Darkest Before Dawn - 24 (Patreon)

Chapter 24

“Fucking hell,” Mineta cursed with a groan, looking to the world like he had met his homework nemesis as he stared at the sheets of paper in front of him. The poor boy held his head, his eyes desperately darting around as if that would somehow help him find an answer to his questions. “Why don’t I find this shit anywhere?”

“Language, and what is it you are missing, Mineta?” Yaoyorozu asked, not even looking up from her own things on one side of the table. Kazuki, for his part, simply tilted his head. Hagakure was too preoccupied dealing with her own problems to really try and help the little guy.

“What is a capture hero supposed to even do in case of a fire?” Mineta asked, looking at them like the world was ending and only they held the answers for the solution. “I can’t find it anywhere. There’s stuff for offense heroes, defense heroes, rescue heroes, even fucking social heroes but nothing regarding-”

“You sure there’s not a part saying “all other hero types” or something like that?” Kazuki interrupted, making the boy look at him blankly for a long moment. Then, Mineta started looking through his text a bit before pausing at some point in the text.

“I’m a fucking idiot.”

“Language.”

“You know you are not gonna stop him, right?” Kazuki asked, turning back to his own homework.

“He still should,” Yaoyorozu replied sternly. “It won’t be good for public relations to curse all the time. Especially if, as I believe one of you said, you want to appeal to the younger population.”

“She’s got you there, Tiny,” Kazuki commented with a grin. “Gotta keep yourself in check or those mothers aren’t gonna want anything to do with you, buddy.”

To that, the other boy groaned.

“Say, Creepy, can you help me with my English?” Hagakure asked, sounding tired, although he could tell that it was mostly dramatics. She didn’t seem to be feeling weary, from what he could pick up. “I really need to get better at this. Not much chance to mimic stuff when I’m in costume.”

“Makes sense,” Kazuki replied with a nod. “Give me a minute, I’m almost done here and then I can help you with that.”

“That’s all you have to do?” Mineta asked then, wide eyed and almost annoyed.

“Yeah. Imagine not leaving your homework for the last minute,” Kazuki told him, giving him a slight smirk and a raised eyebrow. “Couldn’t be you, right?”

“Oh, fu- Shut up,” Mineta grumbled. “I have other things to do, you know?”

“Much more productive things than studying and preparing to be a hero, huh?” Hagakure asked, almost managing to sound innocent. Almost but not quite.

“You guys… Why do I hang out with you again?”

“Because we’re just that awesome,” the invisible girl told him. “Aren’t we?”

“Yes.”

“Yep.”

Mineta just sighed and deflated.

[}-o-{]

“Are you gonna take too long, Endo?” Kamakiri, the impatient guy that he was, asked. “Could-”

“Kamakiri, I need a moment. I’m going to try and create another Grimm for you to test your blades on,” Kazuki told him, interrupting the other boy. Fortunately, that seemed to placate the 1-B student at least a little, his frustration fading. Although, he’d already told him that before, so he doubted how well that would work the second time. “The Boarbatusk is all well and good but…” he mumbled, trailing off as he focused on his new idea.

There was still the crowd control grimm project, but that wasn’t going anywhere for the time being. He had some ideas on how to progress further with that, but he needed to prepare some more. For the moment, he had decided to progress further in other directions.

One such was going further down the line he’d started with the aforementioned boar-like grimm. Something more defensive, something more resistant. His first attempt at that had gone relatively well, but the boarbatusk lacked control. It was strong and resistant but it was easy to dodge.

So…

Time for another grimm to come to life, hopefully a little better.

So, Kazuki’s shadow extended and a creature started appearing slowly. A humanoid head, since he was using the imp as the template for the next design. This time he pushed a lot more energy into it though. He needed this one to be stronger, more durable. The thing’s muscles grew bigger, bone plates appeared over some of them too. He pulled some of the design from the beowolves, altering it just a little.

The process went as usual. Failure. Failure. A little less of a failure.

On and on it went.

