"Are you out of your mind?!"
Denki winced, carefully sticking his pinky into his ear and wiggling it around a bit. Seriously, for someone who had superhuman hearing, you'd think his wife would be more considerate about the volume of her voice…
He was in one of the many meeting rooms contained within Heights Alliance, a tall, imposing office building that held the Hero offices of many of his old classmates. The original Heights Alliance had been the name of the dormitories built for the students of UA shortly after the attack on their summer camp back in their first year of high school, but after they'd been mostly destroyed in the 'war' with Shigaraki, his classmates had adopted the name for the veritable skyscraper they'd commissioned in order to keep most of their offices together.
Heights Alliance was also the name for the pseudo 'team' they and the members of the old Class 1-B had formed after graduation. Almost none of them were officially on teams, but it was a well-known fact that graduates from their year at UA preferred partnering with one another and either patrolled or worked most of their cases together when they could.
Not everyone from his class had an office here, of course. At least not their main ones. Deku and Bakugou had their own larger offices in other parts of the country, as did Todoroki, Yaoyarozu, Iida, and Tokoyami, and some classmates actually worked primarily from said offices (like Uraraka, Asui, Kirishima and Aoyama), but it wasn't an unusual occurrence to see any of them or their sidekicks here at Heights Alliance multiple times in any given month, or even week if they were working a case nearby.
As it was, when he'd showed up at the office building around a half an hour after contacting his wife (and then immediately calling his mother-in-law to tell her he needed her to babysit for a little longer and to beg her forgiveness for forcing her to spend more time with the hellions he called his children), he shouldn't have been surprised to find that Kyouka was not the only person waiting for him.
Aside from him and his wife, who was currently standing on the other side of the table he was seated at, palms on the table-top and glowering at him like he was their son refusing to eat all of his dinner because he'd suddenly decided that he no longer liked fish, the meeting room also contained Yaoyorozu, Sero, Mina, Kouda, and weirdly enough, Bakugou, who had brought along an acquaintance from the police force who was heading up the manhunt for Denki's father.
Denki did his best to avoid her gaze. Detective Noriko Nakamura was a tall, stern-faced, no-nonsense type of woman with a stare that could peel the paint off of walls. How on earth she managed to partner with the temperamental, explosive Bakugou so often was anyone's guess, but then, considering his track record, maybe it wasn't that hard to understand. He was good at what he did.
He abruptly realized he'd kept quiet for too long when he noticed Kyouka's eyes were starting to twitch.
"Look," he offered, vying for an easy-going smile that had absolutely zero positive effect on his wife. "What were my options, given the situation? I did my best to exit the scene quickly and without conflict, and I reported it to the authorities as soon as I could! See? Model citizen."
Sero smirked and shook his head, but remained quiet.
"Yes," Kyouka grated, teeth clenched, "but you didn't have to promise to help her!"
He scratched at the back of his head, giving an awkward chuckle and hoping his tension wasn't as obvious to the others as it was to him.
"I mean, sure, but it's not like that changes anything. She was going to keep coming after me regardless."
"Are you sure?" Mina chimed in, sitting in a backward-facing chair and resting her chin and arms on the metal backrest. "I mean… What if she's telling the truth?"
Bakugou snorted from his position across the room.
Denki agreed with his angry friend's classy mouth noise but kept his attention on the pink one. "I know when my sister is lying."
"It has been over ten years, man," Sero said, finally speaking up. "And you two haven't had any contact. A lot could have changed."
Denki shook his head emphatically.
"No. She was too defensive about the MLA when I brought it up, and she had basically no control over her emotions. Sure, some things have probably changed, but I can still read her. Besides, her story doesn't make any sense."
"Hmm…" Detective Nakamura, who had spent most of this conversation staring at Denki through her rectangular glasses as though her eyes could pierce into his very soul, was now rifling through some papers in the folder sitting on the table in front of her. "Tell me. What is your assessment of the escaped Renjiro Kaminari? You've had no contact with him whatsoever since his arrest, correct?"
"With dad? No. I haven't seen him since… well, since before he was captured." He licked his lips. Even after all this time, memories of that last battle were difficult to revisit. "As for what I think of him… I don't get what you mean."
"You seem adamant that your sister, Emiko Kaminari, is lying." Why she felt the need to say a person's full name when talking about them, Denki had no idea, but it was distracting. "I'm trying to ascertain why you feel so strongly about this. I'm assuming it has to do with your father, either something in his disposition or some anecdote from his past?"
"Oh." Why did she have to word things in the most confusing way possible? "Then, yeah, I guess I'd say it's because of his disposition.
