Chapter Sixteen
Deika was in flames.
The Hero attack had come as a surprise to everybody - Denki included, even though he'd been the one who had sent off the message the day before.
After watching Kouda's pigeons fly away, he'd waited around anxiously for the next few hours, wondering if he'd get a response back, wondering if maybe Jirou would try to contact him over the earpiece she'd left him, wondering if anyone was going to clue him in on what the next step would be… but no. After sending off the message that marked the second life-changing betrayal he had made in his young life, he was left to stew alone in a pool of fear and anxiety and desperation as his friends and the other Pros took his information and, hopefully, set about coming up with a plan to finally bring Shigaraki to justice.
And after a fitful, sleepless night, Denki arose the next morning to find nothing amiss. No messages, no pigeons on the roof, no signs of an impending attack. Everything was fine.
His father had gone off to his makeshift job, guarding and inventorying one of ReDestro's warehouses. Emi, who didn't have a mission that day, was to receive training from one of the higher-ups over on the west side of the city. And his mother, who was taken off of duty after losing her kidney in the attack a couple months back, stayed home and looked after the house.
Denki spent the day up on the roof, waiting for a message that never came. Doubts assailed him on all sides as the hours slowly trickled by. Had the Pros even received his message? Had the pigeons been apprehended, or maybe just… killed by predators or… whatever else could happen to random birds as they flew across the country? How long did they have to wait until Shigaraki disappeared again? Most of the PLF and League members were here now - if they missed this chance, how long would they have to wait for the next one?
And then, after night fell, as the city was beginning to calm and the residents, terrorists though they may be, began to settle in under a sleepy, starry sky, it happened.
An explosion rent the air.
Denki, who had still been on the roof, unable and unwilling to leave his post, was jerked out of his stupor with a startled yelp. The sound had come from the south, and even as he peered over the railing past other buildings and the tops of trees, he could see the tell-tale glow slowly beginning to spread across the horizon, illuminating the sky an ominous orange.
The city was on fire.
The Heroes had arrived.
By the time Denki reached the streets, everything was already in chaos. In the PLF, every able-bodied citizen was considered a soldier, even if they didn't regularly fight on the front lines, and the horror of that ideal was put onto full display as he ran frantically through the city. This wasn't just a raid, not just a clash between Villains and Heroes. This was open warfare.
Pros and their sidekicks were everywhere, grouped with clusters of police officers or heading off on their own, engaging in battle with the surprised and furious forces of the PLF. Under that dark sky, he saw his neighbors, the elderly, even teenagers and a handful of what had to be children, screaming in defiance, using their Quirks to hurl balls of flame or shards of ice or whatever random thing their Quirks could do at the Pros. He saw Pros doing their best to restrain and subdue, and occasionally failing, either falling to the attacks or else felling an adversary in turn. He saw death and destruction rain down upon his hometown of Deika as the sky glowed red with the light that heralded the potential end of this endless nightmare.
The worst night of Denki's life had only just begun, however. As horrifying as the visions of the battle that wracked the streets of Deika were, things were only going to get worse.
If only he'd known, then. He might have been able to prevent what was still to come.
At first, he was able to make his way through the streets without too much trouble; the chaos made it easier to hide than he had first suspected. But he knew as he raced southward towards where the attack had started that the closer he drew to the Pros and the police, the more likely it was that he was going to be singled out and attacked.
And that was precisely what happened. As he raced across a parking lot, something caught him by the ankle, tripping him and sending him crashing to the ground, leaving burning scratches across his chin and palms.
"Who are you?!"
Something tickled at the back of Denki's head, a sensation of familiarity, urging him not to respond. Breathless, Denki struggled to turn himself over, fighting against the familiar cloth that had bound itself around his lower legs.
The Hero loomed over him ominously, a dark mask obscuring the lower half of his face.
Then, after a brief moment of hesitation, "...Kaminari?"
Denki blinked, squinting up through the darkness at the taller male standing over him.
"Shinso?"
The dead-eyed ex-classmate let out a sigh and stooped down to untie Denki's feet.
"Damn it, what the hell are you doing running around in the open like that? Are you trying to get killed?"
"Thanks," Denki replied once his feet were finally free, choosing to ignore the previous comment as he pushed himself back onto his feet. "What's going on? I haven't heard a thing since-"
But Shinso held up his hand, cutting him off and casting a wary look around them.
"Not really the best place to talk. And of course we didn't tell you; what if the message had been intercepted?"
Well, he had a point there. About both things. Still, he didn't have to sound so exasperated.
"Look, just hurry up and make your way to the south end of the city. We have a few forward bases set up there. You can stay there until this is over-"
He cut off as a massive explosion shook the city. A veritable mushroom-cloud of flame lit up the sky to the north-east, casting the world briefly in a dim orange glow.
