A/N: Enjoy this chapter a day early! I have my lifeguard recertification training tomorrow, so I'll be swimming, practicing CPR, and dragging limp bodies from the pool all day tomorrow for TWELVE hours of training! I might be too exhausted by the time it's over to write or even post anything, so enjoy the early post today!
"Does Dabi know that you're P05itiv3R3v0lt?" Shigaraki asked, recovering from the fact that all of his previous plans were now off the table.
"Uh…" Denki stalled as he thought back, "I think so," Denki said as he realized. "We were talking about me stupidly being in love with Neito and Hitoshi when he just kind of abruptly changed the subject and asked if I liked video games. I think he figured it out then."
"And that's when he sent you in here to play games with me…" Shigaraki mused aloud, conflicted.
What the UA student was saying earlier about Dabi truly caring for him started making sense to Shigaraki. How else would Dabi trust sending in his long-time friend, who also happened to be his gaming friend, in to play with Shigaraki unless he knew that Denki would make it out safely? Did he really trust him that much? Or did he just know him that well?
He knew that Dabi valued P05itiv3R3v0lt by the way they planned to hunt down the offending soulmates if any harm was to come to their online friend after the almost-kiss had happened. If Dabi cared for this kid so much, how could he risk his wellbeing by sending him in to compromise with Shigaraki of all villains? Did Dabi recognize that Shigaraki isn't as explosive as everyone makes him out to be?
Maybe Dabi just knew both of them well enough that he predicted how the exchange would go and knew that Denki's personality wasn't going to clash with Shigaraki's. But that would mean that Dabi had been paying more attention to Shigaraki during their interactions than he had realized.
Shigaraki's heart fluttered in his chest at the possibilities of what that could mean.
"That manipulative, little—ugh!" Denki raged with wide eyes before storming over to the door and ripping it open before bolting out.
In true Denki fashion, Shigaraki noticed that he didn't hesitate in which direction to run in. He was always good with his spatial memory, always quickly becoming familiar and confident with the game maps. It was no surprise that this skill turned out to be useful in real life, too.
What was a surprise was to the other villains who were lounging around the barroom, waiting for Shigaraki to come break the news that he accidentally-on-purpose killed the UA student after they had discovered that Dabi left the two alone together.
"Hey, uh—where's the kid?" Spinner had asked as Dabi leisurely strolled into the barroom like he didn't have a care in the world.
"Ah, Denki?" Dabi asked, like there was another 'kid' that Spinner could possibly be referring to. "He's playing games with the boss man."
"You left Kaminari alone with Shigaraki?!" Toga shrilled, jumping to his feet. "You want him dead now, or what?! I thought we needed him! I thought you liked him!" she accused, pointing a judgmental finger in Dabi's direction.
"He's going to be fine. They'll both be better off for it," Dabi reassured, but the other villains weren't as confident and started planning what the next steps would be if Shigaraki killed their captive.
Spinner, Toga, Twice, and Magne jumped, whipping around to look at the staircase when they heard a scream that had to have been from Denki.
Even Mr. Compress and Kurogiri peered around the stairway, concerned.
Dabi was unphased, sitting there, playing with the remaining ice in his glass from his finished drink as a smile started growing over his face.
"You really did want the kid dead," Spinner accused in a whisper, noticing Dabi's reaction.
Spinner knew he was bound to interact with some crazies when he joined, but that kid trusted Dabi, villain or not. And he was just a kid! So young with so much potential!
So, naturally, everyone was stunned when footsteps were heard barreling quickly down the stairs and the electric blonde appeared, completely unharmed, but with a wild look in his wide eyes. Everyone was so surprised to see him alive that they didn't even make a move to stop him. Denki could have bolted for the door and made a good attempt at escape; he might even have succeeded.
Instead, he set his sights on Dabi, running full force toward him and flinging himself with even more strength than hours earlier. To Denki's dismay, he didn't knock Dabi down onto the floor like he had intended.
Stupid Dabi with his stupid strength and ability to predict me.