"My dad doesn't exactly have the strongest Quirk around. It's… basically just a weaker version of Emi's. But even though he did his best with it, my dad was… never really much of a fighter. He supported the MLA and later the PLF for the same reasons me and Emi did; because that was how we were raised. It was just the normal thing for someone who grew up in Deika. But he was never particularly dedicated to the cause."
"'Not particularly dedicated to the cause…'" Nakamura muttered, scribbling on her clipboard. "But he still stood up and fought against the Heroes. He may not have been the most devoted member, but he was devoted enough."
"Not to the PLF," Denki repeated. "He didn't fight for them. He fought for mom."
Kyoka's frustrated expression faltered, and he could see sympathy on Mina and Kouda's faces, but he kept his eyes on the detective.
"I see…" Nakamura mused, scribbling something else down on her clipboard. "So you don't believe your sister's story because your father-"
"Cared more about the family than the cause," Denki clarified. "He has no reason to hurt Emiko, it would be very out of character, and his motivations for coming after me… well, I doubt they're directly MLA related."
He took his hands off of the table and clenched them together on his lap, hoping nobody noticed that they were shaking. Emi's words in the alleyway seemed to echo in his head. Her reasons for coming after him and siding with his father weren't really MLA related either.
Nakamura opened her mouth, clearly about to ask the question he didn't want to have to answer when Bakugou came to his rescue.
"Who gives a damn what that asshole's motivations are?" he growled, looking murderous (which, to be fair, was his default expression). "I just want to know if Sparky's idiotic plan can actually work."
Kyouka stood up straight, shooting Bakugou an incredulous look.
"Wait, don't tell me we're actually going through with this-?!"
"I would need to get clearance from my superiors," Nakamura muttered, sounding more like she was talking to herself than answering Kyouka.
"Look, if the idiot wants to do it, I say we let him do it," Bakugou cut in, glowering at Kyouka. "From the sounds of it, his sister is going to be coming after him anyway. May as well take advantage of the situation."
"Kyouka," Yaoyarozu cut in gently before she could fire a retort back at Bakugou, "I know this isn't… ideal… but Kaminari is going to be a target either way. All we really need him to do is make contact with his sister again and she can lead us straight to his father."
"But that's just it!" Kyouka cried, exasperated. "We don't know that they're alone! There could easily be other PLF members working with them! You're asking me to sign off on my husband walking into an obvious trap, one set by his own family members, and to just be ok with it!"
"It is a little crazy," Sero offered, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Well, ok then - why would he have to go alone?" Mina asked, sitting up straight. "We can just get Tooru to follow them around, all invisible-!"
"There are too many variables to consider with that plan, especially since they'll most likely be on the street," Yaoyarozu replied, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "If she bumped into anyone, or if any other hypothetical PLF members have sensory or tracking Quirks, his cover would be blown. And given how his family possesses electric Quirks, any tracking devices I make stand a high chance of being destroyed-"
"I'll handle it." Hearing Kouda speak was still odd, even after so many years of knowing him. "I'll just set some animals to watching them. Nobody will think it's weird to see pigeons or stray cats around, and if anything goes wrong, we can have someone on standby to jump in!"
Denki was a little overwhelmed at how readily his friends seemed to be jumping on board with this admittedly insane plan, but it was Kyouka who looked the most surprised. And upset.
Nakamura was speaking with Bakugou, discussing the many complications of what actually going through this plan would entail, the others all debating the various ways they could potentially set up protections for Denki, everyone seemingly forgetting that he and Kyouka were even there now that they had switched fully into 'Hero' mode.
She turned to look at him, her shoulders stiff, her expression defeated, and he offered up his most encouraging smile.
"Hey, don't sweat it. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's playing the double-agent."
His joke was in poor taste, and he knew it, but he couldn't think of anything else to say.
"I know," she replied, looking away. "And that's the problem."
The meeting concluded with Detective Nakamura saying she'd get back to him later in the week regarding whether they received the ok or not to use him as bait, and Denki found himself walking home under a warm, muggy night sky in the company of his temporary bodyguard, Momo Yaoyoruzu.
On the one hand, he was a little disappointed that Yaomomo was on guard duty and not his wife, but as she was scheduled for patrol in a different part of the city, there wasn't anything they could do about that. On the other hand, with how angry she currently was, maybe it was better to give her some time to cool down before being alone with her.
Plus, it had been a while since he and Yaomomo had connected. May as well make the best of it.
"Y'know," he began after stepping aside to let a young high school couple pass him by on the narrow sidewalk, "if my dad and sister are keeping tabs on me, then we've already given ourselves away. You sure it's a good idea for me to be constantly in the company of Pro Heroes? Especially ones of your… caliber?"
