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Darkest Before Dawn - 59
🕑 Added 2024-05-09 17:56:12 +0000 UTCChapter 59
[Toru Hagakure]
She laid on her bed, alone in the room provided for her in her internship and looking up at the ceiling.
Toru found herself… sad, sort of. Homesick, she supposed. It wasn’t the first time she was away from home, of course, but it was the first time she was so while alone. There was no family around and no friends. She kind of missed both, she supposed. She didn’t know anyone there and everything was more business than anything else, even if nobody was mean or cold.
It was just the underlying feeling, she guessed.
Regardless, as Toru sat there, she raised her hand, concentrating on her control of her Quirk. It didn’t take long for a slight shine to come from where she knew the tip of her finger was. Slowly, she worked on it, trying to get better at it and do something else. She really, really wished she could make herself visible, one day.
It was something that she'd love, if she were honest.
Toru had grown used to being invisible, how could she not, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t like to be normal for once. People looking through her would never stop being annoying, after all. People not noticing she was around because she was just a set of clothes would never not be sad. People feeling weird or uncomfortable with her because they didn’t even know where to look would never not be frustrating.
However, maybe she could improve her situation like she’d always hoped.
If not, she supposed she could at least be a decent enough hero by getting better with what her Quirk could do anyway. She could hope, at least. If that was all that she could do, she guessed it could be worse. At least like that, Toru would be able to stand beside her friends. Because she never felt like Toru Hagakure, the invisible girl, with them.
No, with them, she was Toru Hagakure or Bubbly and nothing else.
That would never not make her smile, she was sure.
A cheery sound and the vibration of her phone on the nightstand snapped her out of her slight funk. Perking up, Toru reached for the device and then opened it. There weren’t many options for what was going on, especially when she got a second notification shortly after. It had to be someone replying to her messages about how her day had gone in her internship.
Sure enough, Endo had replied, telling her that he was glad things were going well. He also added some stuff about his own day, explaining that he hadn’t done nearly as many exciting things as she had, but that he’d had a good time anyway. He spoke of having worked on his looks and clothes and getting some tips on how to speak with people.
He also said that he’d done some training with Kendo, who had gone with him in his internship.
That last part aside, Toru was more than happy to read what her friend had to say, quickly starting to send replies of her own.
Or that was the idea, because then Endo sent a picture that gave her pause.
[}-o-{]
[Minoru Mineta]
‘Curse you, Creepy!’ he wrote, smiling as he sent some crying emojis afterwards. ‘You joined the pretty boys, bastard. You are supposed to be ugly with me!’ he added, only half joking.
Because Endo looked a little scary, for sure, but he was far from ugly. Certainly nothing like him, that much Minoru knew. He’d even catch the guy drawing some eyes when they were at the training facilities… Minoru almost wanted to call him a lucky bastard but… Well, that seemed like it’d be in poor taste.
Besides, who knew? Maybe he’d at least stop being an ugly midget with time.
He’d ended up talking with Recovery Girl about the theory that had randomly popped up in their conversation and, after some tests, they’d found out that they were right. His Quirk was screwing him over. The woman had looked livid when they found out and he was pretty sure that she was on a witch hunt for the doctor that had done the Quirk Analysis for him.
Godspeed to her, he said.
Minoru certainly wasn’t going to help the poor bastard.
As it was, he was just happy that he could try to reach a reasonable height if he took care of himself. His diet had been adjusted, for one, and that was far from the only change that he’d have to go through in his life if he wanted to help his body develop better instead of continuing to stunt himself. Which he did want, of course. He’d lost count of how many times his height had made things terrible for him, even when his personality didn’t.
“If it helps, I’ll try and get you a model’s number,” Endo replied to him, making him chuckle. He knew his friend was joking, of course. The emoji added at the end said it all. Besides, what’d he do with a model’s number? Make a fool of himself?
He did that enough on his own, honestly.
“You’re going to meet models?” Hagakure was the one to send that question before Minor could say anything.
“Probably. Uwabami said she’d bring Kendo and I to an ad she has to record tomorrow. If we want, that is. I’m not sure if I’ll take her up on that, but it might be worth doing, if only so I can continue getting lessons from her on the way,” Endo answered through a bunch of messages.
Minoru still wasn’t too sure what was up with his friend’s choice, but well… Endo was smart. He probably knew what he was doing. Hell, he already sort of understood, but he just couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that his friend had rejected four Top 10 heroes to go with Uwabami of all people. He wished that’d have been him with those offers.
Then again, he was in a completely different situation, he supposed.
‘I can still be cool too though, damnit,’ he cursed, a grin on his face. ‘Just watch me, everyone. The unnerving and perverted shorty is going to be a hero too.’
