Darkest Before Dawn - 6 (Patreon)

Chapter 6

“The fuck are you wearing, Tiny?” Kazuki asked, giving his first friend an unimpressed expression. Well, an argument could be made regarding Bubbly, but the point stood. “Why does your costume have diapers? I know you are kind of a coward, but still, man.”

“It’s a bowl,” Mineta growled at him, eye twitching. “It’s bowl, and my hair is the grapes, don’t you get it?”

“I mean, after you say it…” Pinky muttered under her breath, walking around the short guy, looking him up and down. “I can sort of see it?”

“Thank y-”

“Everyone will think it’s a diaper though, at least at first,” Ashido added, making the poor guy deflate. In their defense… What did he expect? His design and the idea behind it seemed to be a bit too convoluted. Or maybe it was just them that didn’t get it?

“I think it’d be better if you changed it, man. You are already short and look kinda silly, you kinda need to bring your image up, you know?” Kazuki suggested, getting a sigh.

“No mercy even for friends, huh? As ugly on the inside as you are on the outside, Creepy,” Mineta grumbled, making Kazuki smile wryly. That kind of stung, but… It was fair. He hadn’t precisely sugarcoated his own words and it might have stung for his friend too.

“Hey, he’s not ugly,” Bubbly argued, making them turn towards her. “And there’s nothing wrong with a cute design… Although, yeah, I agree with them, Tiny.”

“Is she…?” Mineta asked, blinking at the invisible girl.

“Please tell me you’re using something to cover yourself. Some kind of invisible cloth or something,” Kazuki asked, because he knew that she’d gone kind of… naked during the exams, but surely that was because she had nothing to use, right? They had equipment and such here, surely…

“Well, I mean…” the girl mumbled, poking the fingers of her gloves together. “I got a message that they are working on something like that but for now… Yeah…”

“No way…” Tiny breathed out, looking like he was trying to unlock some kind of second Quirk that’d let him see through Hagakure’s invisibility. “Am I dreaming, Creepy?”

“No, you are not, but are looking kinda stupid right now, Tiny,” Kazuki commented, giving his friend an unimpressed expression. “I think you might need some fixing, or something. Pointy, you think you could help with that?”

“Bubbly?”

“Please?”

“Sure thing, then,” Kirishima said, grinning as he pulled back his arm. A second later, a merciless slap was delivered to the back of Mineta’s head, sending his purple, sphere-covered head straight to the ground. Fortunately, he was careful to avoid the balls on his head, otherwise things might have been slightly awkward. “Sorry, bro, but you were kinda out of it.”

“You guys suck. What kind of friends are you?” the short boy asked them, glaring as he stood back up, rubbing his head. “Seriously, the fuck is wrong with you?”

“I don’t know, but we are your friends, so…” Kazuki commented, giving his friend a shrug.

“Fair enough… Asshole…” Tiny muttered under his breath.

“Everyone looks cool,” Ashido said, seemingly scanning the rest of their class in their costumes. “We do good work, huh?”

“Most of us, at least,” Kazuki replied with a grin.

“I get it already, damnit,” Mineta said, kicking the white-haired teenager on the shin. “Show off.”

“Eh, honestly, I’m just happy you guys think I look decent enough. I was kinda nervous. Not sure I have much sense of style,” Kazuki admitted, bringing a hand up to massage the back of his neck. “But yeah, everyone looks pretty good.”

“Being in the hero course is great,” Mineta mumbled, looking around more attentively and seemingly having forgotten about the whole previous part of the conversation. Kazuki, for his part, traded a look with Kirishima, who gave him a grin and a shrug.

“I mean, you are not wrong,” Kazuki admitted, rolling his eyes at the wide-eyed look his short friend sent his way. “But you don’t have to make it so obvious, man. I’m the one that’s supposed to be creepy, you know?”

“I mean, have you looked at them? How am I supposed to not admire the view?” Mineta asked, waving his arms in their classmates' direction. Kazuki grimaced then, picking up on the uncomfortable and embarrassed feelings coming from their female counterparts.

“By looking and being discreet. Dammit, man, now they are feeling bad. That’s not cool, man. Pointy, if you would?” Kazuki said, giving his short friend a bit of a glare.

“With pleasure,” Kirishima said, bonking Mineta over the head with a hardened fist. Kazuki felt the pain too, but he was much better equipped to ignore that, fortunately.

“You guys suck.”

