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angst-king · 4 months

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Below the surface

((This is a Kaminari Angst story.) ((CW Mention of Drowning, child abuse, neglect & trafficing))

The class thought they knew Kaminari pretty well, he was just a fun-loving guy who didn’t seem to have a serious bone in his body. He wasn’t the best with academics and hardly had a hand on his quirk. How the hell did he get into UA?! Sure, he did improve in some areas but still struggled and seemed generally happy. He had some weird things about him, like how he’d jump when the communal showers were turned on, how he’d scarf down his food or just stare at it. At the beginning of the year, he seemed extremely awkward but broke through it with jokes. However, his jokes didn’t completely hide his hyperawareness of everyone around him.

They all just chalked it up to him having some quirks about him. Everyone has them right?

Denki made friends with everyone, he was personable at least, and the bakusquad loved him. He was their bubbly fun-loving electric blond boy who adored video games and trying things out! Denki was also a pretty good listener especially when they moved into the dorms and some of his classmates had a hard time adjusting. He’d listen to them vent. He’d let Mina paint his nails while she went on about her home life. Though if anyone asked him about his, there wasn’t much he could say…..How could he?

His parents were never home, hell they sold him off to the commission once he got his quirk since they didn’t wanna parent him. The only reason he wasn’t there anymore was because they wanted to try out dual teachings and UA got a hold of his records.

Today was the day his friends would see who he was underneath his smiles and laughs.

Today’s mission went wrong. How you ask, it was a school team up during patrol. They were entrusted to handle patrol and broke up into squads. A villain outbreak happened and let's just say long story short someone’s quirk had a misfire and shrapnel was coming down. Kaminari got in front of a civilian to protect them from whatever was coming. Little did he know the quirk’s effects.

Now that the air had cleared Kaminari’s squad was looking for him and under the rubble was a small blond in his now oversized t-shirt. The poor child looked confused and horrified, one of his classmates picked him up and rushed him over to the first rescue truck they could find. Though as soon as Kaminari was set down he tried to crawl off and run. He screamed for them not to hurt him and backed himself into the corner of the bed he was on. It took a while for them to get him bandaged up before the crew said he could be taken back to the school.

Bakugou, Eijirou, Mina, Sero, and Jirou were in the truck. They listened as the child cried out for the medic to stop, and they hadn’t done anything to him yet. At first, Bakugou was the first to speak up….well more like a yell.

“Dunce face stop fucking screaming, he’s just trying to fucking help!” Eijirou was quick to bap Katsuki on the forehead pointing out how Denki was acting.

“He’s scared dude. No kid screams like this for no reason. I’d be scared too if I got turned into a child and suddenly some adult is trying to touch me.” Bakugou adjusted himself in his seat, arms folded as he grumbled lowly. When they got to UA, they brought him to recovery girl with the hopes that he would cooperate more easily.

Well, to say getting him bandaged was difficult was an understatement. Denki seemed to want to avoid the school nurse at all costs. His peers could hear his screaming from her room to their classroom! Some said he was just being dramatic while others quietly sympathised. Aizawa gave the students a heads-up.

“Look I understand this is strange but, I need you guys to be patient with him. These sorts of quirks vary in effect so we don’t fully know how he’s being affected. Whether he remembers people from his teen form or not, as well as he may have some baggage from his younger years that may resurface.” The way Aizawa said the word ‘baggage’ the class seemed confused. He said he would not delve into it unless he needed to and had Kaminari’s permission.

“For now I just want you to be kind and look after him.” It was another minute before there was a knock on the door, Aizawa gave a small ‘come in’, and on the other side was Recovery-Girl. The class’s attention shifted to the old woman.

“Denki will be physically alright, it took some…effort, luckily his injuries are superficial and will heal. His current age is somewhat unknown, I’m guessing maybe 6-10 years old. He doesn’t know how old he is himself, and we don’t have much to compare it to. He’s very jumpy and easily startled, you will see lots of scarring since I couldn’t find a shirt for him just yet just pants. He doesn’t remember UA at all so do not be surprised by this.” The class gave a silent nod before Tenya spoke up.

“Where is Kaminari, is he resting in your office, Recovery-Girl?” Recovery-Girl looked a little confused before she looked behind herself and noticed the child wasn’t with her.

“He was just with me a second ago, holding my hand.” She said to herself wondering where he could have gone. She looked back down the hallway there wasn’t a trace of the boy to be seen. How’d he disappear so fast!? She looked back to the class with worry Aizawa asked if he should radio Nezu to announce a lockdown and search. Recovery-Girl shook her head at this suggestion.

