When he woke up, it was to yelling and a hysteric voice telling him to wake up. Huh? What happened? Denki remembered a blow to the head when he had jumped into the way of that blasted Nomu. It was logical for him to take the hit for Ground Zero, since he was the better, stronger, more capable hero.

Whatever quirks had been stuffed into the Nomu, it must have hit him good, because at the moment Denki was seeing mini-Yaomomo and mini-Jirou in their first hero costumes. Had they really been this silly?
Was this a nostalgia quirk? Wouldn't surprise him, really, after the shitshow everything turned out to be.

Oh, Momo was talking to him, but he couldn't puzzle the words together. She looked worried, afraid, and her voice was trembling. Denki didn't like this, seeing his old classmate with naked panic on her face. Jirou wasn't fairing any better, edging closer to them, while their opponents mirrored her steps to close in on them. Huh, they looked weak, both criminals and heroes, like in their first year. Why was Kyouka limping?

Denki didn't like this one bit. Groaning out while trying to get to his feet, he noticed the strong buzz of electricity in his body. It felt so very out of control, he wouldn't be surprised if he had zapped everyone and knocked himself out a second ago. Though, his control was that of a Pro by now. Hell, he was a Pro for the last seven years.

Standing straight, Denki noticed he was slightly looking up at Yaomomo. Huh, he'd had a growth spurt when he was seventeen, nearly being the same height as Shinsou if not by an inch or two. Damn, being shorter was nothing he had ever missed.

Noticing how close the thugs had gotten, Denki quickly took a stumbling step forward and let out a controlled zap to stun them. They fell to the ground like flies, and he turned back around to check on his friends. Both looked relatively fine if still a bit scared, and slowly Denki's brain picked a few words up.

Villains. USJ. Aizawa. Mist.
Four words, a whole lot of meaning to him. Denki felt himself pale at the implication. Fuck. Whatever quirk was showing this illusion to him, reliving the beating his father-in-law got by the Nomu was nothing he ever thought possible.

Not missing a beat, Denki twisted on his heels and started sprinting, squinting his eyes and shaking his head in hope of getting the dark sports out of his vision. Hopefully the hit to the head didn't result in a concussion, Denki wasn't sure if his brain could take any more hits from a medical standpoint after short-circuiting himself countless times during his childhood and adolescent life.

His feet hammered on the ground to the drum of his heat beat in his head, and Denki was barely aware of anything around him but the path to the central plaza. Illusion, memory-trigger, or whatever, Denki could move and he would only stop when Shigaraki and the Nomu were far, far away from Aizawa.

.

There, Denki finally saw the cluster of thugs calling themselves villains, he called them cannon fodder, and one Aizawa Shouta moved between them in a wild, lethal dance. He could see Deku and Froppy swim towards the shore – dear kami, everyone looked like toddlers! – while Mineta was dragged along. Oh, right, that guy had been in their first-year class, right?

Yellow eyes zeroed in on the person responsible for too many sleepless nights. Pale blue hair, too many hands for one person to own, dry skin fresh from the desert, eight fingers scratching on his neck – Shigaraki Tomura.

Denki could hear the muffled sounds of fighting, his headache grew worse from the running, and the dark spots took over his vision momentarily. He stumbled but caught himself. As a hero he had learned to leave most of the clumsiness behind, just like his lack of control over his quirk.

His senses picked up on the voice that never failed to send a shiver down him back, filtering it out through all the noises. Shigaraki was counting, but what for? Had he done so ten years ago at the USJ?

Why would- oh… Erasure. At the realisation, Denki gasped for air. Shit, even back then Tomura hadn't been half as stupid as he had thought the villain to be.

Fighting with his emotions, Denki felt like watching a film scene. Aizawa and Shigaraki ran towards one another, dark hair fell, and a hand wrapped itself around the elbow trying to get a hit on his middle. Cloth and skin started flaking away.
Just like Ochako's left index and middle fingers.
Just like Shoji's right shoulder to destroy half of his mutation quirk.
Just like Yamada's throat.
Just like Kirishima's left foot.
Just like Mina's horns just to fuck with her before ripping her eyes out.

Electricity coursed through his body, electricity was him, and Denki wound himself through the gaps between the thugs towards Shigaraki who looked at Aizawa in mockery before his expression darkened. Red eyes darted to the side where the Nomu obediently waited for orders.

