Chapter 31
"It'll be fine, Creepy," Hagakure reassured, patting him on the back. Kazuki wasn't quite that sure, but he didn't think that pointing that out would mean much. Instead, he just rubbed his hands on his face to try and calm himself down.
"I know," he decided to say instead. "I just… it's been a while, and I don't know how he'll react to me… To who I am right now," he admitted, deflating where he sat.
"The way I see it, if he doesn't like you anymore as you are, then he's not a friend anymore," Mineta commented, shrugging. "People change, maybe he was great before and all, but you are great right now, Endo. Things are going well for you. If he can't be happy for you…"
"Mineta's not wrong," Yaoyorozu agreed with a nod. "You both had bad experiences with heroes and society. If he can't let go of his resentment, then that's his problem, not yours. You are a good person, Endo, and he should be able to see that regardless of what you do or what your life is now."
"You are right," he conceded, pursing his lips. Even if they were right though, that didn't mean he had to like the idea of someone he'd considered a friend of sorts abandoning him, maybe even despising him.
"If things go wrong," Jiro started, drawing his eyes towards her. "Then we'll be here. You have friends now," she reminded him, to which he nodded. "I know losing someone sucks, I do. It'll probably suck more for you, I'm guessing, but it's not the end of the world. We'll be here."
"Yeah, that… that actually means a lot, thanks," Kazuki replied, this time with an uneasy smile. "Can we talk about something else though? I feel like I'm hogging all the attention."
"That's because you are," Mineta pointed out, only to receive a smack from Yaoyorozu. The girl seemed to be doing that almost out of reflex by that point. "Rude," the boy grumbled, rubbing his arm. "Anyway, I had some ideas I wanted to try with my quirk today. Like, attaching the beads to rope to make a net or something like that. Or maybe sticking them together to form a shield, kind of like your Grimm Guard."
"That sounds good, yeah," Kazuki commented, blinking.
"No need to look so surprised," Mineta muttered, giving him an unimpressed expression. "And I want to keep working on the bouncing technique, you know?"
"You have a name for all this stuff, right? Because it gets really confusing," Jiro asked, twirling one of her lobes on her finger.
"Grape Bounce sounds good enough, right? And I was thinking of Grape Buckler and Vineyard for the others," the short boy answered, looking excited. Kazuki imagined he'd spend a good amount of time thinking those over.
"Not Grapeyard?" he asked, unable to really keep a smirk off his face.
"Ha-fucking-ha," Mineta replied.
"Language."
"I want to work on my Quirk some too," Hagakure commented. "I was trying stuff at home yesterday and I'm pretty sure I got a shine out of my fingertip. I want to see if I can get it to happen again and maybe go from there."
"That's great!" Yaoyorozu exclaimed, visibly happy for her friend. "You have to show us!"
"I mean, um, I didn't get it to work again after that, and I stayed late trying but… I want to keep trying," Hagakure said, fidgeting with her hands. Or, at least, that's what Kazuki assumed, judging by the movement of her arms and the embarrassed feelings he picked up.
"Now I feel bad because I don't have anything new myself," Jiro commented, slumping on her seat. It was an exaggeration at best though, from what Kazuki could tell.
"I mean, you could probably practice stabbing things with those jacks. God knows they do damage to my grimm, after all," he pointed out, drawing a roll of the girl's eyes.
"Yeah, but it's not like I can stab real people like that. I should stop doing that. It's not very useful as training, considering I'll only be able to use it in a few situations," Jiro said, leaning back on her chair and pursing her lips. "Then again, maybe I can stab other things…" she added in a mumble that Kazuki only picked up because she was sitting next to him.
"Now I feel bad for not having anything new," Yaoyorozu commented jokingly. "How about you, Endo?"
"I have a few ideas I could try. Honestly, I just want to try and continue working on my pools… Not sure I'm getting anywhere fast on that front though," Kazuki answered, shrugging as he considered the question some more. "I guess I have a few Grimm projects I could try and get done. Might be a more productive use of my time. I'm kind of tired of always working on my numbers and making so little progress."
