Lightning Serenade

Chapter 29: Neito Unleashed

The training camp was a nightmare, but following Touya's training regimen religiously helped Denki stay near the front of his class as they worked their way through the forest, even though his electricity was essentially useless against the mud monsters. It was frustrating to him that the entrance exam was so easy because all he had to do was send a pulse of electricity through the metal robots, but this was so difficult because his quirk did nothing against the mud monsters, and even worse, would hinder his friends if he had tried to use it. Against all instinct, he had to not use his quirk and just keep moving, leaving the mud monsters to those more suitable.

He hated feeling useless, but he knew that his classmates all felt the same way, and in some situations, he would be the one carrying the rest of the class through, so he pushed his feelings of inadequacy down and just admired how his other classmates handled the huge muddy figures in various creative ways.

Denki dodged out of the way as a laughing Sero flung himself forward, using his tape and the branches of the trees to build up his momentum, before immediately crashing into a tree that he didn't expect to be there.

Denki fell back as his other classmates advanced as he checked on Sero, who was still laughing, and who quickly recuperated, shooting his tape out to the nearest branch, and starting to fling himself through the trees again, but more carefully that time.

When Denki finally made it out of the danger zone, Neito was there, disheveled from the unexpected task, but still having enough energy to taunt his rival class.

"Coming up near the end of the class, huh?" Neito challenged Denki.

Denki laughed as he pulled a stray twig from Neito's hair and flicked it away, grateful that they were back on friendly terms. "Yeah, my quirk and mud do not mix!" he conceded, allowing Neito to have his moment.

Instead of Kendou smacking Neito down and dragging him away, she watched the two interact with amusement in her eyes. Class 1-B was confused, but every time they stepped forward to drag Neito away, Denki would say something to pull Neito further into the conversation. Was he playing right into Neito's hands? Denki's other classmates would just roll their eyes and walk away, so why was Denki feeding into Neito's chaos instead of ignoring him?

Denki was just enjoying the view of Neito finally feeling like he was in his element for once. He had come out on top by strategizing which quirks would be most beneficial to copy and using the different ones as he maneuvered through the forest. According to Denki, Neito should always feel on top of the world like that.

Neito was left to bask in his bragging glory until he was suddenly stopped short by the pure, genuine essence of Denki. Denki wasn't just nodding along, humoring Neito, but actively adding to the list of reasons of why Neito was amazing.

"Thanks for looking out for me out there," Denki had yelled out as a last statement as he turned to catch up with his class to go shower and get changed out of his muddy costume.

When the surprise activity had first started, it took Denki a second to realize just how useless he was in that specific scenario. As a mud monster loomed over him, ready to crush him, a blast had come out of nowhere, blasting the head off of the mud monster, and Neito rushed from the direction of the blast, pulling Denki out of the way, no concern for himself if Denki would have activated his quirk.

Bakugou was not pleased that Neito had copied his quirk early on, but even he had heard about Neito's walking out of class stunt that he had pulled and decided not to put up too much of a fuss about it. Bakugou just made a mental note to try to get paired up with Neito at the next competition and show him what his quirk can really do. A few bruises and abrasions might do him some good.