Chapter 5
'Stupid Mineta, stupid game,' Kazuki grumbled in his own mind as he made his way to UA. He wasn't quite late per se, but he was certainly later than he'd been during the first day of class. And it was all because fucking Mineta had thought it was a good idea to introduce Kazuki to some shitty game on his phone.
And goddamnit was it addicting.
The game wasn't all that good, admittedly. It was a gacha game with rather simple gameplay that stretched quite a bit. However, the important part was that Kazuki found that playing the game was very distracting. He had a great weakness to distractions, especially those good enough to get his mind away from the negative emotions around for extended periods of time.
So, he might have played the game for longer than he should have, especially since he wasn't even getting anything out of playing except his time being wasted. 'I regret nothing though,' he thought to himself, taking a deep breath in and slowing down as he got closer to the school. It had been a great night, even if he hadn't slept for as long as he should have.
Now though, classes were going to suck, he just knew it.
A spike of fear got his attention for a second though. Turning to the side, he saw where it had come from and Kazuki could see… 'Oh, fuck you too,' he growled in his mind, but otherwise just continued walking. The child's mother, meanwhile, put a hand on his shoulder and moved him along. There were no words of how it was rude to stare like that or anything. They just went on with their lives.
And Kazuki was supposed to do the same, with such a clear reminder that his looks were disturbing for people. How fair was it? There were people with all sorts of hair colors and eyes. Hell, there were people that looked like outright monsters out there. However, there was somethingabout his white hair, red eyes and black sclera. There was something about the dark gray veins on his pale skin that really spooked people.
Probably uncanny valley stuff, someone he met at juvie had told him back in the day. He looked very human, but not human enough. In a way, it'd been better if he looked lesshuman instead of how he did. 'Focus, Kazuki, don't let a child ruin your day,' he told himself. It was a lost battle already, but it was better to try and improve his mood than just continue brooding.
"Creepy, my man!" Mineta greeted him once he entered the room. Kazuki didn't focus on that though, instead grimacing as he felt a particularly sharp spike of nervousness in the room. His eyes immediately darted to the side and found Midoriya. Had he scared the little guy for some reason? "How far did you get in the game? You were still online when I got off."
"I mean, I got another ten pulls before I decided that maybe I should sleep," Kazuki replied wearily as he continued walking and took his seat.
"No wonder, that must have taken you, what, an hour after I left?" Mineta asked, looking like he was trying to do the math in his mind. For his part, Kazuki just shrugged. He wasn't very sure himself, since he hadn't seen when he'd gone offline. "Anyway, didn't expect you to like it so much. What with the… er… furry looking characters," the short guy continued, growing a little nervous as he got to the last part.
"Humans with animal traits and anthropomorphic animal characters aren't bad, man," Kazuki replied, leaning down on the desk as he felt sleep come back to annoying him. Fortunately – or unfortunately, depending on who one asked – there were Midoriya and Bakugou there to keep his ass pumped full of nervousness and anger. He'd have preferred to fall asleep, honestly. "It's when people get a little too into that that it gets weird… to say the least," he added. He would know, there was one particular weirdo like that in juvie. It'd been an awkward experience for everyone involved.
Especially for the guy with an animal mutation quirk.
"Ah, yeah, that makes sense."
"What are you talking about?"
"Ah!" Mineta exclaimed, jumping as the new voice came from right next to them. Kazuki himself had been quite caught off guard too, but his sleepiness had numbed down the reaction. Turning to the side, now more awake, he saw a school uniform floating in the air.
"Ah, Bubbly, how's it going? Just got here?" Kazuki asked, blinking his weariness away and leaning back on his seat. He honestly hadn't looked around much when he'd arrived.
"I've been here for a while, Creepy. You're the last one to arrive," the girl informed him, to which he double checked looking around. She was right, it seemed. Well, at least he wasn't late. Now, he couldn't imagine that would go well with the school staff.
"Did I miss anything fun?"
"Well, Tiny here," she started, signaling towards Mineta who was just then recovering from the scare. In fairness to him, Hagakure had also been closer to him than to Kazuki. "Was trying to get Pointy to join your phone game thingy. Wasn't very successful, sadly. I was listening though and I might give it a try."
"Seriously?" Mineta asked, eyes wide as if he couldn't believe he'd heard that right. Maybe he hadn't expected one of the girls to take an interest in gaming?
"Yeah, the art is pretty neat," Hagakure answered, placing her hands behind her back and leaning her body forward. "Must not be so bad if you two are into it?"
"It's a nice distraction… Maybe a little too good a distraction," Kazuki replied with a wry smile. "I played a little too much last night."
Before any more talk could be had, their teacher went through the door.
[}-o-{]
Second day of classes was… almost normal, or what Kazuki guessed passed for normal. It'd been a while since he'd actually had classes, at a school that is. The rest of his classmates seemed to find those exceedingly boring, and he got it, but Kazuki still found them to be oddly nice.
It was the kind of normalcy that he'd missed while in juvie. It was the kind of thing one complained about all the time until they experienced worse stuff. The saying was actually so very true. One really didn't know what they had until they lost it. Not that he'd really hated school at any point in his life.
After all, the more boring the class was, the better for him, really. After all, if the students were falling asleep, then they weren't feeling particularly bad in any way. Granted, sometimes there was a bit of annoyance or a bit of nerves sprinkled here and there, but nowhere near as much as other times, that was for sure. So, yeah, Kazuki would take a boring class any day of the week.
Not that he thought the classes were that bad. Present Mic teaching English was pretty good and entertaining, really. Modern Literature could be a fairly interesting subject by itself, really, and Cementoss wasn't too bad to have with it. Kazuki had a difficult time getting into the stories with his extra sense sometimes, but he'd managed to push those aside to read sometimes and he'd enjoyed it. As for Math with Ectoplasm… Well, everyone had a subject they liked less, he guessed. Still, even if he hated the subject, he didn't do too badly in it, so that was the silver lining on that front.
"Ah, thanks for that," Kirishima replied after Kazuki helped him simplify an exercise.
"You should still learn the way the teacher taught it, man," he warned more than advised. "I mean, my way works, but it might not in certain situations, really. And I don't know if Ectoplasm will be ok with you doing that either."
"Yeah, but thanks. At least I have a way to check if I did things right," the redhaired teenager replied with a big grin, smacking Kazuki on the back. "Thanks for that, Creepy, I think you'll be a life saver in Math."
"Which is great, because it's quite possibly my worst subject," Ashido commented, grimacing like she could already feel the trouble coming her way. Kazuki could tell it was a joke, for the most part. He could feel the slightest bit of nervousness but it was minimal, really. Might as well have been nothing.
"Why am I suddenly seeing a whole lot of tutoring in my future?" Kazuki mumbled as they walked towards the cafeteria.
"Having been in Pinky's class and all… Yeah, that's probably the right of it, man," Kirishima said, grinning like he was just casually commenting how nice the weather was. Kazuki, for his part, groaned. Tutoring suckedbecause it usually drew more frustration and annoyance from a person than normal classes did. With any luck, things wouldn't be that bad with his new friends. "That's not the most important thing at the moment though," Kirishima added.
"Right, we'll be having our first Foundational Hero Studies class after lunch and I already can't wait," Ashido joined in, grinning widely and practically skipping forward instead of walking. "What do you think we should do? Do you think we'll have a boring introductory class or we'll jump right to it?"
"God knows I hope for the latter," Kirishima replied to that, looking almost dreamily up in the air as if he could picture what the class would be like already. Precisely what he was imagining, Kazuki had no idea, but he could guess it probably wasn't very realistic. If he had to bet, he'd say the former idea was more accurate, even if it'd dash his new friends' hopes.
"Can't be worse than Modern Literature, ugh, I'm gonna have a hard time with that one," Hagakure grumbled from the side then. She hadn't quite gotten over that class yet, it seemed.
