes his rant. The two are now looking at him with a new type of concern, and a healthy dose of awkwardness. He can’t imagine what it’s like to have a stranger dump their problems on you, but Tetsutetsu did ask - and anyways, he hopes this will convince them both to back off and just give up. “Now I feel like even more of an asshole.”
Denki can’t help himself - he breaks out into loud, obnoxious laughter. The other occupants of the same detention watch him warily, and even Shinso and Tetsutetsu look like they very much want him to shut up (what’s new?), but it takes Denki a good few seconds to regain his (nonexistent) composure.
“I’m such a failure,” Denki groans, slumping down onto his desk, head in his arms. “I might as well drop out of UA now and save the trouble.”
“Don’t you fucking dare.” And Denki thinks the sheer amount of venom in Tetsutetsu’s tone surprised even Tetsutetsu.. It definitely surprised both Tetsutetsu and Shinso. “You got in. I don’t care how much of a screw up you are, I don’t care if you fail in the first week, but don’t just give it because you have low goddamn self esteem.” Kaminari stares at Tetsutetsu. He’s definitely different from Kirishima, Denki thinks.
Shinso starts speaking soon after Tetsutetsu. “Better to be the kid who got kicked out of UA in the first week than the kid who couldn’t even make it to the first day because he dropped out.” There’s a sneer in Shinso’s voice, and Denki can’t help but lift his head to stare at him.
“That's a cowardly move, Kaminari. “Is that what you are? A fucking coward?”
Denki looks between Tetsutetsu and Shinso, and for a second, Denki can feel a part of himself he thought long dead surfacing.
Denki is not a coward. He’s not quite a hero, he’s not quite a villain, and sure, compared to the rest of his classmates, compared to people like Tetsutetsu, Denki is pathetic. But he’s not a fucking coward. And it’s just like Tetsutetsu had said - he still got into UA in the first place. Surely that puts him above your average student. He’s got a killer quirk and an even better hidden card up his sleeve - Denki has an infinite amount of chances. It doesn’t matter how many times he fails, all he needs to do is get back up and try again.
Denki isn’t a coward. Denki’s going to be a goddamn hero, and he won’t let something as inconsequential as death stop him.
—
11:15 PM
Saturday, March 18th, XXXX
Saitama Prefecture, Japan
4321 Kiiroichi Lane
Denki back in his chair, his room door closed and bolted, a notebook out and a pen in his hand. He frowns at his previous notes, tapping his pen against the page.
Denki doesn’t know enough.
Denki knows of a total of maybe six out of the hundreds of villains that attacked the USJ. He knows of Tesla, Soranako, Hariito, Tomura Shigaraki, Kurogiri, and the Nomu.
That isn’t enough. What he has doesn’t help him. Sure, Denki knows their quirks, but how did that help him? It’s not like he could defeat them on his own, and there’s nobody who’d believe Denki if he tried to relay his information to them.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
The idea comes to Denki suddenly, and it feels stupid but Denki’s honestly quite surprised he didn’t think of it earlier. He pulls out his phone, opens up safari, and tentatively types out the words The League of Villains.
No results, just as he expected. Well - not exactly. There are results, just not the kind Denki needs. Pages on various sorts of villain groups and yakuza groups pop up, but that isn’t what Denki is looking for. He supposes he shouldn’t have expected anything - the League of Villains was a new villain group, one that had sought to make their mark, their debut, so to speak, by killing the Number One Hero, a feat they were perfectly capable of achieving.
Tomura Shigaraki comes up blank, as does Kurogiri. Strangely enough, it’s Soranako that gets him a result.
Denki stares at the picture, at bright blue eyes and a manic smile, and tries to breathe through his panic. It’s just a picture, he tells himself. It isn’t real, she isn’t here, he’s going to be fine.
He’s not going to have a fucking breakdown over a fucking picture. He isn’t that pathetic.
With trembling fingers, Denki clicks away from the picture and gives himself a chance to breathe. In, out, in, out, till Denki feels a little less like he’s drowning. He shoves the memories deep, deep down, pretends they don’t exist, until his heartbeat returns to normal and his fingers stop shaking.
Denki clicks onto her heropedia article and blinks away the tears that made his eyes blurry. According to the article, she's a villain who was in prison for robbery and assault. She got out a few months ago.
There’s not much about her online, just a bad quality picture, but Denki can’t get the familiar face staring him dead in his eyes out of his head. (Denki can’t help but think about how she looks when she dies.
It feels all the more real, seeing her, like this. It’s an awful feeling, because this Heropedia article doesn't just talk about her villain identity, but her unmasked civilian identity. She has a life outside of her villainy, a life outside of the USJ, a life outside of Denki’s own. She’s got parents, a brother, too.
Denki swore he was going to get everyone of his classmates out of the USj alive, and Denki can’t help the way his gut twists at the thought of all the other lives that are going to be lost on that day.
With a shaky breath, Denki closes the page and puts his phone down.
It’s not his problem. Denki refuses to let it be his problem. He has enough to worry about. (a hero’s job is to save lives. Any lives)
Denki and his classmates are not the only ones Shigaraki Tomura is going to kill. They are not going to be the only ones he will attempt to kill. They would likely not have been his first kills.
It’s not his problem, Denki reminds himself. It’s not his problem. There’s nothing he can do, anyways. (That’s not very hero-like, now is it?)
Soranako is not his problem. She came to the USJ with the intent to hurt him and his classmates. She’s killed people before. Her death is her own fault.
It’s not his problem, Denki tells himself. The more he says it, the more he can bring himself to believe that it’s true (even while Soranako’s eyes dig into the back of his head, her accusing stare a silent reminder).
It’s not his problem.
(The villains deserve to die, anyways.)
---
3:30 PM
Sunday, March 19th, XXXX
Saitama Prefecture, Japan
Mail Station, 467 Yūtesō Avenue
Denki fiddles with the letter in his hand, staring at the mailbox right outside the post office he’s currently lurking outside. It’s a bright blue, and it’s taunting Denki.
Denki doesn’t know why he had to come all the way to a random post office, given he was using a mailbox and there was one perfectly good one literally a few blocks away from his house, but Denki was feeling oddly paranoid. For good reason, he supposes. Denki is paranoid about everything related to the USJ.
His fingers tap the letter, where Principal Nedzu of UA High is scrawled out in chicken scratch that’s only marginally better than his normal handwriting. Underneath it, Aizawa Shota, Eraserhead and All Might are written just as messily.
Denki hopes that the small details will at the very least allow Denki to catch their attention.
Denki’s first plan is deceptively easy. Over his past few loops, Dneki has toyed with the idea of telling someone about his current predicament, reaching out for help, but again and again, Denki reminds himself that no one would believe him. Why would they? His story is an unbelievable one, and if the knowledge of an intruder strong enough to breach UA’s security isn’t enough to hold off the USJ trip, then it’s likely nothing is. But that doesn’t mean Denki isn’t going to try.
On Thursday, April 13th, Class 1-A, along with their homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shota, the pro-hero, Eraserhead, will be attacked by an affiliation of villains known as the League of Villains. The villains will attack the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, using their quirks to disable UA’s security sensors, with the intention of killing the Symbol of Peace, who will be chaperoning the field trip.
The small details are once again, all the more important. Even to whom the letter is addressed to; no one knows who Class 1-A’s homeroom teacher is. Generally, Aizawa-Sensei doesn’t broadcast his identity as a hero - he’s an underground hero, after all, he likes to keep it lowkey. Some stranger shouldn’t know his civilian identity, nor have any knowledge about his teaching position.
More than that, though. No one outside of UA should know about the USJ, or the upcoming trip. No one should know that All Might would be proctoring. Above all, no one should even know that All Might will be teaching at UA, not yet - even Denki and the rest of his fellow students didn’t find that out until the literal class.
Hopefully, this will be enough to catch their attention. It isn’t likely they’ll cancel the field trip (they hadn’t, even after knowing someone had broken into UA), but Denki hopes this will at least put them on their guard. It won’t solve Denki’s problem, that’s for sure, but it might help him, even if it’s just a little bit.
After Denki had finished writing the letter, and thinking it all through, then came the problem of delivering it. Denki, of course, left his address out of the letter. He used plain old printer paper, even wore gloves. (Denki’s watched enough detective shows that have left him very cautious. Or paranoid. Whatever you wanna call it).
Just to go the extra mile, Denki found a random mailbox outside a random mail station, one that’s a good hour walk from his house, just to be safe.
Denki looks down at the letter one more time. Tries to figure out if there’s anything he’s missed.
Eventually, he figures he has to just do it or he never will, and with a deep breath, he pushes the letter into the slot then takes a step back.
(it’s such a little thing, but Denki can’t help but delight in the fact that he’s actually done something. It may not work, sure, but this is one of Denki’s first steps into actually finding a way to stop the USJ. It’s such a little thing, but no less meaningful, because Denki may not be Midoriya, or Tetsutetsu, or even Shinso, but Denki is still a UA student and he is going to be a hero. And this is his first step)
---
4:15 PM
Monday, March 20th, XXXX
Fujimino Junior High
Once again, before the start of the school week, Denki had spent hours deliberating, overthinking, and wondering if he really had what it takes to survive five more days of school. It seemed like a short amount of time, but each day passed agonisingly slowly for Denki, emphasis on agonisingly.
He’d considered skipping, telling himself that this week didn’t matter, that UA was what mattered, but truthfully, Denki didn’t think even he would be able to get away with missing an entire week of school. One day? Probably. He could call in sick. Even if he didn’t, his mom would probably overlook the inevitable call. Two days was a possibility. Three days pushing it, four days practically impossible.
Denki had worried insistently about detention too, constantly stressing about it, but Denki wasn’t exactly what you could call a stranger to detention. He was still worried about it, but now, sitting in said detention after a full day of school, Denki was starting to believe he was worrying over nothing.
Detention is mind numbingly boring, but then again, Denki’s starting to realise that now, most things in his life are either mind-numbingly boring or insanely terrifying. Denki thinks he probably prefers the boredom, so he should probably just suck it up. That’s becoming something of a theme in his life - if whatever’s bothering him isn’t actively killing him, he’ll probably be fine.
Denki has to admit, he’s feeling a bit more optimistic after an entire day of school breakdown-free. And sure, maybe it isn't exactly something to be proud of but the bar is low. The bar is very low.
It’s almost strange - scratch that, not almost, it is strange how quickly Denki’s moods will switch. For one week, he lived in a permanent state of terror, Tomura Shigaraki constantly lurking over his shoulder along with hopelessness so thick he was never able to breath. But in what, two or three days, Denki had gone from being unable to hear even similar sentences spoken without the beginnings of a full out breakdown creeping up on him to an almost sort of tame fear residing in his chest - it’s like too much exposure has made him go numb to the fear, and he’s learned to breathe through the hopelessness.
