Chapter Nine

The morning after his meeting with Bakugou and Detective Nakamura found Denki at home, sitting on the couch in his living room, secretly watching the news on his phone with his headphones in so that his kids wouldn't notice.

He still hadn't told Aika. Every time he thought about it, he would back down, telling himself the timing wasn't right. The truth was, he was just scared, and he knew it. But considering what he was preparing to do later that day, well… He wanted to enjoy his morning while he could.

From the screen on his phone, he watched as the media continued to circle around the topic of his father like vultures around a soon-to-be carcass. At the moment, reporters from multiple news outlets were seated at a press conference, grilling various government officials, Pro Heroes, and high-ranking police officers regarding the breakout and ensuing manhunt of the ex-PLF members. They weren't talking about his dad specifically, but Denki could admit that he had tunnel vision, at least in this regard.

There were a few familiar faces up on the stand, including Asui, Shoji, and Midoriya. The bulk of the questions were being directed at the speaker from the NPA who'd taken center stage, which was a good thing, because, as usual, the reporters were holding nothing back. They never stated it outright, but the direction they were going with their questioning included several not-so-subtle suggestions that the police and Heroes were doing a terrible job and that if they were more competent, the escaped convicts would have already been found and captured by now.

One of the good things about not being a Hero was not having to deal with the press directly himself. He had no idea how his friends did it. Risking your life every day to save people only to be attacked by some reporter who got paid to highlight your each and every flaw to a national audience, skewered in the worst way possible, just so that they could use the drama to inflate their ratings and line their pockets. Sometimes, it honestly didn't seem like they were human.

He'd been watching for a few minutes, sighing and rolling his eyes whenever a reporter levied an unfair attack against one of his friends, but he found himself tensing uncomfortably when the moment he'd been dreading finally came to pass.

They mentioned his name.

"According to reports, one of the escaped convicts was Renjiro Kaminari, father of Denki Kaminari, perhaps best known as the infamous UA Traitor. Have you considered the likelihood that he aided in his father's escape?"

Denki had known that suspicion would be turned on him eventually, given both his personal connection to the man as well as his 'villainous' history. The police had likely considered it immediately after the breakout. He knew that and had accepted it. That didn't make it any easier to hear, especially not on national television.

The NPA representative who had been fielding most of the questions opened his mouth to respond, but before he could speak, Midoriya leaned forward and took hold of the microphone that had been set in front of him.

He smiled, and Denki couldn't help but smile himself at the fact that Japan's newest Number One Hero and successor to the legendary All Might had still not managed to entirely grow out of his awkward phase, nor his stage fright.

"I just want to reassure everyone that my colleagues and I are doing everything we can to catch the escaped prisoners as quickly as possible. This means that we have been, and are still, exploring every possible avenue to resolve this issue swiftly and efficiently."

Sure, Deku sounded a lot more professional now - at least in the sense that he could string coherent sentences together without rambling too much - but the omnipresent wobble in his voice showed that he still wasn't comfortable in front of cameras, a factor which actually played heavily into his popularity; his awkwardness made him seem more down-to-earth and approachable, which was a big deal considering how he could change the weather with a single punch. The fact that he had volunteered to speak despite his fears said a lot.

"The connection between the PLF and this breakout is a concern for everyone, but that is especially true for myself, Froppy, Tentacole, and the rest of our old classmates from high school. We were there at the fall of UA, on the front lines of every battle against Shigaraki and the League, and there is no one who wants these villains back behind bars more than we do.

"As for Kaminari, he has an alibi, and there are multiple eye-witnesses that can attest to his whereabouts on the day of the breakout. Please trust that the police have done their due diligence regarding the matter and that Kaminari has the complete trust of myself and my friends. If there was any doubt at all regarding his involvement in the breakout, we would not be having this discussion right now."

Midoriya tried to end his would-be professional statement with a smile, but it came out as more of a nervous smirk. It didn't help that Shoji was seated beside him, glaring daggers at the reporter who had asked the question.

Denki let out a slow breath. He hadn't seen Midoriya in a while, but the next time he did, he owed that anxious ball of nerves a big ol' hug.

Deciding he'd had enough of the news and not sure that he had the guts needed to stomach whatever rebuttal those reporters had cooked up, Denki closed the app and shoved his phone into his pocket. It was nearly noon. Time to make sure the kids were ready to head out.