"Way to leave me alone, Creepy," Yaoyorozu said, in a rare moment of actually using one of their nicknames. She also added a fake pout for good measure. "What am I supposed to do now?"
"Try and start training to create something new?" Mineta asked, raising his hands in an overly exaggerated shrug. "Or just not be in the cool group with us."
"Right, the cool group," Kazuki commented dryly. "With you and me in it? I'd call it the losers' club but that'd be mean to the girls," he added.
"Way to bring my blooming ego down, Creepy. Really, thanks," the other boy replied sarcastically.
"That's what I'm here for, Tiny. That and smacking you when you get too perverted for your own good."
"I haven't even done anything like that lately!"
"So you weren't staring at me yesterday?" Yaoyorozu pointed out mercilessly, causing the boy to groan.
"You saw?"
"I'm pretty sure everyone saw," Kazuki answered, before being followed up by Hagakure.
"I think Yanagi was a second away from sending something to your head."
"Ugh."
"Maybe you should train on that, buddy."
"Shut up, Creepy."
[}-o-{]
"You ok, man?" Mineta asked, breathing harshly still and sweating profusely. "You don't look that much better than me," the boy added, and he wasn't wrong about that.
"Maybe… Maybe getting Beauty, Bubbly and Rocky in a spar against just me wasn't a good idea," he said, running a hand through his white hair to get it away from his face. "Just maybe," he repeated with a weary chuckle.
"Gee, you think?" Mineta mumbled with a laugh of his own, even if he sounded like he'd fall to the ground any second. "I'm gonna rest for a bit, if it's all the same to you."
"Yeah, I'm gonna try and make that new grimm now that everyone is busy," Kazuki told him, waving at him before rubbing his face. After a minute or two, he'd managed to get his breathing under control and regained a semblance of calm. He was still tired to the bones but he didn't need to be physically fit to use his Quirk, thankfully.
Drawing on the exhaustion and other emotions around him, he started without much delay. He had the plans and ideas, now he just needed to make them a reality. After having created a bunch of new grimm since he got out, it was becoming a little easier, or at least less of a big deal, he supposed.
This one might be a bit of an exception though, since he had to make this one entirely from a new place. There was no taking anything from the other designs, or at least for the most part. This grimm was different from the others he'd made, after all. Fortunately, it was also rather simple, so that should help even things out.
He started slowly, since he had plenty of negativity around from exhausted students. Maybe once there was less, he would try and speed things out. However, even if it wasn't energy efficient, going slow was the best way to prevent failure, or, at least, having to re-start from the beginning.
Kazuki saw the head rise from the shadows, watching intently for any mistakes. It was going to be a long process, he knew, since the base idea he had for the thing was rather big. Maybe bigger than was necessary, but he could always adjust the size of things. He had a feeling that this one's base size was bigger than the usual thing he created though, and those feelings were usually right.
So, he saw the head peek out of the shadows. Instead of a bone mask with red designs though, this one had plates on its head between its red eyes. There was little else on the form of armor though, leaving its pitch black body unprotected save for the scales that covered it. Those weren't quite as hard as, say, the plating on a boarbatusk, but they'd do.
Halfway through, things changed, because he couldn't quite continue, for some reason. No matter what Kazuki tried, nothing would click into place. 'Come on, what do you need? Things were going well,' he thought, glaring at the half-formed grimm as if it would give him the answers he seeked. It wasn't that something wildly different needed to be put there instead of what he'd planned. He was sure it was something along the lines of what he had in mind, else he wouldn't have been so sure this was how it was supposed to go.
He spent a good few minutes standing there, trying and re-trying to continue making the grimm. Eventually though, something clicked. 'Since when is that a thing?' he wondered, looking at the new side of the grim he was making. Instead of black, this other half was bone white, for whatever reason. He really didn't know what was up with that, but it worked and the design seemed to be clicking into place, so Kazuki would take it.
After some more time, he stood proudly as he looked at the particularly big creature. He checked the black half and the white half, the white plates on the black's head and the black plates on the white's. He saw it tilt its two heads to the sides, taking in their surroundings and letting their forked tongues out.