"Nom-," but Shigaraki didn't finish the word, because Denki finally reached him and ten years of practise, ten years of work, seven years as a Pro Hero, too many fallen friends fuelled him, when he pumped electricity into the villain.

All around them, people had to shield their eyes from the blinding brightness, a loud, painfilled scream could be heard, and then there was silence.

Denki stood, swaying on the spot, dizziness was catching up to him, but he was too good by now to be effected by his own quirk. The concussion might be more serious than he expected, though. He felt a bit numb. He blinked a couple of times, then looked down.

On the ground laid the crumbled form of Shigaraki, his limb were twitching from the electricity still shooting through his burned-through nerves. His body was steaming from the heat of the electricity, second degree burns covered the villain's skin and his severed hands, but those were of no concern to Denki. He knew no human being could survive his strongest attack that he had only ever used against Nomus.

The first ever prototype still stood in place, apparently uncertain what his orders would be now that Shigaraki was dead. Denki didn't care, because it had been programmed to only listen to Tomura who wouldn't speak no more.

This had to be an illusion quirk he was under, but still, saving the day kind of felt great, knowing he would have protected his class and everyone if this was real.

A wet chuckle escaped his throat, and Denki finally noticed the tears rolling down his face. Since when was he crying? Why even? This was just an illusion about their early days, one where even Shigaraki was a beatable foe. Wow, they really had been weak, hadn't they?

A hand landed on Denki's shoulder but he felt too numb to really react. Kurogiri would have cut him in half with his warp quirk by now, the thugs would have attacked as well, so it probably was a classmate or-

Aizawa. Aizawa slowly turned Denki around, and he finally noticed that the thugs had been knocked out, All Might standing over them. When had he arrived? How long had Denki been staring at Tomura's corpse? Why had it been so satisfying to see their biggest enemy dead at his feet? Was it bad to feel this way?

Slowly, Denki looked up and met dark eyes, two of them, not just one. Before he even registered what he was doing, Denki had wrapped his arms around Aizawa's middle and found himself crying into his chest. Maybe the concussion was more serious than he thought.

.

He had no recollection of what had happened after he broke down on his sensei, but Denki found himself in the infirmary, Aizawa, Detective Tsukauchi, Recovery Girl, and Principal Nedzu sitting around the bed he rested in.

"-called him parents, but we weren't able to reach them," Recovery Girl was saying.

"Don't bother, I learned the hard way that they never cared about me," Denki said thoughtlessly, having come to terms with this fact years ago.

"Is there someone else we you want us to call," she replied after a moment of silence to which he just shrugged. His neighbour had taken him in after the Sports Festival when the woman noticed the neglect on his parents' part, but during USJ she probably only had her suspicions and no clear evidence. Or had it been after the USJ already? Remembering stuff a decade old was harder than he expected.

"-ri… Kaminari!" Denki's head shot up to Aizawa when he realised he was calling him.

"Are you alright?"
At his question, Aizawa gave him an odd look stuck between a glare and a frown.

"You shouldn't concern yourself with me. I am fine."

"Your elbow got dusted," Denki shot back, and judging by the twitch of Aizawa's eye, this was anything but the sensible way to address an injury. Well, in ten years he wouldn't think twice about such an answer from any of his previous students.

"I am fine, Recovery Girl is one of the best for a reason. Now, who else can we call to pick you up? Grandparents? Aunts or uncles?"

Denki hesitated for a moment. Could he ask them to call Kyoko so he can live with her a bit earlier? Would he force himself onto his neighbour this way? He didn't want their relationship to grow out of pity or a sense of responsibility. But he really wanted to go home, and home had been Kyoko's apartment before he and Hitoshi moved in together.

Apropos Hitoshi, he wouldn't know Denki now, right? Visibly deflating at the thought, he let out a sigh. God, his younger self had been lonely as fuck. No wonder he had clung to the Baku Squad like gum to a shoe.

Wait, why was he even getting upset? This was an illusion or a coma induced dream after that Nomu had knocked him on the head, right? But why did this feel so real then? Could this be an out-of-body experience? A lucid dream? Or was it made by a mixed quirk in the end?
Kami, theorising had never been his strong suit, even after years of improving on his smarts.

Denki was about to give his teacher his neighbour's number because he really wanted some peace, quiet, and the comfort of home, when there was a knock on the infirmary door and none other than Shinsou poked his head inside. Hitoshi with his beautiful soft hair and tired eyes. He hesitated when five pairs of eyes landed on his form, but he gave a quick nod for greetings.

