Darkest Before Dawn - 73 (Patreon)

Chapter 73

“Woah, you got a new costume?” Kirishima asked, having finished putting on his own outfit faster than everyone else. Then again, his was a lot simpler than the others’. Kazuki, for his part, was buttoning up his shirt.

“I did,” he answered with a slight smile. “Uwabami suggested it and I liked it enough,” he added, turning to look at his… friend? Ex-friend? He wasn’t too sure where they stood, quite honestly. “I’d like some more opinions on it though, so if you guys don’t mind…?” he asked, turning back to his clothes. Idly, he smiled at the extra things in his suitcase that had definitely not been there before. There were notes on them from Mei, but she seemed to have done a rush job so that they’d be there before actually going for some of her crazy ideas.

Good, because they didn’t need to be special, even if it’d be nice if they were. That could come later. He needed them for the main job and now he had them. Not that he expected to use them, but one never knew.

“Always be prepared for the worst,” Uwabami had told them in regards to rescue work. He wanted to stick with that as much as possible. With everything else in place, he reached for the new pieces of equipment, a simple pair of black gloves that went well with his suit and glasses that he placed on his belt along the pouches.

Pouches that he was working with Mei to replace, since they didn’t fit his costume at all. Uwabami hadn’t minded leaving them, since they brought utility and didn’t clash too horribly if they were small enough. However, he’d still replace them with something that’d leave him with the immaculate and professional look they’d come up with for him. Alas, that’d be something for later.

“Looks good to me,” Kirishima commented simply and straightforwardly, as could be expected of him, adding a smile and a thumbs up. Kazuki could only grin back at him while checking that there weren’t any wrinkles or some such. Looking at himself in the mirror, he confirmed that everything was fine and nodded to himself.

“You done staring at yourself, B-Movie?” Bakugo asked him with his usual “cheer”. There was anger there, but there was always anger there, so Kazuki just smiled at the guy.

“Just about done,” he answered simply, trying to keep himself calm. Fake it til you make it, was what Minoru had said, right? Maybe he could give it a try and be less negative about stuff. And if he felt like it was too much, Inui and Aizawa would be there to pick him up, he supposed.

As good a plan as any.

He’d probably check with Inui once the day was done though, just in case.

“Tch, then let’s get going. Everyone else is ready and I want to get on with the class,” the explosive guy grumbled, walking towards the door while Kazuki followed him absently together with everyone else. As they did though, he had to hold back a grimace. Now that he didn’t have a distraction, he was feeling it full force once more.

He took a deep breath in.

“You ok, Kazuki?” Minoru asked from beside him in a whisper and he did his best to give a reassuring nod while putting on his best mask.

Class with All Might would never be a fun time, despite how interesting the class itself was. Unfortunately, it was all ruined by the waves of pain to his torso that Kazuki would always have to put up with. ‘Just power through it, Kazuki. You’ll have to anyway,’ he reminded himself. Even when considering it extra training though, it still sucked. It’d have been nice to have at least some Foundational Hero Studies classes without feeling like there was a gaping hole in his chest and stomach.

Alas, such was his luck, he supposed.

It was something he’d accepted already, or so he thought. Some time away seemed to have brought the problem back to the forefront of his mind. He just needed to get used to it once more, he guessed. Not easy, but knowing that All Might had plenty of wisdom to share – even if he wasn’t the best teacher ever – helped make the issue more bearable… if only a little.

“THIS TIME, WE’LL MIX A MORE PLAYFUL ELEMENT!” All Might announced, making his ears ring as usual. “IT’S A TRAINING RESCUE RACE!”

‘Rescue?’ Kazuki thought, immediately giving his full attention to the teacher. Well, it seemed like hero class was starting with an exercise right up his alley. He took back everything he’d thought regarding All Might and his chest injury. The man could give him as much pain as he wanted if Kazuki got to train as a rescue hero. ‘Let’s fucking go,’ he cheered internally, a grin taking form on his face.

“Someone’s happy, huh?” Toru commented, poking his cheek and making him laugh as he turned to regard her… as best he could, at least. He wondered how much invisible costume she had now, but he also didn’t want to ask. That’d just make things awkward for everyone involved. He just contented himself with the knowledge that she didn’t go around naked anymore.

