Chapter 17: Hallway Fights
Kaminari was still in deep thought as he finally at the stadium's seating section; his mind was working over-time, trying to grasp the meaning of what Shigaraki had told him in the medical room.
'I'll be waiting.'
Those were the last words he said before he disappeared, and they stuck out this pin pricks in Denki's mind.
For some reason, the pale-haired villain was so confident that Kaminari would join his side, so utterly self-assured in his belief that Denki would actually turn to the path of villainy. Was he insane or something? Yes, of course he was; no person in their right mind would do half the things that Tomura Shigaraki did. That dude was completely off his rocker.
'But still….'
Denki made his way up the stairs that led out onto the viewing platform, and arrived just in time to see Eijiro and Tetsutetsu engaging in a full on brawl; neither side seemed to be gaining the upper hand - in fact, they seemed evenly matched. The fight eventually ended with both combatants either giving up or passing out due to exhaustion, and the round was announced as a 'tie'.
"Geez, what did I miss?" Denki wondered as he took a seat next to Jiro.
"Well, apparently, you missed a lot while you were in the medic room," she informed without sparing him a glance, "Ida went up against that mechanic girl - Mei Hatsume, I think her name was - the round ended with Ida winning the match due to withdrawal."
"It was utterly embarrassing," Tenya groaned from the chair behind them, "She used me simply to exhibit her inventions. I was just a lab rat in that scenario!" he cried.
"Oof! That's rough, buddy," Denki noted, shaking his head in sorrow.
"Also, I think Ashido went up against Aoyama," Jiro continued, "and, due to some malfunctions with Aoyama's belt, Ashido got the win."
Realizing that Mina was seated a few rows away, Kaminari turned to face her, "Alright, nice job Ashido!" he cheered, prompting the pink girl to happily return a thumbs up.
"Then, the next match was Tokoyami vs. Yaoyorozu. I hate to say it, but Tokoyami won in a landslide; it wasn't even a contest," she stated.
Finally, Kyoka glanced over at him, "the last one was Kirishima vs. that Tetsutetsu guy, which you probably saw the end of just now."
"Yeah, they looked pretty evenly matched," Denki observed, looking down at the arena.
"The already called it a tie, so the two of them will have to go another round for the winning point," she explained to Kaminari, who nodded his head in understanding.
"Wait, so then, based on the leaderboard," Denki began thoughtfully, "then that means the next person that I'll be going up against is-"
"Me," Tenya calmly posited, "and I intend to give it my all!" he proudly roared.
"Heh, I wouldn't have it any other way," Denki admitted with a smile before then turning back to Kyoka.
"Hey, can I talk to you for a second," he said, suddenly sounding serious.
She gave him a confused look before answering, "about what?" she wondered.
"It's….just…." he then let out a sigh, "follow me," he commanded as he got up from the chair and headed back over to the stairs.
Following his lead, Jiro abandoned her seat and tailed behind the blonde boy as the two of them descended the staircase.
As he moved downward, Kaminari thought about how he was going to approach this; he knew that he could self regenerate thanks to the medical report, and he also was aware that Jiro knew this as well, but he didn't believe that Jiro would just try to hide this from him. He desperately wished that Shigaraki was lying about this one thing - that Kyoka wasn't keeping secrets from him. Why would she do that?
Truthfully, even if she did know, it wasn't that big of a deal, but he just wanted to hear her admit it to him.
Once he got to the bottom and was fairly sure that they could speak in private, Denki turned around and said, "back when I woke up, you said something along the lines of 'isn't it weird that you didn't receive any damage from the match'? At the time, I didn't think about it, but you were trying to tell me something, weren't you?"
Kyoka blinked in surprise for a moment, "Oh, that? I was….uhhhh... just seeing if you were really okay is all."
Denki leaned in closer, but this didn't have the air of flirtation like last time, "why are you lying to me, Kyoka?" he questioned.
Jiro was taken aback for a second, "Lying? Are you seriously accusing me of lying?"
"Why won't you tell me what you were really getting at back there in the medical bay? You wanted to tell me something, right? You can just tell me," he said, looking her dead in the eyes.
For a moment, Jiro's face began to soften, and her shoulders slightly relaxed as though she were opening up to him; but in the last few seconds, her expression hardened.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she insisted, crossing her arms in front of her chest, "are you going to tell me what this is all about, or do you just want to keep calling me a liar?"
Denki licked his lips slightly, they were getting a bit dry, "Why won't you just tell me?" he pushed.
"What exactly do you want me to tell you, Kaminari?!" she finally yelled, glaring at him, "whatever it is I tell you, how do you know I'm not just LYING?" she mocked, throwing up her hands in exasperation.
Denki remained silent for a moment, not quite sure how to respond; Kyoka let out a disappointed grunt before heading back up the stairs.
"I saw the medical records!" he shouted up to her, causing Jiro to stop on the last step.
She peered down at him, but he couldn't quite read her expression, so he continued, "I took a look at my medical document, and it said that I had suffered from third degree burns."