"I don't want to interrupt…," he started with another hesitant glance at Aizawa. Oh, right, he probably hadn't had the time to check on his dad. Denki grimaced at the thought, knowing how important Aizawa and Yamada were in Hitoshi's life. When he saw his lover retreat through the door, his emotions and longing to see him for a moment longer – probably teenager hormones as well – got the better of him.

"Before you go, can I ask you out? I don't think I can wait ten months to find the courage then nor do I have the patience, and I really like you, Shinsou."

"What," Hitoshi squeaked out in surprise, tired eyes widening and cheeks turning red.

"Will you let me take you on a date so you can get to know me?"
Aizawa was openly glaring daggers at Denki, while Shinsou's eyes narrowed and his expression fell. Oh, he grew suspicious and he was preparing himself for having a joke played on his cost. Yeah, teen Hitoshi was angsty and distrusting with all right to do so.

"You know who I am?" Denki was fully aware that the love of his life was baiting him in to use his quirk, and he didn't hesitate to play into his hand.

"Huh? Of course I-," the connection was made and his mind went lax.

"How?"

"What do you mean how? You are my future husband." Denki felt how the control in his mind slipped and Hitoshi choked on his own spit in surprise. Cute.

"Kaminari is convinced this is the truth," Tsukauchi mumbled to Aizawa, who had adopted a carefully blank expression.

"Well, at least he is dedicated," Recovery Girl said with a shoulder pat to the still choking Shinsou. To complete the chaos, Nedzu took a sip of his tea and gave Denki that kind of smile-lacking look that would creep even the hardest villain out.

"You don't appear too bothered with the fact that you killed one of the villains today." And what could Denki say? He really wasn't.

"Nah, I was hit on the head and probably dreaming because this is too good to be true."

"Can you elaborate on that," the principal asked with interest in his eyes.

Well, he could, but coming around the corner with the fact that he was living through an altered illusion of an event ten years in the past would probably turn this dream sour. He could excuse his massive voltage outlet by the short amount of time they were at UA and never having maxed out his limits during training.

Denki probably could get away with saying he was too afraid of what Tomura would be capable of after seeing Aizawa's skin corrode. It wouldn't explain his lack in hesitation to face the villain. With Tsukauchi around, lying was futile.

"Kaminari, can you hear me?"

"His concentration seems to suffer heavily from the concussion he had."

Okay, he could say he was hit by a villain's quirk that made him feel like reliving this event or as if he had knowledge about the future and what would have happened if he hadn't killed Shigaraki, though there were too many gaps in this story. Hmm, could he really spin this around the fact that he had been hit by the Nomu aka a villain? But he never was a good liar, Hitoshi always reminded him when Denki had tried to surprise him with something.

"Kaminari, are you even listening?"

"Am I what?"

"Explain why this feels like a dream to you."
Oh, Hitoshi was using his quirk again. If he really were his teenage self, Denki would be worried, but being in a relationship with him and having countless training sessions to resist mind controlling quirks, Kaminari was aware enough to formulate his answers not to blurt them straight out.

"I was hit on the head by an enemy and to me the USJ attack felt like I was reliving an event from long ago where Aizawa got crushed by the Nomu. I didn't want him to end up in a pool of his own blood, so I stepped in and zapped Shigaraki before he could hound that monster on sensei. Since I am convinced this is a dream with the best possible outcome, I feel desensitised. That villain deserved it."

A second later Shinsou's quirk dropped again, but Denki was too familiar with it to be bothered by the sensation. He scratched the back of his head, for the first time noticing the bandaged wrapped around it.
"Sorry, I didn't know how to say that without sounding crazy or crude."

.

In the end, Recovery Girl called Kyoko and asked her to pick Denki up. Just like he remembered, his neighbour was quick to agree and go through the whole confirmation process at the UA gates to be authorised to pick him up.

Kyoko fretted over him, her eyes inspected every imaginary scratch and bruise – Recovery Girl had healed him –, and she asked his homeroom sensei to repeat what happened a total of three times before seemed to process all the information dropped on her.

Being the person she was, instead of blaming the teachers for the villain attack as Denki was aware many people and magazines had done, Kyoko asked Aizawa if he was okay. The man seemed like a fish out of water at the concern coming from a civilian, and after staring at her for a long moment he nodded.