"What the hell…?" Denki breathed, horrified.
"It's him," Shinso cursed, "it's gotta be. Shigaraki. Midoriya and Bakugou are supposed to be dealing with him."
Denki stared, wide-eyed. Midoriya and Bakugou? Just the two of them?!
"Shigaraki's got some kind of a grudge against Midoriya," Shinso replied after Denki asked. "He was going to seek him out anyway; may as well keep him occupied while we try to clean up the rest - but we seriously don't have time to talk. Get out of here while you can, Kaminari."
And just like that, Shinso was racing off towards the heart of Deika, leaving Denki frightened and alone.
To the south, he'd said. Maybe he'd find more of his friends there.
As he ran, his thoughts turned to his family. Emi had been over to the east earlier today. Neither she nor their father had returned home before the attack started. Hopefully, she hadn't been too close to Shigaraki when the fight started, but… she was a smart girl. She'd know to stand down once the Pros caught her.
His father had been in the north-west, near one of Re-Destro's warehouses. He wasn't much of a fighter himself; he'd be clever enough to stand down too. Or so he hoped.
It was his mother that really had him concerned. She'd been home with him when the attack started. He should have checked on her before he left, but once he'd noticed that part of the city was in flames and that the Heroes had actually arrived, it had completely slipped his mind. She wasn't a match for the Pros. Hopefully, she'd notice the fire and flee. Hopefully.
Though if there was any member of their family dumb enough to try to fight this army of Heroes head-on, it was his mother.
It took a few minutes, but after a while, Denki managed to bump into another group of Pros. He didn't recognize these ones, but Shinso had apparently sent word back via radio, and they knew he was coming. One of them broke off to escort him, and before long, he was stumbling his way into one of the Heroes' makeshift base of operations, feeling out of breath and out of place.
He spotted Jirou and Yaoyorozu immediately and felt some of the tension he was feeling melt away.
His friends were here. Things were going to be ok.
However, from the loud, frantic conversation they were having with a handful of other Pros, including one he recognized as the Magic Hero, Majestic, whom Yaoyorozu had interned with in the past, things were not going well.
"...at the same time!" Yaomomo was shouting. "He's strong, but he's not that strong! If we don't send him support, he's not going to make it to backup Midoriya and Bakugou in time!"
"And who do you suggest we send?!" Majestic shot back, exasperated, the scarves wrapped around his floppy-brimmed witches hat flapping agitatedly in the breeze. "We're stretched thin as it is - most of our forces are focused on suppressing Gigantomachia! If he slips by, we can kiss this entire operation goodbye!"
"What's going on?" Denki asked, breaking into the conversation without even so much as a 'hello'.
The others turned to look at him, and when Jirou saw him, her expression went from anxious to relieved in the blink of an eye. A second later, she'd grabbed him in a quick, tight hug.
"Oh, good…" she breathed. "I'm so glad you're ok."
"Me too," he said, trying to joke but fully aware that it came out as the absolute truth. "What's this about Machia?"
Majestic, who had been examining the newcomer with apparent consternation, suddenly frowned.
"Ah. You're him, aren't you? The traitor?"
Denki swallowed, suddenly uncomfortable, but nodded. Well, he wasn't wrong. No sense in playing pretend.
"Good," the older Pro went on. "Then maybe you can help. How familiar are you with the layout of the city? Do you know of the hydroelectric dam situated up to the north?"
"Uh, yes," Denki said, suddenly confused; he'd assumed the man was going to dismiss him out of hand. "And I know the city fairly well, but why does it matter where the dam is?"
"It's Machia," Jirou supplied. "We've got most of our force trying to hold him back and prevent him from arriving to backup Shigaraki. But he's too powerful for us to take down on our own, so we're planning on blowing the dam to send the full force of the river crashing down on him. Hopefully, that will be enough."
It took Denki a couple of seconds to fully process what she was saying.
Then he rounded on her.
"Wait, what?! Blow the dam? If you blow the dam, you'll catch half the city in the flood! Thousands of people could die!"
"We know," Majestic cut in, both his tone and expression somber. "We fully realize how risky this move is. That's why we have so many Heroes out right now, trying to capture and subdue as many as we can before the dam blows. That's also why we set these fires; to try to drive people out of the city while we can. We risk letting many PLF and League members escape in the process, but our real focus today is Shigaraki and Machia. The others can be rounded up afterward."
Well, he certainly had a point; as bad as it would be to let potentially hundreds of villains escape, Shigaraki and Machia were on a whole different level. They were less 'villains' and more sentient, walking natural disasters. If they could stop even just one today, then it would be a tremendous victory, no matter the casualties they sustained.
"Ok," Denki said slowly, trying to come to terms with the fact that they were about to flood half of an entire city. "So what's the problem?"