“And you are a pervert,” Kazuki said, rolling his eyes. “Now, get a hold of yourself, will you? Our classmates are hot, deal with it.”

“Why, thank you, Creepy, the compliment is appreciated,” Ashido commented, having followed the whole conversation from start to finish. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to be overly insulted or anything. Kazuki had barely picked up on some unease when Mineta had been staring, actually, which was a lot less than he could say about the rest of their classmates.

“Just calling things as I see them, Pinky,” Kazuki replied with a shrug. “Is that Midoriya?” he asked then, as the boy appeared last towards the training area. “Isn’t his costume kind of…”

“Yeah,” Hagakure agreed, tapping her finger against her… Jaw? Lips? It was difficult to tell, for obvious reasons. “Maybe he commissioned it himself from somewhere else?” she theorized.

“True enough but… Why not use UA’s Support Course students when they are just… there and have good reason to do a good job?” Kazuki asked, drawing a shrug from the girl… he thought. ‘Really makes it difficult to tell things, what with her invisibility being… augmented as it were,’ he thought wryly.

“Well, look on the bright side, Tiny,” Ashido said, sounding amused. “You're not the only one that will have to change their outfit sooner rather than later.”

“You aren’t gonna stop with those comments, are you?” Mineta asked, sighing despondently.

“Nope,” they all replied, Kirishima even chuckling, for good measure.

[}-o-{]

“Kazuki Endo,” he introduced himself to his partner for the Trial of Battle that All Might was setting up.

“Denki Kaminari,” said the blonde boy with a streak of black in the shape of a lightning bolt. The teenager took the hand Kazuki offered and shook it with a grin on his face. ‘Well, he seems friendly enough,’ the white-haired boy thought to himself. “Let’s do our best, yeah?”

“Yeah,” he agreed with his exercise partner. “Do you mind if I ask you what you can do? I don’t remember from the Quirk Assessment,” he asked with an awkward expression.

“My Quirk is Electrification, I can discharge electricity from my body,” the blond said with a confident grin and a thumbs up. “Although, uh, using too much electricity kind of… takes me out of the fight,” he added and Kazuki could feel his slight embarrassment at admitting that. “You could make… creatures, right?”

“Yeah, I can make and control three of them but I can only summon one at a time,” Kazuki explained, looking around to see the other groups talking between themselves too. Well, most of them, at least. “I can also sense negative emotions, like anger, or nerves, or such.”

“Woah, that sounds cool,” Kaminari commented, slightly wide-eyed before he frowned. “What does one have to do with the other though?”

“Well, I kind of use the negative emotions thing to fuel the creature creation part, if that makes sense,” Kazuki replied with a slight shrug. Even he himself wasn’t too sure how it worked, only that it worked. Nobody had been too keen on him using his Quirk much before, especially so after they’d found out that he had it more or less under control. Everyone seemed happy forgetting it – and him too – were even there.

“I guess it does… a bit, at least,” Kaminari nodded. “Well, I think our chances are good, man. Our Quirks are good.”

“They are,” Kazuki agreed… somewhat. He was a little reticent in calling his Quirk “good” but it was certainly useful in the right situations, like it was the case at that moment. “So, if we are villains, I guess you can stay by the… bomb, was it? And shock anyone that comes near it. That’s as much as I got, honestly.”

“Works for me, man,” Kaminari commented with a chuckle. “We can wing it from there.”

“Good, then-” Kazuki started, only to get interrupted by All Might’s voice.

“THE FIRST VILLAIN TEAM IS…” the hero called out, sticking his hand in a box and bringing it out. “GROUP D!”

“Man, the first two to go, huh?” Kaminari mumbled from next to him, and Kazuki could both feel and relate with his nerves. Being the first ones to go could be either a good thing or a bad thing.

“AS FOR THE FIRST HERO TEAM…” All Might continued, unaware of their unease. “GROUP F!”

‘Hagakure and Midoriya,’ Kazuki identified, glancing towards the group that would go against them. It wasn’t a difficult thing, not only was Midoriya basically a beacon to his senses, but he seemed to be especially nervous. Not that the pseudo-empath blamed him in this case, considering who his partner was and what her… “costume” was. Poor guy was red from head to toe, or so Kazuki assumed from what he could sense.

“So, invisible girl and normal dude that can break his bones to get a power up,” Kaminari commented, frowning a bit. “I don’t want to sound mean, but I think we can take them. You can find Hagakure, right?”

