Darkest Before Dawn - 7 (Patreon)

Chapter 7

“Hm, I’d say,” All Might started, with a fairly quiet voice that took Kazuki off guard. He was sure he hadn’t heard the guy speak that low… ever, really. “THE BEST IN THIS MATCH WAS YOUNG ENDO!” he announced, much more loudly. ‘That’s more like it,’ Kazuki thought with a grimace, before he blinked as he processed what their teacher had said. “WHO KNOWS WHY?!” All Might asked then, as he shuffled.

“Nervous?” Toru whispered next to him. Kaminari and Midoriya had been taken by robots of the school to the infirmary, so they stood by each other while everyone else stayed with their partners.

“Yes, All Might-sensei,” a girl said, raising her arm. ‘What was her name again?’ Kazuki wondered, consciously having to keep his eyes above her neck. He didn’t think he could be blamed for that, considering how revealing her costume was. “Midoriya’s sacrificial move didn’t really help Hagakure, since he didn’t even take a full member of the other team with him. Not only that, but once Hagakure was captured, he caused a fair bit of destruction trying to get to the device.”

Kazuki almost felt bad for Midoriya, not only had he gotten several bones broken but he was also getting roasted in front of the whole class. The guy couldn’t even defend himself, considering that he was currently at the infirmary, or being taken there. Off to the side though, Kazuki heard… the angry guy, he didn’t remember his name, barking out a laugh. It struck him at that moment that it was the first time he wasn’t feeling anger coming from him.

“As for Hagakure, her attempt was good, but she really didn’t have the tools to get far and she was countered by the closed space and Endo’s creatures. Not really her fault but it did reduce what she could do,” the girl continued and Kazuki felt Hagakure start to feel ashamed and self-conscious.

“It’s like she said, it wasn’t your fault, just a bad match up,” he reassured with a whisper, only slightly reducing how bad the girl felt. It was something though, he supposed. At least he hadn’t made things worse.

“Thank you,” the invisible girl mumbled, her voice barely audible.

“Kaminari did fairly well too. He helped where he could and he took out Midoriya before he could barrel his way to the nuclear weapon, although I’m not sure how good an idea it was to do that with his Quirk so close to the weapon,” the girl continued, and Kazuki was already placing the “she knows her stuff” label on her. It’d be good to know, in case there were group assignments or stuff like that. “Ultimately, Endo did the best of them all, however. He did the most to guard and watch over the building with his creatures, he stalled Midoriya, he took out Hagakure when she slipped past Kaminari and he captured Midoriya after he was subdued.”

There was a moment of silence then, as the class and even All Might himself took in what she said.

“WELL… YOUNG ENDO COULD HAVE BEEN MORE ACTIVE HIMSELF WITHOUT RELYING SO MUCH ON HIS QUIRK… BUT CORRECT ANSWER!” their teacher told them, and Kazuki could feel the slight nervousness the man was feeling, even without picking up the slight tremble of his voice. ‘Well, it’s his first day teaching, isn’t it? Nevermind the crazy fucking pain he’s feel too,’ Kazuki wondered, fairly sure that the hero didn’t really have experience teaching. He could have done without reminding himself of the pain though. ‘Would make sense for him to feel a little out of his depth, I guess, even for the Number One Hero.’ “NOW, LET’S MOVE TO THE NEXT MATCH!”

And that’s what they did.

Fumikage Tokoyami and Ochaco Uraraka would be the Villains.

Mashirao Ojiro and Momo Yaoyorozu – the now named (again) girl that had given the exercise rundown before – would be the heroes.

“So, living shadow, gravity negation, tail and fabrication of stuff?” Kazuki asked as they waited for everyone to get into position, trying to see if he was recalling their Quirks correctly. He was very curious about Tokoyami’s specifically, if he was honest. Was that shadow creature anything like his Grimm?

“I mean, that about sums it up,” Hagakure said, shrugging, which he was only able to tell because she was back to being clothed. She’d apparently asked All Might to let her change back into her uniform. Which Kazuki was grateful for, quite honestly. It was a bit of a distracting thought, to know that there was a girl standing next to him naked, even if he couldn’t see her.

As soon as it officially started, Tokoyami’s shadow creature started moving around. It was a little curious that the thing started gathering things around in the room they had to hide the nuclear weapon in, really. From pieces of furniture spread around to just generic rubble and trash.

“Wonder why he’s doing that,” Kazuki commented idly.

