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Darkest Before Dawn - 101
🕑 Added 2025-03-27 17:55:24 +0000 UTCChapter 101
“So, he was playing us. You were right, Futo,” Masu said, a grin on their face that… looked kind of dangerous to Kazuki, actually. Not a perception that he thought he’d ever associate with the Management Team, any of them, but there they were. Masu, at that moment, was reminding him of Togaru or Bakugo or even Eijiro if less so. They looked like they were going into a fight and were excited about it.
“I thought some mistakes were too blatant, considering how other, similar ones weren’t made,” Nagashira explained when Kazuki and the rest of their non-Management members turned towards him. He looked sure of himself as he said that too, which was kind of new too.
Kazuki was learning a whole lot about the Management Team that day, he noticed.
Not unwelcome, of course, but certainly surprising.
“So, what does this mean for us? Did he play us in a bad way? Do I have to go back to have another conversation with him, maybe discuss another draft?” he asked, leaning back and really hoping that was not the case. It was kind of nerve wracking to get through that meeting, even when he didn’t mess up once through the whole thing. Sure, he stumbled upon words here and there, especially when Nezu asked questions of his own about what he was bringing up, but other than that it went alright, or so he felt.
“Not at all, but we’ll be ready next time,” Masu declared, their grin growing even more of an edge. ‘Next time?’ Kazuki wondered though, because why would they need to have another such interaction with the Principal. Then he remembered that the guy – man? animal? chimera? cryptid? – was their club advisor. That meant they’d have to interact with the guy again, if only to discuss club activities that weren’t going to be part of the “norm”, which was what they’d cleared up for the creation of said club.
“Good to hear,” Kazuki replied, wearily. Because he was certainly not looking forward to that himself. It’d mean more lectures, more pressure and more of him having to act like the club president he now was. Alas, he’d been trapped and he’d now have to deal with it. “So, now what?”
“Now, we prepare,” Masu answered, and Kazuki amused himself thinking that they sounded so serious and passionate that one might think they were talking about a war or something. “We should be moving to our club room tomorrow. Set up what we can and then see what’s the next step. If we want Keage to have something to work with in order to gather funds, we’ll need to increase our popularity. For that, we need to improve yours and nudge Monoma and Togeike into the spotlight too. That means we might need to use your social media account for that.”
“You want to associate them closely with me?” he asked, immediately straightening where he sat. “Publicly, on the internet?” he added, more incredulous with every word.
“You’re the president of the club,” Masu answered, visibly taking their time to get through the words. “They’d be associated with you anyway, when that news gets out and it will eventually.”
“Yeah, hopefully when I’m less in the dog house with the world,” he replied and he wasn’t sure if he sounded more angry or afraid. It was a testament to how much progress they’d made that none of the trio seemed afraid of him for his outburst. Still though, he tried to calm himself down and think. “Why are we rushing this?” he asked then, trying to understand what they were thinking.
“You’re the only one here with a modicum of fame. I’d even go as far as the only one in our year, except maybe Todoroki. Yaoyorozu is a name known in some circles, but that’s about it,” Keage answered and Kazuki blinked at him. Fame? Something must have shown on his face, because the guy continued. “Sure, there’s a fair bit of infamy in your reputation, but there’s fame too, Boss. You’ve got fans, people that believe in you, people that like you, to put it in simple terms.”
“And we can use that to boost Monoma and Togeike, get them off the ground, as it were,” Nagashira continued, looking the most passionate of the three. “Besides, if we do things right, they shouldn’t even be that negatively4 affected by this. Still, we might need to monitor your social media for you, if we do this,” he added, turning towards the duo by his side at the end.
“Eh, I didn’t use that for much anyway, honestly,” Chikuchi replied with a shrug.
“I’ll try to keep that to myself, if it’s all the same to you,” Neito disagreed, but when Kazuki started to grin and think that at least someone had some sense, he continued speaking. “But I’ll give you a call if things get out of control, just tell me what you want me to do.”