“No no, especially if he knows we’re doing a lockdown, it’ll cause him to panic more than he already is. He’s probably trying to find a place to hide. If we have the teachers go after him it’ll only traumatize him more. He sees adults as a threat, remember….also you remember the first day of school Shota” The man sighed when that was brought up, rubbing the back of his head with a nod.

“Yup, I remember, damn that kid could hide in places I didn’t think he could fit in. Now he’s smaller the kid could be anywhere.” Then there was the class, confused as ever what were they talking about? How would the heroes going to look for him to make it worse? What happened on the first day of school?! Aizawa could see the confused looks on their faces and leaned against his blackboard, giving the school nurse a look she said.

“Just tell them, it's for the best they know.” Aizawa nodded and cleared his throat now all eyes were on him.

“Alright, listen up. What I say about your classmate must not be told to anyone outside of this room unless they are a teacher at the school. Got it?” The class collectively hummed a ‘yes’. Shota continued.

“Kaminari Denki used to be in the hero commission. For those who don’t know the hero commission ‘breeds’ children with strong quirks and trains them like soldiers. As you can imagine the conditions weren’t the best. Denki was let out of the commission 6 months ago so he’s lived his entire life in that facility, and to say how he was treated badly is a gross understatement. I will not go into detail as to what I know he’s been through, but all I will say is. To him, he sees us adults as a threat to his safety. He’s trying to get out because he feels trapped. Think of him as a scared prey animal like a bunny or a rat, he views us as lions or wolves….But I’m going to entrust you all with the special task of bringing him back. I will ask all the teachers to shut their doors so he can’t get into a classroom if he hasn’t already. This will limit his options.” The class stood in stunned silence, their minds all on different frequencies. But they have their task and now need to focus on finding their classmate. Aizawa grabbed his radio and gave the order for teachers to lock their doors and take attendance.

“What do we do?” Started Mina, Momo was the first to speak up.

“Well, first we should take off our support gear or anything that could look threatening.” Some furrowed their brows.

“Why would we do that?” “Because for 1 we won't need it to get to him, it could make it harder to get into tight spaces, at most maybe a rope if he’s stuck somewhere. And 2 because it could look threatening. Like Aizawa said he’s easily frightened. For example, Bakugou would have to take off his gauntlets and mask. Cause I don’t know about you but some of us would look scary to a tiny child.” “Momo’s right,” Iida said while lifting off his helmet and placing it on his desk. The class wasted no time dismantling their hero costumes for those who needed them.

“Let's split up into groups, upper level, and lower level. I’m passing out walkie-talkies for progress reports.” Momo said as she used her quirk to create the devices. The class divides themselves in half and gets assigned their levels.

“Okay remember, be gentle and quiet, and try not to scare him!”

Once the class leaves the rooms they’re on the search for Kaminari. Passing door after door, they were happy to see that the classroom doors were all closed. The lower level group let the upper level know that they’d made it and were splitting up to cover more ground. The only sound in the halls was their feet padding on the tile as they looked around. Searching corners and behind stairwells.

Kirishima’s group was on the upper level, tension was as thick as a knife. Even Bakugou was worried, he started to regret yelling at Kaminari in the truck. How could he not tell them he was a commission kid? That was his entire life it's not like he’d have no memory. Maybe it was too painful to talk about? Maybe it was something he didn’t wanna remember. If that was the case they’d understand but this explained a lot of his behavior. How he’d jump when you touched his shoulder, or how jittery he could be some days. How he seemed to be lost when it came to human interactions, or learning he’d never had certain foods, and that he mainly lived on rice bowls before the dorms were put in place.

“You think we could bribe him to come out with candy?” Suggested Mina, Sero shook his head.

“No, if he knows it's a bribe he won't fall for it. He’s a child not stupid. We’re strangers to him.” “dang-it how are we supposed to find him? This place is so big, it’ll take all day.” “where would you hide?” Katsuki spoke up, the group looked back at him.

“I’m serious, if you were a tiny brat, where would you hide? They said to think of places he’d hide.” Eijirou scratched at his chin while thinking before blurting out.

“The bathrooms! He might not be able to read so he could be in any of them. And since the door can be locked he’d think he’s safe.” Eijirou radioed that they would be checking the bathrooms to find him. Hurrying off to the nearby bathrooms on their section of the top floor. Mina and Jirou went and checked the girls’ bathroom while the boys checked the boy's bathroom. Nothing.

Deku’s group reported the same thing, and then Nezu came into their frequency.