Denki thinks that, maybe in a few days, the panic and hopelessness and general negativity will come back with a vengeance, completely unprompted. Denki’s pretty sure that the closer he gets to the USJ, the worse things will get, till inevitably everything goes to shit.
But Denki decides to deal with that inevitability the way he deals with many of his problems - by ignoring it.
So Denki enjoys the few days of calm he can get. Denki enjoys the days where, sure, he’s not happy, but at least he isn’t distraught or traumatised or terrified.
And that’s not all, Denki decides as he does everything to keep his mind from straying to far more unpleasant things. Denki has spent hours deliberating on the USJ, and all of its consequences, but Denki doesn’t allow himself to give his own personal consequences more than a passing thought. During his last run, right before the USJ, Denki allowed himself to think of what might happen after. How things could change. Every now and then, Denki allows himself to think of the ways he’s changed, and deliberate over the reasons that no one else will ever be able to see.
Every now and then, Denki lets himself think about Ashido and Monoma and Kendo and their boba trip that never happened. Denki’s said it time and time again - he’s a social butterfly. He thrives off social interaction.
But Denki has changed, and his personal consequences of the USJ are slowly but surely emerging. Denki is already an anxious person by nature, this entire fiasco has put that part of him into overdrive. Not to mention, how can he explain to any of his old friends what he’s been through? They won’t ever be able to understand why he’s changed, and all Denki will be able to be with them is a shadow of his former self that will never be able to live up to their admittedly quite low expectations.
Denki can’t bear to make friends in class 1a again this run, either. He can’t put himself through that. He can’t make future plans only to have them ripped away, can’t finally make friends he can be himself with only to watch them die and watch all of their memories of him fade away.
Denki can’t do that.
But, Denki thinks, eyeing a flash of purple in the corner of his business. Denki is a social butterfly, he thrives off social interaction, and he can’t bear to go any longer with only his own thoughts, twisted as they are, for company - so he won’t.
Shinso and Tetsutetsu are admittedly the perfect solution. They are people Denki admires, people Denki can string together sentences in front of, and more importantly, people who have nothing to do with the USJ at all.
Denki isn’t friends with them, so he doesn’t really have to worry about pretending he’s the same person he always has been. They’ve already seen him breakdown, so he doesn’t have to put up a pretence of being perfectly, 100% fine.
They’re people he won’t interact with basically at all in UA, at least in the first week. After the school year ends, he can more or less break off any friendship. (and more importantly than that, they will be friends Denki will make knowing full well he will lose them. At least they will just lose their memories, and Denki can convince himself that any sort of camaraderie between them didn’t exist)
And of course, there’s the tiny little problem centering around the fact that Shinso probably doesn’t want to be his friend and Tetsutetsu probably couldn’t really care less about his existence outside of general, normal human concern.
But Denki isn’t going to let something like that stop him. He never has before. After all, if there’s one thing Denki knows, he knows people, and if there’s one thing he’s good at, it’s making friends.
(Denki will not lose this part of him. Shigaraki has already taken enough from him, and Denki refuses to let the man take anything else from him)
---
12:00 PM
Tuesday March 21st, XXXX
Fujimino Junior High
Finding Shinso during lunch isn’t all too hard. His purple hair stands out in a crowd, and once again Denki is left to wonder how he missed this guy’s entire existence. One would think he’d be slightly more observant than that. (In a rare occurrence, Denki finds himself almost thankful for his loops. How many things has he missed that he can now get back?)
Shinso sits alone, and Denki’s chest tightens. He knew, in theory, that this was what he would see. He knows, more than well, that there are quite a few kids in his school who eat alone, completely and utterly friendless, but it still makes Denki’s heart contort into impossible shapes and sizes, as more than anything, Denki is deadly terrified of being alone and he can’t imagine what Shinso’s life must be, forced to be alone for all his life for something he can’t control, for something as fickle as a quirk.
At least he has his own little table, Denki’s supposes. There are no small number of kids who have been, quite literally chased out of the cafeteria, forced to find eating places outside or in the hallways. Shinso sits at the same table in the back corner of the cafeteria, turning a vicious glower at anyone who dares to wander anywhere in his vicinity. The school is already afraid of him enough as it is, so he doesn’t have to try very hard to scare any potential friends (or potential bullies) away.
Denki slips from the punchline, detaching himself from his group of friends, shit excuses falling from his lips like honey, smooth enough that his friends excuse the ridiculousness of some of those excuses. He meanders his way through the cafeteria - he makes his way into Shinso’s line of vision, and is spared nothing more than a glance - obviously Shinso thinks Denki is just walking past, off to join his ridiculously sized posse of friends.
Denki will delight in proving him wrong.
Denki strides right up to his table, burying any inkling of anxiety. Shinso stares up at him, incredulous. Denki just offers him a 100 watt smile and takes a seat.
After a couple seconds of silence, Shinso seems to realise that his glowering isn’t getting either of them anywhere. Finally, (thank god), he speaks.
“What are you doing?” Shinso demands, suspicion and venom and a whole flurry of lethal emotions dripping into his voice and stabbing Denki through the chest. Denki ignores it.
Normally, Denki would respond with “Eating lunch,” like any sane person would be doing during lunch, but Denki isn’t eating lunch. He’s skipping out on yet another meal, so that particular comeback doesn’t work.
Eventually, Denki settles with. “Sitting.” Very intelligent, he knows. Shinso seems to think something along those same lines.
“Sit somewhere else.”
“Why?” Denki responds with a not-quite shit eating grin, examining the wood of the table as if it’s the most interesting thing in the world as Shinso’s eyes glare daggers into his head.
“This is my table.” Shinso states.
“Didn’t see your name on it.” Shinso’s left eye twitches, and his lips purse.
“Don’t you have any friends?” Shinso asks, rhetorically. Denki finally looks up at him. Shinso’s probably going to follow that one up with a ‘Then go sit with them’, but Denki cuts him off.
“No,” Denki says, and even Shinso looks mildly taken aback at how unabashedly Denki is lying, his admittedly rather large group of friends making a ruckus in both his and Shinso’s peripheral vision. Shinso looks pointedly at them, then back at Denki. Denki chooses to keep staring straight at him.
After a few seconds, Shinso acquiesces. “Fine.” He mutters. “Do whatever the fuck you want. See if I care.”
“Thanks,” Denki says, with what he hopes is a sincere smile, and after a few more seconds of staring, Shinso turns back to his lunch.
And that’s that, Denki supposes, with a not-quite smile playing on his lips.
---
10:00 AM
Wednesday, March 22nd, XXXX
Fujimino Junior High
When Denki first met Tetsutetsu, he thought Kirishima, because how could he not? Kirshima doesn’t know Denki but Denki knows Kirishima. Not well, sure, but Denki knows people, and that’s all he needs.
At a glance, Kirishima and Tetsutetsu could be mistaken for the same person in different bodies, identical people with identical quirks, but now, at this very moment, Denki thinks there’s really nothing similar about the two at all.
They are courageous , they are brave, they are passionate, but as Denki watches blood drip from Tetsutetsu’s fist and his skin flicker from human to steel, Denki can’t help but think the guy’s more like Bakugou than anything.
Sometimes, Denki wonders if Bakugou should’ve been in CLass 1-B instead. It might’ve made him an even greater menace, but maybe he might’ve mellowed out surrounded by the same of his kind. From Monoma to Tetsutetsu, Denki is starting to get the sense that Class 1-B has a whole joint inferiority complex going on. Bakugou would most certainly fit right in.
That doesn’t mean Kirshima and Tetsutetsu aren’t alike, because they are, and one the one thing Denki can tell about both of them is that they are heroes. It’s in their blood, deep in their bones. Kirshima didn’t think twice, jumping forward to attack Kurogiri with Bakugou to protect his classmates. And Tetsutetsu, passionate and idealistic, doesn’t hesitate to defend his ideals, even if it means beating up a bunch of second rate junior high bullies in the hallway during break.
Despite it all, Denki will sometimes wonder what a hero is. Is it someone who is willing to leap into danger for the sake of others, like Kirshima? Is it someone who will do whatever it takes to uphold what they believe is right, like Tetsutetsu? Is it someone like Midoriya, who keeps giving and giving until there’s nothing left to give? Is it someone like Bakugou, who keeps going and going and never lets anyone stop him from being the best he can?
Is it someone like Iida, who does what they believe is right and works to make sure everyone else does, too? Is it someone like Tsuyu, with her blunt nature, or Ashido, with her persistence and never ending confidence, or Yaoyorozu, with her infallible intellect and quiet modesty?
Is it someone like Aizawa-Sensei, who is willing to die for others? Or is someone like All Might, a pillar, a symbol, who makes sure no one else has to die, who stands up straight for others to lean on only to crumble and leave everyone hopeless and helpless.
Tetsutetsu wipes off the blood on his hands, flexing his knuckles that are bruised and fingers that stick out straight, like one or more could be broken. If he had used his quirk, he wouldn’t have a scratch on him, but Tetstetsu looks almost as beat up as the guys who lie on the floor around him.
He doesn’t look sorry, but he doesn’t look exactly thrilled, either. He sits there, steely determination written across his face till it fades into something mellow, stainless.
Tetsutetsu’s eyes meet Denki’s from across the hallway.
---
12:00 PM
Thursday, March 23th, XXXX
Fujimino Junior High
If Denki were to tell you that he and Shinso were instant, magical friends, it would make him a liar. Not that he isn’t already a liar, but Denki likes to believe he wouldn’t lie so blatantly about pointless things.
This is not a book, or a movie, and Denki, Shinso, and Tetsutetsu are not fictional characters - they’re people, and when it comes to people, nothing is simple or easy or fast. Even Denki, who, above all else, knows people, even him - cannot make miracles come true.
After four days of sitting with Shinso at lunch, they don’t miraculously become friends. Something doesn’t just click, opening up a new path.
Shinso still doesn’t talk. Denki is the kind of person who likes to fill the silence, but this is a sort of silence Denki doesn’t feel the need to fill.
But after Wednesday, when Tetsutetsu deigns to join them with blood on his shirt and hands wrapped with bandages like any proper delinquent - well, nothing changes. Denki and Tetsutetsu aren’t fast friends, Shinso and Tetsutetsu aren’t fast friends, none of them can really be called friends at all, not truly.