He entered the kitchen to find both of his children seated at the bar being disturbingly quiet.

He stopped next to the counter and frowned down at them.

"Is something wrong?"

"Huh?" Aika asked, glancing up.

"You're behaving."

She rolled her eyes and he smiled, heading to the fridge to get a drink.

"What are you up to anyway?"

"Homework," she mumbled absently.

"Still?"

She shot him an annoyed look.

"Sorry, it's just… you're seven. How much summer homework can you possibly have?"

She'd been out of school for a couple weeks now, and with all the time she'd been cooped up indoors thanks to her grandfather, she should have been done by now. Kids would be kids though; it's not like he was ever on top of his summer homework. Still, what could her school have possibly assigned her aside from the most basic of math problems and dull kanji drills?

Aika's irritation only seemed to be getting stronger.

"I'll be eight soon, you know," she grumbled, as though that had any bearing whatsoever on the question he'd asked.

"Will you?" Denki replied, pretending to sound doubtful. "That doesn't sound right…"

"Yes," she growled, now ignoring her homework entirely so she could glower up at her dad. "You know that. You know my birthday is next week."

"Hmm, next week, huh?" he continued, walking around the fridge and flipping ostentatiously through the calendar stuck to the side. "I dunno, I don't remember anything about that… What do you think, Rai? Does your sister have a birthday next week?"

Raidin was seated quietly beside his sister with his tongue stuck out as he carefully (and messily) scribbled on a piece of paper with so much focus you'd have thought he was the one working on his homework.

When he heard his name, he glanced up and said, "Wha?"

"Aika says she has a birthday coming up, but I think she's lying. What do you think?"

His eyes bounced back and forth between his angry sister and his amused father as though he were seriously considering the question.

Finally, with a pensive frown, he said, "Um… I don't know."

Aika rolled her eyes again while Denki reached across the counter to ruffle his son's hair affectionately.

"This is too hard. Can we invite Rei over? She's better than me at writing."

"Oh, so you want to copy your friend's answers then, huh?"

"No! I just… want to work on it together."

Rei was Aika's best friend and fellow classmate. She was also Yaoyorozu and Todoroki's only daughter. Aika was the older by three months, but you wouldn't know it just by looking at them, as Rei had inherited her mother's height and her father's stoicism, which made her seem more mature than her age would imply.

"Hmm, maybe," he said in response to her previous question. He didn't want to make any promises, though, as being in his home might actually put Rei in danger. "What's this assignment you're working on that's giving you so much trouble? Maybe dad can help."

"I have to write about who my favorite Hero is," she explained, sounding like she was faced with the single most unpleasant task to have ever been assigned in human history. "A whole paragraph."

Oh no, the world was ending.

"Well, that sounds easy. Just write something about your mom."

She shot him an unreadable look but didn't answer. Ah, well… better not to force it. She could write about whatever she wanted.

Funnily enough, according to old movies and such, kids used to be asked homework questions about who their hero was even back before Quirks had first manifested. It had an entirely different connotation then, however. What a weird thing to think about.

"Alrighty, well maybe I'll talk to Yaomomo about letting you spend the day over at their place soon. How does that sound?"

His daughter's expression lit up from grumpy to excited so fast you'd think he'd flipped a switch.

"Really?! Can we have a sleep-over?! Can we go today?!"

"Not today, sorry. We already promised your grandparents that you'd pay them a visit."

"Ugh, again?"

Denki paused and shot Aika a warning look.

"Hey now. Don't be like that. Your grandparents love you."

"I know," she grumbled, avoiding his gaze. "But all we've done this summer is go to their house or stay home. I want to do something else. I want to play with Rei."

"Be nice to grandma and grandpa and I promise I'll ask Momo today, ok?"

"Fiiiiiine…"

A few minutes later, after scouring the apartment for Rai's shoes and cramming Aika's homework into her backpack in the hopes that her grandma would be of more help, Denki and his kids exited the apartment, bid farewell to Tanjiro, who never seemed to have a day off, and set off towards Jirou's parents' house.

It was a nice day out. Bright sun, clear sky, gentle breeze. The perfect day to risk his life like an idiot.

Almost as soon as they reached the first corner, they 'happened' to bump into Mina while she was out on patrol and she offered to walk with them. This was, of course, not an accident at all, but his kids didn't need to know that. Thankfully, they didn't seem to notice anything weird about the situation. They liked 'aunt' Mina, after all (though to be fair, everyone liked Mina), and Denki was grateful for the distraction she provided.