"You could have told me!" Denki yelled at him, pushing against his chest with both hands.
Denki knew that Dabi took a step back, not because he had to because of the shove, but to give Denki the satisfaction. To Denki, that satisfaction wasn't any less satisfying either way.
"Where's the fun in that?" Dabi drawled, a genuine smile still gracing his face and refusing to leave.
Dabi had considered the whole situation a win in his book. He had connected Shigaraki with a new friend who he knew wasn't going to take his quirk into consideration when interacting with him.
The reason Dabi himself was so unaffected by Shigaraki's quirk from the very beginning was his practice with being under Hitoshi's quirk. Dabi knew from experience that just because someone had a powerful, and even potentially destructive quirk, it didn't mean that they were going to use it or cause harm. He accurately guessed that Denki would be the same way.
Dabi had also shown the other members that they were greatly misjudging Shigaraki. They had immediately jumped to the idea that he had killed someone instead of considering other possibilities, like Denki might have just lost horribly and had gamer rage or something. But maybe he was being too hard on them. Of course, Dabi had predicted pretty reliably what that scream was actually about, but he had a more intimate knowledge of the situation than the others. He just hoped that this little experience helped them see Shigaraki in a new light, even just a little bit.
If Shigaraki didn't kill the obnoxious, energetic, hero course student who wants to grow up to be a hero, maybe the League members can start to understand that Shigaraki isn't going to suddenly turn on them, who are on his side and working toward his cause.
Dabi knew that Shigaraki had a sad sort of appreciation for his quirk. Fear helped control his following, but fear didn't breed loyalty, and Dabi knew that Shigaraki knew that. Dabi knew that Shigaraki was waiting for the day that all of them would betray him, and he wondered how he was going to admit to his 'master' that he had been turned on by the very group he had founded. Thrown away like trash, just like his family would have done had he not immediately demolished them upon developing his quirk. They were already so mad at him all the time; they would have dropped him in a heartbeat if they had learned what his quirk was before it was too late.
"New plan," Shigaraki had announced from the base of the stairwell.
No one had even noticed him coming down the stairs, too focused on the commotion that the miraculously-still-alive kid was making.
"The soulmates are out," Shigaraki declared, taking a seat at the bar, and putting his head in his hand. "We can't target them."
Shigaraki wondered briefly if Denki had a second quirk that sucked all the energy out of him and funneled it to himself, the energetic brat.
"Why not?!" Toga protested, turning to him wide-eyed.
Denki hopped up onto a barstool as well, the one next to Shigaraki, and looked around with interest. Being underage, he had never been inside a bar before. It was a nice setup they had, he thought, not that he had much to compare it to.
"Oh!" Denki chirped, turning to look at the confused faces of the League of Villains, and deciding to answer the question that wasn't directed at him. "I'm P05itiv3R3v0lt!" Denki introduced with a little wave.
Denki paused for a moment in thought and was about to clarify that what he meant by that was he was an online gaming friend of both Shigaraki and Dabi, but the room exploded in a flurry of activity and yelling.
Toga had quickly advanced on Denki, yelling "you're P05itiv3R3v0lt?! You?!"
"I can see it!" Twice declared, before immediately contradicting with "there's no way!"
"We've heard all about you!" Magne cried, stepping forward and extending her hand for Denki to shake. "These boys can't get enough of you!"
"You should have heard them threatening the soulmates that you like if they were to hurt you!" Spinner added before gasping and looking at Denki wide-eyed, finally understanding why the boss had declared that the soulmate plan was no longer serviceable.
"You talk about me?" Denki asked, with a bewildered grin on his face, turning to look at Shigaraki.
Shigaraki went from rolling his eyes in faux annoyance to putting his hands up in surrender when Denki's bewilderment turned into simmering rage, when he growled, "you threatened Hitoshi and Neito?!"
"You were nervous that the one was going to punch you for kissing the other!" Shigaraki defended.
"Almost kissing!" Denki interjected with the important correction.
"Almost," Shigaraki agreed with a nod, trying to get Denki to just relax. "Dabi agreed with me!"
