Lightning Serenade

Chapter 3: Fields II

Denki was eating slowly, looking around the room as he chewed, bored out of his mind. Every time he met the eyes of the technician who was keeping an eye on him, he'd hurriedly look away. It was awkward and Denki missed his new friends already, and it was only five minutes since the others had left for the cafeteria across campus.

Momo had drawn him a map of the place, which would be helpful if he wanted to attempt another escape, but he figured he'd better not. He liked his new friends, the days weren't terrible (except right then as he was awkwardly eating alone), and he didn't want to accidentally shock anyone who would try to hold him down if he tried to escape again and got caught. Also, where would he go? Home? His parents were the ones who admitted him here in the first place, so Denki didn't really have a choice when it came to staying.

Denki glanced over the map that Momo had drawn, eyes tracing the steady and precise lines. She was an expert in all things except winning card games, but Denki suspected that she might be good at that, too. Maybe she had to downplay some of her strengths to keep her friends from becoming bored with her perfection. The thought made Denki sad. He had felt entirely accepted by her, and he would be ecstatic if his new friend was amazing at literally everything, card games included. It would be a challenge to overcome, and he wouldn't give up and play with someone else just because he probably wouldn't win. Though, he was used to not winning in a lot of things, so maybe her other friends would prefer to win every once in a while, to keep entertained with her company.

Denki traced his finger along the path on the map that his unit mates would have taken to get to the cafeteria from their unit, Unit Beta. It had looked huge and scary when Denki was first brought here, but the map helped him feel better and more in control. Knowledge was power, after all.

Unit Beta was right next to the cafeteria, and actually shared a wall with the children's unit. At certain times throughout the day, Denki could hear knocking, slamming, and faint yelling coming from the shared wall. He felt lucky that he was on one of the teenagers' units because it sounded like absolute chaos on the other side of that wall. Momo had explained that they were near the age that they could be moved around if there were problems. There was a frequent flier here who had been released three days before Denki showed up, and he was unhinged. He would pick fights with anyone and everyone.

Momo had Kyoka and Denki in a trance as she told them about the infamous Neito. How he was beaten up by two of the older kids on Unit Echo, the unit for the older teenagers that was across campus. Denki's eyes trailed over to the rectangle that acted as Unit Echo on the map as he recalled her storytelling. Apparently, Neito had instigated the older kids on the unit until they snapped. One kid, probably 16 or 17, had grabbed Neito to hold him still while the other one, probably about the same age, punched him over and over again. Neito had been bragging about it when he arrived on Unit Beta. The technicians had to yell at him over and over again to keep his shirt down as he continued to pull it up to show the bruises on his stomach that matched the ones blooming on his face, but every time someone would show interest, there he'd go again, raising the hem of his shirt to show of the bruising and abrasions with a smug smile on his face.

According to Momo, when Neito tried picking a fight with Denki's current roommate, Touya, he was then transferred to the children's unit. A day after that, he was transferred back, with even more bruises than when he came from Unit Echo. He made the younger kids so mad that they all ganged up on him and held him down as they stomped on him and punched him. Touya had smirked every time Neito had winced from his various injuries but didn't start anything new and Neito was too sore to risk starting a fight with Touya.

Even with the quirk-nullifying drugs given every morning with the vitamins and other drugs, Touya was strong. Denki thought of his roommate. He was so fun when he played the air bass guitar with him, so Denki couldn't exactly picture him being mad, but thinking of the build of the older teenager, he figured that it was better if he never did get the chance to see him get mad.