"I'm really hoping it won't be too… physical, honestly," Mineta mumbled, suddenly looking and feeling nervous.
"I'm sure you'll be fine, Tiny," Kazuki reassured with a slight grin. "I mean, it's the first class of the first year. How hard could it be?"
"Man, you don't know you don't have to say that? It's bad luck. Now you've jinxed it!" Mineta lamented loudly.
"Oh, my bad," Kazuki apologized with a grin that belied his true feelings.
"Why am I friends with you, Creepy?"
"Because I'm the only one that puts up with you?" Kazuki offered. "God knows it's not for my looks, right?" he added with chuckle as he ran his fingers through his white hair. He really hoped the true self-deprecation there hadn't shown as much as he thought it did a moment after saying that.
"What do you mean? You don't look bad," Hagakure asked, sounding confused and looking – as much as the invisible girl could look anything at all – like she was looking at him up and down.
"Yeah. Besides, you've got nice eyes, Creepy," Ashido said, jokingly batting her eyes at him. He knew what she was doing though. After all, she did have eyes very similar to his.
"If you say so, girls," he replied, shrugging before Kirishima pushed the door to the cafeteria open. Instantly, one of Kazuki's fears vanished into thin air. The part he'd been looking forward the least was eating lunch at the cafeteria, after all. He didn't think it'd be as bad as it was at juvie, but he hadn't expected it to be good.
Which was a mistake, because Lunch Rush – the hero in charge of preparing the food for them – was, in his humble opinion, pretty goddamn good. That one was probably the best meal Kazuki had had, ever, which was a statement that didn't quite do the food justice, really. He wasn't up to thinking too much about compliments for the meal though, because he and his mind were a bit too preoccupied eatingit.
That is, until something interrupted him.
Or, someone, to be precise.
"Ah, Endo, could- Uh, could I speak with you for, uh, for a bit?" Midoriya stammered from next to him, drawing his red eyes away from the food. With his mind no longer focused on the heavenly taste, he was suddenly back to sensing the emotions around, which weren't too bad. Lunch was certainly a good moment for the student body's general mood.
Except for the boy in front of him, that is.
"Uh, sure?"
[}-o-{]
[Midoriya Izuku]
To say he was nervous was a bit of an understatement, but he was doing his best to tone it down. After all, the person he wanted to talk about could feel his nervousness, as he now knew and that probably didn't feel too well. Unfortunately, Izuku had never been good at calming down.
"Relax, Midoriya. I'm not gonna eat you or anything," Endo reassured him, which only made him gulp. At that, and probably the fear he felt for a moment there, the white-haired boy narrowed his eyes. "Is something the matter?"
"I, uh, I wanted to talk with you about… Well, what I mean to say is that, er, I looked up some stuff after you spoke to me… And, I guess, I wanted… I mean I…" Midoriya mumbled, unsure of how to even express what he wanted to. "I found some old news and…" That was clearly not the right thing to say, because Endo stiffened instantly.
"And you found me," he finished, a bitter smile on his face. "Want to know what a villain is doing in hero school? Is that what this is?"
"I-That's not it," Midoriya waved his hands wildly in front of him, because it really wasn't that. He'd just found those news and being reminded of them had made Endo's creatures… Well, a lot more telling than before. "I just wanted to talk, I mean, not sure about what, but I felt like-"
"Like speaking to the criminal that caused the Black Rampage Incident, right? See how messed up I truly am and if I'm safe to be around or something?" Endo asked, his expression going from bitter to annoyed really fast.
"That's not it either!" Midoriya exclaimed, feeling like the conversation was already getting far, far away from him.
"I can feel your fear, Midoriya, there's no need to lie," Endo accused before taking a deep breath in. "I'm guessing you'll go to the staff? They already know about me. They brought me here. Although, they probably will put some more pressure and regulations on me, which I'm guessing isn't the expulsion you probably wanted but-"
"Endo!" Midoriya all but shouted, before drawing into himself and looking around the empty hallway they were standing on. "I, I mean…"
"Huh, didn't know you had it in you," the red-eyed boy commented, seemingly caught off guard by that.
Which, if Midoriya was honest with himself, same.
"I… I didn't want to accuse you of anything," the green-haired boy mumbled, fidgeting with his hands and looking anywhere but at his fellow student. "Or insult you, or anything like that. I'm not afraid of you or anything either. I just… Well, I'm usually very nervous and er… kind of a coward, really… But, um, what I'm trying to say is…"
"Yeah?" Endo urged, not impatient but curious now, it seemed. Tilting his head, the boy gave Midoriya his full attention. Which honestly made the whole situation even more nerve wracking. "You are a mess, dude. Honestly, maybe you need therapy for that or something."
"I… Maybe… Yeah…" Midoriya whispered, his voice growing lower and lower. He wasn't wrong about that, really. And he wanted to be a hero when he had problems speaking to someone? He wanted to be like All Might like that? It was-
"Man, relax, will you?" Endo told him with a sigh, running his fingers through his hair. "Look, I don't like talking about it, but I went to therapy myself… Still go sometimes when I feel like I need to. Going there doesn't mean you are broken or something. Just that you need help with something, like going to the doctor, for example. I think everyone could do with a little bit of therapy, honestly," his fellow student explained, awkwardly bringing a hand to his neck and massaging it.
"I… I'll keep that in mind," Midoriya mumbled, even though it still felt like a failure to him.
"Anyway, if you don't want to… do any of that," Endo commented, waving a hand in the air vaguely. "Then what did you want?"
"I… I think it was a tragedy, what happened…" Midoriya started, taking a deep breath in to try and steel his resolve. "But it wasn't your fault," he added, drawing a blink from the other boy. "I like Quirks, a lot, so I probably know a bit more than the average person. And, um, many Quirks can catch, you know, people off guard and cause trouble… It was just unlucky that you, I mean, er, that yours went a little further than that, is what I'm trying to say."
Midoriya wasn't sure, but he had the feeling that he'd screwed up somewhere in his speech. Besides the stuttering and mumbling, that is. Endo didn't look to be angry or annoyed though, so he took that as a win. Although, to be honest, the boy didn't show much on his face at that very moment.
"I… appreciate that, Midoriya," was the answer he got eventually. It wasn't like he'd been expecting a particular response to that, but it still felt sort of… lacking. Probably due to the somewhat flat delivery Endo used.
"And, um, there was something else," Midoriya said then, further resolving himself to go through what he wanted to tell his fellow student. Because it felt like the right thing to do. Because he thought Endo needed it. And because maybe, deep down, he wanted to do what nobody had done for him. "I think you can be a hero," he told Endo, looking straight into his red and black eyes. "Em, that, that is all, really, I'll… I'll just be going," he stammered as he started walking away, his courage having fled him instantly after saying those words.
[}-o-{]
[Endo Kazuki]
"IT'S ME!" A very recognizable voice called from the classroom's door and Kazuki grimaced. 'That's where the pain was coming from? Goddamnit, what did he do before coming here?' he had to wonder as he looked at All Might, feeling like his chest had been put through a meat grinder. 'Who the fuck did he battle to feel like that?' "COMING THROUGH THE DOOR, LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!" the number one hero announced.
It wasn't a very normal way to enter a room, but Kazuki was honestly too awed by the fact that the man looked perfectly fine. Weird, sure, but he still looked fine. One couldn't know about All Might and not expect some level of oddity, really. It was part of his charm, making him more human, and thus relatable. Or so the analysis that Kazuki had read said. The important part right then and there was that the man was ignoring the rather astonishing amount of pain and acting like nothing was wrong.
It was honestly a little humbling, considering that Kazuki certainly wouldn't be fine through the man's class putting up with that. Granted, he had that on top of other stuff, but still. 'Listen to the man, Kazuki,' he reminded himself. 'Focus on other things…'
"LET'S JUMP RIGHT IN WITH THIS," All Might exclaimed, taking some sort of card from his pouch and dramatically turning it towards them. "THE TRIAL OF BATTLE!" he announced, making Kazuki's eyes widen.