"Hey! Don't bring me into this!" Dabi exclaimed, though he ran away laughing manically as Denki darted off the barstool to chase him around the barroom.
"So, the soulmates we were considering, they are the same ones that you're in love with," Spinner guessed aloud.
"Yep!" Denki huffed quickly as he passed next to Spinner, reaching out to try to snag the back of Dabi's shirt.
"How could anyone like Monoma willingly?" Toga grumbled openly into the barroom, recalling how he was an absolute pain in the ass. "At least his poor soulmate didn't really have a choice!"
"He grows on you!" Dabi chirped as a defense against Neito's character as he ran past, still expertly dodging Denki's attempts to grab him, but just barely.
"He's the best!" Denki added, turning his comical rage to Toga. "If it wasn't for…" Denki looked around the room before spotting him, "you!" he yelled, pointing at Mr. Compress, "we would have gotten the better of you!" he finished, turning back to Toga.
In response, Toga simply eased a knife out of the harness around her thigh, causing Denki's eyes to widen and him to back away, hands raised in surrender. The scariest part was that she never even removed her own eyes from Denki's. It sent a shiver down his spine.
"He copied my quirk, too!" Twice interjected, trying to ease Toga's rising feeling of anger at the reminder of her failure. "Kill him, would'ya?" So much for that idea.
"No one's killing anyone," Kurogiri commanded easily from behind the bar, but made no move to physically intervene. The group was pretty good about following directions, even when riled up as much as Denki seemed to be getting them.
"He was all over," Dabi agreed, turning the conversation back to Neito. He guessed he only had himself to blame for Neito's attributed quickness and stealth. "He almost spotted me. Even if he had, though, my quirk wouldn't have been of any use to him when the forest was already on fire."
"You should have stopped him, then!" Twice whined. "Let him run free!"
"What if he had recognized me?" Dabi quipped as a counterargument. "You saw how fast Denki realized who I was! I'm telling you…" Dabi started, a serious tone in his voice that wasn't there before, "those three are something else, even all on their own. You should see them when they work together."
"Any chance of all three of them joining us?" Magne offered to the group.
"None!" Denki interjected, a cheeky smile on his face.
"If any heroes could be truly good for the whole of society, it would be them," Dabi declared with the upmost confidence in his voice, causing Denki to look over at him with shock and intense consideration. "Our best bet is to make sure these three become heroes as smoothly as possible."
To Denki's disbelief, the other villains in the room had simply started nodding their agreement. Even Toga nodded, though she rolled her eyes in annoyed, reluctant acceptance while doing so.
"Only because you trained us," Denki rasped, struggling to maintain eye contact with Dabi at the intense and unwavering praise and confidence.
With all of the amazing quirks he was constantly surrounded by, Denki was not used to being the center of attention when it came to the topic of heroics. Standing next to Bakugou, he was never the one who got the attention because of Bakugou's no-holding-back determination, well-deserved confidence, and sarcastically harsh attitude. Standing next to Neito, he wasn't the one who could literally become a second Denki with one touch, so he wasn't anything special in comparison. Even standing next to Hitoshi, who was soft-spoken and didn't command attention like the other two, he was overshadowed by Hitoshi's quiet intelligence and attention-grabbing quirk.
"Not even close, sparky," Dabi disputed, nudging Denki's shoulder with his own, not missing the small smile that Denki couldn't hide.
Dabi believed every word he had said; nothing had been a lie to make Denki feel better. Even without Dabi's influence to help them along, they were just good kids who were growing up to be good people, and if more good people were in heroics, maybe it wouldn't be such a huge, disastrous mess. Their connection with each other only amplified that and would give them something to hold onto when nothing seemed worth it anymore, when they had civilians, villains, and the Hero Commission all against them, like some sort of filter that never allowed anyone to pass beyond, to be able to make a real and truly good impact on society. They would make it out just fine, and it's about time that someone made it to the other side of that barrier. If anyone could do it, it would be the trio, Dabi knew.
