Lightning Serenade

Chapter 87: Channel Six

A/N: Just a heads up! Channel six is badass, guys! Some people get prickly about the questions they ask, but the heroes have a strong bond with channel six. The questions are formed ahead of time and they are what the interviews and reporters should be asking when it's an exclusive type of thing like this is, when they have time to prepare before the cameras roll. That's why there's such a difference in the level of respect when it comes to exclusive interviews, like with Neito and Hitoshi in front of Tartarus, versus impromptu stuff where everyone is just trying to get a story, like with Denki after that building collapse after a quirk accident. Channel six and the heroes are on the same side; they wouldn't ask some of these rude sounding questions if they weren't scripted by the heroes to get the information out there as quickly and efficiently as possible in a way that the public can most easily and directly understand. Hope this clears some things up and eases some of your blood pressure when reading this chapter!

Neito continued to glare at Isozan all morning as everyone else hurried throughout the League's base, preparing for Denki's interview.

"Fuck," Isozan muttered when he noticed. "What'd I do now?"

Isozan had been catching up with Uretori all night, so he knew it couldn't have been anything recent. It had to have been something that Neito remembered from the day prior unless he breathed on him wrong or something.

"Why were you singing to my soulmate?" Neito accused, crossing his arms over his chest and standing up straighter as he confronted the villain.

Denki stopped in his tracks, momentarily distracted from running back and forth, about to go ask Kurogiri to warp him home to quickly grab his hero costume for the interview—the last thing needed before he'd be ready to go.

"Wha—? I wasn't just going to leave him with no echo during Rudolph! I'm a villain, not a monster!" Isozan retorted, mirroring Neito by also crossing his arms but slumping over in exasperation instead of standing straight in agitation.

"No." Neito scowled. "Before that. With the 'oh I keep it a secret' shit," Neito clarified.

Denki laughed, stepping forward to intervene as the lyric echoed in his mind. "That wasn't Isozan!" Denki said, much to Isozan's relief. "That was the rats! Well, I hallucinated the rats singling to me, which actually gave me the idea to get you guys to use the animals to find me."

Neito's glare softened, disappearing when he turned to regard his soulmate. "I talked to a rat, you know? In an alleyway. They knew you. They called you staticky, and they like that you drop crumbs from your breakfast, and they—they knew you by name, Denks. The rat said you saved one of them from a trap, loudly announcing that there was no need to fear because Kaminari Denki was here."

Denki's face warmed as he looked down and rubbed a socked toe against the floor, blowing out a breath through puffed cheeks. "That was at the very beginning, okay? I was trying out different catch phrases and kept messing up and using my name instead of Chargebolt."

Neito stepped forward to grab Denki's face and Isozan quickly retreated, accurately predicting that it was about to be a personal moment between the two. Lifting his head so that their eyes met, Neito smiled at him, wide and just a touch of Neito-brand manic.

"Rats?" Neito questioned simply.

Denki shrugged. "Koda said before that they're super smart, and isn't Principal Nezu at least part rat? So, I figured that checks out."

"I don't doubt it," Neito conceded. "You being you is the whole reason we found you. You know that, right? You stood out to rats in an alleyway, Denki. I know you can do anything you put your mind to."