Darkest Before Dawn - 13 (Patreon)

Chapter 13

“I-Er, can I offer you something? I don’t have much but… Er, I have coffee, pretty sure there was tea somewhere and, um, water?” Kazuki asked, unsure of what to do with All Might in his apartment. And that wasn’t even taking into account whatever weird shit was going on with the man’s body and the pain he was feeling.

“Water would be fine, Young Endo,” the man said and Kazuki scrambled to get a pair of glasses and a pitcher with water that he had in the fridge. “You must have many questions,” the hero commented when the younger man had already set everything on the table.

“That’s an, er, an understatement, sir,” he mumbled, unsure of what to do. Why was All Might at his plate? Why was All Might at his place and looking like that? “Er, can I… like, get something to eat? I think I have snacks somewhere in the cupboards.”

“That’s not necessary,” the man said, looking about as unsure as Kazuki felt. That was a small reassurance, at least. Misery loved company, after all. He’d know. “As for your questions… I can’t promise that I’ll answer them, but I do have some things to talk about with you, Young Endo.”

“That’s alright,” he muttered, not even sure if he really wanted answers. He was sure he’d have heard no end of news regarding All Might’s situation if it were public knowledge. Which meant that he was actually being let in on a secret. A secret that was most definitely a big deal.

“I was informed that you are capable of sensing pain from others,” All Might told him and he blinked. ‘Oh… So that’s why?’ he wondered, grateful for the extra piece for the puzzle. “This, if not something you’d have learned about eventually, is something you’d have been curious about. I think it’s fair that I save you the worries and possible reckless actions.”

Did All Might think Kazuki would have looked into that? He’d likely have asked the man himself and gone along with whatever they said, even if it was an obvious lie. He was in no position to push his luck in any way, quite honestly.

“I don’t think I can afford to be curious, or at least do something about it, sir,” Kazuki told the man with a wry smile. That didn’t seem to reassure the man any, if the sad smile he gave was any indication.

“Be that as it may,” the hero replied then, making Kazuki grin bitterly. It spoke volumes that the man didn’t try to deny his statement. “I thought it better to let you know that I sustained a very serious injury some years ago. I’ve never been able to recover from that, and thus… my current situation,” All Might said, gesturing towards himself.

“So… I guess I’ll have to get used to the pain, huh?” Kazuki mumbled, and it was getting increasingly more difficult to ignore the aforementioned feeling. Especially with how important it was to the conversation at hand and how close All Might was. To that, the hero sitting across the table from him grimaced.

“I’m sorry about that, Young Endo, but I can’t do anything regarding this… issue,” All Might told him, to which he grinned somewhat sadly and somewhat resigned, waving off the man’s worries. He was the one that felt like he was dying all the time, Kazuki only got it when he was around, and probably not quite as badly. “As you can probably guess, my condition is a secret. I’d be very grateful if you were to keep this under wraps for me. It’d cause… quite a few problems if it became public knowledge.”

“I understand. I won’t say a word,” he promised, feeling his chest start to rebel against him from pain that wasn’t even his. Gulping down, to keep his stomach from emptying, he chuckled wearily. “Who’d believe a villain kid about such a thing anyway?” he asked bitterly.

“Aizawa informed me of what you did,” All Might said, making him blink at the sudden change in subject. “I’ve met many villains in my life, Young Endo, and you are not one of them. You are a hero. Never let anyone tell you otherwise.”

“I… Thank you, sir,” he mumbled, his hands wrapped around the glass of water that he hadn’t even sipped at just yet. All Might did though, which went to show who was the one most comfortable with the current situation. “That means a lot… Especially coming from you.”

“... I know the world isn’t a bright enough place for you to officially become one without trouble, Young Endo,” All Might said then, making Kazuki’s eyes open wide. “I have faith, however, that you’ll push through all that and manage to go far in our career.”

“That’s a lot of trust you have in me,” Kazuki mumbled, his eyes dropping to his still untouched glass of water. “Especially for someone that hasn’t really… met me before now.”