The end result was a gorilla-like creature, protected with some armored plates, but a little more human-like. The mask was small, covering only half the face. Kazuki wasn’t sure what was up with that, but the design clicked into place, so he wouldn’t question it too much.

“What’s the name of this one?” Kamakiri asked, clearly excited, just from his voice.

“Beringel,” he replied, grinning slightly. His eyes remained fixed on the creature as he took it in. He got the impression that it wasn’t very bright, from what he was picking up. More of a beast than even the more animal grimm he could make. A brute through and through, but at least it didn’t have claws or something that would do more damage. Not to say it couldn’t do as much damage through pure blunt force though. It’d be good to battle against opponents that needed more protection to be dealt with or ones that were more tough than normal. Or so Kazuki hoped.

“Can I have a go?” Kamakiri asked impatiently. He didn’t seem to be frustrated though, so Kazuki guessed he was just excited to give the new opponent a go.

“And me?” Kirishima joined from the other side.

“Sure thing. Let me make three more and you can have two each.”

“Going to try for four battlers now?” Yaoyorozu asked, having been watching the process attentively. She seemed rather curious about his process of new grim creation. He wasn’t sure what was up with that, but he guessed it might be an interesting thing to watch, especially for her since she was now part of his design planning.

“Yeah, can you stay close and smack me if things get out of control?”

“Sure thing,” she replied easily. A little too easily, actually. Kazuki didn’t like that small smile on her face, if he was honest. “Well, not really smack, but this should work,” she added then, creating a bottle with some kind of liquid from her palm and then a napkin. “You said your grimm go away when you are knocked out, right?”

“Might take them a second or two more than usual to vanish, but yeah, that should do it,” Kazuki replied, looking at the items curiously.

“I thought that’d be better. If you really lose control, a hit might not bring you back,” Yaoyorozu told him, speaking slowly, hesitantly. From that and her emotions, Kazuki guessed she was being careful not to insult him or something of the sort, which was silly. “Shouldn’t take you long to wake up from this, but if you don’t want to-”

“That works. I just don’t want to put anyone at risk,” Kazuki told her with as soft and reassuring a tone as he could manage. He couldn’t care less what the measures were that they took. He just wanted to be sure that everyone would be safe from him. Which was why he was even more reassured when he noticed that a teacher had entered the training facilities.

If the glance Ectoplasm sent his way was any indication, they’d decided to err on the side of caution. After all, Kazuki had sent them a text telling them that he might try to push his Quirk a little more that day. He wondered if they were always going to send someone from then on though. Kazuki was bound to continue pushing his Quirk, after all, and there was little there to predict how things would go.

He must have been staring a little too obviously, because Ectoplasm waved him off from where he stood before starting to work out himself. A handful of students approached the teacher to talk then and Kazuki decided to get on with things. The school seemed to trust him, so he’d trust the school.

It was the least he could do, after the opportunity they were giving him.

[}-o-{]

‘Another rare?! What kind of bullshit luck do you have?’ Distressed sent him, making Kazuki chuckle to himself. ‘And I still only have the one they give for free at the beginning.’

‘Sounds like a skill issue,’ he replied with a grin on his face.

The best part was that, for once, his text friend wasn’t feeling as bad as he usually did. The emotions were there, but on a much more manageable level. Besides…

Distressed wasn’t so bad, he found.

He was just generally unlucky, it seemed.

Kazuki chuckled as he got a barrage of very aggressive and very varied insults for his joke. Well, annoyance and frustration was better than sadness, right? At least, it was that way in his books and as far as Distressed was concerned. It was a win, Kazuki supposed, or so he wanted to believe.

The person on the other side of the conversation went silent after a while and Kazuki busied himself watering his plants. He idly wondered what it would be like to have a house, like the one in which he used to live with his parents. They’d had a big garden, but it had barely had anything. With all that space, Kazuki imagined he could have a bunch of plants, maybe even get a small plot with vegetables or something like that.

Maybe he could have something like that in the future. Far in the future. It was a nice thought, uplifting. ‘Yeah, I think I’m going to try and make that happen,’ he mused as he finished pouring some water in the last pot.

