Hitoshi was awaiting Denki's answer and did not bother to reword his question into a statement if he even noticed. Neito was also waiting for Denki's answer and didn't poke at Hitoshi for asking questions either, though he definitely did notice and kindly decided to give Hitoshi a small mercy by ignoring it while he stared at Denki, who was fidgeting under their watchful eyes.
"Sorry. Was I not supposed to say anything?" Denki stalled.
Neito wasn't having any of that, though. "How did you know, Denki?" he repeated.
"Well… you were singing to Hitoshi when they were searching him, right? And you said you weren't here for you this time, so it makes sense that you would be here for him since he's your soulmate. That's probably the reason that they moved me from Touya's room instead of just rooming both of you together, isn't it? There's probably a policy against rooming soulmates together," Denki rambled, a blush rising on his face as he felt dumber and dumber as he talked in circles, using his hands to try to convey what his words were lacking, attempting to explain what his brain had just assumed to be the truth with no hard evidence.
Denki wasn't about to tell these boys that the voices in his head sang when Neito did and that gave him a hint as to what he was doing when Hitoshi joined them in the hallway. He felt crazy enough as it was, so he didn't need them to add to his feelings of inadequacy and strangeness.
After a pause for the boys to consider Denki's words, Neito snorted. "Of course, they put me in a room with a genius!"
Denki was immediately taken aback because there was no sarcasm or malice dripping from Neito's words. Was he being serious or was Denki just being extra dense that day?
"They can't trust me enough to room me with just anyone! They are starting to understand what they're up against here! It's about time they didn't underestimate me!" Neito got louder and his movements more frantic as he ranted and conspired.
Denki was speechless because he realized that Neito was serious. He opened his mouth to correct him, but Hitoshi spoke first.
"A genius? Really?" he looked hopeful, but Denki didn't understand why.
Before Hitoshi could backtrack and take back his questions, Neito supplied the context for Denki without having to be asked, "Hitoshi thinks that people could probably break out of his quirk, and the smarter they are the easier it should be for them. No one will give him a chance, though. Wanna try it out?"
The dangerous, excited glint in Neito's eyes should have warned Denki to say no. It was probably against multiple rules on the unit. But…
"No! He doesn't even know what my quirk is, Neito! I wouldn't—"
"Sure! I'll do it!" Denki chirped, cutting Hitoshi off before he could get even more tense and start to obsessively reword his sentences again. He didn't want to cause Hitoshi unneeded stress, and besides, it was now or never. Soon, the other residents and technicians would be back from lunch, and he might never get to be alone with both newcomers again.
Hitoshi and Neito turned toward him, surprised.
"You don't even know what my quirk is," Hitoshi insisted.
The last thing Hitoshi wanted was to push Denki away when he was so damn warm and open. He hadn't had this kind of anonymity since… well, since before his quirk became apparent. Everyone always knew who he was and what he was capable of and acted accordingly. Denki was going to get himself killed with this level of just blind trust, but maybe he had never met someone with such a dangerous quirk before. Still, Hitoshi would rather add a friend to his short (nonexistent) list of friends than to get the chance to test a theory.
"Don't tell me!" Denki rushed out, plugging his ears in case they were about to spoil his anticipation. "Surprise me!" he demanded, eyes sparkling with excitement.
Neito and Hitoshi shared a glance, and with an encouraging nod from Neito, Hitoshi took a breath and prepared himself. Hitoshi figured that even if he backed out now, he might not be able to keep Denki as a friend, because sooner or later, he would find out what his quirk actually was. Hitoshi never really had the opportunity to use it on someone unsuspecting, so it felt like a now or never kind of situation that he had to take advantage of if he ever wanted to figure out the nuances of his quirk and make people less afraid of him.
Besides, he was here, in this mental hospital, to figure out what had his quirk acting up and affecting both himself and his soulmate, so he might as well take full advantage of it when someone was kind enough to offer.
Denki had cautiously removed his hands from his ears to make sure no one was going to ruin the surprise before giving Hitoshi his full attention.
"Are you sure?" Hitoshi had breathed out, and Neito shivered. He could hear the difference in Hitoshi's voice and knew that it was a trigger. He wasn't sure if it was because they were soulmates or if it was something that anyone could pick up on. Maybe it was even something that Hitoshi could improve upon and make it indistinguishable from his regular speech so that even his soulmate wouldn't be able to tell the difference. The possibilities were endless and so, so exciting.
