Date: 4/10/20XX

"Morning," Denki yawned, greeting Sojiro as he walked down the staircase leading to the attic.

Gone were the t-shirt and sweatpants he slept in, and in their stead was his Shujin Academy uniform. The uniform consisted of a black blazer with a white symbol that resembled a police badge on the top left corner, a white turtleneck underneath the blazer, and black pants with a plaid pattern.

"Oh, good, you're up," Sojiro noted, standing behind the counter.

Sojiro wore the same outfit he wore yesterday with a couple of changes; his black apron was gone and was replaced with a white two-button blazer, and he wore a white trilby with a red-white-and-blue striped hatband.

Seeing that Denki looked incredibly tired, Sojiro raised an eyebrow and frowned.

"You look exhausted," Sojiro noted. "Did you wake up after your nap and stay up late?"

"No, that's not it," Denki yawned again, walking to and standing in front of the counter. "I just couldn't sleep well. I kept having nightmares."

"About what?," Sojiro questioned.

"Being locked up in a prison cell," Denki answered plainly.

After waking up from that bizarre dream about the long-nosed man and his young twin wardens, Denki went back to sleep only to have continuous nightmares about being locked up in prison. Needless to say, he did not get a lot of sleep that night.

'Still, as scary as those nightmares were, the dream with the old man with the long nose was definitely the creepiest one,' Denki mused, slightly shivering. 'Why'd it have to feel so real? I'm never going to be able to sleep like this.'

"Really?," Sojiro questioned, snapping Denki out of his thoughts.

"Well, maybe they were warnings not to step out of line during your probation," he quipped, only to be met with a deadpan stare.

"Message received," Denki grumbled in annoyance.

He noticed a cup of coffee and a plate of curry and rice sitting in front of Sojiro, prompting him to push the cup and plate toward Denki.

"Here, this should wake you up," Sojiro offered. "Just try not to take too long. I want to avoid getting stuck in traffic on the way back."

Denki stared down at the coffee and curry before looking at Sojiro hesitantly.

"Y-You want me to eat this?," Denki asked nervously, pointing at the food on the counter.

Although he didn't mind coffee and curry separately, eating them in tandem sounded like a one-way ticket to the bathroom.

"What's that reaction for? Just eat it," Sojiro ordered sternly.

Seeing no way out of eating and drinking the curry and coffee, Denki reluctantly sat down and picked up a spoon.

'Goodbye, stomach. It was nice knowing you,' Denki thought as he audibly gulped.

"Thanks for the food," Denki told Sojiro before scooping up some of the rice and curry and putting it in his mouth.

As soon as Denki began chewing, his eyes lit up in delight before scooping up more curry and putting it in his mouth.

"This is the best curry I've ever eaten! I can't get enough!," Denki acknowledged, though his words were garbled due to him continuously shoving curry into his mouth.

"Slow down. You're gonna choke if you keep that up," Sojiro warned with an amused look on his face.

Unfortunately, it was too late as Denki began to choke on his food right after Sojiro warned him.

"Urgh!," Denki groaned, pounding his fist into his chest to stop himself from choking.

"Just wash it down with the coffee," Sojiro sighed in displeasure.

Complying with Sojiro's instructions, Denki took a quick swig of coffee, relieving him of the food caught in his throat.

"Thanks," Denki breathed, recovering from the feeling of tightness coming from his throat. He then turned to Sojiro and smiled widely. "That tasted amazing! My stomach's so happy right now that it's doing backflips!"

"I take it you want seconds?," Sojiro asked with a knowing smile on his face.

"Yeah!," Denki cheered, handing Sojiro his plate.

"Alright. But after this plate, we'll be heading out," Sojiro chuckled before heading into the kitchen.

'He acts tough, but he's actually pretty nice. Kinda like Mr. Aizawa,' Denki thought with a smile.

However, once he processed what had just crossed his mind, his smile was instantly replaced with a frown.

"Alright, here you g-," Sojiro stopped once he noticed Denki's saddened expression. "Everything alright, kid?"

"Huh?," Denki snapped out of his thoughts and forced a smile. "Oh, um, I'm fine. Just a little nervous about going to Shujin."

Sojiro gazed at him skeptically for a few seconds before placing the plate of curry in front of Denki and looking at the young blonde with understanding.

"Just keep your head down, and don't get involved in things that don't concern you," Sojiro advised. "Do that, and you'll be fine."

He then took Denki's empty cup, refilled it with coffee, and handed it back to Denki.

