If Denki thought he would get a pass after almost dying, he was sorely mistaken.
Emphasis on sore.
He winced as he gently lowered himself onto his bed, completely exhausted. He thought it was bad when Hawks was flying around, making him run around the city endlessly. He thought it couldn't get any more exhausting than that. But now it seemed like Hawks had taken an intense interest in his intern that was not there before.
"Higher!" Hawks would command.
Denki would inhale and drive up his voltage levels higher.
"Higher!" Hawks would repeat, with an annoyed kind of tone like Denki wasn't giving him exactly what he had already asked for.
It was never high enough, it seemed. Denki was starting to think that Hawks was trying to kill him, finish the job that Full Throttle started, but through authoritative command instead of an actual quirk.
The least Hawks could do was help Denki study for his history exam while he continuously pushed him past his limits.
Denki complied, pushing higher. Not for free, though.
"Keep going!" Denki sang with a shit-eating grin on his face.
Hawks huffed and rolled his eyes, but he did look down at the notecards Denki had forced into his hand and read off the next question.
"What year did Gran Torino make his debut?" Hawks asked.
Denki sighed. He had no idea and guessing incorrectly could be a huge insult to the hero if he implied that the man was older than he actually was.
Denki didn't know what he did to insult Midoriya, but that boy was avoiding him like the plague. He would have thought that maybe Midoriya had a theory that Full Throttle's quirk was contagious, and he didn't want to hulk out, but this avoidance has been going on since before he had the run-in with the villain. Either way, Denki was suffering in more ways than just missing his company. His history grades were getting worse and worse, and it figured that they were getting into more recent history that Midoriya absolutely excelled at around the time that Midoriya wouldn't even make eye contact with Denki.
"Either answer or work harder!" Hawks demanded.
Denki wondered if Hawks would relay an insulting answer to the retired hero. Not wanting to take the chance, Denki nodded, and forced his voltage up again.
As he lied in bed, his muscles continued to twitch from the residual effect of having high voltage electricity coursing through his body for hours on end. His mind was fuzzy, too. It was hard to concentrate, and he didn't really remember his journey back to UA from his internship. It had been so long since Denki had overdone it that he felt his anxiety rise at the thought of short-circuiting his brain, and how Hawks would see that he absolutely will not live up to whatever potential Hawks had seen in him.
His anxiety only increased when he thought about the history exam that was coming up at the beginning of the next week.
He guessed he could try to solve one problem, at least.
He hauled himself up out of bed with a groan befit someone as allegedly old as Gran Torino, not that Denki would even estimate, before making his way to the elevator. Steps be damned, he was taking the elevator for once.
He pushed the button to descend, and his heartrate increased at the impending confrontation. Once on the second floor, he walked down the hallway and felt like he was in a horror movie. All he needed was ominous flickering lights and creepy background music.
Denki reached up a shaky hand (if anyone asked, he would totally blame it on his training earlier that day with Hawks) and knocked on Midoriya's dorm door. After a minute with no answer, Denki tried again, knocking harder.
Denki sighed in resignation, dragging a hand down the side of his face as he contemplated what to do. With a quick look down both sides of the hallway, Denki grabbed onto the handle and pushed his way inside.
"Midoriya! I just want to talk! Why—"
No one was there. But Midoriya's notebooks were, and Denki so badly wanted to take a peek and learn all about the heroes that were bound to show up on the history exam. Denki looked at the pile of notebooks on Midoriya's desk in longing before sighing and backing out of his room.
On second thought, he opened the door again, turned the lock on the doorknob from the inside, and firmly pulled the door shut as he exited once again. It was kind of irresponsible of Midoriya to leave his door unlocked, what with a traitor potentially running around these halls. Denki couldn't fault him, though. Things have been hectic for everyone, and Denki himself knew he had left his door unlocked more than once, too.
Midoriya, though. He's got the jackpot of all of those notebooks that would absolutely not be in the best interest of anyone to fall into the wrong hands.
Was the League of Villains the wrong hands?
Denki thought about his stance that might seem hypocritical if you squinted and tilted your head the right way as he rode the elevator back up to his own room and entered through his unlocked door. Denki smiled at the irony before slowly pulling himself up onto his bed to get comfortable and stare at history books he knew would not be ingrained into his memory when it mattered, no matter what methods he tried.
Even then, Denki didn't think the League would be 'the wrong hands,' but he also knew that he wasn't really in the best position to decide that. Also, who knew if their inside person could be trusted? What if the traitor found this information and passed it on to—to—to the Yakuza or something?! Or maybe whoever was the highest bidder? That would be a disaster.
