The next morning, Denki stretched his arms, rotated his shoulders, and felt great.
His body already felt healed and energized
Yeah—yesterday definitely happened
But he wasn’t done
He needed this training
But first, he had to meet his partners-in-crime.
~~~~~
They met behind the hotel, just out of sight.
Mina had her arms crossed, foot tapping.
Kirishima looked like he hadn’t slept.
At all
“So” Mina said flatly, “you want us to cover for you… again”
Denki clapped his hands.
“Yes! BUT! I brought incentives”
Kirishima blinked.
“Incen… what?”
Denki reached into his bag and pulled out
A stack of coupons for a gaming café
Two limited-edition Crimson-Riot hero keychains
A promise to do Mina’s entire week of homework
And the forbidden treasure: A giant box of peach gummies -Mina’s favorite-
Mina gasped.
“You didn’t—”
Denki shook the box temptingly
“My offer… is PEACH”
Kirishima whispered, “Bro, she’s gonna fold”
Mina covered her mouth, trembling.
“I— I won’t be bribed by candy! What if you die!?”
“But you love these gummies” Denki sang.
She groaned loudly
Then snatched the box
“FINE! But if you die I will resurrect you to yell at you!”
Kirishima sighed.
“I’m too weak to resist peer pressure. N-not because I want the keychain or anything but—I’ll help too!”
Denki beamed and hugged them both “Dream team!”
Mina and Kirishima groaned in unison
~~~~~
Once again, Denki waited until they reached the public wildlife area with their class.
Mina and Kirishima created a scene-worthy distraction.
Mina pretended to discover ‘a rare butterfly that might be poisonous’ Kirishima panicked loudly.
Denki slipped away, jammed the cameras, climbed the fence, ran through the forest, climbed the tree, and vaulted over the wall
His landing was smoother than yesterday
His electric field instantly expanded—much more concentrated than before
But he froze
“…Woah”
The part of the wall where the moose had hit yesterday was caved inward, metal twisted like a soda can.
Several trees nearby were split in half or uprooted entirely.
Denki shuddered
“Yeah. I’m NOT going that way”
He turned the opposite direction and began hopping through the trees again.
His body was already adapting—he slipped far less, and when he did, he caught himself instantly.
His movements were smoother
His instincts sharper
His senses humming
This forest was changing him.
Strengthening him
He kept moving until something unusual entered his Electric Field
Small.
Agile.
In the trees like he was
Multiple
He slowed, crouching on a thick leafy branch
Then he saw them
They were perched across the trees—ten or twelve of them.
Their fur was a deep sapphire blue that glimmered faintly in the sunlight.
Some picked berries, others dangled lazily by their tails.
Denki blinked
“…Blue monkeys? That’s new”
He pulled out his phone and scrolled through his saved files until he found a match.
⸻
Tuning-Spike Monkeys
Quirk: Sonic Vibrations
— Each monkey can emit focused sonic vibrations exclusively from their fingers, toes, and tail tip
— They are excellent maneuverers in the trees, able to launch themselves by firing vibration bursts from their toes, even changing direction mid-air using their fingers
— Capable of canceling sound by vibrating the surrounding air, creating a silent zone for their troop
— Known to be extremely territorial in groups, but cowardly when alone
⸻
Denki’s eyes sparkled
(Vibration-based quirk? Territorial—of course And wait a second…)
He looked up again
Monkeys swung between branches, picked fruit, slept, and even argued—two of them visibly bickering—yet not a single sound escaped.
Toward the edges of the group, four monkeys stood upright on thick branches, fingers subtly vibrating as they distorted the air around them.
(A sound-canceling barrier? Now that’s cool)
He snapped a picture, then put his phone away and continued observing.
One monkey casually launched itself across the gap of two full trees.
Another scolded a younger one who had stolen fruit it had clearly been eyeing.
Denki nodded slowly
“Okay… fighting a whole troop would be stupid”
Every monkey turned their head at once
Right
At
Him
Denki froze
“…Right. Sound barrier. I’m the only one making noise up here”
The largest monkey bared its fangs, pointing both fingers and tail straight at him
“Just why do they all have to be territorial? Who isn’t in this accursed world?”
Half crouched on branches, half dangling by their tails, every one of them bared humming fingers glowing with vibrating energy.
Sonic pulses rippled through the air—warning signals, threat displays.
The sound-canceling field dropped
Now they were loud.