“You’ve got no idea, Toru. Rescue training is the best,” he told her happily and the invisible girl went silent immediately. Which was odd, since Toru always had something to say. Either way, he turned his attention back to All Might after that. He didn’t want to miss anything.

Apparently, the thing was going to be held in Training Ground Gamma instead of the USJ, since this was an urban situation instead of a disaster situation. Kazuki also suspected that it was because USJ was… in a weird spot when it came to them. Either way, Training Ground Gamma looked like someone had taken Ground Beta, the one where the Entrance Exam had taken place, and turned it into an industrial mess filled with pipelines and cranes. ‘Finding anything in here will be a pain in the ass,’ he thought to himself, frowning.

Would they be using robots as rescue targets? Because then it’d be even more of a pain. He’d have to search the old fashioned way if that was the case, considering his grimm wouldn’t be able to locate those as easily as people and such. ‘Maybe I can make a bunch of Baby Series if it’s just search? I can control more that way and they don’t need to be strong,’ he mused to himself thoughtfully.

“CLASS WILL BE DIVIDED IN THREE GROUPS OF FIVE AND ONE GROUP OF FOUR,” All Might continued explaining and Kazuki found himself… not quite caring about the missing classmate anymore. Sure, it had hurt a lot at the time, but by then it was just… disappointing. Aoyama could have been yet another classmate of his, someone to trust and a friendly acquaintance like most of them… and instead he was just a traitor.

He wasn’t quite sure what had happened to him, but he found himself not really caring anymore.

“I’LL GIVE THE SIGNAL FROM SOMEWHERE IN THE GROUNDS AND YOU’LL HAVE TO FIND ME FROM OUTSIDE THE LIMITS,” All Might said and Kazuki was pretty sure his eyes were shining. They had to look for All Might? Then it was a piece of cake. Almost like a real life situation, since Kazuki would be able to sense him with his Quirk.

He grinned even wider at that.

Alas, he wasn’t going to get his chance until the very end, it seemed. All Might decided the groups randomly once again, all at once since he’d be at the center of things and that’d make things more troublesome for anything other than communicating with them through the school’s system. Kazuki was in the very last of the four groups, unfortunately.

First group, for their part, was composed of Iida, Shoto, Kaminari, Mina and Bakugo. Kazuki’s bets were on either Iida and Bakugo. No offense to Shoto, but he wouldn’t be able to get there quite fast enough… unless he got in the others’ way, which Kazuki found himself wondering if that was allowed. He didn’t think All Might had said anything regarding that.

In the end, nobody was “unsportsmanlike” through the exercise and Bakugo narrowly beat Iida to it. After them were Mina and Shoto, who had surprisingly similar approaches, just that one slid over acid and the other ice. Last came Kaminari but nobody held that against the guy. He didn’t have any compatibility with movement exercises, after all.

Second group was Kyoka, Shoji, Minoru, Uraraka and Ojiro. From there, Kazuki’s bets were on either Minoru or Uraraka. Those were the only ones that had any mobility from them all, really. After that… Probably Kyoka or Shoji. Ojiro had more movement advantage than them, but they had better senses, so they could find All Might easier, so Kazuki was betting on that making the difference. Base stats with good senses was great for rescue, Uwabami had taught him that.

His prediction turned out to be mostly right, except that Minoru was much better than Uraraka at moving around. Kazuki wasn’t sure if that was because his friend got better during the internship and Uraraka didn’t, or if that was just a difference from before too. He’d never seen the girl moving around all that much that he remembered, so he didn’t have much to compare that with. The last three went about even, with Shoji beating Kyoka by a bit and Ojiro arriving surprisingly quick all things considered.

Third group was Tokoyami, Kirishima, Midoriya, Asui and Toru. No offense to his invisible friend, but Kazuki didn’t think she stood much of a chance. Midoriya and Asui had very good mobility, Tokoyami had some edge there and Kirishima had better physique than her. Alas, he imagined she’d be last.