“Just because we haven’t interacted directly doesn’t mean I don’t know you, Young Endo,” the man commented, coughing a little in his mouth. Kazuki, for his part, grimaced at the spike of pain that shot through his chest. “I’m sorry,” the hero apologized, clearly noticing the teenager’s reaction. “Nezu has everyone keeping an eye on your, Young Endo.”

“I’m sure,” Kazuki replied with a sardonic smile.

“Not for the reasons you might expect, however,” All Might continued, grinning slightly. “He has great expectations regarding you, Young Endo. With that in mind, he likes to know how you do in classes and even outside of them. It’s… Interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so interested in someone. Nor has any of the other teachers, from what I’ve heard.”

“That’s… nice to know?” Kazuki answered, unsure if that was really how he should be taking that. At least they weren’t paranoid about him going on another… rampage, he supposed. ‘Or maybe he’s lying and they are doing that?’ a voice whispered at the back of his mind, but he pushed it aside.

“... We are not your enemy, Young Endo,” All Might told him, and Kazuki wondered if something had shown on his face. It was likely, he supposed. “Believe me when I say that there’s many people that want to see you succeed.”

“Well, you’ve confirmed that there’s more than just myself, so that’s nice,” Kazuki commented idly as he finally took a sip from his glass. Somehow, the water tasted bitter to him. “Now I just have to actually do it.”

“As someone that once thought he couldn’t do it… Never let someone tell you that you can’t make it,” All Might told him with a grin that reminded Kazuki just who he was talking too. Despite knowing that it was the Number One hero sitting across from him, it had been difficult to extrapolate the heroic figure with the skeletal man in front of him. Then and there though, it was difficult not to do it.

“Thank you.”

[}-o-{]

“So, you liked my recommendations?” Yaoyorozu asked him the next morning, her eyes all but shining… for whatever reason. “I’m glad!”

“So I see,” Kazuki commented with a slight grin that soon turned slightly nervous. “I just… I mean, I like it, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t think I’ll be listening to it a lot. It’s not really… my style, if that makes sense.”

“Hm, well, at least you didn’t say it was boring,” the girl commented, deflating a little. “Those two have no taste at all, honestly,” she mumbled then, huffing, which caused him to chuckle.

“I mean, everybody likes different stuff. I’m not sure I liked the stuff that Tiny and Bubbly recommended either, really,” Kazuki replied with a shrug. “It all sounds neat and all but… I don’t know. Guess I’ll have to keep looking to see if I find what my favorite music is.”

He was honestly looking forward to that. How long had it been since he’d last done something like that? Do something for the hell of it, for fun? It was sort of exciting, to have such a thing to do with his time besides training or studying. Doing something for himself, just for entertainment and such, it was… nice.

Kazuki guessed it was why he was having so much fun playing the games Mineta recommended. Granted, he’d mostly stuck with the first gacha but he still tried out anything the little guy told him about, really. They were all nice to waste some time when he felt like taking a break from working on stuff.

They were also nice to keep his mind away from the fact that he now knew a secret that was more or less a national one. He could only imagine what the world would react like if the actual condition of All Might was revealed to the public. He could only imagine the mess that would come afterwards, when the villains of Japan learned that their biggest deterrent was crippled.

‘Nobody’s getting that secret from me, that’s for sure,’ Kazuki thought to himself.

“You must really like that game,” Yaoyorozu commented with a curiosity tilt of her head as she watched him play. “I don’t see the appeal, personally.”

“I mean… It’s simple, and I can do it whenever. Doesn’t really need much thought or anything, which helps. I play it when I feel like taking a break and such, mostly, after all,” he told her with a shrug. “Does that make sense?”

“... I think?”

“Are you gonna play too, Beauty?” Hagakure asked then, making Yaoyorozu and Kazuki jump where they sat. “Hehe,” the girl giggled at their reaction, before skipping and taking another nearby seat. “I started too, and I gotta say, it’s better than I thought it’d be.”

“What’d you get with the first ten pulls?” he asked, before the three of them paused again, watching as Mineta entered the classroom at that moment. “Hey, Tiny, nobody stepped on you today, right?” Kazuki asked. It was more because he refused to let the little guy live it down, at least for the moment.