"Yeah! Do I need—"
Denki freaked out a little bit, he would admit. In a way, it was kind of like when he short-circuited from overusing his quirk. Everything was hazy and confusing, but he was still present. He almost panicked. Had he used his quirk without realizing and fried his brain once again? After his new friends had called him a genius, too! He was so embarrassed!
Through the haze, he saw Neito and Hitoshi glance at each other before looking back at Denki, but they didn't look like they were ridiculing him. It was like they were anticipating what would happen next and treading carefully. They both took a few steps closer and watched Denki intently. Now that he had a moment to process, he figured out that this must be part of Hitoshi's quirk. It made sense when he thought about it. It felt similar to when he short-circuits, but it wasn't exactly the same. He couldn't move, for one thing. He couldn't give them a thumbs up to let them know that he was okay, just needed time to recover, and that he wasn't a threat about to electrocute them.
"Stand on the bed," Hitoshi commanded.
Denki could have laughed! He was confused about how he was supposed to do what Hitoshi said when he couldn't even move, but then his body was moving on its own! It was robotic and jerky, but he ended up standing on the bed. In all honesty, it was probably even more graceful that if he had tried to stand on the bed on his own. Without Hitoshi's quirk, he would probably trip on the blanket and go tumbling off.
Neito and Hitoshi continued to watch Denki.
"Is he pushing through?" Denki heard Neito ask quietly through the haze.
"He…" Hitoshi started, choking on his words, and blinking his eyes hard, shaking his head to clear it. He cleared his throat and tried again, "he's not fighting it at all."
The soulmates looked up at Denki in wonder, and Denki was internally cursing himself. How had he already forgotten that he was supposed to try to break out of it? Some genius he was!
Denki focused on the faces of the boys who stood on the floor below him, trying to sharpen their features through the haze. He was ashamed that he didn't have any better ideas. He was grasping at straws on how to fight through this quirk, so he decided to go with what always helped him get through his own electric quirk-induced haze that he often found himself in. It might have been his imagination, but he thought it might be working.
Denki could see Hitoshi's eyes widen as his features came into better focus.
"Sit down," Hitoshi commanded firmly, and the haze was back full force.
Denki repeated the ritual of focusing on something and mentally slicing through the haze, using Hitoshi and Neito's faces as his focal points. He wanted to see their reactions, even if they were disappointed. When the haze cleared enough to see their expression, though, he was surprised to find out that they were staring at him in amazement.
"He's doing it?" Neito whispered, stepping forward to closely watch Denki's face, jumping when Denki's eyes flickered over to him.
Hitoshi let out a shaky breath. "Yeah. He's doing it."
Hitoshi was nervous, now. He was regretting doing this at all. This was amazing progress, but at what cost? What would Denki say when he broke free? What fearful, mistrustful, terrified expression would he have on his face when he got control back?
Neito laughed softly, moving toward Denki to excitedly whisper, "C'mon, genius! You can do it! Break free, Denki!"
Switching between Neito's and Hitoshi's faces was harder now that they were different distances apart and his eyes had to refocus when he moved from one to the other, but maybe that gave him the final push to break through Hitoshi's quirk.
It was anticlimactic on Neito's end. One second, Denki's eyes were flipping back and forth between Neito and Hitoshi, and the next, Denki was blinking and shaking his head, rubbing at his eyes with his fists.
It was a terrifying anticipation on Hitoshi's end as he waited for Denki to say something or look at him. Who knows? Maybe he would just walk out and never speak to or even look in his direction ever again. It wouldn't be the first time he got that reaction, even.
"That is so cool!" Denki exclaimed, eyes bright as he looked right at Hitoshi. Right through Hitoshi, it felt like. "Why'd you stop? I think I was getting closer to breaking through!"
"Denki," Hitoshi said weakly, not quite believing the reaction he was getting. "You did break through."
"What? No way! That was awesome! I did that?!" Denki rambled in quick succession, feeling extremely proud of himself.
"What was it like?" Neito demanded, planting himself on the bed next to Denki.
"It was so cool! It feels similar to a side effect of my own quirk when I overuse it, actually. I think you can keep me under by giving me more commands, though, Hitoshi! When you told me to sit down, everything got hazy again and I had to start over," Denki explained, waving his hands in front of his eyes to demonstrate the haze he experienced.
What was this? Why was this energetic blonde boy even still talking to Hitoshi, let alone telling him what it felt like and how to keep a stronger hold on him?
