Chapter Three

Denki awoke to the tranquil and idyllic sound of songbirds chirping outside his window. Which was odd, considering how they lived in the middle of a bustling city.

He let his bleary eyes slide open reluctantly. Judging from the dim light that illuminated his bedroom from behind closed blinds, it was morning already. Memories of last night's conversation flickered through his mind, along with the accompanying sense of tension, and with a lethargic groan, he slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position.

He fumbled his phone up from off of the nightstand and checked the time.

7:08 AM.

Figures. He finally got a chance to enjoy lay-in with his wife, and wouldn't you know it, his body decided to wake up early.

Stupid dad, ruining everything.

Speaking of…

He unlocked his phone and pulled up the web browser, checking all the news sites he could think of. Yup, the breakout yesterday was making headlines. Not surprising. Unfortunately, there was nothing about him having been found or captured yet. Just his luck.

Lowering his phone, Denki turned to examine his still-sleeping wife. She was on her side, face buried in her pillow, the hem of her tank top riding up and her mouth agape. Honestly, she and Aika looked so alike, it was frightening. He briefly considered the merits of laying back down and enjoying what time they had left before the kids woke up, but the anxiety in his chest was making him fidgety and he didn't want to accidentally wake her. She almost never got to sleep in.

As carefully as he could manage, Denki extracted himself from his blankets and crawled out of bed, ghosting out of the bedroom on white-socked feet as silently as was humanly possible. If he was going to be awake, he might as well make the most of it. Maybe he could surprise Kyouka with breakfast in bed? That was the kind of sappy thing good husbands were supposed to do, right? That's what TV and movies had always taught him, and they hadn't steered him wrong yet.

Thoughts of breakfast reminded him of his conversation yesterday with his kids where both had requested pancakes. Kyouka loved pancakes. Perfect.

Only, he remembered as he padded into the kitchen and pulled open the door to their fridge, they didn't have the ingredients necessary to make pancakes. Why didn't he buy them when he went out yesterday? What a lack of forethought.

He could always get dressed and head over to the store now, only… well, with his mad dad on the loose, heading out in public alone was probably a big no-no. Kyouka would rip him a new one. Plus, he was way too lazy to bother getting showered and changed, and he'd probably wake Kyouka in the process.

Pulling his phone out of the pockets of his flannel pajama pants, he decided to be financially irresponsible and order the ingredients delivered. He knew a few Heroes who did this on the regular, when they were too hard or too lazy to be disguised. It was definitely more convenient. Laziness had its perks. The extra price of getting a drone to fly said ingredients from a grocery store up to the balcony of your apartment, however… well, Kyouka didn't have to know everything.

Sure enough, fifteen minutes later, he got the notification that the drone had arrived, and he opened the door to their balcony and stepped out into the bright mid-summer sunshine to greet the drone, startling several birds in the process.

He watched them fly off with a slight frown. Those were songbirds. They wouldn't normally hang out here, unless… of course. Kouda. He'd probably sent them to keep an eye out for trouble. He loved his friends, but they could be overprotective sometimes. As if Kyouka wasn't already here.

The drone, a flat, rectangular looking fellow with round LED eyes and a dark, chitinous body dropped the package at Denki's feet with zero care as to the safety of its contents, gave him a pre-recorded thanks for the order, and then zoomed away.

He sighed. Hopefully, the eggs were ok.

It was only when he bent down to pick up the box that it occurred to him that this might have been a mistake. After all, he was supposedly the target of an escaped villain who may or may not have accomplices. Fanatical, cult-following, literal terrorist accomplices who had every reason to want Denki dead. Should he really be ordering things to be delivered to his apartment? What if it had been tampered with?

He stewed over that thought for a moment before shaking it off. There was no way. It was too soon after his father's escape, and how would anyone have known he was going to be ordering something that morning? It was spur-of-the-moment. He was being paranoid.

Lifting the box, Denki turned to walk back inside and let out a yelp of surprise when he found Aika and Rai standing right behind him.