"King Taijitu," he decided to name it, smiling widely as he looked at the two headed snake grimm. A moment later, he commanded the white head to come closer and placed one of his hands on top of it. "Well, this is a first," he mused, looking at the very obviously light scales. So far, the most he'd managed to do was make the bone white plates. This one though, had white scales. Was that the key? To use scales instead of skin, fur or feathers?
Maybe he could test that later. As it was, he'd succeeded and a new grimm had been born. One more tool was added to his repertoire.
The idea for the King Taijitu was that he needed something to more safely subdue people. Granted, his other grimm worked, in a pinch, but they were not great at it, really. This new serpent themed creature though? It could just wrap itself around a villain or whoever Kazuki needed to subdue.
It was also big, which wasn't a great necessity, but was still useful. Besides, just like he could make it smaller if needed, he could also make his other grimm bigger. It wasn't efficient, but it was doable. Still, having something to fight something much bigger than the usual person could come in handy at some point.
He did remember that there were heroes that got bigger, like Ryukyu and Mt. Lady. He didn't remember if there were any villains with such skillsets, but Kazuki thought it was likely to be the case. Like the villain from the USJ. Nomu, he was fairly sure they were called. 'Slowly covering my bases,' he thought, dismissing the creature once he was done admiring it… for the moment. 'I really need to get better with numbers though. It won't be very useful if I have more grimm options than I can actually make and control. At least, it won't if I need them all.'
For the moment, maybe he could look for one of the others-
"B-Movie."
"Way to ruin a nice moment, Short Fuse," Kazuki said, sighing and deflating as he let the King Taijitu turn to black dust and disappear. "What do you want?"
"The fuck did you just call me?!" the boy exclaimed, tiny explosions going off in his palm.
"Thanks for proving my point," Kazuki replied blandly, readying himself in case he needed to make a sudden Grimm Guard to block an attack. One never knew with Bakugo, really.
"Fucking…" the blonde growled before visibly taking a deep breath in and calming himself. Kazuki was actually surprised. He didn't know the boy had that much self-control… which wasn't all that much, but still, more than expected. "I've seen how you train with others with your shitty monsters. Even the extras from the other class. I want in."
"I mean, they are shitty monsters, why would you want to fight them?" Kazuki asked, letting a lazy smile form on his face. He didn't like Bakugo and it wasn't a secret. The boy caused entirely too much trouble and while Kazuki seemed to mostly be able to curve most of it sometimes, that didn't mean they got along.
"Because at least I can blow them up without worrying," Bakugo muttered, glaring at Kazuki like he wanted to blow him up. "It's… difficult-," the blond continued, saying that last word like he was pulling his own teeth out. "-To train with my Quirk alone and risky with others."
"And why should I care. You've caused me nothing but trouble since we've known each other," Kazuki pointed out, tilting his head. The explosions on the other boy's hands grew a little louder.
"You are vice-president. Shouldn't you be more helpful?"
"Probably," Kazuki admitted, his smile getting wider. "But I never even wanted to be vice-president, so I don't much care for doing all that I'm supposed to. Wanna try again?"
"... What do you want, asshole?" Bakugo muttered under his breath, and Kazuki was having fun, even with all the anger that was coming off the other boy. It was strange, but… It was what happened. He wasn't very sure, but ever since his experiment with Aizawa it became… easier to tell what was his own emotions and what was others'. Maybe that would wear off, but if it did, then Kazuki would enjoy it while it lasted.
"You see, the Sports Festival is coming," Kazuki said, glad that they were getting to a point that he cared about more. "The world will know who I am once I'm on National TV. Someone is bound to recognize me then, someone that won't keep it a secret. I need to have as good a front to show as I can manage."
"And your point is? What do I have to do with this?" Bakugo asked, impatiently tapping his foot on the ground.
"The point is that you are a fucking menace, Bakugo," Kazuki accused, giving the other boy an unimpressed expression. "People will take one look at you and assume I'm a terrible influence or some shit like that. I can imagine it already, people saying that it makes sense for someone like you to be in the same class as me."