But they tolerate each other’s presences, and for now, that’s enough. (Or more accurately, Shinso tolerates their presence. Poor guy just wanted to eat his lunch in peace)
---
4:16 PM
Friday, March 24th, XXXX
Fujimino Junior High
If you were to ask Denki how his week had gone, he’d reply with a simple “good.” And he wouldn’t be lying, not exactly. His week definitely hadn’t been nearly as bad as he had expected it to be, and sure, that wasn’t exactly saying anything but with so many potential ways his week could have gone from okay to catastrophically terrible, Denki was going to take what he could get.
The novelty of his last day of middle school had long since faded. His first last day, he’d been swamped by a set of confusing emotions. Excitement, of course, at the last day of school, and his upcoming future at UA. He’d been nostalgic over the past years, confused at how fucking fast the time had seemed to fly, and almost in disbelief that he was really heading off to hero school.
Denki feels none of that now. There’s maybe some apprehension, at what is getting closer and closer by the day, but mostly, Denki is just bored. He can’t wait to get out of here already.
It’s almost depressing that he has detention on the last day of school. Seriously, what the fuck is up with the administration here? Just let the kids leave. The teachers proctoring probably wanted to be here even less than Denki did.
Even in his past three loops, Denki had successfully avoided detention on his last day of school and as all his old friends are running off to go get boba or go out to an arcade, Denki is sitting in detention , tapping his pencil and thinking about just how pathetic he is.
But none of that really matters, not in the grander scheme of things. All that matters to Denki is getting out of his last detention on the last day of school unscathed. He’s only got around an hour left, so there really isn’t much he has to survive.
Which, of course, means everything has to go terribly wrong. The panic sort of sneaks up on him, so slow Denki doesn’t even realise it’s happening.
To him, the last day of school isn’t all too important, but at the same time it is, because the USJ is getting closer. This is basically his last day of anything close to normal for him.
And sure, Denki’s got a plan. Sure, Denki’s got the resolve to stop the USJ. Sure, Denki’s been through it three times already, but Denki can’t deny that he’s terrified at even the thought of seeing Tomura Shigaraki again.
Denki doesn’t want to die, and doesn't want to repeat these two weeks all over again. Denki doesn’t want to die, but he’s going to and he hates it.
Denki will die alone, and he will keep repeating all of this alone because no one will ever understand what he is going through, what’s really happening to him. They might note what’s different, comment on a new attitude but they will never understand.
He can get as close to Tetsutetsu and SHinso as he wants, but then he’ll die and it’ll be like they never knew him.
Denki is completely and utterly alone, and nothing he tries to do will change that.
Denki rises from detention and runs out the door. He runs and runs and runs till he doesn’t know where he’s running anymore. It’s not like they can stop him. (what does another detention matter, anyway? Denki’s going to die)
Denki is alone.
---
6:15 PM
Saturday, March 25th, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.
Denki is horribly, painstakingly, bored.
You’d think that wouldn’t be a problem, not with all he’s got on his plate, but once again, Denki proves himself and everyone else wrong. School was at least a temporary distraction, however hellish that distraction may have been. With nothing to fill his day, Denki finds himself wandering. An entire day of doing nothing left him feeling useless and guilty for ways he couldn’t explain - he did nothing during most summer breaks, so this really wasn’t anything special.
For all his determination, for all his resolve, Denki still doesn’t really have many plans. Many of the beginnings of plans that have begun to form can only begin once his school year at UA starts, which isn’t for quite a while. School is hell on earth for Denki, that’s true, but it’s at times like these, when Denki is forced to spend hours in his room staring at his ceiling, that Denki almost wishes he was at school. It’s sort of hypocritical of him - he hates school when he’s in it but the second he’s out he sort of wishes he could be back - but really, can you blame him. Sure, school is hell on earth, but time at home alone with his thoughts as his only company is its own special sort of torture.
It’s not like his mother is home either, something Denki isn’t bitter about, not at all. Somehow, the house seems emptier than usual, even if nothing has really changed. Denki’s mother always works weekends, so Denki is used to staying home alone for long periods of time.
But then again, Denki really isn’t, because he’s always either inviting friends over or going out with them, something that he is decidedly not doing right now, which leaves him more alone than he ever really is. (For the first time in his life, Denki thinks he is well and truly alone. There is no one who can help him, no one who could even begin to understand what he’s going through. Denki is all alone)
It’s after Denki counts the 1,567th tile on his kitchen floor that Denki decides he needs a change of scenery. He does the most boring thing someone like him could even begin to imagine (other than schoolwork, of course).
He takes a walk.
It’s just as boring as he thought it would be, but admittedly, it’s sort of calming. It’s nice to get out of the house for a little while, even if it's just to walk around his neighbourhood again and again like some sort of ghost.
Eventually, Denki begins to wander. He isn’t consciously walking, just sort of following his feat as he loses himself in his thoughts. He’s actively trying not to think about any of the things he should probably be thinking of. He knows he should be using any and all spare time to brainstorm, but Denki’s been thinking about it endlessly and he’s not gotten anywhere new.
He’s stuck.
What else is he supposed to do? He knows he has to save his classmates, but Denki keeps going back and forth with that resolve and his own helplessness.
He sends in the note. When he’s back at school, he plants the seeds of doubt in Aizawa-Sensei and Nedzu’s mind. He continues to investigate and find anything out that he can potentially find about the League of Villains.
He tries every possible option to stop the field trip from happening that he possibly can. Trial and error. Even if he fails this run, he’ll be able to figure out what works and what doesn’t and do better next time.
But just that thought leaves Denki queasy. Denki doesn’t want to die. Sort of hypocritical, he knows, after he quite literally shot himself in his head, but again, these are all the sorts of things Denki really, really doesn’t want to think about.
Those sort of thoughts leave Denki with an awful taste in his mouth, and even more restless nights. Denki’ll tell you one thing, it’s certainly not a pleasant experience to have to relieve your own suicide every night. It technically isn’t suicide, Denki knows, but the vivid recollections still make him vividly uncomfortable. Somedays, Denki wishes his brain would just shut the fuck up. He’s teetering on the edge of a tightrope, one he’s already fallen off what seems like hundreds of times.
The screams are what first snap him out of his thoughts, the large crowds of people in a place Denki isn’t familiar with fully pushing him out of his own haze.
Denki has walked, much, much too far. There are screams, there’s fire, and for a second, for more than a second, for what feels like forever, Denki can’t breathe.
Denki can’t breathe because he’s back in the USJ and he’s dying all over again, his breath stolen from his chest by long fingers that wrap around his throat.
And then another second, or maybe another eternity passes, and Denki’s back in the group of bystanders avidly watching an ongoing hero fight.
It’s not a particularly dangerous fight - in fact, it’s quite the opposite.
Mt. Lady deals with the villains with ease, and the crowd cheers. Reporters rush towards the hero, the villains are dragged away into various police cars, and somewhere in the crowd, a child is crying.
The cheers are louder, but all Denki can hear are the cries. Denki watches Mt. Lady pose for pictures, give out autographs, and reassure the crowd.
The crowd cheers louder, celebrating the victory of a hero over a villain, good over evil.
Denki isn’t entirely sure what it is about the entire thing that leaves the awful feeling in his chest, the lingering feeling of discontent.
Denki can’t shake it though. All the way back home (and it is a long way), Denki can’t get it out of his head.
There’s a child, crying, crying and crying and crying and all Denki can think is that it’s a shame there’s no hero to come and save him
---
12:30 PM
Sunday, March 26th, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.
Denki lies in bed, sleep hovering just out of his grasp once again.
Denki thinks about Shinso.
Denki has always wanted to be a hero. Denki can’t think of a time he didn’t want to. It’s been his dream for as long as he can remember. But as he stares at the ceiling, sleep just a evasive as it had been for what seemed like months, maybe even years, Denki can’t help but wonder what would have become of his dream if he had ended up with a quirk like Shinso’s
---
6:00 PM
Monday, March 27th, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.
Denki is having dinner with his okaa-san for the first time in what seems like years. Denki’s definitely exaggerating, but, well, it feels like years since he’s even seen his mother. There’re times when he just wants to throw himself into her arms and hug her and never let go, but Denki restrains himself. He’s much too old for that sort of thing, and his kaa-san has better things to deal with than a clingy child.
The dinner was horribly, awfully awkward, but Denki somehow managed to find a way to bask in that awkward silence. He wasn’t alone, he didn’t have a chance to get lost in the vicious rabbit hole of his own thoughts, and that was an improvement.
He wasn’t alone. That’s all that mattered.
“Denki?” His okaasan begins, just as Denki had finished his dinner and had begun stabbing his vegetables like any normal vegetable-averse child and dammit, Denki doesn’t like that tone. It’s the tone that tells him that he’s not going to like what’s going to be said next - tentative, careful, a zookeeper carefully approaching a wild animal. “I know this is one of the few dinners we’re going to get in a while, and you’d probably rather talk about anything else-” then why bring it up, okaasan? Whatever it is, Denki adds mentally, as an afterthought.“-but we do need to talk.”
Never has anything good come from those words.
“About what?” Denki asks tentatively, testing the waters.
“I know it’s been your biggest dream,” She begins. “And you know that I love and support you unconditionally-” oh, Denki really doesn’t like where this is going. Not that he knows where it’s going. He feels like he’s missing something obvious here. “-and I know you don’t want to talk about it, and you’re taking some time for yourself to get over it and that’s fine, but Denks - high school is coming up fast. And you’re gonna have to start thinking of alternative options. Your grades aren’t the best, but I’ve thought up some relatively decent schools that you might have a shot at-'' And all of a sudden, it dawns on him.
“Okaa-san.” He interrupts.
“Denki.” She replies, cutting her rant short and looking up at him - almost tentatively, like she’s scared for his reaction. Denki almost scoffs. What’s he gonna do, burn the place down?
(in all fairness, Denki had caused a few electricity issues after particularly bad arguments, shocking himself in the process, but that wasn’t the point)
“I - “ He blinks a little bit, bewildered. “Kaa-san, you don't have to - this isn’t necessary.”
“Yes, it is!” She stresses. “I know, I know, you were all ‘UA or nothing’, but Denki, it’s your future we’re thinking about right now! You have to-”
“Okaa-san.” Denki interrupts again. She goes quiet, but there’s still a fire in her eyes, and Denki’s sure she’s ready to continue arguing. “It’s - I wasn’t-” The words are stuck in his throat - Denki can’t believe this actually happened. “I wasn’t rejected.”
She stills, confusion wrinkling an otherwise perfect forehead.
“Huh?”
“I wasn’t -” Denki pauses. “I got into UA, kaa-san.” Her eyes widen, lips parting.