"We're having a hard time placing the charges," Majestic replied succinctly. "We knew it would be tough, so we sent out a few different Pros with just that task in mind, but so far, we haven't had any luck. There are more PLF members guarding the dam than we had anticipated. And if we don't hurry, Machia is going to break free and all will be lost. That's why I was hoping you knew of another path-"
"That isn't the only problem!" Yaoyorozu cut in, sounding furious and completely unlike herself. "Machia is the biggest threat, but if Todoroki falls to Dabi and Geten and they go to back Shigaraki up, then we'll be in the same boat!"
"Creati, we do not have time to go over this again!" Majestic shouted, sounding weirdly parental; just how long had Momo interned with him? "Todoroki is going to have to do his best to hold out, just like the rest of us! The dam must come first, and you are the only person left who we can send!"
"I can go-!"
"You are needed here, Earphone Jack, as you well know! There are simply no other options! The two of you need to put your own personal feelings behind you and focus on the mission! That is what it means to be a Pro!"
Both girls looked down, chastised and, in Yaomomo's case, distraught.
It made sense that they were having such a hard time getting to the dam. The members of the PLF weren't just zealous terrorists, they were soldiers. They'd had more than one strategy meeting about defending the city from potential attack, and the dam had long-since been identified as a potential target. They knew to prioritize its defense. It would take a special skillset to break through those defenses without considerable time or manpower.
Denki cleared his throat roughly.
"Um… actually, there is another option."
All three turned to stare at him expectantly, so he did his best to stand up straight and square his shoulders, struggling not to let his overwhelming fear show on his face.
"I can go. The PLF doesn't know yet that I betrayed them, so they won't attack me if I get close to the dam. I can place the charges, and-" he fished the earpiece Jirou had given him out of his pocket and pushed it into his ear "-I can radio in to Earphone Jack once I'm done."
Majestic had a considering look on his face. Yaomomo looked torn between concern for Denki and hope that she'd be allowed to rush to Todoroki's aid. Jirou's expression was tight and shuttered, displaying nothing.
Finally, Majestic relented.
"...Yes, that might actually work. But you will need to hurry. Creati, use your Quirk to make a new set of charges and give them to Kaminari - and a detonator too, just in case something happens to the base while he's out. Kaminari, you will need to be fast. Every second counts. As soon as you place the charges, let us know and get out of there. We'll give you as long as we can."
And just like that, the fate of this operation was placed squarely into Denki's hands.
Momo made the charges, as well as a cloth sack to carry them in and a small remote detonator that he placed in his pocket, then rushed off without another word. Majestic was already back marshaling the troops. It was just him and Jirou.
Not knowing what to say, Denki flashed her an awkward smile and made to step away, only to stop as she reached out and caught his arm.
"Be careful," she said softly, gazing imploringly into his eyes. "If they find out that you've betrayed them, they'll come after you. Just don't draw any attention to yourself and you'll be fine. And… hurry. Kirishima, Tokoyami, Mina, Mineta… most of our class is trying to hold Machia back. They're buying time for you. Make it count."
Denki blanched.
Holding him back? You can't hold Machia back, he was a force of nature - a volcanic eruption wrapped up in an earthquake wrapped up in a hurricane. His friends weren't buying him time - they were playing a twisted game where a veritable god could kill them at any second and their only hope of survival was Denki blowing a dam and potentially killing hundreds of people.
He felt like he was going to be sick.
He stumbled away from Jirou, desperately trying to fight down the sudden, overpowering wave of nausea as he considered the task he'd been given as well as the fact that it could take him an hour if not more to walk all the way to the hydroelectric dam. His friends couldn't last that long against Machia. He honestly doubted Midoriya or Bakugou could last that long against Shigaraki either. They were already doomed - why had he volunteered?!
But then one of Majestic's sidekicks who apparently had a flying Quirk stepped up and, without even so much as a warning, seized him under his arms and took off into the sky.
The Pro, whoever she was, took a long, circuitous route along the outskirts of the city, avoiding the central parts where most of the fighting was happening. They kept low, utilizing buildings and trees to stay hidden, and as he watched the world slip past, Denki focused on calming himself.
He knew sending off that last messenger pigeon wasn't going to be the end of it. If his friends were out there risking their lives to save the world, then he couldn't do any less. Plant the charges, send word to Jirou, save the day. That was it.
Compared to facing off against Machia or Dabi and Geten or Shigaraki himself, he clearly had the safest job of the bunch. That didn't make him feel any less anxious.
Static crackled in his ear, followed by a voice.
"Kaminari, can you hear me?"
It was Jirou, speaking through the headset.
"Yeah," he replied, trying not to shout over the rush of wind as his Pro Hero taxi shuttled him through the air. "How's it going?"
He was trying not to ask specifically about their classmates fighting Machia, but as always, Jirou could see right through him.