His daughter blinked up at him owlishly.

"What are you doing?"

He let out a frazzled laugh.

"Ah… A-Aika, Rai. You're… awake…"

"What's that?" she pressed on, either not noticing or not caring about his odd behavior.

"Oh. Well, uh... " He stepped around his kids and headed over to the kitchen counter, placing the package down with a soft thump. "Remember yesterday when you said you wanted pancakes?"

His kids followed, climbing up onto the bar seats across from him.

"So you ordered some? For delivery?"

"Yeah. I mean, the stuff to make pancakes. Why not?" He flashed her a cheesy smile as he ripped the box open and began extracting the eggs (miraculously still whole), flour, sugar, and syrup, placing them on the counter in front of him, pulling the strawberries away when Rai immediately reached for them.

Aika quirked an eyebrow and Denki silently prayed she wouldn't ask why he didn't just walk to the store. It was too early for creative excuse-making.

"Mom is going to be so mad," she said instead, snickering to herself. "That had to be so expensive."

"Well, what mom doesn't know won't hurt her," he replied, tossing the now-empty box off to the side and rummaging around through the cabinets, looking for a bowl he could mix the batter in. "It'll be our little secret. Besides, I'm mostly doing this for her."

There was a pause in which Denki clambered down onto the floor, mentally bemoaning his old-man knees as he extracted a suitable bowl and a heavy cast-iron frying pan from the back of a cupboard. When he got back to his feet, Aika was staring at him in surprise.

"Wait. Mom's home?"

"Yup," he replied, then instantly threw himself forward across the counter to grab Rai's arm before he could rush off towards the bedroom. "Wait! Wait wait wait, bud, mom's still asleep. She got back really late last night, so let's let her sleep in, ok?"

"Fiiine," Rai grumbled, returning to his seat and resting his chin in his arms, looking put-out.

"While we wait, how about you two help me make breakfast so we can surprise your mom?"

"Ok!" Rai shouted, perking up again just as Aika said, "No thanks."

He sent his daughter a significant look, and she sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Whatever. But I get to lick the spoon."

"These are pancakes," Denki said, confused, as his kids came over to join him. "You don't lick pancake batter."

"I'll lick whatever I want," she replied, indignant, clearly more upset that her dad was telling her no to something than she was about what was being denied, and Denki experienced this odd moment where there were so many possible responses to his daughter's poorly-worded retort and yet none that didn't make him feel horribly uncomfortable and the only recourse was to let his brain reboot and pretend she hadn't said anything.

Ten minutes later, Kyouka finally stumbled out of the bedroom and into the kitchen to the warm sounds of laughter and the buzz of cartoons playing in the background. As she rounded the corner into the kitchen, yawning and rubbing her eyes, she found her husband and kids all huddled around the stove as Denki tried to help Rai flip the pancake he was trying to cook.

"Alright, bud, just stick the spatula underneath - no, lower - do it flat, not like a scoop - ok, yeah, now just gently twist your wrist-"

With entirely too much gusto and a warrior's cry, Rai twisted his entire arm, slapping the half-cooked pancake down with excessive force. Only half of it landed in the pan, the other half ripping off and splattering wetly all over the top of the stove, leaving globs of batter speckled all over Denki's shirt and Aika's face.

Aika immediately burst out laughing.

"He missed again! He's so bad at this!" she crowed in delight, wiping her face off on her dad's shirt.

"Hey, come on. Everyone starts somewhere. Don't cry, Rai, you can try again. Aika, don't be so loud, you're going to wake up your mom-"

"Too late."

Three heads snapped to the side.

Rai, whose eyes had been filled with tears moments before from the combination of his failure and his sister's teasing, immediately brightened up, leaping off of the chair he'd been standing on and throwing himself at his mom with a shout.

Kyouka scooped him up in her arms with a laugh, giving him an exaggeratedly loud kiss on the cheek before setting him back down ruffling his untameable hair, turning her attention to her daughter.