'Well, so much for starting off calmly, huh? Then again, All Might is quite intense, so I guess that's on me,' the boy thought wryly. Still, the idea of letting loose a bit was tempting. He'd been keeping his negativity levels under control by creating Nevermores at his place and such, but that wasn't the same as creating actual creatures and actually using them. His power didn't like being contained, even if it could be.
So, it was a slightly giddy Kazuki that took the box his costume was in and made his way to the changing rooms for the exercise. He'd had a hard time thinking about what he wanted to look like as a hero. After all, there wasn't much he could do to look friendly, which was what he'd prefer. He also didn't want to look scary, which he knew was a theme some heroes embraced.
It was neat for them, but he'd feel the fear of any civilians that came across him and he'd rather not. It probably was an inevitable thing, but he'd prefer not to encourage such reactions. Thus, Kazuki had tried to go for a more neutral look if possible. He wasn't sure how good a job he'd done when writing down his ideas for the suit, but with some luck it wouldn't be awful.
His fate was on whoever had made his costume's hands, really. He wasn't an expert on the subject, so he'd done his best to ask for general ideas vague enough that someone with a better idea of things could fill the blanks. Or so he hoped, if he was unlucky, he might have gotten something else due to being too vague, really. 'Good thing costumes can change,' he thought to himself, since many heroes changed costumes throughout their career, let alone in school.
Still, he'd prefer not to be overly embarrassed by a crappy costume, if possible.
With those slight worries in mind, he started taking out his costume from the box and putting it on. First were the baggy pants he found that he had no problem with. Those would be nice and comfortable to move around, at least. That was followed by a pair of metal knee pads and black boots with metallic shines here and there, belying the fact that they were quite protective.
They were also a little on the heavy side, but Kazuki guessed he'd have to get used to that. The protection would come at a price, he supposed, and the boots and knee pads would be useful if he developed a fighting style with kicks. That was something he might do, depending on the chances he was given through his education.
After that came the upper part of his costume, with a tight black tank top that had the one thing he'd specified. On the middle of the chest, there was a silver-colored seven-pointed star. The costume maker had apparently taken the liberty of extending the ends of the star into lines that went on for as long as the piece of clothing allowed, but Kazuki wasn't overly troubled by that. After that, there were the metallic elbow pads and a pair of black fingerless gloves with metallic knuckles.
Once he was finished, Kazuki stood there, looking at the empty box. He'd debated using a mask of some kind, trying to help his case and looking a little better for the people. That would be almost like he was lying to people, however, presenting a picture that wasn't him. Kazuki knew who he was, and he may not like it, but he couldn't change it. So… all he could do was stand tall and try to be proud of himself.
It was fine if people hated him. It was fine if he was the very last hero in the rankings. If he could save enough people to make up for the lives he'd taken, if he could help one child avoid ending up like him…
Then Kazuki would be happy.
"I think you can be a hero," he remembered. Words of encouragement from the last person he'd expected and yet… They were just the words he needed to hear. Nezu had given him the chance, yes, but he'd never outright said that he thought Kazuki could be a hero. Maybe the man was taking a gamble, maybe it was a political move, maybe… any number of other things. But Midoriya, he was different. Because if one person truly believed he could be a hero then… Then maybe he could do it.
Kazuki would certainly try.
[} Chapter End {]
Hey guys! How's it going?
This chapter was nice. I liked it. Maybe I could have handled that transition between the Midoriya scene and the next one better but… Oh well, I couldn't come up with something better, so that's what you guys get. I'm sorry if it's not very good.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
As always, if you can't wait until next week for next chapter, or if you just feel like supporting my writing, there's up to three new chapters in my Pa tre on:
P a treon . com (slash) AdrianKing
Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ
Random Question: What do you think about the costume? As I said, costumes change, so if you guys have any ideas, feel free to share them. I might use them, or they might inspire me.
See you.
Chapter 6
"The fuck are you wearing, Tiny?" Kazuki asked, giving his first friend an unimpressed expression. Well, an argument could be made regarding Bubbly, but the point stood. "Why does your costume have diapers? I know you are kind of a coward, but still, man."
"It's a bowl," Mineta growled at him, eye twitching. "It's bowl, and my hair is the grapes, don't you get it?"
"I mean, after you say it…" Pinky muttered under her breath, walking around the short guy, looking him up and down. "I can sort of see it?"
"Thank y-"
"Everyone will think it's a diaper though, at least at first," Ashido added, making the poor guy deflate. In their defense… What did he expect? His design and the idea behind it seemed to be a bit too convoluted. Or maybe it was just them that didn't get it?
"I think it'd be better if you changed it, man. You are already short and look kinda silly, you kinda need to bring your image up, you know?" Kazuki suggested, getting a sigh.
"No mercy even for friends, huh? As ugly on the inside as you are on the outside, Creepy," Mineta grumbled, making Kazuki smile wryly. That kind of stung, but… It was fair. He hadn't precisely sugarcoated his own words and it might have stung for his friend too.
"Hey, he's not ugly," Bubbly argued, making them turn towards her. "And there's nothing wrong with a cute design… Although, yeah, I agree with them, Tiny."
"Is she…?" Mineta asked, blinking at the invisible girl.
"Please tell me you're using something to cover yourself. Some kind of invisible cloth or something," Kazuki asked, because he knew that she'd gone kind of… naked during the exams, but surely that was because she had nothing to use, right? They had equipment and such here, surely…
"Well, I mean…" the girl mumbled, poking the fingers of her gloves together. "I got a message that they are working on something like that but for now… Yeah…"
"No way…" Tiny breathed out, looking like he was trying to unlock some kind of second Quirk that'd let him see through Hagakure's invisibility. "Am I dreaming, Creepy?"
"No, you are not, but are looking kinda stupid right now, Tiny," Kazuki commented, giving his friend an unimpressed expression. "I think you might need some fixing, or something. Pointy, you think you could help with that?"
"Bubbly?"
"Please?"
"Sure thing, then," Kirishima said, grinning as he pulled back his arm. A second later, a merciless slap was delivered to the back of Mineta's head, sending his purple, sphere-covered head straight to the ground. Fortunately, he was careful to avoid the balls on his head, otherwise things might have been slightly awkward. "Sorry, bro, but you were kinda out of it."
"You guys suck. What kind of friends are you?" the short boy asked them, glaring as he stood back up, rubbing his head. "Seriously, the fuck is wrong with you?"
"I don't know, but we are your friends, so…" Kazuki commented, giving his friend a shrug.
"Fair enough… Asshole…" Tiny muttered under his breath.
"Everyone looks cool," Ashido said, seemingly scanning the rest of their class in their costumes. "We do good work, huh?"
"Most of us, at least," Kazuki replied with a grin.
"I get it already, damnit," Mineta said, kicking the white-haired teenager on the shin. "Show off."
"Eh, honestly, I'm just happy you guys think I look decent enough. I was kinda nervous. Not sure I have much sense of style," Kazuki admitted, bringing a hand up to massage the back of his neck. "But yeah, everyone looks pretty good."
"Being in the hero course is great," Mineta mumbled, looking around more attentively and seemingly having forgotten about the whole previous part of the conversation. Kazuki, for his part, traded a look with Kirishima, who gave him a grin and a shrug.
"I mean, you are not wrong," Kazuki admitted, rolling his eyes at the wide-eyed look his short friend sent his way. "But you don't have to make it so obvious, man. I'm the one that's supposed to be creepy, you know?"
"I mean, have you looked at them? How am I supposed to not admire the view?" Mineta asked, waving his arms in their classmates' direction. Kazuki grimaced then, picking up on the uncomfortable and embarrassed feelings coming from their female counterparts.
