Darkest Before Dawn - 64 (Patreon)

Chapter 64

“As I told you before, you were great,” Uwabami said, beaming proudly at him. It was… quite uncomfortable to be on the receiving end of such a look. Thus, Kazuki focused his eyes on the TV. They’d just watched a recording of his interview with the Kizuki woman and it was… It was…

“Doesn’t look like that,” he mumbled, deflating on his seat. Sure, nothing had been altered. Nothing was cut off to change his meaning or anything. However, the people that commented on what he said had proceeded to try their best to find ways to misinterpret everything he’d said, or so it looked like to him.

If anyone were to ask him, it was absolutely terrible.

“Looks like that, right? And if that was all, you’d be right,” Uwabami told him, which wasn’t very encouraging. “But this are just some of the takes of your interview. You saw all the others, those weren’t too bad, right?” she asked, and… he guessed she wasn’t wrong? The last few had seemed awful though. “There’s always gonna be someone talking bad about you, Kazuki, even if you do a great job, even if you are a saint, always. You can’t please everyone.”

“I know, I just…” he tried to say but words failed him, as usual. Eventually, he found his voice again. “The others didn’t look that good either,” he mumbled, leaning back as if he were trying to make the couch he was sitting on devour him.

“Well, of course,” Maeda said, bluntly honest as usual. He usually appreciated that, but at that very moment he felt like summoning a Grimm and- “But that’s fine,” she continued, unaware of the annoyed turn his thoughts took. “The interview was great, it’s just that your reputation isn’t.”

‘Not getting better, Maeda-sensei,’ Kazuki thought to himself, his eye twitching. If the way Kendo leaned away from him was any indication, he was nowhere near discreet. However, their mentor continued as if nothing was happening.

“That’s expected though,” Uwabami told him, looking at the TV once more. “Now, with that interview you did and having seen what it’s caused on the news, what do you take from all that?”

“That I need to do better?” he asked, trying his best to keep his temper under control.

“No,” his mentor replied, rolling her eyes. “I’m telling you that you did great for a reason, Kazuki. I’m not lying to you,” she told him and he had to remind himself that she’d been very honest so far. However, what she was saying didn’t make any sense. “Sure, the news weren’t great, but you generated anticipation by saying that you’d speak more later. They are looking forward to that and that means the world will be looking forward to that. You can’t change your reputation with one interview, Kazuki. It’ll take time.”

Now she was making more sense. Didn’t mean he had to like it though. He knew she was right, of course, but he still couldn’t help but feel like things should have gone better. Alas, his hopes had been too high, just like with the Sports Festival. Just because he won that didn’t mean people would like him. Just because he gave a good interview didn’t mean people would like him either.

“This is a great start though, that’s what I mean. The first brick of many that you’ll use to rebuild your image, as it were,” Uwabami continued and with every word she spoke, he felt a little calmer. It wasn’t the end of the world. He’d dealt with worse anyway. He could be patient still…

Even if it sucked.

“This was a good first step, but that interview you promised, that’s the one you have to worry about,” Maeda continued and he heard her loud and clear. He was waiting for the part where she’d try to reassure him… Until he noticed her grim expression and just as grim emotions. “I can’t tell you that it’s going to be easy, because it’s not, but I’ll prepare you as best I can, Kazuki. However…” she trailed off then and, surprisingly, smiled. “I have a plan to try and make things easier for you.”

“And that plan is…?” he asked, when she didn’t seem like she’d elaborate.

“Perfect for you, so don’t you worry your handsome little head,” Uwabami said, waving him off, much to his frustration. Well, it didn’t seem like he’d get a straight answer to that, for whatever reason. He’d have to trust her, which he did, but still. He’d rather have the information.

So, he sighed.

“So, what do we do now?” Kendo asked, they’d spent a little bit training “how to deal with children”, which Kazuki thought was just messing around. He was convinced that Uwabami had come up with that to help them unwind a little after their mission. If that was the case though, then he appreciated it.