"They're still going," she replied tersely, hiding her fear behind a veneer of cold professionalism. "Creati hasn't made it to Shouto yet, and I have no idea what's going on with Shigaraki. It's hard to keep track of the battle, but it looks like a majority of the eastern part of the city has been completely disintegrated."
"What?" Denki gasped, sudden terror filling his heart. Emiko had been in the eastern part of the city…
No, he didn't have time to focus on that now. She was smart; she would have gotten out.
"Don't worry," Jirou said, completely missing the reason for his fear. "Midoriya and Bakugou are still fighting. Just focus on placing those charges once you get to the dam. Just place them as spread out as you can along the west side; we've already sent other Heroes to plant them along the east side. Even if we can't blow the whole thing, a few good cracks should cause it to burst from the force of the water pressure alone. Our friends are keeping Machia in the center of the city for now; the water should rush down towards him and slow him down; after that, Mudman is going to use his Quirk to pull his lower-half underground. Together, that should be able to stop him."
Mudman? From class 1-B? Denki shuddered.
Even if it was Machia they were talking about, being smothered by dirt and water sounded absolutely nightmarish. Still, even with all of that combined… Machia was something else. Impossible as it sounded, Denki could see that monstrous titan surviving - but if it was enough to delay him from getting to Shigaraki, then it would be worth it.
The dam was large. Denki could see it sometimes from the city if he had been in a high enough location, though he knew that, comparatively, there were certainly larger dams in Japan. It was basically a large wall, slightly curved and the dark grey of old concrete, stretched between two hilltops that stopped up the river that flowed through the center of Deika. The reservoir behind it was enormous, like a large crystalline lake, and out of a few holes in the face of the dark pitted stone, water poured out like a waterfall, crashing down in cascading waves that filled the air with a gentle roar.
If he was being honest with himself, over a decade of schooling had completely failed him in this regard. He had no idea how a hydroelectric dam even worked. It probably had something to do with the water that was allowed to flow through the dam and continue on along the river, but… Exactly what that meant, he had no idea. Come to think of it, how did people build these things anyway? Even without Quirks, humanity could be scarily impressive at times.
The top of the dam had railings, indicating that it was possible to walk along the top of it. There were a few structures along the top as well… watchtowers? He didn't think normal dams had watchtowers. They must have been put in place by the PLF when they decided that the dam needed to be guarded in the event of an attack.
There was also a bridge stretching across the face of the dam. It was covered and sported thick cement walls, making it more like an over-ground tunnel than a bridge. Clearly, it was meant to let people cross from one side to the other, though it didn't look heavily trafficked. It was probably meant more for those who worked at the dam than actual pedestrians.
Now, however, it was covered in PLF soldiers. It was hard to say how many exactly in the darkness, but if he had to guess, he'd say somewhere in the vicinity of fifty, with a few hundred more engaging Heroes and Pros in the surrounding city and the woods the stretched out to the west. It was absolute chaos down below. No wonder the other Heroes were having a hard time getting close.
Just as he was beginning to wonder how he'd get past the battle and reach the dam, projectiles of some sort (knives? He couldn't tell) burst out of the woods below, landing a glancing blow on the arm of the Hero carrying him. It wasn't enough to kill her, thankfully, but it was bad enough that she dropped him.
He fell about three meters, his hoarse shout cutting out with a pained grunt as he landed on his feet and collapsed instantly to the ground, the cloth sack of explosives tumbling out of his hand.
He sat there in the dark for a moment, his fingers clenched around fistfuls of cool earth as he let the shockwaves of pain work their way through his body. That had seriously hurt. Knowing his luck, he'd probably broken one or both of his ankles. Great, that was exactly what he needed right now…
Figures approached him out of the darkness. Members of the PLF, the ones who had knocked him out of the sky. They had him surrounded, and with the cover of darkness, with him in his pained state, he knew this was it. He threw an arm up over his face protectively and tried to cry out, but before he could, a voice interrupted.
"See? I told you that was Kaminari!"
Denki blinked his eyes back open in surprise, glancing around, pupils still not quite adjusted to the added darkness provided by the cover of the trees around him.
One of the PLF members, presumably the one who had spoken, reached a hand out toward him and, after Denki examined it for a cautious moment, hauled Denki to his feet.
"We saw you being carried off by that Pro. Good thing we had your back, eh?"
From his tone of voice, he was going for some sort of congenial vibe, but if Denki were being honest, he barely recognized the man… boy? He can't have been older than Denki was. Come to think of it, he thought they'd been paired up on a few raiding missions in the past, but Denki was having a hard time putting a name to the face.
Or maybe he'd never bothered with memorizing it because he hadn't wanted to make any more friends he might one day find himself fighting against.