"By looking and being discreet. Dammit, man, now they are feeling bad. That's not cool, man. Pointy, if you would?" Kazuki said, giving his short friend a bit of a glare.
"With pleasure," Kirishima said, bonking Mineta over the head with a hardened fist. Kazuki felt the pain too, but he was much better equipped to ignore that, fortunately.
"You guys suck."
"And you are a pervert," Kazuki said, rolling his eyes. "Now, get a hold of yourself, will you? Our classmates are hot, deal with it."
"Why, thank you, Creepy, the compliment is appreciated," Ashido commented, having followed the whole conversation from start to finish. Fortunately, she didn't seem to be overly insulted or anything. Kazuki had barely picked up on some unease when Mineta had been staring, actually, which was a lot less than he could say about the rest of their classmates.
"Just calling things as I see them, Pinky," Kazuki replied with a shrug. "Is that Midoriya?" he asked then, as the boy appeared last towards the training area. "Isn't his costume kind of…"
"Yeah," Hagakure agreed, tapping her finger against her… Jaw? Lips? It was difficult to tell, for obvious reasons. "Maybe he commissioned it himself from somewhere else?" she theorized.
"True enough but… Why not use UA's Support Course students when they are just… there and have good reason to do a good job?" Kazuki asked, drawing a shrug from the girl… he thought. 'Really makes it difficult to tell things, what with her invisibility being… augmented as it were,' he thought wryly.
"Well, look on the bright side, Tiny," Ashido said, sounding amused. "You're not the only one that will have to change their outfit sooner rather than later."
"You aren't gonna stop with those comments, are you?" Mineta asked, sighing despondently.
"Nope," they all replied, Kirishima even chuckling, for good measure.
[}-o-{]
"Kazuki Endo," he introduced himself to his partner for the Trial of Battle that All Might was setting up.
"Denki Kaminari," said the blonde boy with a streak of black in the shape of a lightning bolt. The teenager took the hand Kazuki offered and shook it with a grin on his face. 'Well, he seems friendly enough,' the white-haired boy thought to himself. "Let's do our best, yeah?"
"Yeah," he agreed with his exercise partner. "Do you mind if I ask you what you can do? I don't remember from the Quirk Assessment," he asked with an awkward expression.
"My Quirk is Electrification, I can discharge electricity from my body," the blond said with a confident grin and a thumbs up. "Although, uh, using too much electricity kind of… takes me out of the fight," he added and Kazuki could feel his slight embarrassment at admitting that. "You could make… creatures, right?"
"Yeah, I can make and control three of them but I can only summon one at a time," Kazuki explained, looking around to see the other groups talking between themselves too. Well, most of them, at least. "I can also sense negative emotions, like anger, or nerves, or such."
"Woah, that sounds cool," Kaminari commented, slightly wide-eyed before he frowned. "What does one have to do with the other though?"
"Well, I kind of use the negative emotions thing to fuel the creature creation part, if that makes sense," Kazuki replied with a slight shrug. Even he himself wasn't too sure how it worked, only that it worked. Nobody had been too keen on him using his Quirk much before, especially so after they'd found out that he had it more or less under control. Everyone seemed happy forgetting it – and him too – were even there.
"I guess it does… a bit, at least," Kaminari nodded. "Well, I think our chances are good, man. Our Quirks are good."
"They are," Kazuki agreed… somewhat. He was a little reticent in calling his Quirk "good" but it was certainly useful in the right situations, like it was the case at that moment. "So, if we are villains, I guess you can stay by the… bomb, was it? And shock anyone that comes near it. That's as much as I got, honestly."
"Works for me, man," Kaminari commented with a chuckle. "We can wing it from there."
"Good, then-" Kazuki started, only to get interrupted by All Might's voice.
"THE FIRST VILLAIN TEAM IS…" the hero called out, sticking his hand in a box and bringing it out. "GROUP D!"
"Man, the first two to go, huh?" Kaminari mumbled from next to him, and Kazuki could both feel and relate with his nerves. Being the first ones to go could be either a good thing or a bad thing.
"AS FOR THE FIRST HERO TEAM…" All Might continued, unaware of their unease. "GROUP F!"
'Hagakure and Midoriya,' Kazuki identified, glancing towards the group that would go against them. It wasn't a difficult thing, not only was Midoriya basically a beacon to his senses, but he seemed to be especially nervous. Not that the pseudo-empath blamed him in this case, considering who his partner was and what her… "costume" was. Poor guy was red from head to toe, or so Kazuki assumed from what he could sense.
"So, invisible girl and normal dude that can break his bones to get a power up," Kaminari commented, frowning a bit. "I don't want to sound mean, but I think we can take them. You can find Hagakure, right?"
"I should be able to. Even if she hides in my sensing blind spot, my creatures should be able to smell her out," Kazuki muttered, already deciding to create at least one Beowolf. Maybe two and a Nevermore for air coverage, he supposed would be the right call in this case. He could make an Imp and give him the Capture Tape too though…
"Then we've got this, just gotta be careful with Midoriya," Kaminari commented confidently.
"PLEASE, MOVE TO YOUR STARTING POSITIONS AND GET SETTLED WHILE THE REST OF THE CLASS AND ME GO TO THE MONITOR ROOM!"
Moving to where they needed to be took both longer and less than Kazuki expected. Before he even realized it, Kaminari and him had a make-believe nuclear weapon to position somewhere within a tall fake building that would be their playground for the exercise. They had a good minute before the exercise started but neither of them said anything.
"Ok, better get started," Kazuki said then, drawing his partner's attention. It was both annoying and a little relieving to know that he had more than enough negativity to create his Grimm. Midoriya had enough nerves and embarrassment for that, quite honestly, and even if he didn't, Bakugo and Todoroki certainly would have made up for that loss. Nevermind the almost overwhelming amount of pain that came from All Might.
Kazuki was still having some trouble powering through that last one…
His shadow darkened and extended in front of him and, soon enough, a Beowolf stood right there.
"Man, that's… intimidating," Kaminari commented, his face showing a lot less fear than he was feeling. To his credit though, it still was a lot less than Kazuki imagined others would feel when seeing a monster made of darkness with what seemed to be a bone mask. "You sure it'll be able to smell Hagakure?" the other hero-to-be asked.
"Unless she has some way to mask her scent, it should," Kazuki reassured with a wave of his hand as he prepared to create a Nevermore. It didn't take long, but it was better to take his time. There was no rush and-
"START!" All Might's voice announced and Kazuki nodded, the person-sized corvid finishing its appearance a second later.
"This one will keep an eye for us outside, just in case," Kazuki said before pursing his lips. "What do you think I should make the third one, another Beowolf," he started, waving towards the aforementioned werewolf-like creature. "Or a more humanoid one?"
"Hmm… I mean, we have plenty human between the two of us, don't you think?" Kaminari replied hesitantly. "Although, I'm not much of a fighter but-"
"But if we want to fight, the Beowolf's better for that," Kazuki finished, getting a nervous "yeah, that" in response that made it obvious that wasn't quite where his partner was going. Still, that was good enough reasoning for him. "I'm not much of a fighter either, but I'm pretty sure neither is Hagakure. Midoriya had good scores even without using his Quirk in the assessment which tells me he's no slouch on the physical department."
"Paid more attention to him, huh?" Kaminari asked, drawing a wry grin from Kazuki.
"Kinda difficult not to, when he broke his finger and I could feel his pain," he answered, making his partner grimace.
"Ouch, fair enough," the boy replied with a nod. Then he looked towards the entrance to the door of the room they'd set the fake nuclear weapon at. Or, more specifically, he watched Kazuki's Grimm leave through the door. Except for the Nevermore, which flew out of a window. "Feels too easy, don't you think?"
