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Darkest Before Dawn - 82
🕑 Added 2024-10-17 17:57:44 +0000 UTCChapter 82
Idly, Kazuki practiced different expressions, just like he had the previous night with Hina.
Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to do that in the middle of class? That was probably a reasonable thought. However, they were currently going over crowd control procedures which was… not that interesting. It was important and all, but Kazuki thought it was a job that didn’t suit him at all.
He was more likely to cause problems with a crowd than anything else, after all.
Granted, few heroes were suited for it and even fewer dedicated themselves to that. Alas, it was something most heroes had to do at least once. After all, there’d come a time when a hero would be put in a situation where their Quirk and skills wouldn’t be helpful. That’s where alternative training like crowd control would come in. After all, if you couldn’t fight a villain because you were more likely to make matters worse, then at least you could make sure the crowd around were safe and such.
Kinda like what they’d done in Hosu, thinking about it.
‘I should pay attention,’ he thought, his excuses about crowd control not being his thing falling apart on their own. With a sigh, he focused back on the class, running his fingers through his hair. He was getting better at doing that without completely ruining the style of it, which was nice. He didn’t want to have to hold back on all gestures. It made him feel stiff.
Back to what he’d been doing though, maybe he could practice acting during a break? That sounded like as good an idea as any. He’d found that acting was… kind of fun. And he was good at it, which certainly helped.
Granted, maybe it was kind of cheating a little. He could fake negative emotions with laughable ease, after all. It was just a matter of finding a source of the emotions he was looking for and focusing on it. Failing that, he could pull on the nodes in a controlled manner… which he was still working on, but the point stood. Positive emotions were more complicated, but according to Hina, it was harder to fake negative emotions anyway, so he had the difficult part covered.
Then again, Kazuki was fairly sure that the positive part would be as hard for him as the negative one would be for others. He refrained from telling Hina that, but he was pretty sure it was going to happen. With that in mind, he was trying to work on that just in case.
Maybe his friends could help with that?
Something to think about.
For the moment, Kazuki really needed to get his head in the game, because he was barely hearing the explanation about how to best defuse a fight situation. Not with villains, but with civilians. One would think having a hero present would be enough, but… Well, some people’s common sense could stop working at the oddest of times occasionally.
Granted, in those kinds of situations, heroes always had the nuclear option, scaring the civilians into compliance. As with most things though, Kazuki was put in a tough spot because of who he was. The nuclear option was quite literally that for him, instead of just an annoying resource as it was for others. Scaring people in compliance could only end badly for him, so he’d really have to do his best to deal with things the proper way.
‘What a pain in the ass,’ he thought, wanting to sigh. It wasn’t like he particularly disliked dealing with people, he was getting better at that and all. However, the examples they were going through with the lessons really didn’t paint a pretty picture and his sole presence was bound to make them worse.
So, he’d basically be playing in hell mode when dealing with such things.
How fun.
Such was the nature of most things though, he supposed. There were parts that were easy, parts that were fun… and then the parts that were hard and annoying. He was just unfortunate in the fact that some things were extra hard and extra annoying for him. No use complaining about it though. He’d just have to power through it.
He wasn’t the only one struggling at least, Kazuki supposed. He was feeling the boredom, frustration and exhaustion bleeding out of his classmates. That didn’t help, but he knew that wasn’t his, so he tried to take comfort in their shared hardships. Misery loved company, after all.
He wondered how they’d react if he told them that.
Eventually, their suffering ended… for a time. Next class was math and few people were fans of that… if any at all. Kazuki certainly wasn’t, being honest, which made him feel even more tired than he already was just by thinking about what awaited them a few minutes in the future.
“Why are we here?” Minoru asked, looking dead inside. “Just to suffer?”
“Yeah,” Kazuki agreed, drawing a roll of Momo’s eyes. Everyone else seemed to be on their side though, except maybe Shoto. He was usually kind of indifferent to classes. Kazuki envied him that… sort of. He definitely didn’t envy the fact that he didn’t seem to like any of their classes.