“Oh.” She says, sounding somewhat dazed. There’re a couple seconds of silence, then the words are rushing from her mouth. “Oh, Denki, oh my god, I didn’t mean to-”
“No, no, no, it’s okay.” He quickly interrupts, floundering slightly. “I, uh, I thought I’d told you? I mean, you were out when I got the letter, so I was going to tell you when you got home, but I guess I forgot?” And that is true, in a sense. Denki remembers telling her twice - remembers, very vividly, the way she brushed him off.
The thrill of his acceptance had long faded - in all honesty, he hadn’t thought it important enough to mention.
“Oh.” She repeats. “I guess I have been very busy lately-” She frowns slightly. “Well, congratulations! I’m so proud of you, kid.”
“Thanks, Kaa-San.”
“And Denki, y'know I love you, right?” The almost kicked-puppy-like look on her face has Denki wincing. “I know I’ve been busy, but … everything I do is for you. You know that, right?”
< Denki sighs. “Of course I know that.” He offers a smile. “And it’s alright, really. It was mostly my fault for not mentioning it.” Neither of them misses the ‘mostly’.
Though Denki supposes, he hadn’t been as brushed off as he had thought he had been. If his kaa-san hadn’t attempted this conversation in either of his other three loops, then his words had probably sunk in, and least to some extent.
(though it was a kicker that her acknowledgement, her congratulations, finally came when Denki didn’t even want them anymore.)
“You’re going to be a great hero.” She tells him with a smile, and Denki - well, for once, Denki doesn’t smile back.
You’re going to be a great hero.
(why is it that Denki can’t seem to remember why he ever wanted to be a hero at all?)
---
2:00 PM
Tuesday, March 28th, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.
There have been times - brief moments where Denki has considered dropping out of UA entirely. Shinso and Tetsutetsu had thoroughly objected to any such ideations, but Denki’s thought about them, deeply, for a variety of reasons.
He’s thought about avoiding the USJ in its entirety, escaping with his life, but every time his gut twists at the thought of leaving his classmates to their fate. He can not let them die, so he resigns himself to keep coming back, again and again, until he can be the person he needs to be to save them.
Still, Denki wonders. He wonders what he will do when (if) the USJ is finished.
IF the USJ has taught him anything, it has taught Denki that he isn’t fit to be a hero.
Denki wonders, when(if) the USJ is done and over,
Denki promised himself that he would make it past the USJ and graduate as a hero. But now, Denki wonders if that’s even what he wants at all.
Does he want to be a hero?
Does he even have what it takes to be one?
(Denki doesn’t know, and that kills him inside, destroying a part of him that Tomura Shigaraki never could. Denki swore that if there was one thing tomura shigaraki wouldn’t take away from him, it would be himself, his personality, his spirit, his heroism, but here he is, taking it away from himself.)
---
11:30 AM
Wednesday, March 29th, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.
Denki considers himself to be a relatively lazy person; most other people do too, which is why even Denki’s surprised with himself as he runs the vacuum over the living room carpet for what seems like the hundredth time. It might actually be.
Denki couldn’t get the weird feeling out of his chest, the feeling of the floor giving way beneath his feet. He felt disconnected, which wasn’t new, but nothing seemed to help.
Which is why he made the decision to do a deep clean of the house. Neither Denki or his mother ever really bothered to clean up, ever, so his house remained in a permanent state of … well, you don’t even want to know the state Denki’s house is typically in.
He figures his mom will appreciate his work anyways (As if. She probably won’t even notice). Somehow, Denki doesn’t find himself getting bored, tired, or losing interest. He’s constantly moving, keeping himself busy with various household chores, nothing that requires too much mental strain, but enough that Denki won’t lose himself in his thoughts again.
He cleans the coaches and the carpets, folds the blankets and takes out the trash. He tidies up the fridge, absentmindedly making a mental grocery list that he’ll probably forget in a few minutes. He wipes down the counters, does the dishes (water bills were always more expensive in the day, so Denki and his mother always ran the dishwasher at night, after 8:00. The dishes were stacking up, though, so Denki figured he’d just do it himself)
He’s reorganising all the cabinets in the kitchen (dishes, utensils, everything in their proper place - Denki and his mother are naturally messy people, but Denki thinks it’s time for a change) when the doorbell rings.
Denki pauses, three forks in one hand, a spork, a knife, and a dishrag in the other. He waits for a second, then another, then goes back to his work. It’s probably just a package, they’ll leave it at the door.
Denki places down the three forks in their assigned place, with all the other forks, and the doorbell rings again.
Denki pauses. He looks towards the cabinet, then in the general direction of the door. It’s probably one of those UPS packages, where there’s gotta be someone to sign. Denki can’t sign for his mother, and anyways, he’d prefer to avoid any sort of social interaction.
The doorbell rings again. Denki ignores it. They’ll go away eventually.
Denki puts the knife away, folding the dishrag and placing it on the counter. Then he frowns at the spork. He doesn’t have a drawer or assigned space for sporks. He didn’t even know he had sporks.
Another ring.
Who the fuck uses sporks?
The next ring and Denki drops the spork onto the counter, because that isn’t a fucking package and if whoever it is doesn’t stop ringing his fucking doorbell he isn’t responsible for what he might do.
After a few more seconds of deliberation, and even more doorbell rings, Denki bites back a curse and strides towards the door. He unlocks it, swings it open, then stops dead in his tracks.
Tetsutetsu and Shinso stand outside his door. Tetsutetsu looks eager, Shinso looks dead inside (like he always does). Denki looks at them.
He stares.
And then the panic hits him, full force.
Denki doesn’t know what about the two brought it on. Maybe he’s just been so pent up lately, that the slightest bit of emotional change triggered all the repressed fear, sending it splashing out. Denki doesn’t know. All he knows is that one second, he’s standing at his door staring at Shinso and Tetsutetsu in disbelief, the next, he’s back in the USJ, a hand around his throat and a bullet in his skull.
And then Shinso’s quirk is searing through his skull and Denki’s back in the present, curled up in a little ball on his own living room floor, Tetsutetsu and Shinso crouching beside him in something that might just be concern..
“Huh.” Tetsutetsu remarks, when he sees something like awareness return to Denki’s eyes. “Guess we better reschedule with Camie, huh?”
“Huh?” Denki manages to make out his voice raspy and awful-sounding, even to his own ears.
“I don’t think it’s normal.” Shinso begins, ignoring his questions. “Nor healthy, for someone to be having a fucking panic attack every other goddamn day.”
“Twice.” Denki corrects. “It’s happened twice in the past three weeks, and also, they aren’t fucking panic attacks. I don’t have panic attacks.”
Shinso stares at him, deadpan. The only change in his expression is a twitch of his eyebrows that reminds Denki too much of Aizawa-Sensei.
One seconds.
Two seconds.
Three.
“You’re kidding, right?” Shinso asks. “Tell me you’re kidding.”
“I’m kidding.” Denki says instantly, then frowns. “Wait no, what the fuck? No. I’m not kidding, fuck you.” Shinso has the gall to look offended, and Tetsutetsu deems it time to speak up.
“Do you not know what a panic attack is, you dumbass?” Which, rude, Denki didn’t think they had to resort to name-calling here. And, yes, thank you, Denki knew what a panic attack was. He remembered the very chilling recount from Principal Nezu, something he would rather not think about in detail.
“Yes, I know what a freaking-”
“-you obviously don’t.” Shinso cuts him off. “Because you seem to have them often but it hasnt’ seem to register to you that they are panic attacks.”
“They aren’t-”
“What did you think they were, hmm?” Shinso continues. “Seriously. What was your thought process there?”
“I was just-”
“Do you think it’s shameful?” Denki throws up his hands.
“What?! No! LIterally I don’t - panic attacks are a serious issue, yes, that’s lovely and wonderful and I feel bad for the people who have them but that’s not a thing I experience-”
“Then what happened just now?” Tetsutetsu asks.
“Just a little-” Denki emphasises with his hands. “-bit of a panic. Not a panic attack, just a little bit of panic that happened to hit at a bad time.”
“Looked a lot like a panic attack to me.” Shinso snarks.
“Look, you piece of shit.” Tetsutetsu begins.
“Oi!”
“-we’re just trying to help you out here. You seem like you’re dealing with a lotta shit, shit that you don’t know how to deal with, so you should probably figure it the fuck out so you don’t electrocute a bunch of people in a fit of panic by accident. I don’t care what you call it - panicking, a panic attack, whatever - if it happens during hero training, or around other people, or even when you get out into the field, you’re gonna fucking hurt someone, and I don’t think you want that, do ya?” Denki hesitates.
“Of course not.”
“Then figure it out.” Tetsutetsu repeats. “Go see a therapist or some shit. There really ain’t no shame in it.’
“I’m an orphan.” Shinso says suddenly, and Denki startles, because when were they tragic-backstory revealing?
Shinso rolls his eyes. “Don’t make a big deal of it. The point is, there are plenty of kids I’ve been around who’ve got various sorts of anxiety disorders and PTSD. We’re really a breeding ground for mental issues.” Denki stares silently.
“Huh.” Shinso rolls his eyes again.
“What I’m trying to say is that it’s more common than you’d expect. You’re not special.” Denki blinks.
“I see.”
Shinso sighs. “Look, just talk to someone, would you?”
Denki narrows his eyes, instinctively. “And why do you care?” He doesn’t know what possesses him to say it. Maybe Shinso’s antagonism is rubbing off on him.
“I don’t.” Shinso replies easily, his lips quirking into something of a smirk. “You’re just annoying me.”
“You’ll never have to see me again.” Denki points out. “Not after today.” The smirk becomes more pronounced.
“That’s what you think.”
“And what the hell is that supposed to mean?” Denki demands. “What’s with this ambiguity?
“I may not be in the hero course, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to UA.” Denki reels back slightly.
“You’re Gen Ed?”
“I am.” Shinso replies, something like confidence hanging off his shoulders. “But I don’t intend to stay that way for long.”
“Huh?” Denki feels like he’s missing something here.
“There is a way-” Shinso begins, eyes flashing viciously as he leans forward with a decidedly evil smirk. “To transfer from Gen Ed to the hero course.”
“Is there now?” Denki laughs nervously, tilting his head back. His head meets the wall.
“Of course, to do so, I’d have to take the place of one of the current 1-A or 1-B students.” Shinso bares his teeth in a not-so-friendly smile. “I’d rather take the spot of a real fucking hero than the pathetic knock-off who couldn’t make it through a single day of training because he was too prideful to go see a fucking therapist.”
For a second, Denki doesn’t know what to say.
Then laughter bursts out of his throat. It isn’t mocking laughter, nor is it ‘all in good fun’ laughter. This laughter is vicious and hoarse and unhinged but Denki finds himself unable to contain
Denki bares his teeth back at Shinso in an equally feral smile.
“I’d like to see you try.”
