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Darkest Before Dawn - 89
🕑 Added 2024-12-05 17:52:49 +0000 UTCChapter 89
“Done!” Kaminari cried out and there were several cheers following together with some relieved sighs and laughs. It was a testament to the state of things that Aizawa didn’t even reprimand the guy. Instead, the man just raised an unimpressed eyebrow. “Finally done with the written part!”
Kazuki let his head fall down on his arm.
“... You alive, buddy?” Eijiro asked him, poking his arm.
For his part, he only replied with a half-hearted groan, his head resting on his forearm while his other arm rested beside it, hand up in the air. He was so done with everything by then. Every test had been worse than the last, in terms of emotions around, and he didn’t even have time to recover from one before another took its place. Even the hours he spent at home didn’t help much, considering he had to study and there were more exams around the corner.
Now though, now it was all over.
Sure, there were some nerves and fear and such emotions still permeating the place, but nothing like what it had been before. It was like someone had taken the dial for negativity and slammed it back, almost to where things had been before exam season. Kazuki couldn’t be more grateful for the reprieve. He was most certainly not looking forward to the next wave of tests.
He honestly thought he might go crazy eventually.
“Guys, I think Kazuki died,” Eijiro commented, sounding genuinely confused. He just groaned a little louder. “Nevermind, he’s almost dead,” he corrected, apparently more cheerful now. “Man am I glad it’s over though.”
“You and me both,” Mina breathed out, and Kazuki could imagine in a similarly dead on her feet position, much like the one he was in at the moment. Although, for a different reason, considering she was on the lower side of the grade spectrum. “I don’t wanna see another test in my life. I’ll just drop out. That sounds like a good option.”
“It’s most certainly not!” Momo exclaimed, either missing the joke or being scandalized that Mina could even joke about that. It could honestly be either or maybe both, Kazuki imagined. “And you all should get your act together. We are still in class hours!”
“But we are free!”
“Are you though?” Aizawa asked and suddenly all sounds in the classroom disappeared. “There’s still the practical exam, after all,” he added and almost at once the nervousness returned. Kazuki groaned again, uncaring of the fact that he was now making a scene.
Why’d he have to torture him like that? Mean bastard.
“Since you’re offering, Endo, gather everyone and guide them to Ground Beta,” the absolute piece of shit said. Oh that was it. Kazuki was already planning the best meal he could possibly make. He’d use that to bribe Kayama so that she would bully Aizawa for him.
Perfect plan.
For the moment though, Kazuki pulled himself up like gravity had been increased on him. After giving a glare to his homeroom teacher, who met it with an even look, he turned towards the rest of the class, who were, somehow, already devolving into chaos once more. He blamed Kaminari, Mina and Sero. Maybe even worse than that was Iida, scolding everyone. He was glad that the guy was feeling better after whatever the fuck was going on with him before the internships, but fuck if he wasn’t still a pain in the ass.
Apparently, the sudden relief of almost being done made everyone feel a little… Plus Ultra annoying.
Kazuki was so far beyond caring though…
“Shut up,” he growled, glancing around with his best Aizawa glare. “We are going to Ground Beta, and I dare any of you to be an idiot,” he explained to them, eye twitching and shadows on and around his person growing darker and more pronounced for effect. He almost didn’t need to make a conscious effort, considering how done he was with everything.
He just wanted the day to be over so that he could just die…
Or sleep. That worked too.
Thankfully, nobody caused a scene and they followed him to the mock-city area without much trouble. Well, aside from Bakugo’s barely contained anger, but he didn’t do anything. Funnily enough, the only one he had to scold was Iida, because apparently people weren’t allowed to talk anymore, according to him.
That guy really needed to relax, because goddamn.
“Do you think what we heard was right? It’ll be robots again?” Momo asked him from where they were both leading at the front of the class. Kazuki wasn’t going to say it – he wasn’t that much of an asshole –, but he was kind of annoyed that he was made to herd the cats when Momo was the president. Had Aizawa started the day with the wrong foot?
Just his luck.
“Honestly, I’ll fight whatever at this point. I just want the day to be over,” he replied, eye twitching for no reason. He was just that filled with emotions he’d rather not deal with. Exams sucked like that, he supposed.
“That bad?” Momo asked this time, peering at him. He could feel her concern, which was definitely appreciated, even if it fed more negativity to his already all but overdosed ass. “Do you think the teachers could do something, give you more time or something?”
