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Kaminari Denki could feel the storm before the first strike of lightning hit. He could feel the electricity in his veins, it was as much a part of him as his blood or his bones.
Denki felt the currents in the air change, and he knew he had to rush outside, because he would endanger his classmates should he stay inside their shared dormitories.
They say, “Lightning doesn’t strike twice,” but Denki had been struck more times than he could count. He pulled the currents towards him when it stormed, it was practically inevitable.
The only times he felt truly alive were when he stood, rain pouring from the heavens, the skies under his control, lightning rushing towards him, flowing through him.
He felt like something bigger than himself when it stormed. He felt like one of the primordial beings he dreamed of as a child, when he had first gotten his Quirk.
He heard the first crack of thunder from outside, the sound of rain beginning to hit his window, and Denki bolted up from his bed, and ran down the hall.
Denki didn’t hear the worried shouts of his classmates behind him as he sprinted through the common room, Sero shouting, “Where are you going, bro?”
He didn’t process that they didn’t know yet, that he was capable of manipulating lightning . They didn’t know that he needed to be outside for this, to protect them.
He sprinted out the door, ran through the courtyard, and out to the field.
Denki stood in the middle of the grass, his entire body thrumming with anticipation. His Quirk was always much more intense when it stormed. However, his control was always improved tenfold, as if his body somehow intuitively knew what was going to happen.
He raised his hands to the sky and he grinned, screaming his mantra in English as naturally as he breathed, “I, ALONE, BREATHE LIGHTNING, AND I SHALL WIELD NATURE’S MIGHTIEST SWORD.”
Denki didn’t hear his classmates' screams, as he ripped the lightning down from the sky, standing with his hands raised, a reverent sort of prayer to his own divinity.
Denki knew he wasn’t supposed to be able to do this, it was beyond his ability, but he couldn’t help it. It storms every year, and there’s only so many lightning strikes a kid can take before realizing he’s attracting them. It was only a matter of time before he realized he could control the strikes.
It was storms like this that let him feel like Zeus, the sky god of Greek mythology, a being of the majestic divine, times like this are the closest Denki could get to playing god.
The lightning was tearing through his veins, crackling through his skin, it was a different color than his Quirk’s electricity. He let himself be surrounded by it, he knew he’d have new scars to coat in burn cream later, but he could think about his oft-formed Lichtenberg figures later.
Right now, he was one with the heavens, he was as close to the divine as he’d ever felt. Something about this storm felt… stronger . He felt stronger, he felt… untouchable , out here, lightning brightening the world around him.
He let himself test out something he’d been workshopping during the last few storms, he wanted to form a sword out of the lightning he controlled. He’d tried and gotten pretty close last time, but not before losing focus, and shattering his half-formed sword.
Denki focused, brought his hands down from their raised position, put them together, closed his eyes and concentrated. He focused on the lightning rushing through his body.
He wanted a lightning sword, and by the gods he felt like, he was going to make one. He clasped his hands tighter, and then brought them nearly all the way apart.
He’d done it! He grabbed hold of the handle, and triumphantly lifted up his sword with one hand. He willed the lightning down from the sky once more, the heavens opened, and sent down a lightning strike, directly to the tip of his sword.
He felt the current rush through him, and this time he felt fucking invincible . If it could storm every time they trained, he’d be top of their class in no time.
Denki practiced with his sword, slicing the air, sending sparks crackling, only to fizzle out into nothing. He felt like the sword was simply an extension of him.
Everyone in the building, including his classmates, were watching him from the windows, jaws dropped. They were so confused, all thinking, is this the same Kaminari who is banned from the kitchen for melting the toaster, the lowest-ranked member of Class 1-A?
Midoriya said, “Everyone else is seeing this, right?” And he received shocked nods from his classmates in response. Midoriya was too shocked to even scribble in his notebook– what would he even write down? So, turns out my friend is secretly Zeus?
Denki still felt unfathomably godlike, but he knew he’d need to take a break soon, lest he risk a short-circuit. Even with his heightened capabilities in storms, it was still a risk.