Every person they passed by was seriously ogling. It didn't help that Creati's Hero costume was so uniquely revealing either, but seeing as she was currently ranked number seven in all of Japan, he knew she would have gotten stares either way.
"We're not supposed to talk about that in public, Kaminari," his companion replied acerbically, then sighed and shook her head, looking distracted. "Besides, it's common knowledge that we've been friends since high school. Us being spotted together isn't unusual."
"Sure, I guess," he replied, not really sure how to tackle that. She wasn't wrong, but… well, if he was a villain tailing a target who entered the building of a bunch of top Pros less than an hour after a meetup, he doubted he'd shrug it off no matter the target's connections with the Heroes.
Then again, it was entirely possible that Emi had approached him on the street knowing that he wouldn't believe her. Maybe they were counting on him playing along in order to trick them…
No, not important. This was his chance to put his dad back behind bars and keep his kids safe. His chance to help out for once, to not be left sitting on the sidelines. Any risks he was taking on didn't matter.
"So," he began again after Creati paused to sign an autograph for a balding middle-aged man who was sweating entirely too much for it to be just due to the heat, "how's the hubby? I feel like I haven't seen him in ages."
While most of Denki's old classmates were still single, a handful of them had elected to settle down not too long after Denki had finally convinced Kyouka to marry him. Technically, Midoriya and Uraraka had been the first to get together, but Denki didn't count that, because as far as he was concerned, they'd practically been married since they were teenagers. Or at least, that was how they had acted, and it was super gross. Adorable, and endearing, and still super gross.
He and Kyouka were a little… odd… in the sense that they'd gotten married pretty young. They were both twenty-one when they'd tied the knot, and Kyouka had given birth to Aika less than a year later. The speed at which they had seemed to be moving would have been a little abnormal for pretty much any couple - but for a Pro Hero to have to go on leave due to having a child so soon after going solo was almost unheard of. Some critics had even gone so far as to question if Kyouka was taking her job seriously.
Another oddity? Unlike regular couples, most Pros didn't change their names after getting married, as their names were part of their brand recognition. Yaoyoruzu was actually one of the rare exceptions to this; she had changed her name to Momo Todoroki after marrying her classmate but had elected to keep her maiden name for public use. Legally, she was Momo Todoroki, but everyone still called her Yaoyorozu (at least when they weren't calling her Creati).
When it came to kids, which name the child got was up to the couple. Sometimes one, sometimes the other; he heard some Western couples sometimes went with both, which just sounded confusing to him. Momo's daughter had her father's surname because both of her parents were old fashioned like that. In Denki's case, however, he'd been absolutely adamant with Kyouka. Their kids were taking her name. He didn't want them tainted with the Kaminari legacy.
"Shouto's doing fine," Yaoyorozu replied, a small, proud smile growing on her face. "He's been busy lately. I don't think he was too happy when he ranked number three last year. He tries to hide it, but his rivalry with Midoriya and Bakugou can get pretty fierce, and losing to those two has put a fire under him."
"Just him, huh?" Denki joked, flashing his taller friend a crooked grin. "So you're perfectly fine being ranked below them? I mean, seventh highest in the nation is amazing, but fifth highest in the class…?"
The glare she sent him would have frozen him solid if she had had her husband's Quirk.
"I am perfectly happy with my position, thank you," she snipped, and then, after a moment's pause, "besides, Tokoyami ranking above me was just a fluke this year, and I'm going to catch up to Shouto and the others in no time-!"
"I was kidding! Relax! Everyone thinks you're amazing, Yaomomo. Don't tell Kyouka this, but I'm pretty sure you're Aika's favorite Hero." Yaoyorozu's shoulders relaxed, her small smile growing more pronounced. "Besides, if Japan would just adopt my method of ranking Heroes based upon the number of crayon drawings they get from kids, then you'd be winning in a landslide. A literal landslide of terrible, badly proportioned, often illegible, chaotic scribbles-"
"Stop that," she chided gently as the two turned a corner, Denki's apartment building coming into view. "Those kids work really hard on those! They're sweet!"
"Sure," he nodded, "but does that mean you have to keep them all? I'm pretty sure that's a fire hazard."
"I…! I can't just throw them out! They put their hearts and souls into them!"
The look of literal distress on her face had him laughing right up until they arrived at the entrance to his apartment complex.
"Well, Yaomomo, allow me to thank you for a wonderful evening," he said, offering an exaggerated bow and a playful wink. "It was very sweet of you to walk me home. This has been a date I will never forget."
Not unexpectedly, she barely seemed fazed by his joke.