Contrary to what he'd told his kids when he announced he was once again dropping them off at their grandparents' place, Denki had not actually received another request to respond to a call for his side-gig (now 'only' gig) as an electrician. It had been days since he'd had his surprise run-in with Emiko, and now that he officially had the OK from the Pros and police, it was time for him to actually be useful for once.

He'd be lying if he said he wasn't a little nervous, however. He kept fidgeting with the ring Nakamura had given him, twisting it around his finger, struggling not to think of all the ways this could blow up spectacularly in his face. It had been a long time since he'd been in a real fight (though, of course, he was supposed to be avoiding fighting if possible, but let's be realistic here). If he screwed up, this could go very, very poorly.

As predicted, Kyouka had not been… pleased… when he broke the news to her. He'd expected a lot of shouting, a fight to put all of their past quarrels to shame, but what he'd gotten instead had somehow been worse.

She'd just stared at him, silently resigned, and when he asked her what was wrong, all she'd said was, 'I just don't want to see you get hurt again.'

Something in her tone told him she wasn't talking about physical injuries.

Still, he couldn't back down. After the attack the other night, he was more aware than ever that it was dangerous to be around him. How long until his father grew bolder and tried to attack him out in the open, in a crowded street, or even in his own home? The faster they got this done, the faster his dad would go back behind bars, and the faster he and his family could return to a normal life.

Several minutes later, after dropping his kids off, bidding his in-laws farewell, and thanking Mina (who knew full well what he was planning to do for the day and looked more than a little uneasy about it), Denki set off down the street, heading in no particular direction and trying his best not to look nervous.

Being the bait meant allowing Emi to lead him to his father, then using his Quirk to send a signal to the Pros via the ring on his finger, which would allow them to locate and capture the convict. On paper, it was a plan that could definitely maybe probably work. The problem was, he had no idea how to find his sister in the first place.

She'd told him that she'd be the one contacting him when he'd agreed to her insane and almost-certainly-fake plan, but that had been several days ago. He hadn't seen nor heard from her since. Had she given up? Did she realize that he was going to use her to turn her and their dad over to the police? He had no idea what was going through her head right now, and the fact that that meant he could very easily stumble into a trap while walking alone on the street like this did little to ease his nerves.

What did 'contact him' mean, anyway? Like, send him a letter? Find his phone number and message him? Maybe a stranger on the street in an overcoat and a fedora would approach him and give him coordinates for a sketchy rendezvous like you see in the movies. How did they set that up, anyway? Could you rent people to do that? Like, pay them by the hour? What were their rates?

Luckily for him, he didn't have to wait long. After about ten minutes of randomly walking up-and-down just about every street or alleyway he came across like a confused ant, a figure in a familiar grey hoodie stepped up out of nowhere beside him, matching their pace with his.

He just about leaped out of his skin when he noticed her, which elicited a snort from his little sister.

"Wow, somebody's jumpy."

"Gah!" he said as if that was a word and that word had an agreed-upon definition that summed up how it felt to have your long-lost sister who probably not-so-secretly wanted you dead suddenly appear at your side like the world's smoothest ghost. "Where did you come from?"

"I was around," she replied vaguely, flashing him a superior smirk. This brat… She still didn't want him to know where she was staying. Well, that was fine.

"Where have you been?" he asked instead, fighting to regain his composure. Now that she was actually here beside him, his confidence in their plan was waning fast. She made him uneasy. What if she had accomplices waiting to ambush him around the next corner?

No, Denki, focus - this is your chance. Think of your kids.

"Around," she repeated, and he had to stop himself from groaning.

"Yeah, but around where? I haven't seen you since-"

"That's not my fault," she cut in lazily, peering cautiously around the edge of her hood as though she suspected that Denki had been followed and that he was the one laying the trap. "You're the one who's always walking around with those Hero friends of yours."

Well… actually, yeah, that was true. Still though…

"So what?" he asked, and she turned to stare at him like he was an idiot.

"What do you mean, 'so what?' I can't exactly go revealing my face in front of some Pro and-"

"Why not?" he repeated and rolled his eyes when she gawked at him. "You act like there are wanted posters strung up everywhere with your face on them. Need I remind you, I thought you were dead up until you attacked me in that alley, and you were fifteen during the war with Shigaraki. If the police even have any photos of you, they're all really outdated. The only one who could recognize you on-sight is me."

