Darkest Before Dawn - 14 (Patreon)

Chapter 14

With a… sort of battlecry, Kamakiri jumped over the plates of Kazuki’s Boarbatusk. The boy had found that his blades couldn’t quite cut through the plating of the summoned creature, and had thus started just outright avoiding it until there was no other option. For the moment, he seemed to be focusing on dealing with the two Beowolves that accompanied the other Grimm.

Off to the side, Kazuki found himself sparring with Yaoyorozu. In contrast with Mineta and Hagakure, the rich girl had some combat training and she’d made herself a bo-staff, meaning that she could kick his ass if he wasn’t careful. So far, they were about even in “wins” as it were, from the rough count that Kazuki himself was keeping in his mind. Not that he cared and neither did Yaoyorozu either, from what he’d picked up, but it was a nice detail to know.

Meanwhile, Mineta and Hagakure seemed to be sparring against each other. Although, sometimes they’d team up against either Kazuki or Yaoyorozu. Or they would just take a break and use the gym for general exercising, like the one that was excluded from the team-up spar would otherwise do.

‘Fighting myself at the same time as with Grimm is… Something. I need to practice this too,’  he mused, blocking Yaoyorozu’s staff with his forearm. With a grimace, he went on the offensive himself, doing his best to have the Boarbatusk cover for the more fragile Beowolves.

Fighting at the same time as his Grimm did was… A lot like going about his day with different emotions bombarding him. He needed to fight, while also knowing what his creatures were up to. He had to exert a measure of control over them too, otherwise they’d slip up and do something with too much strength or too much claw or fang. Unfortunately, when he gave them too much independence, they tended to be… Well, as bad as they looked.

“You are getting distracted again,” Yaoyorozu pointed out again, her staff this time shooting for his leg. “You need to work on that.”

“Gee, I hadn’t noticed,” he gritted through his teeth, sending a punch towards her that she redirected with her weapon. He didn’t let up though, sending another with his other arm before following up with a kick that got her on her thigh. “You follow my rhythm a lot,” he told her then, as he punched again, only for her to dodge. “If I’m offensive, you are defensive, if I’m defensive, you are offensive,” he analyzed. “You should be able to attack even if I’m attacking too.”

“I know that, I just,” Yaoyorozu replied, groaning as he grabbed the staff and destabilized her a bit before kicking her feet from under her. “It’s difficult for me, I guess.”

“You need to work on that,” Kazuki said, throwing her words back at her before offering her a hand to help her stand up. “I thought I was gonna lose that,” he added, sighing and turning to look at his Grimm sparring against Kamakiri. “It’s really distracting to fight like this, but I need to get better at it.”

“Well-”

“This is amazing!” Kamakiri interrupted her screaming, Kazuki could see the wide, excited grin on the boy’s face as he continued fighting his Grimm with the blades protruding from his arms. It was… Quite the sight, to be honest, especially now that he could focus more on it rather than just being peripherally aware of it. “Can you add more, Creepy?!” the boy shouted then and Kazuki twitched.

“I can’t, so that’ll have to do, man,” he replied, more calmly. The 1-B student groaned, but otherwise continued fighting. Occasionally, Kazuki would have to reform a Beowolf if one was defeated, but otherwise he left them mostly to their own devices… Although, he did have to more “manually” stop his Grimm from hurting Kamakiri too much at times.

“Can’t you?” Yaoyorozu asked him, raising an eyebrow. Evidently, she’d realized that he lied… Sort of.

“Three is my limit right now. More than that is… bad…” he admitted with a grimace. “It’s probably something I should work on too but I… I don’t want to risk it.”

“I… see…” the girl replied, likely realizing what he meant. “So, feel like continuing or should we hit the machines for a bit?”

“Excuse me?” a new voice called them, making both Kazuki and Yaoyorozu turn to look at the girl next to them. A girl with gray hair falling over one of her eyes stood there with her hands sort of held up. Despite her apparently emotionless expression though, Kazuki could feel an underlying nervousness. “I was wondering if you could help me with my training.”