“As I said, I just want to be done with this,” he answered, giving her a tired smile. “And as tempting as that is, I’m seeing all this as extra practical experience. I’ll have to deal with tons of negativity sooner or later. Might as well get used to it here, where the teachers keep an eye on me and… Well, at least I hope they’d cut me some slack if I mess up.”
“I’m sure they would,” Momo said, channeling her inner Toru and being all optimism and smiles. It did help him cheer up a bit, which he greatly appreciated.
Everything still sucked though.
[}-o-{]
“This is gonna suck, isn’t it?” he asked wryly as he looked around the place.
“It’s going to be a trial the likes of which we have seldom been through,” Tokoyami replied with a nod, making Kazuki chuckle. “We shall do our best and hope for the results we strive for.”
“Do you know what Ectoplasm can do?” he asked, ignoring the fancy speech. He hadn’t interacted much with the bird-headed boy, admittedly, but that was maybe the point. That and that they had similar weaknesses in the fact that they themselves were it. Their Quirks offered great strength but at the cost of leaving them fairly weak against opponents, since they were basically powerless people themselves.
“He breathes doppelgangers to life, creations born of the unknown, much like your grimm and Dark Shadow,” Tokoyami answered with grimly. ‘Does he always sound so… like that? I feel like people would call me out for being a cliche if I did that,’ Kazuki thought to himself, looking at the boy that was to be his partner for the exam.
“Hey, they are nothing like me!” the Quirk made of shadows argued, but Kazuki pushed that out of his mind.
He knew about as much as Kazuki himself did, it seemed. Not surprising. He’d done some research on many heroes, but the teachers hadn’t been what he’d call a priority. There wasn’t much on them, for one, at least not recent. They were understandably not that active, considering they spent most of their time teaching.
That was coming back to bite him in the ass though, it seemed.
“You’re fine with me having the cuffs?” he asked, patting the aforementioned item, which hung from the belt of his costume. Making sure it was secure, he moved on to check that the costume itself was all fine. No buttons forgotten, the gloves were fine, shoes were tied… Everything was in order and he could stop the foreign nerves from affecting him.
“We’ve witnessed your martial prowess and found it dwarfing ours, Endo. You’re our hope to get close and do what we are unable to,” Tokoyami explained.
“Speak for yourself!” his Quirk protested.
“Ok then…” Kazuki said with a nod. Tokoyami was odd, but far from the worst person to be paired with. He really didn’t envy the Midoriya-Bakugo duo. Those two were more likely to kill each other than they were to succeed, as far as he was concerned. ‘Wonder if they’ve started already or not…’
They could be done, for all that he knew. After all, they’d been separated, told what they had to do – subdue one of the teachers, of all people, or escape the place through the gate they’d been shown – and to wait for the call to start, which could happen at any time, to emulate the unexpected nature of most hero calls. ‘Some of them have already started, that’s for sure,’ he thought, noticing several spikes of emotion everywhere in Ground Beta.
“Go!” they heard from a speaker… somewhere in their surroundings. Before they could even react to that though, several shapes started materializing around them. That was all Kazuki needed to get started though and the same could be said for Dark Shadow, who charged right at the closest clone of Ectoplasm.
Kazuki himself lashed out with a kick to one nearby while his shadow extended and Beowolves started forming… Some of them even making it to completion. Predictably, some of them didn’t though, but that was fine, since he just needed something immediate to cover for himself and Tokoyami. Half-formed Beowolf claws would do the trick very well to take out some of the clones around and give them some breathing room.
“We forgot to tell you-,” Ectoplasm said, his voice ominous coming from… somewhere they couldn’t even place in the chaos. “But we faculty members have every intention-,” one of the clones around continued. “-of taking your seriously-” another picked up then and was soon followed by a different one right afterwards. “-and crushing you.”
And Kazuki believed him, because things were barely getting started and they were already getting overwhelmed. There were too many Ectoplasms and his hastily made Grimm were falling apart from the attacks. Tokoyami and Dark Shadow weren’t doing much better. Kazuki himself was finding that even with the weights all teachers were using as a handicap, Ectoplasm – or one of his clones, whatever – could still very much kick his ass.
Unsurprising, really.
“Endo, you need to get away!” Tokoyami called, but he was having none of that.
“No, we can win this,” he replied, his shadow producing even more Grimm. He hadn’t been practicing his ass off just to be overwhelmed by numbers. Numbers were his thing. If he couldn’t win a battle of numbers, then what the fuck could he do? “Hang in there, Tokoyami!”