That was… sort-of true. The police really didn't have any photos of Emi. That was something he'd talked about with Nakamura in their first meeting. However, they knew now, or at least Nakamura and superiors knew, that she was alive. Spreading the word around to every cop and Hero in the city would defeat the purpose of Denki being bait, however, so very few people actually knew that a person named Emiko Kaminari even existed, let alone that she was in the city and quite possibly associated with the recent breakout.

"So you think if I just waltz on up and start chatting away with you like we're old pals, your Hero friends wouldn't make the connection?"

He shrugged. "My wife, sure. Maybe most of my friends, though we could probably come up with an alibi. Most of the Heroes in the city only know me by name, not by my face, and they definitely don't know my whole life story."

Well, they knew he was the UA Traitor, but that didn't mean they'd researched his life extensively and knew he had a little sister who was presumed to have died during the last battle with Shigaraki and the League. She would probably be fine.

"You would just be another civilian to them so long as you don't go around trying to preach about the Liberation."

She glowered at him, clearly trying to find some way to argue against what he'd said, but after a moment, she cursed under her breath and pulled her hood down.

Denki smirked. He'd won.

Walking around town with his little sister was… utterly bizarre, now that he thought about it. It was like being forced to hang out with an estranged cousin you barely knew and didn't really like, but also that cousin might secretly want you dead.

He now wanted his dad to attack more than ever if only so he could escape from this awkward atmosphere. What were they supposed to even talk about? Crime?

"So how's it been going?" he asked just as a way to fill the silence, turning blindly down another street. He had no idea where he was going, but as Emi hadn't volunteered to take him anywhere yet, he may as well wander. If a PLF member was going to jump out and attack them, it was more likely to happen in an uncrowded alley or backstreet than on the main thoroughfare. And that was what he was supposed to be doing, after all. At least, according to Emi's totally-fake plan.

"Why should I tell you anything?" she spat, and Denki took in a slow breath through his nostrils as he fought down his annoyance.

Why did she insist on always being so… difficult? Then again, she'd been that way when they were teenagers, too. In that respect, she actually hadn't changed much. It was almost kind of nostalgic.

"I meant, have you been attacked at all? You said you were being hunted, remember?"

"Oh," she said, and Denki had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. She wasn't very good at this 'lying' thing. "No, I've been fine. There are a lot of Heroes in this city, so I think they're lying low for now."

"Didn't stop them from attacking me the other day," he muttered sullenly, and it was Emi's turn to smirk.

"Well, maybe you just have a uniquely punchable face."

"Hey, I happen to think I have a very handsome face. My wife certainly seems to like it."

She scoffed and muttered the word 'wife' under her breath, and he glared at her.

"Do you have a problem with my wife?"

"How can I have a problem with someone I don't know?" she replied, turning with him to walk down yet another street. This one was particularly empty, and many of the buildings looked old and run-down. Maybe the attack would be here? "Though she is a Hero, so that's minus points. Plus she married you, so she can't be that bright."

He opened his mouth to insult her back, determined to defend his wife's honor (though that was really more of a diss on him than on her), but the distant sound of an explosion echoing from somewhere behind him had him spinning on the spot, prepared for anything.

Denki wasn't the only one. What few people there were on the street with them had stopped to turn and look in the direction of the sound as well. Black smoke was beginning to rise over the tops of the nearby buildings. Whatever it was, it was close. Only a few streets over.

Wait… what? Why a few streets over? Denki was over here. That didn't make sense.

With his eyes locked on the plume of black smoke steadily climbing into the sky, he felt his heart gradually begin to hammer in his chest. Honestly, that smoke could mean anything - a car accident, a grease fire, a normal villain attack unrelated to the PLF… but if he had to put money on it, Denki would bet anything that that was not the case. Sure, maybe he just had PLF on the brain since he was out on the street trying to bait them out, but…

The only question was, if it really was the PLF… why weren't they attacking him directly? Why attack something behind…

Like the pieces to a puzzle clicking together, Denki realized that the smoke was rising from the exact area he'd come from, and before he even realized what he was doing, he took off at a sprint down the street, shoving his way past stationary pedestrians, blood and adrenaline thundering in his ears.

