Chapter Text
An uneasy calm fell over Musutafu, the silence punctuated by the soft patter of a gentle rainfall. For a moment all was quiet, then the spell was broken as a teenage boy climbed to his feet with a groan of pain and took a few stumbling steps forward.
“Did we get him?” Denki asked, lurching forward to grab Iida’s arm to steady himself. There was still steam rising from his friend’s armor, though it wasn’t too hot to touch anymore.
“Affirmative,” Iida said, twisting his head to glance down at Denki. “The jailbreaker has been secured, and prison transport is en route to pick him up.”
“Good.” Denki let his legs buckle as he sat down on the broken pavement. “I mean, what was that? Plasma? Who the hell has plasma whips? That’s just not fair.”
Iida’s hand landed on his shoulder. “You did admirably well in enduring his attacks, Kaminari.”
He snorted. “That’s the last time I’m being your distraction. Let someone else handle the next lightning villain or whatever.”
“You’re the most suited for it.” Yaoyorozu had picked her way over to meet them, her hair still slightly singed from the villain’s attack. “No one else could have taken his hits like that. You were the only one we could count on.”
Denki let out a theatrical groan and let himself flop backward. “You didn’t have to take ‘em,” he whined, though it was more show than substance. Truthfully, no one else on his team—or in his class—could have handled an attack like that. The villain had wielded two whips that...well, they weren’t exactly electricity, but they were close enough that he could absorb most of its power. He still had bruises and welts from where they connected, but that was practically nothing.
“God, my bones hurt,” he complained. “Hey, Iida, does electricity make your bones disintegrate?”
“I think you would have noticed something like that long before tonight,” Iida replied, lowering himself to sit next to Denki. “Do you need me to call for a medic?”
He waved a dismissive hand, lying back in the dirt and rubble to stare up at the sky. Eventually the faint streaks of the sunset were cut off as a shadow loomed over him, and Denki mustered up his biggest smile. “Hi!”
Graknight, a hero on loan from the United Kingdom, blinked slowly as he stared down at Denki. “Are you all right?”
He was a couple of years older than the rest of them, coming to Japan as part of the relief movement after the war. As best as Denki could tell, his Quirk was similar to Cementoss’s, which was pretty handy to have when they were combing the ruins of the city for jailbreakers. He seemed nice enough, even if his name made Denki’s head spin (gra-knight...a knight made of granite...which didn’t make sense since his costume looked like a wrestler’s unitard instead of a knight’s armor).
“Allow me to help you up,” Graknight said somberly. He reached down to wrap his hand around Denki’s forearm to pull him to his feet. Denki sighed and let the older teen haul him upright, opening his mouth to thank him.
He was cut off as the sky lit up with an explosion, signaling that Bakugou and his team had arrived. Class 2-A had gotten far too used to this, and barely reacted anymore.
Graknight, on the other hand, jerked around, his fists tightening reflexively.
Denki felt, more than heard, the crunch in his arm when Graknight’s hand tightened around it.
…
“Try to keep still, okay?”
Denki shifted, staring ruefully down at his knees. “Sorry.” He was sitting sideways on a gurney, fighting to sit still despite the way his mind kept trying to bounce off in different directions.
The paramedic gave him a sympathetic smile as she lined the brace up with his mangled arm. “They’ll have you patched up in no time. Don’t worry about it.”
He nodded. The pain in his arm had dulled to a throb, and if he wasn’t looking at it he couldn’t even feel that it was broken in two places. While it was technically Graknight’s fault, he couldn’t hold it against the guy. Who hadn’t broken someone’s arm because an explosion caught them off-guard?
...Okay, most people he knew hadn’t done that. But still, it was just an accident, and the older hero had been beside himself with guilt and worry as Iida carried Denki to the ambulance. But it was just a broken bone, and the hospital fixed stuff like that all the time, right?
“Is he going to live?”
To her credit, the paramedic only jumped a little bit when Aizawa loomed up out of the darkness. “We need to take him in for x-rays, but he should be able to go home tonight. Tomorrow morning at the latest, barring any complications.”
Aizawa grunted. Denki could practically read his guardian’s thoughts. If there’s a chance for complications, this kid is taking it. He had to bite back a giggle, and shifted around to swing his legs again.
“Just ten more seconds, okay?” the paramedic said, turning back to Denki. “You can fidget all you want as soon as I get this strapped in.”
He held himself still and took a deep breath. The paramedic was good at her job, and she had his broken arm strapped into the splint with a few seconds to spare. Denki grinned at her, which she returned before taking a few steps back to let Aizawa move closer.
“I have to stay and secure the scene,” Aizawa said quietly. “There’s a lot of activity tonight and no one can relieve me here. Yagi’s gonna meet you at the hospital as soon as he can, all right?”
“All right,” Denki nodded. “I’ll be fine. Well, unless someone wants to arm-wrestle me.”
Aizawa snorted and leaned in enough to ruffle Denki’s hair. “Smartass. I’ll be there as soon as I can. If Dr. Wei’s working, see if he can treat you.”
“Sure.” He liked Dr. Wei. He hadn’t been in the hospital as much as some of his classmates, but Dr. Wei was easy to remember.
“He’s all yours,” Aizawa called to the paramedic, taking a step back. At her prompting, Denki twisted around to lie on the gurney and let her strap him in for safety before loading it into the ambulance. Then the doors were closed and they were off.
…
Someone must have heard Aizawa’s statement, since Dr. Wei had met them at the emergency room entrance. They they’d rushed him through the usual procedures—injecting the Quirk suppressant, even though he was fully conscious (he was apparently still a seizure risk, even though his current medicine was working). The x-rays. The discussions about his condition that mostly went right over his head.
More tests. More blood draws (Aizawa was probably right about the complications...just because he hadn’t been in the hospital as much as, say, Midoriya, didn’t mean Denki hadn’t seen his fair share of the place). They settled him in a room with his arm in a cast, promising to wait for Aizawa to discuss everything else.
And Denki...waited. He had a TV, but Denki didn’t feel like his mind could focus on anything like that right now. He had his phone, but most of his classmates were still busy, and his favorite mobile game needed an update and he couldn’t figure out how to connect to the hospital Wi-Fi.
At least All Might would be here soon. All Might had never visited Denki in the hospital before, and he was starting to hope that his teacher might bring him something to do. He’d even take homework at this point. Anything other than staring at the ceiling and trying to fall asleep while the worst game show on planet earth played out on the little TV in the corner.
There was a tap at the door, and Denki straightened up in anticipation. But the person who poked their head in wasn’t a hero—well, okay, she was a nurse, and they were totally heroes as far as Denki was concerned. But she wasn’t...she wasn’t All Might.
“Mr. Kaminari?” She smiled at him, showing off a dimple in one cheek. “Your father is here. Would you like to see him?”
He straightened up even further. Aizawa was here already? Maybe All Might had gotten confused and had gone to take his place back at the scene, so Aizawa could come here. “Yeah, sure, send him in,” he replied, realizing the nurse was waiting for his answer.
She stepped back, pushing the door open, and Denki froze.
His heart was in his throat, his head was spinning, and he was pretty sure his stomach had twisted itself into a pretzel and traded places with his kidneys.
“Hello, Denki,” Keisuke Kaminari said, stepping into the room and closing the door behind him.