Sure enough, she was. However, Kazuki was mildly surprised that Kirishima beat Tokoyami, but he’d just been lucky enough with his pathing, really. ‘I wonder though, this seems a little… light for an exercise. Maybe this is All Might’s way of having us take it easy without outright giving us a break?’ he wondered idly. Why make it into a game when the whole thing was so simple?

He guessed that was as good an explanation as any.

Then came the last group, his, with Momo, Sero and Sato. Not to sound arrogant, but he thought he was very well equipped for it, so he imagined he’d be first. From there, Kazuki guessed the order would be Sero, Momo and Sato, but there was plenty of wiggle room for an upset between all of them. Sero moved well, but Momo could make something to move easily and without tiring out. Sato’s strength could prove a good asset too, if he could keep his mind well enough and find a good path like Kirishima had.

Either way, none of that mattered.

“START!” All Might called and Kazuki got to it immediately.

‘What if I fail though?’ he wondered, immediately and expectedly, when he pulled from his negativity nodes. ‘I could fail and embarrass myself. I barely trained in anything other than PR stuff. What if I’ve fallen behind? What if I ruined everything? It could have been the wrong choice.’

God, did he hate pulling Anxiety, but alas, that was what he needed for his fastest Grimm. Still, he grimaced through the whole process and even after the Giant Nevermore was finished. He didn’t have time to waste though. Relaxed exercise or not, this was rescue training and he’d give it his hundred percent either way. This was what he wanted to do.

This was the kind of hero he wanted to be.

Gloves and glasses in place, he positioned himself on top of his Giant Nevermore and took flight, following All Might’s very distinctive pain. ‘Hmm, glasses could be better,’ he thought to himself, making a mental note to discuss that with Mei after the day was over. The gloves were keeping the cold away fairly easily, but the glasses didn’t quite do as well as he needed so that the wind didn’t bother him.

Better than nothing though, and it showed in how much better it was to ride his summon like that.

Boy, did it show.

‘This is awesome!’ he exclaimed internally, grinning widely as his Giant Nevermore took to the sky. The speed, the height, the movement, it was all so… amazing. He’d flown on his Nevermores before, and even his Giant Nevermore, which was faster. Speed really added a lot more to the experience. He couldn’t wait to have better glasses for the whole thing to go even further.

‘I have to ask for a chance to do this whenever I’m down, it’d be nice,’ he thought to himself, feeling his blood rushing through his veins excitedly. The list of things that could improve his mood was growing and Kazuki couldn’t be happier for it. Maybe one day he’d have enough options to not have to rely on others to cheer him up.

‘I have a mission now though,’ he reminded himself, focusing on All Might’s pain. It was a mood damper if he’d ever felt one, but he had an exercise to get through, one that he didn’t want to waste a single second of. So, once he reached the proper point with his Giant Nevermore, he dismissed the creature and fell down on one of the many cranes.

‘Gotta work on my free running,’ he made a note of, moving through the intricate structure that felt like a 3D maze. Disaster zones wouldn’t be nice and flat; they’d be a mess just like that. So, he’d need to be prepared for that kind of terrain. Was there an area in the training facilities for that? He didn’t think so. Maybe there was somewhere he could practice. Would the school allow them access to the training grounds like that one? He didn’t remember seeing that anywhere, but then again, they hadn’t asked.

“YOUNG ENDO, YOU’RE THE FIRST ONE HERE!” All Might greeted him with his booming voice and he grinned tiredly, wiping some of the sweat from his brow. “IMPRESSIVE EFFORT, BE PROUD!”

“I want to be a rescue hero, I’m not gonna give anything but my all when it comes to that,” he replied, taking a deep breath in as he tried to calm his beating heart. “Plus Ultra, right?”

“INDEED!” All Might agreed, letting out a booming laugh that lasted all of a second before Kazuki winced at the pain that shot all across his torso. “I’m sorry,” the hero said immediately, his voice turning normal for once. “It must be awful, my class,” the man added, grimacing and sending off plenty of guilt and shame.

“Or having you anywhere close, yeah,” Kazuki said bluntly, rubbing his chest as if that’d do anything. However, he cut the hero off before he could say anything else. “But I can’t hold that against you, can I? It’s fine. Your class is great, so I’ll take some pain in exchange,” he commented.

