Darkest Before Dawn - 58 (Patreon)

Chapter 58

“Do you look perfect or do you look perfect?” the woman that had been working on his hair for what felt like at least a solid hour asked him.

Uwabami had started the day offering them help getting a new image, if they so wanted. From makeup to hair and anything in between. Kazuki had been pretty nervous about accepting, mainly because a haircut wasn’t something that he could just clean off or change whenever he wanted, but this was Uwabami. If he could trust her to help him deal with his shit reputation, then he could trust her with his hair, he supposed.

“It looks… like too much effort,” he commented, a wry, uncomfortable smile on his face. “Still great, don’t get me wrong, but…”

“Shouldn’t be, actually. Granted, it’ll take effort to look this good,” the woman told him, giving little touches here and there on his hair still, but he was pretty sure she was doing literally nothing. The action drew his attention to his reflection on the mirror in front of him though. Or, more specifically, drew his attention to his haircut. Long curls with a low fade was what the woman had said it was, basically.

Kazuki just took her words for it.

“If you say so,” he replied hesitantly.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you are doubting my skills,” she said, narrowing her eyes slightly at him. Before he could panic and stammer an apology though, she continued. “Don’t worry about a thing, dear. You look great,” she reassured then, giving him a pat on the shoulder. “You are also done here.”

“Indeed,” Uwabami commented, finally speaking up. She’d been standing off to the side with Kendo since the beginning. Well, his fellow intern had also gone through some styling, but she’d wanted to stick with her current style, so there hadn’t been that much to do and she’d been free to go much earlier. “Now, clothes,” the hero said and Kazuki had to hold back a groan.

He was in for a surprise though, because he’d expected it to be a lot more painful to get through, really. Instead, she just threw clothes at him and had him pick up whatever he felt comfortable with with some pointed exceptions that he didn’t even really mind, like a suit, for example. He’d honestly thought it’d be a chore to get through and he’d end up with clothes that he’d hate to own, let alone use. So… Well, he didn’t really know how to take that.

Some of his thoughts must have shown on his face, because Uwabami spoke, amused.

“There’s no point in putting you in clothes you don’t like,” she explained, looking through more clothes. He didn’t bother wondering or asking why she seemed to have a storage area that looked like it could put any clothes shop to shame in her building. Nor did he try to find out why there were clothes for both genders and almost literally any size. “You need to be comfortable in your clothes and that’ll make you – and them – look even better. If you are uncomfortable, it’ll just end up causing the opposite. So, if you just said yes to say yes at any point while choosing, this is the time to take it back,” she continued then.

When he shook his head, slightly wide-eyed, she nodded with a smile and kept going.

“Good. Oh my, you look wonderful, Itsuka!” Maeda exclaimed then, getting distracted by the other intern trying out clothes. Kazuki appreciated that, because damn, he was feeling more than a little out of his depth. At the end of the day though, that was the point.

If he knew anything about any of what was going on, then he probably wouldn’t have gone there for his internship. Still, it was a little overwhelming. He understood most of what was said, but it still felt like rocket science to him, which ended up making him feel dumb, which ended up making him feel worse. ‘One two three four five,’ he counted with a deep breath in. ‘Five four three two one,’ he continued, letting it out.

He needed to stay calm and try to learn as much as possible. That was why he was there. Some awkwardness would be nothing if he could make things better for himself even the smallest bit. ‘Keep your eyes on the goal, Kazuki,’ he told himself.

“Remember, you don’t always have to look your best, but as a rule of thumb, it’s good to look good as much as possible,” Uwabami told them, giving Kendo’s outfit a more thorough look. “As I told you, the world is shallow. If you look good, be it imposing, or beautiful, or handsome, or strong, then they’ll eat that up. If you check, most people at the top are some kind of good looking. Even Wash looks funny and cute, which is its own form of appeal. I don’t think I need to explain for those like Hawks, Best Jeanist and Mirko, right?” she added with a teasing smile.