"Wha- Hey! Denki, where are you-?!"

But he left Emi behind, not bothering to answer. He didn't have time. True, he didn't know where that smoke was coming from, and there were dozens of different possible explanations. But something inside of him - call it paternal intuition, instinct, a sixth sense, his gut, whatever - was telling him that one of those possibilities was likelier than the others.

He was out of breath by the time he rounded the corner back onto the street where his in-laws lived, only to be met with the horrifying sight of their quaint, familiar two-story home completely up in flames.

There was a crowd already gathered on the street consisting of terrified onlookers, evacuating neighbors, and those who had just shown up for the spectacle of it all. Fire trucks and police cars had already arrived, yellow-coated men and women hooking up hoses to douse the flames while the police forced the crowd back for space. The flames that had engulfed the building were unnaturally large, especially given how little time had passed since the sound of the explosion.

Denki dove into the crowd, fighting his way through it until he noticed a familiar head of silver hair near an ambulance.

"Kyotoku!"

Coughing weakly, eyes red and streaming with tears, his father-in-law turned back at the sound of his name and stared in shock when he noticed Denki fighting his way through the crowd. The ambulance was behind the police perimeter, however, so when Denki tried to cross over, he was blocked by an officer.

"It's ok!" Kyotoku shouted, though his voice sounded unusually weak. "Let him through! He's my son!"

The officer relented, releasing Denki and letting him stumble his way over to his family, who were huddled around the back of the ambulance. Kyotoku reached out to grasp his shoulder solemnly as Aika, noticing her father, tore herself from her grandmother's embrace to fling herself at her dad. She was shaking and sobbing uncontrollably.

"What happened?" Denki gasped, still trying to get a grasp of the situation.

'I… I don't know," Mika answered, hugging herself and staring at the ground. "You'd only been gone for a few minutes, I-I was talking to Aika in the dining room, and then…"

The explosion. Here, of all places… this wasn't a coincidence.

"You were attacked? By who?"

"We… We didn't see them…" Mika gasped, wiping unsteadily at her cheeks, but she didn't need to answer. It was obvious who had attacked them. The only question was, why? Denki hadn't been there. He had been out on the street with Emi. The PLF had to have known exactly where he was...

Denki's train of thought cut out, his eyes bouncing across the faces in front of them, counting, counting again.

"Where's Rai?"

Mika made a noise in her chest that had Denki's throat closing up. Kyotoku's grip on Denki's shoulder grew painful as his eyes, heavy with sorrow and guilt, met his own.

"He… He's still inside."

Denki hadn't even realized he'd released Aika and charged towards the house until a police officer caught him halfway to the burning building.

"Sir! Stand down!"

"Let me go!"

"Sir, you need to stay back-!"

"Let me go! My son is in that building! Let me-!"

A second man, this one a firefighter, appeared at the officer's side, seizing Denki by the shoulder and forcing him back.

"You're in the way!"

"Shut up, let me-!"

The firefighter seized him by the front of his shirt, shaking him roughly.

"Listen to me! Real life ain't like the movies - you go into that building and you don't come back out! It's bad enough that we've got one person we need to save, we don't need you making things worse!"

Then he shoved Denki forcefully back, nearly making him topple over, but Kyotoku was there to catch him.

Denki was seething. In a removed way, he knew the firefighter was right. People heroically charging into burning buildings was the sort of thing people did on tv because it looked cool. In the real world, it just got you killed. He knew that. He did.

But he also knew that his son was in that building. Which meant logic and reason could go to hell.

"I'm sorry, Denki," his father-in-law was saying, his voice thick with emotion. "I tried… I tried to run up and get him, but the flames… it's like they're alive. They moved to block my path, and they swallowed the stairs…"

The police officer was still there, talking over him, looking apologetic yet determined, though Denki could barely hear him.

"None of the Pros on the scene right now have the right Quirks to enter the building safely," he was saying, and over his shoulder, Denki could see the firefighters blasting their hoses into the windows on the first floor, but the flames barely seemed to notice them. A blur of pink caught his eye, and he noticed that Mina was there, trying to use her acid to help the firefighters fight the flames. The side of her costume was smoldering; had she tried to enter the building as well?

"Help is on the way, however," the officer continued. "We've received word that both the Pro Heroes Shouto and Real Steel are on heading over. They should be here any minute now, and they'll be able to help."