Still, he thanked the nameless boy, easily slipping into the excuse he'd unwittingly prepared for him. For a moment there, he thought his cover had been blown. Good thing no one thought to ask why Denki hadn't just zapped the Pro if he'd really been being abducted, but in the midst of a battle, they probably just weren't thinking straight.
Right as he was beginning to wonder how he was going to break away from the newcomers, the surrounding battle caught up with them, and the woods were suddenly alive with the chaotic sound of battle as Heroes and the police descended upon their impromptu gathering.
Praising his lucky stars once again, Denki bent over, snatched up the dropped sack of Yaoyorozu's explosives, and raced off as quickly as he could on his injured legs towards the distant dam.
He wasn't too far away at this point. It only took a couple of minutes to get there, and it was easy to find in the darkness both because it was the center of a large battle and also because large floodlights on top of the watchtowers kept the area well illuminated.
Now came the hardest part. Placing the charges.
In actuality, this wasn't that hard. The charges themselves came with an adhesive goop on the back that, after removing a protective plastic lining (seriously, how did Yaomomo make this? Her Quirk made his brain hurt just thinking about), would allow it to be stuck to the outside of the dam by simply pressing the goop against it for a moment.
The charges themselves were thin and round, about half the size of a frisbee, and fit fairly well in his hand if he spread his fingers out. Dashing through the battle, desperate not to get caught up in a struggle lest either side attack him and knowing he didn't have time to dawdle, Denki made for the tunnel-like-bridge that stretched across the face of the dam.
There were only six charges in the bag. Kyouka had said only to bother with the east side. He'd need to make this fast.
The bridge was built right up against the outer wall of the dam. He could just place the charges inside. They were small, without any blinking lights or any other giveaway. They shouldn't be noticed. This would work. It had to.
He managed to place four charges without incident. Then, as he was placing the fifth, he was finally noticed.
Someone charged into the tunnel - Hero, Villain, Denki had no idea - and spotted him crouched down, trying to affix the fifth charge onto the wall.
The newcomer charged with a roar, his forearms suddenly expanding outward, growing into heavy, meaty, hairy gorilla fists. He pulled his arm back to deliver a powerful, skull-shattering blow to Denki's face.
Denki threw himself back, dropping the sack with the last charge, just barely dodging the blow and rolling not-so-nimbly back to his feet. His ankles throbbed in painful protest at the sudden excitable movement. In front of him, the stranger pushed himself away from the wall, breathing heavily through his nostrils like a boar, and charged him again.
This time, Denki didn't try to dodge. Instead, conscientious of the tiny explosives he'd lined the corridor with earlier, he decided to forego his normal Indiscriminate Shock and instead fell back into a familiar martial arts stance. He'd never been as good as Ojirou or Kirishima in terms of sheer skill or physical strength, but he'd taken up lessons anyway. Much like his classmate Uraraka, his Quirk had unique properties upon physical contact that more than made up for his lack of skill or strength.
As the gorilla-armed man sent a second punch flying for his face, Denk reached out, grabbed the arm as though he were going to try and turn the arm away, and instead sent all the electricity he could muster coursing through his adversary's body.
His body went rigid, all of his muscles locking up, and a moment later, he'd collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.
Denki stepped back with a short breath of relief. He hoped that hadn't been too much electricity; it could be hard to gauge when his opponent's Quirk changed his body mass.
Hurrying forward, leaving the slightly smoking body behind him, Denki scooped up the bag and made to place his last charge.
A group of people suddenly charged into the tunnel from the other side, barreling towards him. One of them saw him, pointing a hand and firing off what could only be described as some sort of astral fist projectile.
These ones Denki recognized as being PLF members. Ones who had never liked him much, though he liked to think that that fact didn't impact what he did next in any way.
Without thinking, he drew the last explosive from the bag and threw it forward like a frisbee, watching as it soared through the air, ricocheting off the wall in the direction of the newcomers.
Then, as though he were using his old Pointer and Shooter, Denki charged up his electricity and fired.
His Quirk focused in on the metal explosive like it was a magnet. It caught the disk in the air in the blink of an eye, and a moment later, an explosion split the air, popping Denki's ears and filling the tunnel in a dense wall of smoke.
When it cleared enough to see, Denki was greeted with the sight of a good chunk of the tunnel missing, the path dead-ending into the open air. His foes were nowhere to be seen.
Ignoring the fact that he may have just killed some people, knowing that his mission would save more lives than he'd just taken and trying to not let it affect him, he stooped down, seized the unconscious gorilla man, and hurriedly hauled him out of the tunnel back the way he'd come.
He only managed to place four of the five charges… hopefully, that would be enough. It would have to be. He couldn't exactly go back for more, now could he?
The battle outside had seemingly not changed at all. Denki threw the unconscious man's arm over his shoulder and struggled to haul him away without getting caught up in another fight. Thankfully, most seemed to ignore him. Maybe it was because he wasn't trying to attack anyone. Maybe it's because both sides sympathized with the downed fighter. He had no way of knowing, he just knew he couldn't leave this man unconscious in front of a dam that was about to blow, even if it did turn out that he was a PLF member.