‘You said you’d like to be a hero,’ Distressed sent, while Kazuki walked back inside his apartment. ‘You a student or a hero hopeful?’

‘Don’t think I can tell you that, buddy,’ he replied hesitantly. That sounded like the kind of personal information that he should keep hidden. So far, he’d mostly been able to avoid such topics or at least answer vaguely. This time though, he’d been much more direct with his answer… Which made him think that might have been a mistake, but it was too late to take it back.

‘I guess it doesn’t matter,’ Distressed replied then. ‘If you do become a hero though, be a good one.’

‘That’s the plan,’ Kazuki told them. ‘I want to be the hero I always needed and never got. I want to be a hero for people like me.’

‘People like me,’ Distressed said, giving him pause. He hadn’t expected that, somehow, even though he knew the statement applied. Distressed just didn’t seem to be the kind of person to admit such a thing.

‘People like us.’

‘Whoever you are, I wish you luck, Knight. The world needs more heroes like you.’

‘Not a hero yet.’

‘That’s what you think, Knight.’

At that, Kazuki paused, looking at the screen, at the message, for a long moment. It was like he couldn’t really process it, understand it. He’d been told he could be a hero by several people, Aizawa had even told him that he had been a hero. Somehow, though, being called a hero by someone that he’d been trying to help… It was different.

‘Thank you.’

‘No, thank you.’

[}-o-{]

“You are fine,” Recovery Girl told him, giving him a pat on the leg as she finished checking on the tests they’d performed on Kazuki to check on his chest and overall health. “Just as I told you,” the woman added, almost making it seem like she was annoyed that he’d visited her unnecessarily.

“You know that doesn’t work, right?” Kazuki asked her with a slight grin. “I can tell you aren’t feeling anything bad.”

“Except old,” the woman corrected and he nodded, acknowledging the point. He hadn’t wanted to point that out, but if she did, then he guessed it was fine. “But yes, it’s nice to see someone that takes their health seriously. Heroes are the worst in that regard.”

“I mean, isn’t being a hero all about risking one’s life for those of others? Seems like a reasonable… side effect, as it were,” he commented as he got off the table he’d been sitting on. “Maybe reasonable isn’t the word though.”

“Expected, you mean?” Recovery Girl told him dryly. “And yes, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“That’s fair,” he replied, giving her a half-smile. “Thanks for all the help, Recovery Girl.”

“Call me Chiyo,” she told him warmly, walking up to him and giving him a pat on the arm. “Do be careful, you hear?”

“I’ll try not to come too often… Unless you don’t mind some visits that aren’t work related.”

“Oh, I’d really appreciate some of those.”

“Then I might drop by,” he told her with a full smile. “Thanks,” he added as the woman passed him a lollipop.

“Don’t mention it. Take care.”

“I will. See you later,” he told the woman as he started leaving the infirmary. While he was at it, Kazuki pondered if he should jump right into it and ask someone for a spar. He guessed that might be pushing things a little for the moment though. ‘Maybe I can ease myself into it with a light work out and truly get back to things next week?’ he mused before pausing as the door closed behind him.

Then he just stood there in the hallway.

“Hi,” the person that he’d met there greeted him awkwardly, giving him a shy wave.

“Ashido,” he greeted, making the nerves and generally bad feelings in the girl get worse. That sucked, but he wasn’t sure what he could do for her. How was he supposed to act? Like nothing had happened? Call her Pinky like they’d done before?

It wasn’t that he was angry with her, not at all. He understood why she’d acted like she did and all and he was fine with her and Kirishima sort of joining back with the group. He couldn’t very well tell them to stay away. His friends could make their own choices, after all, and he wasn’t too bothered, even if he could do without Ashido’s emotions bleeding onto him.

However, the girl was clearly not fine with him and that meant he couldn’t be fine with her. It was difficult to be friendly with someone that seemed nervous, afraid and angry at him almost all the time. How was he supposed to treat her as he’d usually done when she felt nothing like she had before?

