AdrianKing
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Darkest Before Dawn - 77
🕑 Added 2024-09-12 17:53:54 +0000 UTCChapter 77
“Y-Yes, that’s us,” the closest one of the three answered and Kazuki regarded… Were they a boy or a girl, actually? He couldn’t quite tell. “I’m Komaku Masu. And you are Ka-Kazuki Endo, right?” they asked back, stumbling over his name in a way that almost made him smile wryly. They seemed more than a little nervous, from what he could tell, and even afraid.
There wasn’t much else other than that though, so he guessed that was better than anger or disgust or some other such emotion.
“That’s me, yes,” he answered with a smile on his face that reflected none of his inner thoughts. It wasn’t the time to feel apprehensive, nervous or unsure. Now, he needed to put his best foot forward. “I’m sorry for interrupting,” he added, glancing around.
“No, no, it’s fine,” Nagashira told him, joining the conversation from where he stood, a little to the side and further than Masu. “We were just organizing some paperwork. That’s all. Our supervising teacher had to leave, but we’ve been doing this for a while anyway, so-” Well, it seemed that Nagashira was a rambler. In a way, he reminded him of Midoriya right at that moment.
Apparently, where Hero course students often went to the training facilities to get better, the management class did so by helping around the school. That wasn’t exactly news to Kazuki, since they very much acted that way when it came to meetings between class representatives. They’d even go as far as bringing one or two other students that weren’t even supposed to be in the meetings to help around.
He’d never paid them too much attention though, since he had his own things to take care of and his hands full dealing with his own responsibilities in those meetings. Now that he was looking into them though, that kind of thing became more important. ‘I could have been working on this from the beginning, damnit,’ he cursed internally.
Although, he probably really couldn’t have. As it was, he didn’t have all that much free time. If he’d tried to pile up interacting with the Management course students, he likely would have had even less. And less time for the stuff he’d been doing so far could have ended with a different result in many places…
‘No use thinking about all this now though,’ he decided.
“What Nagashira is trying to say-,” Masu said, bringing him back to the present and interrupting the boy’s ramble. No wonder his mind had drifted so much. As it was, he could barely understand that he was actually talking about, let alone catch sentences or even words. “-is that you aren’t interrupting anything. Do the teachers need anything?”
“No, no. I was looking for you myself. I have something to talk about with you, if you are free. I can wait until you are done though,” he offered calmly. “I don’t mind at all.”
“I-I mean,” Masu started, but they didn’t seem to know where to go from there. None of them seemed to have expected him to be looking for them. Not that he blamed them for that. He’d have been surprised if someone from their class looked for him too.
“We are almost done, so if you really don’t mind…” Keage finished for his fellow student, apparently the most composed of them all. He reminded Kazuki of Shoto, sort of. He seemed to have that cold calm going for him.
“I don’t. Please, finish what you are doing. I’ll just wait outside,” he replied, smiling widely to let them know it was fine. Not ideal, of course, but fine all the same. He wasn’t in any rush, really. Some more time would allow him to go over his notes and prepare a little more, he supposed. He just needed to make sure he wouldn’t chicken out. “Again, sorry for the interruption,” he told them, bowing his head a little and then leaving the room.
He heard some hushed whispers, but he couldn’t make sense of any of them, so he pushed them out of his mind. Or, he tried, because he really wanted to know what they thought of him. Fortunately, he didn’t think it was anything bad. Once he left, their emotions seemed to have settled for something much more calm.
Kazuki wondered if that’d continue to be the case once they got to talking… and once he told them what he was there for.
As it was, he spent the next few minutes just standing against a wall, having pulled up his notebook and a pencil. There, he went over his notes and plans, trying to see if there was any problem anywhere and continuing to fill out possible holes in the ideas. Fortunately, failure didn’t mean anything too bad in that instance.
Which was an oddity for Kazuki, really.
He was used to anything he did being a huge gamble, but this time failure was fine. One could say that succeeding was the problematic outcome in that situation, ironically enough. After all, succeeding meant-
“Um,” a voice called and he looked up to see Masu peeking out the door. Well, that had been quicker than he thought. Then again, they did say they were almost done, he supposed. “We can talk now if you want, Mr. Endo.”
Woah.
It was kind of awkward to be addressed so formally by someone his age. He almost reacted strongly because of that, but, fortunately for him, his training helped him pull through. So, instead, he smiled and went to put his things back inside his backpack.
“There’s no need to add the Mr., you know?” he told them, moving to walk through the door. “You can call me Endo or Kazuki, whatever works for you.”
“Endo will do then,” Keage replied calmly with a nod while the others shifted a little, as if uncomfortable. Kazuki didn’t take that to heart though. They were just nervous. “Can we know why you were looking for us?”