He didn’t expect the spike of embarrassment and anger that reached him. With his eyes widening at the slight reddening of Mineta’s face, Kazuki made a quick decision. He kept his mouth shut. That seemed to surprise some of the emotions out of the short teenager, for some reason. Honestly, with how awful the guy had felt at that moment… He didn’t feel like poking fun at that, that was all.

“I’m still wondering if that actually happened,” Hagakure commented with another giggle. “That’s something for another time. Tiny, Creepy, I need help with this level!” she announced dramatically, pulling her phone from her pocket.

“Which one?... Oh, that one,” Mineta said, blinking as the device was thrust at his face. “That’s because you gotta use one of the special characters. The ones that can push enemies off the map.”

Hagakure blinked.

“You can do that?” she asked, visibly confused.

“I know, right?” Kazuki commented. “I reacted about the same. I’ve done my best to check the general gist of what every character I have can do since I realized that.”

“But there’s many of them,” Hagakure whined.

Blinking, Kazuki’s eyes darted to the side, where he sensed Yaoyorozu start feeling… sad, envious. ‘Left out,’ he put together in his mind. That made sense and he was having none of that,

“On an unrelated note, I was talking with Beauty before. The recommendations you gave were good and all, but I don’t think they are for me,” Kazuki told them, tilting his head to gesture at the girl in question. He almost grinned when he felt the emotions fade away from her. “So, I was thinking I’ll have to keep looking for my own thing, you know? Any other kinds of music you’d recommend?”

“Did you say music?” a new voice asked, and all four of them blinked and turned to the side. There stood a girl, shuffling on her feet as she grew nervous under their gazes. Noticing – and feeling – that, Kazuki decided to say something before she started feeling worse.

“Yeah, I’m kinda looking for a… favorite, I guess. I’ve never been one to listen to it too much,” he explained. That was more of a lie than anything, but he guessed it was a bit weird if he didn’t even know what type of music he liked. At least without giving an actual explanation, which he didn’t feel like doing.

“Have you tried listening to rock?” the girl asked and Kazuki blinked at the almost excited look on her face.

“Er,” he mumbled, looking around at his friend group. They proved to be useless, ultimately, looking about as confused as he felt. Well, all but Hagakure. If he were to judge things from how her uniform was shaking and the sounds that came from her direction, Kazuki would be that she was holding back her laughter. ‘See if I take it easy on you if we get to spar again,’ he grumbled to himself before looking back at the girl, who seemed to have stepped even closer than before. Leaning back a bit, he finally gave her an answer. “No?” he said hesitantly.

“I can recommend you a bunch of bands, would you prefer something relaxed or something more powerful? Maybe somewhere in between?” she asked in quick succession, making him blink with wide eyes.

“Eh, the latter? I don’t think I’m into heavy metal and such,” he commented. Suddenly, there was a loud screech as the girl grabbed a chair and dragged it next to him. Sitting there, she looked both giddy and determined, which was an odd mix. Especially because he was fairly sure he had never seen such an expression on her face.

Then again, they hadn’t interacted much… if at all.

“That’s fine, I’ll give you some recs from that too. There’s a lot of different stuff, I’m sure I can find something you’ll like,” the girl told him, and it was still taking him aback how much she seemed to be into that. It seemed that he’d found a music – rock? – enthusiast… To say the least. “Er… That is… If you want?” she asked then, growing more nervous and embarrassed.

Apparently, she’d finally realized that she’d been acting a little oddly.

“Sure, it’d be nice to have something to listen to while I do other stuff, like studying or training,” Kazuki said with a slight grin. “Er, Kazuki Endo, nice to meet you,” he added, feeling slightly awkward. Mostly because he didn’t remember her name.

“Kyoka Jiro,” she replied easily enough, before grinning widely at him. “And I’m sure I can find some kind of rock that you’ll like.”

Somehow, Kazuki was sure there was an “or else” that went unsaid there at the end. Also somehow, he didn’t mind. He was kind of excited. He wasn’t lying when he said he wanted to find some music that he could truly enjoy listening to, after all.