"I'm going to tell Kyouka you said that," she replied, a flat look on her face.
"I'm going to tell her, too," came the voice of Tanjiro, the security guard, from off to the side.
"Wha-? Come on, guys! Don't rat me out! I was just kidding!"
From the heavy looks they both exchanged, neither one had come around to his sense of humor yet. Go figure.
He was grateful to see, when he finally made his way back up to his apartment, that his kids hadn't managed to drive their grandmother to the verge of insanity yet.
"Thank you so much, Mika," Denki said, placing his hardhat, vest, and tool belt on the kitchen counter. "I'm so sorry for making you stay here so late-"
"It isn't a problem, Denki, honestly," his mother-in-law replied with a polite smile. It was astonishing to him how young she still looked, even though she was pushing fifty. Her hair hadn't even begun to grey yet, unlike her husband's, whose long locks had practically become a mane of pure silver.
The kids were in the living room, Rai watching some dumb cartoon while Aika pretended to focus on her summer homework (he knew her well enough to know when she was faking). While they were distracted, Mika leaned in a little closer and whispered, "What happened? Is Kyouka alright?"
"She's fine," he promised quietly, suddenly feeling guilty about not clarifying to her over the phone why he needed her to stay late. "I'm actually the reason we needed you to stay. Something… happened… on the way back."
Mika's eyes widened fearfully behind her dark frames.
"You mean…?"
"No, no," he reassured hastily, "nothing like that. He's still on the loose. Someone… made contact, that's all. I had to go down to the office to give my testimony so Kyouka and the others could put together a plan."
She still looked concerned, but before he could do anything more to ease her concerns, Aika entered the kitchen, clearly drawn over by her father's appearance, the dull look on her face a reflection of her clear lack of desire to focus on her homework.
"What are you two whispering about?" she asked as she grabbed the door to the fridge and pulled it open.
"Whether or not you two were behaving yourselves," Denki replied quickly. "Anyway, Mika, thanks again for everything. I hope that food I ordered was enough to feed everyone-"
"More than enough," Aika cut in from behind the fridge door. "We put the rest in here for you and mom."
"Awesome. Well then, we should probably let you go. Yaomomo is waiting downstairs to walk you back to your place."
Aika pulled back from the fridge, looking confused.
"What? Why is Yaoyarozu waiting to take grandma home?"
"Girl talk," Denki replied automatically. "You know, just… whatever it is that girls talk about?"
Aika quirked a brow, but Mika came to his rescue.
"That sounds lovely, I haven't seen Momo in ages. You kids behave for your father, ok? I'll see you all again soon!"
And, after a round of hugs and kisses, Mika waved goodbye and left, casting one last concerned look in Denki's direction before the door closed behind her.
Denki sighed. She'd be fine. Yaoyorozu walking her home was just a precaution, and not even a necessary one. His dad wasn't very likely to target her or Kyouka's father. The police hadn't even recommended any extra protections for them; this was just Yaoyorozu being overly cautious.
Turning back from the door, he was surprised to find Aika still standing in the kitchen and staring at him.
"Why are you back so late?"
He had to work to form a smile on his face.
"What? Did you miss me?"
He expected her to scoff and brush him off, but she didn't, instead leaning against the counter and asking, "Was there an attack?"
For a moment, he thought his heart stopped beating. But then he shook it off, realizing she can't have meant anything regarding his father.
"O-oh, um… Yeah. But don't worry, I wasn't caught up in it. It just caused traffic, that's all."
"Was mom…?"
"No, no. She's in a different part of town tonight."
When she didn't look convinced, he decided to change the topic.
"So… Dad needs to take a bath, because he smells, and then he needs to eat some dinner… but after that, you kids down to watch a movie?"
Rai shouted in ecstatic affirmation from the living room, surprising Denki because he'd nearly forgotten he was even there, and Aika shrugged, taking her glass of green tea with her back into the other room. Well, that was about as excited as she got about anything, so he'd take that as a yes.
His bath lasted just a bit too long, with him sitting sprawled in the tub, steam clouding the air around him as images of his encounter in the alley flashed through his head.
His little sister was alive… It seemed almost unreal. And yet, from the look in her eyes, the anger in her tone, she hadn't managed to forgive him even after all this time. Not surprising, considering what had happened as a result of his betrayal. Still… even knowing that she was almost without a doubt working with their father, and was probably the one who broke him out in the first place and had only showed herself after all these years as part of an intricate plan to get revenge… He couldn't deny that part of him was still happy.
However this went down, his already irreparably damaged family was going to get even worse… but he could take this moment, at least, to be grateful for that one small, silver lining.
