Lightning Serenade

Chapter 22: Battle of the Blonds

The first battle of the classes was a disaster. It was also how everyone found out just how deep Denki was in his feelings for Neito. He looked up to him, sure. It was easy to look up to everyone else who made it into a hero course at UA; that much was obvious. But it was so much more than that, wasn't it? Denki's immense concern and immediate action coupled with his intense defense of criticism toward Neito when anyone else in Denki's position would have refused to help and held a grudge lasting years... the fact that Denki jumped right in and defended Neito over and over again from any harm, physical or emotional, just proved to everyone that Denki loved Neito so, so much. Maybe Denki didn't see it himself, or maybe he was just playing dumb to get everyone off his back, but everyone could see the adoration and care that Denki held for Neito in his eyes and posture whenever Neito was around and whenever someone said something insulting.

Denki had been doing decently in class. He wasn't at the top; classes were much more intensive than his middle school classes, but he was passing. He was kind of thankful for how tough the course material was because it helped keep his mind off of his lost friendships. He only had time for training, studying, eating, and sleeping. There was no room in his schedule for 'wallowing in self-pity.' However, that still didn't stop Bakugou from dubbing him "Dunce face." Denki didn't mind, honestly. That's just how Bakugou was, he learned, and he never meant anything malicious by it.

His schedule was even more tightly packed when Shigaraki Tomura and the 'League of Villains' decided to break into the USJ training building while they were there. No one was fatally injured; it could have gone a lot worse.

Denki felt utterly useless during the invasion. He couldn't help his friends because he was too close to them. He couldn't fault them for yelling at him to help and electrocute the villains; everyone was terrified out of their minds and just wanted to find the quickest way to get out of the mess they had found themselves in. He was just grateful that they listened when he hurriedly explained that, unless they wanted shock treatment that day, he wouldn't be able to electrocute the enemy without them being caught in the crossfire.

One thing that he was grateful for is that Momo had been near him. She was able to make an insulated blanket so that he could shock the villains without risking hurting his comrades. That was a lucky break, though, and he needed to figure out a way to aim his quirk so he could use it without fear of hurting an ally. Neito might have some good ideas on how to do that if he was still around, copying Denki's quirk, and improving both of their usage on it. Denki felt like he had slowed down a lot in his progress since he didn't have Neito to help him work out different ways to use or advance his quirk.

Another thing that he was grateful for is that Class 1-B and Class 1-C wasn't at the USJ training with them. He could focus a little better than if he was worried about where Hitoshi and Neito ended up and how they were faring against the villains.

It kind of hurt, though, when he passed them in the hallway afterwards, and they barely looked at him, let alone asked him if he was okay since the attack.

He was not okay.

He had nightmares, but he could hardly complain. Mr. Aizawa and the other pros were the ones who got hurt. Denki felt like he had no right to even have the nightmares, let alone complain about them.

In times like these, Denki felt almost lucky to have schizophrenia. Almost every time he woke up, he would hear a familiar lullaby in his head, lulling him back to sleep. When he didn't hear the lullaby, he would simply start to sing it to himself as he drifted off again. It became a comfort song for him, but he couldn't figure out where he had ever learned it from. It felt ingrained in him, somehow, but he knew that his mother and father never heard of it before; he had asked. He thought maybe he had made it up, but then figured that he wasn't musically inclined enough to make such a sweet song. He assumed that he must have heard it somewhere before, maybe playing in the background at a restaurant or something, and it just stuck with him.