“For Uraraka?” Hagakure suggested, and it was as good a suggestion as any.

“Unless they are planning to throw stuff at them with their hands. The pile is put between the weapon and the door to the room,” he noted, narrowing his eyes as he considered what that could mean. “Well, that’s…” he mumbled then, seeing Tokoyami’s shadow rip off one of the building pillars. “That’s gotta take points from them. No way it’s even remotely safe to do that in a building.”

“I guess?” Hagakure asked, unsure. “I mean, they are villains? So, do they really have to care?”

“Even in the spirit of the exercise, we are all training to be heroes. Encouraging that can’t be the way here, right?” Kazuki replied, frowning. Then he blinked, his eyes widening as he saw Uraraka take the pillar herself and give it a few test swings as if the thing weighed nothing. “Oh, I think I know where that is going now.”

“Uraraka is a fan of baseball, who’d have thunk?” Hagakure joked with a little giggle. “You think it’ll work?”

“I mean, one never knows what Yaoyorozu will make, but it should work on Ojiro well enough,” Kazuki mused out loud as they watched the Hero Team approaching slowly making their way to the room. As they did, Yaoyorozu kept pulling things out of her own body. Unfortunately, they were small enough to be hard to tell what they were with the cameras, but they seemed to be roughly the size of an apple, from what Kazuki could see.

Then she made a much more recognizable object.

“Well, wonder how that’ll hold up to the villains’ idea,” Kazuki commented, looking at the riot shield that Yaoyorozu passed to her partner before pulling another one for herself.

“How much stuff can she make?” Hagakure wondered, and Kazuki imagined her with wide eyes as she looked at all the stuff the other girl had made. It was a fair question, all things considered. “How does that even work?”

“Something to ask her, I guess, if we get the chance,” Kazuki commented, pushing the issue aside for the moment. “They are getting there.”

What followed was absolute chaos that lasted for a few moments but was very… impressive, Kazuki supposed. As soon as the Heroes made their way inside, they put their shields up and threw one of the smaller objects over them. Uraraka, for her part, swung her massive pillar, hitting the stuff Tokoyami had gathered and sending it flying towards the entrance.

A second later, everyone realized that the thing the Heroes had thrown was a flashbang. The attack had two effects on the Villains. First, Uraraka let go of the pillar as she started rubbing her eyes. Second, Tokoyami’s shadow seemed to pull away, even becoming smaller. ‘So, it’s more darkness based than emotion based, for one,’ Kazuki mused with a tilt of his head.

The flashbang wasn’t a one time thing though. It was followed by another, even though this time it only affected Tokoyami’s Quirk. After all, the two people in it were still dealing with the effects of the first one. Ojiro rushed in after that, capturing Tokoyami first, which was probably the best call. After all, he was the one that could be a danger even while blinded.

Yaoyorozu, in the meantime, simply made her way to the nuclear weapon and touched it.

“THE HERO TEAM WINS!” All Might announced.

After a quick talk, in which Yaoyorozu was declared the best in the match, since she was the one to come up with the strategy they used and the one that did the most work, they continued on to the next one. Eijiro Kirishima and Rikido Sato as villains against Shoto Todoroki and Yuga Aoyama as heroes. The call made Kazuki grimace.

“I wanna say that Pointy has this but…” he mumbled.

“But Todoroki is… Todoroki,” Hagakure finished wryly.

“Yeah. I mean, it’s not all done until it’s done but, yeah. I don’t like his chances.”

And sure enough, the “match” – if it could be called that – was a massacre. Nobody could do much of anything, really. Not even Todoroki’s own partner could do much, in all honesty. The guy just waltzed to the building, froze it in its entirety and then froze his opponents in place before touching the nuclear weapon. Kirishima could be said to have put up a fight, but it was negligible, really, considering all he did was harden and break out of his bindings only to be frozen even more thoroughly the second time.

“That was…”

“Brutal,” Hagakure finished.

“Yeah, basically,” Kazuki mumbled. It seemed the two members of the villain team would be going to the infirmary too, just in case the freezing did more damage than expected. All Might was sure it wouldn’t be, but it was best to be sure. The man reassured those that hadn’t fought yet that there’d be a more thorough review of the exercise later, so they didn’t need to worry about possibly missing some of the fights.

There really wasn’t even a point in talking about the best of the match, but after that token conversation in which not even Yaoyorozu had all that much to say, they moved on to the next match. Mezo Shoji and Kyoka Jiro vs Tsuyu Asui and Tenya Iida. He wasn’t very sure what the villain’s Quirks were in detail, but the Heroes had a lot of mobility, that was for sure.