“So, um… Rocky?” he heard Yaoyorozu mumble quietly to the side as Kazuki started taking notes regarding the bands that Jiro suggested to him.

“Definitely,” both Mineta and Hagakure replied at the same time.

[}-o-{]

‘I like this one,’ he mused, nodding along with the rhythm of the song that played on the earbuds that Jiro had lent him. It was a little strange, but the girl was very enthusiastic about finding bands – if not just songs – that he’d like enough to actually listen to. Far be it for him to criticize that of her though, especially considering that it played in his favor.

As for Jiro and the rest of his friend group, they had gone ahead towards the school’s training facilities. All except Mineta, who had told them to go ahead, that he had something to do. However, Kazuki had decided to wait for the guy outside the classroom. Mainly because he’d felt some grim feeling from Mineta that he couldn’t quite place at the moment.

Now, standing outside of the classroom, he could feel anger from him, at the same time as he felt some uncomfortable emotion from someone else, some awkwardness, some embarrassment… a lot of shame. Considering that Kazuki knew who was still in the classroom with Mineta… Well, he wasn’t sure how to feel about things, but he appreciated the fact that his friend felt the need to do something at all.

Kazuki looked up at the ceiling above him, letting the music fill his mind for a moment. It was surprisingly effective at keeping other emotions at bay. Or maybe it was better to say that it… dulled his sense. Suddenly, the emotions weren’t quite as overwhelming. They were there, but it was like he’d been looking around during the brightest day while almost blinding himself and suddenly he was wearing sunglasses.

He wasn’t quite sure that analogy was a good one, but it was always strange to describe how his sense worked to begin with. It was like explaining how to see, or how to hear, it just… happened. There was no easy way to do so. It just worked, and that was it.

‘Definitely getting myself some headphones as soon as I can… Wonder if I can pass them as support gear,’ he thought to himself, grinning slightly. Unfortunately, he rather doubted that it would be a good idea. Good as it was to help him deal with his sense, crossing out his hearing like that was definitely a no-no, he was sure. A true shame, that, but he’d just have to deal with it. It was certainly not the worst thing in the world, even if it sucked.

‘Yeah, this band is definitely a good one,’ Kazuki thought to himself with a half-smile when another song started playing and he quite liked it too. He was going to look up the band more thoroughly once he was back home.

For the moment, his grin turned into a slightly annoyed grimace when he felt the anger in the classroom spike. A moment later, it seemed to fade away almost completely, replaced with disappointment and disgust. Opening his eyes again, he saw Mineta step outside the classroom and pause as he saw Kazuki there.

“You didn’t need to wait for me, Creepy,” the teenager told him once he took off the earbuds. At that, Kazuki simply raised an eyebrow at him. “Fine, I guess I was too obvious,” Mineta grumbled after huffing.

“Not that much, I imagine. The others didn’t seem to notice, so I guess it’s just me having better insight,” Kazuki replied with a weak chuckle as he tapped his temple with his finger.

“Your power is annoying,” Mineta muttered with a very annoyed look that was only slightly mimicked by what Kazuki could sense from him. He just gave his friend a weary smile.

“Don’t I know it?” he commented, turning to look forward as the two of them moved to join the girls at the gym. For a long moment, he didn’t say anything, mainly because he had little to say. Also because if he did say anything, it’d likely be related to what had just happened in the classroom and he didn’t feel like doing so.

Fortunately, Mineta decided to break the silence before it could fully turn into an uncomfortable one.

“I don’t get it. They seemed like a good bunch. They were nice, they didn’t discriminate, and they were… they were friendly and smart,” Mineta said and this time the scowl on his face perfectly fit the anger that Kazuki could feel. “The fuck are they doing?”

“Not everyone is as understanding as you, man,” Kazuki told him with a sad smile on his face. “Besides, even if they are as you thought they were… Well, you don’t know everything about them. They might have their reasons.”

“What reasons could one possibly-?”