“Right,” Kazuki said, nodding and taking a deep breath in. “I’m sure you know who I am and probably have seen what’s going on with me through the news and such.”
“We do and we have. It’s actually a fascinating case to study. Our classmates and us have been following it since we figured it out,” Masu replied and Kazuki blinked at the enthusiasm with which that was said. It was actually a little surprise. “Ah, eh, sorry, I didn’t mean to-” Masu continued, clearly realizing that Kazuki might be less than pleased with his situation being called “fascinating” of all things.
That was the wrong impression though.
“Don’t worry about it. I guess you aren’t wrong that I’m in quite the interesting situation,” he said, smiling still even if it was more of a struggle. Interesting and fascinating weren’t the words he’d use, but each person saw things differently. To the Management course, his situation was just that. They didn’t know him, didn’t care for him. He was just a stranger in a situation full of stuff that involved exactly what they specialized in. “This is kind of why I’m here, actually.”
Taking a moment, he ran his fingers through his hair, moving slowly and carefully to not ruin it. This doubled as him buying time to think and also check the three other students’ emotions. ‘So far so good. Now, the actual talk can start.’
“I need help and people from your course are exactly what I’m looking for,” he explained, catching them off guard but not much. “You figured that out, it seems,” he added with a grin. “That makes sense. I asked around a little and you three were the ones that stood out the most. To quote what I heard, if the Sports Festival were management oriented, you three would be the top three of it instead of Midoriya, Neito and me.”
He wasn’t even exaggerating to butter them up. That was quite literally what he’d heard. Chikuchi had told him that, actually. The General course and the Management course were pretty close to each other. Sort of like the Hero and Support courses, but even more so.
On top of that, he’d asked Inui for help on that too. The school couldn’t quite disclose information about the students just because, but they’d been able to give him some to work with. He didn’t know if that was actually allowed or not, but he didn’t ask either. So long as he could get things done, he’d trust the staff to know what they were doing.
‘God is it odd to trust people to do things for me,’ Kazuki thought to himself.
“So, you came greatly recommended, is what I’m trying to say,” he continued, happy to see that the three of them showed several tells of being fairly pleased. He wondered if that was because, much like the General course, Management was fairly overlooked by most people. Hell, the Support course too, for that matter.
At a school like U.A., it was inevitable though. It was called a Hero Academy for a reason, after all, and the number one at that. When people thought of U.A., they thought of heroes and nothing else. The same went for people in U.A. too, to an extent. Although, that didn’t seem to apply to the staff, apparently.
“I like to think I’ve been managing my situation well enough so far,” Kazuki continued, and he was surprised to be interrupted.
“You have,” Masu agreed, rather enthusiastically at that. “I… Er, I mean no offense with this, but, well.” The energy seemed to have left rather quickly, by the sound of their voice. “We didn’t expect for things to go so well. Predictions weren’t looking so good.”
“Well, you weren’t wrong,” Kazuki replied with a nod. Not something he was happy to think about, but his situation had been a major mess. “Now though… I need help, as I said, and I wanted to ask you three if you were interested in getting some more… practical experience in your field,” he offered, finally getting to it.
Now, going there, Kazuki had prepared himself for several scenarios and how to approach them. For example, there was a chance that they’d flat out refuse and want nothing to do with him. Not much he could do there other than look for other options. They could also be apprehensive, in which case he might be able to convince them with some effort.
He’d even prepared for the chance that they might like the idea, weird as that’d be for him.
“What would we have to do?” Keage asked, expression flat as Shoto’s, which made him look rather intimidating, Kazuki would admit. ‘Ok, the most complicated of them all,’ he thought wryly. Because them not giving him anything to work with was the worst situation.
At least, it would have been if he hadn’t been able to pick up on their emotions… Or rather, the lack of emotions. Because he sensed very little coming from them and that meant that they weren’t against the idea. He could certainly work with that much.
“First of all, I’m still dealing with the press and all that they represent. Public opinion, news coverage, image, reputation and so on,” Kazuki started explaining, treating the whole thing like it was an interview. “On top of that, Uwabami, my internship mentor, has offered me to look for ads and maybe even movies and series to work in,” he continued and that definitely got their attention.
He could almost see their eyes shining.
“I can learn some things, but I’m not nearly prepared to deal with all this on my own,” he told the three, who seemed to be listening intently. “On top of that, there’s something else that I want to do that… I don’t think I can even attempt on my own.”
“And what would that be?” Masu asked.
“Opening a social media account,” Kazuki answered simply, making their eyes widen. “I wouldn’t be able to deal with that can of worms once it’s opened. I was advised to find people that could manage that for me, put a barrier between me and the backlash that would be the initial stage… if I’m lucky. Otherwise it’d be a more long term thing.”
“And that’s where we come in,” Keage said, giving an understanding nod.