“Hello class 1-A I got wind that you are searching for Kaminari. I’m looking through the school surveillance to see if I can help you. Whoever was closest checked the school storage closets, I saw him head that direction.” With that instruction, Eijirou’s group checked their location and went to the nearest storage closet, which was in the teacher’s lounge. The door was locked, which was weird, that door was only ever locked when school was over.

Mina managed to melt into the lock to get the door open, at first they didn’t see anything until the soft whimpering noise came. Looking to the left and down they saw a flash of yellow and then sparks of electricity. The lights flickered on and off repeatedly. Finally, their eyes landed on Kaminari who was curled up, knees to his chest under a table. Shuffling themselves inside quietly Eijirou was the first to speak.

“Hey Denki” Teary eyes darted up at them and he scurried farther under the table. The electricity he created grew stronger as he cried for them to not hurt him. Eijirou was the first to get down on his knees prompting the others to do the same as he tried to calm the boy down.

“It's okay Denki, you’re safe, no one’s gonna hurt you. We promise none of us are gonna hurt you and we won't let anyone hurt you.” Denki made a soft noise before shaking his head ‘No’. Saying he didn’t believe them.

“You’re gonna bring me back to the guards, I don’t wanna go back.” “We’re not gonna bring you back to them. There is no guard to bring you back to buddy.” That seemed to get Denki’s attention.

“Th-there isn’t?” Then Jirou chimed in. “No there isn’t, do you know where you are, Denki?” “…Th-the c-commission?” “No, you’re not there anymore. You’re at UA, a pro-hero school.” Denki then started to come out of his curled-up position, his quirk also fizzling out a bit.

“You’re safe, we just have to bring you back to Mr. Aizawa okay?” Then Denki starts crying again shaking his head.

“N-no, no adults, they’re scary.” “Alright, how about we take you to our dormitory?” “dormit-tory?” “yeah, it's where we all live. It's like a big apartment building sorta.” “y-you promise they won't bring me back?” “Yes, Denki we promise.” Slowly Denki crawled out from under the table and into the light. Recovery-Girl wasn’t joking when he said Denki had scars! There were many small scars, but there was also a large one on his back that resembled lightning. When the child got to his feet he held onto Kirishima’s belt tightly. Eijirou didn’t mind this and took this as a sign that Denki trusted him.

Sero texted that class 1-A group chat to let them know Denki had been found and that one of the other groups needed to inform Aizawa that they’d be taking Denki to the dormitory. He knew that if he used the radio Denki would probably freak out. With that, they walked to their dormitory.

Taking Denki outside was, sad to say the least. He looked like he’d never seen outside before let alone walked outside! He was completely enamored with how warm it was, how bright the sun was. And that there was no fence….Damn. When they reached the dormitory Denki mentioned how it looked similar to the commission.

“That's kinda what our dormitory looked like…but really dull and a lil smaller.” Bringing him inside he stayed close by to EIjirou. He looked around the place cautiously as if someone would pop out of nowhere at any time. Eijirou took him over to the couch just as some of the other students came in. Seeing the others Denki became anxious again and tried to hide. Eijirou saw this and just held Denki reminding him that the others wouldn’t hurt him.

“Aaw there’s Denki, where’d you find him?” Inquired Ochako.

“In the teacher’s lounge under a table.” “oh wow, good thing Nezu gave us the idea to check the storage places.”

Some tried talking to Denki, asking how old he was and if he remembered them. This was obviously overwhelming him. He nuzzled himself into Eijirou’s body making a nervous noise, while his quirk sparked. Some were confused as to why he was hiding as if what Aizawa had explained earlier had been forgotten.

“OI, back off of him will ya!” Called out Bakugou from the kitchen, he didn’t yell, but he was loud enough to make the group pause. He came over with a bag of chips and some juice and offered it to Kaminari.

“Hey kid, got ya something” Denki looked over at him and the snacks.

“You can have them, they’re yours,” Bakugou stated handing them to him, Kaminari cautiously opened the bag and ate one of the chips. Quietly muttering a ‘thank you’ as Katsuki down beside him. His sparking faded to nothingness as he quietly ate his snack.

“You guys can’t crowd him or you’ll scare him. You remember what Mr Aizawa said.” Ejirou added, that there were many ‘sorry’ ‘didn’t mean to’s from the class as they took a step back. The only one who came forward was Momo, she had a small shirt in her hand, it was plain nothing much. But it would fit and that’s all that mattered. Denki happily put the shirt on and then asked.

“Since I’m not at the commission anymore. Does that mean I don’t have to do training?” “Training?” “Yeah, we have training every day, it was always before the sun came up and went all day.” “What was the training you had to do?” “Hm, it was mainly sparring. Or I think that’s what they called it. We’d also have ‘stealth missions’ and assassin practice.” That truly got the class’s attention.