It had been nice to do something simple and relaxing for a bit. It wasn’t even really a total waste of time either, really. Maeda had actually taught them stuff regarding dealing with children. It was just that it was all sprinkled between a lot of playing and such.

After that, they’d gotten dinner, which they ate while watching the news, not only about Kazuki’s interview, but about Uwabami’s afterward and even some others. Their mentor had taken her time explaining things to them through it all. Where mistakes were made, where things were done right and the meanings and reasons behind everything important.

Now though, it seemed like they were done with all that so…

“Now, I think you’ve both earned a break from all this, alright? God knows I need one. Even when things go right, you need to be aware of the toll it all takes on you,” she explained, standing up and stretching this and that way. “Even when everything goes according to plan and nothing bad happens at all, there’s always the drain that worrying and the stress of the situations put on you regardless. So, always keep that in mind, alright? R&R is important too.”

Idly, Kazuki took a moment to write that down. He rather doubted he’d forget that or anything, but still. He preferred to have everything in writing, just in case. He could get a little over focused in his training at times, he knew. Most of the time his friends were able to steer him away, but they wouldn’t always be around.

Apparently, what he did was amusing, because both Kendo and Maeda giggled.

He could see that he might look a little silly though, so he just smiled at them.

“Anything in mind, you two?” their mentor asked, looking at them curiously.

“I’ll probably go to the gym. Going through some katas has always helped me unwind,” Kendo answered with a slight smile of her own. “After that,” she continued, shrugging. “I’ll probably call home, maybe my friends too.”

“As good a plan as any,” Uwabami replied with an approving nod before turning towards him and raising an eyebrow in an unasked question.

“Nothing much for me, really,” he admitted, bringing a hand up to rub the back of his neck. “I’ll probably talk with my friends and maybe play some games on my phone,” he answered, feeling incredibly awkward. That sounded really lame next to Kendo’s katas, or so he thought. It wasn’t like he had a lot of hobbies to begin with and he wasn’t even home at the moment, so that left him with even less.

His thoughts, however, were interrupted when Uwabami placed one of her hands on her knee to get his attention back on her.

“Nothing wrong with that. If that works for you, go for it. This is so you can relax. Stressing over it is kind of counterproductive, wouldn’t you say?” she told him softly, making him feel dumb. She had a point though, he was dumb. “If either of you need anything, you know what to do. I’ll be a call away, alright?”

“Sure thing.”

“See you later then.”

And with that, the three of them went their separate ways… Or two of them did. Kazuki simply remained where he’d been sitting on the couch, taking out his phone. It was sort of odd, to purposely enter the game. It was usually something he did when he had time and nothing to do. It felt weird to do it because he wanted to relax. It was the sort of odd feeling that breathing “manually” gave. Normally, one did it without thinking, so not doing that was awkward.

Still, after a minute or two he got over that as he went about doing his dailies.

However, it didn’t take long for him to be done with that. The game was certainly not that time consuming. He could play that rogue-lite mode but… Maybe later. As it was, he wanted to check for messages now that his mind was a little calmer. His friends were bound to have-

Before he could even open the app to check though, he was interrupted by a call. He blinked at the screen, momentarily caught off guard. Then he grinned, running a hand through his hair while doing his best not to mess it up too much, before answering the call. Immediately, a screech greeted him from the other side.

“Boss!” the person called loudly, making him put the phone a little further away from his ear. He’d rather not go deaf. “You were on TV!”

“Saw that already, huh?” he asked, not really surprised. He didn’t even have it in him to comment about the “Boss” part anymore either, quite honestly. “Hello to you too, by the way.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she replied, and he could almost see her rolling her eyes and waving him off. “TV! It was so cool!”

“That’s one way to look at it,” he mumbled, to himself, looking at the TV in front of him. At some point he’d switched off the news because that was just painful, even when they weren’t talking about him. He knew he was likely to start paying more attention to that, to learn, if nothing else. However, he was trying to relax and that was really not helping. “I feel like I tried to put out a fire with fuel,” he commented.

