Lightning Serenade

Chapter 37: League of Villains VIII

"Just because we kidnapped you doesn't mean that you can slack on your training," Dabi lectured, leading Denki back to the training area. "Also, I'm using my quirk this time."

Denki blanched. "What?"

"You heard me."

"That's not fair!" Denki whined, sounding more like a toddler on the verge of a tantrum than a high school hero course student.

"Use your quirk on me if you want," Dabi offered with a nonchalant shrug.

"I could quite literally kill you," Denki retorted, letting the heavy metal door fall shut behind them as the entered the underground training area that was positioned right under the bar.

"See, that's the problem with you hero types. You're so squeamish about death," Dabi breezed.

Denki burst out laughing at that but was still aware enough to dodge out of the way of the blast of blue fire that Dabi had sent his way.

After a good hour of relentless training (the only way that Dabi seemed to be able to train was absolutely relentless and ruthless, but that worked for Denki), the villain and the future hero were breathing heavily, cooling their skin on the cool cement of the floor.

Denki was just happy that the floor was still cool after having Dabi's flames steadily heating the room to boiling point for the last hour. Denki hissed as he sat up, feeling the tightness of his skin where he was burned when he didn't move out of the way quite fast enough.

"Sorry 'bout that," Dabi drawled, remaining steadfast in his position sprawled out on the floor. "You'll have to make do with basic first aid; villains don't tend to have many healers at their disposal, let alone magic healing ladies to miraculously kiss boo-boos away."

Denki snorted at that, eyes following Dabi's whimsical hand movements that emphasized his words. "I'll forgive you if you patch me up," Denki chirped, smiling widely at the villain sprawled out next to him.

Dabi groaned, sitting up to go grab the supplies, not quite ready to leave the coolness of the cement. He figured he'd have to get up anyway because Denki wouldn't know where the first aid kit was, and if he sent the kid asking for it, the other villains would question why he needed it and then be on his ass for going too hard on the kid during training. Not only would that annoy Dabi, but it would also be uncomfortable for Denki. He's a tough kid; he has to be to be in the hero course. He's probably had much worse. The only difference was that he would have to endure the normal healing process the natural way.

It was also a good workout for Dabi. Villains had their specialties, and to stay alive, they usually stuck strictly to what they were good at. Again, they didn't have many healers to fall back on if they made a mistake. What might be a simple wound to heal for a hero with a healer at their agency could mean the death of a villain. So, Dabi hadn't had many willing participants that he could go all out with in quite a while. Of course, he understood; training wasn't worth potentially dying over. It was still nice to go all out, though, when he could manage it. And Denki put up one hell of a fight.

He wasn't going to go as hard as he did, but Denki never backed down or looked scared, even with the blue flames coming right at him before he dodged away. The challenge in Denki's eyes and the glee evident in his smile pushed Dabi to go further and further. He might have scolded himself for being too careless, but he doubted he would have gotten so wired if it wasn't Denki in that training room with him.

Truthfully, Denki appreciated that Dabi always took him seriously and treated him like he knew what he was doing. Always following Bakugou's orders didn't leave much room for him to show off and live up to his full potential, so it was nice to be training with Dabi again, whose observant eyes tracked him like radar. Dabi would make minute adjustments until he was running Denki at full throttle and continue to make little adjustments to keep him there. It was exhausting and exhilarating and Denki loved it so, so much.