Kyoka remained still, listening to the blonde boy's words.
"So why is it that when I woke up, I was completely healed?" he wondered, "You know the reason, don't you, Kyoka?"
The dark-haired girl had a pained expression on her face now, as though Denki had revealed a disturbing fact about her, or a secret that she wanted to keep to herself. The two teens remained silent in the quiet stairwell, waiting for the other one to speak, but both of them refused to say a word.
Finally, Jiro decided to break the tension, "so, you found out, huh?"
He nodded.
She let out a long sigh as she began to head back down the stairs, "when I came to see you, the nurse told me about your….condition, but she told me that you had rapidly healed."
She then took a moment to think before continuing, "I know that you don't have a healing quirk, so I didn't know what was happening. I just decided to keep it to myself."
"But why? Why would you want to keep something like this from me?" he asked.
"Because of what happened at the Cafe," she quickly answered, to which Kaminari gave her a confused look.
"When you told me about your 'special technique' and we raced each other at the Cafe, you ended up getting really mad…..we didn't talk for weeks after that," she looked at the ground mournfully, "it's just….ever since you got kidnapped by Shigaraki, you haven't really been the same; I know that you've been focusing a lot on getting stronger - at that's great and all - but I know what happens to you when you get disappointed….you become distant."
Denki looked like he had something he wanted to say, but Kyoka continued on without notice, "so this time, when I found out that you had some new 'regeneration' power, I thought that, somehow, it might make you that way again. I didn't want that….so I kept it from you."
Kaminari stared up at Jiro, who lingered silently on the stairs in wait of his response; he had thought that getting an answer from Kyoka would make him feel better, but instead he became more uncomfortable than before.
Was he really like that? The way Jiro described him, made him sound so immature, so pathetic; it was like he was finally seeing himself for the first time.
"N-no, you're wrong," he insisted, "I would never…..I would never do that," he said weakly, almost in a soft whisper.
"You already did it once," she retorted, wiping at a tear that had formed near the corner of her eye, "it's like you have a need to prove yourself to others. To prove that you're powerful or something. I don't get it."
"You don't know me," he angrily muttered, turning his head away from her, "just because YOU'RE weak doesn't mean that I have to be!"
At first, Jiro's face revealed shock at his words, and then they solidified into an intense glare as she clenched her fists.
"You know what," she began, "fuck. You. Fine, you can go off and do whatever stuid crap you want to, but leave me the hell out of it."
She stormed back up the stairs, but right before she reached the top, she whipped back around one last time, "and you know what," she screamed through emerging sobs, "if you keep acting like this, you're always going to be weak! Don't expect any more help from me, because you're on your own!"
Kaminari's mouth was kept agape; he didn't expect things to go sideways so quickly.
She sniffled a little bit as she wiped at the underside of her nose; she then ascended the stairs once again, leaving Kaminari alone in the small stairwell. Even as he heard the faint cheering of thousands of fans out in the stadium seats, Denki had never felt more alone than he did right now. He didn't mean for things to go this way.
'Maybe it was for the best,' a part of him whispered, 'now she doesn't have to pretend to be your friend out of pity.'
"It wasn't pity," he muttered.
'Oh no? Why else would she spend time with someone like you? Someone who's weak and useless all the time? Did you truly think that she liked you?'
Kaminari flinched at those words - they were painful to consider, so he did his best to push them out of his mind. Uncomfortable and feeling quite empty, Denki turned around and headed down the corridor in the opposite direction that Kyoka had just exited from - he couldn't bear to go that way, he would run the risk of seeing her again.
As he walked down the hall, he noticed that someone else was heading in his direction; a series of slow, yet familiarly angry footsteps echoed down the corridor.
"Hey, what the hell are you doin' here, whimp?" Bakugo's voice barked as he passed Denki, "outta my way! I got a matchup to get to with that pink-cheeked girl. Now, move!"
Oh great. Bakugo was the last person he wanted to see right now.
Kaminari said nothing, he didn't even spare Katsuki so much as a glance as he passed the boy by. A bit irritated by Denki's silent demeanor, Bakugo spun around and addressed the boy in a much louder tone, "Hey, don't ignore me you piece of shit!" he growled.
"Have fun with your match," Kaminari said, but there was an obvious layer of sarcasm that accompanied the statement, to which Katsuki angrily grabbed Denki by the back of his jacket collar, keeping him from moving forward.
"You better look at me when you talk, bitch!" the spiky-haired teen said through gritted teeth.
Denki was still facing the other way, but he had stopped walking; instead, he now stared directly ahead, seemingly not bothered by Katsuki's antics.
"Let me go, Bakugo," Denki calmly said.
"Huh?!" the other teen scoffed, leaning in closer, "You think you can all of a sudden tell me what to do, asshole? Just because you got lucky in this tournament so far?"
Kaminari's fingers twitched slightly, but Bakugo was already too riled up to notice the electric teen's growing impatience.
