REVISED (YYYY/MM/DD) : 2020/09/29

CHAPTER FOUR - PART ONE

Chivalrous Introvert

Two weeks have passed since his quirk manifested. He can suppress his electricity even while sleeping now, that there's a little to no chance that he will cause any accident as long as his mind is in a state of calmness. Of course, he still followed the doctor's instructions with his dress code and limited physical contact with his peers.

Yuugo dropped by once after that day. While it may seem nothing to celebrate about, he hadn't ever met him even once in seven months after becoming Denki, so it was a really big deal. Not only that, Yuugo actively tried to get to know Denki more through exchanges of text messages and short calls with the mobile phone Denki was given. Sure it was because of the circumstance, but none of his classmates had a mobile phone. It's because even in this world, a mobile phone was a big responsibility, something a four year old child was not ready for. But Yuugo gave one to him anyway and Denki didn't know that with his mental age, he could feel so much warmth and gratefulness to be accepted by such a person.

'What did I do to deserve Otousan?' He thought as he tried to mold the energy in his gut into a round ball.

Denki had acknowledged Yuugo as his second father in the safety of his mind. It had only been two week, he didn't know that he was this gullible either. Was he that lonely? His change of heart surprised even himself. He still has wariness for the man, but his admiration was so much more.

"Haa…" He let out, lying down on his back. He unfurled the energy so it can flow more freely now.

Denki had been experimenting with his quirk, but for one, he's sort of nervous that he would go BOOM! If he compressed the energy too tightly into a ball. 'How does this energy in my stomach even work? 'Denki' never went out of electricity, I think. He went BZZT because his brain couldn't handle so much electricity, so does it mean the limit is my own body and not the electricity? If so, wouldn't it be alright if I stop before overdoing it?'

For one, Denki doesn't think he can train the way 'Denki' trained in the summer camp. Yuugo would probably never allow such primitive and dangerous training without reasons, and Tsubaki would keel over if she didn't manage to resign first. And it's not like Denki wanted to be 'Denki' who is proud to be a human stun gun and has his rationality going out of the park for one hour every time he did the over one million volt thing. So he put aside the thought of handling more watts. It would be useless if he can't control it anyways.

So while he's young and easily moldable, he has to focus on control. So he returned to make the electricity in his stomach into a ball, then into a box before rotating it around as if it's a three dimensional object. Honestly, he's doing all this because of boredom more than anything.

It happened in early June when he was still 4 years old.

'I don't go out that often so why is this happening to me?!' Denki groaned internally upon seeing the confrontation between two weak-looking kids against three strong-looking ones. Denki was familiar with all five of them too. 'Ugh!'

He wanted to bury his face to his palms.

He was only in the area because Tsubaki needed to give something to a friend of hers who lives nearby and he joined her because she said there's some money left after buying groceries. He was only standing in front of the house Tsubaki went in for God's sake!

Well what he can do now is call Yuugo's friend who is stationed in the area and hope that he picked up the call. The call did not connect, and he couldn't just leave the two be since he had seen them.

"T- that's mean Kacchan! Can't you see t- that he's crying? I- I- If you keep on going, I'll n- never forgive you!" A weak trembling voice was heard.

Palm, meet Forehead. Forehead, meet Palm. 'Seriously!' he moaned.

"Even though you're quirkless…" the kid punched his fist to his open palm, an explosion was created from the contact, "You're still playing hero huh, Deku?" There was a smile on the ash blonde haired boy's lips.

"Hello? What's up, Denki?"

Denki was running when his call to Yuugo connected. "You know, Bakugou Katsuki, Ooshima Tooru, Mishima Rui!" Denki exclaimed. "Playing bullies is so not cool!" He had put the call on speaker phone earlier.

"Hah?! Who the hell are you? F*ck off and mind your damn business!"

"Ehh, I know what those words mean, but do you? By the way, you look stupid while saying those curse words," Denki said innocently. "Oh wait, you are stupid! Do you want to get in trouble with the police and local heroes, being a~ll aggressive with your su~per intimidating-looking quirks at a xxx park so close to the school?" He asked cheekily while standing in front of Izuku and the crying boy and throwing his mobile phone into his bag. "F*cking p*ssy," he spat with a bright and innocent-looking smile.

That made the three bullies' eyes widen in shock.

"U- Um… Y- You are…?"

"Someone from the same kindergarten as you guys haha… Ne, Midoriya-kun… can you do me a favor and go call help? Bring this red haired guy along with you too. I can't defend myself while protecting you two," he said softly.

"B- But Kacchan-!"

"You can go now. Please come back soon~ :)))" Denki said, practically ushering him to go with his murderous gaze and sickening sweet smile alone. The curly-haired boy grabbed the red haired boy's hand and made a run for it.

"D- D- Don't die!"

Denki's right eye twitches. "Can't he just say thank you? Is he jinxing me to die?" he muttered before warily addressing the three boys.

"Haa? Are you serious? Why the hell are you doing this? It has nothing to do with you!" Katsuki complained. "There's no need for weak and useless guys like them!"

"Ha? Don't tell me you're serious about that. What's the use of being strong if there aren't weak guys around?" Denki retorted with an are-you-stupid expression. A vein throbbed on Katsuki's face. "And I wish this doesn't have anything to do with me too, you know? So troublesome… Why is it that on the day I just so happen to go out, I have to see you guys messing around with your quirks to other guys to boot. There's no way I can unsee it, idiots!" He complained back. Another vein throbbed on Katsuki's face. The other two were not faring well either. "Go on! Are you gonna attack me or not, make up your mind already. I have to meet with obasan!"