---
11:30 AM
Thursday, March 30th, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.
Denki really doesn’t know what came over him yesterday. Tetsutetsu and Shinso’s visit had been something of a surprise - they’d left soon after, to give him ‘space to breathe’ or whatever, but Denki is still reeling over their visit a day later.
He didn’t really expect to see either of them, let alone them together. He hadn’t thought they were friends - and they weren’t, or so Tetsutetsu claimed.
They were all UA students, though Shinso was gen ed. They were all planning to be heroes. They had something in common.
An alumni of their beloved Junior High apparently attends Shiketsu High. Tetsutetsu is also apparently a friend of said Shiketsu student, and had decided to meet up with her in order to prepare for his first year at UA. He decided to invite Shinso and Denki along, in the name of friendly competitive spirit or whatever the fuck he had been on about.
He found Shinso and Denki’s number. Shinso responded to his texts, Denki did not, so they got his address from a we of his friends and popped over to offer him a chance at this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. They’d actually been planning to go yesterday, but Denki’s little freak out (panic attack, he tries to tell himself) halted those plans.
Denki thinks that this is probably a bad idea.
He thinks some more, then shrugs. He was never the best at thinking things through, and anyways, he needed to get out of the house somehow
---
3:45 PM
Friday, March 31st, XXXX
The Alley Lujiaoxiang (Akihabara),
4 Chome-6-10 Sotokanda, Chiyoda City, Suehirocho Station,
Tokyo 101-0021, Saitama Prefecture, Japan
“So, you wanna be a hero, huh?” Camie Utushimi obnoxiously slurped boba up through her straw, leaning back on the couch of the Alley, as the boba place they were at was named.
Shinso looks just as exasperated as Denki is. Tetsutetsu just looks resigned.
“You’re kind of skinny.” Camie tells Denki, eyes raking over him. “No muscle, none at all. You’ve got a nice face, though. Absolutely love the hair.”
Camie turns her gaze to Shinso.
“As for you.” She begins. “No muscle, either. You’re pretty tall though, love that in a guy.” Shinso looks about ready to reach across the table and smack her. “Those eyebags … you really should sleep more. Eyebags are not a good look.”
“And Tetsutetsu-” Camie continues. “You already know how I feel about, well-” She waves a hand in his direction. “All of this.” Denki chokes on his boba. “And we’ve really got to come up with a nickname for you already, Tetsutetsu is such a mouthful.” Tetsutetsu had warned Denki and Shinso that Camie was … eccentric, but Denki hadn’t really been expecting this.
“We didn’t come for advice about our appearances.” Shinso eventually interjects. “We wanted to talk about hero work.”
“Yes, yes.” Camie waves a hand, taking another sip of her boba. “It’s all connected, you know?”
“I don’t, actually.” Shinso says dryly. “I don't see how my height or my eye bags connect to my potential as a hero.”
“You wouldn’t.” Camie agrees with a friendly smile. “That's why I’m the senpai and you’re my kohais!’ Shinso’s eye twitches. “You’ve just got to listen to my wisdom.”
“Why don’t you explain your wisdom, then?” Shinso replies, antagonistic as always.
“Appearances mean a lot, you know.” Camie says, unruffled by the daggers being glared her way. “How people see you will always matter in the hero industry. If I were rescued by a hero who looked dead on their feet-” Camie eyes Shinso. “-ready to pass out at any second, I wouldn’t exactly feel relieved but uh, that’s totally personal opinion.”
“It doesn’t matter if you’re going into underground heroics.” Shinso retorts.
“It always matters, honey.” Camie replies. “Regardless of what sort of heroism you’re going into. It might matter less, sure, but it always matters.”
“How so?” Shinso asks, and damn, Denki’s actually finding this mildly entertaining.
“It doesn't just matter how the public sees you.” Camie grins. “That’s like, tots important, but it’s not all. It matters how the hero commission sees you. It matters how your licence examiners see you. It matters how your heroics teachers see you.” Camie leans back. “Look, kids. Heroism - it’s just one big game. And all you've got to do is learn to play your cards right.” Camie pauses. “And uh, maybe add a few more cards to the deck, cause with the hands you’ve all got right now, you’re not going anywhere. Trust this senpai on that one.”
“Well, what do you suggest we do?” Denki asks, because she’s starting to make sense to him. Actually no, that’s a lie, she’s making absolutely no sense at all, but she sounds a little less crazy then she did a few minutes ago and Denki’s going to take what he can get.
“Well, dear kouhais, let’s start simple, shall we?” Camie crosses her leg, leans forward. “Do any of you actually know how to fight?”
Silence.
“Oh em gee. I was totally expecting more from the new generation of UA students. Kinda a let down, tbh.”
“They’ll teach us that once we get to school.” Denki points out.
“Sweetie.” Camie interrupts. “You could waltz in there with no prep, sure, but uh, let me tell you this is the reason UA students are always left in the dust. They think the school’s gonna do it all for them - news flash, it’s not. You chose a career where you basically fight for a living, and you didn’t think to uh, maybe enrol yourself in a martial arts course beforehand? Ngl, seems kinda dumb to me, and I’m kinda the living embodiment of dumb.” Denki sits for a second. He gets the sense he should be insulted, but he can’t bring himself to feel anything but baffled.
“Somehow, I never even thought of that.” He admits.
“Of course you didn't.” Camie nods sympathetically. “UA’s got the most quirk-biased exam out there. You don’t need any skills to pass their exam, you just need a hella good quirk.”
“I know,” Shinso remarks bitterly.
“Don’t start with me, tall, dark and tired.” Camie places a hand on her hip. “You don’t seem to know how to fight either - at least pikachu over here has an excuse, he’s got a powerful quirk he can rely on. What’re you relying on, hmm? What happens when your opponents are something like robots, something or someone your quirk doesn’t work against? What then, hmm? You haven’t got a physical quirk, which means you’ve gotta work twice as hard as someone like these two.” Camie jerks her thumb at Denki and Tetsutetsu. “And sure, it sucks balls, but you know what kid, that’s life. And all I see you doing is sulking, not getting up off your ass and working that double time you need to be. Smh, honestly, what are you kids being taught these days?” Camie sighs, long loud and obnoxious. “Let me put it straight for you kiddos. Right now, you haven’t got what it takes to be a hero. You may think you’ve got four years to figure your shit out, but tbh, it never works out that ideally. UA isn’t gonna figure out your shit for you. You have to figure it out yourself. You want to be a hero, find ways to make yourself a hero instead of waiting for someone to hand you all the answers on a silver platter.” Camie sips her last bit of boba through her straw. “And that’s all the wisdom your senpai’s got for you today, kids.”
---
2:27 PM
Saturday, April 1st , XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan
The sports festival. That’s Shinso’s plan to transfer to the hero course. Denki should feel worried, or even threatened, but instead, Denki just smiles quietly to himself.
Denki - he doesn’t know whether being a hero is the right choice for him. He doesn’t know if he has what it takes, but that - well, Denki reasons, it doesn’t matter.
The sports festival. If Denki makes it all the way there, then, well, he’ll make sure to give Shinso a run for his money.
(he should probably sign up for those martial arts classes already. Like hell he’d let twilight sparkle overtake him.)
---
11:11 AM
Sunday, April 2nd, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan
Denki’s kaa-san has been making a larger effort to take time out of her day to eat at least one meal every few days with her son. Normally, Denki would be delighted by such an endeavour, but all he can feel now is apprehension. He loves his kaa-san he really does, but this is too much stress added to the weight that’s already breaking his shoulders.
Nonetheless, he takes the time to eat with his okaa-san. It’s not like he has anything better to do, which is what leaves Denki sitting with his okaa-san for a late breakfast/early lunch. (Denki’s mother refuses to say brunch. Denki doesn’t say it either, out of habit. It had always annoyed her)
This time around, though, Denki actually has something he needs to talk to his mother about, but in proper Kaminari Denki fashion, he finds himself subtly avoiding the topic for the whole half an hour they’re at the kitchen table for. Eventually, when they’re already cleaning up the table and getting ready to part ways, Denki figures he has to get this over with.
“Kaa-san?” She doesn’t look up from where she’s loading the dishes into the dishwasher.
“Yes, Denki?”
“I wanted to ask you something.”
“Mmhmm.” A clear signal to continue. Denki winces, ever so slightly.
“I was wondering if I could-” Denki pauses. “If you could-” He sighs. “If we could-” Denki stops short. “Iwaswonderingifyoucouldmaybeposibblypotentaillygetmeatherapistpleasethankyouloveyou.” Fuck, Denki thinks as he sucks in a break. He sounds like Midoriya.
Denki’s kaa-san is used to copious amounts of energy, ridiculous speaking speeds, to word vomit, to Denki, so she no doubt understands every word.
“A therapist?” She repeats slowly, placing her dish down and turning around. “Denki, are you alright?”
“Yes!” Denki exclaims instantly, voice pitching awkwardly high. He coughs a few times, clearing his throat. “Yes, I’m fine, it’s just-”
“It’s just?”
“I’ve been very-” Denki hesitates. He isn’t going to say panic attacks, because sure, he might have panic attacks but he doesn't need to freak her out even more. “-anxious lately, and I’ve been having a lot of trouble with … everything, really. Sometimes that anxiety gets really bad, and it triggers, like, anxiety attacks? Or so I;ve been told that’s what they’re called. I didn’t want to go to UA like that, and it’s kind of-”
“Denki.” His kaa-san interrupts, and he winces on instinct. “You don’t have to prove anything to me, kiddo. I was just worried. If you want to see a therapist, we can work something out.”
The breath Denki didn’t realise he was holding escapes his lips.
“And I have noticed something different about you recently.” His kaa-san continues. “You’ve been much
more stressed recently. I think this will be good for you.”
“Right.” Denki agrees. “Thanks.”
“Don’t worry about it at all.” His kaa-san tells him. “I’ll figure it all out.”
Denki takes one look at the look on her face. He’s already starting to regret this. Why did he let Shinso talk him into this again?
___
11:11 AM
Monday, April 3rd, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan
Tuesday. His brilliant okaa-San managed to find and schedule an appointment for tomorrow. Now, Denki knows he asked for it, but he wasn’t prepared for it to come so soon.
Not to mention, his kaa-san didn’t just manage to find a therapist, she somehow managed to find a retired pro-hero therapist who worked closely with pro heroes on the field and hero-trainees, somehow at an affordable rate.
Denki wasn’t ready for this. He lied through his teeth to his okaa-san but a therapist would probably be able to tell if he was making up shit about mental illnesses. And how was this therapist supposed to help anyways? It’s not like Denki could tell them the truth, and without it, how were they even supposed to help?
