Chapter Text
Why me? Why now? Why why why?
That was Denki’s first thought when he heard Aizawa shouting that villains had appeared at the USJ and that the students needed to run. He hadn’t wanted to come to UA in the first place, the school was too filled with obnoxious, egotistical heroes for Denki’s liking.
But he had actually been looking forward to the USJ trip, he thought it would be interesting to learn about the rescue part of heroics. Afterall, in his opinion a hero wasn’t someone with a flashy quirk who only ever wanted to beat up people. In his mind a hero was someone who cared about others and wanted to protect them. So naturally villains just had to show up. Of course.
Not that Denki was scared, no, that would be irrational. Half of his family were villains afterall, heck his dad was the villain to end of villains. The villain who gave All Might nightmares. So no, Denki was not afraid, not in the slightest. Instead he was irritated and regretting having skipped breakfast that morning, his hunger only putting him in an even worse mood.
As Aizawa attempted to usher him and his classmates towards the exit Denki peered over his shoulder, trying to get a glimpse of whoever had the nerve to interrupt the field trip.
Then he froze.
He knew that purple portal. He knew the misty man with glowing yellow eyes. And he definitely knew the immature young adult with a dismembered hand covering his face and partially healed scabs covering his dry skin.
What the fuck were they doing here?
Denki tried to remember if he’d been informed of this but nothing came to mind.
Why was his brother launching a full scale attack against UA?
Denki wondered in disbelief, for now he could see dozens more villains entering the training facility through Kurogiri’s portal.
“We are the League of Villains,” a dry voice rasped, “we have come to end your so-called ‘symbol of peace’. Although he doesn’t seem to be here. A shame. Oh well, we’ll just have to draw him out by killing a couple of his precious students. That ought to do the trick.”
Seriously. What the fuck was happening. And why was Tomura talking like a cheesy disney villain?
Denki was going to have a huge headache after this was over. If he didn’t die of cringe first. Luckily he spent a large portion of his time watching try not to cringe videos of TikTok so he believed himself to be mostly immune.
Looking around to gauge his classmates' reactions he was shocked to find them all staring at Tomura with varying degrees of terror. Well, all of them except Bakugo, he seemed to be foaming at the mouth, the only thing stopping him from attacking the villains being Kirishima wrapping his arms around Bakugo’s chest with his quirk activated.
Really? They bought all that?
Well, Denki mused, he supposed once you looked past the cheesy words his brother did look mildly scary. And all the disembodied hands were kind of creepy.
However before he could think anymore about the absurd situation the ground beneath his feet gave out and before he could even react Denki was falling through the air.
A second later his back hit the hard ground and he let out a small ‘oof’ noise. Once he was able to breathe again and the world had stopped spinning, Denki slowly, shakily got to his feet and examined his surroundings. He seemed to be in a rocky environment. Was it possible Kurogiri had warped him out of the USJ and into the mountains? No, that was ridiculous Denki mentally chided himself. The USJ had a mountain zone, that must be where he was.
He was standing on a plateau, atop a towering cliff. And yes, sure enough he could see tiny dots of his classmates scattered around in the other zones, his brother and caretaker still in the central plaza.
To his right he heard a low ‘ugh’ sound and turned towards it whilst activating his quirk, fully prepared to dose whoever was there with enough electricity to make them fear even a toaster for life.
Because yes, even though Denki held no fear for his life, he certainly wasn’t about to just sit, well stand, there and take a beating.
However he stopped short when he saw that it was just Yaomomo and Jiro scrambling up from the ground, both trembling with mussed up hair and brushing dust off their clothes.
So I’m not the only one ‘Giri sent here then.
Jiro’s eyes widened with fear and she raised a shaking hand, pointing over Denki’s shoulder.
He spun around to see a man and a woman crossing a bridge connecting a plateau about twenty metres away to the one the hero students were on.
They seemed to be polar opposites; the man had closely cropped white hair, a bulky build, and sported a cruel scowl as if terrorising teenagers was his favourite pastime. Well, Denki thought, it probably was. The woman however looked like a classic model or the love interest from an old film. She had luscious long black hair and elegant features. She was smiling widely like she was meeting with old friends. The only thing that marred the image of innocence was the huge bat-like wings that protruded from her back, black talons the size of knives and fangs. Now, these weren’t fangs like the dainty ones Denki often saw in romantic vampire films, these were monstrous, long fangs that gleamed when she smiled and looked like they could tear someone apart.
