A/N: I passed my lifeguard certification! It feels good to be a certified lifeguard again! They actually put me in the new lifeguard course instead of recertification because my previous certification had expired, but since I knew everything and was instructing the other guards-in-training on how to do CPR, rescues, etc., the instructors kept kicking me out of scenarios! Ha! It was very rewarding, though I was sore for a few days afterwards and my knees are still bruised from all of the kneeling on the tiled floors to practice CPR. Any lifeguards or first responders among my readers? Let me know!
Denki didn't fall asleep until hours after his capture, even though his capture happened in the evening hours, after it had already gotten dark. Daylight was peeking through, over the horizon, before Denki actually crashed. He slept sprawled out on the floor in between Shigaraki and Dabi after they had all basically passed out after playing multiple games together. It was more fun than usual because he was actually in the same room as them. He could hear their banter in real time and see the facial expressions instead of only hearing the reactions through his headset with only his imagination to fill in the visual blanks.
"I'm going around the corner; follow my lead," Shigaraki commanded, full concentration on the screen.
They were all spread out, using pillows, cushions, and blankets arranged and then rearranged in various manners to get the most comfort whenever they decided to change from lying on their stomachs to sitting (and then back again, of course), the designated lookout's eyes never leaving the screen.
"Yes, boss," both Dabi and Denki had stated at the same time, Denki sending a smirk in Dabi's direction as he had accurately guessed what his response would be.
Dabi nudged him with his shoulder, but neither gamer's fingers faltered over the controls as they moved their characters to follow Shigaraki's character.
Everyone else had already trudged to bed, wondering how the trio could manage to stay up even longer after the stressful day they had all been through. Even if Denki felt safe now, he was definitely under a lot of stress at the beginning. It would have knocked the rest of them out. Hell, the failure of their mission had exhausted most of the villains, and they had each other to rely on. Denki was brought here alone (well, with a fake-Bakugou, but essentially alone, nonetheless), so everyone thought he'd ride high on adrenaline before crashing, but that didn't really seem to be his style.
When Denki's mind made a connection far past the time it should have, though, he dropped his controller and looked on either side of him to the villains who were still enmeshed in the game.
"Am I the traitor?" Denki asked hesitantly, repeating himself louder when the two villains didn't quite hear him.
Shigaraki paused the game, the menu options coming up in front of the divided screens, each showing the immediate area around P05itiv3R3v0lt, High5UrDead, and Fri3ndlyFir3. Shigaraki looked over at Denki with a blank expression on his face, not giving anything away before looking past him and meeting Dabi's eyes.
"Why do you think that?" Shigaraki asked vaguely.
Denki's head swiveled around, trying to catch a telling expression on one of the villain's faces on either side of him. He made a mental note to never play poker with them because they had absolutely no tells when they were concentrating on not giving anything away, like at that very moment.
Denki's heart dropped, but he answered, "because we play together online. Are you learning stuff from me?"
Dabi's face cracked first, and then both Dabi and Shigaraki were laughing, their laughing only getting louder as the seconds passed instead of calming down.
Trying to catch his breath and not break out laughing again, Shigaraki asked, "did you even know where the training camp would be before you got there? Did you talk to us about training at the USJ? Did you even ever tell us that you were a student at UA?"
"No…" Denki realized, before horror washed over him. "Did you hack into my system?!"
The laughter had started up once again.
"So naïve!" Shigaraki howled. "So innocent!"
When Denki only pouted in response, too stressed to join in the laughing fit, Shigaraki and Dabi took pity on him.
"No!" Dabi exclaimed after he had stopped wheezing. "You're not the traitor, Denks."
"The traitor isn't unaware. They know exactly what they are doing and reporting it back directly to me. They intentionally sought out information that wasn't disclosed to them before going to the training camp to pass on the information to me so that we could prepare," Shigaraki explained easily, not giving up too much information.
What surprised Shigaraki, though, was that Denki's face had fallen at the news. Wasn't that exactly what he wanted to hear?
"What is it?" Shigaraki asked, now slightly concerned, the paused game on the screen all but forgotten.