[}-o-{]
[Kyoka Jiro]
‘I feel like death,’ she thought, lying in bed and holding her phone with as little effort as she could get away with. Her everything hurt after her first actual day with Death Arms. If she’d known the hero would work her body so much she’d…
… Still have chosen him, she supposed.
She had gone with him while taking a page out of Endo’s book, after all. Kyoka had wanted to cover one of her weak points, like her white-haired friend. She had wanted to stop training the same things as she always did and find something else to push herself further. That meant strengthening her body and her fighting prowess.
Her Quirk was straightforward, after all. That meant that she could only do so much with it. Not to say that she was limiting herself to what she could already do though. She did have several ideas she was trying to work towards with the Support Course and brainstorming new ways to use herQuirk. However, none of the options she had to work with for internships really offered much in the way of helping her with her Quirk anyway.
So, Kyoka went with something unrelated to her Quirk.
On that front, she was doing great, she supposed. Sure, her body was falling apart and everything hurt, but that just meant she was going in the right direction, she was pretty sure. It made sense, really. After all, she was no physical powerhouse, with or without Quirk. Or maybe that was just her spars against the others speaking.
After all, Endo, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu really did make it seem like the rest of them were just behind. That wasn’t even counting when people from 1-B joined in. It really did hit Kyoka right in the pride, to be so easily beaten, but maybe she could do something about that.
‘Doesn’t mean I can’t wish I had it as easy as Endo,’ she lamented before mentally berating herself. Sure, Endo wasn’t quite being pushed as much as she was, but that was only physically. She knew that the things he was telling them about couldn’t be easy for him. He was a monster – in the best way she could mean that – when it came to a lot of things…
Social skills and image weren’t any of those.
He could handle himself well enough in a conversation, and he had his moments as Vice-President, but he was no social butterfly by any means. He would often become reserved or broody, which was understandable, but the point stood. She also very easily remembered how he’d gotten when they'd taken him shopping. The guy was very straightforward on what he wanted, something comfortable, which rarely fit into “fashionable” clothing and that was coming from Kyoka, who already wasn’t the best at that.
The picture he’d sent before was great, but she could only imagine how incredibly awkward and uncomfortable that and everything else was for him.
And that made her think that everyone must be having as demanding a time as her.
‘We are all working on getting better,’ Kyoka thought.
That was a little comforting, she supposed.
‘I still feel like death though.’
[}-o-{]
[Momo Yaoyorozu]
Everyone was doing her best, was what she was getting from the conversation going on in the chat with her friends.
Amongst other things, she supposed.
That was the gist of it though and it made her proud to be able to say that she was doing much the same thing. Sure, Crust’s Quirk wasn’t identical to hers, or even that close, but it was similar enough that she could learn from the overlap and then hopefully branch out from there. So, she could confidently say that she’d come out better from that internship.
And now, after reading everyone’s experiences on their internships, she could say that she wasn’t the only one.
She could do without the reminder of her being away from… her friend, however. It was a little sad. Loneliness was something she was used to, but now that she’d gotten a taste of what it was like to have friends, she missed it too much. ‘Just a week though,’ she reminded herself, making the most out of chatting with her friends on her phone. It wasn’t the same, not even close, and knowing that it’d be a full week like that didn’t help either.
Alas, she didn’t have any choice other than enduring and getting better.
She wouldn’t be left behind.
Momo might not be the strongest of them all, or the most flashy, she knew. She wasn’t a combat monster like Endo or Todoroki. She wasn’t a support star, like Mineta, Hagakure or Jiro. She was a bit of everything, if she played her cards well and had the time. A Jack of all Trades, Master of None, as it were.
However, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Like with all things, it was a matter of doing the job well instead of falling short. She could stand on her own. She knew she could. She just had to find the right ways to do so and she was on the way there. The internship would help push her forward more and she could only thank her friend group for helping her train to get the attention of someone like Crust.
She wondered what would have happened if she hadn’t.
Momo already wasn’t a great combatant, except some mastery in Quirkless combat, she’d freely admit. If her friends hadn’t been there to give her the drive to progress in that direction, she was pretty sure she’d have fallen a lot earlier in the Sports Festival. Who knew? Maybe she wouldn’t even have made it out of the Cavalry Battle.
Things had worked out though.
Now she had to make sure they continued going well.
[}-o-{]
[Shoto Todoroki]
“Is everything going well over there?” he read. It was a message that Endo had sent to him privately instead of through the group chat. He appreciated that, if only because he didn’t feel like talking about that with everyone else. Sure, he guessed many of them had likely put two and two together already, or maybe they suspected things, but he didn’t want to talk about it.
Doing so with Endo and Inui had been bad enough.