And anyways, If Denki tried to tell the truth, they’d probably lock him up in a mental hospital and throw away the key.
It might be a little too late for second thoughts, but Denki really hadn’t thought this through. He’d acted, impulsively, yet again, and now he was going to have to deal with the consequences.
---
11:30AM
Tuesday, April 4th, XXXX
1103 Chiyu-Shi Lane, Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture, Japan
“So.” Denki’s newly christened therapist says.
“So?” Denki replies back, delightfully awkward as he leans back in the remarkably comfortable chair in the corner of her remarkably cosy looking office. Denki was sort of suspecting sterile white walls, or the menacing armchairs and laydown hospital-like beds of the movies.
That’s now what he got at all. Denki got a comfortable, oddly homey sort of room. The walls are a pleasant not-quite white, an almost brown like colour, LED lights all around, there are blankets everywhere, the floor is carpeted, and the wooden table sitting between Denki’s chair and the so-called therapist’s chair is covered in various fidget toys. The second Denki got in he snagged a stress ball, and now, he sits on the previously mentioned remarkably comfortable chair while digging his nails into said stress ball.
“I can already get the sense that this is going to get supremely awkward incredibly quickly, so why don’t we start with something simple.” She says, curling a strand of remarkably normal, boring brown hair. “Introductions are simple, right?”
“Right?” Denki agrees, albeit halfheartedly, aggressively massaging his stress ball.
“As your mother’s probably already mentioned, I’m Kokoro Ishin. You can just call me Ishin - I spent many years living in America as a child, and I’ve gotten all too used to the lack of formality. Is there a preferred name or way you’d like me to address you with?” .
“Ahhhh, not really.” Denki replies, his indecisiveness coming back full force. “Just Kaminari is fine. I’ve never been one for formalities either.”
“Great.” Ishin - and oh, did it feel weird calling an adult by their first name - responds. “So, Kaminari, there’s a few things I’d like to say before we begin, just to clear the air.” Ishin leans back in her chair, crosses her legs. “For starters, to fit into the therapy brand, just a quick reminder that everything that happens in this room stays in this room. As many therapy sessions are, this session is completely confidential. Anything you tell me here, I won’t repeat to anyone outside of the room.” Denki nods, instinctively. “There are, of course, a few exceptions to that rule. If I suspect any abuse, or believe you may be a danger to yourself or others, I’m legally obligated to inform either a parent or guardian, the police, or Child Protection Services. If you’re involved in any sort of crime, and I receive a court order, I’ll also have to break confidentiality in that scenario. This might seem like a lot at once, but none of those scenarios ever really happen, not often. There are, of course, certain instances where they have occurred, but as a general rule of thumb, as long as you aren’t planning to off yourself or anyone around you, we should be fine.” Denki chokes, digging his nails into his own skin and desperately trying not to think of the gun he held to his own head. Technically, it wasn’t really the same thing - it wasn’t really death, not for Denki. He came back.
Denki decides to ignore that little tidbit, instead deciding to soak in the absurdity of his current situation.
“RIght.” Denki manages to choke out. “Not currently planning on any sort of homicide, though uh, I’ll let you know if that changes.”
“Great, I appreciate it.” She sends him a normal-looking, nice sort of smile, and Denki isn’t sure how he’s supposed to feel at the given moment. “That’s the basic confidentiality contract. The next thing I wanted to touch on - as your mom might have mentioned, I’m a retired heroics psychiatric evaluator.” Denki nods, pretending he understood any of that.
“Uhuh.”
“In simpler terms, I was a therapist for heroes.” She clarifies. “Something that’s lesser known about the heroics system is that every six months, all pro heroes are required to complete a psychiatric evaluation before returning to the field. It was my job to conduct said evaluations. I’d meet with any given hero for a short session to gauge there, for lack of a better term, mental stability. I’d just whether my client was mentally fit to return to the field. In some cases, I’d suspend certain heroes from returning to the field for an indefinite amount of time. In other, more severe scenarios, I’d make the decision to revoke a hero’s licence.” Denki stares up at her, wide-eyed. “Now, you’re probably wondering why I’m bothering to mention any of this to you-” yes, yes he was, in fact. “-and I promise, there is a whole point to this spiel. The point is, I’m a retired heroics psychiatric evaluator, and you’re not a pro hero. The purpose of this session isn’t a psychiatric evaluation. . This session isn’t for me, for your mom, or for any other third party, it’s completely for you. I’ve had plenty of heroes try to bullshit their way through my sessions, and excuse my language here, in order to avoid suspension. I’ve had plenty of teenagers, sent here by irate or concerned parents and teachers who’ve tried to do the same. Now, I don’t know if that’s going to be a problem with you, as your mom told me you specifically asked to meet, but, then again, I know that parents can sometimes very easily … misinterpret they’re children’s desires, so I do have a question for you, and feel free to answer as bluntly and honestly as you wish - Kaminari, do you want to be here?”
There is silence, for a few seconds.
“Yeeaah?” Denki draws out the word, uncertain. An eyebrow arches up, a perfect raise.
“Was that a question or a statement?” Ishin asks, bewilderedly amused.
“Kinda in the middle.” Denki admits.
“Alright.” Ishin seems to take this all in stride. “Would you care to elaborate on that, or ..?”
“My mom wasn’t lying or anything.” Denki clarifies. “I did ask her to meet, I just-“ Denki pauses. “It was kind of an impulsive decision and I’m not entirely sure why I’m here.” Ishin nods, smile never dropping from her face.
“Ahh, I see. Fair enough. Maybe today can be a day for you to figure out if something like this-“ She gestures between the two of them. “-is something you need or want at all.” Ishin leans back. “I’m getting the sense that it’s going to be difficult for you to address whatever’s been bothering you, so why don’t we start off with something simple.”
“Why not?” Denki agrees with a small smile.
“So you’re an 8th grader, right?” Denki nods, an affirmative. “Heading off to high school! Your mother told me you’re heading off to UA, which must be the talk of the town and whatever junior high you attend.”
“Not really,” Denki refutes quietly. “I mean, I haven’t really told anyone, not to mention there’s another kid in our grade who got into UA.”
“You haven’t told anyone.” She tilts her head. Any particular reason why?”
Denki shrugs.
“Alright, what about this other kid?” Ishin inquires. “Do you know him? Will the two of you be in the same class?”
Denki makes a so-so movement with his hand. “Kind of? We only started talking this week, in light of the whole ua acceptance thing.”
“The whole ‘ua acceptance thing’,” Ishin echoes. Denki shrugs again.
“We’re not going to be in the same class. He’s in 1-b, I’m in 1-a. He’s a cool guy, though. His name’s Tetsutetsu, and was 8th place for the entrance exam, which is cool.”
“Sure,” Ishin agrees. “I guess it is. I’m sure the two of you are very excited to be heading off to UA in a couple of weeks?” Denki fails to restrain a slight shudder - he just can’t help himself. UA means the USJ, which means the League of Villains, which means Denki’s untimely death.
Overall, some very Not Good things.
“Yeah!” Denki manages, but it comes out weak. Ishin looks unimpressed.
“Forgive me if I’m wrong,” She begins. “But it seems to me that you aren’t very happy about your UA acceptance at all.”
“How could you tell?” Denki mutters dryly under his breath, before clearing his throat. “Yeah, you could say that, I guess. It’s not that I’m unhappy, that’s not it at all, I’m just-“ Terrified, Denki’s mind supplies. “-having some second thoughts.”
“Are you considering dropping out?” Ishin asks.
“No!” Denki denies instantly, unsure why he feels so defensive. He’d never leave his classmates and Aizawa-Sensei to fend for themselves, not when he has the means to help them. “No, not at all. I’m going to UA, I’m just -“ Denki sighs. “I dunno.”
“It’s totally alright to not know.” Ishin assures him. “But let’s take this back a little and see if we can figure some things out. Why did you apply to UA in the first place?”
Denki shrugs once again. “I’ve always wanted to be a hero.” Denki begins. “It’s been my dream since I was very young - but then again, I suppose most kids have the same sort of dream. It was almost an impulsive decision on my part.”
“I’m getting the sense that you make a lot of those.”
“Yeah, I’m a pretty impulsive person. I guess, all my life, my dream seemed like more of a pipe dream than anything. Something that would never happen. But now that I’m here, I’m starting to wonder if this was the right choice for me at all.” Denki’s not fit to be a hero, something he’s said time and time again. The title of hero is meant for people like Midoriya, for Bakugou, for Tetsutetsu, for Aizawa-Sensei, not for someone like Denki.
“We’ll get back to that bit in a second, but I’d like to rewind a little.” Ishin says. “You called your dream to be a hero a pipe dream. Is there any particular reason why it seemed so unattainable to you?” Denki shrugs, idly wondering how many times he’s going to do that during today.”
“Everyone dreams of being a hero.” Denki offers in lieu of explaining. “But not everyone actually gets to be one.”
“And what defines the difference?” Ishin asks. “What do the people who get to be heroes have that the people who don't don’t have?” Denki wants to say hard work. He wants to say a heroic spirit, he wants to say a good morale compass.
Then Denki thinks about Shinso, and he hesitates.
“Quirks.” That’s what Denki settles on, and while it twists something in his gut, it’s the truth.
If it were anything else, Shinso would be a hero and Denki would not.
“Quirks?” Ishin repeats. “What makes you think that?”
Shinso’s name lies on the tip of his tongue, but Denki swallows it down.
“The entrance exam.” He settles on instead. “It’s obviously skewed towards people with stronger, offensive quirks.”
“And how would that be?”
“You’re fighting robots.” Denki points, reminding himself that Ishin probably doesn’t know anything about the entrance exam. “Anyone with a mental-based quirk, or quirk that’s meant to work on humans would be practically helpless. The people with sheer destructive power are the ones who earned the highest scores, while any other sort of trait is overlooked.”
“What about the written exam?” Denki raises an eyebrow.
“If the written exam really meant anything at all, I wouldn’t be in UA at all.” Ishin hums lightly.
“In a real villain fight-“ she begins. “People with, as you put it, sheer destructive power, will have an advantage. People with less powerful, perhaps less noticeable quirks area at a significant disadvantage as well.”
“That doesn’t mean-“
“Give me a second here, kid.” Ishin interrupts. “I don’t know much about the UA entrance exam, I wasn’t there, after all, but I do know that UA offered more than one way to earn points other than just destroying the robots.” Denki knows about the rescue points, but it still doesn’t change much.”