Aggressive
And very clearly ready to pounce
Denki exhaled slowly
“Okay… no problem. Just your twelve friendly neighborhood monkeys. Nothing to worry about”
1 opened its mouth and shrieked at him
Denki didn’t wait
He clapped his hands together as electricity flared across his skin, bright and sharp, before peeling away from his body like a living shadow
A lightning clone split off from him in a crackling flash—roughly human-shaped, unstable but convincing—landing on a nearby branch and immediately moved
Half the troop reacted instantly
Shrill screeches split the air as six of the monkeys snapped their heads toward the clone and gave chase, fingers and tails firing sonic bursts that launched them through the trees like living slingshots.
(Good—take the bait)
Denki bolted in the opposite direction
Branches blurred beneath his feet as he leapt, twisted, and grabbed hold of bark and vines, forcing himself to keep the clone within sight while still moving.
The strain was immediate.
Maintaining the connection while sprinting through the trees felt like trying to balance on a wire during an earthquake.
Behind him, the remaining monkeys rocketed right after him
Too fast and too in sync
Their movements were fluid, practiced—short vibration bursts from toes to launch, fingers to adjust mid-air, tails to brake or pivot.
They didn’t run through the trees.
They glided through them
Denki’s focus cracked for just a moment as he barely avoided a vibrating claw slicing past his face—
The lightning clone fizzled and dispersed in a scatter of sparks.
Ten seconds
That was all it bought him
But ten seconds was enough
“RAIL SPARK!”
Electricity detonated beneath his feet as he surged forward, speed spiking violently.
Every branch he touched lit up with residual charge, thin veins of lightning crawling along the bark.
The first monkey landed where he’d just been—
ZZT!
It screeched as the electricity jolted through it, muscles locking up for just a second before it recovered and kept going.
“Okay—that at least gives me some room”
He kept moving, faster now, more reckless.
Branch to branch.
Tree to tree.
Each landing left behind a crackling trap.
Not enough to knock them out—but enough to slow them.
The monkeys adapted almost immediately
Some leapt farther to avoid landing on charged branches.
Others fired vibrations at the branches ahead of Denki, blasting them apart to deny him footing.
Sonic shockwaves rattled his bones as bark exploded beside him.
One monkey cut him off from the side—
Denki twisted mid-air, electricity flooding into his arm as he clenched his fist.
“THUNDER PUNCH!”
He slammed his fist into its chest
The lightning discharge sent the monkey flying backward into a tree with a startled cry—but even as it fell, two more replaced it, fingers glowing, vibrations screaming through the air.
There were too many for him to deal with.
Knock 1 down and others take its place
Denki’s breath grew ragged as he dodged another sonic burst, barely catching a branch with one hand.
He swung, flipped, and launched himself again, sparks flying from his shoes.
But even as pressure mounted, his mind was working
He watched
Noted the timing
The rhythm
The way they danced across the trees never stopping—always transitioning, always moving.
Short bursts.
Controlled releases.
Using the tree itself as a partner in this dance floor
(So that’s how you do it…)
On his next jump, he copied it
A smaller discharge.
More precise.
Less brute force.
He didn’t fly as far—but he didn’t overshoot either
Another jump.
Another adjustment
Still sloppy
Still slower than them
But no longer completely outclassed
Lightning crackled brighter as Denki grinned despite the chaos
“Guess I found my tree-hopping sensei”
And the monkeys, shrieking and vibrating as they closed in, seemed more than happy to keep teaching him—whether he survived the lesson or not
If anything, the monkeys got smarter
Two of them launched together, one firing a vibration burst from its toes while the other used the shockwave as a ramp, slingshotting itself across the canopy.
Another pair synchronized their fingers, firing intersecting sonic waves that herded Denki toward a narrower cluster of branches.
“Tch—teamwork already?!”
Denki twisted mid-air, barely dodging one monkey as another passed inches above him.
He countered with a quick THUNDER FIST, grazing one across the shoulder and sending it spinning away—but the opening vanished immediately as three more filled the gap.
He pushed his speed harder, lightning screaming under his feet, body straining as he forced himself to match their tempo.
Branches cracked.
Leaves shredded.
Every movement had to be perfect.
Then it happened
A compressed vibration shot caught him square in the side
The impact wasn’t loud—but it was devastating
“—GAH!”
The shock rattled through his ribs and legs, numbing them just long enough for his footing to slip.
The branch snapped beneath his weight, and Denki dropped.
Gravity took him
Before he could recover, a blur of blue shot downward
The largest monkey—the apparent leader—latched onto Denki’s shirt mid-fall.
With a powerful twist, it spun him once, twice, and hurled him like a projectile straight back into the canopy.
Denki barely had time to cross his arms This story is hosted at g.com.
He got hit
Then hit again
And again
Sonic bursts slammed into him from all directions, bouncing him between trunks and branches like a living pinball.
Each impact stole air from his lungs, his vision flashing white as he curled inward, arms shielding his head on instinct.