"What?" she said, placing her hands on her hips. "Do I not get a good morning hug from you?"

Aika rolled her eyes again and shuffled forward, though Denki noted with a smile the way she kept her face tilted down out of embarrassment, and how, when she hugged her mom, she did it with both her arms and her jacks. And she only grumbled when Kyouka kissed her cheek.

"Does daddy want a kiss, too?" Kyouka joked, releasing Aika and stepping closer, but Denki pretended to fend her off with his spatula.

"Hey, I'll have you know I'm mad at you. You totally ruined my super awesome 'breakfast in bed' plan that I had going. I was going to earn myself so many husband points."

"Well, I can always go back to bed," she said with a low laugh, grabbing his arm and stepping up on tiptoes to give his cheek a peck as well.

"Ew," Aika noted from off to the side.

"So, pancakes, huh?" Kyouka asked, picking up the chair Rai had been standing on and returning it to its place as Denki resumed his watch over the frying pan. "Busy morning? What's the occasion?"

"Can't a man do something nice for his family?" he replied imperiously, earning an exaggerated eye-roll from his wife.

"Dad ordered ingredients through a drone and didn't want us to tell you," Aika chimed in immediately, completely unprovoked, and Denki spluttered.

"I- hey! Aika!"

Kyouka snickered, taking a seat at the bar in between her kids while Denki gave his daughter the evil eye.

"You know, one day, you're going to have a secret that you want me to keep from mom, and then this moment is going to come back to bite you in the butt."

"Yeah, sure," Aika retorted dryly.

"Guess who took my phone with her to bed last night even though she knows she's not supposed to?"

"Hey!"

Denki lifted his hands into the air with a face that said 'You brought this on yourself', and Aika huffed in annoyance.

"It's ok," Kyouka whispered, giving one of Aika's jacks a tug with her own, "I already knew."

"So… I'm not in trouble?"

Before she could answer, Denki turned around with the plate full of already-finished pancakes only to gawk as he found his wife and kids had already eaten their way through half of the strawberries.

"Hey! Quit that! Those are for the pancakes!"

Kyouka and Aika donned identical looks of guilt, but Rai continued chomping down on his as though he hadn't a care in the world.

Denki sighed, setting the plate down. Why did he even try?

"Well, it's… fine, I guess. But they were supposed to go on the pancakes."

"I don't like strawberries," Rai chimed in, his lips and chin completely red.

His parents and sister stared.

"Rai… you're eating strawberries right now."

"Yeah, but… Yeah, but I don't like them on pancakes. I like them not on pancakes."

"Good to know," Kyouka joked, spearing another strawberry on the end of one of her jacks while Aika snickered and began helping herself to the pancakes.

And thus, for the first time in over a week, Denki had a meal together with his whole family.

It wasn't that Kyouka was absolutely never home. He usually saw her once a day, barring those terrible days where a big-name villain attack or natural disaster kept her occupied or if she was sent out of town on a special assignment. But ever since Aika had grown old enough to start going to school, the times in which their whole family could be together had dwindled significantly. Kyouka's hours were random, often unpredictable, and subject to change at the drop of the hat if an incident required her attention. And if the only time she had off was in the middle of the afternoon, or in the dead of night, then she and Aika would miss each other entirely.

And it was clear to Denki, even now as they joked around over breakfast, that it was starting to have an effect on Aika.

Aika was different from most kids her age. To be fair, most of his friends' kids were. Your average kid dreamed of growing up to be a Hero because it seemed like something fantastical and amazing, like something out of a movie. They were envious of kids like Aika who had Heroes for parents because they thought it was something neat to brag about, something that made them 'cooler' than other kids.

For the kids of actual Heroes, however, it was anything but a novelty. How they viewed having a Her for a parent could be a bit of a toss-up, and was always a reflection of how they viewed their parents themselves.