“Well, this should be more even,” he commented wryly, receiving a giggle from Hagakure.

“Not that it’d be difficult, huh? I do feel a little bad for Pointy though,” she replied eventually and he nodded.

“Yeah, I could tell,” he pointed out, grin still in place. “But it’s how it is. Sometimes you are just unlucky and get an opponent that you can’t do much about, for one reason or another. Like a certain someone,” he added, giving her a smirk.

“Rub it on my face, why don’t you?” she grumbled, but he couldn’t feel any real anger there and only mild annoyance. He took that as a win. “I’ll get you next time.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said with a shrug.

Then the match started and they focused on it. Sure enough, it was much more entertaining than the last one, that was for sure, with the Hero team splitting up and approaching the weapon from two angles. Asui made her way from the outside, jumping to the walls on the side of the building and sticking to them as she made her way up. Iida, for his part, ran all the way in like a bullet.

The Villains were expecting them though. As Iida rushed in, he was firmly grabbed by Shoji’s many arms and held in place while two of those captured him. As for the girls, Jiro tried to hit Asui with her sound attack after plugging her jacks on her boots, which seemed to be some kind of support equipment, and blasting a sound based attack at her. Unfortunately, Asui got the better of her by hopping away from the attack before it could even be fired and around the girl, even around Shoji, and earning herself a victory as she landed on the nuclear weapon.

“Fast match, but still interesting,” Kazuki mused.

The next one was Mineta and Ashido as villains against… Bakugo and Sero as heroes.

“It was good knowing you, Tiny,” he mumbled as he watched the students make their way inside for the exercise. Mineta seemed to know that he was in trouble, if the resigned look on his face was anything to go by. Ashido wasn’t of the same mind, however, because she seemed to be as upbeat as she usually was, even trying to cheer up her partner.

Ultimately…

The match started well enough for them, with Mineta spreading his sticky spheres all over the place, presumably to impair their opponent’s advance. The Heroes, for their part, seemed to take a page out of the Asui book with both of them making their way up the building from the outside. Sero with his tape swinging all the way up, while Bakugo used his blasts in a similar way he’d done in the Quirk Assessment for the races, except that vertically instead of horizontally.

From there, the one with the explosive Quirk blew up the window to the room with the weapon before going in. Interestingly, he seemed to ignore the target completely, instead rushing the Villains, which had both teens scrambling to get themselves out of blasting radius. Sero, for his part, seemed to have his priorities straight, taking advantage of the mess his partner was doing to touch the nuclear weapon.

And that was about it.

“They’ll have to thank Sero. That could have gone much worse,” Kazuki commented with a grimace, feeling the damage that a few explosions had done to his friends. Maybe he could get himself in a fighting environment with Bakugo. To make things more even, of course, no other reason.

“That guy has some anger management issues,” Hagakure said, and he could almost imagine the pout on her face. He could certainly feel her anger and annoyance, that was for sure.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Kazuki told her, very much knowing how bad the blonde’s anger problems were. At least he seemed to have toned down after the first battle and definitely after his. Somehow, that didn’t seem like a win to Kazuki though.

[}-o-{]

[Izuku Midoriya]

“Do not apologize, Young Midoriya,” All Might told him, in his deflated form. Izuku still couldn’t help but feel incredibly bad about his loss though. There he was, trying to prove he could be the next Symbol of Peace and instead he just… lost. He was useless. Again. “The fact that you were able to use One for All for some time without breaking your bones is the important part. That’s great progress.”

“Yeah,” he mumbled, although he did feel pretty good about that. Not enough to come even close to the bad, but it was nice to have a positive to look for, a silver lining. “Endo’s advice was really good.”

“Oh?” All Might looked intrigued now and Izuku realized that he hadn’t told his mentor about that particular encounter.

“We talked. He said he didn’t appreciate me breaking my bones, because he could feel my pain,” he explained, not noticing the way All Might tensed up at that moment. “He told me to, em, in his words, go less All Might and more someone with less strength.”