“You’re barely getting by with my account. How’re you going to manage three of them?” Kazuki asked and Masu was the one to straighten and get his attention. When he focused on them, they spoke.
“We’re thinking about recruiting more students, from the General and Management courses. There’s a lot of things to monitor, especially if we start spreading our wings properly here,” they answered and he felt a little overwhelmed at that idea. Sure, Uwabami’s agency had a lot of people just for her, but they weren’t even proper heroes. What the hell?
“And you think that’ll go… smoothly?” he asked. He’d been going to say “well”, but changed his mind midway through. His usual pessimism was coming back, he supposed. It had been good while it lasted. Still though, there was no denying that he rather doubted many people would want to be in his club. Especially now that it was a proper club and they could be more directly associated with him.
He was kind of surprised that the Management Team had stayed when that became a thing, actually.
“We have a plan,” Masu said, grinning widely and Kazuki gave them an uneasy smile. “Also, there was something else we wanted to tell you, by the way, Boss.”
“Let’s hear it then,” he replied, leaning back.
“You can call me Komako,” they told him, making him blink.
“And me Futo,” Nagashira added, quickly followed by Keage.
“Ronaudo.”
“Well, that’s great to hear. You can call me Kazuki, of course,” he replied, wide smile on his face. Although, he was fairly sure he knew how they’d respond to that.
“Sure thing, Boss,” all three of them said at once and Neito barked out a laugh somewhere to the side.
Kazuki’s smile turned wry, but it was no longer quite as awkward as it had been at the start.
Maybe he was getting used to that.
“Don’t know why you expected differently, Boss,” Neito commented and he had to give him that. Even if he was coming around to the “nickname”, if it could be called that, he still didn’t quite get why everyone was so willing to go with it. Wasn’t it kind of… He didn’t know, but he expected it to rub people the wrong way to be deferential like that.
Hell, he knew Neito was like that with Chikuchi about the whole second-in-command thing, but yet he was fine with Kazuki being the “Boss” for some reason?
Weird.
“So, about that plan you have. Can we hear about it?” Kazuki asked, and Masu- No, Komako seemed to hesitate for a moment, shifting in their seat and glancing towards the other two of the Management Team. They were feeling unsure, all of a sudden, he noticed, but he let them gather their thoughts in silence. It wasn’t too bad and he needed to at least look at Mei to make sure she wasn’t doing something stupid.
Not that he could know if she was making an unintentional bomb most of the time. It wasn’t rare for it to be evident on occasion though, so it paid to look her way from time to time. What she’d been trying to do with gunpowder and Chikuchi’s water-purse the last time, they would never know, but Kazuki was glad they’d got there in time.
“If it’s all the same with you, Boss, we are still hammering out details in that regard so we’d like to keep that to ourselves,” Komako answered and he nodded.
“Ok, let me know. We’re not throwing Chikuchi and Neito to the wolves until we have a proper plan for this though, alright?” he told them and he could tell nobody was quite happy with that, not even the aforementioned hero-in-training and hero-in-training to be. He almost wanted to roll his eyes at them, but he refrained. “In the meantime, anything else we have to discuss?”
“Well, we can get started on merch designs, I guess,” Futo suggested and Ronaudo immediately perked up. Yet another weird thing to talk about and such, but Kazuki was starting to realize that that was his life now.
“Sure, do you have ideas in mind?”
Boy did they.
[}-o-{]
“I’m so happy for you, Kazuki!” Hina squealed in his ear and he had to pull the phone away from himself a little. Still, even as he grimaced, the smile on his face wasn’t going away. “Not even out of your first year and you’re already club president! That’s my boy! Masa! Did you hear that?! Kazuki’s club president! Of a hero agency club!”
She was being ridiculous, even by Hina’s standards.