Logically, Denki knew he shouldn’t be in danger. Ultimately if anyone even dared to touch him his father would tear them to shreds then revive them just to make them watch him destroy everyone they cared about before slowly, painfully making them suffer and then stuff them full of quirks and make them experience the brutal fate of becoming a nomu.
However this didn’t stop his throat from drying out a little. They did look a bit scary. Definitely not All-For-One-finding-out-about-Izuku’s-bullying scary, or even Tomura-after-losing-a-ranked-match scary, but scary nonetheless.
“Umm, th-they’re not on o-our side are they?” Jiro stuttered.
“I don’t think so, no.” muttered Momo in return, face pale and ashy with fear.
The three students slowly backed away from the approaching villains, Denki forcing his breaths out in an uneven pattern to feign terror. While he may not actually fear for his life he still had to maintain the facade of a scared teenager facing villains for the first time. When he joined UA he made sure to mask his true intelligence and confidence and it would do no good to break his cover now.
He was snapped out of his thoughts by Momo shoving a long wooden bo staff into his hands. The girls both sported one each already and Momo was gasping slightly, a clear sign that she had used her quirk to make them.
The female villain launched herself into the air with her dark, membranous wings and shot towards the students. Momo was immediately flung to the side with a single swipe of a clawed hand. Jiro raised her bo staff to defend herself and block the attack, using her long earlobes as whips.
Swiftly stepping to the side she landed a solid hit with the weapon on the villain’s back only to be sent flying to the ground she yanked Jiro’s earlobe, dragging her along as well with a cry of pain.
Denki rushed forwards to defend his injured classmates only for something large and solid to slam into the side of his face, white hot pain exploding in his cheek. The world spun and the edges of his vision faded slightly to black but Denki fought through it and looked back just in time to see a huge fist come rushing towards him.
Oh, so that was what hit him. He had been so caught up fighting the weird bat villain he forgot about the other one.
Damn it Denki, the first rule of combat is to always be aware of your surroundings and your enemy.
His father had drilled these lessons into his head since he was a young child.
Quick to respond, Denki took a couple of steps back then unleashed 0.8 million volts onto his opponent, not wanting to damage him permanently. Afterall, these villains were hired by his brother so they weren’t really a threat. Nevertheless, the man remained unaffected as before the electricity reached him he turned his entire body to stone.
So cool. Wait no not cool. That just makes him harder to fight. Get it together you fool, geeking out over quirks is Izuku’s forte, not yours.
A quick glance back towards the girls told him that he was on his own for this one; they were holding their own against the bat woman but it didn’t seem like they would be able to help him any time soon either.
The man - still able to move despite seemingly being made of solid rock - made to grab Denki by the throat. A fate that he narrowly missed, ducking down and sliding between the villain’s legs before jumping to his feet and giving him a good old thwack on the head with the bo staff which split in two with an almighty crack. The man acted like he didn’t even feel it.
He turned slowly towards the teenager who was staring with a look of both fascination and horror at the splintering stick of wood in his hand.
“Ha! Was that the best you’ve got? Why the fuck did that freak with the hands want you alive, huh?” he growled with a chuckle.
Denki looked over towards the girls but they didn’t appear to have heard the villain's words. Good. It would have been difficult to explain why he was on good terms with the leader of the villains attacking them.
Ugh
Thought Denki.
Why do bad guys always feel the need to monologue? It gives their opponent a chance to collect themselves and attack again. Not to mention it’s just cheesy.
Never one to miss an opening, Denki took advantage of the villain’s lowered guard to dash forwards and place both his palms on the man’s chest before zapping him with a 1 million volts. This seemed to have more of an effect than the last time and the villain finally cried out and stumbled to the ground, stunned although remaining awake.
Before he even had a chance to relish in his victory a large shadow swooped over his head and plucked the male villain off the floor and flew back to the bridge where they had come from.
Denki spun back to face his classmates. They both looked as shocked as he felt. Guessing based on the way the bat woman wobbled in the air, it appeared that the girls had bested her. Although they weren’t unscathed. Jiro was clutching her upper forearm in her left hand and Momo used their unexpected respite to make some bandages for her, although her hands seemed to be trembling too much for her to be able to tie them.
