Darkest Before Dawn - 4 (Patreon)

Chapter 4

“Do… you think he’s serious?” Hagakure asked, with what Kazuki assumed was her usual cheer nowhere to be seen. “He’s not gonna expel us if we are last, right…?”

“Who knows?” Mineta replied with a shrug, even if he looked pretty nervous himself.

Kazuki didn’t need to look at the people around him to know most of them were at least a little worried. It didn’t exactly make sense to him though. Not all of them could have bad quirks for the tests that their teacher was suggesting, right? They were all in a hero class, surely some of them had powers that would make things easier for them.

‘Maybe they aren’t worried about being expelled as much as they are of making a bad impression? Stage fright of sorts?’ he wondered as he looked around.

“Do you think he’s serious, Creepy? You can sense his emotions, right?” Mineta asked, and that earned the full attention of their little group, formed by Hagakure, Ashido and Kirishima. Hell, even some of their other classmates seemed to have heard and looked over.

“I only know he’s annoyed and very tired. Doesn’t really tell us much, right?... Only to try not to make him angry, that is, but it should be a given,” Endo said, his eye twitching. On top of the quirk apprehension test Aizawa had dropped on them right off the bat, his quirk was getting to him, especially because-

“Everything alright, Creepy?” Ashido asked then, tilting her head at him.

“Yes, I just wish those two would get it fucking together and calm the hell down,” he growled, his shadow darkening under him the smallest bit. Taking a deep breath in, he did his best to push the foreign emotions aside, at least the overwhelming ones.

“Who?” Kirishima asked, looking around.

“Bakugo and Midoriya,” he said, sighing. As usual, Kazuki wasn’t having all that much success in keeping his emotions in check. “Mr. Angry might as well be hitting me over the head with a sledgehammer, as far as his emotions go. And Mr. Mumbles is so nervous I feel like my heart might just stop any second.”

“He does look scared,” Hagakure pointed out.

“They are starting,” Mineta pointed out, and sure enough, Mr. Stick-Up-The-Ass was going to run the 50-meter dash against… Kazuki wasn’t very sure who the girl was or what her quirk did. He didn’t remember if she’d said anything after arriving and he’d been kind of occupied talking with his new group of… ‘Friends? Not quite, acquaintances, I guess,’ he mused idly.

The point was, he hadn’t paid all that much attention to the rest of the class, if he was honest.

“Some people have all the luck,” Mineta grumbled then, as the two’s scores were announced.

“If we aren’t first, we should make sure to think up how we are going to do the tests,” Kazuki pointed out, taking another deep breath in as he tried to do just that instead of letting his quirk influence him. “Well, this one is easy though. I’ll just make a Beowolf to mount.”

“I haven’t gotten my bouncing good enough to try that for a dash,” Mineta lamented. “So, it’ll be normal running for me,” he added, looking down at his legs. Kazuki didn’t need to read minds to know what he was thinking, the pang of frustration and some thinking did the job just fine at that moment.

“I’m sure there’ll be another test that’ll be better for you, Tiny,” Kirishima reassured, placing a hand on the shorter boy’s shoulder.

First test went without problems for Kazuki himself as he did exactly as he’d planned and rode a Beowolf as it sprinted for him. ‘Summoning Grimm will be laughably easy with those two here, nevermind the rest of the class,’ Kazuki thought to himself. And even with that advantage, he’d much rather the two got a fucking hold of their emotions.

It was getting to him. He was getting angry at any little mistake, thanks to Bakugo. Any little thing made him impossibly nervous that Aizawa would call him out for something, thanks to Midoriya. He could barely keep himself under control, and that was just because of all the practice he’d gotten in juvie, with much more wild emotions thrown around.

Another Beowolf took care of the second test, the grip strength test. For the standing jump, he just made a Nevermore big enough to carry him. Normally that one would have been more of a struggle, but with as many and as strong negative emotions that were around? Easy. Aizawa gave him an infinite value for that one, since he could technically fly forever so long as he got a steady source of negativity to keep the thing going. Sustained sideways jump was… Well, Kazuki couldn’t think of a way to do that one with his Quirk.