"What did it feel like for you? Is it different for everyone?" Denki asked, turning toward Neito.
"He's never put me under before," Neito said, looking at Hitoshi in a way that was hard to decipher.
Why did Hitoshi never practice his quirk on his soulmate? Was it Hitoshi's hesitation or did Neito refuse? Did Neito want to do it now that he saw someone as dense as Denki could break through it? Would Hitoshi be willing to try it on Neito now that he got a positive reaction from Denki?
"Oh," Denki said, dumbly. To change the subject, he asked, "have you ever copied his quirk, then?"
"No…" Neito said, eyes again flicking to Hitoshi, but this time with a growing maniacal grin on his face.
Hitoshi could read his thoughts on his face and wanted to object. It was one thing to risk his new fragile friendship with himself, but for both of them to make enemies with another patient on the unit would not be a wise thing to do.
Hitoshi wanted to object, but Neito was too fast, reaching out and grabbing Hitoshi's hand.
"Hey, Denki?" Neito asked.
"What?" Kaminari responded, turning toward Neito.
Neito growled out in frustration. "A blank?"
"No, you got it. You just have to focus from the first sound to leave your mouth. I heard the waver on Denki's name, but you need to commit," Hitoshi explained, placing his hands on Neito's shoulders, and giving him a little nudge to try again.
Hitoshi had given in quickly because he figured if he can't beat them, he might as well join them.
Just to be safe though, he warned Denki, "if you don't want to go under my quirk, don't answer the questions."
Neito scoffed, slightly irritated and unimpressed that Hitoshi was trying to protect this random stranger over letting his soulmate try out his quirk on a willing victim.
Neito refocused, feeling the quirk glow around his brain, in his throat, and on his hand where he had touched Hitoshi to get the quirk in the first place.
"Will you answer me, Denki?" he asked, making intense eye contact with Denki as he focused on injecting the question with all of Hitoshi's quirk that he could manage, praying that it would work. He hated feeling like a failure, which he did often enough because of all of the different quirks he shuffled through. A jack of all trades and a master of none.
"Always!" Denki answered, smiling brightly.
Neito faltered. He wasn't really expecting an answer at all after Hitoshi warned him how it was started. Neito paused in surprise at Denki's open, trusting, upbeat answer, but managed to direct the quirk right into Denki's head before the chance passed, visualizing the glowing borrowed quirk engulfing Denki's head until it shrunk down to wrap tightly around his brain inside his skull. Neito almost winced. If he did it wrong, it looked like it could be super painful. He felt irresponsible in that moment. Trying out his soulmate's quirk wasn't worth hurting Denki, or even giving him a minor headache. He underestimated the complexity of Hitoshi's quirk and the skill it takes to not cause harm to the people he puts under. He didn't want to hurt someone who was so open to helping literal strangers with their quirks. He tried to tell himself that someone as naïve as to allow themselves to be used like this deserved whatever came their way, but he couldn't think that of Denki as he sat there, dazed expression on his face once again, staring straight ahead, focused on nothing, giving virtual strangers a chance to use their quirks on him when it was obvious that others would not.
"Good," Hitoshi praised simply, but Neito knew that he meant it.
"I feel like I was too rough," Neito admitted, tearing his eyes away from Denki and rubbing his hands together.
"It comes with practice. It feels rough and jerky, but I'm sure you didn't hurt him. Smoothing the application out will help you get faster and more efficient. Even a stronger hold, sometimes. But you won't hurt him," Hitoshi explained quietly.
"Promise?" Neito asked, taking in a shaky breath.
Hitoshi nodded and Neito snorted.
"So, this is what it's like to not have your questions answered verbally," Neito said, shaking his head to rid himself of the self-pity he was threatening to drown in seconds earlier.
"Can't be too careful," Hitoshi said, shrugging, but Neito could tell that it hurt Hitoshi every time he was ignored, even when he pretended to not notice.
"Well, he could be, couldn't he? More careful, that is," Neito said, indicating toward Denki. "Ready to fight against it? I want to feel it," he challenged the blank-faced blonde.
And feel it he did. Denki immediately shot a pinpoint through the glowing quirk that stretched from Neito to his own brain. Neito watched in awe as the visualized pinpoint started to grow, thinning the glowing haze connecting the boys through Hitoshi's quirk.
"Amazing," Neito breathed. "Your quirk is amazing, and his mental fortitude is amazing."
