False Heroes

It's Time to Play

A/N: TW PLEASE READ: 

So this is important. And, unfortunately, I have to bring your attention to this. This is a trigger warning from here on out in the story. If you don't want major spoilers, of course, don't look. But, I repeat, this is a trigger warning.

SPOILER WARNING:

From here on out in the story, this fanfic will include mentions of death and a character death as well as depictions of blood and violence. Read at your own risk, and thank you for taking this warning into account. 

Also: If you are triggered by these do not worry! There is nothing more than the mention of blood at the very end of this chapter. For the next chapters that do include the warnings, I will write a summary of the chapter that will not go into detail over any grueling factors, so you can still keep up with the story!

And I apologize in advance for this.

That Monday after he returned, Shinsou found Kaminari acting a bit more strangely than usual. He wasn't as talkative, and he seemed to become lost in his thoughts much more easily. Hitoshi hoped it would go away after Tuesday, that he would return to normal, but even for the rest of the week, Shinsou had to pull Denki out of his own head too many times to count. He barely focussed during their English study sessions, and he just seemed to be acting weirder and weirder. Even his jokes were lacking, try as he might have.

"Hey," he had started during one of their study sessions, missing his usual blinding grin, "Why did the frog girl become a lawyer?"

Shinsou had hoped that this had meant he was back to being himself. He had to suppress his excitement as he asked, "Why?"

"Because she wanted to Tsuyu." Denki very obviously forced on a smile, but he didn't have that usual fun spirit he did when he usually told a joke. This one had only felt sad.

Shinsou had also forced a smile before saying they needed to get back to work. Though, with a joke like that, he usually would have been falling off of his bed in his laughter.

So Shinsou was determined to get Denki back to being his bubbly, usual self-- if not for the blond, the at least for him.

He could only imagine that Denki was acting this way was because of the new villain he had mentioned. As more and more rumors about this villain spread through the school, the more and more differently Kaminari acted.

On Tuesday, Shinsou had tried to cheer him up and distract him, spending extra time with him, coaxing Bakugou into going easy on him-- with Kirishima's help, of course-- and even taking him for ice cream. Nothing seemed to work.

Hitoshi's next idea was to verbally try to cheer him up.

"Denki, I know you're worried, but you're nothing like that villain," he had said Wednesday after classes, trying to convince Kaminari that everything was fine. Thankfully, no one had even suspected Denki of being Static Discharge, which Hitoshi was more than grateful for.

"I know," the blond had muttered, devoid of his usual bright and beaming self, and though it almost always gave Shinsou a headache, it was so much better than this. He hated to see Kaminari look so defeated.

"No one thinks it's you," he tried again.

"I know," Denki had repeated, not looking up from staring at the floor.

That felt contradicting to Hitoshi. If Kaminari knew, then why act like this? He knew, he had said so. But he must not have believed that or what Shinsou had said. If he truly didn't think that no one thought it was him, then they wouldn't have even had to have that conversation.