"If it was me, then I wouldn't have to wonder who among my friends is the traitor," Denki explained solemnly.
The fact that there was a traitor at all, whether it be Denki or someone else, had Denki's mood plummeting.
"And what am I going to say when I get back to UA?" Denki continued, sitting up and back to look at both villains at the same time without having to look back and forth between them. "What are they going to think when they realize that I've been gaming with you guys? They'll think I'm the traitor. What will happen to me then?"
"We'd come get you," Shigaraki stated firmly. "But that's not going to happen anyway, so you don't need to worry about it."
"Coming to my rescue would just solidify in their minds that I really am feeding you information. They'd never believe we're just good friends who don't discuss heroics and villainy over our game strategy. If I tell them that I'm endorsed to become a hero by you, and that's why no harm came to me… I'd probably get sent back to the mental hospital," Denki argued, though there was no bite to his words, only somber acceptance. "They'll know if I'm lying… and I don't think I could bring myself to lie anyway. I'm absolutely screwed."
Dabi and Shigaraki shared a look that Denki couldn't decipher.
"We have a way around that, if you're willing," Dabi offered vaguely.
Shigaraki briefly wondered how he went from threatening to frame Denki as the UA traitor to making sure that he doesn't look like a traitor in any capacity. He knew then that Dabi was right; Denki was going to make a great hero who actually cares about everyone and doing the least amount of damage possible. He knew that if Denki agreed to trust them with this, then he'd be able to do what it takes to withstand the pressures from the Hero Commission once he goes Pro.
To absolutely no one's surprise, Denki agreed. He didn't even ask for details, putting the absolute highest amount of trust into these two villains. Many would think he is stupid or naïve, but he knew that he was doing the right thing that would cause the least amount of damage. Likewise, the villains understood that Denki wouldn't have an easy time working from above-ground at restructuring the whole heroics system if he was even suspected of working for the League of Villains.
When Denki woke up in the morning, he was alone on the floor, tangled in a heap of blankets and pillows. He blinked a few times, a smile growing over his face at the realization that reuniting with Dabi and finding out Shigaraki had been one of his online friends was real. It really happened! He didn't hallucinate it or dream it up!
He evaluated his surroundings, looking around to see if he could spot any League members. He heard low murmurs coming from the barroom, so he hoisted himself up and started heading in that direction.
"—saying is I've never used my quirk on a kid before," he heard an unfamiliar voice argue quietly. "And I don't intend to start now. There are limits. Even you should understand that."
"He's willing," Dabi offered, making the newcomer huff in annoyance.
"Like I've never heard that before! I—"
When Denki padded his way into the barroom, he went right past the group and behind the bar, digging out a bottle of water from the fridge. Denki's eyes shot sideways as he drank from the bottle, and he watched the newcomer along with Dabi, Shigaraki, and Spinner watching him. Dabi, Shigaraki, and Spinner looked quite amused that Denki had just made himself at home and helped himself to their bar's fridge. The newcomer was observing him closely, eyes wandering all over him and closely observing his movements and face.
Denki recapped the bottle, wiped the excess moisture from his mouth on his arm, and gave a little wave of greeting to the newcomer.
"Hi. I'm Kaminari Denki," he introduced, rounding back to the other side of the bar to join the others.
"I know," the newcomer stated, still watching him closely. "You're all over the news."
"I am?!" he asked, wide eyes looking around at every villain in the room. "Why did no one tell me?! What picture are they using of me? Oh, no. I hope they aren't using the footage from the sports festival—you know, the footage from the match that I lost? That would be so embarrassing! I already had to live it once, and I had to live with knowing that my loss was broadcast nation-wide! It would be objectively really mean of them to use that specific footage when I'm already down and out, don't you think?"
"Uh…" the newcomer hesitated, taken aback by Denki's energy and enthusiasm, "no. It's all, uh… very flattering. They're using photos of you in your hero costume and some TikToks that you've done."
"Wait! Really?! That's so cool! I'm going to have so many new followers! Maybe I'll finally get verified!"
After another moment of intense observation, the newcomer sighed. "Don't answer any questions for him," she warned the villains.