“I should be able to. Even if she hides in my sensing blind spot, my creatures should be able to smell her out,” Kazuki muttered, already deciding to create at least one Beowolf. Maybe two and a Nevermore for air coverage, he supposed would be the right call in this case. He could make an Imp and give him the Capture Tape too though…

“Then we’ve got this, just gotta be careful with Midoriya,” Kaminari commented confidently.

“PLEASE, MOVE TO YOUR STARTING POSITIONS AND GET SETTLED WHILE THE REST OF THE CLASS AND ME GO TO THE MONITOR ROOM!”

Moving to where they needed to be took both longer and less than Kazuki expected. Before he even realized it, Kaminari and him had a make-believe nuclear weapon to position somewhere within a tall fake building that would be their playground for the exercise. They had a good minute before the exercise started but neither of them said anything.

“Ok, better get started,” Kazuki said then, drawing his partner's attention. It was both annoying and a little relieving to know that he had more than enough negativity to create his Grimm. Midoriya had enough nerves and embarrassment for that, quite honestly, and even if he didn’t, Bakugo and Todoroki certainly would have made up for that loss. Nevermind the almost overwhelming amount of pain that came from All Might.

Kazuki was still having some trouble powering through that last one…

His shadow darkened and extended in front of him and, soon enough, a Beowolf stood right there.

“Man, that’s… intimidating,” Kaminari commented, his face showing a lot less fear than he was feeling. To his credit though, it still was a lot less than Kazuki imagined others would feel when seeing a monster made of darkness with what seemed to be a bone mask. “You sure it’ll be able to smell Hagakure?” the other hero-to-be asked.

“Unless she has some way to mask her scent, it should,” Kazuki reassured with a wave of his hand as he prepared to create a Nevermore. It didn’t take long, but it was better to take his time. There was no rush and-

“START!” All Might’s voice announced and Kazuki nodded, the person-sized corvid finishing its appearance a second later.

“This one will keep an eye for us outside, just in case,” Kazuki said before pursing his lips. “What do you think I should make the third one, another Beowolf,” he started, waving towards the aforementioned werewolf-like creature. “Or a more humanoid one?”

“Hmm… I mean, we have plenty human between the two of us, don’t you think?” Kaminari replied hesitantly. “Although, I’m not much of a fighter but-”

“But if we want to fight, the Beowolf’s better for that,” Kazuki finished, getting a nervous “yeah, that” in response that made it obvious that wasn’t quite where his partner was going. Still, that was good enough reasoning for him. “I’m not much of a fighter either, but I’m pretty sure neither is Hagakure. Midoriya had good scores even without using his Quirk in the assessment which tells me he’s no slouch on the physical department.”

“Paid more attention to him, huh?” Kaminari asked, drawing a wry grin from Kazuki.

“Kinda difficult not to, when he broke his finger and I could feel his pain,” he answered, making his partner grimace.

“Ouch, fair enough,” the boy replied with a nod. Then he looked towards the entrance to the door of the room they’d set the fake nuclear weapon at. Or, more specifically, he watched Kazuki’s Grimm leave through the door. Except for the Nevermore, which flew out of a window. “Feels too easy, don’t you think?”

“You’re not wrong,” Kazuki said with an uneasy grimace. “Let’s keep our guards up, yeah? I don’t want to lose because I was overconfident,” he added, taking a deep breath in as he tried to follow his creatures movement and what they did. It was weird, as usual, but he could get a sense of what they were doing. Not really sense through them, but he knew if they found something or if they were just moving or anything else.

Back to his partner and the conversation, he really didn’t want to fail in class. Everyone else might get a bad grade and that would be all, but Kazuki… Kazuki might lose his chance and be sent straight back to juvie. Maybe it was exaggerated and dramatic to think like that but… He couldn’t risk that. Not right then and there, when his resolution to be a hero was solidifying.

“Sure, man, I don’t want to look like an idiot either,” Kaminari said, scratching the back of his head. “I already do that enough whenever I overuse my Quirk.”

“That what you meant when you said it takes you out of the fight?” Kazuki asked, blinking at his partner.

“Yeah, it kind of… fries my brain, you could say. It’s not as bad as it sounds but… Yeah,” Kaminari explained, clearly embarrassed by admitting that. Enough that Kazuki could have been able to tell even without feeling that himself.