Of course. Todoroki could put the flames out with his ice, and Tetsutetsu could charge into the building without a care for the heat. But his son may not have minutes. With flames that high, with smoke that thick… the building was beginning to groan, the structural integrity weakened beneath the all-consuming flame. Kyotoku was right; this fire was unnatural in every sense of the word. This wasn't normal arson. This was someone's Quirk at work.

None of that mattered now, though. All he cared about was getting his son out of that building alive, and he didn't care what rules or laws he had to break to do so. He was going to charge right into that building again, and if anyone tried to stop him, he would shock them to keep them back if he had to.

Someone grabbed his arm, tugging him sideways and slightly away from the cop and his father-in-law.

Denki turned to shrug whoever it was off but found himself staring.

Emi was nearly as out of breath as he was, her eyes wide and on the fire. She had followed him? Here?! In the midst of all these cops and Pro Heroes?!

"Where is he?" she panted, looking sweaty and pale in the glow of the fire.

"What?"

"Your kid! I heard you yelling. He's still inside, right? Where is he?"

He knew this was a life-or-death situation, but his brain was having trouble struggling to put together what she was asking. This was a PLF attack, wasn't it? She was with the PLF. Why was she asking where his kid was when they were the ones who lit the house on fire and trapped him inside in the first place?

The cop had turned his stern glare away from Denki and onto his sister. At his side, Kyotoku was gaping at Emi with a look of slowly-dawning comprehension.

"Ma'am, no one is going to enter this building without our consent-!"

"He's on the second floor!" Kyotoku shouted, earning a curse from the cop and an affirmative nod from his sister.

"I can get him out," she said, staring into Denki's eyes and ignoring the police officer's continued protests. She held her hand out to him. "But I need a boost."

It occurred to Denki at that moment that he was being asked to place the life of his son in the hands of a woman who by all rights was likely working to kill him, and whose friends and accomplices were responsible for putting Rai in danger in the first place. The smart thing to do was probably to say no.

But what choice did he have? Todoroki and Tetsutetsu were who knows how far away, the building was going to come down any second now, and for all he knew, Rai could already be dead. If you're dangling from a cliff, you grab at whatever you can, even if you don't know if it can support you.

He reached out and took his sister's hand.

"Please bring him out," he gasped, and in a brilliant flash, let his Quirk send electricity coursing throughout his body as powerfully as he could manage without going brain-dead.

The cop leaped back with a shout, but a second later, all of Denki's electricity had been absorbed into his sister like rain on parched desert sand. She held his gaze, her eyes beginning to glow with the power he'd given her, and nodded.

The cop threw his arms wide again as if he were a human partition.

"I already told you, no one is going near that building without-"

With a golden electric flash, Emi sped away, straight under the cop's extended arm and towards the burning building, leaving the man gaping like an idiot.

Emiko's Quirk was called 'EMS' and was similar in a lot of ways to their father's. Just like him, she had the ability to absorb electrical charges and expel them at point-of-contact. Also just like him, she was unable to generate her own electrical current. Denki was the only member of their family who had that ability, or the ability to shoot that lightning out of his body without needing to touch anyone, which played a large part in why the MLA had had such high hopes for him when he was younger. But the belief that that meant Denki had a stronger Quirk than his sister was wrong. She could do things Denki and his father couldn't even dream of.

One second, Emi had been at his side. The next, she was skidding to a halt by the side of the burning building, crouching low beneath one of the second-story windows. She had a look of intense concentration on her face, as well as pained discomfort from being so near the flames, but she never took her eyes off of the window.

EMS stood for 'Electrical Muscle Stimulation'. He remembered learning about it in health class in school. Normal muscle contractions in the human body were stimulated by small electrical impulses passed through nerve endings, and it was actually possible to stick little wires to your body and force muscles to contract by zapping them with electricity.

Emi's Quirk was basically that, cranked up to eleven. She could spend the electricity she absorbed to enhance the strength of her muscle contractions, which basically meant that she could, at least temporarily, run faster, jump higher, or punch harder than a regular person. But only so long as the electricity lasted. And it never lasted for long.

The people working the fire finally noticed her. Shouts were raised, a Pro was dispatched to catch her and pull her back, but electricity was already crackling around her thighs and calves. A second later, she leaped explosively into the air, rising two full stories, her right fist cocked back to throw a punch.