If this succeeded, they would have the League of Villains working on restructuring the hero society from underground, working in tandem toward the same goal (though, with admittedly different methods) with the heroes in the spotlight, refusing to back down when they get enough traction to go against societal norms, to make a change.
"So, I'm officially endorsed by the League of Villains, am I?" Denki teased, though his face was soft with affection and appreciation for the kind words from an old friend.
"I'm going to take full advantage!" he declared abruptly before walking with purpose to plant himself in front of Mr. Compress. "Will you show me your quirk again?!" he had asked, hopefully.
Mr. Compress's masked face turned from Denki to Shigaraki, who was still seated at the bar, looking to him for guidance.
"Do what you want," Shigaraki offered with a wave of his hand. "If you want to indulge him, go for it."
With a nod and a dramatic flourish, Denki was once again suspended in endless darkness before being plopped back into reality.
"Woah," Denki muttered, stumbling to catch his balance. "Every time, it feels like just a second and a thousand hours at the same time."
"Does it?" Mr. Compress asked, amusement laced in his voice.
"It's super trippy. If Neito was here, he'd be able to show you what it feels like, I'd bet. Have you ever wondered?"
Mr. Compress hummed, "I never thought about it because I never realized it was a possibility."
"I'm sure he'd find your quirk worthy of adding to his arsenal," Denki said with a firm nod. "Can you do it again? This time I'm going to guess how long I was in there."
After about a dozen tries, Denki started getting the timing down where it no longer felt like a moment and an eternity all at once and he could accurately guess how long he was trapped in the marble for.
"Thanks. Your quirk is amazing!" Denki complimented with a charming smile, and Mr. Compress gave a theatrical bow.
Denki didn't waste any time darting over to Twice.
"Will you show me what your clones are supposed to look like?" Denki asked. "Neito kind of butchered his attempt."
Those who were still paying attention laughed, agreeing that it was a sad attempt now that the sting of their failure had lessened.
"Oh! Don't tell him I said that!" Denki asked, backtracking. "It was a good first attempt—"
"It was amazing!" Twice interjected. "Amazingly terrible. To be able to make a functioning clone without taking any measurements—and on the first try?! Amazing!"
"It was amazing enough to trick us until it was too late to correct our mistakes," Shigaraki supplied, swirling his glass around that Kurogiri had set in front of him, ice clicking on the sides of the glass.
The villains all spared Shigaraki a cautious glance, wondering when the tantrum was coming, and who would get the brunt of it. One by one, they all seemed to realize that Shigaraki had said our mistakes. Maybe they wouldn't have realized before, too relieved about avoiding one of Shigaraki's meltdowns, but after the discussion about treating Shigaraki more warmly, they had subconsciously started to try to do just that. After a few seconds of silence, waiting for the rage that they had quickly figured out wasn't going to come, they went back to interacting with Denki.
Both Kurogiri and Dabi noticed the way that Shigaraki had relaxed, just a little bit, and leaned against the ledge of the bar. Normally, after a few tense seconds, he would have taken his leave. The others would think it was to go rage somewhere else, but Kurogiri and Dabi knew it was to give them space to relax.
Shigaraki's followers did a lot for him. He would never has gotten as far as he had without them, and now that he finally had a strong, competent group, he wasn't trying to scare them away. With the earlier discussion, along with the surprise that Denki wasn't screaming in fear as he was being decayed into ash and was still alive, added to the fact that Denki had willingly gone within arms' reach of Shigaraki when he had hopped up on the barstool next to him with no fear of retaliation all helped the group of villains move on from Shigaraki's statement, taking it as it was and not reading too much into it as a survival mechanism.
Plus, Shigaraki had called Neito's actions amazing with no sarcasm to be heard. If Shigaraki can appreciate the efforts of his enemies, then he can surely understand the failure of his group because of the unforeseen circumstances.
Denki had gasped in delight, eyes sparkling, when Twice had quickly measured him and made a clone, and suddenly, he was standing there staring at himself.