"Try giving a command," Hitoshi instructed, and for once, Neito did as he was told.
"Come here," Neito said, putting the power of Hitoshi's quirk behind the command, backing up off of the bed to give Denki room to follow his order.
The glow of the quirk filled in once again as Denki's resistance was cut off, erased, and he did as he was told and stood in front of Neito.
It surprised Neito when the pinpoint shot out again and started growing rapidly, even faster than before, dissipating the glow of the borrowed quirk. Neito felt a sharp pain behind his eyes, winced, and almost collapsed by the sudden flash of pain that just got sharper and sharper.
"Denki! Stop resisting!" Hitoshi commanded sharply, catching Neito before he could hit the floor.
The tunnel through the glow disappeared just as quickly as it appeared.
Denki didn't mean to hurt Neito by trying to resist, so when the command came from Hitoshi, who had no control over him quirk-wise, Denki complied automatically. Denki was not in any pain or discomfort, and he was used to the haze of his own quirk overuse, so he was in no hurry to get out of the copied quirk. He could wait patiently until they told him what to do next so that he didn't hurt Neito further.
Neito felt the pain ebbing away almost immediately and within 30 seconds, he could stand on his own again.
"What was that?" Neito asked, rubbing at his forehead as his eyes flitted between Hitoshi, who was rubbing his back encouragingly, and Denki, who had gone back to the blank stare as he stopped fighting and even purposefully pulled back his resistance to actively undo the damage he had caused.
"It happens sometimes. I think it's quirk fatigue because it happened when I would start getting tired and they would fight back. Usually, it ends up with me passing out and having a terrible headache for a few days, but you seem okay," Hitoshi explained, and was almost jealous that Neito somehow already countered the negative side effects of his quirk when he never could.
"It was Denki," Neito realized aloud. "He pulled back and stopped fighting right away when you told him to. Could that be why it didn't hurt me like it normally hurts you?"
Hitoshi frowned in thought before nodding. "That's probably it. Everyone that it happened to me for, they always fought back until my control over them snapped. I wonder if it would have gone back to normal if they would have stopped fighting long enough for me to release them…"
"So, I should release him now, then?" Neito said, trying to keep the sadness out of his voice. He was having such a good time, too. "Actually," he said before Hitoshi could confirm, "I want to know what it's like for him to be broken out of it."
Hitoshi was about to object, but they had gone that far already, so why not?
"Your wish is my command," Hitoshi joked, giving a dramatic bow before stepping forward and flicking blank-faced Denki in the middle of the forehead.
Neito was in awe as the glowing haze around Denki's brain popped like a bubble and dissolved, causing the glowing string that connected them to snap back toward Neito with nothing else to hold onto.
Denki grabbed his forehead where Hitoshi had flicked him and laughed, eyes squinting from the force of his smile.
"Are you okay, Neito?" he asked as he calmed down. "I didn't mean to hurt you!"
"I'm fine! Thanks for stopping when Hitoshi asked you to stop fighting. I really don't want a terrible headache that lasts for days," Neito responded, feeling a little sad that Hitoshi had experienced such a thing more than once and that he himself who borrowed his quirk was spared because of the agreeable participant.
"Are you okay?" Hitoshi asked, checking in on the one who was put under a stressful quirk twice in a row and still stopped fighting the instant Hitoshi asked, even when Hitoshi had no control over him. Denki stopped willingly while under a strange quirk, and Hitoshi has no idea that someone like that even existed.
"I'm great! That was a lot of fun! Are you guys going to be heroes?" Denki asked, bouncing on his toes in excitement, ready for some future hero talk with the coolest boys he had ever met.
"What?" Hitoshi asked startled.
At the same time, Neito repeated, "Heroes?"
"Yeah! With quirks like those, I bet you could manage bad situations with no injuries! How cool would that be! The soulmate duo, making villains turn themselves in before they even know what hit them!" Denki practically had stars in his eyes as he imagined his new friends kicking some serious villain butt and all of the adoring fans cheering and the potential victims crying happy tears of joy at being released unharmed.
Before they could comment, not that they could as the soulmates were, for once, speechless, the sound of the others coming back echoed through the halls. As voices and footsteps entered the hallway, Neito's face grew a huge, manic smile.
"Touya!" he yelled at full volume, eyes sparkling as he winked at his soulmate and roommate before he bolted out into the hallway, spreading his hands to present himself to the other residents who were filing in behind the technician who had opened the door for them. "Guess who's back!"