“One hundred thirteen,” Kazuki said, looking ahead and resolutely keeping his expression blank. “The Black Rampage directly hurt a total of one hundred thirteen people,” he clarified. “Have you considered that maybe Ashido knows… or knew one of those people?” he asked his short friend. “For all we know, I might have killed one of her relatives.”

“I… That’s…” Mineta stammered, and Kazuki sensed him starting to feel bad about the whole thing.

“Can I be honest with you, Mineta?” he asked him. “I didn’t think I’d have friends here. I thought everyone would be too… scared, or disgusted, to be in a class with someone like me. So… Honestly? It’s already a win to just have you, and Hagakure, and Yaoyorozu.”

“... You are annoying and a bit of an asshole,” his friend told him, making him grin. There were literally no bad emotions to be felt from his friend at that moment, except maybe a slight sadness. Was Mineta pitying him? “But that shit wasn’t your fault, man. Do you know how many times I messed up with my shitty Quirk? I bet everyone messed up at some point too. You just… were really unlucky with how it went for you.”

“That’s one way of looking at it,” Kazuki commented with a nod. “The fact remains that it was… bad, to understate things. It was bad and I know it. I’ll take the blame for it, because it was my fault. I’m not sure I want people to not blame me. I just want them to… I just want a chance to prove I can be more than that.”

“... Well, now you have that, don’t you?” Mineta asked. “You can be a kick ass hero with that Quirk, man. You seem pretty in control to me, so I’m sure people will realize that sooner or later. You’ll have chicks throwing themselves at you in no time at all. I’m kind of envious.”

Kazuki chuckled to himself, noticing that he wasn’t even lying.

“You’ve got your priorities, right?” he asked, still laughing. “Perverted little shit. But I can only hope, man. I don’t think it’ll quite go like that. My looks never really helped me make friends. I don’t imagine it’ll go better with girls,” he added, his mind calling for a pause as the topic of the conversation changed.

Wasn’t that… sort of normal conversation? He wouldn’t know, but he thought it was, at least. It was… nice, he supposed. ‘I’m getting to do a lot of things I never did before,’ he thought to himself. If for that reason alone, he was grateful for the chance he was given. Maybe he didn’t have absolute freedom, but… Well, he felt free enough, at least.

“Eh, you look kinda edgy, but I’m sure there’s chicks out there that are into that,” Mineta commented bitterly as he looked at Kazuki. “At least you aren’t a kid-sized with a weird ass hair Quirk,” the boy added, clicking his tongue. He could feel the negativity rolling off of his friend then and there and he decided that wouldn’t do.

“I mean, you look a little weird, but it’s not that bad, Tiny,” Kazuki replied. “I’m sure you’ll get your own fans whenever you become a hero if you do a good job. Well, that and if you, you know, get a decent costume and don’t show how messed up your mind is.”

“Gee, thanks, Creepy,” Mineta said, but the subsiding emotions were good enough for Kazuki to be happy with his partial success. “And I’ve already sent the request for the costume change. For the moment, I decided on a simple thing first, so it should be ready whenever we have to use them again.”

“Nice, now you have to curve those… tendencies of yours,” Kazuki pointed out with a shake of his head. “Although, I imagine that’ll be more difficult for you, huh?”

“Creepy, how am I supposed to not admire beauty when I see it? Have you seen the girls in our class?” Mineta despaired, throwing his hands up in the air.

“I mean, you’re not wrong, but still,” Kazuki answered with a chuckle. Then, as they walked, his expression shifted into a soft smile. “Thanks, Mineta.”

“Don’t mention it, Endo. That’s what friends are for, right?”

“... Right.”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

The power of music – I mean, friendship, yeah, that – strikes again! Will this group grow to basically be the whole class?... God, I hope not, I don’t wanna have to focus on so many characters… Fuck, I really hope that doesn’t happen.

Anyway, we got an important interaction with All Might and some others with other characters that I guess you guys will think less important. They might be, but I like to write this kind of “normal” times stuff. Not everything has to be 100% necessary for the story, or so I feel. That makes stuff feel less realistic, in my opinion.

Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Erm, repeated question between stories but… Do you like any of my other stories? If so, which one/s?

See you.