Sure, Uwabami had done wonders to reassure him, but he still felt like he was escaping the frying pan by jumping on the fire. She had said that he’d made the next interview even more important, after all. With any luck, he wouldn’t get burned too much going through that.

“Well, I think it was cool, even if the people commenting on that are assholes,” she said and he smiled.

“Thanks, Togeike. I appreciate that,” he replied, because he truly did. His friends were biased, of course, but he’d take that. Kazuki just appreciated having an outside perspective that was positive, because God knew he wouldn’t have one and the news wouldn’t have one. Kendo and Uwabami were nice and all, but they were just two people. “Improving that is… a work in progress,” he added then, leaning back on the couch and taking a deep breath in. “How’s your internship going?”

“Great. I’m learning lots. I’m also playing catch up with the Hero Course in my free time. It’s a lot of work, but… Well, it’s what I need,” she said, and suddenly she was sounding a lot more tired.

“Hey, hey, none of that. Do you think I’d stay in U.A. with Shinso as my classmate? I’d get expelled in three days, if that,” he mock chided her, getting a weak giggle in return. “Now for real though, if you need any help, just give me a call or send a message. If I’m busy, you can just do so with the others.”

“That’s kind of awkward though, but I appreciate the offer,” she said, making him blink. “They are more your friends than mine.”

“I thought things went well at the Sports Festival and during training though,” he commented, a little confused. He’d never seen her have any trouble getting along with his friends, after all. Hell, he’d heard they even hung out when he’d been absent after the Sports Festival.

“I mean, yeah, but it’s more… I don’t know. We just mostly train together. Doesn’t feel like we are… real friends, you know?” she said and he could almost hear the awkwardness bleeding through the phone. As he thought that over though, he guessed he could understand. It was sort of how he’d felt about most of 1-B for a while, and even Togeike herself. They just trained together and got along fairly well, but that was about it.

Things would change with time though, he was sure, just like they had for him.

As it was…

“Ok, well, anything you need, just ring me then. I’m not the best student in class but I do ok,” he commented.

“Dependable as always, Boss,” the girl said jokingly, and Kazuki was half sure that she was just calling him that because she knew how he felt about it. “Really, I… I appreciate that.”

“It’s what friends are for, right?” he said, trying to push down on the nervousness he had making such a statement. “I look forward to having you in our class.”

“It’s not a sure thing,” she mumbled. Kazuki had to wonder if he sounded like that when he doubted himself and was being particularly pessimistic. “This is all… sort of a trial run.”

“Well, God knows I’d rather have you than the alternative. So, I’ll just hope for you to get in, if it’s all the same to you,” he commented jokingly. “You deserve it too, I’ve seen you work for this. I’ll be damned if I let you fail after all that.”

“... Thanks,” he heard, and it was just one word, but boy was a heavy one. “I’m really glad that I started training with you, Endo, and that I took you up on your offer to join your team.”

“I’m glad you did too,” he replied, a soft smile on his face. “Now, tell me more about your internship. Anything interesting happening? You saw what’s up over here, pretty much, sans training on how to talk, how to dress and how to style myself.”

“Wait a minute. You can’t leave it at that. This I have to hear. Tell me more, Boss,” she urged, making him groan even as he kept grinning.

“Why am I friends with you again?”

“No idea.”

[}-o-{]

“It’s fine, Endo. You did a good job this time and you’ll do just as well or better next time. If Uwabami is not worried, then neither should you.”

“I know, Inui, but it’s easier said than done,” Kazuki groaned, lying sprawled on the couch in a mockery of the cliche pose of someone at the therapist with his phone in his ear. “I just… this needs to go well and it’s really driving me crazy that I can’t be sure it’ll go well.”