“Exactly,” Kazuki confirmed with a nod of his own. “So… what do you guys think?”
At that, the three of them shared a long look.
Ball was on their court now.
[}-o-{]
Well.
It seemed like the three Management students would keep the ball for a while.
They’d told him that they’d think it over, which he was fine with. Making a decision like that quickly would have probably been a little relieving but also, ironically, worrying. He’d rather they be more aware of what they were signing in for and still agree.
Kazuki wasn’t worried about being screwed over, after all, not really. He was confident he could pick up on the emotions of at least one of them if they decided to do that. No way they’d be so in sync that none of them would have a single bad emotion for him to notice. That was one of the reasons why he liked the fact that he had been recommended the three of them almost as if they were a package deal. Apparently, they were a very good team, so he’d trusted what he was told and gone for it.
Either way, he still had to wait, which was why he found himself sitting at his place and watching the news. On the table, he wrote down his observations for study, reminiscing of the breakdowns he’d do with Uwabami during their internship. Sometimes, when she called, she’d ask him a thing or two about those, so he wanted to continue doing his best.
That and it affected him, so it was better to keep an eye out.
Not a fun pastime, but that was just par for the course with someone like him. It was especially bad that night though, admittedly. The news were giving one of the worst treatments he’d had since… Well, since before the big interview, he supposed. It’d been much worse before that, so he wasn’t too affected.
It still sucked though, majorly so.
That was something Kazuki would have to get used to though. There were interviews like that just as much as there were interviews that actually took his side and everything in between. Sometimes reporters focused on one thing or sometimes on another. Kazuki was sort of starting to get the hang of who wanted what and how to best give them exactly that… Or to try and dodge the topic if he thought they just wanted fuel to burn him with.
It was complicated, but that was probably going to be part of his life… forever, basically.
Kazuki would just have to learn how to deal with it. There was no way to avoid it and no way to stop it. Just like his Quirk, he supposed. It was awful and it worked against him more than it did in his favor, but that was because he didn’t know what he was doing. Maybe one day he’d learn to harness the media like how he’d learned to harness his Quirk.
It’d never not be shitty, but maybe he could do something positive with it too.
He could hope, at the very least.
“Careful there, buddy,” he commented idly, his lips pulling up into a half-smile as the reporter continued talking. “You’re starting to sound like a conspiracy theorist there,” he continued, leaning back and listening intently. After a minute, he was pretty sure there’d be a meme or two about the guy.
Those were always fun to see, especially when they were made from people talking badly about him. Sure, it didn’t take the sting away, but it soothed it somewhat, to see that people weren’t taking them seriously or were outright mocking them. Maybe those people weren’t necessarily on his side, but if they were against the reporter, then that worked well enough.
The enemy of one’s enemy and all that.
Once the piece was over, Kazuki sighed and rubbed his tired eyes. It was time for a break, it seemed, so he stood up and went to prepare himself a cup of coffee. He kind of needed a shot of energy after that rather draining… session or whatever. And he wasn’t even done with the thing yet, much as he’d like to be.
‘Now, how can I fix things after that?’ he wondered idly. Bad press might be… Well, bad, but it also offered openings. It gave him something to work with. They didn’t make up stories from nothing, after all. So, if he could address those things in a later interview, he could try and patch things up so that the damage was either mitigated or outright undone.
He wasn’t great at that, but that was where Maeda’s frequent calls came in.
Kazuki really needed to do something for that woman because God damn if she wasn’t carrying his creepy, accidental muss murderer ass all the way to having a decent standing in society’s opinion. No wonder people were falling over themselves to get her on their ads. If she could make him look kind of good, then she could sell literally anything to anyone.
‘Enough of that though,’ he thought to himself, sitting back down at the table and starting to write down his ideas about how to address things next time. Who knew? Maybe this time Uwabami wouldn’t have anything to point out or lecture him on.
Unlikely, very much so, but a boy could dream.
‘Less dreaming and more thinking, Kazuki,’ he told himself, sighing and focusing on what he had to do. He tried not to think about the fact that he also had homework to get done afterwards if he wanted to have a free weekend. That was just so very depressing.
[}-o-{]
“I think that would work,” Maeda told him over the phone and he leaned back, looking at the ceiling over his head.
“But?” he asked, raising an eyebrow even if his mentor couldn’t see him.
“But it lacks a little… oomph, don’t you think? We can definitely come up with something stronger, really leave an impression,” Uwabami said and Kazuki sighed. That was more or less the same thing he’d been told a bunch of times. Apparently, what he came up with was too… mild most of the time. And that was a no-no, because it left him open for others to walk all over him, in Maeda’s words.