"You're not wrong," Kazuki said with an uneasy grimace. "Let's keep our guards up, yeah? I don't want to lose because I was overconfident," he added, taking a deep breath in as he tried to follow his creatures movement and what they did. It was weird, as usual, but he could get a sense of what they were doing. Not really sense through them, but he knew if they found something or if they were just moving or anything else.
Back to his partner and the conversation, he really didn't want to fail in class. Everyone else might get a bad grade and that would be all, but Kazuki… Kazuki might lose his chance and be sent straight back to juvie. Maybe it was exaggerated and dramatic to think like that but… He couldn't risk that. Not right then and there, when his resolution to be a hero was solidifying.
"Sure, man, I don't want to look like an idiot either," Kaminari said, scratching the back of his head. "I already do that enough whenever I overuse my Quirk."
"That what you meant when you said it takes you out of the fight?" Kazuki asked, blinking at his partner.
"Yeah, it kind of… fries my brain, you could say. It's not as bad as it sounds but… Yeah," Kaminari explained, clearly embarrassed by admitting that. Enough that Kazuki could have been able to tell even without feeling that himself.
"Better try not to overuse it unless you need to then," Kazuki commented, still looking for the "heroes" with his Grimm and finding nothing. He was starting to get nervous, honestly.
"Yeah, I kind of want to meet up with the support course. I added a request for some things but they gave me this," Kaminari said, gesturing towards the ear-piece of his costume. "For communication and told me they'd need to have more information for anything else."
"Makes sense."
"Anything useful in those pouc-"
"I found Midoriya," Kazuki interrupted, his head turning sharply as he followed his Beowolf's senses. Not that it was a very difficult thing to do, finding the nervous wreck of a boy. However, knowing his general location was a lot more different than actually having himself or one of his creations see him. "He's a few floors beneath us," he added, getting a nod from his partner but he wasn't paying too much attention to that. Instead, he focused on his creation, trying to see how best to control it to make it win the fight against the green-haired boy. "Huh?"
"What's up?" Kaminari asked, focusing his attention on Kazuki. Probably since he was the only source of information he had, really.
"He's using his Quirk, I think, but he's not breaking-Ouch," he answered, grimacing as a shot of pain coursed through his arms. "Ok, he's got more control but that hurts a lot," he muttered through gritted teeth. 'As if All Might wasn't enough,' he grumbled internally. "He took out my Grimm though," he added, his shadow extending to create another monster of shadows. "He didn't break his arm but that hurt too much for him to just shrug it off… Or maybe not," he related, feeling Midoriya fighting his second Beowolf as the one he just created moved out of the room. "I found Hagakure."
"Really?" Kaminari asked, blinking at him.
"She got nervous," he answered with a slight smirk. "I don't know how she got there, but she's on the floor below us. Let me just…" he mumbled, dismissing his Nervermore and starting to create a third Beowolf.
"I can cover the entrance, man. Just tell me if she gets close," Kaminari told him, already moving towards the doorway. "I gotta do something or I'll look bad, right?"
"Guess that's fair," Kazuki agreed, only then realizing that if he did all the work, then that might negatively affect his partner's grade or something. Besides, it didn't sound like the worst idea ever, to let Kaminari stand guard at the door and shock the invisible girl if she got close. Kazuki and his Beowolf could be the last line of defense if it came to it. "She calmed down a little for now- She's down the hall," he informed, correcting himself mid sentence.
"We know you are there, Hagakure," Kaminari said to the empty corridor in front of him. "And Midoriya is basically out, fighting Endo's monsters. It's over."
"That's what you think, villain," the invisible girl replied from… somewhere. 'Guess she's getting in character, huh?'Kazuki thought, somewhat amused. If the idea didn't make him uncomfortable, he guessed he'd have been good for that kind of thing, considering he was supposed to be a villain.
He didn't need to add that kind of thing to his reputation though.
"She's right there, Kaminari," Kazuki informed his partner, his Beowolf stalking towards the entrance, just in case. He was fairly sure it was unnecessary though, because Kaminari was doing a good job of keeping the door covered as best he could, so that Hagakure couldn't find a free spot to squeeze through. It did make him look kind of silly, since he had to move his arms and legs around erratically, but it was effective all the same.
Kazuki's attention was pulled then when he felt another spike of pain and his second Beowolf was forcefully vanished. 'Fuck, that did break his arm,' he thought, grimacing as he held onto his own left arm. There was still the third creature he'd sent before but still… 'God, I'm gonna have to have another talk with Midoriya, won't I?'
Still, he pulled on all that pain to create yet another Beowolf.
As the creature of darkness was born though, things kept going around Kazuki.
"Got you," Kaminari exclaimed, his arm extended as if it were grabbing something. Hagakure, evidently. However, things didn't quite go as he expected, Kazuki was sure. Especially then, as the invisible girl opened her mouth.
"Did you know I'm naked?" she asked and her voice almost could be passed for innocent. That is, if Kazuki weren't able to feel her embarrassment and nerves. Her little ploy worked though, because Kaminari pulled his hand away as if he'd been burned, just as embarrassed as the girl was, apparently.
That was the room Hagakure had wanted to create, immediately vanishing from Kazuki's sense. Probably out of delight that she had a chance to succeed then. A chance that was taken from her as a Beowolf's arm/paw swept to the side, hitting her and sending her to a wall, if the pain Kazuki could suddenly sense was any indication.
The other Beowolf charged at the invisible girl, finding her by scent and pressing her to the ground.
"Well, that sucks," Hagakure whined. "Wait, Creepy, you aren't being a pervert, are you?"
"Not gonna work, Bubbly. I know those are your arms… or legs, maybe-"
"Are you calling my arms fat?" the girl asked, and he felt the twinge of irritation and anger.
"Not at all, just difficult to get a real sense of things. Feeling through my Grimm is weird," he explained with a shrug, taking a deep breath in as he tried to push down the pain he was feeling from Midoriya just like he was with All Might. At the same time, he sent his second, now free Beowolf out just in case.
"Man, that was just… embarrassing," Kaminari grumbled, facepalming as his face turned red. "All I ended up doing was standing there waving my arms around and then failing because- Because… Well, that," he complained.
"If it makes you feel better, at least I think we are winning this," Kazuki commented with a wry smile.
"Only barely," the blonde muttered as he walked back towards Hagakure. "But thanks anyway."
"Don't mention it," he replied, a grin forming on his face. "So, did you at least grab something interesting?"
"Endo!"
"Creepy!"
He just laughed then, at both teenager's indignation. It was almost enough to make him forget the desperation that was suddenly filling Midoriya at the same time as pain. Pain that was only getting worse as the boy fought his Grimm. Beowolfs that he had no chance at beating, since he had a broken arm.
What was concerning was that he was still pushing his body, using his Quirk, making his legs start hurting just as much as his arm was.
"Secured," Kaminari called, having put the Capture Tape around the invisible wrists of Hagakure. "How's the fight going?"
"Nowhere, apparently, but Midoriya is basically out too. Especially now," Kazuki commented, guiding his third Beowolf down towards the fight. "If one and two Beowolfs were enough to keep Midoriya busy, this should- Fuck!"
"What?"
"He got, away," Kazuki muttered through his teeth, grabbing his right arm, where one of his fingers burned with new pain. "He broke one of his fingers, like in the Quirk Assessment," he added. "Bastard," Kazuki added. Sure, he had to get used to pain if he was going to be a hero, one way or another, but that didn't mean he had to like it. "He's coming here, I've already set a Beowolf in the way but- Ugh," he groaned. "He killed it using another finger."
"I got this," Kaminari called, having moved to the doorway once more at some point. Kazuki was glad for that if nothing else. He almost didn't want to send the remaining Beowolfs towards Midoriya if it meant the boy would continue breaking more fingers.
He wanted to lose the exercise even less though.
"Sorry, man!" Kaminari shouted, and Kazuki got a sense of frustration from him before the entrance to the room they were at was covered completely by electricity like someone had set a living lightning bolt free right then and there. 'Cool,' Kazuki thought to himself.