At least he had rescue lectures to look forward to and music in art class… ‘And maybe acting in art class? We haven’t done any of that, but maybe in the future?’ he wondered idly, tilting his head.
“Almost want to just put on some music for myself,” Kyoka grumbled, drawing a scandalized look from Momo. “Classes are fine, but now that we are studying extra for the tests…” she explained herself, trailing off with a sigh.
“I feel you,” Toru agreed, dropping her whole body on her desk. “I just wanna go home and do nothing for a few years.”
“You all…” Momo said, at a loss for words as she shook her head.
“Is this some kind of joke I’m not getting?” Shoto asked cluelessly.
Kazuki just sighed, preparing himself to be the social teacher again.
What was the world coming to when that person was him?
[}-o-{]
Kazuki found himself once more overseeing his group’s training in the facilities.
That particular day, they were training in subduing enemies instead of all out battles. After all, it wasn’t like they could just kill villains out there. Well… it happened, on occasion, but it was definitely not acceptable unless the situation was very specific. There was a shitstorm everytime something like that happened, the higher ranked the hero, the worse the fallout.
So, that day, everyone was tasked with subduing his grimm without causing any big injuries and certainly without causing them to dissolve. So far… things were interesting. It wasn’t the first day they tried this training, but it was certainly in the minority of it.
After all, they were focusing much more on testing things, pushing their Quirks boundaries and getting better. It was never really about killing the grimm – or subduing them in this case –, it was about improving. They had years in UA to get better at fighting and everything else. Or so was the thought process, at least.
Considering the USJ, the internships and the Sports Festival though… Well, they didn’t want to neglect aspects of their career, no matter how tempting it was to push their Quirks to be better. Thus, they’d come up with somewhat of a rotation for training. Most days, they did general training, just aiming to get stronger and overall better. Some others though, they’d do subduing training, rescue training and so on.
All in all, Kazuki was certainly on board. Every different scenario they could come up with involved his Grimm in one way or another. At that moment, they acted as villains, just like they would act as sparring partners or targets. However, sometimes, he’d use them as victims to rescue and so on.
Which helped, because the more varied the use of his Grimm, the better.
His control was getting better too. He was managing nine Grimm at that very moment and he only had a handful of scares that went away with a warning from Toru. Sounded like a lot, especially after a while having more or less gotten the hang of things, but he was back to pushing his limits now that he didn’t feel as worn down. The big interview hadn’t been so long before that, but it certainly felt so.
Now that he was getting his feet under him in ways that didn’t involve answering questions with a microphone in front of his face, Kazuki was starting to feel better too. His body seemed to have more energy, like he’d finally been able to get proper rest after a long time of sleeping poorly. Even his mind was working better, despite the strain studying was putting it through.
Now that the press didn’t feel like a bunch of guns pointed at him anymore, Kazuki felt… freer, he supposed.
So, it was back to business as usual for him, he supposed. Maybe even better than before, despite the frequent interviews outside the school. He was getting better. He was learning. He was taking steps to improve things. His life was on the up and up.
And yet, the black spots stood out all the more, ruining everything.
His parents still haunted him. Bad news reports still got to him. People’s reaction to him walking past them still hurt. And, maybe the one that affected him the most, Distressed was still nowhere to be found.
“Kazuki,” Toru told him, placing her hand on his upper arm and pulling him out of his thoughts. One of his beowolves had gotten a little out of control, but it was child’s play to pull its metaphorical leash. ‘I must be doing great, if it took that long for something to happen when I’m this out of it,’ he thought with a wry smile.
“Sorry.”
“It’s what I’m here for, isn’t it?” the invisible girl asked him cheerfully, like usual. That was what he appreciated the most about her. She was always positive, always shining as much as she did when she unleashed her light manipulation on them. Sort of like Mei, he supposed, but more happy than weirdly non-negative.
“That and moral support,” he answered, giving voice to his thoughts, somewhat. “No one better to keep my mood up.”
“Oh, shut up,” Toru told him, bumping her shoulder against his… somewhat. She was a little short for that. “Flatterer.”