“Better try not to overuse it unless you need to then,” Kazuki commented, still looking for the “heroes” with his Grimm and finding nothing. He was starting to get nervous, honestly.

“Yeah, I kind of want to meet up with the support course. I added a request for some things but they gave me this,” Kaminari said, gesturing towards the ear-piece of his costume. “For communication and told me they’d need to have more information for anything else.”

“Makes sense.”

“Anything useful in those pouc-”

“I found Midoriya,” Kazuki interrupted, his head turning sharply as he followed his Beowolf’s senses. Not that it was a very difficult thing to do, finding the nervous wreck of a boy. However, knowing his general location was a lot more different than actually having himself or one of his creations see him. “He’s a few floors beneath us,” he added, getting a nod from his partner but he wasn’t paying too much attention to that. Instead, he focused on his creation, trying to see how best to control it to make it win the fight against the green-haired boy. “Huh?”

“What’s up?” Kaminari asked, focusing his attention on Kazuki. Probably since he was the only source of information he had, really.

“He’s using his Quirk, I think, but he’s not breaking-Ouch,” he answered, grimacing as a shot of pain coursed through his arms. “Ok, he’s got more control but that hurts a lot,” he muttered through gritted teeth. ‘As if All Might wasn’t enough,’ he grumbled internally. “He took out my Grimm though,” he added, his shadow extending to create another monster of shadows. “He didn’t break his arm but that hurt too much for him to just shrug it off… Or maybe not,” he related, feeling Midoriya fighting his second Beowolf as the one he just created moved out of the room. “I found Hagakure.”

“Really?” Kaminari asked, blinking at him.

“She got nervous,” he answered with a slight smirk. “I don’t know how she got there, but she’s on the floor below us. Let me just…” he mumbled, dismissing his Nervermore and starting to create a third Beowolf.

“I can cover the entrance, man. Just tell me if she gets close,” Kaminari told him, already moving towards the doorway. “I gotta do something or I’ll look bad, right?”

“Guess that’s fair,” Kazuki agreed, only then realizing that if he did all the work, then that might negatively affect his partner’s grade or something. Besides, it didn’t sound like the worst idea ever, to let Kaminari stand guard at the door and shock the invisible girl if she got close. Kazuki and his Beowolf could be the last line of defense if it came to it. “She calmed down a little for now- She’s down the hall,” he informed, correcting himself mid sentence.

“We know you are there, Hagakure,” Kaminari said to the empty corridor in front of him. “And Midoriya is basically out, fighting Endo’s monsters. It’s over.”

“That’s what you think, villain,” the invisible girl replied from… somewhere. ‘Guess she’s getting in character, huh?’ Kazuki thought, somewhat amused. If the idea didn’t make him uncomfortable, he guessed he’d have been good for that kind of thing, considering he was supposed to be a villain.

He didn’t need to add that kind of thing to his reputation though.

“She’s right there, Kaminari,” Kazuki informed his partner, his Beowolf stalking towards the entrance, just in case. He was fairly sure it was unnecessary though, because Kaminari was doing a good job of keeping the door covered as best he could, so that Hagakure couldn’t find a free spot to squeeze through. It did make him look kind of silly, since he had to move his arms and legs around erratically, but it was effective all the same.

Kazuki’s attention was pulled then when he felt another spike of pain and his second Beowolf was forcefully vanished. ‘Fuck, that did break his arm,’ he thought, grimacing as he held onto his own left arm. There was still the third creature he’d sent before but still… ‘God, I’m gonna have to have another talk with Midoriya, won’t I?’

Still, he pulled on all that pain to create yet another Beowolf.

As the creature of darkness was born though, things kept going around Kazuki.

“Got you,” Kaminari exclaimed, his arm extended as if it were grabbing something. Hagakure, evidently. However, things didn’t quite go as he expected, Kazuki was sure. Especially then, as the invisible girl opened her mouth.

“Did you know I’m naked?” she asked and her voice almost could be passed for innocent. That is, if Kazuki weren’t able to feel her embarrassment and nerves. Her little ploy worked though, because Kaminari pulled his hand away as if he’d been burned, just as embarrassed as the girl was, apparently.

That was the room Hagakure had wanted to create, immediately vanishing from Kazuki’s sense. Probably out of delight that she had a chance to succeed then. A chance that was taken from her as a Beowolf’s arm/paw swept to the side, hitting her and sending her to a wall, if the pain Kazuki could suddenly sense was any indication.