Indeed, she did not need to explain. It was something that Kazuki – and probably everyone – acknowledged. Hearing it be so bluntly put by someone in the industry was kind of jarring though. However, he appreciated the honesty, if nothing else. He’d have called bullshit if she tried to give them a “just be the best hero you can be” speech… mentally, at the least.

“That’s a keeper, Itsuka. Put it with the rest, would you? Unless you wanna keep it on for now,” Uwabami said, nodding to Kendo and then turning to consider the piles of clothes both of them had gotten. “I think those are good for the both of you, at least in terms of civilian clothing.”

“I wanted to ask… What do we need so many clothes for?” he said then, voicing a question that had been on his mind when they didn’t stop after the first few outfits.

“For you to have good choices from here on, what else?” Uwabami answered, apparently confused.

“You mean we can… keep all this?” he asked then, looking at the veritable mountain of clothes. “I can’t pay for all this. Probably wouldn’t if I saved my allowance… forever,” he added incredulously.

“Don’t be silly, Kazuki. This is a gift from me. I’m certainly not short on money and no intern of mine will be looking less than great, I’ll tell you that,” Maeda told him, waving him off as if he were silly.

Turning towards Kendo, he saw that she was as shocked as he was, which was kind of a relief.

“Now, I think we should talk about hero costumes.”

[}-o-{]

Well, it seemed that Kazuki had found someone that could thoroughly kick his ass in Quirkless combat one on one.

Two someones at that.

Kendo and Maeda were, quite honestly, very fucking good at fighting without Quirks. Unsurprising, considering one had spent a chunk of her life learning martial arts and the other was a pro hero without a combat Quirk. Still, it left him feeling both bitter and excited. Losing was never nice but winning most of the time wouldn't be good for his skills.

“You are very good,” Kendo said, a tight smile on her face as she shook her leg, with which she’d blocked one of his kicks. “You sure you didn’t get training?”

“Nope, just juvie brawls,” he answered, drawing a grimace and pity from the girl. He didn’t care for it, but he’d rather do without that when they could be sparring. So, trying to stir things in another direction, he went back in to continue the fight.

After spending the morning on their looks and clothes, Uwabami had told them that she could allocate some time for combat training if they wanted. She had to go through her own training to keep herself in shape so they could join her for it if they wanted. If not, she could have some other people around the building teaching them stuff. It wasn’t like she could be with them twenty four seven, after all, but she wanted to make the whole thing as productive for them as possible.

Both Kendo and Kazuki had readily agreed to train some. Admittedly, he found the offer surprising. After all, they had spent the morning working on their looks and they were going to ruin it by working out. The hero’s only answer when they pointed that out was that it was just how the job worked. It wasn’t like they could just avoid that kind of thing to keep looking good.

The morning had been so that they could work on some things and they could start to learn what they needed to look better, not to be a permanent thing.

Regardless, Kazuki didn’t know if the redhead felt the same way as him, but he really could use something that felt more like known territory. On that note, he knew combat training and physical exercising, that was for sure. After spending hours feeling like he didn’t understand shit, it was nice to be back doing something he was more familiar with.

“Well, you are both very good in normal combat. People usually have their entire style reliant on their Quirks,” Uwabami commented from where she watched their spar from the side. “Assuming they aren’t cases like mine, that is. I guess it’s more surprising in your case, Itsuka, than it is in Kazuki’s.”

“I have a style adapted, but my father always said it’d be better if I knew how to fight normally. In case I can’t use my Quirk, for whatever reason,” the redhead explained, even as she kept Kazuki at bay in the spar. She was just that good, frustratingly enough. 

“Smart man,” Maeda praised. “Well, I could try to teach you some things, I think, but probably not that much. I’m good, but I’m far from being that good,” she admitted easily.