“Doing what we can, Endo!” was the response he got, but he just needed a moment.
It was time to let go of all the bullshit he’d had to put up with. All that anxiety that he’d been bombarded with, now he could let it free. He could unleash all that bile on Ectoplasm in a productive way. ‘What more could I ask for?’ he thought with a grin on his face as a Giant Nevermore rose from his shadow, accompanied by a bunch of Beowolf limbs that clawed at Ectoplasm’s clones to buy time. He didn’t even need to channel the anxiety node much to do it. That was how crazy the amounts of the emotion he was getting were.
Soon, the negativity bird started raining its feathers on them, but the clones persisted, continuing to rush at them. A punch to his side had Kazuki coughing for air, pulling back and putting a Boarbatusk side between himself and Ectoplasm. Sensing sharp pain coming from Tokoyami told him that he was in a similar situation. They were running out of time, not because of the limit of the exam, but because they were getting their asses kicked.
‘You want numbers?’ he thought, his shadow extending even more and more Grimm forming out of it. Not limbs though, full Grimm, every single one of them, easily reaching his limit. ‘I’ll give you numbers,’ he added, extending his shadow even more.
God did it feel good to let loose after those bullshit days.
He had many more Grimm where those had come from too and he wasn’t going to just roll over and fail the practical exam. Fuck that. He hadn’t suffered through all those days training his ass off to fail. He hadn’t studied until late at night and withstood all those days filled with nerves and fear and doubt and panic just fo fail.
He wouldn't fail.
He couldn’t fail.
He needed more Grimm.
‘I can’t though,’ he thought as he continued his struggles. He couldn’t make too many Grimm or things would get out of hand. Hell, he probably couldn’t make his maximum number, considering how much of a mess of emotions he was. He was surely bound to slip if he pushed too much and that’d just screw him over for the exam regardless of how things went. ‘I can’t control them… But… do I need to?’ he thought, a sudden idea forming in his mind.
A half forgotten memory made an appearance for him.
So Kazuki grinned and made more Grimm.
All the Grimm.
“Endo!” Ectoplasm called as more and more Nevermore came from his shadows, raining feathers on the clones and maybe even the original. “You’re way past your limit. Please hold back!” the teacher shouted.
“I’m feeling like gambling, teach,” Kazuki replied, grinning widely. “And it’s all thanks to the fucking Sports Festival. Such a great idea I got here,” he said, letting go of the leash of half the Nevermore he’d made. Immediately, the frenzy started, with them charging right at everything, including Tokoyami and Dark Shadow…
Until he firmly grasped the link to the Giant Nevermore.
The huge bird cawed and the murder stopped.
“Nothing like a leader to command the group, right?” he asked, chuckling darkly. “Behold, the power of delegation,” he announced, making another Giant Nevermore.
“Should have taken me out quickly, teach,” Kazuki said, controlling his Grimm as they slowly started taking out the clones. It was difficult to tell which they were though and he didn’t want to accidentally hurt Ectoplasm himself. He was sure that wouldn’t go well for his grade.
However, he quickly figured out a trick and that was to nick the coat the hero used. Once that was done, it became evident which of them were “not real” and that was all the clue he needed to have his creatures tear them apart. He didn’t have time to waste on them, after all.
“Endo, up!” Tokoyami called, making him turn sharply.
Sure enough, there was an Ectoplasm somehow airborne and readying a kick. One of his Nevermore charged at him mid-air though. Probably would have without the warning, actually, but he appreciated it all the-
His train of thought was interrupted when Ectoplasm opened his mouth and another clone came out, bypassing the Nevermore and falling on Kazuki.
“That’s the original, Tokoyami!” he called, getting smacked to the ground by the clone that had just dropped on him. As he struggled against it though, he commanded his Nevermore to charge at the real Ectoplasm. They had to subdue him, so- ‘I have the cuffs, fuck,’ he thought, snarling as he continued to fight against the clone.
It was easier said than done though. He might be good at Quirkless combat, but there was a difference between that and fighting a fully realized hero, one that taught at UA to boot. Hell, even Uwabami had kicked his ass back in the internship. There was just too much difference between them in skill. Too many years of experience and training separated them.
Still though… he didn’t need to win.