Several minutes later, he'd made his way back to the wooded area where he'd crash-landed before. This should be far enough from the dam. The distant sound of thunder rumbled across the air, spurring an odd sense of hope for a spur-of-the-moment shower to cool him off a bit.
Denki dropped his heavy burden unsympathetically onto the cold dirt floor, collapsing back against a tree, feeling like he'd just done the UA Sports Festival obstacle course all over again. Lifting a tired hand up to his ear, he fiddled with the earpiece Jirou had given him and closed his eyes.
"I'm out!" he gasped, clutching the stitch in his chest and trying not to wheeze too loudly. "Jirou, can you hear me? I'm out! I placed the charges! We're good! Tell the Heroes to get out of there!"
There was a crackle of static, and then nothing.
Panting, Denki sagged to the ground, back still against the tree, and struggled to take control of his breathing, mentally willing his heartbeat to slow down. There was no need to be concerned - Jirou was busy, she had more people to talk to than just him. Besides, he wasn't the only one sent to place the charges. She probably needed to check on everyone first before deciding to-
The static came back, followed by Jirou's voice. And she sounded panicked.
"Kaminari! We have a problem!"
He groaned internally. Of course they did.
"Hagakure wasn't able to place her charges on the other side of the dam. Someone with a powerful Quirk showed up and they're driving everyone back - friends and foes. Where are you? Are you safe? Did you get away?"
"I'm fine," he said quickly, turning around and slowly making his way back toward the edge of the treeline so he could see the dam clearly again. "Someone new showed up? Who?"
They were driving away friends and foes? But who? Why? That didn't make any sense.
"We don't know," Jirou continued. "We've never seen this Quirk before. It's like… a mass of clouds just surrounded the entire dam and it's shooting lightning at anyone who gets close. Still, if you planted your charges, then we should still be good. We don't really have time to waste anymore-"
But that was where Denki stopped listening. He'd finally broken through the treeline and could see the dam again - or what should have been the dam. In its place was a massive wall of dark thunderclouds. The deep rumble of thunder shook the earth beneath him as the occasional spark of silvery lightning lit up the mass of black in flashes of ghostly light.
The clouds were darker than he remembered. Larger, too, covering way more ground than he'd ever seen before. But he would recognize his mother's Quirk anywhere.
She was here. She'd left the house and had come straight here. A loyal soldier heading to her post.
To the dam they were about to blow up.
Frantic, he raised his hand to his earpiece and yelled, "Stop!"
"W-what? What's wrong?!"
Jirou sounded equal parts exasperated and scared. Denki swallowed, struggling to regain control over himself.
"Don't blow the dam yet; give me some time. I need to go back."
"You what?!"
In his mind's eye, he saw his friends fighting Machia, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu fighting Dabi and Geten, Midoriya and Bakugou struggling against Shigaraki. The world didn't have time for this. He shouldn't be wasting any more time. But the memory of Jirou telling him what Shigaraki had done to the eastern part of the city and his fears about his sister had pushed him to this point. He couldn't stand here and risk losing another family member.
But for some reason, he couldn't tell Jirou that. He couldn't let her know that the reason he was putting this mission in jeopardy was for something so selfish and, in the grand scheme of things, small.
"We've only got them placed on the west side - if we blow it now, the water might be pushed in that direction instead of where we want it to go!"
"It doesn't matter!" Jirou shouted back, irate. "The dam will burst anyway, and Mudman and Tokoyami can push Machia into the flow of water if it's a little off - we don't have time to waste!"
But he had already made up his mind. He was rushing back towards the dam at a dead sprint, heedless of the battle going on behind him, willfully ignoring that he was prolonging the danger to his friends as well as threatening the success of this once-in-a-lifetime mission.
He knew he had little hope that the Pros would hold off. They could choose to blow the dam any second now using the charges he'd already placed. Denki would be caught up in the blast if they did. He would die. He didn't care. He couldn't turn his back and leave his mother here.
Jirou was still shouting at him through the earpiece, but he reached up and pressed the button that turned off his mic. He could still hear her, his constant reminder of what a massive moron he was being, but she couldn't hear him. Hopefully, that would be enough to deter her from blowing the dam. Or so he hoped. At the very least, maybe concern over his well-being would buy him a few minutes.
All traces of the battle that had been raging here mere minutes before were gone. Jirou was right; the storm cloud had driven everyone off, friend and foe alike. In its place, an eerie silence gripped the air, broken only by the occasional rumble of thunder.