Some of them said they wanted to be Heroes too because they thought they'd get more attention from parents who weren't always there. Others pendulum swung in the other direction, saying they hated Heroes, though usually for the same reason.

Aika wasn't quite old enough to have any real ideas on where she wanted to take her future, but as she grew closer to puberty, it was obvious to him that the effect of her mother's frequent absence from the home was starting to manifest themselves in her behavior.

She'd developed a tendency recently to criticize Kyouka when she wasn't around, which was most of the time. Her statements never came across as deliberately cruel, but it was obvious that she was beginning to fixate on all of the aspects of her mother that she found less than ideal, and had correctly associated most of them with her job. Kyouka wasn't around enough, was unable to spend time with her or her brother, to go to school events, to celebrate birthdays, or to even eat meals together.

Aika wasn't quite old enough to understand why her mother did the things she did or to really begin processing her feelings. But she was just starting to be old enough to question.

She still had her father, who was always around, the one silver lining about not being able to hold down a steady job, but Kyouka's unwelcome announcement last night had thrown a potential wrench into his daughter's relationship with him as well.

If she found out the truth - that he'd been a villain, that he'd come from a family of villains, that they'd once fought against her mom and all of the heroes she knew, the men and women who were practically her aunts and uncles, and had tried to kill them… The image she had of him would be tarnished forever. She'd start to pull away from him, too.

Right now, things were fine. Rai, still wholly a child, was grinning up at his mom, a pure sunbeam of joy just being in her presence again after so long - the image ruined somewhat by bits of soggy pancake slipping out of his open mouth while he chewed and talked at the same time.

Aika was quieter, chiming in often enough that it was clear she wanted to be a part of the conversation, but the way she averted her eyes, her slowly developing shyness, not present when her mother wasn't around, told a different story.

Kyouka volunteered to do the dishes after they were done while Denki helped Rai take a bath since he was now sticky with syrup and strawberry juice, and Aika, annoyed that neither parent would let her play on their phone (mostly to avoid her stumbling across anything related to her escaped convict of a grandfather on the internet) was forced by her mother to finally start on her summer homework.

That day would forever stand out to Denki as one of the best. Though Kyouka was 'technically' on the job, having her get to spend the day with him and the kids, alone at home and just relaxing was… well, long overdue. If there was one bright spot to his father breaking out of jail and possibly trying to hunt him down, it was this. And how considerate of him to choose to do it in the summer, when Aika would be home.

Denki tried to spend the afternoon working while Kyouka distracted the kids, but it was hard not to want to get involved. He helped Aika with her homework, joined Rai for some quality video game time, and the family even got to sit around and watch a movie together. They ordered their dinner rather than cook something again, which Denki was grateful for. Honestly, though nothing big or exciting happened today, just having them all together felt… right. And though Kyouka had to step away every now and then to answer a phone call, it wasn't a problem.

He put off telling Aika about his past, however. Doing it today would only ruin the mood. He didn't want to do that to Kyouka. Or at least… that was what he told himself.

At the very least, it seemed like both kids were pleased to have a chance to spend time with their mom. When she left the next morning to head back to her job, there were no sullen looks from Aika or tantrums from Rai. Just happy smiles.

If only every day could be like this.

The next couple of days could be summarized by the odd sort of tension that had settled itself in the pit of Denki's stomach.

Kyouka was out, more often than not, performing her normal Hero duties and assisting in the nation-wide manhunt for the man who was her father-in-law. Denki stayed home, making up increasingly less-plausible excuses for why he couldn't take his kids to the park or the beach or the pool, watching them slowly go stir-crazy, locked up in their apartment while Denki tried to get as much work done on his computer as he could over the sound of his kids fighting and the anxiety of a conversation he was going to have to have with them that he kept putting off for no good reason.