"I said: let me go, Bakugo," Denki tried again, still refusing to glance back at his tormentor.
"Make me, bitch!" Katsuki dared, tightening his grip on Kaminari's jacket.
"You've already caught me in a bad mood, Bakugo," he said as he slowly turned around to face the bully, "DON'T MAKE IT ANY WORSE."
By the time Denki had turned around fully, his eyes had spontaneously changed color; well, to be more specific, they were continuously changing color. Instead of the regular yellow-gold color that painted his eyes, his irises were in a state of constantly alternating color patterns - first blue, then green, then yellow, then red, then purple, then back to blue. What's more, beyond the whites of his eyes, there appeared to be slight pules of light akin to sparks of electricity that flashed on and off just behind his sclera.
For a split second, Bakugo's grip on Kaminari's jacket loosened instinctively, as though if he didn't, he would be in immediate danger. But Katsuki was far too stubborn of an individual to simply back away from someone just because they asked him to, so he instead decided to stand his ground.
"Make me," he reiterated, consciously squeezing on the jacket once more, "what the hell are you gonna do about it?"
In a split second, Kaminari's eyes flashed and electrical sparks rose up from his feet; the current traveled up from is body and climbed into the jacket itself, shocking Bakugo enough to force him to release it. Staggering back momentarily, the spiky-haired boy glared down at his hand as he held firmly onto his wrist.
"Oh? You wanna play like that?" he growled, lowering himself into an attack stance, "Fine. I've been waiting for this!"
Kaminari didn't want to fight right now, but there was something about this situation that made him feel quite calm; normally, if someone like Bakugo ever challenged Denki, the blonde boy would either give an excuse or just run away. Against most people with an attack-based quirk, Kaminari didn't have a chance.
But now, even while Bakugo charged him, Denki remained very calm - almost terrifyingly so.
Using his right had to swing, Bakugo launched the first attack, which seemed to just narrowly miss as Denki moved out of the way; not wasting any tempo, Katsuki swung right back around before starting another attack. Just like the previous one, this missed as well. Again, he tried to hit Kaminari, but his fist never hit anything.
"Quit moving around, bitch!" he roared, going in for another attack.
Denki couldn't quite understand why, but Bakugo's movements seemed to be extremely slow. Not slow as in 'Bakugo was a little out of practice', but slow as in 'time itself seemed to be moving differently.'
Each attack that came toward him seemed to be moving at a snail's pace, and by the time the attack was finished, Denki was already waiting for the next one.
"DAMN YOU!" Bakugo screamed as he finally raised his hands up in front of him.
Almost immediately, Denki knew what his opponent was trying to do. Because the space in the hallway was so thin and small, Kaminari couldn't dodge wide-range attacks, meaning that all Bakugo had to do was use his 'explode' quirk just enough to catch Denki in the blast.
Initially, Denki thought to run away from the blast, but he would probably just end up getting caught by it before he could escape; the only other option was to stop Bakugo before he could release the attack. But how? He had to think quickly.
Hoping that this would work, Denki channeled as much energy as he could into his hands and arms, almost as if he was flooding them with electricity; then, in one swift motion, he pounded his fist into the concrete ground.
He expected to feel immediate pain, but it instead felt like he had punched at a mound of sand.
The concrete below broke away from the force of his punch and cracked in unison with one another, creating a shockwave that tore at the floor; the pieces of concrete that broke off indiscriminately thudded against Bakugo's body, causing him to stumble back, not allowing him to finish his attack.
Quickly getting back to his feet, Katuski rushed at Denki again, his arms outstretched in preparation for a new attack. Kaminari followed suit, gearing up for one final assault as he channeled all the electricity he could conjure into the palms of his hands. Both boys were only a couple of feet from each other when something suddenly stopped them in their tracks and diverted their attacks away from one another.
A massive explosion emanated from Bakugo's palm, but it had been directed down into the ground instead of at Denki; similarly, Kaminari's attack - a wad of electrical energy - had instead been sent up into the ceiling and away from Katsuki. The result of both attacks kicked up surrounding dust, concealing the hallway with smoke for a couple of seconds.
"Young Bakugo," came a voice from between the two boys, "you should be headed to your matchup right now."
"And you, Kaminari, should be resting," the voice concluded.
"Who?..." Denki began to say but was immediately cut off by the sight of All Might standing before him.
"It's a good thing I made it just in time," the hero said with a wide smile.
End of Chapter 17
Author's Note: Hey guys, sorry for getting this chapter out so late, but I had some trouble with a few of the scenes in this chapter. For starters, I really wanted the fight between Kyoka and Denki to be emotionally impactful without it feeling too forced. I went through a lot of writing and re-writing, so this is what I ended up with. If that scene felt forced to any of you, I completely understand. I mainly just wanted there to be some kind of conflict between Denki and Kyoka because of stuff I want to do in later chapters. If any of you have any sort of suggestions on how I COULD"VE approached this chapter, please let me know. Obviously, I can't change anything now, but I would still be curious to hear what you guys have to say.