“Uh,” Kazuki hesitated, turning towards Yaoyorozu. Unfortunately, the rich girl was even more nervous than the other student, it seemed, which meant that he’d have to do something himself. “Sure? What do you need help with?”

“My Quirk,” the girl started after a moment. “It’s called Poltergeist and it lets me telekinetically control nearby objects, to an extent. I can use weights and other things around this facility, but I’d much rather have something more… Appropriate to the circumstances I might face as a hero. I saw that your friend seemed to be able to create things so…”

“Oh, right. You want Yaoyorozu to make some stuff for you?” Kazuki asked, drawing a hesitant nod from the girl. “So, what say you, huh, Beauty?” he asked, turning towards the class president, whose cheeks turning the slightest pink. It was quickly becoming a bit of an inside joke for their friend group to call her that just because of her reaction, at least after Kazuki confirmed that she didn’t really feel bad about it, just a little embarrassed.

“I can do that. What objects did you want me to make?” Yaoyorozu asked the girl then, still blushing a little bit. However, she didn’t get an immediate answer, since the other student paused for a moment, looking between Yaoyorozu and Kazuki.

“It’s just a nickname that our group uses, inside names, if you will. I’m Creepy,” he explained, drawing a slow nod from the girl. Then, she seemed to perk up a bit.

“Oh, so that’s why Kamakiri laughed when someone called Kuroiro edgy,” she commented. “Is that… His nickname?”

“Yep,” Kazuki confirmed. “Those two over there are Bubbly and Tiny,” he introduced, pointing off to the side towards their remaining two friends. “Otherwise known as Toru Hagakure and Minoru Mineta. I’m Kazuki Endo and Beauty here is Momo Yaoyorozu,” he continued then, drawing a pout from the class president.

“You forgot Rocky, Kyoka Jiro, over there,” Beauty herself corrected him, making him nod. It was kind of understandable, he thought, considering it was a recent addition. “But that’s a recent addition, as it were,” she added, almost making him laugh at the way she seemed to have read his mind.

“Pleasure to meet you both,” the girl said, bowing to them. “I’m Reiko Yanagi… but you can call me Ghosty,” she added, and Kazuki could have sworn that the corner of her mouth twitched up. “As for what I’d like, just general stuff that can be found anywhere. Random objects and such. I need to work on my improvisation, since my power kind of needs me to work with anything I might have close by,” she explained then, turning towards Yaoyorozu.

“Well, I’ll leave you girls to it then,” Kazuki decided, looking at the fight still going on between Kamakiri and his Grimm. Humming, he turned and walked towards the machines to exercise in the meantime. Maybe he could get a spar out of Mineta and Hagakure later.

[}-o-{]

“So, you liked it, huh? I told you I’d find one eventually,” Jiro said, giving everyone else around the table a smug look. A gesture that wasn’t appreciated by anyone other than Kazuki. “I do better work than I thought, I guess. Didn’t think I’d be done quite so quickly.”

“Well, you can keep recommending bands and such if you want,” Kazuki replied, drawing an excited sparkle in the girl’s eyes. “I’m kinda curious now.”

“Oh, you can bet I will,” she promised.

“Creepy, man, you were supposed to like my recs. What kind of friend are you?” Mineta lamented, looking up at the sky. Kazuki, for his part, gave him an unimpressed look.

“The one that’s annoying and a little bit of an asshole,” Kazuki said, throwing the short guy’s words back to him. Judging by the small spike of annoyance, he remembered well enough. “Anyway, not my fault I like her recs better, man. It’s just how it is.”

“That’s right. It’s not his fault that we have the superior taste when it comes to music,” Jiro commented, looking positively smug in spite of the glares that everyone sans Kazuki sent her way. “Don’t worry, guys, it’s not your fault you have bad taste either.”

“Rocky, I swear to god,” Hagakure muttered, before bringing her drink to her mouth… Or so Kazuki guessed. “Anyway, I won’t give up just yet. I’ll find something that we both can like, Creepy, if it’s the last thing I do.”