So Denki threw his lightning sword back up to the sky from one hand, and then sent the lightning from his body back up as well. He actually felt much better afterward, if a little drained.
Denki, clothes completely soaked through, and actually kind of cold now that he thought about it, headed back to the dorms, only then noticing everyone’s shocked faces in the windows.
Oh, shit, they all saw that, he thought. He supposed they were owed an explanation after that, but it wouldn’t make it any less, well, awkward for him.
Oh no, what if they expected him to do better in training now? He could only have that level of power during an electrical storm!
It was still raining as Denki stepped through the door, and he braced himself for the barrage of questions from his peers. He did actually need to go to Recovery Girl, though, to get burn cream, so he’d tell them that and then come back.
Everyone was staring at Denki, jaws still practically on the floor. He laughed, “Guys, you’ll catch flies if you keep your mouths open that wide! I’ll answer whatever questions you have, but first I gotta get burn cream from Recovery Girl. The scars from being struck by lightning always hurt.”
He sprinted towards RG’s office as he heard a collective gasp of, “ALWAYS?” from his classmates, laughing to himself all the while.
When he came back, burn cream still tingling under his clothes, he was met with the faces of his seemingly quite concerned classmates, and his teacher Aizawa-sensei.
Denki grinned, and brought his hands together, and clapped, “Okay! Simple explanation time. Questions afterward . Basically, I attract lightning strikes during electrical storms. I can also control lightning completely during these storms, and all my capabilities and control are incredibly enhanced. Even I don’t know to what extent. Today was my first time successfully forming that sword, though! That was sick as fuck , in my opinion.”
Midoriya raised his hand, and tentatively asked, “So you aren’t like, real life Zeus? This has to do with your Quirk?”
Denki threw his head back and laughed, and grinned at Midoriya. “No, I’m not Zeus, but that would be pretty cool. That would make training and class a lot easier. It has something to do with the way electrical currents pull towards me, because of my Quirk.”
Aizawa-sensei interrupted, looking at Denki, “But it doesn’t hurt you, right Kaminari? Because, if it did I’d have to be a whole lot more worried, and not be impressed.”
Denki smiled a bit at his teacher’s roundabout way of showing his care, “No, it doesn’t hurt, quite the opposite, in fact. It feels like… true perfection. Like, divinity? You know how people have Quirk developmental stages? It always feels like I’ve somehow reached my final Quirk stage when it storms, and then, within the rest of my life I’m working my way towards feeling like that– outside of storms. It feels like it’s how I’m meant to exist.”
His teacher looked surprised and interested at that, but shrugged and said, “As long as it’s not hurting you or anyone else, Kaminari, I don’t mind if you need to do… that, when it storms. It would be beneficial for your training for you to carry over whatever techniques you learn while experiencing lightning strikes, though.”
Denki laughed at that, “Got it, teach. I’ll try!” Then he looked over at the rest of his classmates, who were still seemingly not over the whole ‘Kaminari can control lightning’ thing.
Denki frowned at that thought, “Guys, you know this doesn’t change much, right? It just means when there’s an electrical storm I have to do that. Don’t worry, I’m still the same guy!”
Kirishima raised his hand, “I had another question, bro, what did you yell out there before the lightning struck you? We couldn’t hear you but we saw your mouth moving.”
Denki replied, “Oh, that’s my storm mantra. I’ve been saying it since I was little, can’t remember why. It’s in English, I made it up as a kid, in Japanese it’s ‘I alone breathe lightning, and I shall wield nature’s mightiest sword’. I thought it sounded so badass as a kid, now it’s just a habit to say it.”
Everyone looked more surprised, Bakugou being the one to ask, “What do you mean, ‘made it up as a kid’? How long have you been taking English classes, Sparky?”
Denki looked confused now, “Classes? I’m from America, Bakubro! There’s a reason I have the highest English grade in the school…?”
The class was too tired of shocking revelations about Denki for the day to do much else besides look dazed.