The pitch throw had been taken care of beforehand by a Beowolf, considering Aizawa had made him do the example of throwing one before they started. He’d thought of using a Nevermore to carry it, but he was fairly sure wouldn’t have gone as far. He had a range limit, after all, and the Beowolf could throw the thing further than the Nevermore could fly. That was his guess, at least. It wasn’t like he’d checked that sort of thing before.

Ultimately, that assumption had been right, from what he’d seen.

‘Why didn’t we start with this though? We were already here for the example thing before,’ Kazuki had to wonder as he looked at his classmates getting ready for that round of testing.. Ultimately, it wasn’t too important. Maybe they were just doing it in the order the teacher had listed them for himself or something.

“I’m getting really nervous here,” Hagakure mumbled, and Kazuki couldn’t really blame her. She, Kaminari and Jiro weren’t really getting all that many chances to use their quirks to keep them, or at all, really. And yet, Midoriya, despite having a better average, looked and felt like he’d faint any moment. ‘Or have a heart attack,’ Kazuki thought to himself, taking a deep breath in to try and calm himself. ‘Why is he so goddamn nervous? He’s doing well!’

“I was thinking about that, actually,” he said then, trying to focus on a conversation instead of his senses. “Wouldn’t make much sense for him to kick us out just because our quirks don’t help with this, right?”

“I mean… yeah?” the invisible girl mumbled, still fidgeting with her hands, or so it seemed, from the movement of her sleeves.

“Only reason I can see for him kicking us out is if we mess around or if we do really badly,” Kazuki added, tilting his head as he considered his own point. “Does that make sense?”

“A little,” Mineta said, narrowing his eyes. “Thank god for the sideways jumping though. It probably saved my ass.”

“Well, you are not wrong about that, Tiny,” Kazuki agreed with a slight grin that only widened when the short boy shot him a glare. “So, do your best, it should be enough. I doubt he’d be that unfair, if he’s a hero. I know he gave that speech about the real world being unfair, but still, if we do our best, what more can he want from us?”

“Well said, Creepy,” Kirishima called, smacking Kazuki’s back and making him grimace. That was quite the hit, for a gesture that was supposed to be friendly. “We just have to be manly!” he added then, grinning from ear to ear.

“Manly?...” Hagakure whispered from the side.

“Ignore him, that’s kind of… his thing,” Ashido pointed out with an awkward smile.

“Ah, like Tiny’s is being a pervert?” Kazuki asked.

“Oi!”

“Ah, what’s going on there?” Kirishima asked, pulling their attention from the conversation he had started himself, even if unknowingly. “Is he giving Midoriya advice or something?”

“Ugh, why’d you have to point that out?” Kazuki groaned, once more being flooded by the green-haired boy’s nerves. “He seems to be even worse than before.”

“And that’s saying something, I guess, right?” Hagakure pointed out, finishing with a questioning tone. She didn’t even know how right she was. “Oh, do we get re-tries?” she added, when they saw Midoriya move to throw again.

This time though, it got everyone’s full attention, mainly because once he got around throwing the ball, the thing flew away with a loud ‘Crack!’. Kazuki, somewhat away where he and the others he was talking with stood, flinched and grabbed his hand.

“The absolute mad bastard,” he hissed, giving the green-haired boy an incredulous look that got even worse when he noticed the reddening finger.

“What happened, Endo?” Hagakure asked, forgoing the nickname and with concern filling her voice. “Something the matter?”

“Yes, that fucker broke his finger with that throw,” he said, taking a deep breath in and doing his best to ignore that pain. “What the fucking hell?” he added, doing the same thing again. It wasn’t really working. The fact that Bakugo seemed to have decided to finally explode… metaphorically speaking this time, didn’t really help matters. Anger and pain weren’t a good combination to keep a calm head.

“Can’t you just… ignore it?”

“No can do,” Kazuki muttered through his teeth, blowing a breath out of his mouth.

“Anything we can do?” Ashido asked, looking concerned between him and Midoriya. “And should we do something about him for that matter?”