And yet, Kazuki could only grin wider, unable to keep the happy bubbles in his chest under control. He was reminded of a terrible thought that crossed his mind some time ago, but he quickly crushed it and pushed it aside. He might be in a better mood over all those days and he also might be more optimistic too, but there should be limits to how far a mind could go with daydreams.
“This is amazing, Kazuki!” she continued and he decided that maybe he should cut in before she spiraled. Sounded like a reasonable concern to him, quite honestly.
“It’s just a club, Hina.”
“Just a- None of that, young man! This is amazing! You have an agency club! I didn’t even know those were a thing!” It didn’t seem like a good moment to point out that no, those weren’t a thing. Kazuki had the impression that it wouldn't help the heroine calm down. “And you’re president, in your first year! How cool is that?!”
“Ok, yes, I’m amazing,” he said, shifting awkwardly where he sat. This was not quite how he hoped things would go. It was, however, sadly close to what he’d expected though, because… Yeah, he’d kind of seen this coming. Didn’t mean he liked it though. “Can we move on, or do you want to talk about this until morning?”
“I mean, maybe not until morning, but-”
“Hina.”
“Fine. You can be a right bore, you know that?”
“I prefer to think I’m practical.”
“And you can think whatever you want, Kazuki,” she replied and he could perfectly picture her rolling her eyes. “So, ready for your first shoots? This weekend, as I heard it. Then it’ll be complicated for a bit since you’ll have things to attend to beyond the filming, but apparently Nezu is a great negotiator, because my friend told me production caved really easily to allow you that time for yourself. You’ll have to put in a lot of hours when you get back though.”
“That’s good to know,” Kazuki commented with a sigh. Nezu had told him that he was going to talk with the production about that, but… Well, he hadn’t heard about it since. Good to know it had gone well. “Anything else you wanna tell me?”
“Well, you seem to have won over the backers of the movie too, from what I was told. Their opinions have changed quite a bit in regards to your participation. My friend said some of them are a little suspicious, but so long as you keep your eyes open, you should be fine. Let me know if anyone approaches you or if they offer you something or-”
“I think I get the idea, Hina,” he said, almost letting slip another “mom” joke. He really needed to stop with those. They were less funny and more painful those days. He’d rather not do that to himself if at all possible. “Anything else?”
“Hmm, not that I can think of right now, but I’ll let you know,” the woman answered and he pictured her looking up thoughtfully while tapping her lip with her finger. She did that on occasion.
“How are things going over there then?” he asked, looking over his shoulder and seeing that Nemuri was still cooking. He wondered if she had one ear on his conversation though. Considering she was humming a song to herself, he doubted it. Either way, it wasn’t like he was discussing anything too important in the grand scheme of things. “Everything alright?”
“Business as usual, but if you wanna hear me complain, there was this guy that wanted me to put on a dreadful dress. I’ll have nightmares about it. Nightmares, Kazuki. How someone with such tastes can be in the fashion industry is a mystery for the ages,” she hissed and Kazuki settled to hear her complain.
He wasn’t terribly interested in that, but it was something important for her and it helped her destress. He knew that from the times they’d done this routine in person. Any little thing he might be able to do for her, to repay her for all that she did for him, was something he’d gladly do.
“Nepotism, I’m sure.”
“That’s kind of hypocritical, isn’t it?” he pointed out, slightly amused. “You did shoehorn me in for a movie role.”
“But you’re actually good!” Hina protested, almost shouting. “There’s a difference between helping someone you know get a job that you know they’ll do well in and doing that when you know they don’t have what it takes.”
“If you say so,” he commented flatly, cracking his neck and standing up. Then he moved around his apartment, feeling oddly relaxed as he checked on his aquarium and the plants on his balcony. He’d had a moment of negativity before, with the Pharos group – God, was it going to take some getting used to in order to use that name –, but he was getting back into a much more positive flow of things.
Kazuki was kind of shocked about that though, since he’d expected his positive streak to end there.