“Truly? I assumed I was a terrible teacher,” the Number One Hero admitted. It wasn’t really a surprise though. Kazuki had picked up plenty of cues in that regard through the man’s classes.

“I mean, you aren’t great,” Kazuki replied, channeling his inner blunt and merciless Uwabami. “But you have plenty to tell us that regular teachers just can’t, even those that have been or are heroes. Nothing quite beats the Number One in terms of experiences, I guess,” he explained and he smiled a little when some of the bad emotions in the hero disappeared.

“Thank you for telling me that, Young Endo. I appreciate it,” All Might told him sincerely.

“I should be the one thanking you,” he said, shaking his head and smiling. Idly, he noticed that the others were taking their sweet time getting there. Or maybe he’d just gotten there too fast? He hadn’t really been keeping track of time.

“Is it difficult?” All Might asked him then, a bit out of nowhere, which made Kazuki blink. “Acting all the time, is it difficult?” the man commented and that just caught him off guard even more. However, after a moment in which his mind rebooted, he just smiled, even if it was a somewhat tired and somewhat sad smile.

“Sort of,” he commented, moving to sit over a nearby piece of building that stuck out. “Sometimes it’s like I’m barely hanging on… Sometimes I almost forget I’m acting.”

“It can be like that,” All Might told him with a smile that was nothing like the ones he always wore. “You are doing a great job, Young Endo. Not only in your acting but in your efforts. The school and I have been trying to help but things were… difficult. I think you might have made enough progress that we can actually get through now.”

“Thank you,” was all he could think to say. He really appreciated it, of course, but he just couldn’t quite find the words to express himself then and there, despite all of Uwabami’s training. “... Does it get easier?” he asked, because if there was someone that acted regularly in their day to day life, that was All Might.

“Sort of,” was all the answer the man offered, but Kazuki just barked out a laugh and nodded. Where did the hero get off throwing his words back at him. Then again, he guessed that worked well enough, even if it…

“Well, that sucks,” he mumbled with a dejected smile.

“It does, indeed, suck,” All Might agreed.

The silence that followed was soon interrupted. It seemed like Sero was finally reaching their spot. Which marked a definitive end to Kazuki’s conversation with the Number One Hero. A shame, if only because it meant the guy would go back to using his booming voice, which strained his lungs and…

Yeah.

[}-o-{]

“You didn’t have to do this,” Kazuki said, checking his dress shirt and making sure it wasn’t wrinkled or anything. He wasn’t quite dressed formally, but it was certainly not casual attire either. He wasn’t too clear on fashion, but Uwabami had drilled enough of it into his brain that he knew more or less what to wear in certain situations.

Such as the one he was walking into at that moment… again.

“I’m the one that should be saying that,” Momo commented, feeling about as nervous as he was, really. Kazuki couldn’t decide if that was reassuring, nice or sad. It was a weird situation to be in, indeed. “I invited you, but the last time…”

Yeah, last time he’d gone to her house, her parents had been… less than welcoming. They’d acted their parts, for sure, but no amount of acting could hide negative emotions from Kazuki. Momo had clearly been able to pick up on things herself, because he hadn’t been the one to tell her. The rest of their group had learned about it from her own comments, actually.

“It’s fine,” Minoru said in a weird moment of looking cool on top of being supportive. “We are your friends anyway. They don’t have to like it. They have to accept it, and it seems they do.”

“You sure you didn’t come to the internship with me in secret?” Kazuki asked, looking at his friend with raised eyebrows. Evidently, his words made his vertically challenged friend a little self-conscious, and it showed very visibly, on top of his emotions.

“I just… It’s something I thought when I invited you home,” he mumbled, looking down and rubbing his arm. He was clearly embarrassed about his own words but Kazuki was very happy with them, actually.

“It’s gonna be fine, Endo. Even if my mother hates you, which I’m sure she won’t, I’ll still be your friend,” his friend had said all the way back to his first visit at his place. Kazuki would never forget those words. They were stored right alongside a myriad of little things that his friends and probably everyone else thought almost inconsequential.

They meant the world to him though.

“Thanks,” he said, once more unable to voice how much he appreciated what he did and said. Maybe he could get Uwabami to teach him how to communicate that. Because damn was it frustrating to just say “thanks” and “thank you”.