“Sensei doesn’t seem to care,” Mineta pointed out, and sure enough, the man was still looking at Midoriya with narrowed eyes. In the end, he just gave a tight nod and told the boy his score. “Man, I’m suddenly not so sure about how true your words were, Creepy. That man really could care less.”

“I guess,” Kazuki replied, still rather tense, but regaining some measure of control. The fact that the pain had come out of nowhere certainly hadn’t helped. “And the best way to get my head away from things is to distract me, most of the time. Unless it’s really intense emotions… Like right now. Which isn’t really helping.”

“Good to know,” Mineta said then. “We are really going to continue like nothing happened, huh?” he added when Aizawa called for the next person.

As it turned out, yes, they were going to keep on like they had already. Their teacher, they decided, was a hardcore guy. Well, except Kirishima, who apparently couldn’t decide if Aizawa was manly or not. Besides the “highlight” of having Midoriya with a broken finger and Kazuki having to deal with the pain too, there was little else of note, which was almost good, he supposed. At least the guy didn’t decide to break anything else.

Seated toe-touch and sit ups he couldn’t do much about, really. Well, besides using imps to try and help him out while doing them, but that wasn’t nearly as much as he had done with the other tests. So, the examination continued without all that much of note.

That is, until it came time for the endurance running test. That one was… funny, one could say. Mainly because it became an infinite race between Kazuki and Yaoyorozu. The girl, who apparently could create stuff from her body… somehow, had made herself a scooter that could run forever.

As for Kazuki, he just made a beowolf and rode it next to her. With the amount of nerves that he was getting from the rest of the class, nevermind Bakugo’s anger and Midoriya’s nerves/pain, he could have the thing there forever, really. Hell, he could probably have made his limit of Grimm and not have to worry about running out of juice even if he had to constantly replenish them at that point.

In the end, Aizawa decided that they’d get an infinity score, just like Uraraka had with her pitch throw, and Kazuki himself had with the standing jump.

“Oh, yeah,” Their teacher said once they were done and he’d finished noting everything down. “That whole “expulsion” thing was a lie,” he announced with a completely straight face. Kazuki would go as far as saying the man was enjoying the class’s reaction. “It was a logical ruse to pull out your best performances.”

“So you were right, huh, Creepy?” Ashido pointed out.

“Come on,” Yaoyorozu said, some distance away. “Of course it was just a ruse.”

“Somehow… I’m not very sure that’s what happened,” Kazuki mumbled, looking as the teacher gave Midoriya some piece of paper and told him to go to the infirmary. “If he could lie about the expulsion, he could lie about the ruse.”

“Who ca~res!” Hagakure exclaimed, before very audibly sighing in relief. “I’m just glad I’m not getting expelled. Look at this, I’m last place!” the girl whined, picking up the list the teacher had given… Kazuki hadn’t actually seen who it had been given to.

‘UA really likes its tops and rankings, huh? Makes sense, considering heroes also have that, but still. Well, some people might need the extra motivation, I guess,’ he thought to himself, peeking at it from over the girl’s shoulder. ‘Maybe even through her head,’ he added, somewhat amused. It didn’t really reach his eyes, considering that Bakugo reached previously undiscovered levels of anger. ‘That guy has issues, seriously.’

In the end, Kazuki was surprised to have placed first place once more. Then again, his quirk helped in basically all of the exercises. Some more than others, but that was still a fact. Hell, he’d pulled off two infinites. Most of the class couldn’t say the same. Some of them had an advantage on a few of the tests, sure, but none of them in all exams.

“Maybe we should call you First instead of Creepy, huh?” Ashido pointed out with a grin.

He just gave her a dry look.

[}-o-{]

Kazuki moved through the school halls once more. He was alone, but only momentarily. To his immense surprise, his new – Friends? – acquaintances had decided to hang out after classes for a bit, so he’d be going with them for a bit. He’d already sent the message necessary for his guards/minders to not call the police on him or something. In turn, he’d gotten the message to keep them up to date every so often.

It was frustrating, but he was too surprised by the fact that he could probably have friends to mind all that much.

For the moment, however, he had something he wanted to do first. Hence, why he was still in the school instead of going to some cafe that Ashido had seen when coming to class. Fortunately, things shouldn’t take long and he’d be on his way there soon.

