Meeting up the next day Shinso stared at Denki’s grin with an expression that could only be described as: God, I really walked into this willingly
“…You want me to brainwash you” Shinso said flatly
“Correct!” Denki chirped “I volunteer as tribute!”
“That reference means nothing to me”
“It will someday” Denki whispered ominously
Alright!” he announced “Let the brainwashing BEGIN!”
“Don’t call it that” Shinso muttered
Denki ignored him completely
“Okay, what’s first? Make me fly? Make me do jumping jacks? Make me confess who my crush is?”
“You already do that without my quirk” Shinso said
“Eh debatable”
Shinso sighed, rolling his shoulders back.
This was it.
The real test
“Alright… just answer this”
Denki nodded
Shinso took a breath “…Do you trust me to use my quirk?”
Denki stared back and let a confident trusting smirk cross his face as he said
“No—”
The moment Denki answered, his expression slackened, his shoulders loosened and his eyes unfocused just slightly
Shinso felt the connection.
That subtle click in the back of his mind, his quirk was active but he didn’t pull everything at once
“…Wow,” Denki said in an emotionless tone “This feels weird. Like I got high and can’t control any of my limbs but can still think clearly”
“How would you even know how that feels like?”
“Don’t worry about it”
Shinso facepalmed
Responsive logic
“If something moves towards you suddenly, dodge it”
Shinso picked up a few pebbles and tossed it gently toward Denki’s foot
Denki sidestepped
He did it again
Denki took a step back
“It’s working!” Denki said in the most exciting emotionless tone annoying Shinso
Shinso proceeded to grab more rocks and started launching them at Denki
“Hey! Yo! Watch it! That almost hit me!”
Simple Trigger Commands
“When you hear ME snap my fingers, raise you left hand”
Shinso let the command settle into Denki’s mind.
The mental connection still steady and firm.
Then he snapped
Denki’s arm shot into the air
“Okay….okay that worked, you can lower your hand now” Shinso said relieved
Delayed Triggers
“The next time you hear your own name sit on the ground”
Shinso released his active control that prevented Denki from controlling his own limbs
Denki blinked, awareness returning.
“Ugh, that feels much better. I was starting to think my arms where about to fall asleep—”
Denki Immediately shot down to the ground so fast the dirt puffed under him
“OW!” Denki said rubbing his sore behind, “that worked and hurt!”
Testing Control
“Ok are you sure you wanna do this?” Shinso asked unsure
“Definitely, we need to find out if we can improve on your control of others when they try to break free. or when someone tries to break them free with force” (also I’ve been wanting to test something)
Denki activates his ‘quirk’ enveloping himself with lightning making sure to activate his body tempering hack
“Alright, hit me”
“Okay, your an idiot” Shinso said smoothly
“No I’m not!” As expected, nothing happened.
He was getting to ‘hurt’ for Shinso’s quirk to take affect
Deactivating his hack he gets ready to fall under full brainwash and try to forcefully break free “ok I’m ready”
“I have a bad feeling about this” Shinso muttered out
“It’ll be fine-”
Denki’s body slacked, his pupils shrunk, leaving him expressionless fully under Shinso’s control
Shinso just stared at Denki doing nothing and waiting to see if he could feel anything
For Denki it was like fog covered his eyes.
Preventing all contact with the outside world.
(This is interesting) he tried forcing the fog away but it kept reforming together
Next he tried shooting it with electricity but the same problem happened (what can I do now?) As he just stared at the fog thinking of another way he could try, he suddenly felt and ominous feeling crawl up his spine
Then an uncontrollable amount of lightning shot behind him absolutely annihilated all the fog in sight.
On the outside with Shinso all he could feel was a slight knocking on his head, assuming it was Denki trying to break free, pushed down on the feeling
When it happened again—stronger this time, he pushed back harder (feels like fighting my insomnia all over again)
He waited again for the familiar knocking feeling when suddenly the connection broke violently, making him clutch his head with pain.
At the same time he saw Denki come out of the brainwashing with lightning spewing in all directions
Shinso managed to jump back in time on pure instinct from what he assumed was definitely not the low voltage electricity he was used to
Calming down Denki brought pulled back the electricity that was flailing uncontrollably.