Because yeah, maybe Kaminari's Quirk sounded like it was kind of a one time thing, but it looked pretty great. If he got some support items to go with all that power… Well, Kazuki expected he'd make a good hero in the future. With some luck, he'd also be a good hero, which would be a nice plus.
Still, as he watched the scene, Kazuki pulled back his Beowolfs, well the remaining one, that is. Because of the two that were still there, one got pulled into Kaminari's attack. He still pulled from the negativity around to create another Grimm. This time it wasn't a Beowolf though, no.
It was an Imp.
Throwing his Capture Tape towards it, the creature caught it and started moving forward. The electricity wasn't around anymore. Instead, there was Kaminari swaying on his feet and turning towards him. Off to the side lay Midoriya, twitching on the ground before he was pressed to the ground by the Beowolf, awaiting restraining by the Imp.
"Yay~!" Kamimari muttered, giving Kazuki a thumbs up with the dumbest expression.
"Good job, Sparky," he congratulated with a grin.
"THE VILLAIN TEAM WINS!" All Might announced, making him smile even wider.
[} Chapter End {]
Hey guys! How's it going?
Ok so, important information for you guys right here, right now… I threw all the class names in a randomizer to make the team pairings and the match ups. I even decided the order they'd go like that. So, sorry if someone was expecting the Midoriya-Bakugo shitshow to go down. It ain't happening, guys.
I hope I didn't do too bad a job with the exercise itself.
I also hope you enjoyed the chapter.
As always, if you can't wait until next week for next chapter, or if you just feel like supporting my writing, there's up to three new chapters in my Pa tre on:
P a treon . com (slash) AdrianKing
Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ
Random Question: Did you realize what Mineta's costume was about when you first saw it? I didn't until I read about it somewhere else, but maybe I'm just dumb like that.
See you.
Chapter 7
"Hm, I'd say," All Might started, with a fairly quiet voice that took Kazuki off guard. He was sure he hadn't heard the guy speak that low… ever, really. "THE BEST IN THIS MATCH WAS YOUNG ENDO!" he announced, much more loudly. 'That's more like it,' Kazuki thought with a grimace, before he blinked as he processed what their teacher had said. "WHO KNOWS WHY?!" All Might asked then, as he shuffled.
"Nervous?" Toru whispered next to him. Kaminari and Midoriya had been taken by robots of the school to the infirmary, so they stood by each other while everyone else stayed with their partners.
"All Might-sensei," a girl said, raising her arm. 'What was her name again?' Kazuki wondered, consciously having to keep his eyes above her neck. He didn't think he could be blamed for that, considering how revealing her costume was. "Midoriya's sacrificial move didn't really help Hagakure, since he didn't even take a full member of the other team with him. Not only that, but once Hagakure was captured, he caused a fair bit of destruction trying to get to the device."
Kazuki almost felt bad for Midoriya, not only had he gotten several bones broken but he was also getting roasted in front of the whole class. The guy couldn't even defend himself, considering that he was currently at the infirmary, or being taken there. Off to the side though, Kazuki heard… the angry guy, he didn't remember his name, barking out a laugh. It struck him at that moment that it was the first time he wasn't feeling anger coming from him.
"As for Hagakure, her attempt was good, but she really didn't have the tools to get far and she was countered by the closed space and Endo's creatures. Not really her fault but it did reduce what she could do," the girl continued and Kazuki felt Hagakure start to feel ashamed and self-conscious.
"It's like she said, it wasn't your fault, just a bad match up," he reassured with a whisper, only slightly reducing how bad the girl felt. It was something though, he supposed. At least he hadn't made things worse.
"Thank you," the invisible girl mumbled, her voice barely audible.
"Kaminari did fairly well too. He helped where he could and he took out Midoriya before he could barrel his way to the nuclear weapon, although I'm not sure how good an idea it was to do that with his Quirk so close to the weapon," the girl continued, and Kazuki was already placing the "she knows her stuff" label on her. It'd be good to know, in case there were group assignments or stuff like that. "Ultimately, Endo did the best of them all, however. He did the most to guard and watch over the building with his creatures, he stalled Midoriya, he took out Hagakure when she slipped past Kaminari and he captured Midoriya after he was subdued."
There was a moment of silence then, as the class and even All Might himself took in what she said.
"WELL… YOUNG ENDO COULD HAVE BEEN MORE ACTIVE HIMSELF WITHOUT RELYING SO MUCH ON HIS QUIRK… BUT CORRECT ANSWER!" their teacher told them, and Kazuki could feel the slight nervousness the man was feeling, even without picking up the slight tremble of his voice. 'Well, it's his first day teaching, isn't it? Nevermind the crazy fucking pain he's feel too,' Kazuki wondered, fairly sure that the hero didn't really have experience teaching. He could have done without reminding himself of the pain though. 'Would make sense for him to feel a little out of his depth, I guess, even for the Number One Hero.' "NOW, LET'S MOVE TO THE NEXT MATCH!"
And that's what they did.
Fumikage Tokoyami and Ochaco Uraraka would be the Villains.
Mashirao Ojiro and Momo Yaoyorozu – the now named (again) girl that had given the exercise rundown before – would be the heroes.
"So, living shadow, gravity negation, tail and fabrication of stuff?" Kazuki asked as they waited for everyone to get into position, trying to see if he was recalling their Quirks correctly. He was very curious about Tokoyami's specifically, if he was honest. Was that shadow creature anything like his Grimm?
"I mean, that about sums it up," Hagakure said, shrugging, which he was only able to tell because she was back to being clothed. She'd apparently asked All Might to let her change back into her uniform. Which Kazuki was grateful for, quite honestly. It was a bit of a distracting thought, to know that there was a girl standing next to him naked, even if he couldn't see her.
As soon as it officially started, Tokoyami's shadow creature started moving around. It was a little curious that the thing started gathering things around in the room they had to hide the nuclear weapon in, really. From pieces of furniture spread around to just generic rubble and trash.
"Wonder why he's doing that," Kazuki commented idly.
"For Uraraka?" Hagakure suggested, and it was as good a suggestion as any.
"Unless they are planning to throw stuff at them with their hands. The pile is put between the weapon and the door to the room," he noted, narrowing his eyes as he considered what that could mean. "Well, that's…" he mumbled then, seeing Tokoyami's shadow rip off one of the building pillars. "That's gotta take points from them. No way it's even remotely safe to do that in a building."
"I guess?" Hagakure asked, unsure. "I mean, they are villains? So, do they really have to care?"
"Even in the spirit of the exercise, we are all training to be heroes. Encouraging that can't be the way here, right?" Kazuki replied, frowning. Then he blinked, his eyes widening as he saw Uraraka take the pillar herself and give it a few test swings as if the thing weighed nothing. "Oh, I think I know where that is going now."
"Uraraka is a fan of baseball, who'd have thunk?" Hagakure joked with a little giggle. "You think it'll work?"
"I mean, one never knows what Yaoyorozu will make, but it should work on Ojiro well enough," Kazuki mused out loud as they watched the Hero Team approaching slowly making their way to the room. As they did, Yaoyorozu kept pulling things out of her own body. Unfortunately, they were small enough to be hard to tell what they were with the cameras, but they seemed to be roughly the size of an apple, from what Kazuki could see.
Then she made a much more recognizable object.
"Well, wonder how that'll hold up to the villains' idea," Kazuki commented, looking at the riot shield that Yaoyorozu passed to her partner before pulling another one for herself.
"How much stuff can she make?" Hagakure wondered, and Kazuki imagined her with wide eyes as she looked at all the stuff the other girl had made. It was a fair question, all things considered. "How does that even work?"
"Something to ask her, I guess, if we get the chance," Kazuki commented, pushing the issue aside for the moment. "They are getting there."