He entered the dark wall of clouds, feeling the cold envelope him as soon as he did. He could still see, albeit barely, and he made his way in the direction of where he knew the dam would be. Static built up on his skin surprisingly fast, much quicker than was normal. However, thanks to his Quirk, it harmlessly absorbed itself into his body. Anybody else who entered here would have been barbecued after only a few steps.
For the first time, it occurred to Denki that, due to the peculiarities of Quirk inheritance and him and his sister's immunity to electricity from their father, he was probably one of the only people in the city who could enter this cloud unscathed. Denki's mother's Quirk was a threat to everyone but her family.
That made what he was about to do even worse.
Finally, he found the wall of the dam and followed it over to the tunnel-like bridge and, beside it, the set of rickety stairs leading up to the top. Denki took the steps two at a time, adrenaline and fear carrying him faster, no longer feeling the burning in his lungs. His mother's storm clouds cooled him, the constant influx of static giving him energy.
He reached the top, and all was darkness. Though he knew it was dark out, with the moon waxing dimly overhead, within the reach of his mother's influence, the world was nothing but darkness and fog.
"Mom!" he shouted, throwing caution to the wind. No one else would be nearby to hear him anyway, and it was his fastest way of finding her. "Mom! Mom, where are you?!"
At night, lost within the stormcloud, it was nearly impossible to see, but the occasional flashes of lightning would light the world up in haunting, shadowless blurbs. He let his own electricity pump through his hand, sparking in his palm, adding what little light it could.
"Mom!"
"Denki?"
Out of the murk, she appeared. In the depths of the fog, with her long platinum hair, she looked like a ghost, frightening and ethereal. When she caught sight of him, she smiled, but not the warm, motherly smile he knew. Her lips were thin and bloodless, her cheeks pulled too tight, her teeth glowing a ghastly white in the gloom.
Something was wrong.
"Denki!" she said again, hurrying unsteadily to his side. She lost her balance and fell to the side, barely catching herself on the railing, nearly pitching over and falling into the reservoir below. "Sweetie! Baby! I wondered who was coming - I thought it was Renjirou at first, but… Look at this! Look at me! I'm doing it! I'm defending the dam all on my own!"
The pride and elation in her voice sounded… off. Like it was coming from the voice of a child, or someone whose mentality was on level with a child. She managed to get back to her feet, and then, a moment later, she was at his side, grasping his shoulders to steady herself, breathing heavily with unnatural euphoria.
Her eyes… they were wide, pupils dilated, jerking about sporadically…
Drugs.
Quirk-enhancing drugs.
That was the only explanation. How else could her Quirk have grown so powerful so quickly? Why else would she be behaving like this? But where…?
His father. He'd been working for the last couple of months at one of Re-Destro's warehouses. They kept all kinds of things there. If he'd managed to get his hands on some illegally-imported Quirk Enhancers… He could definitely see his mother angling for something like that. Especially after what had happened the last time she'd gone into the field. And there was nothing Renjirou Kaminari wouldn't do for his wife.
Her desperation to prove that she was useful had once again pushed her too far. These drugs were dangerous, and not just because they could turn regular people into monsters - they were highly addictive, wreaked absolute havoc on your body, and left you with terrible withdrawals. Not to mention the high they left you with. It was not at all an exaggeration to say that his mother was literally out of her mind right now.
How on earth was he going to save her?
"Mom," he said, doing his best to keep his voice steady, "we need to go. I… I overheard some of the Heroes talking. They're going to blow the dam up - we need to get out of here, now!"
"Oh, no, no, no!" she replied, reaching up to smooth his hair like he was a frightened child. "Denki, that's not the way! This is our chance to make our stand! Remember the teachings of our glorious founder, Destro! If we drive them back now, we prove once and for all that we're in the right! Look at me, Denki! I can do it! Finally, I have my moment to shine!"
Denki felt a year's worth of anger and frustration tangle up in his throat as he seized his mother roughly and held her there at arm's length.
A lifetime of feeling under-appreciated had led her to this. A lifetime of being told she was never good enough, of being looked over and ignored. A lifetime of hatred towards a society that had taken her father away. And now, with these drugs addling her brain…
If he couldn't get through to her before, how on earth was he going to do so now?
"Mom," he tried again, hearing the desperation thick in his voice. "It's… It's over. The Heroes are here in force. Most of the PLF is falling back. I don't know where dad is. Emi… Damn it, mom, Shigaraki blew up half the city, and Emi… I think Emi is…"
He couldn't say it. He didn't want to say it. He'd done all this to keep them safe and now that he knew that he had failed, everything he'd suffered through, all of the terrible things he'd done… They were all for nothing.
His mother stepped away, grasping the railing in both of her hands and staring out into the heart of the stormcloud.
"If they took my Emiko away from me, then I will avenge her! Just like I will avenge my father! It's too late to run, Denki! I have lived my entire life for this moment!"