“So, how bad of a dress are we talking about here?” he asked with a grin on his face, knowing that he was setting himself up for a lot of complaints that wouldn’t end with just the dress. That was a sacrifice he was willing to make though and happily at that. What did it matter if he got bored half to death for a few minutes if Hina was happy?
So, that’s what he did. He sat there, listening to the woman complain about this and that. Occasionally, he’d give an opinion or make a small comment to show that he was actually listening, but he mostly let her rant. He didn’t particularly care about most of the things she mentioned, but he cared that she felt better as she unwinded… Or so he hoped. It wasn’t like he could sense her emotions through the phone.
“Sounds like a bitch,” he commented idly when she started complaining about this colleague in one of the ads she’d recorded those days.
“I know, right?!” Hina exclaimed and it was then, almost without meaning to, that Kazuki realized that he was smiling. “It was-”
“Dinner’s ready!” Nemuri announced and Kazuki startled a little. He’d forgotten that time did, indeed, pass while he was talking with his… mentor? Friend? Whatever Hina was supposed to be for him at that point. None of those labels quite fit, but the one that his mind provided insistently was…
No.
“Aw.”
“You can tell me more about how awful this woman was some other time, alright?” he said, almost like he was trying to calm down a child before they threw a tantrum. “And whatever else you wanna complain about.”
“You shouldn’t say stuff like that or I’ll never shut up,” Hina told him playfully.
“Promises, promises,” he shot back with a grin as he leaned back. Then he let out a breath through his nose. “Ok, so, talk to you later?”
“Sure thing. Good night, Kazuki.”
“Good night, Hina,” he said before hanging up and setting his phone aside. “Sorry for ignoring you,” he added, turning towards Nemuri before checking the food. “This looks amazing.”
“Don’t worry about it, Kazuki,” the woman waved off. “And thank you, I do try.”
“Although, are you gonna let me cook at any point?” he asked, a half smile on his face as he went to start eating. Yes, the food tasted as good as it looked.
“You cook when I can’t come around,” Nemuri pointed out and he gave her a flat look. She knew that’s not what he meant. It was great to have someone to take care of stuff like cooking for him, but there came a point where he felt bad, even if he was paying for the food and such. He didn’t want to be a leech like that. “Don’t worry about it, Kazuki,” she added but it was no use and she knew that too. “Why are you so insistent?”
“Blame my shit childhood. Good things that come for no reason make me nervous,” he told her dryly and she gave him a pitying look at the same time as the emotions reached him. He made that sound like a joke, but it really wasn’t and she could put that together herself.
“If it’ll make you feel better, you can cook from time to time, I guess,” she said and she was obviously reluctant, but not too much. He appreciated her allowing him that and he wasted no time showing that to her with a smile.
“Thank you. I know you don’t like the idea, but… I want to do something for you too, you know? It’s great to not have the apartment so empty all the time and I want to say thank you for everything you do in my own way, I guess,” he said, feeling himself grow uncomfortable and awkward. He needed to soldier through that too.
“You’re a good kid, Kazuki,” Nemuri told him and he resolutely didn’t look at her. He could see the smile on her face through the corner of his eyes and it was enough to overwhelm him. So, he focused on the food as best he could. “Your mother can’t be thrown in a hole fast enough,” she added, plenty of negativity bleeding out of her immediately, but for once it wasn’t a bad thing.
Instead, it made his lips twitch into a smile of his own.
“Thank you, for saying that.”
“I mean it.”
“I know, that’s why I’m grateful,” he replied softly. Because it was one thing to say something because you knew it was the right thing to say, the expected thing to say. Plenty of people would say his mother was horrible and deserved what was coming to her. Not that many would mean what they said, not many would actually care enough to feel like they meant it.
“You know something you can do for me?” Nemuri commented casually, or so she wanted to make him believe. She either wasn’t trying very hard or she was a terrible actress, but he was inclined to believe it was the former. “You could play that violin of yours for me,” she told him when he turned to look at her questioningly.