“Well, that’s good advice, yes, but you were already working on that, right?” his mentor asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, but it got me thinking, and I went through heroes with Quirks that had similar effects and I started making comparisons on the strength they gave. During the conversation, I thought of Dead Arms and that gave me the idea of dividing the power between two arms instead of just the one. It seemed to work for a bit, but it still hurt a lot and it seemed to be too close to too much because my arm broke with a little slip and that already made the whole thing spiral out of control. I might need more practice or I might need to take a different approach. Using both arms made my shoulders, back and chest hurt, so I might need to add that, maybe more to the whole… er, idea,” Midoriya explained, half-mumbling his way through the whole speech and ending on a hesitantly note, hunching into a ball of insecurity.

He thought it was great progress from not being able to use One for All without breaking his body. However, would it be disappointing if he couldn’t use his power completely? After all the work they’d both put into his body so it could use the power, to only be able to use a low percentage of One for All-

“I’m very proud of you, Young Midoriya,” All Might told him, placing his skeletal hand on the young man’s shoulder. “You had a big wall in front of you, but instead of being discouraged, you continued pressing on until you got past it. You’re already doing spectacularly well. You have no reason to feel bad. If anything, I’ve failed as a teacher if you had to work all that out yourself.”

“Not at all, All Might!” Izuku exclaimed, appalled that his favorite hero, his role model, would feel guilty for his own failures. “And it wasn’t that impressive. If not for Endo’s words, I wouldn’t even have found the answer, really,” he added, with a nervous look.

“Speaking of, what do you make of Young Endo, Young Midoriya?” All Might asked, and if he hadn’t known better Izuku would have thought the man was as suspicious as his classmate had thought he would be when he found out. Fortunately, he did, and noticed that the man only looked curious.

“I… We haven’t talked much, but he seems… Good, from what I’ve seen. He did go out of his way to try and get me to be more careful, even if it was just so he wouldn’t feel my pain,” Izuku mumbled, looking down as he tried to get a good report on that for his mentor. “He… I think he can be a good hero, if he can sense when others need help. And his Quirk’s creatures seem to have a lot of potential.”

“Indeed,” All Might replied with a smile that held little joy behind it. “If only others could see what you see, Young Midoriya. But it’ll fall on Young Endo’s shoulders to prove that he can be a hero.”

It struck Izuku at that moment that he and Endo weren’t so different. Both of them had to prove themselves in the eyes of people. He had to show the world that he could be the Symbol of Peace to succeed All Might, and Endo had to show them all that he was more than the Black Rampage. Somehow, knowing he wasn’t the only one in such a situation made him feel better.

Izuku wondered if that made him a bad person. After all, Endo’s situation was nothing like his. However, maybe the saying was true, and misery did love company.

[}-o-{]

[Minoru Mineta]

“This just means I gotta train harder,” Kirishima announced boisterously, which was already draining his energy, really. “I’ll probably start using the school gym after classes starting tomorrow.”

“Ah… Guess I could join in on that fun,” Endo said with a grimace of a smile. “All Might did say that I should be ready to actually have to do stuff myself instead of just sending my Grimm over, and he’s not wrong. I gotta train for that… And mostly for combat, I guess.”

“We can train together, we’ll both be real manly in no time,” Kirishima replied, grinning widely.

“You are gonna make me feel bad if I don’t join, can we just… say we do and don’t?” Mineta grumbled, receiving a confused look from the red-headed teen and a commiserating one from Endo. “I guessed as much.”

“Look at the bright side, man,” the latter told him with a wry grin. “Chicks dig the muscles, or so I think.” Now that sounded like a good reason to Mineta, really. Not that he had high hopes on that front but… Well…

“We do,” Ashido agreed before sharing a giggle with Hagakure. Something that had a very interesting effect on their chest, quite honestly. Regrettably, he had to move his eyes away, else he get smacked or something.

Mineta did have to wonder if they were making fun of him. Wouldn’t have been the first time and probably wouldn’t be the last. At least Endo seemed to be serious about it though. It was why he stuck with the guy so far, really.

Endo might be a bit of an asshole, but he never really meant any of the “hurting” comments he made. Or, if he did, he worded them in a supportive way. Like with the costume, making it clear that it’d be a better idea to change designs, else he makes a fool of himself in public on top of just the class.

On top of that, he never went to the place where it’d actually hurt. His Quirk. Despite having a very clearly powerful and impressive power himself, Endo never lorded it over Mineta. No matter how obviously weak his Pop Off was in comparison.

“I guess I can join too,” Mineta grumbled.

“We can’t let them get ahead, Pinky, we gotta go too,” Hagakure said, as if it were a matter of life or death. Which, all things considered… But that was a rather dark thought to have. He’d leave that to his edgy-looking friend.