(Too many—can’t—)
A final, coordinated blast sent him flying into a thick tree trunk
The bark dented inward as he crashed into it, momentum finally dying as he slumped onto a wide branch, coughing hard.
The troop closed in
Fingers hummed.
Tails vibrated.
Yellow eyes locked onto him with focused aggression.
Denki sucked in a sharp breath
Then released it
Electricity exploded outward
A storm detonated from his body in every direction—wild, crackling arcs of lightning leaping from branch to branch, flooding the surrounding trees in a violent web of electricity.
The monkeys shrieked
Muscles locked up mid-leap as their bodies spasmed, vibration attacks dying in their limbs as they dropped or froze in place, stunned and twitching.
Denki leaned forward, hands on his knees, breathing hard as sparks danced across his skin.
“Okay… okay… note to self—don’t let that happen again…”
He barely had time to think—
When something else moved
A shadow dropped from above
Fast
Silent
One of the stunned monkeys was snatched out of the air in a blur of claws and teeth.
A wet crunch echoed through the forest as the predator landed on a nearby branch, towering, lean, and lethal.
Denki’s blood ran cold.
(No way…)
He recognized it instantly.
A Needleback Panther—a forest apex predator with a quirk that allowed hardened, retractable spines to erupt from its back and limbs, vibrating at high frequency to slice through flesh and bark alike.
Fast.
Ambush-based.
Deadly.
The Needleback Panther landed with barely a sound, claws digging into bark as its body rippled.
From its shoulders down its spine, hardened black spines unfolded with a metallic shrrk, each one vibrating at a pitch that made Denki’s teeth buzz.
The stunned monkey never had a chance
Denki’s chest tightened
(This thing hunts them)
The monkeys screamed—rage, fear, and grief blending into a unified howl.
They broke free of their stunned state, sonic vibrations exploded outward as the troop attacked in unison, fingers and tails firing compressed shockwaves that shattered leaves and snapped branches.
The panther moved through it
It leapt sideways, spines flaring as sonic blasts struck its body—most of them deflected, distorted, or outright canceled as the vibrations met the panther’s own.
The overlapping frequencies clashed violently, warping the air.
One monkey lunged in close
Too close
The panther twisted, spines whipping out like blades.
The monkey was sent flying, crashing into a tree before going still.
Denki swallowed hard
(Yeah. Apex predator)
The forest became chaos
Monkeys launched each other through the trees, using vibration bursts as stepping stones.
The panther countered with brutal efficiency—anticipating their angles, tearing through branches to collapse their momentum, striking only when it was guaranteed.
Denki clenched his fists
“…This will turn into a slaughter if it keeps up”
Lightning flared around his limbs as he forced himself back into motion—not charging blindly, but observing.
He tracked the panther’s movement, how its spines reacted to different vibration frequencies.
(It’s resisting them by matching frequencies… but not perfectly)
A monkey fired a tight, high-frequency burst as the panther recoiled—just slightly
Denki launched himself forward, timing his movement between attacks.
He struck the ground mid-leap, releasing a controlled electrical surge—not aimed at the panther, but into the surrounding branches.
Electricity crawled along the wood, interfering with the panther’s vibration field for just a fraction of a second.
The spines stuttered
A monkey slammed into its side, sending it skidding.
The panther snarled—fur standing on end as it turned on Denki, eyes burning with predatory focus.
(Oh. I’m on the menu now)
It lunged
Denki barely dodged, lightning flaring under his feet as claws ripped through the space where his head had been.
He countered with a concentrated THUNDER PUNCH, slamming into the panther’s shoulder.
The blow landed
Not clean—but enough
The panther staggered, more surprised than injured.
That hesitation cost it
The monkeys surged, vibrations layering and stacking—different frequencies overlapping in chaotic harmony.
Trees shook.
The air screamed.
The panther fought back fiercely, injuring two more monkeys, but it was losing ground.
Denki stayed mobile, striking only when openings appeared—disrupting balance, shooting lightning strikes and interfering with its vibration control, never staying still long enough to be caught.
Finally, with a guttural snarl, the Needleback Panther leapt backward, spines retracting as it vanished into the deeper forest, eyes glowing once more before disappearing into shadow.
Silence fell
Leaves drifted down slowly
Denki stood panting, electricity fading as his heart hammered in his chest
The monkeys stared at him
Not hostile
Not friendly
But…
acknowledging
“…Yeah” Denki muttered, wiping sweat from his face
“Still not worth messing with you guys on your home turf.”
One by one, the Tuning-Spike Monkeys retreated into the canopy, carrying their injured with them.
Denki leaned against the tree, legs trembling slightly.
(Note to self… this place doesn’t care how strong I think I am)
But no matter how exhausted he felt
A grin tugged at his lips
(Still worth it)