“Just saying it as I see it,” he replied with a smile. “Are they looking a little tired to you?” he asked then, turning his attention back to their group. He could feel their exhaustion, of course, but it was difficult to measure with so many people in close proximity. And besides, sometimes people felt weariness differently, like with any emotion. What could be dead on their feet for someone, could just be a light jog’s toll on someone else.
“Looks like it to me,” Toru mumbled, bumping against him once more. “Nice topic change, by the way.”
“Thanks,” he replied, amused.
“Speaking of topic changes… Say, Kazuki…” she started then as he tried to determine when to call the training off. Idly, he noticed that Toru was feeling pretty nervous, which clued him in that he should pay attention. “Are you doing anything this weekend?” she asked in the end.
“Just the usual, studying. Probably seeing if anyone wants to do something?” he answered, thinking it over as he spoke. He might practice his acting too, he supposed. He hadn’t told that to his friends yet though. It felt… kind of embarrassing. Especially considering it might not happen at all. Maybe he should though. “Did you need something?” he asked back afterwards. Toru wasn’t one to get nervous when asking to hang out, after all, so maybe there was something going on?
“Not really, I just… I mean…” she tried to start, not quite getting out whatever she wanted to say.
Whatever it was though, got interrupted when Kazuki turned his head sharply towards the training area. Kamakiri had slipped, his exhaustion getting the better of him, which almost ended badly with one of the Grimm that he was fighting. After all, they were on autopilot and under control not to go too strongly against them, but Kazuki was the one that had to call them off.
“Ok, everyone! That’s it for now!” he shouted, pulling the metaphorical strings on all his Grimm to make them stop as safely as possible. “Sorry for the interruption,” he added, turning back towards Toru. “What was it you needed?”
“I… I just think I could use some more studying, is all,” she admitted, feeling plenty disappointed for whatever reason. Maybe she thought she should be doing better?
“Sure, we can have another study session. Do you want me to check on everyone else?” he asked. Considering everything, maybe she felt bad for needing more help? She might feel self-conscious about asking everyone about it.
“Do you think… it could just be the two of us?” Toru asked, shifting on her feet and her nervousness spiking. She definitely felt embarrassed about it, Kazuki decided.
“Sure thing,” he readily agreed. He was going to be studying anyway, so he might as well help a friend while at it.
“Really?” Toru asked, perking up and he was surprised there were no shining lights around. Just with the tone of her voice he could tell that she was really happy.
“Really,” he answered with a half-smile. “Maybe you can help me with something too,” he added absently. Having a third opinion on his acting practice could be useful, he supposed.
“Oh? With what?” Toru asked curiously. “You need help with the tank?”
“No… Not this time, at least,” he answered, turning thoughtful. “Eh, I could have Grimm help me with that if it ever comes up, unless you want to help, that is,” he explained. The tank might be beautiful and all, but there were parts of taking care of it that weren’t so nice. He didn’t want to make her help when it wasn’t necessary.
“I want to,” Toru told him earnestly. “Maybe you can help me set up one too? A smaller one, I don’t think I could manage one that big.”
“Bigger tanks are actually easier,” he replied almost on autopilot. “They have more water so the water parameters don’t change quite as suddenly,” he added before realizing that he was the only one that knew what he was talking about or cared. Then again, Toru said she was interested so… “Anyway, sure, I can ask you to help sometime then.”
“Please do,” she said with a hum and a nod.
Idly, Kazuki noticed that she seemed to have forgotten about the thing she could help him with… Oh well, that’d give him time to decide if he wanted to reveal that just yet, he supposed. Kazuki wasn’t complaining about that, that was for sure.
“So, what’s next for the great Beacon?” Toru asked while their friends tried to catch their breaths. “Huh, that has a nice ring to it, the Great Be-”
“I wanted to try making a new Grimm,” he interrupted, because he’d rather not get stuck with another nickname. Great Beacon wasn’t worse than Monster Daddy, not even close, but it was the principle of the matter.
“Oh? What is it?” she asked curiously. “Is it a bull?”
“No?” he answered, a little confused. Where’d the bull thing come from?
“Parrot?”
He just blinked at that one.