The veins pretty much bursted at this point.

"BASTARD, YOUR POMPOUS ATTITUDE SICKENS ME!"

"THE HELL?! SO THIS IS OUR FAULT?!"

"THAT'S IT, YOU'RE DONE!" Katsuki roared last, running to him with his explosion-covered hands. The other two were doing the same.

Denki's breaths were even as he took on a fighting stance. Upon seeing them getting closer and closer, he readied himself. From his compact and compressed electricity ball, he created paths to his palms… small pipe-like paths to get efficient output.

Denki ducked under a punch and sidestepped a flying kick, all while thinking that he should get hit by Katsuki's explosion a little while not using his quirk. When he wanted to retract the electricity that he had directed outside his palms, he saw. 'Hmmm?' he thought, bewildered as he instinctively caught a fist directed to his cheek with his left palm, the same palm that has weird prostrution.

"Caught you!"

"Ah."

*BOOM!*

*Bam!*

Denki accepted the explosion while using the opportunity to kick Katsuki on the stomach with all of his might. Katsuki let go of his left hand and both of them flew backward. His left hand hurt like hell. Well, he got his 'self-retaliation', and it only looked to be the milder second degree burns kind if he can still backflip with said palm.

"Oh no… Whatever should I do…?" *sniff* "You attacked me with your quirk and you got me such awful burns. There's no way your parents wouldn't know of this later, right?" Denki remarked nonchalantly, showing the blonde how bad his left hand became. "It really hurts, you know? I wonder how long it will heal? Will your parents pay for my hospital fees? I mean… You attacked me first and I didn't even use my quirk on you afterward- Oof!"

Izuku came barrelling towards him. "Y- You didn't die!" He sobbed.

Several costume-wearing adults jumped into the scene, saw the condition of his left hand while the three of the bullies were without a single bruise (Katsuki's stomach was going to be so black and blue later), and instantly took over the situation.

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE?!"

"Oh, it's nothing much, Sir. Just, these guys are very proud of their quirks and they feel like weak people shouldn't exist so Midoriya-san over here became the butt of their aggressive jokes. Because I know all five of them and was in the area, I volunteered to replace Midoriya-san and another person who is no longer here. And this happened," Denki reported casually, looking at the mess his left hand had become. It's good that it's not his dominant hand, but he would face a bit of trouble while it heals.

"I understand now. Come with us you three! Apparently, you didn't get enough lessons about quirk usage in public, Huh! Messing around like this!"

"Whaa… Deku, you bastard! Traitor!" Katsuki burst out as he was being held back by one of the local heroes.

"T- Traitor?!" Izuku exclaimed, pale and shocked. Denki pressed his lips tightly.

"So funny," he commented airily. "Do you even know the meaning of the word 'Traitor'? A traitor is someone who betrays someone on their side! I didn't know a bully and the victim can ever be on the same side," he remarked with a raised eyebrow before continuing nonchalantly. "I know that Midoriya-san doesn't look like he has fun being treated horribly by you, so if you're saying the truth, you must be secretly a sadist since you treat someone on your side a bit too cruelly at times."

The ash blonde haired boy was outrightly glaring at him.

"You won't always be forgiven just because you and your quirk have a ton of potential," Denki said quietly. "I'm pretty sure I won't be the only one to report you to authorities. Like Midoriya-san, you want to be a hero like All Might, right? Doing stuff like these will reflect badly on you the most. You're the idiot, Bakugou-san."

The boy's snarling lips trembled before closing. His gaze looked downward. Denki huffed.

He shoved his ruined hand to Katsuki's face. "I was serious about the hospital fee. Can your parents help? Okaasan died after giving birth to me so I only have otousan. I don't want to worry him with stuff when he is already working day and night, so please talk to your parents about it, okay? I think I need- uwah!"

He was suddenly lifted into the air. Upon seeing who it was, his jaw dropped and his eyes widened. "Huh?! Oto- Yuugo-san?! What are you doing here?!"

"G- G- Takahashi Yuugo-san?!"

Yuugo was grabbing him by the collar of his t-shirt. For once, he looked out of breath and he wasn't wearing any sort of costume. "Let's go to the hospital," he said before addressing the three local heroes who all recognized Yuugo. "Good work, I'll contact you guys if my kid needs to go through whatever later. Hospital comes first."

"Yes, of course, Sir! I'm sorry we couldn't come faster and prevent this!"

"I was asking Bakugou-san to talk about his parents to-

"I don't work day and night to be unable to pay for health care, Denki. Stop messing around and go into the car. And stop acting tough already. That thing is a second degree burn that needs surgery! You can cry now!"

Denki's lips tremble. His eyes met Bakugou's and his tears instantly dried and his lips stopped trembling. "Who is going to c-cry? Idiot! It really hurts though. I wish I kicked him harder after he did this to me!" He ranted while burying his face to Yuugo's shoulder. "And why are you even here? What about work? I saw you a few days ago, geez! Don't blame me if you get fired!"

"Aww, is this the little guy who doesn't want to worry me, his 'otousan'?"

Denki's face heated up and he smacked the man's chest in annoyance. "Just how long have you been around?! You're being super annoying!"

"Eh? It seems that someone really has forgotten about the phone call he initiated and didn't end."

Denki froze. 'Ah… Oh yeah…'

"Do you know, Yuugo-sama? That someone also forgot about the person he was going with and the purpose of the outing," Tsubaki's voice was sweet from behind the driving wheel.

"... ah."

He really really forgot.

Author's Note: Look forward to your Follow, Favorite, and Reviews~ See you in the next chapter!