"Don't take your time, but don't eat too quickly either," Sojiro cautioned. "I don't want you to choke on your food again."

"Got it!," Denki replied, swiftly but cautiously downing his food.

After he finished eating his plate of curry and drinking his second cup of coffee, Sojiro took Denki's empty cup and plate and put them into the sink in the kitchen. Afterward, he covered the pot of curry with a lid and put it inside the fridge before turning towards Denki.

"Shujin is in the Aoyama district," Sojiro revealed. "It'll take a while to get there by train, and the transfers are a real hassle, too. Keep that in mind when you take the train there tomorrow. I'm driving you there today, but that's only for your introduction, got that?"

"You got it, Sakura-san!," Denki answered, feeling energized by the coffee and curry.

"Alright then, let's head out," Sojiro said as he headed toward the door, mumbling under his breath. "Sheesh… Men aren't usually allowed in my passenger's seat."

A small part of Denki wanted to ask what Sojiro meant by that, but a much larger part of him felt like he'd regret asking.


After a fifteen-minute drive, Denki and Sojiro arrived in Aoyama, and after a five-minute walk, they arrived in front of Shujin Academy.

The school was a three-story building made of dark gray cement, and its entryway was guarded by a black iron gate, giving it the look of a prison if not for the large black clock built into the side of the building. Luckily for Denki and Sojiro, the black iron gate was unlocked, allowing access to a flight of stone steps that led up to the school.

'Jeez! I know this place is called Shujin, but I didn't think it would look like an actual prison!,' Denki mused to himself in distress.

"We're here," Sojiro commented, turning his attention from the school's entrance to Denki. "Do me a favor and behave yourself, alright?"

"Got it," Denki answered instantly.

Seeing that Denki had a straight face, Sojiro was satisfied by the blonde's answer.

"Good. And don't think I'm telling you this because I care what happens to you. I just don't want you to cause me any trouble."

"Right," Denki responded with an unconvinced look on his face.

'Yup. Definitely like Mr. Aizawa,' Denki confirmed while following Sojiro up a flight of stone steps leading to the school entrance.


Admittedly, the inside of the school was a lot nicer than the outside. The walls were painted half horizontally white and half horizontally teal, and the floors were made of wood with no signs of aging.

If it weren't for the lecture he was getting from the school's principal, Denki would have assumed that going to this school wouldn't be so bad.

Currently, Denki and Sojiro were inside the principal's office. Sojiro signed some forms the principal handed him while Denki was being warned to be on his best behavior.

The principal was bald, obese, and wore a beige suit with a white undershirt and red bow tie. To his right stood a young, slender woman with brown knotted hair, a yellow shirt with white and red horizontal lines, a beige skirt, and white heels.

"To reiterate, just so we're clear, you will be immediately expelled if you cause any problems," the principal cautioned.

'I'm starting to get really sick and tired of people getting on my case,' Denki thought with an annoyed look.

Luckily for the blonde juvenile, the principal either couldn't see the annoyance radiating off him or chose to ignore it.

"In my opinion, you're nothing but a liability, but we had our circumstances to consider" the principal continued. "Whatever you might have gotten away with at your old school… Those days are over."

'What kind of school does he think U.A. is?,' Denki thought incredulously, surprised that the principal would imply something bad about Japan's top hero school.

"If you are thrown out of this school, there will be no place for you to go."

The principal looked at Denki expectantly, waiting for the former hero course student to answer.

"I'll keep that in mind," Denki answered dryly.

"Good," the principal responded nonchalantly.

When Sojiro finished signing forms, the principal turned his attention to the woman standing to his right.

"This is the teacher in charge of your Japanese language class. She will be your guide for tomorrow."

"I'm Sadayo Kawakami," the teacher introduced herself dully. She took something out of her pocket and placed it on the principal's desk. "Here's your student ID."

"Thank-. Huh?"

As Denki was about to grab his ID, he noticed a pink pamphlet underneath it. Kawakami took note of it as well, shocked by what she placed underneath the ID.

Quickly, she took the pamphlet back and put it back inside her skirt pocket.

'What was that about?,' Denki wondered.

"Be sure to read the school rules," Kawakami informed him, pretending nothing had happened. "Any violations will send you straight to the guidance office."

"And," she added. "If you cause any trouble, I won't be able to protect you at all."

Kawakami turned to look at the principal.

"That is your promise, yes, Principal Kobayakawa?"

The overweight school head nodded in confirmation.

"You are responsible for all of your actions, Kaminari."