Not wanting to miss out on the fun of an outsider, a hero-in-training no less, flitting around them in awe of their amazing quirks, Toga stepped forward and held out her hand, her other hand digging in a pouch strapped to her thigh. Denki quickly realized what she wanted, and to everyone's surprise, giddily thrusted his arm in her direction, practically bouncing on his toes in anticipation. Toga took it in stride, though she also wouldn't have been surprised if Denki had hesitated or refused; it just depended on his thoughts about a villain having his blood and any past experiences that would make trusting her seem like a good idea or a bad one. The only reason Toga hesitated was to glance in Shigaraki's and Dabi's direction, to see if there was any sign that they opposed, seeing that Denki was apparently under both of their personal protection, but there was only amusement dancing in their eyes as they saw the social butterfly who was Denki completely enamor the rest of the villains, one by one.
Toga quickly tied a tourniquet and disinfected Denki's arm. Sliding the needle in smoothly, she succeeded on the first try (like always), to Denki's absolute delight.
"You didn't even need to search around for one!" Denki exclaimed, wide-eyed in admiration. "And you got it on the first try! I'm always a difficult one for blood tests usually… What do you think my doctor would say if I brought you along with me at my next appointment?"
"That's not even the most impressive thing," Dabi drawled from across the room, the corners of his eyes crinkling from the pure enjoyment he was getting from Denki's reactions now that he could rest assured that he and his friends would be safe. "Just wait!"
With that, Denki turned to Toga, absolutely giddy with wide-eyed anticipation. She quickly pocketed the vacuum tube of blood she had collected before popping the end of the tube directly in her mouth while she undid the tourniquet and staunched the bleeding. Before his eyes, Denki watched as Toga transformed into another perfect version of himself.
Twice, Toga, and Denki had fun making Denki turn around as Toga and Twice's clone switched positions, then Denki had to figure out which Denki was the clone and which one was Toga. After a few obvious guesses where he was only getting it right about half the time, something changed, and he was confidently and immediately pointing out who was the clone every time.
Spinner whistled lowly as he watched, thoroughly impressed with the kid.
Shigaraki decided that he wanted a turn, too. Denki excitedly agreed and joined the ranks of the fake-Denkis to mix up to not make it easy on Shigaraki. That was, of course, after Toga removed the bandage from the impromptu blood draw as to not give them away.
"No bruising!" Denki exclaimed, lifting his arm to show the room like it was a successful magic trick. "If villainy doesn't work out, you could be my phlebotomist any time!"
All three Denkis were squirming excitedly as Shigaraki approached, the real Denki and clone Denki showing true excitement, and the Toga-Denki following suit so that it would not be so easy.
Shigaraki stared intently at each one, bringing up his hands and wringing them in front of his chest as he thought and took a half-step forward to choose the correct Denki, even when he had not quite decided who it was yet, until… Ah, yes! There!
Shigaraki smirked as he reached out to the real Denki, ruffling his hair with his hand, keeping his index finger high above the rest.
Denki's jaw had dropped. "How did you know it was me?" he protested laughingly.
"I'll never tell," Shigaraki swore, though he wore a soft smile.
Truthfully, when he was wringing his hands in thought and took a step forward, already starting to reach out, the fake-Denkis had changed from excitedly watching his eyes. It was a quick glance down to his hand, to make sure that it wasn't headed in their direction, aimed to kill, but it was there all the same. Even the clone Denki, who it didn't matter if he were to be decayed on the spot, looked nervous, the true feelings of its creator contaminating his creation.
The real Denki had continued to watch Shigaraki's face for any indication that he might choose the right one. The real Denki didn't flinch as Shigaraki's eyes locked on him. The real Denki didn't flinch or hesitate in his excitement when Shigaraki reached out toward him. The real Denki didn't even cower or tense as Shigaraki's hand landed on his head to ruffle his hair.
Shigaraki would keep this secret to his grave, because if the real Denki ever did flinch away, even if it was fake and just to trick him into confusing a fake Denki with himself, he knew he would never recover.
A/N: Shigaraki deserves all the good things. I don't even care.