“Ominous,” he commented with a grin. “So, I… I actually needed help with something else,” he started, leaning back on his chair as he considered if he really wanted to bring that up. Seeing his friends' expectant looks though… Well, how was he to refuse? “I’d like to decorate my apartment with some stuff. It’s kind of… bare right now.”

“Why though?” Jiro asked, blinking at him. “Also, you live by yourself?”

“Yeah, I moved there recently,” Kazuki replied, looking at her thoughtfully. He imagined he’d be telling her about his situation soon. It’d be kind of shitty to leave her out when everyone else in the group knew.

Somehow though, it didn’t feel nearly as worrying to consider that after everything. Kazuki guessed it was because now he had a circle of friends despite everything. There wasn’t as much to fear from his past being revealed when he knew there’d be people sticking by his side. Knowing that he wouldn’t be left alone when it happened took a huge weight off his shoulders.

“Well, if you really like a band or a song you could get posters,” Jiro suggested, all but bouncing on her seat, which made him chuckle. For someone that looked so… chill, she could be surprisingly energetic when it came to music.

“Or maybe some art, it can be captivating to have a magnificent piece to look at,” Yaoyorozu pointed out, looking thoughtful. “There’s plenty of paintings at my place, I could give you one, if you wish.”

Kazuki blinked. ‘Aren’t paintings like… expensive?’ he wondered. Then again, Yaoyorozu was rich.

“I could give you one of my stuffed toys to keep you company,” Hagakure suggested, making him blink again.

“I appreciate that, but I don’t think those are my style,” he replied hesitantly.

“Nonsense. you’ll see. You’ll love it,” she refuted. Just as he was about to tell her a little more definitely that, no, a stuffed toy wasn’t gonna fit well with him at all, Mineta decided to go for a comment.

“I mean, you could do like I did and hang some-”

“No,” all three girls denied instantly, making Kazuki snort.

“I was thinking about… Well, putting some plants around. Would that be… Weird?” he asked, running a hand through his white hair. “I thought it’d make the place look more… colorful, you know?”

“I think that sounds nice,” Hagakure agreed with a nod, or what Kazuki guessed was a nod, at least. “Wait, will you get flowers?”

“I mean, those were in the list of ideas, yeah,” he replied hesitantly.

“What flowers?” Yaoyorozu asked then, leaning forward, which had a devastating effect on poor Mineta. None of the girls seemed to notice though, but Kazuki did kick the guy’s leg under the table.

“Uh…” he mumbled then, noticing that all three girls seemed to be rather intently staring at him, waiting for a response. Or so he guessed in Hagakure’s case. ‘Why do I feel like I stepped on a landmine of some kind?’ he wondered, but eventually he did answer.

[}-o-{]

Sitting at his apartment, in complete silence, Kazuki worked on his sensing once more. He reached out to every person he got, every emotion was analyzed and every position was pinpointed as best he could. He wasn’t too sure if he was getting somewhere with his attempts, but any progress he managed to get would be good. If he couldn’t get more accurate, at least he wanted to be more familiar with it. The next step would be to sense as well as he could focused when he was not focused too, but that’d be kind of a big step.

Kazuki frowned.

‘That sadness,’ he thought, following the feeling to its source. ‘It has been there for a while,’ he mused. How many times had he not felt that sadness there? He was pretty sure that it had been there more often than not. For a moment, Kazuki considered calling Aizawa or some other hero, but… The emotions weren’t that bad, really.

And yet, if it was a recurring thing…

An idea popped in his mind then, and he stood up with a deep breath in. Looking around his apartment, he found a piece of paper and a pen. Quickly, he wrote down a short message. A simple… Well, he wasn’t sure if it mattered, but he wrote down that he knew that they were sad due to his Quirk. From there he just… Well, he left his number and asked them to use it if they needed someone to talk to. It was a bit risky, he supposed, but he wanted to do something.