Her voice was too loud, her lines too hokey, her eyes too wide. She was grinning like it was all a joke, like she didn't actually understand what she was saying, or what he'd said to her, or what was even going on.
It was no use. There was no getting through to her. There never had been.
She'd given her life to this cause of hers. And she wasn't afraid to lose it to her cause either.
His only alternative was to use his Quirk to knock her unconscious and try to drag her away… that is, assuming the drug hadn't enhanced her Quirk enough to give her immunity to electricity too. He could try it anyway, but how long had it taken him to get up here? Five minutes? How long would it take him to get back, carrying an unconscious woman's body on his back? More time. Too much time.
Even now, over the headset, he could still hear Jirou shouting. It was a miracle that they hadn't decided to blow the dam yet. They should have. If it was Jirou's concern for him that was keeping them from doing so, then he owed her and his friends yet another apology. It seemed like, no matter what he did, he always ended up letting them down.
Over her shouting, as he watched his mother stand on the ledge of both the dam and her sanity, he vaguely began to register the words Jirou was saying.
Tokoyami had gone down. Mina was hurt. Kirishima was missing in action. Yaoyorozu had made it to Todoroki on time but both had been too badly injured in the fight to join the others. And now Shigaraki had broken away from Midoriya and Bakugou and was racing back to the city. They'd been trying to stall Gigantomachia, but if Shigaraki made it back, then it was all for nothing unless Midoriya or Bakugou could stop him in time.
All of this, because he told Jirou not to blow the dam.
All of this, because he'd once again prioritized the lives of his family members over his friends and the rest of society.
In his mind's eye, he'd suddenly gone back in time a year. Back to that day when he'd received word that Shigaraki had taken over the MLA. Back to that day he'd decided to betray his friends to keep his family safe.
In a removed way, he felt like he could almost be forgiven for that - or at the very least, empathized with. After all, forsaking your family members when it could mean their death was unthinkable. No Hero would ever do that.
But no Hero would place the lives of countless citizens in peril to protect one single person, no matter who that person was.
It was like all of the grief and anxiety and fear and hurt that had followed him around for the past year suddenly fell on top of him, driving him to his knees. Perhaps if he were smarter, like Momo, or stronger, like Kirishima, or more optimistic, like Mina, he'd have come to a different conclusion.
But as he knelt there in the heart of his mother's storm, holding her life in one hand and the life of his friends in the other, he came to a bitter realization.
It only made sense that things end this way. This whole problem had begun because he'd valued his family over the world. And so many people had died as a result of that choice.
Karma would have it, then, that the war he'd started should end with him being forced to correct that decision himself.
He could still try to run, of course. And maybe, just maybe, his friends could survive long enough to give him that chance. He knew if they'd been asked, they'd agree without question. But this was up to him, now. And honestly… after everything he'd been through, all the hurt and pain he'd caused… part of him simply wanted it to finally be over.
Besides. He still couldn't bring himself to abandon his family. He wouldn't leave her alone her now. He and his mother would go together.
Slowly, he lifted his left hand towards the earpiece, unmuting his microphone. His other hand drifted down to his pocket.
Jirou was still shouting. He wasn't really listening anymore. He kept his eyes glued on his mother as she turned away from her silent, insane vigil to look down at him. With her head tilted curiously to the side, she almost looked like a child. He wondered if, standing there on the edge like that, this was how she'd appeared to his grandfather back when he'd saved her from falling.
"Kyouka," he said, his throat ragged.
"Kaminari?" she replied in an instant, equal parts infuriated and relieved. "Where are you?! You need to get away from the dam now! They're going to blow it!"
His mother's eyes were on his own, confused, muddled with the effects of the drug. They darted up to his ear, then back down to his pocket, where he was slowly removing the detonator Majestic had ordered Creati to give to him.
The last time he'd spoken to his mother - really spoken to her, when her head was clear and her thoughts sane - she'd stood beneath him on the staircase, guilt-ridden and trying, and had told him she loved him.
And he'd walked away without a response. Because at the end of the day, while she may not have been the perfect mother, he wasn't a very good son either.
This was his last chance to rectify that.
And so, with one finger on the mic, making sure Kyouka could hear him, and with the thumb of his other hand resting softly on the circular red button of the detonator after flipping off the safety, he met his mother's steadily-widening gaze of dawning comprehension and fear and whispered, loud enough for both women to hear, because he meant his last words for the both of them.
"I love you."
And then he pressed the button.
His mother lunged, hand extended towards his own, his name on her lips, but the dam beneath them shuddered violently, knocking her down as echoing booms pierced the air. For a moment, everything trembled, the sound of cracking stone filling the deadened space between them… and then, faster than he had time to process, the dam burst, spewing hundreds of thousands of liters of water into the air along with chunks of concrete and the shredded remains of metal pipes, and the world was lost amidst the roar of rushing water and the sound of someone screaming.