“Tokoyami, catch!” he called, forming an Imp arm behind him to take the cuffs from him as he held back the clone. Then he had it toss it towards Tokoyami to the side. He was careful to have plenty of Nevermore around to cover though. The last thing they needed was Ectoplasm stealing it from them.
“Finally my turn!” Dark Shadow exclaimed with a cackle, but Kazuki had already turned his attention back to his fight and his Grimm. He’d done what he could for his teammate. It was in Tokoyami’s hands now and…
“Well,” the clone said, stopping fighting him in an instant. “It seems like you pass,” he added, letting go, pulling away and turning towards where the original was, cuffed and with Dark Shadow beside him. “Good job, Endo. Although, I’m sure everyone would appreciate it if you didn’t throw surprises like that at us.”
“Gotta keep you on your toes,” he muttered, rubbing one of the spots that was the most sore from Ectoplasm’s hits.
“Do try not to push too much, Endo… but good job, again,” the clone told him, offering him a hand. “You’ve passed and you did well at that. Good job. Although, it seems I might be rusty. I expected to make you struggle more.”
“Well, I’m always up for a group fight,” Kazuki offered jokingly, only to see the clone tilt his head.
“I might just take you up on that,” the copy of Ectoplasm said, making his eyes widen. “Not often I come across someone that can match me “one on one”, as it were. It’ll be interesting, especially without holding back.”
“I suddenly feel like I might have punched way above my weight class,” he commented, nerves of his own gripping at his heart.
“You sure did, kid,” the clone told him with a chuckle. “But at least you’ll learn something.”
“I guess that’s all I can ask for,” he commented wryly.
“Indeed. Now, let’s all move to Recovery Girl, alright? We could all use some quick treatment.”
“I won’t say no to that,” Kazuki mumbled, groaning as he twisted his body a little and felt a bruise or three flare up.
[}-o-{]
“And that’s how we won!” Toru narrated animatedly.
The invisible girl had taken the duty of informing him of how things had gone with the tests. After all, Shoji and her had been the first ones to start, apparently, and the first ones to finish. After them, Iida and Mashiro had succeeded against Power Loader, getting through his literal minefield full of all sorts of traps.
Kazuki kind of wanted to see if there was a record of that, because it sounded like a fun watch.
Then there were Momo and Shoto, who had gone up against Aizawa. A Quirk counter against a pair of people with very strong Quirks, Kazuki thought that made sense. However, he also thought Momo had solid chances there, since she could preemptively create stuff to use… and that’s what Toru told him had more or less happened. Didn’t hurt that those two were some of the smartest people in the class at large.
Kyoka and Asui had somehow managed to blitz past Present Mic. To hear Toru tell it, it’d been kind of anticlimactic how easily they did it, with Kyoka playing bait while Asui ambushed the man. That was the quick summary, but by the sounds of it, the exam had been cool, if quick.
Minoru had pulled through too, apparently, and against Midnight, who was… Well, his weakness, sort of. He’d also taken Sero through the gate, but apparently that didn’t count. So, only Minoru had passed. Sad for Sero, but Kazuki couldn’t honestly say he cared overly much.
Surprise of the day though, Midoriya and Bakugo had passed too. To hear Toru tell it, she wasn’t even sure if they’d worked together or they’d just done their own thing and somehow it looked like they worked together. Kazuki didn’t even know what was more likely to have been the case, really.
He really would like to know what the fuck happened, but oh well.
“That leaves, what? Mina, Kaminari, Eijiro, Sato and Uraraka? Did you find out what’s up with the odd number?” he asked, because before the entire thing had been set up, they’d just been told that their lack of a classmate had been taken into account and nothing else.
“Yes, but I’ll let it be a surprise,” Toru said, giggling to herself. “Also, they should be arriving soon. They finished a little after you,” she added, turning towards the door as if expecting them to walk through any second. “Eijiro and Sato were together, by the way, they couldn’t get through Cementoss in time and failed,” she summarized, making him grimace. Well, that sucked for their red-haired friend.
“And the rest?” he asked, blinking as he tried to sense the new arrivals coming. He did get several bundles of emotion. The number didn’t quite add up though, as he separated the different people, but maybe he was reading things wrong? The emotions didn’t quite fit what he’d expect from the teachers though, considering everything.
Looking even deeper made it make even less sen-
He blinked as the doors opened and a batch of people came through.
“Hey, Boss,” Chikuchi greeted sheepishly, making his eyes widen and a smile appear on his face.