“Still-“
“And even still,” Ishin continues. “Yes, you may be right in the fact that the entrance exam is skewed in favour of those with more powerful, offensive quirks. But then again, so is life. Anyone with a weaker quirk will be at a significant disadvantage in not just the UA entrance exam, but their entire life. If you choose a hero career with a weaker, less destructive quirk, you will be at a disadvantage, and you will have to work twice as hard as your peers, because that’s life. Sure, it’s unfair, but Kaminari, life is unfair.” Ishin pauses. “That doesn’t make you wrong, per say, but I do think that you’re looking at the entire situation in a rather black and white sort of manner.”
Denki hesitates, because he doesn’t agree with her, not just yet, but what she’s saying makes an odd sort of sense, simple logic that’s nearly impossible to argue against.
“Am I?” Denki repeats, rather dumbly, and Ishin offers him an oddly kind smile.
“It’s not a bad thing.” Ishin tells him. “Or, well, it kind of is, but it’s good that you’re trying to think of things in more than one way. People with powerful quirks such as yours tend to not see anyone with quirks weaker than there’s, so even if the entire situation is a lot less simple than what you’ve got in your head, it’s good you’re at least considering it.” Denki doesn’t know if it’s a compliment, but he decides to take it as one anyways. “And there’s something else I’d like to add - Kamjnari, you didn’t get into UA solely because of your quirk. And before you protest, or chime in, let me just tell you what I know about the hero system, and more importantly, UA - yes, Kaminari, having a powerful quirk such as electricity does tend to come in handy, especially in hero work, but UA isn’t the best hero school in the country, heck, in the world, for no reason. There are plenty of hero schools around the world that would accept someone just because of a powerful quirk, but this is UA. The best of the best, and they expect the best of the best. ANd let me tell you a little secret about UA that’s lesser known by the general public - they have enough exceptional applicants each year that if the only key to acceptance was passing both the written and practical exam, they’d practically be doubling, hell, even tripling the amount of students they have currently. Passing the written and practical exams are a must, but not everyone who passes both gets in. Unless you’re in the top 10, passing the practical becomes irrelevant. From then on, UA handpicks those they believe have the most potential out of those who have passed. If all you had going for you was your quirk, Kaminari, you would not have been accepted into UA’s hero course.”
Denki manages a real smile this time. “Thanks.”
“It’s my job.” Ishin replies. “If there’s anything I’m good at, it’s making people feel better about themselves.” Something about her laid back manner releases the tension from Denki’s shoulders, and all of a sudden, words are spilling from his lips.
---
12:12 PM
Wednesday, April 5th, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan
Denki’s initial intentions had been to talk about his panic attacks with Ishin. Eventually, the therapy session became more of an opportunity for Denki to rant about his own insecurities for fifty five minutes. It was odd, that was for sure, but not oddly unpleasant.
He hasn’t gotten what he wanted out of the session, a way to deal with his freaking panic attacks, but in a way, Denki thinks he might have gotten something better. Over the past few weeks, Denki’s been on a bit of an emotional roller coaster, up one second, down the next. His motivation and determination spiked then plummeted , and despite the initial rise of his general well being, Denki had fallen back into a bit of a funk over the past few days.
And now Denki was back up and out of it, a burden that he’d carried on his shoulders before the loops had even begun lifted. Denki had potential, he was going to be a hero, and he was going to start by saving the entirety of class 1a.
Denki’s phone lies lax in his hands, and Denki’s fingers hesitate for a brief second, before he brushes the hesitation off in a way he never would have been able to before his first death, and sends a text to the number he’d gotten from Tetsutetsu.
He clicks his phone off, puts it away, his eyes scanning the room as looks for something to do to take up his time while he waits for a reply.
---
12:34 PM
Thursday, April 6th, XXXX
The Alley Lujiaoxiang (Akihabara),
4 Chome-6-10 Sotokanda, Chiyoda City, Suehirocho Station,
Tokyo 101-0021 Saitama Prefecture, Japan
Utushimi Camie is significantly more intimidating to Denki now that he’s alone with her. There’s a part of him that will still never really be able to take her seriously, with her high pitch giggles and the way she gushes over any even relatively pretty guy in sight (in Denki’s opinion, her standards are atrociously low. The barista she’d spent several minutes of Denki’s life flirting with wasn’t bad looking, but he wasn’t striking. In Denki’s opinion, he was average), but Denki can recognize something lurking behind her eyes. UA may be the best hero school in the world, but Shiketsu is by no means second-rate, and is definitely the second best of Japan, at the very least.
If Denki is more than just a quirk, then Camie is much more than she appears to be on the surface.
Denki has experience being the dumb and pretty one. Denki isn’t someone you’d call smart, not by any means, but He isn’t dumb, and neither is Utushimi Camie. They’ve got more alike than either of them would care to admit.
“Denki-can I call you Denki?”
“No.” Denki says dryly. Maybe Shinso was rubbing off on him.
“Anyways, Denki-” Denki almost laughs. “-let me tell you what your problem is. You, my friend, my dear kohai, are much too bland.”
“Hey!” Denki protests instantly.
“You asked for my advice.” Camie tells him. “And I’m giving it to you, so shut your mouth and listen.” Denki scowls but nods anyway. “You’re tots boring. Not just you, but your quirk as well.”
“Boring.” Denki echoes. His quirk has been called many things over the years - crazy, op, hazardous, uncontrollable, dangerous, killer, useful, any of the above, really, but he’s never heard it called boring.
“Look, I know you’ve got a powerhouse quirk or whatever, and I’ll admit, on the surface it does seem pretty OP. But all the drawbacks you’ve mentioned? Ngl,, big yikes, my man.”
“Still don’t see how that makes it boring.”
“You’ve got a whole electricity quirk! And you only use it for large discharges. How basic can you get?”
“Well, what do you want me to do? I can’t exactly-“
“Yes, yes, you can’t exactly control the current of your quirk, you’ve told me. And honestly, IDC. You’ve got to think outside the box!. Just think of all the possibilities!”
“I’m thinking.” Denki says, bored. “And I’m not seeing any possibilities.”
“And that’s your problem.” Camie replies instantaneously. “You’re not seeing anything. There are so many other ways you can use your quirk, but you don’t see them. You don’t work on your quirk at all.”
“I practice to push my voltage limit up-“
“Denki, your voltage limit isn’t the problem here. Yes, it’d be great if you didn’t do your whole ‘going dumb’ thing, as you called it, cause that’s definitely a big yikes moment in any sort of fight, but it’s more than that. Even if you increase your limit, what’re ya gonna do? You can’t use your quirk around any allies, at risk of hurting them. In other words, you’re completely useless in any real sort of fight, or any irl scenario. ” Denki throws up his hands.
“Well, what do you want me to do about that? I can’t just change how my quirk works!”
“Yes, Denki. You can.” Camie retorts. “You need to think. Outside. The. Goddamn. Box.” Camie repeats. “Find new ways to use your quirk. You could get support devices made. You can find other ways to channel electricity. I know for certain that large currents of electricity can create magnetic fields. You can use that. Think of new, interesting ways to use your quirk instead of sticking to plain old boring.” Camie leans back. “You can’t just rely on what you have. You’ll never get anywhere. Trust me, I’ve btdt.”
“Btdt?”
“Been there, done that.” Denki rubs his forehead. Talking with Camie is like pulling teeth. “Anywho, kouhai, I do believe someone promised to pay for all expenses-'' Camie stands up abruptly grabbing Denki by the wrist and dragging him to the counter. “-so yhbw, I’m planning on seconds, and it’s all going on your tab.” Denki sighs, and resigns himself to going broke by the end of the day.
---
9:54 AM
Friday, April 7th, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan
The takoyaki, in the microwave. Denki’s electricity buzzes with excitement, crawling over his skin and sending goosebumps up his arms.
Midoriya uses, as he dubbed it, full cowl, to propel energy throughout his entire body. What’s to say Denki can’t do the same?
It’d create a shield, of a sort. If anyone touched him, any sort of attack would instantly electrocute anyone making skin contact with him.
Denki could create magnetic fields. He could pull objects and weapons towards him.
He could use electric currents to strengthen his muscles, mess with his reaction time. Denki wasn’t the takoyaki, he was the microwave, and he’d been limiting his own strength by trying to use a plate much larger than the power and size of his own quirk.
Shit. He was turning into Midoriya, wasn't he?
---
10:01 AM
Saturday April 8th, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan
“Denki?” Denki stiffens from where he’s sitting in the middle of his room, almost meditating as he lets his electricity dance over his skin. His kaa-san knocks on the door. “Denki, you in there?”
“Yeah!” Denki yells, quickly uncrossing his legs and standing up. “You can come in.” His kaa-san strolls in, her hands twitching and tapping her sides. Denki instantly tenses - he and his mom are alike in the same way - they fidget when they’re nervous, and if his kaa-san’s nervous, that means Denki has plenty of reason to be nervous too.
“Hey, Denki.” His kaa-san frowns. “Can- can we talk? I know you’re probably busy getting ready for UA and all, but-”
“I’m not busy.” Denki interrupts, then winces at his own voice. “I mean, I am, I just-” Denki rakes his hand through his hair, why is he such a pathetic mess of a human being? “We can talk, if you want.”
“Great!” His kaa-san exclaims, then falls silent, fingers tapping against his door frame. Denki’s fingers start twitching, and Denki attempts to forcibly still them.
“What do you want to talk about?” Denki prompts, when the silence becomes a little too much.
“Denki-” She hesitates. “Denki, I’m going to ask you a question, and please, please don’t lie to me. Alright?” Denki’s fingers twitch aggressively.
“Alright.”
“What happened to you?” Denki freezes, and so do his fingers, hands lying dormant by his sides.
“Sorry?”
“Denki-” Her voice is bordering on near-hysterical. “Denki, I’m your mother. I know I’m not the best mother, and I know I’m not always around, but I know my son, and you haven’t-” She hesitates. “Something’s happened. I know something’s happened.”
“Kaa-san-”
“Denki, please, don’t. Don’t just lie to me. You’re not okay, I know you’re not okay. You don’t - you don’t smile, you don’t talk, you just sit there like you’re someplace far away. You flinch at the slightest of sounds, you curl away from every touch, you sit up in your room and work and work and work like the whole world’s sitting on your shoulders.” It seems like the whole world is. If Denki does a single thing wrong, it feels like the world will collapse around him.
The life of his classmates, of Aizawa-Sensei, all of them, are on Denki’s shoulders.
“You’ve changed.” And how could Denki have not? “What happened to you, Denki? Who did this to my son?” Denki has a hundred excuses lying on the tip of his tongue, just waiting to come out, but all that comes out instead is a choked sob.
Before he knows it, he’s full-out crying, ugly crying, biting his hand to stop a stream of tears, and then his kaa-san rushes forward and his knee buckles and she catches him, easy, seamlessly, and Denki feels like a little kid again.
