Lightning Serenade

Chapter 39: First Year at UA III

A/N: Nothing that has gone wrong so far is resolved, and things magically get worse. Whoopsie? My bad? Please enjoy the sadness. (Before this chapter, I have never cried while writing. Can't say that anymore!)

Denki sighed, rubbing at his temples to try to ease his stress headache. By that point, it had been three days since everything went down at Kamino Ward and neither Dabi nor Shigaraki had logged into their accounts. The dumb 'three days ago' under their usernames taunted Denki, telling him that he didn't do enough.

No one would tell him what had happened after he was whisked away by his classmates. Everyone said that it was nothing he needed to worry about, and he wondered if some of them got away, and that is why they wouldn't tell him, but maybe that was just wishful thinking on his end. Denki figured that from their perspective, he might have become more anxious and paranoid if he knew that some of the villains had escaped. Denki couldn't tell them otherwise; Force Majeure's quirk wouldn't let him.

They had tried plopping Denki down in a therapist's office, but Force Majeure's quirk wasn't cancelled out by the calm and caring voice of the psychiatrist enlisted to talk to the students affected by Denki's kidnapping, including Denki himself.

Denki was slightly impressed by the way that the therapist didn't become frustrated or annoyed at Denki's lack of response, even before everyone had figured out that there was something stopping him from talking that wasn't just himself or his perceived trauma.

"Hey, kid," Aizawa had greeted, tired and dusty from the events at Kamino Ward.

He had sought out Denki right after he was released by the Hero Commission after debriefing, not surprised to find Denki surrounded by his peers. Of course, they would be reprimanded later for taking matters into their own hands. What did surprise him was Denki's fatigue and quiet sadness. Aizawa had honestly been expecting jokes and high energy from being rescued by his peers. He expected laughter all around and not the silent, concerned glances that Denki's peers were shooting at each other when Denki would look away. He had never seen Denki so despondent, and it seemed more to him than just the trauma that Denki had gone through. Likewise, Denki had never heard Aizawa's voice so gentle. It was more unsettling than calming.

"Your parents are on their way," he informed, noticing that Denki tensed further instead of relaxing.

"He won't talk to us," Neito whispered, a quiet desperation in his tone.

"I don't think he can," Hitoshi added, directed toward Aizawa but not looking away from Denki.

Denki had quickly looked up to meet Hitoshi's eyes, and Hitoshi was almost relieved to see some emotion coming from the normally hyperactive, excitable boy, even if that emotion was simply a blunted surprise.

"Oh, Denki," his mother had wailed, collapsing into him.

He pet her hair to comfort her as she sobbed with relief at having her baby boy back after two days of being held hostage by an infamous group of villains. When she noticed the burns on his arms, she wailed even louder. The burns weren't bothering Denki at all; Dabi had done well with his first aid care. His father had put a shaky hand on his shoulder, and when Denki dared to look at him, he saw that he was tearing up, too. While his mother was more upset with Denki physically being injured, even though he had had much worse before from his own quirk, his father was more concerned about Denki's change in demeanor.

When Aizawa introduced the idea of moving Denki, along with all of the other students, into on-campus housing, Denki's parents immediately objected and threatened to pull their son from the program entirely. Aizawa calmly pointed out the benefits and safety measures that keeping Denki on campus full-time would give them, but Denki's parents argued back that he was kidnapped under their care in the first place.