The other Beowolf charged at the invisible girl, finding her by scent and pressing her to the ground.

“Well, that sucks,” Hagakure whined. “Wait, Creepy, you aren’t being a pervert, are you?”

“Not gonna work, Bubbly. I know those are your arms… or legs, maybe-”

“Are you calling my arms fat?” the girl asked, and he felt the twinge of irritation and anger.

“Not at all, just difficult to get a real sense of things. Feeling through my Grimm is weird,” he explained with a shrug, taking a deep breath in as he tried to push down the pain he was feeling from Midoriya just like he was with All Might. At the same time, he sent his second, now free Beowolf out just in case.

“Man, that was just… embarrassing,” Kaminari grumbled, facepalming as his face turned red. “All I ended up doing was standing there waving my arms around and then failing because- Because… Well, that,” he complained.

“If it makes you feel better, at least I think we are winning this,” Kazuki commented with a wry smile.

“Only barely,” the blonde muttered as he walked back towards Hagakure. “But thanks anyway.”

“Don’t mention it,” he replied, a grin forming on his face. “So, did you at least grab something interesting?”

“Endo!”

“Creepy!”

He just laughed then, at both teenager’s indignation. It was almost enough to make him forget the desperation that was suddenly filling Midoriya at the same time as pain. Pain that was only getting worse as the boy fought his Grimm. Beowolfs that he had no chance at beating, since he had a broken arm.

What was concerning was that he was still pushing his body, using his Quirk, making his legs start hurting just as much as his arm was.

“Secured,” Kaminari called, having put the Capture Tape around the invisible wrists of Hagakure. “How’s the fight going?”

“Nowhere, apparently, but Midoriya is basically out too. Especially now,” Kazuki commented, guiding his third Beowolf down towards the fight. “If one and two Beowolfs were enough to keep Midoriya busy, this should- Fuck!”

“What?”

“He got, away,” Kazuki muttered through his teeth, grabbing his right arm, where one of his fingers burned with new pain. “He broke one of his fingers, like in the Quirk Assessment,” he added. “Bastard,” Kazuki added. Sure, he had to get used to pain if he was going to be a hero, one way or another, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. “He’s coming here, I’ve already set a Beowolf in the way but- Ugh,” he groaned. “He killed it using another finger.”

“I got this,” Kaminari called, having moved to the doorway once more at some point. Kazuki was glad for that if nothing else. He almost didn’t want to send the remaining Beowolfs towards Midoriya if it meant the boy would continue breaking more fingers.

He wanted to lose the exercise even less though.

“Sorry, man!” Kaminari shouted, and Kazuki got a sense of frustration from him before the entrance to the room they were at was covered completely by electricity like someone had set a living lightning bolt free right then and there. ‘Cool,’ Kazuki thought to himself.

Because yeah, maybe Kaminari’s Quirk sounded like it was kind of a one time thing, but it looked pretty great. If he got some support items to go with all that power… Well, Kazuki expected he’d make a good hero in the future. With some luck, he’d also be a good hero, which would be a nice plus.

Still, as he watched the scene, Kazuki pulled back his Beowolfs, well the remaining one, that is. Because of the two that were still there, one got pulled into Kaminari’s attack. He still pulled from the negativity around to create another Grimm. This time it wasn’t a Beowolf though, no.

It was an Imp.

Throwing his Capture Tape towards it, the creature caught it and started moving forward. The electricity wasn’t around anymore. Instead, there was Kaminari swaying on his feet and turning towards him. Off to the side lay Midoriya, twitching on the ground before he was pressed to the ground by the Beowolf, awaiting restraining by the Imp.

“Yay~!” Kamimari muttered, giving Kazuki a thumbs up with the dumbest expression.

“Good job, Sparky,” he congratulated with a grin.

“THE VILLAIN TEAM WINS!” All Might announced, making him smile even wider.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Ok so, important information for you guys right here, right now… I threw all the class names in a randomizer to make the team pairings and the match ups. I even decided the order they’d go like that. So, sorry if someone was expecting the Midoriya-Bakugo shitshow to go down. It ain’t happening, guys.

I hope I didn’t do too bad a job with the exercise itself.

I also hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Did you realize what Mineta’s costume was about when you first saw it? I didn’t until I read about it somewhere else, but maybe I’m just dumb like that.

See you.