Lightning Serenade

Chapter 67: Internship VI

Denki practiced with Hawks on a daily basis, and while he was frustrated that he wasn't progressing as fast as he would have liked, he no longer felt the need to take out that frustration on Hawks, now that he realized that Hawks wasn't even really benefiting from teaching him something that was so far out of his own element. That idea just made Denki work even harder.

Hawks would fly them out to abandoned cityscapes or secluded mountains to practice where no one might oversee before Denki was completely in control.

Hawks had drilled it into Denki that power was a delicate thing that needed to be kept hidden until it reached its full potential. Otherwise, there would be people out there who would want to take advantage.

Despite feeling frustrated at his slow progress, though, Denki had never felt more powerful. He finally had something that kept him in line with his classmates. He finally had something that was helping him progress just as quickly as everyone else seemed to. He no longer felt that he might be falling too far behind to catch up. He finally had hope that he might be a valuable member of hero society because of his quirk, instead of his quirk being his downfall and making him into a liability.

By the time the end of his third year was nearing, Denki had his new move down to near perfection every single time.

"I've been doing some research," Hawks said as he handed Denki a bottle of water during one of their frequent breaks. "You know how you said you didn't understand how you would short-circuit when using lower voltage and feel completely fine when blasting your power up to lightning-levels? I think that might be because you're pushing that power out and through you when you're turning into lightning, but just kind of blocking it off and holding it in when you short-circuit."

Denki nodded as he swallowed the water down, barely taking a chance to breathe before chugging the whole thing, heaving from the effort, and wiping his mouth.

"The first time it happened, it was terrifying," Denki disclosed. "After that, I tried to limit how much power I'd put out so that it wouldn't have as many side effects when I tried to shut it down again. But you're saying I should have done the opposite?"

"Yeah, basically."

"Hawks?"

"Yeah, kid?"

"Where have you been all my life?"

Hawks barked out a laugh and reached out for Denki, but Denki was faster. With a bright light and a crack of thunder, Denki was across the small clearing, out of reach, and wearing a shit-eating grin.

"Fastest hero, my ass, Hawks!"

"Hey! I'll still hold that title until you graduate and become pro! Until then, you will bow down to me as the fastest hero!"

"Yeah, sure..." Denki hedged, taking two steps back. "But you gotta catch me first!"

Hawks was already speeding toward him, and Denki still had time to laugh before he sizzled out of Hawks's reach.

"Oh, ho, ho! You gotta be quicker than that!" Denki teased to get Hawks wound up.

Hawks knew it was to deliberately get him wound up, and goddamn if it didn't work just as the kid intended. Hawks chased after Denki, a challenging smile on his face.

Hawks felt amazing every time he did manage to catch Denki, but he wondered each time if that one would be the last time he ever did so. He had been improving steadily, and it took more and more time using more and more strategies and tricks to actually catch Denki. It if was a pure competition of speed alone, Hawks wouldn't have ever stood a chance from the second that Denki learned how to activate it at will from baseline, from zero to lightning instantly, instead of having to build up to it.