Though they didn't have a Hero constantly with them, probably because of how good the security was in their building and the fact that all of their neighbors were Heroes already, it became a common occurrence that week for his old friends from Class 1-A to begin dropping by because they were 'coincidentally' in the area. Sero spent a couple hours trying to put a puzzle together with his kids, Mina and Kirishima stopped by for lunch, Mineta asked to use the bathroom (that had to be the most memorable excuse by far), and even Shinso made an appearance.

As the days went by, however, and no developments occurred in the search for his father, Denki's concern regarding his escape began to wane. There'd been no attempts on his life, no sign of any pro-PLF sentiment stirring up, nothing to indicate that anything serious was going down. While he'd never truly feel at ease until the Heroes found and arrested his father once again, he couldn't afford to live every day cooped up in his apartment. He'd start to go as crazy as his kids.

So when the weekend rolled around and Denki got a call from his second part-time job telling him that one of their regulars had called out and they were in need of an electrician across town, he decided to go for it. After all, he didn't want to risk losing this job, too. Not after going through so many in the last several years.

He made a call to his in-laws, waited until Kyouka's mother showed up to watch the kids for a bit while he was out, and then set off. He'd sent his wife a message, letting her know where he was going and was informed that a Pro named 'Tomahawk' was patrolling that area today and would be informed of Denki's location. He'd never heard of them before and was a little disappointed that it wasn't someone he knew, but it didn't matter. He doubted he'd be seeing them.

The sun was disgustingly hot, practically roasting him alive while he worked. The white hardhat he wore did nothing for the heat but make his sweaty hair stick to his scalp, and though the yellow reflective vest he was forced to put on was hardly uncomfortable, he couldn't fight the worry that his bare arms and neck were going to be cherry red by the time he returned home. He really ought to have picked up some sunscreen on the way over, but he hadn't expected this apartment complex's power grid to be stationed on the western side with no trees or buildings around for shade.

Electricians work wasn't that hard, at least compared to the Hero work he'd trained for before. Just a bunch of monitors and dials to check, wires to fiddle with, etc. It could be dangerous at times for regular electricians, but considering how Denki absorbed electricity, it not only meant that he didn't have to take nearly as many precautions as his peers, but he didn't have to wear those sweaty, uncomfortable gloves. It also meant that his employers were less likely to have to worry about potential lawsuits or workers comp if something went wrong, which is the main reason why he got this job despite his shady past.

Mmm… Shade… He could really go for some of that.

A couple of hours and a couple of buildings later, Denki was trudging down the street, chugging his third bottle of water and fiddling with his tool belt that kept wanting to slide down his waist. The sun had slipped a good way down the horizon. It wasn't evening yet, but it was close.

Maybe he should pick something up for dinner tonight? All he wanted when he got home was a cold shower and to kick his feet up in front of the TV. He was too lazy to cook. Maybe he should pick something up for his mother-in-law as well, just in case she wanted to join them for dinner before she left?

Just as he paused to dump the rest of the water bottle down the back of his neck, something caught his eye.

There was a person following behind him.

That wasn't that unusual. He was hardly in an abandoned part of town, several people were walking along the street. What made this person stand out was the fact that they were wearing a grey hoodie that covered their face despite the intense summer heat.

Denki continued walking and tried to rationalize away the spike of tension that shot through him. Wearing a hoodie and covering your face could mean anything, even in the heat of summer. Maybe they had a Quirk that made sunlight harmful, or maybe they were really self-conscious about their appearance. Wearing a hoodie and walking behind him did not mean that they were dangerous or after him. Besides, that figure was too small to be his father's.

Still, better safe than sorry. Turning down a narrow side-street, Denki broke into a hurried jog as soon as he was out of sight, hastening past old trash cans and graffitied lamp posts, laundromats and sketchy run-down lending companies to put as much distance between him and the mysterious figure as he could, keeping his eye out on the off-chance that he was being herded into an ambush. He slowed back to a normal walk and turned to glance over his shoulder, hoping to see the stranger walk by the entrance to the side street without even a second glance in his direction.

His stomach dipped when he saw the figure turn to follow after him. Only this time, they were sprinting.