“It’s fine,” he replied, rubbing the back of his hand over his lip, wondering if it was split. “I didn’t come here to learn combat, I can tell you that.”

“Yeah, I figured,” Uwabami said and he could hear the smile on her face. “Still, keeping up with your training is never a bad idea. Besides, being fit certainly helps in the looks department, so that’s a nice plus, wouldn't you say?”

She wasn’t wrong about that. Hell, he was surprised that she mentioned it as a bonus instead of it being the main thing. Wasn’t quite what he’d been going for with all his training, but he supposed it helped, maybe? Kendo definitely looked great, fit as she was.

“Just try not to train shirtless whenever there are young models-to-be around, yeah, Kazuki? You don’t want to go down that rabbit hole, believe me,” Uwabami said, completely breaking his concentration and allowing Kendo to punch him right in the gut. “Oh, had you thought about that?”

“Not until you mentioned it,” he groaned before coughing. God, did Kendo pack a punch. Also, he was really hoping that Uwabami wouldn't start teasing him. That’d just be awful. His friends did that enough, thank you very much.

“Hm, didn’t comment on the first part, huh? I guess I’ll have to hold off those girls myself,” Uwabami commented, making him groan again. “On a more serious note,” she continued then and he glanced her way to make sure she was actually being serious now. The highly amused look on her face wasn’t very encouraging. “You need to learn how to best use what you have and, at the same time, not have it backfire on you. You want positive attention, but positive attention can be bad too, if not handled well.”

“Lot’s to learn then, Maeda-sensei.”

“I like the sound of that,” Uwabami replied with a giggle. “Yes, it was definitely the right call to send those offers to you two. You are great.”

“Thank you,” Kendo said humbly.

“Let’s see if you think that when your popularity takes a hit,” Kazuki commented himself, earning a roll of the hero’s eyes. He did feel a few spikes from her, sadness, pity, annoyance. Instantly, that painted several pictures in his mind and he didn’t know which one was the case at the moment, if any were.

“I’ve probably handled worse and if not? I’ll handle it anyway,” she told him, waving off his worries. “Now, we all have training to do, so, are you going to keep going or is it machine time for you?”

“Er… I could use a break from getting punched in the face,” he commented with a grin while Kendo laughed.

[}-o-{]

“You need to relax, Kazuki,” Uwabami told him patiently. “I’ve seen you talk. You might be a bit on the shy side, but it’s almost unnoticeable. You can do this, no problem.”

“I know, it’s just…” he started before trailing off and groaning.

They were practicing speeches, basically. Uwabami wanted them to train on how to talk with anyone and at any time. Civilians, victims, reporters, police and anything else, they were going to be covering all the bases Maeda could come up with. Or, at least, the ones they had time to, at least.

With Kendo, that is.

Kazuki, for his part, needed to learn how to deal with the press. That was his most pressing issue. Everyone else might be a problem too, but getting through the press was like getting his foot on the door. It’d help with everyone by itself. Thus, he was getting tutoring on them in specific. 

Uwabami looked like she wanted to give him her full attention, but didn’t dare leave Kendo to the side, actually. Kazuki respected that though. He kind of liked being more or less another student. He was a special case, but not that special, and that was good enough for him. Besides, it wasn’t like her splitting her attention was all that bad.

The hero had, after all, gotten people from her agency to help them out. PR people being one of them, but she’d gotten pretty much everyone she could involved. People didn’t need to be knowledgeable to give civilian perspectives, after all.

He was wondering if making Baby Grimm for them would be considered a good payment. He didn’t know what else he could possibly do. Buying gifts would take more money than he had, unfortunately.

“The pressure gets to you,” Maeda told him, an understanding smile on his face. “It happens to a lot of people.”

“I have to deal with it anyway.”