Then, she busied herself asking Recovery Girl about Denki's injuries, what she had to look out for, and everything his own parents never bothered to think of. Shinsou had awkwardly stayed in the background, obviously willing to leave but not so without his dad.

Denki felt a bit sorry for him, but he reached his own level of uncomfortable awkwardness when Kyoko asked the teachers why so many people were gathered around him. He didn't feel sorry for killing Tomura, but having Kyoko know he ended someone's life wasn't something he wasn't keen on.

"Does your school collaborate with psychologists," was her first question after nearly strangling Denki in a crushing hug, "Kaminari, this is your decision, but please think about talking to a professional."

"Ah," Nedzu made a sound to get their attention, "Whenever someone dies in a hero's line of work, Pro or student, it is required to visit a counsellor. Kaminari already mentioned this feeling like an unreal dream to him, and dissociation is quite common, so we as heroes believe it to be best for him to talk to Hound Dog tomorrow. The school will continue in two days' time, but this is a serious matter."

Denki didn't like it, he didn't need it. Sure, he already had a 'first kill', and a second and a third, ignoring the Nomu which kind of didn't count. He had gone through counselling, had had long nights of crying while pressed into Hitoshi's side, been there, done it all. Nomus and Shigaraki didn't count for him, he knew of what evil they were capable. This was a waste of time.

"-ite down whenever you notice Kaminari losing awareness and concentration about his surroundings like right now. He had already done so a few times but addressing him seems to work for now. This has to be discussed with Hound Dog and I would like to do another check-up before lessons continue. Some wounds or effects don't appear immediately. This is the emergency number should you need to reach any of us."

Kyoko accepted a small piece of paper and glanced over her shoulder to him. Noticing his attention was on her – wow, Denki had never really thought about how young she was when she had taken over his guardianship –, she gave him that warm smile she always had for him. She took a step closer to his sitting form and rested a hand on his shoulder.
"Hello there, back with us, are you?"

Without hesitation, he let his head drop against her middle and let out a long sigh.
"Yeah… I am tired. Can we go home?"

.

It had been thirty hours since this dream started, Denki had met with Hound Dog to talk about Shigaraki and his conviction of this being a dream, and Kyoko had driven him to the hospital to get him checked out when she thought he dissociated after not reacting quick enough.

Denki had never dissociated before and had no idea how he would act if such a thing occurred. He'd just been in thoughts, very deeply so, because not waking up from this dream irritated him.

It was morning, UA was going back to teaching, and Denki was having a kind of argument slash discussion with Kyoko whether he was fit to go. Honestly, his parents had sent him to school when he had accidentally short circuited himself one morning, exposing him to stuff he wasn't able to pick up on and fuelling his bullies with new material to laugh about.

Just because he was actually using his brain to think didn't mean he could or should change his behaviour and skip classes, having sit thought them or not. Maybe he would understand whatever the heroes were teaching them for a change.

He was about to argue with the importance of getting an education, when for barely a split-second Denki thought he saw a whiff of purple and black mist in the corner of his eye. Purely out of instinct he reacted by pushing Kyoko behind himself, falling into a ready stance, and letting electricity roar up.

His eyes shot around in search for the enemy, for Kurogiri, but all he was met with was the homey living room and one concerned Kyoko. Great. Denki scratched the side of his head, trying to come up with an excuse, but he was beaten to be the one to break the silence.

"I think it will be better for you to go to school." Blue eyes spoke novels about her worries, and Denki already knew that Aizawa would hear about this before he even reached UA, but this was his own fault. He was probably overreacting.

"I think so, too," he mumbled and grabbed his bag with his head hanging low. Walking to the apartment door, he put his shoes on and mentally cursed himself sideways for the slip-up.

"Kaminari," Kyoko called out and he haltered in his step, looking over his shoulder, "If you need something, anything, you can always ask for it, okay?"

Feeling the way his eyes grew wet – this was the Kyoko he knew, who helped him plan out his first few dates with Hitoshi, taught him how to cook for the only purpose of impressing his boyfriend, who came to his graduation, celebrated his first job as a sidekick with him – he bit his lower lip and nodded.

Pulling the front door open, Denki hesitated and could hear Kyoko stop as well when she noticed he didn't immediately leave.
"Can…," he started but had to swallow, "can you call me Denki? I don't like Kaminari that much."