‘I’m managing,’ Shoto replied with, feeling like that was saying nothing at all and entirely too much at the same time. It was strange, trying to be open with people. After all, he didn’t want to be too open, because he always had too much going on in his head. At the same time, having someone that would actually listen was a novel and very much appreciated experience.
It all left Shoto in an awkward situation, really.
“Kind of same, if not quite as bad,” Endo said and he read attentively. He found himself trying to learn how to… do things from him, actually. Sure, he wasn’t quite what one would call normal, especially in social settings, but Endo did a lot better than Shoto and he didn’t feel like he was from another world like everyone else.
He was a middle ground, Shoto supposed, so that’s why he was the one he was trying to imitate. Maybe once he got that down, he’d try to learn from the others, like Endo seemed to be doing. That sounded like a sound plan for how to go forward, he supposed.
“I’m not made for this posing and acting thing, I don’t think, but it’s a necessary evil, I guess,” Endo added then and Shoto could almost imagine the other boy grimacing, or maybe sighing? “Does it look like it was worth it to go there?”
‘I think so,’ Shoto answered, not quite hesitating, but it was a close thing. His father, for all the bad that Shoto could say about him, knew a lot about two things, being a hero and using his Quirk. So, he’d just do his best to take everything Endeavor would throw at him so that he’d be better. Not for the man’s crazy ambition of surpassing All Might, but to further his own career. Shoto didn’t care about being Number One other than sticking it to his father that he’d done so as his own person instead of a tool.
“That’s all we can ask for, right?” Endo replied. “Let’s do our best, yeah? And if you need anything…”
‘I can talk to you. I remember,’ he sent, finishing the statement that had been left there. Endo worried too much at times, but Shoto found that he didn’t mind. It was… nice, to have someone that cared, with his family being as broken as it was and having no previous friends.
So, re-reading the messages, Shot found himself smiling.
[}-o-{]
[Itsuka Kendo]
Their second morning – in their third day at Uwabami’s agency – started a little differently, with another lesson.
This time, they were going over what they could use to appeal to the masses. Itsuka herself had a few things going for her besides being “cute” – in Uwabami’s words – on top of generally enhancing her looks through the methods they’d covered the previous day. Her martial arts training could be used for that, which she kind of knew. She was aware, at least, that shows could be put up through the use of the different motions, as if it were a kind of dance.
Not something that she cared overly much for, but she also didn’t care much for most of what Uwabami could and would teach them.
Just because she didn’t like it though, didn’t mean that she didn’t understand the value of it all. Especially with Endo around to point out that it was all useful and as a clear example of what bad PR could do to someone. She felt awful for it, but Itsuka was kind of glad to have the walking warning to take all that seriously.
She honestly couldn’t imagine dealing with that nightmare, especially after she took some time to check on things. It seemed that most of the storm had faded into the background, with other news taking over once more, like Stain’s actions. However, just because it wasn’t at the forefront of the world’s mind didn’t mean he was forgotten. They were still dropping the occasional news talking about him and the ripples his appearance had caused.
She felt awful for it all, so Itsuka could only pity Endo.
He was taking it better than she would have, that was for sure. He also had a lot of tools to appeal to people, as it turned out. He had a very mundane hobby in his fish tank that he’d wasted no time in telling them all about. Most of it had flown over her head, and likely Uwabami’s, but their mentor for the week had pointed out that it made him much more personable and Itsuka had to agree with that. It was difficult to think of him as dangerous when he went on and on about how less fish was better so that they would have enough space to thrive as they would in natural conditions and how live plants were a lot better than silk ones, which were also a lot better than plastic ones.
From there, he also had the Baby Grimm series of his creatures, which… were exceedingly adorable.
And then, last but not least, he also could play the violin, as he had just finished demonstrating for them.
Uwabami clapped her hands once the “show” was over and Itsuka could only join her. To hear him say it, he wasn’t all that good, only having mostly practiced when he was very young before… the Rampage. However, she could only doubt his claims after hearing him. Then again, she was no expert. Maybe someone more into it could see the issues?
As it was, she just thought the music had been beautiful.
“Well, you are just making my job easier and easier, aren’t you?” Uwabami asked, looking amused. She seemed mostly focused on Endo for whatever short time they’d been there, but Itsuka didn’t begrudge her that. For one, the boy clearly needed her help more than she did. For another, he was also much more dedicated to learning all that she could teach him.
And Itsuka was also kind of glad that she wasn’t a focus of any of that. She was fine picking up some things here and there through the days, if things continued as they were. It was like back in school, really. There were classes that were a pain but you knew were useful. The same applied to that internship, she supposed.
‘At least it’s not the waste of time I thought it’d be,’ she mused to herself.
