Lightning Serenade

Chapter 32: League of Villains III

"So, let's talk business, yeah?" Shigaraki started off with, sitting down across from Denki and looking at him head-on.

They had sat Denki on the couch. It all felt so domestic in the strangest, uncanny way. It was disorienting, and that was probably the point.

Shigaraki had pulled up a wooden chair, flipping it around and straddling it, placing his forearms on the back to stare directly at Denki.

Even with only Shigaraki and Dabi in the room, it was kind of intimidating.

That was a lie. It was very intimidating.

"I—uh—have nothing to say to you..." Denki attempted.

"Really?" Shigaraki taunted, a mean glint in his eyes, thoroughly appreciating the fear wafting off of his hostage in response to his presence and attention. "Because that sounded more like a question than a statement."

"You're wasting your time," Dabi drawled from across the room.

Denki felt a little betrayed by how far away Dabi had removed himself from the situation. He wanted him right there with him, also staring death in the face. He felt very small all by himself, talking to the future leader of the League of Villains. At least Bakugou wasn't there to be a bargaining chip; at least Denki wasn't able to be used as a bargaining chip against Bakugou.

"How so?" Shigaraki asked, flicking his eyes to Dabi, genuine curiosity in his voice for what his companion had to say about the situation.

"I trained him years ago and set up a regimen. By the looks of it, he hasn't strayed since the very first training session," Dabi explained, gesturing lazily to their blond hostage.

Shigaraki's eyes trailed up and down Denki, and he had never felt so exposed before in his life, not even when he was telling his friends about the voices for the first time. He shivered under Shigaraki's gaze. It was utterly intimidating to have someone as threatening as Shigaraki giving him his full attention. He wondered briefly what Neito would do in this situation, being the one who thrives under attention. Denki decided he would probably have witty comebacks and either not be afraid at all, or at least be able to hide his fear.

"So, you're loyal to Dabi?" Shigaraki drawled.

Denki's mind whirred and his vision blurred under the flash of adrenaline coursing through him. How the hell was he supposed to answer that? If he said no, they might finally leave him alone, but he couldn't risk hurting Dabi's feelings. If he said yes, they might try to use Dabi against him to join the League of Villains. He was stuck. At least, he was until Dabi spoke up for him.

"He's loyal and dedicated to his goal of becoming a hero. Correct me if I'm wrong, Denki."

Denki knew that Dabi was technically a villain, but he had totally just come to his rescue and saved him. Dabi would always be a hero in Denki's mind, since that first moment he agreed to train the trio and they became the QQQ.

Denki nodded in response, hoping that Dabi could sense the gratitude in the simple glance in his direction.

"Wait..." Shigaraki commanded, holding up a finger as his mind reversed the conversation, picking up something that he had not considered before. "So, you know Dabi's true identity?"

Denki's eyes widened. The only thing worse than being a useless hostage to the League of Villains was being useful in the way that they wanted information from him. After they got the information they wanted, he would then become useless, which was infinitely worse than starting out as useless in the first place.

"What is Dabi's real name?" Shigaraki pressed when Denki just sat there, eyes widened, and didn't make a move to answer.

"It's not nice to call people by anything other than their preferred name," Denki responded, finally finding the courage to speak.