Or what if the League of Villains weren't the only ones who had someone on the inside?
Midoriya's information would be priceless, and tons of people from other classes knew about Midoriya and his analytical skills because he'd talk to anyone who asked a question that he knew the answer to, or at least the most likely probabilities depending on their quirk versus their opponent's quirk.
Denki wondered if the League of Villains knew about Midoriya. They did say that he was involved, but maybe having One For All wasn't the only way that Midoriya was involved. But it's not like Denki can just ask him if he's working with the League of Villains. If he's not, that spells trouble for Denki who would have give himself away. And if he's not involved, then he wouldn't understand the nuances that came along with associating yourself with an organization such as the League of Villains, who acted more like a protective family than a group like the Yakuza, who coincidentally did happen to be mostly related to one another. Being family by blood didn't make someone loyal. No, they weren't the same at all. Society just lumped them all together, but that wasn't accurate.
The League of Villains wouldn't have people splitting off to make their own little groups to make a name for themselves (looking at you, Shie Hassaikai) because every member of the League was valued; no one was disposable. It probably helped that they weren't as large as the Yakuza, either, but Denki would stand by his thoughts if it came down to it. He might be biased, but the League of Villains was just made of different stuff, and he wondered how many groups out there were like them and how someone might go about finding them. It wouldn't exactly be practical for Pro Hero Chargebolt to waltz on into a villain group's hideout and ask them if they are the good kind of villain or the bad kind.
Denki's studying (read: daydreaming) was interrupted by a familiar, black, hazy portal opening up in the middle of his room. Denki sat up straighter, pushed his books aside, and moved to the edge of his bed, closer to the portal, ignoring the soreness of his muscles in favor of hoping to see one of his friends who had been pointedly avoiding him.
Denki wasn't disappointed when Shigaraki himself stepped through the portal, quickly looking around and sighing with relief when he spotted Denki and no one else.
"Glad you're here!" Shigaraki rushed. "Do me a favor?"
"Wait, wait, wait!" Denki argued, standing up from his bed. "You ignore me for weeks, and then you just drop in unannounced and ask for my help?!"
"Oh, excuse my manners," Shigaraki sneered. "I'll be sure to ring UA ahead of time and let them know to inform you that I'll be dropping in."
After a quiet second of the two glaring at each other, Denki broke and started laughing. Shigaraki's hardened expression broke and a smile spread across his face at Denki's laughter.
"Yeah, man. What do you need?" Denki asked, relieved that nothing had changed between them.
Shigaraki put his hand back through the portal, and a second later, Force Majeure was stepping into Denki's room holding onto a small girl who was curled up in her arms. Force Majeure held her tightly, securely, and looked incredibly relieved to see Denki.
"Hi!" Denki greeted. "Who's this?"
"You know how people were inexplicably losing their quirks recently?" Force Majeure asked, blowing red bangs out of her eyes, refusing to shift the girl in her arms to get a hand free.
"Yeah. Weird, right? You have Full Throttle going around, turning people's electricity against them, then you have people losing their quirks altogether. Just can't win anymore, ya'know?" Denki conversed, stepping closer to get a look at the girl.
"This is Eri. The Shie Hassaikai was using her quirk to eradiate quirks," Force Majeure explained.
"Kaminari…" Shigaraki hedged, "what do you mean by Full Throttle and electricity? Your electricity?"
Bravely ignoring Shigaraki's line of questioning, Force Majeure continued, "she's exhausted, so she won't be waking up for a while. I have her under my quirk, so she won't be able to use her quirk for a week, exactly."
"Does my version of your quirk have a time limit?" Denki asked.
When Force Majeure shook her head no, Denki hummed in response and mentally crossed that off the list of why he was able to tell the soulmates. He had already guessed that, though, considering that he was unable to tell Hawks about his time with the League of Villains, but it never hurt to verify.
"Can we leave her here with you?" Shigaraki asked. "The heroes saw us take her, and once the fight is over, Twice is going to hint at the fact that we left her here with you."
"You want her to go to the heroes?" Denki clarified as he held out his arms for Force Majeure to transfer the girl to him. "Eri, right?"
Force Majeure nodded, grateful that Denki was showing just as much care as she had been.