“And what did those involve?” “Well with sparring, we’d sometimes use our quirks, other times we were given weapons. They tell us not to stop until the bell rings. I got hurt a lot when we’d spar, sometimes they’d make bets on who would win. I don’t win very often so the adults always get mad at me.” “A-and what about assassin practice?” “Hm? It's like tag with weapons! I don’t like being ‘it’, I can run super fast but I don’t like hurting people. Though the handlers say that I’m not a big boy if I don’t.” The class looked unsettled with how casually Denki spoke about it, he still ate his snack while he talked as if it was nothing. Like some snack time story!

They decided to not press too much for his past unless he wanted to, besides it was a little disturbing!

They did notice that Denki seemed to be a lot quieter as a child, though they connected that to being shy of nervous around others since he was so small. That was until he pointed out how nice they were.

“You guys are really nice compared to my roommates” “Your roommates?” “Mhm! They usually sound like the blond guy over there, but a lot meaner.” When Denki said blond guy, they all knew he meant Katsuki. Katsuki shifted uncomfortably in his seat wondering how bad were those guys.

“Sometimes they could be nice but most times all they’d do is scream at me, take my food, or make me do things I don’t wanna do. If I want them to be nice then I have to be strong like them or they’ll go back to being mean” “Wh-what did they make you do?” “Make me sleep on the floor or in the closets, make me get in trouble n’get punished for things I didn’t do.” And all of this happened to him while he was barely even 12! What the hell happened after age 10? He got out of there 6 months ago!

The worst of what they knew about their beloved electric quirk user was yet to come.

As the day got later, Denki learned some of his classmates’ names. He still only stuck around with the Bakusquad since he seemed to feel the most comfortable with them. They planned to sleep in the common room sleepover style. They got everything set up, blankets, and pillows, and Bakugou was in the kitchen. Kirishima looked at the time and figured Denki needed a bath n had to have his bandages changed. Momo had given them a set of pajamas for him to change into afterward.

“Alright Denki, we gotta get you cleaned up so we can change your bandages. Gotta take a shower kiddo.” Then everything changed. Denki’s entire demeanor changed in the blink of an eye. He frantically shook his head and began to cry. His hands came up in a defensive way over his head as he pleaded for them not to make him take a bath. The group looked bewildered by this sudden change. Seeing the fear flickering in his eyes as he looked at them.

“Hey hey kid, it's just a shower, we don’t wanna get your PJs dirty.” Again Denki refused Eijirou’s reassurance and this time said.

“I-I’m not falling for it. Th-they say that a-and then…then th-then” This time Sero came over to help inquiring what was causing Denki to be so fearful of taking a shower.

“What is it, Denki?” “Y-you’re gonna drown me!” He blurted out, and everyone in the room froze. The room almost pinning silent except for Denki’s ragged breaths.

“Drown you?” Sero repeated, Denki nodded and explained it to them.

“Th-that's what th-the chamber is f-for. Th-they put me ins-side and fill it up w-with water n don’t let me out un-until I pass out. Or the big kids force m-me in and shove my head in the w-water bucket, or put a t-towel over my face!” Katsuki had turned off the stove when he heard that, the entire room still silent with a stunned look on their faces…..That explains the flinching. Sero could barely utter a word just staring at the blond in horror. All they could hear was Denki begging for them not to put him in the shower! It was another minute before Katsuki had come over from his place in the kitchen.

He then reached over and picked up the child, pulled him to his chest, and just walked around shushing him softly. Adding a light bouncing to his walk as he did this. One hand gingerly rubbing his back the other holding Denki up. He walked around the entire lounge quietly whispering soft reassurances of his safety until Denki ultimately quieted down. The class watched in shock. Since when in the hell could Bakugou Katsuki be so damn gentle!?! How did he just casually walk up, scoop the child into his arms, and do all of that? Who was this guy and what did they do with their Bakugou?!

Finally, when Denki was just sniffling and making small noises Katsuki went over and asked Momo if she had any wipes. When she brought over her bin of body wipes, Katsuki set Denki down and gave him the bin.

“Just need you to wipe down your body with these in the bathroom alright? Put on your PJs and when you’re done we’ll bandage you up. Think you can do that?” Denki nodded and went into the rest room leaving the class to now gawk at Katsuki in amasement. They waited till the door was shut for them to start asking questions.

“Dude what the hell was that?!” “How in the hell did you get him to stop crying?” “didn’t know you could do that!”