That seemed to shock some of the anger and impatience out of Bakugo.
Good.
"So, I want you on your best behavior, or you can bet your ass that I won't train with you ever again. Hell, I'll make it a point to train with everyone but you," Kazuki told the other boy, walking until he was face to face with the blonde. "Because things are hard enough for me as is. If you make it harder, I'll make sure to find a way to drag you down too."
"That's not very nice of you."
"Haven't you heard? I'm a villain," Kazuki replied with a half-smile.
"... Deal."
And that was that. Not even a minute later, Kazuki was maintaining three grimm on Bakugo at all times. They got blown up a lot, but that didn't really matter all that much when he could just make more. If anything, it was good training to get faster with his grimm creation.
As they sparred though, Kazuki started experimenting. Because he knew even Grimm Guard wouldn't totally protect him from one of Bakugo's explosions. The damage they did went even beyond the grimm. Even if it didn't, the grimm would be pushed back, which would cause damage too.
'Is there any way to block that?' he wondered, narrowing his eyes. 'The shockwave alone… How do you stop that? The push of the explosion?' he mused, looking at the ongoing spar and trying to find at least a clue.
'Wait…' he thought then, seeing one of his grimm vanishing after being blown up. 'What if I…?' he thought, making one of his grimm vanish before being sent away but after being hit by the explosion. His eyes widened and a grin spread on his face when he saw that the explosion's effects were reduced to a simple gust of wind with grimm dust in it instead of something more dangerous. 'Ok, that works… Might even work with other attacks. I have to practice that.'
Then again, he was fairly sure that he'd already thought about something on those lines before, but he hadn't quite tested that yet.
Good to know it worked, not he just needed to get better with the technique.
And that's exactly what he did through the hour that it took for Bakugo to decide that he was done blowing up his grimm and that he wanted to do some other training. Kazuki was fine with that, he needed to get some work on the machines anyway. And besides, he was now left wondering what else could he do with his grimm and potentially with his Grimm Guard. 'This is why I wanted to get training with more people,' he thought, grinning and shaking his head.
There was a lot of work to be done before the Festival, but he was optimistic.
[}-o-{]
Kazuki sat alone in a cafe, checking his phone for the hundredth time to see if he had anything to do while he waited. Unfortunately for him, there was no such thing to keep his mind from worrying. It was silly, he knew, but he couldn't help it. He was finally going to meet a part of his past that he didn't hate or want to forget and he was nervous.
He took another sip from his drink then, noting that he'd likely have to order another by the time his friend made an appearance. Not that it was the other boy's fault, really. He'd arrived stupidly early because he was anxious and wanted to make sure he was there first. He wasn't even sure why that was supposed to help, but he'd still done it.
"Endo, looking as unnerving as ever, huh?" a voice called, making Kazuki turn with a slight smile. Sure enough, there he was, looking as skinny as he ever had.
"Io, still looking like the kid people push around," he replied, his smile turning into a grin. "You are early."
"You are one to talk, how many have you ordered so far?" the sandy haired boy asked as he took the seat across from him.
"I'll have you know that it's the first one," he defended… although even he knew it was weak at best.
"So, what are you doing here? I can't say I wasn't surprised when you sent that message," Io replied, looking about as curious as he sounded. "I thought you still had time in the hole left."
"Yeah, I… I got out early," Kazuki answered, hesitating for a moment. "People from U.A. got me out, so I could be a student there."
"U.A.?" Io asked, brown eyes widening. It almost made Kazuki flinch, the way anger and envy flared up inside the other boy. He'd expected that though, so he wasn't really surprised, at all. "Well, someone's moved up in the world, huh?"
"You could say that. So, I guess I'm trying to be a hero now… I… I kind of like it, honestly. I want to be a hero," Kazuki said, gaining confidence in his words as he spoke. He still was nervous about how Io would react, but he believed what he said and that made him feel better.