"Yeah. Some stray Shie Hassaikai members were targeting her, and the heroes were all fighting. No one was left to look after the girl, so we decided that we'd keep her safe in the meantime," Shigaraki explained. "What better way to show the heroes that a villain can out-class them? Don't you guys have trainings about valuing civilian lives over the capture of a villain?" When Denki nodded, Shigaraki muttered, "damn hypocrites. Though, I guess a lot of them were still students."
"Is that where Midoriya is?" Denki asked, suddenly piecing together his mysterious absence. "I tried looking for him earlier."
"Yeah, he's down for the count." Shigaraki paused when he saw Denki's alarmed expression. "Not dead!" Shigaraki amended quickly. "He practically carried the heroes to victory with only the help of her," Shigaraki explained, nodding to Eri.
Denki sighed in relief. "Okay," Denki answered simply, satisfied with the amount of information he had received. "So, after you leave, are you going to go back to ignoring me?" he asked.
Shigaraki got whiplash from the subject change and winced at the accusation in Denki's voice. "Toga has been keeping you updated, hasn't she?" Shigaraki confirmed.
"Enough to let me know that you're all still alive, and she and Twice were infiltrating the Yakuza, but not much else," Denki grumbled, his eyebrows furrowed in frustration that had been building and simmering since he lost contact with Shigaraki and Dabi.
"Dabi… he, uh… he found his soulmate, who is not me," Shigaraki explained. "I've been trying to keep busy, and gaming wasn't helping because he's the second-best teammate I've ever had."
"Oh, Shigaraki," Denki empathized, sucking in a breath through his teeth. "That's rough, man."
Force Majeure silently found her way back through the portal, now that she knew that Eri was in safe hands. Denki maneuvered backwards onto his bed, cradling the sleeping Eri in his lap before giving Shigaraki his full attention.
"To make matters worse, it's the hero who was infiltrating us from the Hero Commission. So, now we have no idea whose side he's actually on. We don't have the advantage that we did before, because Ha—he probably doesn't even know what he's going to do." Shigaraki's hands tightened into fists and relaxed again at his sides as he spoke, but he didn't move to start scratching, so Denki figured it wasn't as bad as it could have been.
Denki squinted at Shigaraki as he processed the information. "Sounds like you care about the fact that he doesn't know what he's going to do."
"No!" Shigaraki objected. After a second of thought, he sighed, plopping down on the floor, and ignoring the swirling warp gate behind him. Kurogiri could and would wait, he knew. Looking around at anything other than Denki, Shigaraki admitted, "he's actually really cool."
"Oh!" Denki exclaimed loudly, making Shigaraki look at him in question. "Are you the me?"
"What?" Shigaraki asked shaking his head, not understanding what Denki was asking.
"I'm the extra person in a relationship with two other soulmates! So, you're like the me of your trio! The question is, though, would Dabi be the Neito or the Hitoshi?"
Shigaraki laughed for the first time in a long time, more than he had since finding out that Hawks and Dabi were destined to be together by fate, and he was left out like he always was. For the first time in weeks, he had someone to talk out these complex feelings with, and he was laughing while doing it, when he was sure he'd want to cry if he ever said any of this out loud.
Then Shigaraki blushed because of the implication. "It's not like that!" he insisted. "We aren't all together like that. We aren't together at all. Dabi can't even pretend to know what he wants anymore, and the damn hero is being so fucking kind to me, when if I was in his place, I'd be using the whole situation to my advantage."
Denki smiled. "What I'm hearing, Shigaraki, is that there's potential." That's a Hawks word, Denki realized. Maybe Hawks had a point when he talked about Denki's wasted potential. He just wished Hawks would be clearer with what exactly he believed that potential was. "If he's being nice to you, it's probably because he likes you as a person—"
"Or he's afraid that I'll high five his face."
"—and if Dabi can't decide, maybe both is the way to go!"
"The idea of sharing Dabi—"
"Don't think of it as sharing!" Denki demanded with a giddy laugh at the ideas swirling in his head. "It's more like everyone gets two boyfriends and each of your boyfriends has two boyfriends!"
"Haw—the hero doesn't like me like that!"
"But I'm not hearing that you don't like him like that," Denki challenged with an amused sparkle in his eyes. Before Shigaraki could argue, Denki added, "and I thought that there was no way that Neito and Hitoshi would want me when they already had each other. And now look at us! We're unstoppable! We can do anything! Including stopping Full Throttle's quirk in its tracks! They would have never run after me if we didn't go for what we wanted and connect the way we did! We would have never discovered how to survive a quirk that we thought was certain death!"