"But seriously, why me?," Kawakami questioned while scoffing. "Aren't there any better candidates?"

'Not like I want to do this either,' Denki thought in annoyance, already not looking forward to attending this school.

"It was a sudden transfer, and his homeroom teacher will be out sick for the next few days," Principal Kobayakawa explained.

"If you're done explaining things, mind if we get going?," Sojiro asked, causing Denki's annoyance to fade and be replaced with relief. "I got a store to get back to."

"Of course," the fat man allowed. "However, please keep a close eye on Kaminari. I don't want to hear about him causing any trouble outside of school."

"I'll be sure to have a serious talk about the situation he's in," Sojiro assured.

'Damn it, not another one,' Denki thought miserably, his relief instantly replaced with gloom. 'I thought I was off the hook.'

"Come to the faculty office when you arrive at school tomorrow, Kaminari-kun," Kawakami informed him. "I'll show you to your classroom tomorrow."

"Alright, thanks," Denki dully acknowledged.

With the principal and Kawakami having nothing more to say, Denki and Sojiro left the principal's office.

Although she wouldn't admit it aloud, Kawakami couldn't help but feel bad as she saw Denki's lifeless face leave.


Inside Sojiro's car, him and Denki sat next to one another in awkward silence as he tried to maneuver through traffic.

"...So, how was it?," Sojiro asked, trying to break the tension between them.

"You mean the school?," Denki questioned lamely.

Sojiro grunted and nodded his head in confirmation.

"You think you can manage?"

Denki was about to answer with a blunt "No", but seeing as Sojiro was trying to make idle conversation, he decided against it.

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"Good," Sojiro replied.

He was about to add something about his current situation and behavior at school, but seeing the downtrodden, faraway look Denki had on his face as he took out his phone made Sojiro decide against it.

The two returned to their awkward silence for a few minutes until Sojiro broke it by griping.

"Ugh! Traffic's not moving at all!"

He then turned to Denki to address him.

"Remember, you're taking the train to school starting tomorrow."

"Yeah, I know," Denki replied in a flat tone of voice.

As he continued to scroll through his phone, Denki came across something that made him raise his eyebrows in shock.

"Listen to this," Denki advised, causing Sojiro to turn his attention to the teen. "Apparently, a subway train got derailed, and the cops are working with some pro heroes to investigate why it happened."

"Again? So that's why it's so crowded," Sojiro sighed.

Denki put his phone down and looked at Sojiro.

"Hasn't this been happening a lot lately?"

The café owner grunted in confirmation.

"In fact, there was a real sad one just last month," he revealed. "Happened before you came here. If I remember right, the girl that passed away was only fifteen. Her parents have gotta be just..."

Sojiro didn't finish his sentence, and Denki was glad about that. He didn't want to have to think about something that depressing.

"What do you think is causing all these accidents?," Denki asked, deciding to change the subject.

"How should I know?," Sojiro responded. "You should leave that for the heroes to figure out."

Denki flinched at that statement, not because he found it harsh but because it reminded him of something: he was no longer a hero.

Due to his recent criminal record, not only was he expelled from his high school, U.A. High, but the provisional hero license he worked hard to obtain during his first year of high school was permanently revoked.

After that unintentional reminder, Denki gloomily picked his phone up again and started scrolling through it.

Seeing that Denki was no longer in the mood to talk, Sojiro fixed his gaze on the crowded road, hoping that traffic would start picking up soon.


The drive back to Leblanc took all day due to the amount of traffic that Sojiro had to get through.

Once they made it back, Sojiro began to gripe about how much time he wasted while Denki made his way upstairs, with the reminder of him no longer being a hero still weighing his mind down.

That heavy thought combined with the exhaustion he felt due to being cooped up in Sojiro's car all day and not getting enough sleep, caused Denki to fall asleep as soon as he plopped down on the bed.

"Hey, before I lock up for the night, there's something I need to-," Sojiro started as he made his way upstairs.

He stopped mid sentence once he saw that Denki was asleep.

"Guess it'll have to wait for tomorrow," Sojiro sighed.

He let out a chuckle once he saw Denki's sleep attire.

"He didn't even bother changing out of his clothes this time."

Suddenly, Sojiro's phone began to ring, causing him to take it out of his pocket and answer it.

"Hey, what's up?... I'm about to leave right now. Don't worry, I'll be there in no time... Uh-huh. I'll see you soon."

Sojiro hung up the phone and turned towards Denki, who was still sleeping. He then looked down at a notebook he had in his hand.