“Of course, gotta stay in shape if we want to kick ass, Bubbly,” Ashido replied with a grin.

“You think there’ll be a space to practice Quirks? I really would like to train with mine. Haven’t really gotten many opportunities for that,” Endo commented idly, taking a gulp of his drink as he leaned back on his chair balancing on the back legs of it. “I want to see if I can make more types of Grimm, and train in how to fight with them… And without them too.”

“There should be, which reminds me I have my own ideas to try out with my Quirk,” Mineta replied, his mind briefly drifting off towards those aforementioned thoughts. “Gotta look for a way to make my power not seem completely useless,” he added dejectedly. “Hey, what gives?!” he protested then, when Endo flicked his ear.

“Don’t be an idiot, Tiny. Your Quirk is plenty useful. You’d make a great capture hero, I’m sure. From what you’ve told me, if you get stuck on one of those things, you are done. That sounds great to me,” Endo told him, sounding 100% serious as he rolled his eyes. “So, stop with the pity party, yeah? It feels awful.”

“Thanks… I think,” Mineta said, unsure if that was a compliment or a reproach. It was probably both, he imagined. It was the summary of how dealing with Endo was though. Mineta would often end up more confused than anything else.

“Good, no bad feelings are allowed in my friend group,” Endo grumbled, leaning forward. and resting his elbows on the table. “That’d really make things annoying for me and I-”

“Mum, he looks scary,” they heard a child say from off to the side in another table. It was mumbled, but just loud enough that they could hear it.

“Come on, let’s sit somewhere else, ok? It’s fine,” the woman with the child told her daughter as she picked her up and moved them somewhere else. Mineta saw it though, how the girl looked at his friend, how the woman did. ‘Man, that’s fucked up. It’s not like he chooses to look like that,’ he thought, frowning.

Sure, he’d been scared too, but only for a moment and that was mostly because he thought the guy would turn out to be another bully, considering the situation. Endo was studying to be a hero too, though, as it turned out. He seemed like a decent enough person after talking with him and even if one didn’t talk with him. Just because he looked a little intimidating...

“I appreciate it, Tiny, Bubbly, but I said no bad feelings around me,” Endo told him and Hagakure with a wry smile. When he turned to look at his friend, Mineta saw the way his red eyes would dart towards the child and parent pair. Could he feel the fear from the child? Disgust from the mother? Was that how it was for Endo to be outside or anywhere at all?

Mineta’s eyes found themselves looking at his friend’s grin. That was when he realized that he didn’t remember ever seeing Endo truly smile. It was always somewhat twisted. A wry grin here, a bitter smile there and everything in between, but never one that was only happy, or anything like that.

Suddenly, his friend’s Quirk didn’t seem to be so good.

“Anyway,” Mineta said, forcing his mind away from such thoughts and focusing on something else. “I’ve never actually gone to the gym, so you’ll have to help me out, guys.”

“Sure thing, Tiny. Leave it to me, I know all there is to know about that,” Kirishima reassured him, all too happy to take that topic shift back to the previous conversation.

“I think I’ll take that offer for help too. I’ve done some work outs and such, but I don’t “know all there is to know about that” so… yeah,” Endo commented, giving them all a sad smile that pissed Mineta off.

“There’s something more important to talk about though,” Ashido said with utmost seriousness and a determined look on her face. Mineta was almost afraid they’d bring the conversation back to the incident from just then but- “We gotta help Tiny with his costume.”

“Oh yeah, that’s definitely a must,” Endo pointed out, his grin widening the smallest bit. Mineta wanted to be annoyed by that, but… Well, they weren’t wrong, he supposed. And his friend was in a better mood so… He’d allow it, just this once.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

I know I kinda rushed through the fights, but I thought detailing every one of them would have been too much, considering it’d have likely taken the entirety of this chapter or something like that, maybe even more. So, I sort of did a summary of them and was done with it. Hopefully that was the right call, if not, let me know so I can know for another time, yeah?

On the Midoriya and Mineta PoV’s… I think those could have gone better, especially the latter. But I’m looking at them, now as I edit the chapter, and I just don’t see where I could improve on them. So, I’ll leave them as they are and hope that they are not as bad as I think.

I also hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: What do you like in MHA fics? I usually tend to go for OC fics or Villain Izuku ones. Sometimes I give Hero Izuku a chance but I just don’t like the character that much and people tend to stick too close to canon for me to change my mind on him.

See you.