What followed was absolute chaos that lasted for a few moments but was very… impressive, Kazuki supposed. As soon as the Heroes made their way inside, they put their shields up and threw one of the smaller objects over them. Uraraka, for her part, swung her massive pillar, hitting the stuff Tokoyami had gathered and sending it flying towards the entrance.
A second later, everyone realized that the thing the Heroes had thrown was a flashbang. The attack had two effects on the Villains. First, Uraraka let go of the pillar as she started rubbing her eyes. Second, Tokoyami's shadow seemed to pull away, even becoming smaller. 'So, it's more darkness based than emotion based, for one,' Kazuki mused with a tilt of his head.
The flashbang wasn't a one time thing though. It was followed by another, even though this time it only affected Tokoyami's Quirk. After all, the two people in it were still dealing with the effects of the first one. Ojiro rushed in after that, capturing Tokoyami first, which was probably the best call. After all, he was the one that could be a danger even while blinded.
Yaoyorozu, in the meantime, simply made her way to the nuclear weapon and touched it.
"THE HERO TEAM WINS!" All Might announced.
After a quick talk, in which Yaoyorozu was declared the best in the match, since she was the one to come up with the strategy they used and the one that did the most work, they continued on to the next one. Eijiro Kirishima and Rikido Sato as villains against Shoto Todoroki and Yuga Aoyama as heroes. The call made Kazuki grimace.
"I wanna say that Pointy has this but…" he mumbled.
"But Todoroki is… Todoroki," Hagakure finished wryly.
"Yeah. I mean, it's not all done until it's done but, yeah. I don't like his chances."
And sure enough, the "match" – if it could be called that – was a massacre. Nobody could do much of anything, really. Not even Todoroki's own partner could do much, in all honesty. The guy just waltzed to the building, froze it in its entirety and then froze his opponents in place before touching the nuclear weapon. Kirishima could be said to have put up a fight, but it was negligible, really, considering all he did was harden and break out of his bindings only to be frozen even more thoroughly the second time.
"That was…"
"Brutal," Hagakure finished.
"Yeah, basically," Kazuki mumbled. It seemed the two members of the villain team would be going to the infirmary too, just in case the freezing did more damage than expected. All Might was sure it wouldn't be, but it was best to be sure. The man reassured those that hadn't fought yet that there'd be a more thorough review of the exercise later, so they didn't need to worry about possibly missing some of the fights.
There really wasn't even a point in talking about the best of the match, but after that token conversation in which not even Yaoyorozu had all that much to say, they moved on to the next match. Mezo Shoji and Kyoka Jiro vs Tsuyu Asui and Tenya Iida. He wasn't very sure what the villain's Quirks were in detail, but the Heroes had a lot of mobility, that was for sure.
"Well, this should be more even," he commented wryly, receiving a giggle from Hagakure.
"Not that it'd be difficult, huh? I do feel a little bad for Pointy though," she replied eventually and he nodded.
"Yeah, I could tell," he pointed out, grin still in place. "But it's how it is. Sometimes you are just unlucky and get an opponent that you can't do much about, for one reason or another. Like a certain someone," he added, giving her a smirk.
"Rub it on my face, why don't you?" she grumbled, but he couldn't feel any real anger there and only mild annoyance. He took that as a win. "I'll get you next time."
"I'm looking forward to it," he said with a shrug.
Then the match started and they focused on it. Sure enough, it was much more entertaining than the last one, that was for sure, with the Hero team splitting up and approaching the weapon from two angles. Asui made her way from the outside, jumping to the walls on the side of the building and sticking to them as she made her way up. Iida, for his part, ran all the way in like a bullet.
The Villains were expecting them though. As Iida rushed in, he was firmly grabbed by Shoji's many arms and held in place while two of those captured him. As for the girls, Jiro tried to hit Asui with her sound attack after plugging her jacks on her boots, which seemed to be some kind of support equipment, and blasting a sound based attack at her. Unfortunately, Asui got the better of her by hopping away from the attack before it could even be fired and around the girl, even around Shoji, and earning herself a victory as she landed on the nuclear weapon.
"Fast match, but still interesting," Kazuki mused.
The next one was Mineta and Ashido as villains against… Bakugo and Sero as heroes.
"It was good knowing you, Tiny," he mumbled as he watched the students make their way inside for the exercise. Mineta seemed to know that he was in trouble, if the resigned look on his face was anything to go by. Ashido wasn't of the same mind, however, because she seemed to be as upbeat as she usually was, even trying to cheer up her partner.
Ultimately…
The match started well enough for them, with Mineta spreading his sticky spheres all over the place, presumably to impair their opponent's advance. The Heroes, for their part, seemed to take a page out of the Asui book with both of them making their way up the building from the outside. Sero with his tape swinging all the way up, while Bakugo used his blasts in a similar way he'd done in the Quirk Assessment for the races, except that vertically instead of horizontally.
From there, the one with the explosive Quirk blew up the window to the room with the weapon before going in. Interestingly, he seemed to ignore the target completely, instead rushing the Villains, which had both teens scrambling to get themselves out of blasting radius. Sero, for his part, seemed to have his priorities straight, taking advantage of the mess his partner was doing to touch the nuclear weapon.
And that was about it.
"They'll have to thank Sero. That could have gone much worse," Kazuki commented with a grimace, feeling the damage that a few explosions had done to his friends. Maybe he could get himself in a fighting environment with Bakugo. To make things more even, of course, no other reason.
"That guy has some anger management issues," Hagakure said, and he could almost imagine the pout on her face. He could certainly feel her anger and annoyance, that was for sure.
"You don't know the half of it," Kazuki told her, very much knowing how bad the blonde's anger problems were. At least he seemed to have toned down after the first battle and definitely after his. Somehow, that didn't seem like a win to Kazuki though.
[}-o-{]
[Izuku Midoriya]
"Do not apologize, Young Midoriya," All Might told him, in his deflated form. Izuku still couldn't help but feel incredibly bad about his loss though. There he was, trying to prove he could be the next Symbol of Peace and instead he just… lost. He was useless. Again. "The fact that you were able to use One for All for some time without breaking your bones is the important part. That's great progress."
"Yeah," he mumbled, although he did feel pretty good about that. Not enough to come even close to the bad, but it was nice to have a positive to look for, a silver lining. "Endo's advice was really good."
"Oh?" All Might looked intrigued now and Izuku realized that he hadn't told his mentor about that particular encounter.
"We talked. He said he didn't appreciate me breaking my bones, because he could feel my pain," he explained, not noticing the way All Might tensed up at that moment. "He told me to, em, in his words, go less All Might and more someone with less strength."
"Well, that's good advice, yes, but you were already working on that, right?" his mentor asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, but it got me thinking, and I went through heroes with Quirks that had similar effects and I started making comparisons on the strength they gave. During the conversation, I thought of Dead Arms and that gave me the idea of dividing the power between two arms instead of just the one. It seemed to work for a bit, but it still hurt a lot and it seemed to be too close to too much because my arm broke with a little slip and that already made the whole thing spiral out of control. I might need more practice or I might need to take a different approach. Using both arms made my shoulders, back and chest hurt, so I might need to add that, maybe more to the whole… er, idea," Midoriya explained, half-mumbling his way through the whole speech and ending on a hesitantly note, hunching into a ball of insecurity.
He thought it was great progress from not being able to use One for All without breaking his body. However, would it be disappointing if he couldn't use his power completely? After all the work they'd both put into his body so it could use the power, to only be able to use a low percentage of One for All-
"I'm very proud of you, Young Midoriya," All Might told him, placing his skeletal hand on the young man's shoulder. "You had a big wall in front of you, but instead of being discouraged, you continued pressing on until you got past it. You're already doing spectacularly well. You have no reason to feel bad. If anything, I've failed as a teacher if you had to work all that out yourself."