“You do,” she readily agreed. Kazuki was starting to like that about her. She didn’t seem to sugarcoat things much, if at all. “If you avoid them, it doesn’t matter if All Might himself stands up for you. They’ll just continue going. The man may be a legend, but even legends can only do so much when the press has the power over what the people get to know and what they don’t. They can’t silence him, but they can weaken him like no villain has ever managed.”

‘You’d be surprised,’ Kazuki thought, remembering the state the Symbol of Peace was in.

“These people live for the stories, so you need to give them one. What you want to do is give them things to talk about that benefit you instead of the opposite. There’s no middle ground with them,” Uwabami continued and he took the notebook he’d set aside and started taking notes. “Neutral stories aren’t exciting, and if there’s no excitement, then there’s no business for them. They need something really good or something bad.”

Kazuki noticed how she didn’t say “really” in regards to bad things. Anything bad could make a story, but not everything good could make a story, was what he got from that. Such was the way the world worked, it seemed. It sucked, but he didn’t have the luxury to do much about that.

“That’s more advanced than you can handle just yet though,” Maeda told him, suddenly looking amused. “First, you need to learn how to speak to them without looking like you want to be anywhere else but there. If you are this bad here with my people, then out there those people would eat you alive.”

Well, that was encouraging.

Kazuki sighed.

“Cheer up, Kazuki. This is why you came here. You just have to keep going and I’m sure you’ll manage,” Uwabami told him before her expression turned slightly apologetic. He knew what was coming just by looking at it. “I have to go check on Itsuka, do you need anything else or…?”

“It’s fine, you can go,” he reassured her with a smile. “I appreciate that you are going the extra mile for me, but I don’t want to ruin this internship for her,” he said.

“You aren’t,” Maeda told him immediately, but then she grimaced. “It’s no use lying to you, is it?” she asked then, likely figuring that he felt her guilt. Correctly so, at that.

“I’m not a lie detector, but I can sometimes tell, just by negative emotions alone,” he replied, getting a sad smile from the woman. “Really, I know my case is a mess, but-”

“Kazuki, I know media. I might be a terrible hero and a terrible person, but I’m good with media,” Uwabami interrupted then, softly but firmly. “I can read between the lines with them to get what the real story is, more often than not.”

“So…?” he asked, unsure if he really wanted to know the answer.

“I saw your mother’s interview,” she told him and he grimaced.

“I’m disappointed… and I’m also sorry.”

“That woman is a monster,” Maeda continued, before his mind could conjure a more vivid memory of his mother. “And you don’t deserve her shit, hers or anyone else's. I don’t need to hear your side of the story to know that the incident wasn’t your fault, at least not completely. I’ve been keeping an eye on you all day, Kazuki,” she said, the snakes peeking over her head twisting so that all of them were looking at him. “You are a good kid, okay?” she added, moving her hands to hold him by his arms. “So, let me help you.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” he mumbled, unable to keep looking at her in the face.

“Good,” she replied, before taking a deep breath in. “Now, keep practicing, ok? I’ll check on Itsuka and I’ll come back soon.”

“Ok.”

He was kind of glad that she had to go.

That had been… something.

Definitely not bad though.

[}-o-{]

“I didn’t think I’d be this spent while interning here,” Kazuki groaned, sitting on the couch in the common area where they’d gathered after their speech class was over. There was a TV and it was on, set on a News channel, much to his chagrin. Still, at least they weren’t talking about him at that moment.

Maybe the trend was passing? He could only hope.

He probably wasn’t that lucky.

“Tell me about it,” Kendo said, not quite looking as drained as he was, but definitely tired. Then again, she had less pressure on her and maybe less problems speaking to people. She looked like a sociable person.

“Good work, kids,” Uwabami said, moving to sit on an armchair to the side, but not before leaving a cup of coffee for each of them. “You really did do very well,” she added, taking a sip from her own drink. “I think this was a nice learning day.”

“I’m sensing a but there,” Kendo mumbled, getting a giggle from the woman. She probably hadn’t meant to be heard, considering how low she’d spoken. She’d obviously forgotten about Uwabami’s enhanced senses.