Dabi drew an X over his heart to indicate his promise, and the newcomer rolled her smokey grey eyes, but slowly stepped forward toward Denki, like she didn't want to scare him off.
"Hi, Kaminari. You can call me Force Majeure," she greeted in a gentle voice, eyes darting over Denki's face and frame to try to catch every minute response.
"That's a cool name. Did you pick it yourself?" Denki asked, settling back against the bar, putting his water bottle down on the surface.
"I did. Did you pick Chargebolt?" she asked back, easily keeping the conversation flowing.
"I did," Denki parroted back, a smile growing on his face.
"Well, just like how your alias reflects your quirk, mine does the same. My quirk is called compulsion," she explained, still watching closely for any reactions.
Denki's eyes widened and he whipped his head in the direction of Dabi and Shigaraki, who were standing off to the side with Spinner.
"This is your solution?!" Denki asked. Force Majeure was about to reassure Denki that her quirk was not going to be used on him against his will, but then he laughed. "Amazing!" he exclaimed, awe clear in his voice.
The amazement came from multiple different things, like the very nature of Force Majeure's quirk and how the League of Villains had such strong connections and ties that they could get someone like her there the very next morning after the plan was hatched.
"How does it work?" Denki asked before Force Majeure could recover from the unexpected reactions she was getting out of the blonde hero student. "Oh—wait! Am I allowed to ask that? Am I allowed to know?"
"A lot of people know already," Force Majeure reassured with a small shrug. "Plus, you won't be able to mention it anyway if I use my quirk on you."
"That's so cool," Denki whispered, his full attention on Force Majeure, practically begging her with his eyes to continue telling him about herself and her quirk.
"With my quirk, I can plant the instinct to urge you to do or refrain from whatever I choose. So, if I planted the idea that you couldn't walk through doors that had hinges on the left, you would not be able to physically force yourself to do so. If I planted the idea that your hands got dirty every five and a half minutes, you would feel the uncontrollable urge to wash your hands every five and a half minutes," she explained, fascinated with the way Denki was drawn in by her words.
By this point, people would usually lean away from her, break eye contact, do anything to prevent her from using her quirk on them. Denki's reaction reminded her of the first time she had met Dabi, because Dabi also defied these normal reactions to learning about her quirk. She spared a quick glance at said villain, who gave her a knowing smirk and nod in return.
"How are you going to use it on me?" Denki asked, intrigued to the highest level.
"I'm not," Force Majeure stated firmly, then more gently added, "not unless you consent. This is all up to you, kiddo. If I explain all of this and you don't want to do it, then we're not doing it."
Force Majeure spared a glance to the villains, but none made a move to interject or oppose what she was saying.
After a nod from Denki to indicate his understanding, she continued, "the plan is to plant the compulsion to not talk about what has happened here with anyone except these guys." She waved a hand in their general direction but didn't take her eyes off of Denki.
"Communicate," Denki offered after a moment to think.
"What?" Force Majeure inquired.
"It should be that I can't communicate about what I learned and know from being here," Denki amended. "That way it includes writing and sign language, too."
"You know sign language?" Dabi asked from the other side of the room.
"Not important!" Denki dismissed, trying and failing to look unaffected by the slip.
Dabi, Shigaraki, and Spinner just laughed, but not maliciously. Denki didn't tell them that literally every student at UA knew sign language, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.
"Good idea," Force Majeure stated, nodding, feeling more comfortable about her decision to help.
The truth was, she always used the vague and general term 'communicate' with these types of compulsions. The fact that Denki offered the idea himself showed her definitively that he was completely on board and wanted the effect just as much as the villains did. Otherwise, he would have kept his mouth shut, planning to tell everyone what happened through writing, or apparently sign language in his case.
"My quirk doesn't work when it comes to soulmates, though," she warned. "If you are around your soulmate with no one else around to kick the compulsion in, you'll be free to speak, write, and sign freely."
"Oh, I don't have a soulmate. Not yet, at least," Denki said with a shrug. "So, I'm in. Let's do it!"