After he got out, got dressed, and reheated what was left of the takeout his kids had saved for him in the fridge, he joined them on the couch, and, after some deliberation, the film they decided on was an old classic - Laputa.
It was old, but it was Kyouka's favorite, so his kids had kind of been indoctrinated into loving it. Gotta love parenting. Rai sat on Denki's left, hugging a pillow in his arms and looking far too excited to watch this movie he'd seen three dozen times. Aika sat on her father's right, and, when she asked if she could play on his phone, he decided to give in. He couldn't keep it from her forever without causing suspicion, and so long as he could see what she had on the screen, it shouldn't be a problem.
Not even an hour into the film, however, Rai had fallen asleep. He'd practically squished himself into Denki's side and was drooling into his shirt. Normally, Denki would have been content with leaving him there on the couch until the movie was over, but his snoring had grown so loud that you couldn't even hear what was being said.
He was about to push himself up from the couch so he could carry him to bed when Aika spoke up.
"Hey, dad?"
"Hmm? What's up?"
There was a pause, and for a moment he thought she'd become so engrossed in whatever game she was playing that she forgot she'd spoken.
"Does mom… have to be a hero?"
He felt his body tense.
Oh, great. Here it was…
Denki wasn't really good with words, or with handling important topics like these. He just knew he was going to say something stupid and screw this up, which would only bode well for when he finally gave her 'the talk' (unless he could get Kyouka to do it).
Still, he was her dad. This was part of the job.
"Does she have to?" he replied, choosing his words as carefully as he could. "No. But she wants to. Your mom chooses to risk her life every day, to give up her free time, so she can help keep people safe. So other kids' parents can make it home for dinner every night, even if she can't."
There was a quiet pause as Aika watched the phone screen and he watched her. The only other source of light was the pale blue of the television screen.
"Is… Is that what happened to your parents?"
He stopped breathing.
She had never said a word about his parents before. Never. Not once.
Slowly, she turned her face away from the phone, her golden eyes glowing in the half-light.
"You never talk about them, and we don't have any pictures. We see grandma and grandpa all the time, but your mom and dad… Did… Are they gone? Could a hero have saved them?"
His mouth opened slowly, but no sound came out. His heart had lodged itself in his throat.
Could a hero have saved them?
No, Aika. No, they couldn't.
Heroes are the reason your aunt has been on the run for over a decade.
Heroes are the reason your grandfather was sent to jail.
Heroes are the reason your grandmother-
He cut the thought off aggressively. No, it wasn't the heroes' fault. It was theirs. They made their choices. The Heroes did what they had to to keep people safe. Safe from villains. Safe from his family.
But that was another conversation. Another one he didn't want to have. Another one he knew he'd have to.
He shouldn't put it off. Now was the time. The sooner the better. She needed to know...
Instead, he managed to unstick his throat and say, "...Yeah, maybe."
Maybe. If life had been different. If they'd been born different people. If the MLA had never existed.
Maybe.
And maybe, if he managed to pull this off without a hitch, if he could lead the Pros to his father and put him back behind bars… Maybe this conversation could happen another day.
There was a moment of silence, and then Aika leaned over and grabbed him in a surprise hug.
"I'm sorry…" she whispered, her voice barely a squeak.
"For what?" he asked, his attempt at a laugh coming out more like a gasp.
"I don't know," she replied shakily, "but I'm sorry."
He brought his arms over to return his daughter's hug, accidentally upsetting Rai in the process, who promptly toppled over onto Denki's lap, still asleep and drooling all over his pants. He didn't mind.
"Don't apologize, Aika," he said softly, stroking her hair. "You did nothing wrong. I'm the one who's sorry. I promise, I'll tell you all about my family, just… just not right now. It's not a happy story."
There was a pause, and then, "...ok."
He smiled as they pulled apart, gently wiping at her cheeks, so like her mother's… and then lightly zapped her with a bit of his electricity.
"I- hey!" she cried, slapping his hand away and grinning. She didn't quite have his immunity to electrocution, but her Quirk did afford her a certain level of resistance, so his occasional playful shocks didn't cause her any harm.
"Alrighty. Enough bonding. Let's get drooly here to bed, huh?"
About an hour later, after he'd tucked in both of his kids and cleaned up a bit, saw Denki lying on his back in his bed, staring up at the ceiling in the dark. Kyouka hadn't come home yet. She was probably in for another long night.
He let his eyes close, replaying key moments of the day. Hugging Emi. Hugging Aika. And remembering what it was like when his parents had hugged him.
Could a Hero have saved them?
If Denki had gone down a different path, if he'd made better decisions… Could he have been that Hero?