Jogging towards them, Denki took the bandages from Momo before gently peeling Jiro’s hand off her arm to survey the damage. The cut didn’t seem too deep and hadn’t nicked any major arteries or tendons which was lucky as that happening was usually the worst case scenario for injuries that didn’t touch essential organs. God knows what was on that bat lady’s talons - for that was undoubtedly what caused the damage - so Jiro would likely need to be looked at by Recovery Girl. The wound didn’t look too dirty so far but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t get infected if left too long without the proper care.
After giving the injury a once over he quickly wrapped the bandage around it, eager to prevent any more blood loss. Jiro had lost enough already judging by her ashy face. Or maybe that was just fear. Who could tell?
Denki prided himself on being sociable, approachable and friendly. That was, afterall, the reason why he had been chosen to attend UA. One of his brothers was - to put it politely - a recluse. To put it honestly he was a social pariah who much preferred to play video games than interact with other beings that weren’t video simulations. His other brother, while having good intentions at heart, had been homeschooled for the last few years so rarely saw anyone outside of his family. As a result any social interactions involving him ended in disaster. And somehow he seemed to be a walking magnet for problems, always managing to get himself into situations.
All this was to say that Denki was by far the most social of his brothers. That did not however mean he had any emotional intelligence. He managed to survive purely on being fun and providing good vibes. So naturally he had no way to understand his classmate’s feelings at the current moment.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, the shadow descended again silently. Before he had time to react, Denki felt a weight around his chest and suddenly the ground was moving away from him.
It took him a second to realize that it was actually him that was moving away from the ground. Then his brain processed his classmate’s horrified expressions and his brain caught up fully. He had been snatched by the female villain.
He writhed desperately in her grasp, trying to loosen her grip on him. Surely he wouldn’t be in any real danger right? Tomura was leading these villains so he must have ordered them not to kill him.
As if she could read his mind (and maybe she could, Denki didn’t know the full extent afterall) the bat woman laughed. It was a ghastly noise, Denki could feel the shivers it sent down his spine, a mix of nails on a chalk board and a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
“You really are pathetic. Wanting to be a hero huh? What chance do you have if you can’t even protect yourself? That Shigaraki guy wanted you to be kept alive. In fact he told us not to damage any of you silly little hero hopefuls permanently. Well I think that’s ridiculous. I ain't gonna hold myself back just because some weirdo tells me to.”
As she said that her whole jaw disconnected as though she were a snake to show the full extent of the great maw of the voracious woman.
Realising for the first time just how much danger he was in Denki summoned the power of his quirk and unleashed 1.3 million volts into the woman. Enough to hopefully stop her but not so much that he would have to play dumb.
And it worked, both the woman and Denki dropped out of the sky like a stone hurled in a lake.
Denki covered his head as he hit the ground and was relieved to find that he hadn’t broken anything. He would certainly have some nasty bruises for the rest of the week though. The woman it seemed also hadn’t broken anything, although the amount of electricity coursing through her did leave her thrashing on the dusty floor.
His classmates were quick to respond, with Momo slapping newly created quirk-cancelling cuffs onto the villain’s wrists and Jiro ending her wriggling with a quick blow to the back of her head with her bo staff. Nothing that would result in permanent damage obviously, that wouldn’t be very heroic of her.
The male villain had remained on the ground where he had been left during all that but seeing the defeat of his ally quickly had him struggling upright before lurching towards the students. His formerly stoney skin was beginning to crack and patches of normal skin could be seen, it was likely that the strain of the battle was taking its toll on his quirk.
However, the students had experienced a dramatic roller coaster ride of emotions that day and frankly by then they were all tired, fed up and just wanted to go home. Their exhaustion-fueled actions led to a rather anticlimactic end to the fight.
Jiro simply hurled her earlobes into the ground and unleashed sound wave after sound wave towards the unlucky, although not undeserving, villain. With every ruthless blow the stone disappeared a bit more, giving way to his actual - and no long indestructible - skin.
Well, here goes nothing.
Denki thought before sighing internally unloading 2 million volts, careful not to hit his classmates, and then forcing a dopey smile onto his face and raising his hands into a halfhearted thumbs up.
“Whey,” he said.