‘I refuse to stand by and do nothing if I can do something,’ he thought to himself resolutely as he left his apartment, reached the door in the same building behind which the person was, and slipped the message under the door. It might be annoying, even unnecessary. However, he just had to do something, that was all he needed to do. If he didn’t… If he didn’t try, then what was the point of it all. His Quirk might suck, but at least it could help him point out people that might need help without others knowing.

He would know though, so he would try for them.

Kazuki refused to let someone slip through the cracks like he had.

With the small note already in place, he knocked on the door and left. He didn’t know how well things would go with that, but he knew that confronting the person directly might… Not go so well. He would do it though, if the message didn’t help matters.

As it was, he’d done something now. Maybe it would help, maybe it wouldn’t, but for the moment, it was what he could do. Kazuki would just have to see how things went before deciding if he needed to do more or not.

Once back in his apartment, he focused back on the emotions around. Curiously, he looked for the sadness of that particular person and, sure enough, it was still there. It had moved a bit, but now it was back to normal. Kazuki wasn’t sure there’d been much of a change there so… Maybe they hadn’t noticed the message. ‘Or maybe I just have to wait, who knows? For now…’

He delved once more, trying his best to check every emotion of every person. Maybe he’d be able to notice a pattern like that one if he really tried. He couldn’t go around kicking villain ass just yet, but he didn’t need to in order to help people. He’d learned that the other day with all that had happened, after all.

After some time, he pulled a new notebook and made some notes regarding where he felt particularly strong emotions. Not really anything of true concern – He’d have called the heroes if that were the case. –, but just enough for him to want to check on them later down the line. As he did that, Kazuki couldn’t help but feel… Good. Training and studying was all well and good, but this was actually doing something. This was him actively trying to help people, not preparing to help people.

‘Is this what being a hero will feel like all the time?’ he wondered as he noted down a particularly angry person from across the street. It was certainly a motivating thought. He imagined being an actual hero, being out there saving lives that were in immediate danger, was a little more rewarding. However, as the person he was, Kazuki didn’t care much for that. Other heroes would take care of those obvious cases. He was fine taking the ones in the shadows, saving those that might not even have been noticed.

Pausing, he also marked down two people that were sad. It was very little, but he was concerned by the fact that both seemed to be roughly in the same place. ‘Maybe they lost someone or something like that?’ he wondered, nevertheless writing them down just in case.

Eventually, he didn’t think there was anything else to add to his notebook.

Settling for a moment, without actively using his Quirk anymore, he stared at the pages. Eventually though, he nodded to himself, somewhat satisfied. Standing up, he went to prepare himself a meal. He wasn’t feeling very hungry, but he was used to losing his appetite due to his Quirk, so he was also used to eating anyway. He knew he needed it, after all, so he knew to do it regardless.

‘So, dinner and then some more training,’ he mused to himself… ‘Actually, I should do homework and then training.’

[}-o-{]

His reserves remained a mystery that seemed to be just as far away as it had when he’d first truly delved into it. At the same time, he felt like he was getting closer, paradoxically. It was like taking one step forward and then taking one backwards with every bit of progress he made, as the new information brought new questions to his mind.

Still, Kazuki was glad that there was progress at all, really.

Unfortunately, the progress he had managed to make was far from pleasant. Every one of the nodes – as he’d started calling them – that he managed to touch inside his reserves seemed to contain a single concentrated emotion. Unbearable pain, crushing sadness, bone-deep exhaustion, crippling fear and so on. He wasn’t sure what good it would do to him to have access to that, but he wanted to keep trying.

Kazuki had ideas regarding that and he wanted to test them. On top of that, he also wanted to see if there might be more to it than he thought. Theorizing aside, there could be something that he’d missed somehow, and he didn’t want to give up… Even if it sucked to dip his metaphorical fingers inside the nodes.

