This time I will protect them I won't be a coward

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Author’s Note: Hello, everyone! Thank you so much for showering my work with love and support. I absolutely adore you all. 💕 I didn’t forget about this beautiful fanfiction — life just got in the way for a while. But enough about me. Prepare yourself and dive into the new chapter below 👇🏻

Kaminari Denki’s Point of View

Denki stepped out of Sir Nighteye’s agency, exhaling deeply as the cool autumn air brushed against his skin. Above him, the sky glowed a brilliant orange, streaked with fading gold as evening settled over Osaka. The streets were slowly filling with tourists and locals, their chatter blending with the hum of traffic and the rustle of fallen leaves skittering across the pavement.

He glanced at his wristwatch, calculating silently. Before heading back to Heights Alliance, I need to meet Aunt Kiko. She must be on her third shift at the hospital… maybe she’s on break now.

Behind him, Izuku Midoriya stood in his neatly pressed U.A. uniform — blazer slightly creased from the day’s training, tie loosened just enough to show his exhaustion. The autumn breeze tugged at the hem of his jacket, carrying the faint scent of crisp leaves. His emerald-green eyes, sharp and intense, were fixed on Denki with concern.

“Izuku…” Denki thought, ignoring the boy’s voice as if it were background noise. Midoriya had been calling his name, asking about his strange behavior earlier at the staircase. But Denki sighed inwardly. He had responsibilities — hero work studies recommended by Recovery Girl At the trauma centre— yet his heart pulled him toward family first.

It had been so long since he’d spoken to Aunt Kiko since the dormitory system began. Even as a hero-in-training, he couldn’t neglect his relatives. They were his foundation, his stepping stones.

They were his foundation, his stepping stones. All Might had emphasized this truth countless times, words Midoriya had clung to, though Denki himself had once overlooked them. Now, he understood. Aunt Kiko and her adopted daughter Lizzy were more than family — they were anchors in his journey to becoming a Pro Hero.

“She deserves to know the truth,” Denki murmured under his breath, his amber eyes flickering with a quiet resolve that burned brighter than the fading sunset.

Midoriya Izuku’s Point of View

Izuku had been trying to get Denki’s attention for fifteen minutes. Yes, he had timed it. His mind raced like a runaway train, thoughts piling faster than he could process.

Why is Kaminari behaving like this? Is it because of the healing quirk All For One forced onto him? Did it change him? Or… is it something else?

Izuku remembered the bubbly, talkative Denki who had joined the Hero Course — the boy who laughed easily, who filled silence with jokes. But now, Denki was secretive, withdrawn. Worse, Izuku had seen him cough blood when the second healing quirk took its toll, or when his electrification quirk left lichtenberg scars across his skin. The change was alarming, and Izuku’s scowl deepened as the thought echoed in his mind.

Suddenly, Denki turned, his amber eyes locking onto Izuku’s emerald ones. The intensity of his gaze was startling — sharp, defiant, almost glowing against the backdrop of the autumn dusk.

“I’m going to make good use of the second healing quirk. No cap. Watch me.”

Izuku froze. His head rang with alarm bells.

No cap? Was that slang? A pun? Forget it — I need to talk to him.

“Ehhh—what?! Wait, what? Kaminari-kun…” Izuku exclaimed, his voice cracking with urgency. “Before you say anything like that… that decision of yours is reck—”

He stopped mid-sentence, his mind flashing back to his own words to All Might during training: I’m going to make One For All my own. Reckless. Bold. Necessary.

Now, who was truly reckless? Izuku… or Denki?

The two boys stood on the sidewalk, tourists and passersby flowing around them like a river. Yet in that moment, the world seemed to pause, leaving only the intensity of green and amber eyes locked in silent battle.

Izuku’s chest tightened. His thoughts suffocated him. He needed to let it out.

The words slipped past his lips before he could stop them.

“Who are you?”.

Denki’s amber eyes widened; he nearly bit his tongue before blurting out, “Midoriya-kun… what an absurd question is that? I’m your classmate, Kaminari Denki. I go by the hero name Asterope.”

Izuku stared at Denki’s face for several seconds, his emerald eyes narrowing with an intensity that seemed to pierce through the dusk. He wasn’t just looking — he was gauging, searching for cracks, for the faintest sign of a lie.

Inside, Denki’s thoughts spiraled. Please, God, save me. I can’t tell him I’m a time traveler. Does One For All… does Midoriya’s quirk resist the flow of time itself? Is that why he still remembers my behavior? I need to tread carefully. I can’t goof this. Not now.

Denki looked at Izuku with a flicker of hope, but then Izuku’s expression softened. His usual goofy, earnest smile broke across his face — the kind that Class 1-A girls always teased him for, the kind that made him look younger than he was. The freckles on his cheeks caught the evening sun, glowing faintly against the orange sky.

With a small laugh, Izuku said, “I was just testing you, Kaminari-kun.”

Denki’s eye twitched in irritation. Here he was, worried his secret had been exposed, and Midoriya was smiling like nothing had happened. “You’re a menace to society, greenie,” Denki muttered.

He flicked Izuku’s forehead lightly, then walked past him, hands shoved into his pockets. “I’ll return to the dorms later. I need to meet up with my aunt, Deku. This time… it's no cap.”

Izuku rubbed his forehead, flustered by the sudden flick. His hand lingered there as he blinked in confusion at Denki’s retreating figure. “Wait, Kaminari-kun… what does ‘no cap’ mean?” he asked, voice rising with genuine curiosity.

Without turning back, Denki raised a hand dismissively. “It means… no lie.”