Denki clutches onto her shirt and she wraps her around his shoulder. They’re both crying, clinging onto each other like it’s the last time either of them are ever going to see each other again. For the first time in what seems like forever, neither of them are smiling.
---
7:34 PM
Sunday, April 9th, XXXX
4321 Kiiroichi Lane, Saitama Prefecture, Japan
“Denks, could you pass me a spatula?” Denki tosses it to his kaa-san, who snatches it out of the air. “Thanks, kiddo.”
“No problem.” Things are awkward, almost painfully so, ever since yesterday. Denki had successfully avoided having to explain anything to his mother, using his tears as something like a wall of defence. Both Denki and his kaa-san are painfully awkward people, and neither of them deal well with tears, or crying. Maybe they’re both emotionally stunted.
Either way, it works well for Denki, as his mother doesn't press. He promised he’d tell her in a week from now, and it wasn’t a lie - if he makes it to next Sunday, he will. He’ll tell her everything, even if she doesn’t believe him.
But for now, Denki resigns to stay quiet.
It’s nice, though, to get a chance to interact with his mother after a long time of what seemed like no interaction at all whatsoever.
Denki loves his kaa-san, which means he loves all the painfully awkward moments that come with her. Sort of. Mostly.
They’re cooking together, in the kitchen, something they haven’t done in years. Denki’s chest is aching with something like nostalgia and something like tragedy.
“Grab some plates,” His kaa-san instructs. Denki nods, and stands on the tips of his toes as he stretches towards the top cabinet. He’s struggling for the plates when the doorbell rings, loud and sharp. Denki thinks of his last encounter with Shinso and Tetsutetsu, and can’t help the sense of foreboding that overtakes him.
“Denki, can you grab the door?” He nods, putting down the one plate he managed to grab as he speedwalks over to their door, fully expecting a package or even the rare possibility of Shinso or Tetsutetsu or Camie, who all somehow managed to find out his address.
He doesn’t get any of that.
He pulls open the door, then forces down every urge to jerk backwards. Aizawa-Sensei stares back at him, dead-eyed.
Denki can’t bring himself to move, just stares, stares and stares and stares and trys to figure out what the fuck is going on.
His kaa-san eventually wanders up behind him.
“Hello?” She asks, from behind Denki’s shoulder. “Can I help you with something?”
“We’re sorry for disturbing you so late, Kaminari-San.” Nedzu grins with all the energy Aizawa-Sensei doesn’t have. “I am Principal Nedzu of UA, this is Aizawa Shouta, a teacher at UA, along with Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa..” Denki’s kaa-san’s demeanour shifts dramatically.
“Is something wrong?” She asks, shoulders tensing as she wraps hand around Denki. Denki still can’t find a way to make words - this has never happened before.
“We’re not sure yet.” Nedzu exclaims, cheerfully vague.
“There’s something we need to speak to your son about.”
“Could this not have waited till tomorrow?” His kaa-san questions, previous pleasantness draining away slowly.
“I’m afraid not, ma’am, as this is a matter of the security and safety of UA staff and students,” The quote unquote Detective responds. He’s bundled up in a trench coat completely inappropriate for the current weather, and a detective hat is pulled over his head.
“And what is this about, exactly?” Denki’s kaa-san pries. Aizawa-Sensei sighs, tired as always. He pulls something out of his capture weapon, and Denki stiffens. It’s an envelope that looks awfully familiar.
Denki fiddles with the letter in his hand, staring at the mailbox right outside the post office he’s currently lurking outside. It’s a bright blue, and it’s taunting Denki.
Denki doesn’t know why he had to come all the way to a random post office, given he was using a mailbox and there was one perfectly good one literally a few blocks away from his house, but Denki was feeling oddly paranoid. For good reason, he supposes. Denki is paranoid about everything related to the USJ.
His fingers tap the letter, where Principal Nedzu of UA High is scrawled out in chicken scratch that’s only marginally better than his normal handwriting. Underneath it, Aizawa Shota, Eraserhead and All Might are written just as messily.
His reaction doesn’t go unnoticed by either of the three late-night visitors, and three pairs of eyes are suddenly boring into Denki’s head. Aizawa-Sensei’s eyes flicker to him, then back to his kaa-san.
“I have a feeling you know what this is.” Aizawa-Sensei tells him. Denki doesn’t respond.
“Denki?” His kaa-san prompts, frowning.
“Perhaps we should take this inside.” Detective Tsukauchi suggests.
Notes:
Utushumi, Shinso, Testutestu and Denki (and Midnight, but that’s not really important) were all born in the Saitama Prefecture, so I’d figure I’d do something with that. And I know, they’re probably all in different cities and the chances of them going to the same school is very slim but that’s not important. I can do whatever I want and probability is a lie.
Shinso is kind of antagonistic in this chapter, but I headcanon that he was a angsty emo bastard for a while before he started training with aizawa sensei, so staying true to that vibe, I have moody angsty teenager Shinso living his best life for this chapter.On another note, I’ve just realised that literally all my timestamps are wrong? Like the USJ always happens on Monday, April 13th, despite me always mentioning that it happens on a Thursday in later parts of the stories? So it’s supposed to be on Thursday, April 11th, but I somehow managed to mess that up?
So I was on my merry way to fix that mess up, when I realised I had yet ANOTHER mess up with the timestamps - as some of you may have noticed, Denki wakes up on March 13th, Monday - but that makes zero sense because UA starts in the second week of april (in my fic at least), which I had down as April 8th, Monday - but if the 13th of March is a Monday, then the second week of april would technically start on April 10th, Monday. Which, um, creates quite the problem, because ALL MY TIMESTAMPS ARE WRONG. (honestly, I’ve got a total of like, one month in this fic, a month that repeats on and on, and I still can not get the dates right what is wrong with me)
Ignore me as I go cry in a corner.
Anyways, in conclusion, I screwed up really badly on those timestamps. I’ve gone back and fixed all of those, so if some things seem different (both in this chapter and the others) that’s why.
For those of you who might have noticed the (glaring) mistake but didn’t want to say anything, I’m so sorry, that probably bugged you, I’m honestly such a dumbass.
Also! School! In case that confused anyone, in Japan (and maybe other places I have zero clue) high school is typically separated into 3 trimesters. The first trimester tends to start around the second week of April. This term runs till either the middle or end of July (typically), so until the Practical Exam in the canonical timeline. Then comes summer break, between Term 1 and Term 2, (which is when the training camp fiasco happens) and then term 2 starts up in September. Term 2 typically lasts till the end of the year. (barring a typical two-week Winter Break which is around two weeks and typically happens in the last week of December and the first week of January). Term 3 begins when Term 2 ends, right after winter break, and lasts from January to mid/late March. (and after March, there tends to be a two week break between one school year and the next)
In context of this fic, (and also my rectifying of the timestamps), when Denki ‘restarts’, he wakes up on Monday, March 13th, the day he receives his UA acceptance letter, right after school. He’s still got that week and one more week of school, which I go into more detail on in this chapter. (in all the other runs, he just kind of floats through school and I don’t really dig into it that much) Then comes the two weeks of break, and then the first week of UA begins on April 10th. (10th, not 8th, I’m not messing that up again)
Going through all of this, I’m only just realising that they’d probably have sent acceptance letters a little bit earlier, but we’re not going to talk about that. Shhhh. Look away.
And there’s ONE more thing I’m so sorry this is getting really long. In canon, I’m pretty sure one of the only dates specified was that the USJ is on a Wednesday, but for plot reasons, I changed it to a Thursday. That’s one mistake I made intentionally, in case anyone was wondering. (also deeply regretting the whole timestamps thing, especially when writing fanfiction for an manga/anime series that never gives any dates like, ever. Time apparently does not exist in the BNHA universe)
However - if there’s one good thing that came from this entire fiasco with the timestamps is that NOW, Denki wakes up exactly a month before the USJ and that just makes me really happy. Dies on April 13th, wakes up on March 13th. Before it was some weird month and a couple days shit that bugged me.
Anyways, thanks for reading!
(and also I’ve just realised that my notes are getting really long - they’ve been slowly increasing in length chapter by chapter. I’m sure none of you want to have to stare at blocks of text containing mindless rambling so I’ll try to tone that down a bit)
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Evvarr on Chapter 1 Mon 07 Mar 2022 04:42AM UTC
Last Edited Mon 07 Mar 2022 04:43AM UTC
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Evvarr on Chapter 1 Thu 12 Jan 2023 02:02AM UTC
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Suneater06 on Chapter 1 Mon 06 Feb 2023 07:25AM UTC
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Suneater06 on Chapter 1 Sat 11 Nov 2023 04:05AM UTC
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Nommm on Chapter 1 Wed 20 Sep 2023 02:00AM UTC
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Inabit on Chapter 1 Mon 10 Jun 2024 07:45PM UTC
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LevyMcGarden55 on Chapter 1 Wed 11 Dec 2024 06:17AM UTC
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Burnt_Skies on Chapter 2 Tue 14 Sep 2021 08:14PM UTC
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maliciouslampshades on Chapter 2 Sat 18 Sep 2021 11:39PM UTC
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geesus_way on Chapter 2 Wed 15 Sep 2021 12:49AM UTC
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maliciouslampshades on Chapter 2 Sat 18 Sep 2021 11:42PM UTC
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i enoyed this fanfic (Guest) on Chapter 2 Wed 15 Sep 2021 04:03AM UTC
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maliciouslampshades on Chapter 2 Sat 18 Sep 2021 11:32PM UTC
Last Edited Sat 18 Sep 2021 11:36PM UTC
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luka (Guest) on Chapter 2 Wed 15 Sep 2021 04:09AM UTC
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maliciouslampshades on Chapter 2 Sat 18 Sep 2021 11:32PM UTC
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dudesgotmusic on Chapter 2 Wed 15 Sep 2021 09:30PM UTC
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maliciouslampshades on Chapter 2 Sat 18 Sep 2021 11:35PM UTC
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Lln (Guest) on Chapter 2 Thu 16 Sep 2021 07:30AM UTC
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Evvarr on Chapter 2 Sat 02 Oct 2021 07:45AM UTC
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9thstar on Chapter 2 Tue 23 Nov 2021 04:36PM UTC
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9thstar on Chapter 2 Tue 23 Nov 2021 04:36PM UTC
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Suneater06 on Chapter 2 Mon 06 Feb 2023 07:50AM UTC
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LevyMcGarden55 on Chapter 2 Wed 11 Dec 2024 06:39AM UTC
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ChickenBonanza (Guest) on Chapter 3 Sun 19 Sep 2021 02:25AM UTC
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maliciouslampshades on Chapter 3 Wed 17 Nov 2021 04:07PM UTC
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