"... Well, better you than half the spoiled little shits that go there, I imagine," the other boy replied, still seemingly caught off guard and uncertain, but seemingly meaning that. It reassured Kazuki a great deal, if he was honest. "And here I am, still in the same shit place I was when I went in and when I got out."
"People still suck then. No surprises there," Kazuki said with a sympathetic smile on his face. "I get it. People still feel like shit around me too."
"Yeah… I guess I didn't help myself snapping either. People won't forget now. I made things worse… obviously," Io commented, leaning back on his chair. Then they paused their conversation to order some drinks when the waitress dropped by. Or getting another one, at least, in Kazuki's case. "No surprise there."
"I mean, you did go crazy with your Quirk back then. And, to be fair, the only reason I'm not getting lynched is because people don't know I'm there… for the most part," Kazuki commented, giving the other boy a nervous smile. "That's gonna change with the Festival."
"It's going to be a mess, yeah," Io agreed, not seeing a reason to sugarcoat things. That was fine, Kazuki would have known if he lied and the other boy knew it. "You say that some people know?"
"My classmates, the faculty of course. I have a friend group and all, believe it or not."
"They grow up so fast," Io said jokingly, wiping an imaginary tear. Kazuki knew better though, and even if he didn't, he could feel it. The other boy wasn't feeling so good with that whole thing. There was envy, bitterness and more there.
"If I can get people to accept me, so can you. And if nothing else… you know I'm in your corner, Io," Kazuki reminded the other boy. "I took a few too many beatings for you, we've got a bond and all now."
"I do believe I took more beatings for you than the other way around," Io pointed out which… fair enough. "So, if anything, you owe me, man."
"I guess that's fair," he replied, his expression falling for a moment before he pulled the backpack he'd set on the floor and opened it to look for something. Eventually, he found what he'd been looking for. "Part of my payment," he said simply as he offered it to the other boy.
"Pay… ment?" Io asked, taking it with a confused expression before he looked at what it was. Then he fell silent, staring intently at the piece in his hand. After a few seconds, his hands shook a little. "You remembered?" he asked softly.
"Course I did. I promised I'd get it to you if I had the chance, right?"
"Endo, we made that promise half out of it with how many punches we'd taken."
"Still a promise, right?" he asked with a shrug. "If people can believe and have faith in me, think I can have a better future waiting for me… Then there's no reason you can't get the same benefit, Io."
"You were always a sentimental little shit."
"I'll have you know I'm taller than you, scrawny boy."
"Shut up," Io grumbled, chuckling wetly. "Man, I didn't expect any of this when you sent me that message. I just thought… I didn't even know what to expect."
"Me neither," Kazuki admitted.
"So, what better future is there for me? I didn't get the chance to go to a fancy school, you know?" Io asked then, his bitterness and frustration returning with a vengeance.
"You didn't, but I can offer you the chance they offered me. I can help you, once I become a hero," Kazuki said. "And that's a promise," he added firmly before grinning. "And I don't even have my brain scrambled because of a fight this time."
"Guess I can trust that if nothing else," Io said, not having taken his eyes off the All Might autograph even once. "So what? You'll make me your sidekick?"
"I mean, it depends," Kazuki commented, leaning back with a smirk. Things had gone much better than expected, and he was very happy about it. "Do you still think you'll go with that lame ass name you'd thought up in juvie?"
"Hey, I'll have you know Mustard is a perfectly fine super name!"
Chapter 32
"So, moving on from first aid supplies to weapons, huh?" Kazuki asked, leaning back on his chair. "That's quite the jump, Beauty," he added in a joking tone, getting a roll of Yaoyorozu's eyes. "In all honesty, it's a good idea. Once the public starts knowing what you can do, I'm betting villains will try to take you out. You can learn to provide support items for other heroes, making them stronger, better."
"I… hadn't quite been thinking that," Yaoyorozu replied with a bashful expression. "I just thought that I wanted to help and I noticed that most people don't have weapons added to their costumes and such, for some reason."
"Well, that works too," Kazuki said with a chuckle as the girl blushed a little in embarrassment. "From there you could probably work through some general purpose things too, rope and such. Then there's trying to make more specialized support items, maybe? Would that be too complex?"