“Chikuchi! You took part in the exam too?” he asked, moving up the General course student. “How did you do?” he added, grinning even wider as his mind finished processing what this meant. “Did they give you the spot? What’s going on?”
“I don’t have the spot yet,” she answered first, which was a bummer, quite honestly. “It’s just another chance, if you will. And… We passed, Uraraka and I,” she finished and some of his cheer came right back. “It was a close thing. Thirteen was… incredible.”
“Tell me about it. How did it go? Do we have to add something to training?” he asked her and the girl seemed to get even happier.
“We were kind of… trapped. She was using her Quirk and we couldn’t go anywhere… I barely managed to shoot my needles off to the side without them getting sucked by the black hole,” Chikuchi started answering and he had to hold back a question of why she’d shoot away. “From there, I could shoot it again further back and then from Thirteen’s blindspot.”
“Oh, smart. I knew you were second-in-command for a reason,” he praised, making the girl blush a little.
“Uraraka’s the one that subdued Thirteen though. You might want to check with her for hand-to-hand combat, Boss,” the girl added, which he noted for the future. If Chikuchi said that, then it must have been true. It wasn’t like she didn’t know anything about close combat, after all. That couldn’t happen while on his team.
“Oh man,” Kaminari said as he walked through the doors then. “That sucked.”
“Tell me about it,” Mina readily agreed behind him, walking in wearily.
“It was bullshit,” another voice said and Kazuki felt his eye twitch. “How’s it that I get put up against machines again?!” Shinso spat out, every word feeling like a colder version of Bakugo’s tirades. “How am I supposed to show what I can do in that situation? Wasn’t the Entrance Exam enough?”
“Crying injustice some more, huh?” Kazuki asked, raising an unimpressed eyebrow.
“Shut up,” the purple-haired boy said, a glare on his face and emotions bleeding out of him that could give Bakugo a run for his money. The guy really didn’t like Kazuki, huh? He was actually a little curious about why… but not much. “How did you do?” Shinso asked then, turning towards Chikuchi, who seemed taken aback by the hostility.
“Better than you, evidently,” Kazuki answered in her stead. He was the Boss, after all. He couldn’t let his people get bullied like that, could he? Especially not after they’d secured such an important win.
“You could show what you can do without your Quirk, Shinso,” Aizawa said, from where he’d been standing, off to the side with some other teachers. “And you did well, all things considered. At least skill-wise. You need to work on your attitude, however.”
“Excuse me?!”
“To those who passed, congratulations. To those that didn’t…” their teacher said, leaving the last statement incomplete, which kind of spoke for itself. “We’ll review the overall performance of everyone for the final grade, but passing and failing are still absolute. For now… you are free to go.”
‘Finally over,’ Kazuki thought, deflating with a relieved sigh.
God was he done with the exam period.
“Let’s celebrate!” Toru exclaimed then, and he chuckled.
Yeah, celebrating sounded nice.
[} Chapter End {]
Hey guys! How’s it going?
Well, I went with a bit of a mix between manga and anime (at least from what the wiki says since I only check the manga). The exams happened roughly at the same time instead of one after the other. I just thought it’d be fun to add the varying starting times thing. And I think it works better from what I saw in the manga, considering Izuku had time to finish he exam and still catch a few others somehow, which doesn’t make much sense to me.
Or maybe I’m just being overly critical or something. Either way, this is what I went for. I was actually expecting the practical exam to be more epic, but… I guess this is it? I don’t know, Muse doing Muse things.
Fun fact though, there were a bunch of groups now that I was unsure of how their exams would go. Most of them I saw going just about the same as canon, but there were obvious differences in the groups with different members. So, I did some consulting with the Dice Gods.
Passing great was 15 (considering I very much saw these groups struggling) and the results were:
Kyoka and Asui: 20
Chikuchi and Uraraka: 16
Shinso, Kaminari and Mina: 13
Can’t say I’m unhappy with that result. I was half dreading what I’d have to do if Shinso won and Togeike didn’t, but that didn’t happen. Good on the second-in-command, I guess.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.
I also hope that you had a good time at Christmas and I wish you a Happy New Year.
Important: I’m going on a vacation at the end of this week, as I announced some time ago. Thus, I won’t be updating anything for a whole month. Wish me luck, guys, because pre-vacation times have not been kind to me.
Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ
Random Question: What’s the first number you can see after looking away from the screen? I see a 22 on my microwave.
See you.