“Ah, Midoriya,” he called, making the green-haired boy tense up and turn almost mechanically. It reminded Kazuki of the guy with the speed quirk in their class… He’d already forgotten his name, but the point stood. “I wanted to talk to you for a bit.”

“Ah… Ando, was it?” the boy asked, and Kazuki had to hold back a grimace. Not because of the mistake, but because of how nervous/afraid Midoriya was. Instead, he took a deep breath in before answering.

“Endo, actually. Endo Kazuki,” he corrected and this time his face did twist in displeasure as the emotions of the other teenager spiked. “Relax, will you?” he growled, not really helping things. Realizing that things weren’t improving anytime soon, he took another deep breath in and focused his mind. “Midoriya, do you know how my quirk works?”

“You, uh, create creatures?” he answered hesitantly, and Kazuki could tell that the question had confused the boy out of his other emotions… A bit, at least. “You can create a werewolf creature, a demon-like humanoid, and a corvid creature, probably some others? I wonder, do they have to have human properties or animal ones? There’s the wolf thing, and the horns on the humanoid. Maybe they have to have both? But that doesn’t fit with the corvid, that’s just animal all around. The mask is definitely a thing they have in common. Although, maybe-”

“I can create those three,” Kazuki interrupted, making the boy’s mouth click shut. “And that’s it, even if I’m thinking about trying to make different ones. I think it just depends on how I create them. I haven’t been able to experiment much, but I think I should be able to create other things. I’ll be trying that out as soon as possible.”

“Ah, what ideas do you have? I imagine you want-”

“We can trade ideas later,” Kazuki interrupted again, before the other boy could get going. He had the feeling that he could go on and on forever if left to his devices. “There’s another part you didn’t get to see, mainly because it’s not visible.”

“Oh, your quirk has two unrelated powers? That’s super rare. Most quirks only have side-powers to let the person use-”

“Midoriya,” Kazuki said, all but sighing the name as the green-haired boy shut up once more. “The other part of my quirk is that I can feel negative emotions. They give me energy to fuel the creature creation part.”

“That’s really cool!” Midoriya exclaimed, more excited than anything, which was relief. At least Kazuki didn’t have to deal with the crippling anxiety anymore. For the moment, at least. “I wonder how that works? Do you get-”

“The point I’m trying to make,” Kazuki started, taking yet another deep breath in. He had the feeling it’d become a stable part of any interaction with Midoriya already. “Is that I can feel your nervous ass like I’m feeling like that myself.”

“Ah, I’m sorry-”

“It’s fine,” Kazuki reassured with a sigh. “I’ve long since realized that I can’t change how people feel. No, the part that’s important is the pain.” He saw, then and there, how Midoriya realized where he was going. “Does your quirk always do that to you? Isn’t there a way to not break something when you use it?”

“Ah… I’m, uh, working on it,” the boy said, growing nervous once more, even afraid. Why, Kazuki had no idea. “I’m a late bloomer. I got my quirk just this last year and I can’t control it… uh, very well.”

“I could tell,” Kazuki replied before sighing yet again. “Quirks have limits, man. Learn where yours is and don’t get past it until you are ready. Maybe go less All Might and more, I don’t know, someone with less strength.”

“Death Arms has a strength quirk that lets him-”

“You got my point, didn’t you?” Kazuki interrupted, giving the boy a tired look. God, he was done with the conversation already. He wasn’t sure if he was even getting anywhere anyway.

“Ah, I’ll work on it?”

“I don’t like that you said that like a question,” Kazuki told him, but in the end he gave up. “Anyway, I’d really appreciate it. Also, breaking something every time you use your Quirk can’t be good for you. I imagine you won't last very long like that. I don’t think repeatedly breaking bones is very good for your health,” he said, trying and failing to keep his tone flat.

“I-I know, I’m really working on it,” the boy replied, looking like he was about to cry. He felt like he was about to too, really. Kazuki could feel the angst, the fear, the shame… Midoriya was feeling absolutely shitty, basically. Maybe it made him an asshole, but Kazuki really didn’t feel like standing there dealing with it for longer than he had to. It wasn’t like he could help the other boy with his problems.