“Can I do something for you?” he asked, keeping his voice as casual as possible.

“I… I don’t know,” the girl answered then, looking down, holding one arm with her hand and shrugging slightly. “I just feel like I should…. Like we should talk.”

“Try and fix things?” That question got Ashido to look up, her yellow eyes meeting his red ones. He gave her a sad smile, a pitying one. “It doesn’t work like that. Sometimes, things can’t be fixed.”

“I know I messed up, but-” she started then, clearly misunderstanding what he had said. Before she could keep going, he shook his head, chuckling softly.

“Not what I meant. This is not your fault, Ashido. Maybe it’s not even mine, although who knows,” he told her, walking towards the side and looking out the massive window on the corridor. “But there’s things that can’t be fixed. I can’t fix what I did to your aunt. No matter what. Not even if I could give her arm back, because it’s more than that. It’s… It’s a whole lot of things. Some things can’t be fixed. You can patch them up and think they are fixed… but they are not.”

“I don’t understand,” she replied. Kazuki got it, really, he did. It’d taken him a while to understand that himself.

“I don’t hold what you did against you,” he told her and he smiled a little at the way her worries, guilt and shame lessened. “Just like I think you don’t hold what I did against me.”

“I dont!” she said vehemently. That was reassuring, he would admit. However…

“But both of those things still happened. You can’t just forget that I caused your family a great deal of pain,” he told her.

“And you won’t just forget that I pulled away,” she finished for him, her sadness growing.

“It’s not remotely the same thing, obviously. But… it’s kind of difficult to be friends again like nothing happened, when you are still afraid of me.”

“I’m not-”

“You are,” he interrupted with a smile that held no mirth behind it. “And there’s no point denying it. I get it. It’s fine. What I don’t get is why you keep coming back if you feel like that. I don’t understand that, honestly,” he admitted, once more looking outside the window instead of at the girl. It almost let him fool himself into not sensing her emotions.

“I just… I liked being friends with you, with everyone else,” Ashido told him, her voice barely above a whisper. “Is it wrong, to want that back?”

“No, it’s not. And you should be able to get back on everyone's good side. I can try to convince them,” Kazuki offered freely. As it was, he felt kind of bad whenever his friends gave Ashido the cold shoulder. It was all ultimately his fault, if anyone was at fault at all, so…

“Mineta might hate me for life,” Ashido replied, only half-joking. “I appreciate it though, but… We can’t be friends again, then?”

“We can,” Kazuki disagreed. “But if you are still feeling like you are about me… Well, it complicates things. I’m sorry. I can’t… I can’t just tell you that it’ll all be fine and we’ll be hanging out like usual tomorrow.”

“I know. I just… I guess I’d like that, even if I know it won’t happen.”

“Time can heal a lot of things,” he told her, giving her a pat on the arm. “Maybe we can be eye buddies again eventually,” he commented, remembering their first encounter.

“I’d like that,” she told him with a small smile.

[}-o-{]

Cooking wasn’t Kazuki’s favorite thing in the world, but he managed to make do with the help of internet tutorials and not being picky. Even if his cooking wasn’t great, at least it was edible. With an upbringing that encouraged shutting up and complaining as little as possible, he’d learned to just eat whatever was put in front of him and swallow his opinion on the matter.

Turned out not all of that was bad though, because now he wasn’t having a terrible time through his learning period as he took care of himself. Kazuki was also very proud of the fact that he was getting better. He was no chef, but he could make some simple things and have them taste good, if not incredible. Good was enough for the moment, however.

He kind of stopped his preparations and such when he felt a familiar presence come towards his apartment. A grimace formed on his face but he quickly pushed it away. ‘I’m used to this, come on,’ he told himself. Just because he was getting used to it didn’t mean it didn’t suck, but it was better to just push through, like with everything else.

Washing his hands, he left everything more or less ready before waiting for the person to arrive.

Eventually, there was a knock on the door and Kazuki only gave a token wait before opening it. He stood a little too stiffly, he supposed, his expression probably letting on how curious and confused he was. Regardless, he tried not to stare or otherwise do anything stupid.