"Not at all, All Might!" Izuku exclaimed, appalled that his favorite hero, his role model, would feel guilty for his own failures. "And it wasn't that impressive. If not for Endo's words, I wouldn't even have found the answer, really," he added, with a nervous look.
"Speaking of, what do you make of Young Endo, Young Midoriya?" All Might asked, and if he hadn't known better Izuku would have thought the man was as suspicious as his classmate had thought he would be when he found out. Fortunately, he did, and noticed that the man only looked curious.
"I… We haven't talked much, but he seems… Good, from what I've seen. He did go out of his way to try and get me to be more careful, even if it was just so he wouldn't feel my pain," Izuku mumbled, looking down as he tried to get a good report on that for his mentor. "He… I think he can be a good hero, if he can sense when others need help. And his Quirk's creatures seem to have a lot of potential."
"Indeed," All Might replied with a smile that held little joy behind it. "If only others could see what you see, Young Midoriya. But it'll fall on Young Endo's shoulders to prove that he can be a hero."
It struck Izuku at that moment that he and Endo weren't so different. Both of them had to prove themselves in the eyes of people. He had to show the world that he could be the Symbol of Peace to succeed All Might, and Endo had to show them all that he was more than the Black Rampage. Somehow, knowing he wasn't the only one in such a situation made him feel better.
Izuku wondered if that made him a bad person. After all, Endo's situation was nothing like his. However, maybe the saying was true, and misery did love company.
[}-o-{]
[Minoru Mineta]
"This just means I gotta train harder," Kirishima announced boisterously, which was already draining his energy, really. "I'll probably start using the school gym after classes starting tomorrow."
"Ah… Guess I could join in on that fun," Endo said with a grimace of a smile. "All Might did say that I should be ready to actually have to do stuff myself instead of just sending my Grimm over, and he's not wrong. I gotta train for that… And mostly for combat, I guess."
"We can train together, we'll both be real manly in no time," Kirishima replied, grinning widely.
"You are gonna make me feel bad if I don't join, can we just… say we do and don't?" Mineta grumbled, receiving a confused look from the red-headed teen and a commiserating one from Endo. "I guessed as much."
"Look at the bright side, man," the latter told him with a wry grin. "Chicks dig the muscles, or so I think." Now that sounded like a good reason to Mineta, really. Not that he had high hopes on that front but… Well…
"We do," Ashido agreed before sharing a giggle with Hagakure. Something that had a very interesting effect on their chest, quite honestly. Regrettably, he had to move his eyes away, else he get smacked or something.
Mineta did have to wonder if they were making fun of him. Wouldn't have been the first time and probably wouldn't be the last. At least Endo seemed to be serious about it though. It was why he stuck with the guy so far, really.
Endo might be a bit of an asshole, but he never really meant any of the "hurting" comments he made. Or, if he did, he worded them in a supportive way. Like with the costume, making it clear that it'd be a better idea to change designs, else he makes a fool of himself in public on top of just the class.
On top of that, he never went to the place where it'd actually hurt. His Quirk. Despite having a very clearly powerful and impressive power himself, Endo never lorded it over Mineta. No matter how obviously weak his Pop Off was in comparison.
"I guess I can join too," Mineta grumbled.
"We can't let them get ahead, Pinky, we gotta go too," Hagakure said, as if it were a matter of life or death. Which, all things considered… But that was a rather dark thought to have. He'd leave that to his edgy-looking friend.
"Of course, gotta stay in shape if we want to kick ass, Bubbly," Ashido replied with a grin.
"You think there'll be a space to practice Quirks? I really would like to train with mine. Haven't really gotten many opportunities for that," Endo commented idly, taking a gulp of his drink as he leaned back on his chair balancing on the back legs of it. "I want to see if I can make more types of Grimm, and train in how to fight with them… And without them too."
"There should be, which reminds me I have my own ideas to try out with my Quirk," Mineta replied, his mind briefly drifting off towards those aforementioned thoughts. "Gotta look for a way to make my power not seem completely useless," he added dejectedly. "Hey, what gives?!" he protested then, when Endo flicked his ear.
"Don't be an idiot, Tiny. Your Quirk is plenty useful. You'd make a great capture hero, I'm sure. From what you've told me, if you get stuck on one of those things, you are done. That sounds great to me," Endo told him, sounding 100% serious as he rolled his eyes. "So, stop with the pity party, yeah? It feels awful."
"Thanks… I think," Mineta said, unsure if that was a compliment or a reproach. It was probably both, he imagined. It was the summary of how dealing with Endo was though. Mineta would often end up more confused than anything else.
"Good, no bad feelings are allowed in my friend group," Endo grumbled, leaning forward. and resting his elbows on the table. "That'd really make things annoying for me and I-"
"Mum, he looks scary," they heard a child say from off to the side in another table. It was mumbled, but just loud enough that they could hear it.
"Come on, let's sit somewhere else, ok? It's fine," the woman with the child told her daughter as she picked her up and moved them somewhere else. Mineta saw it though, how the girl looked at his friend, how the woman did. 'Man, that's fucked up. It's not like he chooses to look like that,' he thought, frowning.
Sure, he'd been scared too, but only for a moment and that was mostly because he thought the guy would turn out to be another bully, considering the situation. Endo was studying to be a hero too, though, as it turned out. He seemed like a decent enough person after talking with him and even if one didn't talk with him. Just because he looked a little intimidating...
"I appreciate it, Tiny, Bubbly, but I said no bad feelings around me," Endo told him and Hagakure with a wry smile. When he turned to look at his friend, Mineta saw the way his red eyes would dart towards the child and parent pair. Could he feel the fear from the child? Disgust from the mother? Was that how it was for Endo to be outside or anywhere at all?
Mineta's eyes found themselves looking at his friend's grin. That was when he realized that he didn't remember ever seeing Endo truly smile. It was always somewhat twisted. A wry grin here, a bitter smile there and everything in between, but never one that was only happy, or anything like that.
Suddenly, his friend's Quirk didn't seem to be so good.
"Anyway," Mineta said, forcing his mind away from such thoughts and focusing on something else. "I've never actually gone to the gym, so you'll have to help me out, guys."
"Sure thing, Tiny. Leave it to me, I know all there is to know about that," Kirishima reassured him, all too happy to take that topic shift back to the previous conversation.
"I think I'll take that offer for help too. I've done some work outs and such, but I don't "know all there is to know about that" so… yeah," Endo commented, giving them all a sad smile that pissed Mineta off.
"There's something more important to talk about though," Ashido said with utmost seriousness and a determined look on her face. Mineta was almost afraid they'd bring the conversation back to the incident from just then but- "We gotta help Tiny with his costume."
"Oh yeah, that's definitely a must," Endo pointed out, his grin widening the smallest bit. Mineta wanted to be annoyed by that, but… Well, they weren't wrong, he supposed. And his friend was in a better mood so… He'd allow it, just this once.
[} Chapter End {]
Hey guys! How's it going?
I know I kinda rushed through the fights, but I thought detailing every one of them would have been too much, considering it'd have likely taken the entirety of this chapter or something like that, maybe even more. So, I sort of did a summary of them and was done with it. Hopefully that was the right call, if not, let me know so I can know for another time, yeah?
On the Midoriya and Mineta PoV's… I think those could have gone better, especially the latter. But I'm looking at them, now as I edit the chapter, and I just don't see where I could improve on them. So, I'll leave them as they are and hope that they are not as bad as I think.
I also hope you enjoyed the chapter.
As always, if you can't wait until next week for next chapter, or if you just feel like supporting my writing, there's up to three new chapters in my Pa tre on:
P a treon . com (slash) AdrianKing
Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ
Random Question: What do you like in MHA fics? I usually tend to go for OC fics or Villain Izuku ones. Sometimes I give Hero Izuku a chance but I just don't like the character that much and people tend to stick too close to canon for me to change my mind on him.
See you.