“Just…” he started, before sighing. “Nevermind. I guess you working on it is the best I can get,” he mumbled, running his fingers through his white hair. “If you need any help, just ask. I have a vested interest in you not breaking your bones every time you do something in class.”

“Ah, I’ll… keep it in mind?”

“Sure,” Kazuki said simply. “See you later, Midoriya.”

“Ah, see you later, Endo!” the boy called, bowing and all. In response he simply waved at him as he started moving towards the exit. God, he was already feeling drained from that.

‘Just when I thought I was getting better at dealing with other people’s emotions,’ Kazuki thought to himself, keenly aware of the bundle of negativity that was Midoriya behind him. The other bunch of negative emotions he was getting from other people nearby didn’t really help either, but at least those were mild enough to ignore… a bit.

‘Here’s hoping that I’ll get a break with the others.’ That was wishful thinking though and Kazuki knew it. No matter where he went, there’d always be someone that felt like shit. Be it mild annoyance or crippling depression, there was always someone feeling something negative wherever he went.

Still, he’d spent his whole life with his particularly awful brand of empathy. He could deal with it. Most of the time, that is, Bakugo and Midoriya had really tested the resistance he’d built against the emotions it projected on him. ‘It’ll be worse if I actually have to do hero work,’ Kazuki reminded himself. No way villain activity or disaster victims would feel all that well. ‘If anything, being in the same class as those two will be nice training, I guess,’ he thought with a wry smile.

“Creepy!” Ashido called when he exited the school, making him blink at her. “Took you long enough, what did you even have to do?”

“Weren’t you going to go ahead to this cafe you mentioned?” he asked, instead of answering her question.

“Yeah, but Tiny didn’t want to leave without his best friend forever,” the pink-skinned girl said, grinning widely as she signaled towards Mineta. Kazuki, meanwhile, raised an eyebrow at the short boy.

“Do you have to make it sound like that?” the guy asked, visibly annoyed by the “accusation”, as it were.

“You don’t have to hide that you care, Tiny,” Hagakure reassured, skipping around the short boy before turning towards Kazuki. “And I’m officially Bubbly now!” she announced, much to his amusement.

“Well… I guess you can be the exception to the look rule,” He replied with a slight grin.

“I’m exceptional, I know,” the girl said, her floating clothes shifting. He was pretty sure she was nodding “sagely” or some such gesture. Difficult to tell with her, but he guessed he might get used to that sort of thing if she stuck around.

“That’s one way to see it,” Ashido commented with a chuckle.

“Can we get going? My parents said I could go for a bit, but I need to be back home early. Chores to do and all that,” Kirishima asked, scratching the back of his head.

“Sure. You heard Pointy, guys. Let’s get going!” Ashido exclaimed.

As they walked, both of the girls started talking between themselves while the boys remained mostly silent. Kazuki didn’t know about the other two’s reasons for that, but he knew what his explanation was. He was a little busy taking in the fact that maybe, just maybe, he could be a normal guy for once.

How many times had he cried himself to sleep, wishing he could be like everyone else? How many times had he dreamed of going to school, having friends and doing all the other things everyone else got to do? And now there he was, with all those things being handed to him on a silver platter.

And yet…

And yet, the Sword of Damocles hung over his head. What would his classmates think of him when they learned of his story? Would they be as friendly? Would they turn away from him? Would they condemn him? He was also very aware that, should things go badly, he’d be able to feel their hate, their disgust and everything else they might feel towards him.

‘I guess I’ll have to enjoy it while it lasts,’ Kazuki mused to himself, chuckling at a comment that Hagakure made. Or, more accurately, at the reaction it got from Mineta, the little pervert. ‘Let’s see if it’s better to have and lose than to not have at all,’ He decided.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

I’m aware that I skipped a fair bit at the start but… Honestly, I didn’t feel like doing “canon+1”. So, I did a bit of skipping and a bit of skimming to get to the… Maybe not the important parts, but the parts that are a little more different from canon. Here’s hoping I didn’t do too terrible a job at that.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Which Grimm do you think will be the first one Kazuki adds to his repertoire?

See you.