“What just happened” Shinso asked feeling the pain from his head fading away
“Um…I’m not really sure?” Denki gave a wry smile trying to brush it off “we’ll come back to that one”
Shinso stared at Denki not really believing him but let it go in the end
(That feeling…why is he here? Is he watching us? Can he still interfere with the power he gave me?) many questions races through Denki’s head but ultimately he couldn’t do anything about it now.
He’ll have to deal with it later
At the end of the day they packed their things with Denki handing over the 2 notebooks to Shinso and headed home first
Shinso looked at the disappearing Denki then stared at the notebooks in his hand.
Flipping open 1 of the covers he saw something that made his eyes go wide.
He immediately opened the other one seeing the exact same thing but in a distinct different hand writing
-step 1 to be a great hero!
Don’t be ashamed of your quirk-
Letting a soft smile creep on to his lips, he decided to put even more effort into training.
Not wanting to disappoint what looked like 2 people that believed he could become a hero
~~~~~~~~
Over the next few weeks, Denki and Shinso built a routine that should’ve broken at least one of them
-Morning-
Shinsō dragged himself out of bed with a text that always read the same “I hate you. I’ll see you in school”
-Afternoon-
They met at the park where Denki drilled him with speed runs, reaction tests, and bodyweight workouts.
Shinso improved, slowly but steadily, his punches landing cleaner, his endurance rising, his posture actually resembling someone who could pass a physical exam
-Evenings-
Shinso was getting stronger
And at the same time so was Denki…he wasn’t slowing down to
Not at all
While Shinso huffed, puffed, and sometimes nearly collapsed, Denki bounced with energy like he’d slept twelve hours and chugged three coffees at once
He ran extra laps after Shinso left, he practiced moving electricity up and down his arms while humming a catchy tune.
He jumped rope at speeds that should’ve turned the rope into smoke
And he did all of it with endless, almost unnatural energy that kelt fueling his every move
He felt fine.
Better than fine.
But Hikari Kaminari just couldn’t help but worry
Mothers always do
~~~~~~
One evening, Denki came home with his usual static-crackling enthusiasm
“Welcome back, sweetheart” Hikari began
Denki zipped past her, sliding into the kitchen.
“Hi ‘Mom’! Training was great! Shinso held a plank for 4 minutes today—new record! Anyway, I’m gonna shower and then finish the packet of homework my teachers gave me for the week and then I might—”
Hikari blinked.
He did that a lot lately, talking so fast it almost blurred her
“Denki” she said gently “Come here for a moment”
He paused mid sentence looking confused but complied walking closer “Yeah?”
She cupped his cheeks, turning his face side to side like checking for signs of fever, injury, or maybe—just maybe—signs her son was secretly overdosed with electricity
“You’re… sure you’re okay?”
Denki grinned “Never better!”
“That’s the problem” she muttered
“What?”
Hikari sighed softly “Sweetheart… you’ve been training every day. Hard. Very hard. And you don’t slow down. You don’t get tired. I’m not even sure you ever came home exhausted if it’s not from a boring school day”
Denki raised a brow “I’m just getting stronger, that’s all”
“I know you’re strong” Hikari’s voice softened with a worry only parents have.
“But no one gets stronger this fast. No one has energy like this nonstop. You’re still growing, Denki. You’re supposed to rest too, not run yourself like a lightning generator”
Denki’s smile faltered, not because he was tired, but because he saw her worry
He didn’t know why he felt this way, but every time he saw Hikari or Sei get worried or mad at him.
He instinctively calmed down and listen not really knowing the right way to respond
“I’m really okay ‘Mom’ I promise”
“I believe you” she said “But I’m your mother. And my gut is telling me you need a break. Just for a few days. For your body, for your mind. Even if you feel fine”
Denki sighed rubbing the back of his neck
“…A break?”
“Yes. Tomorrow you are resting. No training. No electricity exercises. No pushing Shinso until he questions his life choices. Just… be a kid”
Denki couldn’t help but let out a little laugh “can I at least do some warms ups in the backyard?”
“Denki”
“…Right. Okay. I’ll take a break”
Hikari smiled and pulled him into a warm, relieved hug
“Thank you” she whispered “You don’t need superpowers to know when to rest”
Denki closed his eyes, letting himself fall into this weird feeling he got whenever he was hugged by his ‘parents’
He didn’t tell her the truth—That the energy wasn’t completely normal.
That it came from his supercharged cells he trained from when he was a baby.
It hummed under his skin, strengthened him without fatigue
That it wasn’t entirely his.
That he wasn’t really her son.
Some things could wait