Then finally “Oi Oi OI! Shut it….I’ve seen the old man do that with Eri and it seems to work. That’s all.” He grumbled out, though they all knew there was more to it than that. Yet they collectively decided not to press for more answers knowing the result won't be what they want. So they just situated themselves back to their routine and Katsuki went back into the kitchen to finish making dinner.

When Denki came out in the PJs Momo gave him he shyly went and gave Momo her box then went over to Katsuki with a proud look on his face.

“Tada! Look ‘Tsuki I did it!” Yeah, the entire class felt their heart melt at that point. Katsuki looked over and smiled at him giving him a pat on the head.

“Good job kid, I’ve made you nuggets and fries, can you take these to the big take over there?” Katsuki asked while handing Denki a stack of paper plates, Denki nodded and toddled off to the lounge and put the paper plates on the big table in front of the couches. Katsuki wasn’t far behind with the big tray of chicken nuggets and fries that he also set down. They let Denki get what he wanted first and then they all went at it. Jirou put on a movie that Denki seemed excited about, it was Finding Nemo, and he’d never seen it. By now the class wasn’t too surprised, some guessed he’d never seen a kid's TV show in his life!

While they watched the movie, Eijirou and Katsuki made fast work of rebandaging Denki. Thankfully the movie kept him pretty distracted so it didn’t take them long to do it. They were saddened to see all the scaring and a barcode with serial numbers that seemed to be tattooed on his neck. Mina took the opportunity to try brushing out Denki’s hair which was much longer, almost shoulder length. Which compared to his teen form where it only reached his jawline. His hair was very tangled and messy, some of his hair needed to be re-sectioned out. She did her best not to tug or yank at his hair, taking her and reading his body language to know when to let him take a break. By the end of the movie, Mina with the help of Jirou got Denki’s hair completely brushed out, some of it was put into a ponytail to keep it out of his face.

Looking at the time and then at the small child they saw he was getting sleepy and put him down…well tried. Eijirou tried to put Denki down on the cot but, the little one refused to let go and would make a small noise when Eijirou tried. They took it as a sign just to let him sleep with him, which Eijirou didn’t mind. He didn’t move much in his sleep and if it made Denki feel safe then that was fine by him. Everyone got themselves settled into bed, whether that was in their rooms or the common room, and went to sleep.

(time skip)

It had taken 3 days for the quirk to wear off and by then the class had found a new appreciation for each other. As well as a new perspective on their classmate. When the quirk finally wore off they woke up to now-16-year-old Denki who went on about his day like nothing had happened, as if everything was a dream until someone pointed it out.

“Holy shit he’s normal again!” Denki looked confused at this and asked what they were talking about. Hanta then asked if he remembered anything.

“Hm well I remember this strange ass dream that I’d turned into my kid self, you guys didn’t look the same at all honestly. As if we were strangers, didn’t know where the hell I was either.” “well dunce face, that was no fucking dream, you got hit by some stupid quirk. So everything you ‘dreamed’ was real.” Replied Bakugou as he sipped on his coffee.

“….Y-you guys saw things didn’t you….you heard things didn’t you?” It took them a minute to understand what Kaminari meant by this until Sero came over.

“Yes we did but, we don’t hate you, we don’t see you as weak. We just see that as a part of your past. It just explains some of your behaviors and that is okay.” “I-I just di-didn’t wanna tell you, I didn’t think you’d believe me h-honestly.” “I mean yeah it sounds crazy but, we have no reason to judge you. Besides if Aizawa had to tell us it was bad, then it's bad.” “W-well d-do you have any questions for me? I know you guys are probably curious about everything else” Jirou then came up behind him and joined the conversation.

“You don’t have to tell us anything you don’t want to. Sure, we’re curious but you can talk about it on your own time at your own pace. We’re not gonna push you to talk about your past, Kaminari” Denki let out a small sigh of relief and rushed his hands through his hair with a smile.

“I’m glad I’ve got you guys, You’re the best friends I could ask for.” “Tch whatever Pikachu, don’t get all mushy on us, it's too early for that.” “Whatever ‘Tsuki~”

Even with Denki back to his older self, the squad couldn’t erase the younger version of him. They now knew what lay below the surface of his smiles. They couldn’t put away the memories of the blond huddled under a table in fear. They couldn’t shove away the conversations they had with him that he so casually brought up. They couldn’t un-see the marks on his back and that most definitely multiplied by the age he was now!

And wondered if they would ever go deeper ever again….Even if they promised to never force answers from him, that didn’t stop them from wanting to delve lower into the depths of Denki’s trauma.

#my hero academia #denki kaminari angst #mha de-aged prompt #protective bakusquad #platonic bakuquad #protective aizawa #kaminari is a commission kid #king's fanfic #king's collection

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