“That’s just how life is, kid. It’s full of uncertainties and if you think something is certain, chances are that it’s really not,” Inui told him and Kazuki knew he was right, as usual. He just was worried and didn’t know what to do. He didn’t even know why he kept bringing it up and kept thinking about it.

He was just worried and didn’t know what to do, he supposed, so he was just scrambling for something.

“You know people are on your side and once you come out properly to the public, that number is only going to grow. Look at it like this,” Inui commented, very obviously trying to find the words that would reassure Kazuki. In a way, that was pretty effective by itself. It made him feel better to know that he cared enough for that kind of thing. It was… nice. “You can confirm this with Uwabami, but you’d have to purposely mess up to make your reputation worse.”

“Wow, really nice of you to say that, Inui,” he commented dryly.

“You are the one that keeps looking at the pessimistic side, I’m just reassuring you through that. You can’t make things worse without trying, Endo. That means that you can only go up from here,” the teacher explained and Kazuki… had to admit that he had a point, somewhat. It was a weird, unexpected point, but a point nonetheless.

“That actually helps, I think,” he commented wryly, aware that it might be a little weird of him to be reassured with that of all things. After a moment of silence though, which he was sure was Inui waiting for him to say something else that he might have in mind or start spiraling again in regards to the interview issue. Kazuki wanted to avoid that though, or at least try. “Can we talk about something else?”

“Sure thing, Endo. Anything in particular you want to talk about?” the counselor asked, expectedly. Kazuki considered that question for a long moment. Surprisingly, nothing came to mind. Usually, he’d at least have a few topics at the tip of his tongue, even if he didn’t bring them up. At that moment though, his head seemed almost filled with his internship stuff. “How was your first official taste of heroics? At least out in the field.”

“It was… nice. I helped people and it was… it was just nice, you know? Every person that I helped get away from there, every person we helped from under rubble or such… All of it felt so incredibly…”

“Rewarding,” Inui finished for him when words failed Kazuki. “I’m very happy to hear that. I know we’ve told you that you are a hero, but it’s never gonna be the same as you realizing that you are a hero. That moment when you figure out, for yourself, that you are, indeed, a hero. Maybe today was the day, or maybe it’ll come later, either way. I’m happy for you,” the counselor told him.

“Thank you,” Kazuki replied, not knowing what else to say, even though he felt like he wanted to say a lot more than that. “... You… How are you doing? I feel like we are always talking about me,” he commented wryly.

“That’s kind of how counseling is supposed to go,” Inui replied, amused.

“Humor me, will you?” Kazuki asked, throwing his head back against the armrest on the side of the couch. “You help me a lot. It’s kind of awkward not knowing anything about you, you know? Or is that… you know, against some rule or something?” he mumbled nervously, unsure.

“Well, I guess this would be a non-professional call,” Inui mused out loud and Kazuki smiled. “Now, where to start…”

[}-o-{]

“How are you feeling this morning?” Uwabami commented the next day in the morning. It was a good thing that both Kendo and Kazuki were morning people, because he could imagine his less morning inclined friends not reacting all too well to the chipper mood his mentor arrived in. “You ready for today? Because yesterday was a bit of a mess, but I have something for you two that will be equally as heroic, even if it won’t draw heroes from all over the area.”

“Well, I can say I’m looking forward to it,” Kendo said with a smile, looking giddy already. Kazuki, for his part, wondered about the second part. Where could a rescue hero take them to that wouldn’t get attention? From what he knew, she didn’t even do much work that didn’t personally contact her to go to an area that needed her services. After all, she wasn’t like a combat hero that could just patrol and stop random criminals and such.

She was a rescue hero, which meant that she was only useful in certain situations. She also needed to be available in case one of those situations came to be. So… Kazuki was left a little confused and curious.

“Great to hear, because I’m sure you’ll love this,” Uwabami replied, which only served to further make him wonder. Hero work usually needed, well, somewhat tragic situations one way or another. Sure, it could feel good to help, but to love doing something? It sounded kind of weird.

Then again, maybe Kazuki was just looking too deep into things.