"So, I did hear correctly earlier. Full Throttle targeted you?" Shigaraki asked to confirm.
"Yeah," Denki verified with a shallow shrug as to not disturb the sleeping girl in his arms. Noticing the look in Shigaraki's eyes, Denki was quick to add, "it's fine though! No harm done! Progress was made, even!"
"And what's going to happen when he finds out that you were somehow able to survive his quirk?" Shigaraki asked, the anger clouding his mind with a red, pulsing haze at the audacity of Full Throttle.
"It wasn't me, though. It was Hitoshi," Denki informed.
"Well, that's even worse, isn't it?" Shigaraki asked, thinking of how he would feel if he was in Denki's position and Dabi was in Hitoshi's. "Are you going to be okay with Full Throttle and his lackeys going after Shinsou to get rid of the one cure for his quirk?"
Denki paled. "Oh, no."
Shigaraki nodded in understanding. "Who knows?"
"Me, Neito, and Hitoshi," Denki listed. "I think Aizawa might know, too. How else would they have convinced him to let them follow me?"
Shigaraki nodded as he thought. "It should be fine. I'm sure someone like Aizawa would understand the implications."
"I can't tell the soulmates," Denki whined as he realized. "They'll realize that I'm in danger if Full Throttle finds out I'm alive. Hitoshi will realize that he could take that danger for himself if he revealed that the fact I survived was all because of him and not anything that I did!"
"No one else can know," Shigaraki agreed.
"No one else can know," Denki repeated in solidarity with a definitive nod.
Shigaraki's phone beeped, and he stood up after glancing at the screen. "Twice dropped the hint. I've got to get out of here. Besides, I have… an errand to run."
Denki paused, about to ask about the 'errand' when he decided that he definitely didn't want to know based on the inflection in Shigaraki's voice. Villains gonna villain, after all.
"Don't disappear on me again, okay?" Denki asked, wanting to reach out to Shigaraki, but not letting go of the grip he had on Eri.
"Okay," Shigaraki agreed. He knew he would keep his word, too. Talking with Denki had been eye-opening, and a little clarity was always appreciated.
As Shigaraki stepped through the portal, he left Denki and the unconscious Eri with these parting words: "Dabi would be the Shinsou. Definitely."
Not two minutes after Shigaraki had gone and the warp gate along with him, Denki heard the faint tell-tale sign that he was about to have company. The explosions got louder and louder as Bakugou blasted himself through the air. Denki had just put Eri down on the bed and opened his window before Bakugou blasted through, Aizawa swinging in immediately after.
They landed, crouched, and quickly surveyed the room for any sign of danger. Seeing nothing, Bakugou took off out into the hallway to investigate the rest of the building, not bothering to shut the door behind him after flinging it open.
Aizawa stood and looked at Denki. "Sorry to burst in." He didn't sound particularly sorry.
"I was kind of expecting it," Denki admitted with a shrug, gesturing to the unconscious girl on his bed.
Aizawa rushed to her side with three long steps, crouched down next to the bed, and grabbed her little wrist, placing his fingers delicately against her pulse point. After a moment, he sighed in relief.
Before Aizawa could say anything to activate Force Majeure's quirk, Denki quickly blurted, "Eri can't use her quirk for a week, but after that she'll be fine."
"What—? Why did the League of Villains bring her to you?" Aizawa asked. He cursed in his mind, already knowing that was not the correct question to ask.
Denki opened his mouth, and his response was blocked, like he figured it would be.
Aizawa nodded his understanding and didn't press him further, knowing that even an intense torture session wouldn't be able to override Force Majeure's quirk.
"Is it okay if I take her now?" Aizawa asked, gesturing toward Eri.
"Yeah, of course," Denki agreed, gesturing for Aizawa to help himself. "Is there anything else I can do?" he asked as Aizawa carefully lifted the girl into his arms.
"Not right now. You've done more than you realized, actually." Then, after a pause, "you aren't going to ask about her?"
Denki smiled, then, not even bothering to try to answer.
Aizawa nodded again. "I see. I wonder what they told you," he pondered as he looked down at Eri in thought. His gaze transferred to Denki where it stayed for a moment longer before he exited the dorm room, carrying Eri out of the door that Bakugou had flung open a minute earlier in search of villains that he could blast from existence.
Denki hadn't heard any explosions since then, but he did hear Bakugou yelling and swearing and threatening. It was safe to say that he hadn't found what he was looking for.