He just never quite seemed to get it. He’d intentionally tried to come up with bolder, stronger approaches and somehow he still managed to fall short. He was too cautious, in Uwabami’s opinion, but Kazuki didn’t think he could be blamed for that. One step out of the line and he was screwed. He’d rather not fully succeed than absolutely fail, if that made any sense.
“We as in you, right?” he asked, only half-joking.
“...”
“Fine. I honestly don’t know if I can do this though. I’m just not made for this,” he said, barely holding back a sigh. “Once you get tired of me, I’ll just have to ask the Management students for help. I guess. If I can find someone that’ll help me,” he commented, looking at his notes, tapping his pencil against the page and trying to come up with something. Alas, his mind wasn’t quite on it at that moment.
“I can’t deal with you right now,” he heard his mother say on the back of his mind, followed by the click of a closed door. ‘Why won’t you stop haunting me, mom?’ he asked himself, more resigned than anything else. It was just his life. Negativity was always going to be a part of it, just like the memories of his parents and what he’d done.
“Sheesh, that reporter did a number on you, didn’t he?” Maeda asked him, finishing off the question with a soft tone. He could almost feel the pity coming from her.
“You can say that again,” he commented, not even trying to deny that fact. “It was a long day though, so that might be it,” he added. Because it truly had been.
“You’re not getting rid of me that easily, Kazuki,” Uwabami told him and the absent minded tapping stopped. “Now, tell me what else you can come up with. Don’t hold back. I’ll tell you if I think it’s too much, don’t worry, and I won’t laugh.”
I won’t laugh.
Kazuki closed his eyes, pushing aside the shrill laughter that filled his mind.
He wanted to say something.
He wanted to ask something.
He didn’t.
“Ok, let’s see,” he said instead, rubbing the back of his neck and looking at his notebook. He barely could get his mind to focus, but that was good enough. It was going to be a long session and Maeda had other things to do other than spend time on his charity case. “So, I thought I could say something else in this part before, but-”
“Tell me about it,” Uwabami told him before he could try and make excuses. The woman really couldn’t be bothered to make things easy for him, huh? Then again, that was what he liked about her, he supposed.
So, with a half-smile, he started talking.
It took a while to talk through all the points and see which ones were even worth doing something about and which were better dropped. Ultimately, Kazuki had somewhat of a plan on what to do, so he felt a lot more confident whenever he had to face another reporter. Granted, much of it depended on them allowing him to go in those paths, but it was better to be over prepared than not prepared enough.
Especially since he wasn’t confident in his ability to improvise from nothing.
“With that out of the way,” Uwabami said eventually, sounding about as tired as he felt, which only made him feel worse than he already did. “I had a very interesting talk with a producer today,” she continued and he moved to take out a bottle of water from his fridge. It seemed like his mentor wanted to talk about some random stuff, by the sounds of it.
He could lend her an ear for those though, after all she put up with for him.
“Another movie coming your way?” he asked absently, opening the bottle and taking a gulp.
“More like your way, maybe,” she answered and he choked on the water. “Well, that’s a strong reaction. Are you ok over there?” she asked, sounding somewhat amused and somewhat concerned.
“F-Fine, you just caught me off guard,” he said, coughing some more as he tried to recover. “What the fuck?”
“Language,” she chided lightly. “Well, I’ve been throwing your name at some people that I’m close to in the industry, you see. We did talk about it.”
“Wasn’t that yesterday?” he asked, eye twitching.
“Well, I was kind of excited. So, when you gave the green light, I went for it,” she told him excitedly, making him sigh. He guessed that made sense. He’d just thought he’d have more time to mentally prepare himself, but alas, the world just loved to mess with him, he supposed. “So, as I was saying, I’ve been bringing up the idea to some people that I know won’t be idiots about it and guess what?”
“They said no and had a laugh about it?” he asked jokingly, but he was half hoping that it was the case and Maeda was just playing around.
“Ha. Ha,” his mentor faked laughed dryly. “No, one of them said he was open to the idea, but that he wanted to see if you had potential, which you obviously do.”
“Debatable.”
“Kazukiiiiii~”
“Fine,” he sighed, feeling more than a little out of his depth. “So… What does this mean?”
[} Chapter End {]
Hey guys! How’s it going?
… I’m once again wondering how I ended up writing this kind of story, full of PR and show instead of… you know, fights and heroics…
In Kazuki’s words, what the fuck?
Anyway, I guess this is my life now and this is Darkest Before Dawn now too.
I don’t know anymore.
I hope you enjoy it though.
Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ
Random Question: What kind of movie do you think Kazuki is being offered a place in and what kind of role? I have ideas myself, but I feel like picking your brains while I’m at it too.
See you.
Comments
Adrian King
Chapter 75 isn't missing though. Here's the link for it: https://www.patreon.com/posts/darkest-before-111028362
Arc B
Hey chapter 75 seems to be missing either that or the numbers jumped