“I can do that, sure,” he replied, shaking his head.
“I’ll look forward to that then,” Nemuri told him.
Not long afterwards, when they were done with dinner and he finished washing the dishes, Kazuki took up his violin and started playing. At first, he played the songs he already knew well enough, but Nemuri urged him to practice new things if he wanted. He had tried to avoid that, since it wasn’t quite all that pleasant to the ears, but she had insisted.
So, that’s how he spent a good half an hour, maybe even an hour. He didn’t quite know for sure, since he didn’t keep track of time that well then. However, neither of them seemed to have a problem with how long they’d spent on that. He truly had fun just playing to his heart’s content and Nemuri seemed perfectly fine just sitting there at the table, listening with her cup of tea in hand.
“You’re very talented, has anyone ever told you that?” the woman asked him and he smiled shyly at her.
“A few times,” he mumbled, going back to playing so that he could better ignore his embarrassment.
Part of him wanted to just… wave her compliments away, just like everyone else’s. It was the little voice at the back of his mind that sounded like his mother, hissing and cursing. He was doing his best to ignore that though, because why would his mother’s opinion matter over those of his friends, Hina, Nemuri and even strangers online?
He knew there were those that cursed him just like his mother had. He’d chanced a look at unfiltered comments from some of his social media posts and they were just what he’d expected. It was sad, and hurtful, but he was actually kind of proud of himself for being able to mostly ignore them. Sure, it sucked and it left him feeling small and weak, but he’d moved past that and I hadn’t ruined his day or his week.
So, that was a personal victory, in his eyes.
Besides, the good comments that he got from the Management Team filters were awesome. Every single one of them made him feel better, pulling a smile out of him. He’d taken to reading through them when he felt down, even those that he’d already read. Some of them were just so heartfelt that they had turned into a great pick-me-up for him. Kazuki had half a mind to make some sort of collection of them to go through if he found himself going through a particularly bad patch.
“I imagine you could stand to hear it more,” Nemuri commented and he grinned even wider, even as he tried to continue playing. Tried being the operative word there, since he kind of messed up a few times. His one spectator didn’t seem to care overly much though, from what he could sense.
“You’re trying to make me mess up, aren’t you?” he accused all the same. The laugh he got in response and the slight guilt that he caught with his sense proved his point. “You’re very mean, Nemuri.”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she replied and he rolled his eyes. “Besides, consider it training. You gotta deal with distractions in this job and while playing too,” she pointed out, but it’d have been a lot more believable if he couldn’t hear the barely contained laughter in her voice.
“If you say so.”
“I do,” she replied, sounding entirely too proud of herself. “You should probably stop though. Don’t you have homework to do? You’ll be having a busy time soon, you know? You should be careful to get everything you need done so you don’t have any issues with that. Especially with your movie thing you’ll have to juggle too.”
“I know,” he replied, taking a deep breath in and preparing to play for a little bit longer before calling it a day.
“Kazuki~,” Nemuri urged and he deflated, sighing and giving her an exasperated look.
“Okay, mom,” he grumbled, grimacing as he felt her emotions become a mess in the span of a single second. ‘I’m a fucking idiot. I really need to stop with that. It’s not funny,’ he chastised himself, setting down the violin and resolutely not looking at Nemuri.
[} Chapter End {]
Hey guys! How’s it going?
Not much happened here, I guess, kind of an aftermath chapter. All the same, it’s always fun to write the club, for some reason. And Hina and Nemuri are great too, for different reasons. It’s always nice to write them in because they made everything more fluffy and warm, if that makes any sense.
I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.
Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ
Random Question: What’s the color that stands out the most to you when you look away from the screen? Right now… There’s this small light blue metal box thing on my desk that kind of pops more than the rest of the things cluttering the space.
See you.