[}-o-{]
[Hina Maeda]
Despite all the great ammunition that Kazuki was giving her to work with…
It was going to be a struggle to help him.
No matter how good he looked or how nice hobbies he had or how great skills he possessed, nothing could quite make up for the literal disaster that was his past. Sure, people would be on his side and he’d have fans, but there’d always be that gigantic besmirch in his image, no matter what he did. However, just because his reputation was scratched didn’t mean she couldn’t help him make that part of a greater, better whole.
“I’m not that good,” the boy said, setting down the bow of the violin she’d gotten for him to play. That was something else she’d have to work with him on, his confidence. That was less of a lesson and more of a long term project… but she only had a week to work with him, so maybe she could do some cramming and add a lesson at the end of it? Sounded like a good enough plan.
There was a lot to do and so little time.
It was a good thing that the boy soaked everything she told him like a sponge.
Or like a starving man at a buffet, she guessed was more accurate.
“I disagree,” Hina replied bluntly and left it at that. Sometimes, you just had to not argue with others in such matters. If she didn’t let him have the last word on it, that’d be her win. “Now, with all that in mind, I’ve been thinking over your options and I have just the thing that you can come with me to that won’t hit anyone’s reputation and help you get a ball rolling.”
She left unsaid the part where anything that they’d do was likely to hit her reputation. She’d had scandals before though and she’d handled them. She’d do that again for Endo, no problem. The public was fickle, after all, and she knew it well.
Hina was not a great hero, and she was aware of that.
Maybe she could be enough of one though.
“The hair spray ad is still on the table for you, Itsuka, if you are interested,” she added, turning towards her other intern. She’d have felt bad for sidelining her so much, but the girl seemed fine with how things were going. Moreover, she seemed happy to not be anywhere near the spotlight of their lessons and work there, much less interested than Kazuki was.
Still, Hina would keep a pair of her serpentine eyes on her just in case.
[}-o-{]
[Nezu]
For all his intelligence, Nezu still could come across things that were out of his area of expertise. One such thing was, as it turned out, PR. U.A. had a great reputation, thankfully, so he could just focus on handling the school’s security and management. Alas, that had stopped being enough when he’d decided to take Kazuki Endo out of the hole he’d been thrown in.
There’d been several reasons for doing that. For one, it allowed hope to blossom in a group that had long since given up on it. Society refused to see that people in bad situations needed to get an out of some kind, otherwise they’d just keep being bad. Nezu wanted to see if he… No, if Endo could provide one.
For another, he was a diamond in the rough that Nezu very much wanted to polish. If he had all that power as a mere child, to the point where several heroes had been called, and even then struggled, then he wanted to see what he could do as a hero. So far, he’d only been proven right.
And, at the bottom of the long list of reasons, Nezu guessed he could admit that he saw some of himself in the boy, if in the privacy of his own mind. Both cast aside, rejected for what they were, regardless of who they were. He’d carved his own path in the world and, now, he wanted to try and show that path to others, Endo being the first of them.
All that didn’t make it any easier to deal with the mess that the whole thing had brought on him and U.A., but he’d been prepared for it. PR might not be his strong suit, but he could pull off anything with the right resources. So, after the initial storm, he’d been able to weather it all and come out well enough, just as planned.
It helped to have the Symbol of Peace on one's side, that was for sure.
It wasn’t fine just yet, but it would be once the boy took the reins of his life. As a principal, Nezu knew very well the value of doing things oneself. You could only hold someone’s hand through things so much. Besides, there was only so much that he could do to help Endo with the current situation.
Things would be much easier if the boy was willing to talk. If he just explained the things that Nezu had strong suspicions about – which meant that they were almost guaranteed to be correct – then that’d be a huge boon. However, he also knew that it was sometimes difficult to talk about such matters, regardless of how useful they could be.
Humans – and Nezu, he’d admit – were irrational creatures, at the end of the day. If they weren’t, they’d be robots. Emotions and impulses affected their everyday life as much as they did big decisions.
However, it seemed that Endo was taking the right steps, so Nezu wasn’t too worried about that.
He’d just have to keep things under control for a bit longer.
He could do that, for a fellow outcast.
[} Chapter End {]
Hey guys! How’s it going?
Well, I was initially only going to have the first half of the chapter occupied by PoV of others, just the group of friends and such, you know? However, the characters did as they usually do and took over the chapter for me. The result of that is what you got this time…
I’m honestly quite happy with how it turned out though. Sure, some of these parts have me a little nervous or unsure, but I guess I’ll just wait and see what you guys say. Hopefully, I’m worrying for nothing.
I also hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ
Random Question: Which of these parts was your favorite?… If any, I guess.
See you.
Comments
JACOB HEBERT
Good chapter