“Kazuki is so cute when he gets all happy embarrassed~” Toru commented, making him be more embarrassed than happy and poking his cheek. He swatted her hand away but the damage was done, making all three girls in the group giggle. The high pitched sounds drilling his ears.

He turned an annoyed look towards the invisible girl, but she seemed entirely unrepentant, evidenced by the lack of guilt or shame.

Sometimes his friends sucked.

Fortunately for him, the conversation was taken in a direction that didn’t involve his embarrassment nor the opinion of Momo’s parents in regards to him. Not that it was something he could escape forever in either case, but especially in the latter. After all, they were going there for the afternoon after their regular training after classes.

Even more fortunately for him, they didn’t really have to deal with her parents more than a bit when they arrived. Some greetings and very small talk was all that happened before they were on their way. Judging by the way Momo was acting and feeling, Kazuki gathered that she was rushing for his sake. That was sweet of her and he made sure to thank her for that.

He wasn’t quite sure why she got all embarrassed about that, but he guessed she just didn’t do great with praise.

He could relate.

Sadly, Kazuki’s luck ran out eventually.

“Ah, Mr. Endo,” Momo’s mother said when they found each other through the mansion’s halls while he was on his way to the bathroom. How did he manage to find her parents in a place that people could get lost in? Literally, Minoru had gotten lost during their last visit.

‘Was too much to ask to not have to talk with them, wasn’t it?’ he thought to himself, holding back a wry smile. ‘And now I gotta do it by myself, joy.’

“Mrs. Yaoyorozu,” he said, dialing up his acting like he was in front of a reporter that was particularly malicious. “I’ll just be on my way,” he continued as politely as possible and walked past her. No need to stick around and make things worse for both of them. “I don’t want to bother anyone, so-”

“You are not a bother,” the woman interrupted, her voice soft. She hadn’t turned to look at him, but her words had stopped him right beside her. “I’m sorry for the way we acted last time you were here. That wasn’t… It wasn’t proper of us.”

“It’s fine. You didn’t do anything-”

“But we did, didn’t we?” she interrupted again, this time facing him and giving him a sad smile. Focusing, he noticed that she wasn’t feeling the wariness or fear from the last time, nor the slight hostility. Instead, there was only shame and guilt. “You could tell how we felt, couldn’t you?” she asked then and it finally dawned on him.

They’d seen his interview. They knew how his Quirk worked now, so, they could figure out how the last visit had gone like from his side. That was… he wasn’t sure how to take that.

“So, we are both sorry. We wanted to tell you that,” the woman continued. “Momo… Momo’s precious to us, but she hasn’t had the easiest life despite our best attempts. Things were going well since she joined U.A. and we didn’t…”

“You didn’t want me to ruin that for her,” he finished, almost laughing. “That’s the last thing I want to do, but I know that’s not really a reassurance.”

“You seem to be a big part of what makes her happy now,” she told him, catching him off guard. Sure, he was a friend of hers, but so was everyone else. If he disappeared, then Momo would still have quite the group of friends right there for her. “So… I guess we have no choice, do we? Please continue to make our daughter happy.”

“That’s the idea anyway. She’s a great friend to me too,” he replied with a nod. When nothing was said, he continued on his way. Well, it seemed that things weren’t quite so bad with Momo’s parents. That was a relief.

He wasn’t quite sure why the woman giggled when he was almost too far to hear, but women giggling were never something that he wanted to get involved with, really.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Man, I’m kind of annoyed at that rescue exercise. I remembered it being a little… more. But I checked with the manga to get as much as possible right and it’s… It’s just there to show off Izuku’s Full Cowl, which is kind of shitty. What about showing everyone else? Nobody else had anything to show after their internships? This is why I hate most shounen. They skip all the development and go straight for the cool scenes.

They are the reason I write so much slice of life.

Even if I say that, there wasn’t all that much for me to work with here either, but I tried to mention how it went for everyone there. Does that count as me being a hypocrite?... Maybe, but still. I’m not the professional author here.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Do you like cafes? I do. I sometimes go to one with my laptop just to drink something and write. I find that it helps me a lot to focus on what I have to do.

See you.