Work Text:
Sero couldn’t remember anything about his past life aside from that one boy who kept popping up in his thoughts. The first memory he experienced was when he was younger, probably around three years old. It was too long ago for him to recall the exact details of the event, but what he saw never left his memory.
He’d been playing with an electrical cord, his parents busy with something and not paying attention, when he’d received a shock. The moment was brief and as soon as it’d happened, his parents had rushed over and pulled him away from the cord, making sure he wasn’t badly hurt. But as soon as that shock had coursed through his body, he’d seen the image of a boy in his late teens with blond hair, a black streak running through it, and a bright smile on his face.
Just like that, the image was gone.
As time went on, he had more and more of these brief flashes. And each one seemed to reveal more about this mysterious boy. Some of them happened at night where he’d wake up from a dream with a sudden piece of knowledge about the boy he didn’t know before. Others happened during the day. He’d suddenly space out during class, his mind feeling fuzzy, and see a brief flit of a memory or past event. Most of these images and information were difficult to decipher, however. But through them, he learned some interesting tidbits.
The boy was in his class in his past life. He ranked 16th during some Quirk Apprehension Test, whatever that meant. He liked hamburgers. There was someone he would always flirt with, but who it was, Sero had no idea. And he wanted to be a hero, whatever that meant. Sero assumed he meant like a firefighter or a policeman type hero, the kind that rescues people or catches criminals. After all what other kind could there be?
Sero clung to these little scattered pieces of information, writing each one down in a journal. He hadn’t encountered the boy like this yet, not many people had a jagged black streak shaped like a lightning bolt running through their hair after all. But he was sure he’d find him eventually.
The most dynamic memories where the ones that occurred whenever he was exposed to electricity. He wasn’t sure why his was, and he wouldn’t willingly put himself in danger just to experience them, but they happened on occasion and those were the ones that revealed the most.
Aside from his first experience as a child, he’d only had two more of these ones, both accidents. The first was when he was seven. He had touched a frayed wire without meaning to and ended up getting a shock from it. He’d apparently fallen unconscious from it he heard after, but as soon as he felt the shock, all pain disappeared replaced with a memory.
He was in a dorm room. He couldn’t see himself, but he was looking at the boy with blond hair and the streak, his name still unknown at that point.
“When we graduate, do you want to be partners?“
“Partners?” For some reason, Sero felt flustered by his question. The other boy laughed, his grin bright.
“You know, working together as pro heroes! We make a good team, after all.“ The boy said, then his cheeks flushed red. "I mean, if you want to and stuff. We have a lot of time to decide these things after all.”
“No, I definitely want to work with you when we get older. After all, you’ll get yourself killed without me there, Kaminari.”
“Hey, I’m gonna be the one looking out for you, Sero!“ The memory dissolved into laughter, and Sero found himself awake in the hospital. It turned out the electrocution hadn’t been serious, but he’d been hospitalized just in case and because he’d passed out.
The third experience had been the most traumatizing of them all. It had been the summer he was going into his first year of high school. He’d been down by the beach when the storm rolled in, out of nowhere, and there hadn’t been enough time for him to make it back to shelter. His family had already headed back to their hotel room telling him not to stay out too long, and he made the mistake of not going back earlier, having no knowledge of the incoming storm.
Thunder roared and lightning crackled as the rain pelted down from the heavens. There was a flash of light, and Sero felt something jolt through him. Then the beach was gone. He could no longer hear the thunderstorm or feel the rain. A memory came into view, this one clearer than any other one he’d seen.
He and Kaminari were standing back to back, dressed in strange costumes, and surrounded by these weird and dangerous looking people. The sky was dark, and it looked about to storm. Unlike the other memories, he wasn’t looking straight at Kaminari. Rather, he was looking down from above. Kaminari, too, wasn’t a teenager like usual. And neither was he. The two of them looked a bit older as if they were in their early twenties.
Kaminari charged at the people surrounding them, electricity crackling from his hands. The electric energy knocked out some of them, but the others dodged or brushed it off. Tape shot out of Sero’s elbows, and he watched as he attacked the people as well, tying some of them up with his tape.
The two seemed to be holding their ground pretty well, but the number of attackers was overwhelming, and Kaminari seemed to be getting tired. Sero as well didn’t seem to be able to eject tape as efficiently or quickly as he’d been. Out of the corner of his eye, Sero spotted an enemy lunging at the distracted Kaminari.
“Denki!”
Sero called out as he whipped around to tie up one of their enemies before he could attack Kaminari. Kaminari whirled around, small sparks crackling in his fingers, and his eyes widened.
“Hanta!“
Sero felt something sharp pierce his back, and he fell to the ground. Everything went blurry around him, and he could hear screams and hear the crackle of electricity. Something collapsed next to him, something warm, and he cracked open his eyes to see Kaminari lying next to him. He was bleeding and breathing heavily, sparks still dancing around him. Sero tried to say something, to do anything, but he couldn’t move.
He jolted awake, his heart pounding, the machine next to him beeping. That experience had felt more real than any of the others, more clear than the ones before. Whatever his past life had been, he’d had powers of some sort. They both had. And he didn’t need to see the ending to know what had happened to his past self.
The memory haunted him. He didn’t even bother writing it down, it wasn’t like the others, brief glimpses of information. This one had been seared into his mind, and he couldn’t forget it if he tried.
Summer ended and school came. Sero pushed open the door to his classroom and froze as his gaze fell onto one of his classmates sitting in the front row. The boy had a bright grin on his face and as Sero entered, he looked up. Sero caught sight of his warm gold eyes, blond hair and that familiar lightning shaped black streak running through it. The boy lifted his hand in a wave, his eyes lighting up. Then, he spoke, his voice which Sero had only heard in brief snatches so much more in person.
“Hey Sero!”