“Rat? No, wait, mouse?”
Not like either of those were too different from one another. Especially considering his Grimm weren’t really all that close to whatever they were based on. Thus, Kazuki just stared at Toru while she started throwing guesses at him.
Eventually, he rolled his eyes and turned to actually do what he’d set out to do now that he had time.
Taking a deep breath in, he conjured his plan for the next Grimm. It was fairly simple, really. An upgrade of sorts to the Beowolf, that was all it was. Or maybe it was better to say that it was a modification? Either way, he had a fairly good idea of how the creature would be this time. Not that he expected it’d be like it seemed in his mind. There were always differences, bigger or smaller, but there were.
From the corner of his eye, Kazuki noticed Toru’s clothes floating beside him, ready to witness the new creation.
He put her out of his mind though.
Instead, he focused on extending his shadow and starting to mold the negativity in his pools. The first thing to take shape was the body, slowly as usual with first attempts, but it wasn’t all that complicated. The tricky part was the fur, because he wanted it to be a little more special… That was the idea, at least. Instead, Kazuki had to add a little more negativity to everything, not just the hair but the muscles and even the bones.
Once that was done, taking more than expected but still, it was time to get to another important part of the Grimm, the bone spikes and plates. It wasn’t like the thing was as armored as the Boarbatusk, but it was certainly more defended than most of his Grimm. Those were also going to be special, somewhat. For whatever reason though, Kazuki found that making the entire thing took… less than he’d expected. Then again, it wasn’t a complicated Grimm by any means. He did note the most evident change from what he’d planned, considering the more rounded shape of the head and the more animal-ish look of the creature.
Still, if it worked, it worked.
“Does this mean you can make Teddy Bears now?” Toru asked and he chuckled. Well, that was one thing to take from the new Grimm, he supposed. To be honest though, Kazuki had taken that into account when coming up with it.
Slowly, he moved the new Grimm closer to him and planted his hand over the bone-masked head.
“Ursa,” he said, naming his new creature.
[}-o-{]
After finishing the admittedly anticlimactically easy new Grimm attempt, Kazuki had proceeded to test it against other creatures of his. That and a bit of help from the agreeable Shoto, Kyoka and even Kaminari… them and a less agreeable Bakugo. These people helped Kazuki confirm that, yes, the Ursa was much better at taking special attacks. It couldn’t hold a candle to the Boarbatusk against physical attacks, but fire, ice, electricity, sound and explosions were tanked like they were a light breeze.
… Well, that might be an exaggeration, but the point stood that it worked a lot better.
‘Well, on to learning how to use them well… and to making the next one,’ he thought to himself, going over some of his plans for future Grimm. Not that he was eager to have a lot of Grimm variants. Kazuki was a little concerned that having too many would affect him negatively, but that was a problem for future Kazuki to deal with. It was true that it was better to have options and not need them than need them and not have them.
“Boss.”
“Chikuchi,” he greeted with a smile, cracking his neck as he pondered if he should finish the Grimm training and do some physical exercise. Not a lot of time left in the day and he’d been a little too busy with everyone else and his new Ursa. “Still have energy left for Quirk training or do you want to spar?”
“No!” she exclaimed instantly, her eyes going wide and her face pale. Kazuki almost grinned at the sight, but she continued before he could, taking his mind away from that. “No need for that. I was just here to tell you that there’s people looking for you,” she added just as quickly and he blinked before following the direction she signaled towards with her hand.
Sure enough, he understood almost instantly, what with the trio of people that looked very out of place.
“Yep,” Chikuchi confirmed with a nod. “Still recruiting for the agency, Mr. Beacon?”
“Of course. Signal Agency can’t run just on heroes and support, you know? Need all sorts of people to help keep things going,” he replied, keeping a straight face all throughout as he made up the first name that came to mind.
“Signal Agency, huh?” Chikuchi asked, amused. “Doesn’t sound so bad.”
“If you say so,” Kazuki said, shaking his head and taking a deep breath in. “Well, time to bite the bullet, I guess.”
“Need some backup?”