"Guess I'll hold onto this until tomorrow," he decided before leaving.


Date: ?

"Man, what a long day," Denki yawned. "Can't wait to make it back to my room."

After a long day of working at a hero agency for a program he had for school, Denki was walking back to U.A.

He was too tired to change out of his hero costume, so he decided to change once he got back to school.

His costume consisted of a short black jacket with two white lightning bolt designs around the hem and collar and two yellow-trimmed lightning bolt designs around his shoulders. It also consisted of matching black pants held by a belt, a white v-neck t-shirt, a black choker with a silver buckle, a pair of blue-tinted visors, and a headset. Around his right arm was a wristband with a circular mechanism that could shoot disc-shaped pointers.

At this moment, he was glad that his costume didn't stand out as much as his classmates' costumes; he'd feel pretty embarrassed if he had to walk back to school with people giving him weird looks.

"Just get in the car!"

The sound of a man yelling in the distance had gotten Denki's attention, causing him to stop walking.

"What was that?"

Denki walked toward the direction of where he heard the voice come from.

"Stop it!"

The screaming of a woman coming from the same direction he heard a man yelling made the young hero pick up the pace.

"Sounds like someone's in trouble!," Denki noted as he ran towards the direction where the shouting came from.

When he finally got close enough to where the yelling came from, he saw a bald-headed man in a suit forcibly holding onto a brunette woman and trying to force her into his car.

The blonde high school student looked at the scene in front of him in shock. Quickly snapping out of his shocked stupor, Denki moved closer to the man and woman with a hardened expression.

"Hey! What's going on here!


Date: 4/11/20XX

Denki woke up with a jolt, sitting up on his bed while breathing heavily.

Once he got his bearings, Denki laid his head back down on his pillow and groaned.

"I think I would have preferred having that prison dream instead."

He took his phone out of his pants pocket and saw it was time to go to school. He miserably got out of bed, grabbed his school bag that he left on the couch, and headed down the stairway leading to the café.

"Morning," Denki dryly greeted.

Seeing the dull look in his eyes, Sojiro raised one of his eyebrows questioningly.

"Are you still having nightmares?"

"Yeah, something like that," Denki admitted.

Denki noticed a similar cup of coffee and plate of rice and curry to the ones Sojiro gave him yesterday. His expression immediately brightened upon seeing this food and drink combination.

"Is this for me?," Denki asked with a hopeful smile.

Sojiro had to force back a smile at seeing the kid who yesterday didn't even want to try his coffee and curry now get excited to have it again.

"Uh-huh," Sojiro confirmed, causing Denki's smile to grow wider as he pulled out a chair and got ready to eat. "Just make sure to finish it before the customers start coming in. But don't eat so fast that you start choking again."

Denki wordlessly nodded as he dug into the plate of rice and curry before taking a swig of coffee.

After he finished eating, he gave the empty plate and cup to Sojiro and got up.

"Thanks for the food!," Denki grinned happily, any trace of sadness he had wiped away.

"You're welcome," Sojiro replied, allowing himself to grin this time.

"I'm heading out now," Denki informed. "See you after school."

"Don't take your time getting there," Sojiro responded as he put the cup and plate in the sink. "You'll be late if you get lost on the way."

Denki simply waved his hand in response as he made his way to the door.

"Oh, yeah, and flip the sign outside to 'Open' for me," Sojiro instructed.

"Got it," Denki complied as he got outside and flipped the sign to "Open".

The transfer student then made his way through the backstreets and headed toward the train station.


Denki could give credit where credit was due: Sojiro was right about not taking his time.

He hadn't gotten lost, per se, but he did have a hard time navigating through the stations and finding his next train.

It took some time, but he finally made it to Aoyama.

As he made his way out of the subway, he felt raindrops hit his face. It was raining, and it wasn't a soft downpour either. If Denki didn't make it to cover quickly, he would be drenched.

"Could this week get any worse!?," he exclaimed as he ran through the rain, using his bag as a makeshift umbrella.

Fortunately for him, he found shelter underneath the canopy of a clothing store.

Denki fished his phone out of the pocket of his uniform pants to check the time.

"I still have time before class starts," Denki muttered. "Guess I'll stay here for a bit until it starts clearing up."

Suddenly, the icon for the weird navigation app he deleted the other day popped up on his phone again.

"Again? I thought I deleted you," Denki muttered. "Maybe I should restart my phone."