“You’re not wrong. You are interning here, which means that you have to learn by doing, not just classes,” Maeda said and both of them perked up a little. “Well, I say you “have to” but it’s not really the case. Rules are pretty lax on how I can teach you. It just says that I have to be around so you can learn from watching me. The thing is, I’m not a very active hero unless I’m needed, being more of a rescue specialist. So, you have the option of having another day like this one tomorrow or…”

“... or?” Kazuki asked, once more feeling like he might not want to know the answer. Still though, how bad could it be? He pondered that as he took a sip from his own bitter coffee. Maybe tracking some random criminal?

“Or you can come with me to a modeling job,” Maeda finished, making him choke on his drink. “I’ll be filming an ad for hair spray tomorrow, so if you want to come, you might even get in on it.”

“Ah… I doubt anyone would want my face associated with their brand,” Kazuki commented dryly. “So, I’ll stay here, if it’s all the same to you.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure and if you manage to get in, it’s a way to get you out there in a… positive light, even if it’s almost nothing,” Uwabami commented thoughtfully. “Then again, maybe it’s a bit soon. Yeah, probably better to save that for later if at all. Need to do a lot before something like this… Say, is any of your creatures less… intimidating and unnerving?”

“Are snakes your favorite animal?” he asked, glancing at the snakes on her head. The woman blinked at the non sequitur but she did nod after a moment. Nodding back, Kazuki let his shadow extend a little and created a Baby Taijitu from it, making it slither towards her. “I’ve been working on a “Baby” series of my grimm. They are all basically much more… friendly versions of my creatures.”

“I can definitely see it,” she said, smiling softly as she caressed the serpent made out of negativity with her finger. “Hm, we should look for a way to show this off, that’s for sure. I think I might have an idea about that, actually. For now… Oh, him again,” she said then, pursing her lips as she glanced towards the TV.

Turning, he saw that they were showing a report on Stain. He’d heard a few things about that villain, but not nearly as much as to know what was going on. What he did know was that he was called the Hero Killer for a reason. The guy went around killing every hero he deemed as “unworthy”.

“Man must have me on a list,” Uwabami commented darkly. “Or maybe he doesn’t consider me a hero at all.”

“I don’t see why he would. You do hero work like anyone else, right?”

“He doesn’t care. If you aren’t in it like All Might is, hundred percent all in, Plus Ultra and all that, then you are unworthy. As if that were in any way reasonable. There’s a reason the only hero he’s said is worthy is All Might and literally nobody else,” Uwabami explained, shaking her head. “He’s a villain. He might have ideas that people can “agree” with, but he’s a villain and nothing else.”

Kazuki didn’t know if to bring it up, but the woman very obviously felt strongly about it all. He was picking rather strong negative emotions about the whole thing, between sadness, frustration, angry, hatred. Something was going on there, he was sure. Ultimately, it was none of his business though. It wasn’t like he disagreed anyway.

The guy went around killing heroes. Even if they weren’t good heroes, surely there was a better way to handle things. At least, he thought so. The world was dark enough and had enough death in it to go around adding more like that.

“Sorry, I… Sorry,” Uwabami said then, strong grief flowing through her. “I knew one of his victims,” she added then, smiling sadly at the TV. “We were going to film a movie together.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Kazuki said, with Kendo not far behind.

“It’s what it is. He’ll be caught eventually,” the woman replied, visibly gathering herself. “Sorry for ruining the mood like that. Again, you did great, so, rest up. And think about what you want to do tomorrow, ok?”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

This internship is pain for my hermit ass.

Someone please end my suffering.

Also, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: How are you liking this internship and Uwabami so far? I was pretty nervous when things turned out like this and some people were understandably upset/in disagreement with this choice, so… I’d like to know if it was a mistake or not, even if it’s already too late to change anything.

See you.