“Thanks, but no. I should do this on my own,” he answered. He appreciated the offer anyway though. It was nice to know that someone had his back, or would have, at least. “This is for me.”
“For how long?” Chikuchi asked, as if she were expecting it to bleed into their little pseudo-hero group. Being fair, Kazuki wasn’t sure if it would or wouldn’t, so maybe she was on to something?
“Not sure,” he mumbled. “I’ll be going now, enough delay.”
“Good luck, Boss.”
And oh, did he feel like he’d need it.
He wasn’t even sure why he was so nervous, really. Even if things didn’t go well, nothing bad would happen. Then again, things going well was probably a reason to be nervous, funnily enough. Because if the Management students decided to help him out… Then things would get much bigger than they were.
With a chance of success helping him immensely with his image problems… but a chance of failure making things worse, of course. A gamble and a huge step, all rolled into one thing. ‘Business as usual,’ he thought to himself, taking another deep breath in, he moved towards the Management course students.
“Nagashira, Masu, Keage,” he greeted, plastering his best smile to get things on the road. “I imagine this is about what we talked about last time?” he asked, even though it was obvious. He couldn’t imagine what else they could be approaching him about, considering they hadn’t ever talked before. “We can move to somewhere more private if you guys want, considering… Well, I think it’s obvious,” he offered them, glancing meaningfully to the training facilities. There weren’t all that many people around at that hour, but still.
“Somewhere else would be better,” Keage replied calmly with a nod, while his two friends looked a lot less composed. They were doing their best to make a Midoriya impression, by the looks of it, but Kazuki wasn’t too concerned. As nervous and afraid as they were, the negativity wasn’t directed at him… or so he thought, and there wasn’t any animosity that he could sense.
“Sure thing,” Kazuki said with a nod, leaving the facilities and leading them to a classroom that was empty by that point. He’d prepared ahead of time for something like that to happen and asked Inui if he could use some place for their inevitable talk. There were plenty of places he’d been told about, each fitting the places close where the Management trio could find him at, his classroom, the cafeteria, the facilities and even the counselor’s office. “So…” he prompted them once they were alone, moving to rest against a desk, putting on his best relaxed front.
He needed to project confidence and ease, he’d been told. That way they’d feel better, since he wasn’t what they’d be nervous about. If he was confident in things, they’d feel more calm when it came to tackling his… case, as it were.
“We… are interested,” Masu spoke first, finding the words after a long moment of silence. “Everything you said is right down our alley, of course. We can definitely see the benefits of this going well, but if it does not…”
“That could impact our career a lot,” Nagashira finished, rubbing the back of his neck. “Could we keep our names out of things?”
“Sure,” Kazuki agreed easily. Sure, that might make it seem like there’d be less accountability for what they did, but he wasn’t worried about that. He’d been regularly checking on them to make sure that they didn’t purposely screw him over, so he was confident in that, at least, and Maeda had reassured him that she’d check on things to make sure they weren’t messing up.
“Great,” Masu replied, letting out a relieved sigh and visibly deflating. “Now… There was another thing we wanted to talk about,” were the words that followed, to which he raised an eyebrow.
“We heard about the group you’ve put together, with Monoma, Togeike and Hatsume,” Keage said, expression blank as usual. “We want in.”
‘... What?’
[} Chapter End {]
Hey guys! How’s it going?
Nothing to see here, guys, just characters doing character things as usual. I’m not even surprised anymore, with any of their randomness in this chapter. It was actually kind of fun. I think I might be fully embracing their bullshit and letting go of my plans.
It’d be nice not to be annoyed at my plans falling apart.
Anyway, special mention to Tony McNucklz in FFN. He’s the one that inspired this chapter’s a bit more in depth look into our guys’ training. I was kind of hyperfocusing on the heavier training they were doing and leaving aside the more situational one. Which gave the wrong impression, because yeah, as he pointed out in his review some time ago, it doesn’t make sense for hero students to train to kill the Grimm all the time.
Hope this assuaged your worries, buddy.
Also hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ
Random Question: How do you think Kazuki’s now inevitable plunge into social media is gonna go?
See you.