He had been in an overthinking mood as of late, he supposed.

“So, where are we going and do we need anything?” he asked in the end, although he had a feeling that the first part of the question would be ignored. Maeda seemed eager to keep them in the dark about whatever job they were going to be doing… Which was slightly worrying. Was this another modeling/ad job that she’d found? Had she somehow found one that’d fit Kazuki?

It was a horror ad of some kind, right? A horror movie?

“You only need your hero costumes and to bring your A game because this is, maybe, the most important job you’ll ever have to do in your hero careers,” she said and both of them looked at her wide-eyed. That was certainly not the kind of thing they’d expected. And this was somehow not going to get heroes from everywhere to come?

Where the fuck was Uwabami taking them?

“So… just hero costumes?” Kendo asked, frowning and likely trying to figure out the puzzle much like he was.

“Mhm, just that,” their mentor answered with a smile that said she very much knew what her little mystery was doing to their minds. “Now, I have to make a call and then we’ll be off, okay? You can get ready to go in the meantime, Itsuka. You won’t want to be late for this one, I can tell you that.”

And with nothing else said, she left.

Quietly, Kazuki shared a look with Kendo. Her face reflected about the same as his did, he’d bet. Confusion as well as eagerness, although there was also a hint of trepidation. Had Uwabmi really left them with no information while saying this would be the most important job in their careers? How had he ever thought she was a good person?

She was evil, evidently, worse than any villain.

“I guess I should get to it, right?” Kendo said then, moving to stand up.

“I’ll just be here,” he replied with a half-smile, a little pleased and a little relieved that he’d stuck with the decision of using his hero costume through his days. He was still getting used to it, but… it was growing on him, he supposed.

Uwabami really knew what she was doing, on account of his hero costume and having one that she could use most of the time. He’d definitely have to talk to Hatsume about adapting anything they added to it. Kazuki was really appreciating the fact that he could just go about his day without anything getting in the way or being awkward to have.

Sounded like a very efficient way to go about it and he’d admit that he quite liked looking good. He’d thought that he liked the simple, unassuming way he dressed before, but now… Now he couldn’t help but just feel better when he dressed better too. It was like a small boost to his confidence by itself.

Did that make him a shallow person? Or a narcissistic one?

He hoped not.

Eventually, not long after that, Kendo was ready and Maeda came back to pick them up. From there, they left… in a limousine? Things were getting more and more confusing by the second, really. Kazuki, thus, could only look at Kendo, who was just as bewildered as he was, and at Maeda, who looked very amused by their shared confusion.

“And, here we are,” Uwabami said, opening the door and stepping outside first. “Remember your training, Battle Fist, Beacon, because it’ll be key here,” she added, not even looking at them as she walked towards the building in front of which they’d stopped.

Hurrying after her, Kazuki was only able to see that they were going to a hospital. Maybe Uwabami wanted them to help the emergency services? That could be it, he supposed. Yeah, that fit.

“And, here we are… I hope you are ready,” Uwabami said, standing in front of a door and not giving them a single second to gather their thoughts. Instead, she pushed the door open and walked in, with Kendo and Kazuki soon following. “How are you doing, everyone? It’s been so long!”

Her response was a cacophony of “Uwabami!” and “Bami!” and “Uwa!”.

And then both, Kendo and Kazuki, were treated to the sight of children.

Many, many children.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Run, run for the hi-!

… Wait a minute…

Huh?

Well, that happened.

I don’t really have much to say in regards to this chapter. There was a fair bit of aftermath from Kazuki’s interview, with some interactions with Togeike and Inui, who are always great to have around. A lot of characters are, and it makes it a true shame that I can’t have them around all the time. Alas, that’s just how it is, I suppose.

And now we have Uwabami’s latest activity/teaching exercise idea.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, guys.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Who are your three favorite characters in this fic? That is, without including Kazuki… if he even is in your top three. He is, right?... Right?! insecurity attack

See you.