Before he could reset his phone, someone walked right by Denki and decided to take shelter underneath the canopy with him.

After getting a good look at this person, he noticed that they wore a hood over their head, but judging by their attire, Denki could confirm two things: one, this person is a student of Shujin Academy as well, and two, they were a girl.

The person standing to his side wore the Shujin Academy uniform with some alterations.

Her blazer was unbuttoned, which showed off her long white, varsity-like hoodie with a red 'S' symbol near the bottom front of the sweatshirt, and a green four-leaf clover symbol on the hood. She wore red tights underneath her plaid school skirt and brown boots with yellow laces.

She looked to be almost the same height as Denki, if not an inch or two smaller, had the figure of an hourglass, and her hands revealed that she had pale skin.

He might not have been able to see her face, but her figure and the way the girl carried herself had attracted Denki.

He put his phone away and decided to approach this girl, try and make some small talk, and hopefully, if he played his cards right, get her number.

"Hey, so you go to Shujin Academy too?," Denki asked while taking a few steps towards the girl and smiling.

Just as he was about to say something else to the girl, she pulled her hood off, revealing her face and causing Denki to stop while in motion.

The girl had a delicate face with bright blue eyes that, in Denki's opinion, shined bright like a jewel, and her hair was platinum blonde, styled into a pair of pigtails.

Her hair and eye color reminded him of an American transfer student that attended his old school, but she definitely had Japanese features, which probably meant she was mixed.

The girl turned to him and smiled kindly at him, nodding in response to his question.

Denki wanted to say something, anything, but he couldn't. Never in his life had he met someone so... beautiful. Not even heroes with the gimmick of flaunting their looks could ever compare to her beauty.

His face began to burn red in embarrassment as he continued to look at her. Never in his life had anyone ever made him tongue-tied.

Suddenly, the girl started staring back at him, causing his face to burn even brighter. She then began to reach her hand out towards him, causing his face to turn to a shade of red he thought only one person he knew could achieve.

She reached her hand towards his spiky hair and grabbed something off it. The mixed girl opened her hand up and revealed to Denki that a petal from a Sakura tree had gotten caught in his hair.

"I hate the rain," she sighed as she looked at the petal between her fingertips. "All the blossoms are so pretty right now, and this just makes them go everywhere."

"Y-yeah," Denki uttered, forcing himself to get a word in.

'You're so stupid!,' Denki scolded himself. 'You have the chance to talk to the hottest girl you've ever seen, and you're blowing it!'

Before anything else could be said, a white car pulled in front of the pair of students. The window near the driver's seat pulls down, revealing a man with a big chin, bushy eyebrows, and brown, curly unkempt hair wearing a blue tracksuit.

"Good morning," the man greeted the girl. "You want me to give you a ride to school? You're gonna be late."

"Um, sure, thank you," the girl responded.

Had Denki not been chastising himself for being an idiot, he would have noticed the look of despair on the girl's face before entering the car.

"Do you need a lift too?," the man asked Denki, snapping Denki out of his thoughts.

Initially, Denki was about to refuse the man's offer. Not only did the man give off a bad vibe to him, but having to sit in the same car as the girl he tried and miserably failed at flirting with made him almost visibly cringe.

However, seeing the girl look at Denki pleadingly made him change his mind. He didn't know why she was looking at him that way, but something told Denki it might have to do with his suspicions of the big-chinned man. If that was the case, he did not want to leave her alone in a car with him.

"Y-yeah, thanks," Denki answered before opening and entering through the back door of the car.

With the man looking at the road and the girl looking out the side of the window, Denki couldn't see the former's look of annoyance, and the latter's look of relief.

Without a word, the man began driving toward Shujin Academy, all while not noticing some faux blond hair student trying and failing to catch up to the car.

"Damn it! Screw that pervy teacher," the faux blonde muttered while trying to catch his breath.


...You know how I said that this chapter would be Denki's awakening. Well, about that... it's not happening until the next chapter.

Alright, hey guys, Phoenix here, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter of "A Phantom Hero Among Rebels". I'd like to apologize for the long wait, I have a lot of stuff going on in real life like medical issues, work, and working on personal projects.

Hopefully, from here on out, chapter releases won't be so few and far between.

I promise you the next chapter will have Denki's awakening. I've already had Denki's Persona commissioned, so if you're reading the Wattpad and/or Ao3 version of this story, then you'll be able to see it.

Make sure to review, give me your honest criticisms, and follow and favorite if you liked the chapter. Hope you enjoyed, and until next time, later!