"It would," she agreed. "But it is what I imagine the progression would be. Basic to complex," she commented, looking down at a notebook in front of her and starting to write on it. "How about you?"
"I'm thinking that I'll have to tackle making a grimm with specific emotions soon. I've been making progress but I'm not really going anywhere until I try to apply what I've been trying," Kazuki answered, idly looking out the window. He'd looked through notes too much already. "From there, I have some ideas. Most of them just seem to be more or less variations of the same thing. If the specific emotion thing works though and it does have some kind of effect on the grimm… I'll see how it goes from there."
"Sensible," Yaoyorozu commented with a nod.
They stayed silent for a while then, being too early for most people to be there anyway. As usual, the two of them were within the earliest to arrive. Tokoyami and Todoroki were there too, as was part of the routine for the most part, but the two usually stayed by themselves and neither Kazuki nor Yaoyorozu felt the need to approach them.
Thus, the two simply remained in companionable silence for a moment.
"Things with the other representatives are going better, right?" he asked after some time.
"You'd know if you didn't basically zone out during the meetings," the girl replied wryly.
"I would, but the Gen Ed students are… intense," he commented, because they really were. There was so much envy and frustration there that he could probably make a gigantic grimm just with them. A beacon of negativity, those kids were, and it was getting worse and worse the closer they got to the Sports Festival. "Seriously, they need to chill and maybe train harder to see if they get a spot," he added with a roll of his eyes.
"You do know that your dismissal really doesn't help matters, right?"
"I've learned that sometimes it doesn't really matter," Kazuki said with a shrug. "If they are gonna feel like shit anyway, I'll just let them. Trying to make things better when there's no way to really improve things is effort wasted. At least this way I can try and push them out of my mind."
Yaoyorozu sighed.
"Look, I know it sucks, but at least they should calm down after some time has passed after the Festival, right?" he pointed out with an unsure smile. "Besides, you are the one that leaves me to deal with Bakugo and the rest of the problematic bunch. The least you can do is deal with the other representatives," he added, drawing a grimace from the girl.
"Touche," she replied with a sigh. "It's so tiresome though."
"There there, it'll get better," he reassured her with a pat on her shoulder. It felt weird to do, like it was probably the wrong move or something like that. 'Ah, maybe I should leave physical gestures to other people,' he decided, pulling his hand back awkwardly. At least Yaoyorozu didn't seem to be feeling nearly as bad as he did after that, so he soldiered on. "Everything will go back to normal, I'm sure."
"I sure hope so," Yaoyorozu commented, and Kazuki took some solace in the fact that she really didn't seem to care for the previous gesture. Maybe he was just being too dramatic or something. "They are unbearable."
"If worse comes to worst, I guess I can deal with them for you," he commented. "Don't expect me to do it a lot. I don't want people to think of me as the bad guy before they even learn who I actually am."
"Don't worry about it," she told him quickly and he felt shame rising in her. It seemed that she hadn't thought about that either. "I can deal with them… Speaking of…"
He groaned.
"What'd they do now?"
"Nothing, nothing," she answered just as fast as before. "I meant… how are you gonna tell everyone? It sounded like you would?"
"I reckon I won't have to," he said, leaning forward, crossing his arms on top of his desk and resting his head over them. "The Sports Festival is a very public event. Someone is bound to recognize me or my power. It'll come out on its own then. Besides… I don't think I have it in me to go and actually tell everyone. That'd be… a bit much," he admitted weakly. "Maybe that makes me a coward, but I'd like to hold onto whatever anonymity I have for as long as possible."
"I don't think that makes you a coward, Endo."
"Thanks. It actually helps to just hear you say that," he told her with a slight smile. "Heads up, Short Fuse is coming," he warned, getting a groan from her. "Oh, don't give me that. It's me that'll have to deal with his annoying ass."
"Language," Yaoyorozu chided, more out of reflex than anything else. "And I know that… doesn't make him any less annoying."
"You have your annoyances to deal with and I have mine," he commented, drawing a wry smile from her. "That's how this works."