“All Might,” he greeted with a smile.

“Young Endo,” the Number One Hero replied in kind. He was in his weaker form, Kazuki noticed. “I just wanted to talk, if you have the time.”

“Of course,” he replied, inviting the man inside. As if he could do anything else, really. Not that he had a problem with the man at all, of course not, but still. “Anything I can get you? I was starting to prepare for dinner if you want to stay,” he offered, fully expecting a no and that that would be it.

“I wouldn’t want to impose,” the man replied, bitterness welling in between the waves of pain. There was helplessness there too. Kazuki blinked at that, a little confused.

“It’s no problem at all. I tend to prepare extra anyway, so I can just re-heat it later,” he said, moving to get a glass of water at the very least. All Might hadn’t asked for anything else the last time he was around, so he didn’t know if the man preferred anything.

“In that case, if you wouldn’t mind,” the hero replied, surprising Kazuki. “I don’t eat much, so you don’t have to worry about that,” he added then, the same dark feelings appearing once more. “My injury took my stomach away, after all.”

“... You… can live without a stomach?” Kazuki couldn’t help but ask, blinking in bafflement.

“You’d be surprised what you can live without,” the hero answered, equal parts amusement and bitterness. One shown to the world while the other was hidden deep inside.

“Ok then, I’ll get started on that,” Kazuki said, deciding to just get on with it. ‘Maybe I can prepare something with smaller pieces then,’ he thought, changing his plans for the meal. ‘Would that be better?’

“Regardless, I came here for a reason, and maybe it’s selfish of me to stay,” All Might started, but before Kazuki could tell him not to worry, he continued. “Your help during the USJ incident, I wanted to come here and personally thank you for it. I know you risked much, pushing through your injuries to protect me and my secret. You realized I couldn’t fight anymore, didn’t you?”

“I could sense it,” Kazuki answered with a slight nod as he started preparing the meal. It was good that he had something to distract himself, since he wasn’t sure he could look at the Number One Hero as the man thank him for the help. What was the world coming to if such a thing could happen?

“Thank you, Young Endo. If not for you, I don’t know what would have happened. In several instances, according to Aizawa,” All Might told him. “You were a hero and U.A. is proud to call you one of its students… More than that, I’m proud to call you one of my students.”

Kazuki had to pause then, suddenly overwhelmed. He’d expected a simple thank you and he’d have been happy with just that. He hadn’t expected… that.

“If there’s anything I can do for you, Young Endo, don’t hesitate to ask. I owe you a lot for what you did, despite your own injuries,” All Might said and Kazuki paused. There wasn’t much he could ask of the hero, or at least nothing that came to mind in that moment. Nothing but an almost forgotten conversation years before, but…

“Plus Ultra, right?” he replied, trying to buy time as he recalled that half lost memory from back in the day.

“Indeed. It’s good to see you’ve taken to the school motto and you follow it in such instances,” All Might commented, amused. Kazuki grimaced then, as he felt the pain in the man’s chest flare before he coughed. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t mention it,” he waved off before smiling slightly. “Say, about that favor… Could I get an autograph?”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

So, someone told me I should try to write notes about things I like in a chapter instead of beating myself up over what I don’t. I’m going to try and do that, see how it goes, right? Plus ultra and all that.

Anyway, we have some studying, some training, and some interacting. All in all, a good day, right? I liked writing the Endo-Ashido talk, honestly. Maybe I didn’t quite hit the spot I tried to, but I wanted to point out that even when things are sort of solved and such, sometimes people will still have a problem with each other. It’s not always as easy as just having a talk and everything going back to normal. I hope I managed to convey that well enough.

Then there’s the All Might scene which… I’m not sure I managed to convey how meaningful this is for Endo. Every single interaction when people praise him is, really, so I also don’t want to seem like I keep repeating the same thing every time something of the sort happens. A bit of a balancing act, as it were.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Any guesses as to what’s up with the All Might autograph?

See you.