‘God, why is my Quirk like this?’ Kazuki wondered tiredly as he sat back, taking a break while listening to more music that his friends had suggested to him. He’d checked their shared chat and there had been quite a bit of talk regarding music from Jiro, before Hagakure had asked for help regarding some homework. He’d talked for a bit with them regarding plants he could get for his place too, so that had been interesting.

‘Ok, I think that’s enough training… I gotta do some studying too,’ he thought, leaving the music on as he started going through his books. It wasn’t quite as exciting as training to fight, or brainstorming new Grimm, or experimenting with his sensing but… Well, there was a lot to learn on that front too, protocols and such. They were dull, but Kazuki could see the importance.

Besides, he needed to learn some of that to use the content of the pouches in his costume better. First Aid was very important, after all, amongst a number of other things. Just because his Quirk was used for some specific things didn’t mean he couldn’t try to cover other areas the Quirkless way, after all. Besides, he didn’t know what his future Grimm might end up being capable of, so it was better to spread his knowledge as much as possible.

There was no such thing as useless information, after all… At least in regards to the books from school… He hoped.

So, with such firm motivation, he started studying. English in that particular case. He could very easily see the use of that one, since communication was key in regards to a lot of things. Misunderstandings due to subpar language skills could lead to catastrophic events. Hell, Kazuki was considering delving into other languages too… Although he wasn’t sure how well that would go. At the very least, he supposed, learning how to say some basic things would be good enough.

On top of that, English would be nice to know to better understand the songs Jiro was quickly getting him to like too, so that was a plus.

Idly, as he read through the book and worked through the exercises provided, Kazuki formed a small nevermore that started circling over him and around the apartment. At one point though, he looked at it. It could never pass for a normal bird, considering the ominous mask, but besides that… ‘I don’t remember them ever looking less than monster-like, even the Nevermore,’ he thought as he narrowed his eyes at the creature.

Sure enough, it looked different from the usual bird-like Grimm. Not enough to be considered a different one, but enough for him to notice. It was like someone had taken the avian monster that the Nevermore usually were and then… turned it into something more natural, less like the stuff of nightmares and more like a fantasy creature. For one, the finger-claws that extended from the joint on their wings were not present on this one, and the feathers around its body and neck were no longer sticking out in a wild pseudo-mane.

‘What happened? What was different with this one?’ he wondered as he had the bird move around, hopping on the table and flying around. ‘Something to look into,’ he thought, looking for his Grimm brainstorm notebook and writing that down for later experimentation.

It didn’t look to be a very useful thing, for sure, but if he could make his summons less monster-like, he definitely wanted to learn how. He’d tried for the longest time to do it and now… ‘Why now? Why not when I was trying?’ he thought, looking at the Nevermore some more, like it’d give him an answer somehow.

Obviously, it didn’t.

Eventually, he deflated and continued studying. ‘More and more stuff to do the more time passes,’ he lamented. Although, if he were honest, he enjoyed that. It was certainly better than the dull days he’d spent at juvie. It felt so very… liberating, to have stuff to do, to have so many options.

Sure, it was exhausting too, but he’d rather be tired than trapped.

The buzzing of his phone on the table broke him out of his thoughts. Taking a deep breath in, he took the device and looked at it while yawning. ‘Should probably go to sleep soon, I guess… After playing for a bit, at least,’ he thought to himself, checking to see what his friends were messaging for now.

Except, it wasn’t one of his friends, nor one of his minders.

‘Thank you, even if you don’t really care,’ he read the message. It was from an unknown number, but it didn’t take a genius to know who that was. Blinking at it for a long moment, Kazuki replied.

‘Don’t mention it… And I care,’ he replied.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

New friends are made and new… acquaintances? too!... I’m suddenly worried that instead of just all 1-A, this friend group will be both 1-A and 1-B… Fuck. Anyway, we also have a bit of Kazuki stumbling around in friendships, being a person and training his Quirk. Always nice to see, I gotta say.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Do you have anything decorating your room?... Because I don’t, really. It’s kind of sad, I guess, but I don’t really care for that stuff.

See you.