Denki ducked down another street, this one more of an alleyway, and kept running. Well, there could be no doubt they were after him now, only… what should he do? He could pull out his phone and shoot a message to Tomahawk, whose number Kyouka had given him, but… there was little chance she'd get here in time. He could try to apprehend them himself; he was fairly confident that he had the skill. Only… he was unlicensed, and considering his record, using his Quirk to cause harm to another person, even self-defense, could land him in seriously hot water.

He ultimately decided it didn't matter. One way or another, this was going to turn into a fight. He'd just have to hope he could explain himself well enough once the cops showed up. And with any luck, this would give them a lead about his father…

Ducking behind a dumpster, Denki fought to calm his breathing as he waited for the tell-tale sound of approaching footsteps. There was another intersecting alley just across from him, as well as a few doors he could have entered. There was no way his pursuer would know where he went, though the alley was the most likely choice. With any luck, he'd catch them off-guard.

The sound of his would-be stalker rounding the corner met his ears. Their footsteps were quick and surprisingly fast. They'd be on him in just a second.

Letting electricity flood through his body, Denki rushed out from behind the dumpster with his left-arm raised, charging his surprised assailant head-on like he was going to perform a lariat.

Denki's Quirk was powerful, but it had his drawbacks. He could fire off a massive surge of electricity, but without support items (which he was no longer legally allowed to own or use), he couldn't aim. If he shot it off now, he was likely to catch his opponent in the burst, but he could also harm anyone in the nearby buildings or cause damage to power lines or even start fires. Getting a bystander hurt by his Quirk or causing substantial property damage was a guaranteed one-way trip back to prison. That meant his only alternative was hand-to-hand combat.

His pursuer's advance faltered, clearly caught off-guard by Denki's surprise appearance, but just before his arm could connect with their chest, they bent backward, sliding low with a yelp and just barely dodging his attack.

He didn't let up. Seizing the dumpster in both hands and releasing his Quik, he lashed out with his leg, hoping to catch his opponent with the heel of his shoe, but his foe threw themselves awkwardly to the side to dodge the blow, crashing clumsily against the side of a building.

Denki was hardly a master of the martial arts. Ojiro, Kirishima, or Uraraka could give him a run for his money any day of the week. But he did have one distinct advantage. By running a current through his body, he essentially became a human stun gun.

He didn't need to overpower his opponent with physical strength or skill. Just touch them once, and the fight was his.

Electricity crackled through his body again, his lips pulled back into a snarl. Whoever this was, they were clearly working with his father. They'd managed to him on a random street corner, which meant they were probably tracking him. His kids wouldn't be safe again until his old man was tossed back in prison where he belonged.

And this stranger, hastily stumbling back to their feet and rubbing painfully at their shoulder, was going to help them do that.

"Wait!"

Ignoring their pleading shout, Denki darted forward, fists raised. One touch, that was all he needed.

He threw a punch, not expecting it to land, already preparing his second, when, to his complete disbelief, his opponent caught it in their bare hand.

The electricity fizzled out, unleashing directly into their body… and nothing happened.

Denki's heart was in his throat. His one ace-in-the-hole… useless. Figures they would send someone who Denki's Quirk didn't work against. He should have thought of that! He was so stupid!

"Denki," the stranger panted, their breathing ragged, their voice high and feminine and familiar, "wait… just… let me explain…"

"Who…?" he started, already half-certain that he knew but unwilling to believe until she'd proven it, until there could be no doubts.

She released his hand, taking a measured step backward and reaching up to pull back the edges of her hood, even though her eyes, golden just like his, had been already visible thanks to their glow. Her hair was just as poofy as he remembered, untameable thanks to their hereditary static cling, pulled back in two buns the same platinum blonde as their mother's.

Denki stumbled back, eyes wide, disbelieving.

His little sister was alive.

Her face, still round, though harsher now, somehow, glowered at him, breathless and uncertain.

"...I need your help."