It might be a bold request, but he wasn't used to being called by his parent's family name from the person who became his mother by all but blood. Also, he had taken Hitoshi's surname, something he was missing severely.

"Of course," was the simple answer before Denki pulled the door shut behind himself.

.

As expected, Aizawa was waiting in front of the 1-A classroom door for him, his sleeping bag not visible. This meant it was serious.

"Morning, sensei," Denki greeting him and he tried to smile, but he could feel how he failed.

"Care to explain why your guardian called to tell me you nearly attacked the TV?" Oh, had Kyoko already filled out the documents for the request to get his custody rights?

"Just thought I saw a rat," Denki blurted out the first thing coming to his mind. Then he tried fighting the smile when his mind instantly jumped to Nedzu. On a normal day, Aizawa actually appreciated this type of humour, though today did not seem to be one of them.

"A rat," he repeated, disbelief thick in his voice, "and your first impulse was to electrocute it?"

"It was a big rat," was a weaker attempt, but Aizawa's lift of his eyebrow – the one saying 'try this BS again and you will find yourself in detention after talking to Hound Dog for hours' – made him sigh out loudly and he ruffled his own hair with a grimace.
"Okay, it was no rat. I thought I saw dark mist, but it probably was just my imagination. Are you happy now?"

But oh, no, good sir, his sensei was all but happy judging by the dark expression on his face.
"Dark mist as in the same we encountered two days ago?" Knowing Aizawa for ten years by now, Denki realised the man was trying not to use any direct words that could trigger something. And he had pretended his class was merely a nuisance to him. What a softie.

"The one and only, but it was just a trick of the light. Probably."
And just as fast as his words had left his mouth did all the colour drain from his face. Holy fucking shit on a popsicle, had Denki gained All for One's attention by killing his successor? What a moronic, completely stupid, entirely Denki-typical question to ask. It was logical. He. Killed. Shigaraki.

"I think I am going to be sick," he pressed out while stumbling into the classroom, barely reaching the wastebin to throw up.

.

Well, homeroom and Modern Literature had already passed when Denki was finally allowed to leave Recovery Girl's care. He had been informed that the police had been informed and sent to Kyoko's apartment to check for any trace of someone spying on them. Meanwhile, Nedzu had dropped by to tell Denki that he and his new-but-not-for-the-past-ten-years-kind-of-new guardian were going to be moved into UA's ward dorm, the only one on campus in existence yet.

If Denki was already jeopardising the future, should he drop a hint to better start building more of those? Or possibly warn All Might about his nemesis being active, targeting their class because of him? Maybe tell Katsuki to start behaving if he doesn't want to be kidnapped during the training camp. Also, Shoto and his siblings might or might not want to know their brother was alive and kicking. Getting him out of the League earlier could be helpful. Dropping a hint about Aoyama being forced to spy on them was also a valid point. Anyone else he could kill while he was already on it?

Denki didn't notice anything or anyone around him until he heard a familiar voice.
"What," he snapped, nerves rubbed raw from his own thoughts, then the velvet curtain spread thought his mind, silencing his worries. He could relax. Hitoshi was here.

"Breath," came the command and Denki welcomed it. When had he started breathing funnily? And how did he end up sitting in an empty corridor? Deep inhale, hold, exhale, repeat.

"Deactivate your quirk."
Huh, when had he even activated it? It couldn't have been after leaving the infirmary, because Denki had been aware at that point. Maybe when he had gotten cynical with himself? He could hear Hitoshi talking to someone, but he wasn't able to hear another person. Was he on his phone? With whom? Maybe one of his dads?

He had no idea how much time had passed, but the next time Denki forced himself to concentrate through the comfort of his future-husband's quirk keeping him relatively calm, he met his sensei's eyes. Right, two, and no scar under the right one. Good, good.

"Kaminari, can you hear me?" He managed to nod. "Shinsou told me you were not reacting when he called out to you and your quirk was interrupting the hallway lights. He will drop the quirk, and I expect you not to panic, understood?"

Denki blinked tiredly. He didn't feel like panicking anymore, he just wanted to wake up and have this dream end already. Hitoshi dropped the mental connection, and Aizawa kneeled down from his crouch.

"How are you doing?"

"Think, I am going crazy." Aizawa nodded with a grim expression.
"If I asked the principal about timeline interference, do you think he will keep the lecture under the two hour mark?"

.