"Just like that?" Force Majeure asked incredulously. "You don't have any more questions? You don't even know what it's going to feel like."
"I'll find out when you do the thing!" Denki drawled, waving his hand in the air dismissively. "What do I have to do on my end?"
"Just look into my eyes. Don't look away, okay?" Force Majeure instructed, getting closer to make firm eye contact with Denki.
"Okay," Denki confirmed, locking his yellow eyes on her grey ones.
"No matter how much it hurts," she tacked on before diving into his mind.
She felt slimy doing it that way; all of these superficial values she held didn't stop her from her abrupt warning, giving him no time to react or back out.
But Denki didn't wince. He didn't shut his eyes tightly in pain. He didn't look away to make the pain stop. He didn't pull away. He didn't fight her diving right into his mind; it was almost like he was waiting for her and maybe even pulled her in to right where she needed to be. It was the first time that her target had openly cooperated throughout the whole process. Usually, she had to get a little rough, grabbing at hair and the sides of her targets' heads to keep them looking at her and not backing off.
It was quicker work than usual, too. His brain was malleable, and he was relaxed, not resisting or fighting in any way. There wasn't a conclusive tell; it wasn't like there was a mark or a signature left behind, but Force Majeure could tell that she was not the first one to use a mental quirk on Denki.
When she backed off, both out of his mind and physically stepping back to give him space, he shook his head to rid himself of the fuzziness that came along with the abrupt onset of a mental quirk.
"That didn't hurt at all!" Denki argued, flashing a bright smile at the scarlet-haired woman.
She had never used her quirk on someone who had said it did not hurt, but she had also never used her quirk on someone willing before, either.
"That wasn't your first time," she stated, leaving the opening for Denki to talk about his previous experience or to bypass it altogether.
Being an open book, Denki responded, "you must be talking about Hitoshi's quirk! That's amazing that you can tell!"
"What's his quirk?" she prompted easily.
"Brainwashing. Did you watch the sports festival on TV? He was the one with purple hair who made it really far!" Denki bragged, fully proud of the accomplishments of his friend.
"He uses his quirk on you often?" she ventured.
"Yeah! He—" Denki paused, looking at the carefully controlled face of the woman in front of him. "No. No! Don't even think that. He's my best friend. He's not abusing me or taking advantage of me with his quirk. I'm a willing participant," Denki automatically started to argue.
He's heard it all before, starting back in middle school when Hitoshi first transferred to his school. The fake concern from his friends that just wanted to see both Hitoshi and Denki alone and miserable made Denki nauseous when he thought about it, wishing that he had dropped all of them completely the first time they managed to insinuate that Hitoshi wasn't the purest person any of them had ever met.
"Okay, okay," Force Majeure soothed, hands open and moving in a calming gesture, but not reaching out to physically touch Denki. "I'm sorry. But I still think you should know that he might be able to tell that someone else was messing with your mind, the same way that I knew."
"Is that going to be a problem?" Shigaraki asked, stepping forward now that the task was completed.
Force Majeure responded in kind by backing off of Denki, keeping her distance from the interim leader of the League of Villains.
"It shouldn't be," Force Majeure said after intense consideration. "The heroes will most likely figure out that I had something to do with Kaminari's inability to tell them what happened, so it won't be entirely unexpected, either."
Before Force Majeure saw herself out, and after making sure that her debt to Shigaraki was paid in full with the favor she had just followed through on, she asked Denki why he agreed to any of this. She wasn't going to, but she just felt the need to know why Denki had chosen this path instead of giving everything he knew to the heroes. From what she could tell, the League of Villains would eventually release Denki unharmed either way, so she couldn't understand and didn't want to put herself through the torture of always wondering.
"This way causes the least amount of damage on all sides," Denki answered simply with a shrug, reaching back behind him to grab his water bottle and take another drink, not focusing on giving the right answer, but just letting the truth flow freely out.
Force Majeure joined in the ever-growing list of people who adored Denki, even within their short time interacting. She finally understood what Shigaraki, Dabi, and Spinner were going on about when they said that this kid was going to be a real hero.
A/N: What do you think of my OC, Force Majeure? First impressions of her?