Her fist hit the window with a flash and a bang as she expelled the last of the lightning she'd stored up straight through her knuckles and into the glass, which exploded inward, releasing a cloud of smoke and ash that swallowed Emi whole as it rose upward in an undulating column.

She caught the windowsill, her legs kicking erratically as she struggled to pull herself into the building. And then she was gone.

People were shouting now, firefighters still desperately firing their hoses, Pros and cops trying to hold the line as the onlookers bellowed and gasped. Mika was holding Aika again, Kyotoku standing at Denki's side, all of their eyes trained on the window and the black plume of smoke rising from the burning building that held Denki's sister and his son.

He didn't know how long they waited. Time seemed to have lost all meaning. It could have been seconds, or minutes, or days. The heat from the flames was oppressive, even at this distance, stinging his cheeks and arms like a sunburn. The smoke pricked at his eyes and irritated his throat. The building groaned again, and he couldn't help but wonder how much longer it could stay standing.

Then, out of the smoke from the open window, a shape appeared.

It was Rai. He was unconscious, hanging from one arm as Emi dangled him from the window into the fresh, open air. He could just see her, slumped against the ledge, coughing violently, as firefighters and Pros surged beneath her. One of the firefighters lifted his hands, his Quirk extending his arms like accordions, grabbing him, lowering him safely to the ground.

Denki tried to be the first to rush towards his son, but the EMTs beat him to it, gathering Rai in their arms and rushing him back to the ambulance even as they slipped an oxygen mask over his face.

Emi was lowered down next, though she nearly fell out of the window as she tried to get down. The same firefighter had to catch her, and as he placed her on the ground, Denki could see that her right hand was bleeding profusely. She had it clutched to her chest, blood oozing down her arm as she coughed, a cop having to support her as they walked towards the waiting ambulance.

When he caught up to the EMTs, Rai had already been placed on a gurney, the oxygen mask still strapped to his face. His eyes were still closed, but he could see he was breathing.

Mika, Kyotoku, and Aika were already there, the grandparents speaking to the EMT while Aika held her brother's hand and cried.

"...still breathing," the EMT was saying, "but it's very faint. It would be best if we bring him to the ER and let them run some tests. He inhaled a lot of smoke. There will probably be lung damage, and we can't rule out the risk of something like cyanide poisoning…"

"Can we ride with him?" Mika asked, and the EMT nodded.

"Sure, but we only have so much space. I can take two with me; the others will need to find their own ride."

"You go," Kyotoku said, addressing his wife. "One of us needs to stay here for a bit until they get our house put out."

"And take Aika," Denki cut in. "I… There's something I need to check on, but I'll be down to the hospital in just a bit."

As they loaded into the ambulance, Denki kept his eyes on his kids. Aika hadn't even seemed to notice that she was in a vehicle. She was holding her grandmother's hand and staring at her brother like the world was ending. Rai's face was so pale. He didn't seem to have any burns, which was good, but… lung damage, cyanide poisoning… Most deaths in building fires were caused by smoke, not fire.

As the vehicle pulled away, Kyotoku put an arm around Denki's shoulder.

"He'll be alright, son."

Denki turned his head and stared over at the still-burning building. Part of the roof had caved in, but the fires seemed to be dying down now, finally.

"Kyotoku… I'm so sorry-"

"Don't. You know this isn't your fault."

But it was. They'd been attacked because of him. They both knew it.

"Now go on," he said, clapping him on the shoulder. "You should do whatever it is you wanted to do then get on down to the hospital. And give my daughter a call. I get the feeling I'll be tied up for a while, but I'll be down as soon as I can."

Not for the first time, Denki was in awe of his father-in-law. He'd just nearly died and had lost not only his home but practically all of his earthly possessions, and here he was, standing tall. Keeping it together. Trying to comfort him.

Nodding, Denki turned and made his way over to the second ambulance so he could check on his sister. That cut had looked bad, and she was probably going to be suffering from side-effects from smoke inhalation as well.

Still… What on earth. She was the bad guy, right? She and her friends had done this. So why risk her life by running into a burning building to save a life that they'd put in danger in the first place? It didn't make any sense.

Could… Could he have been wrong? Was she… maybe not working with their father?

When he arrived at the second ambulance, however, he found the EMTs in a state of nervous panic and confusion.

Emi had disappeared.