"I guess it could be worse."
"Gee, thanks for jinxing us."
[}-o-{]
Kazuki was more or less just waiting.
It was one of those days when he stayed way past anyone else in the training facilities of U.A. with his friends having long since gone home or somewhere else. He'd have asked them to remain a little longer if possible, since he wanted to try and make a new grimm and he kind of needed their opinions afterwards. Unfortunately, people were more and more willing to stay late with the Sports Festival coming. He didn't quite want to force them to stay later than they could just to realize that the place wasn't emptying.
And he very much would prefer for the place to be empty when he tried out his new creation.
For a definition of new, at least.
As it was, however, he was having no luck in even trying to make it. Not because he was struggling with the process but because people just didn't seem to go away. The facilities were only then, very late in the day, starting to be left by the student body. There were still quite a few people around though, and Kazuki was starting to wonder if it'd be more productive to just leave and try some other day.
It was only the thought that things were likely to get worse as time passed that stopped him. As it was, he was already exhausted from training, his body hurt, his stamina was low and he'd exhausted all the people that had approached him from his class or 1-B for training. At that point, he was just sitting on the benches, people watching as he tried and waited for everyone to leave.
'It's not to be, I guess,' Kazuki thought, watching the people around keep on training. He wondered if some of them had more energy due to their Quirks or if they were just really pushing things in an effort to better prepare for the Sports Festival. He didn't usually pay attention, but he wondered how many of those visited the training facilities regularly and how many just were coming for the event and then would go back to being lazy.
Was it arrogant of him to think like that? Probably, he supposed.
He let out a sigh, his eyes darting to a girl off to one side. She'd been standing there for a while, her frustration and helplessness growing by the minute. He had watched her a bit and her power seemed to be related to water, somehow. Kazuki had seen her holding water bottles and also shooting stuff around.
Besides that, he hadn't wanted to stare too much. Sure, he could pass it as information gathering but… Well, he had enough reputation worries without being considered some sort of stalker or creep. Thus, he'd erred on the side of caution and simply watched everyone without focusing on anyone in particular for long.
That girl was feeling some serious stuff though, at least compared to everyone else still around.
With another sigh, Kazuki stood up. 'It's none of my business,' he thought, moving towards one of the now more available empty parts of the training facilities. There, he made a bunch of grimm, five in this case. He was much more confident now with more grimm, but on top of that, they'd be fighting each other, since he was alone. That meant that he had less to worry about if he slipped a bit and he could just focus on keeping himself from creating more.
Besides, he'd been informed that a teacher was always around just in case and they were much more alert with him there. Kazuki supposed most other students were either a risk of something going off suddenly instead of a constant like him. So, they had to be mostly just waiting in case something happened and they had to step in and help.
Kazuki tried not to think too much on how his circumstances affected even shit like that.
'I'm letting it get me again,' he thought, sighing as he tried to distance himself from the frustration around him, especially the girl's. 'I'm here to train, so do it and focus,' he told himself, taking a deep breath in and then letting it out. With some luck, the other students would leave before the place closed off… 'Speaking of, I don't know when this place closes off,' he mused idly.
Something to check later, Kazuki supposed.
For the moment, he just kept making grimm and having them kill each other. If nothing else, it was a good way to burn through the negativity he was getting from around him. He just needed to be careful not to spend too much and leave some for the grimm he wanted to make. Especially because he wanted to do some experimentation, but there was plenty to use and he was getting a pretty steady stream of emotions as it was.
Thus, Kazuki wasn't too worried as he made his different grimm tear into each other, testing things by making adjustments to existing creations. Like making King Taijitu that were about as big as a normal beowolf, or making a beowolf bigger than usual, or making tiny imps. He didn't find any new things to improve on the increasingly bad efficiency of not sticking to established designs, but he was more doing it all to pass the time more than anything.
That and training with bigger numbers, which he was pretty sure he was making progress in. Although, being honest, sometimes it was difficult to tell. His mind was still scattered, the grimm still easily slipped past his control, he was still so very tempted by the negativity… However, he thought he was getting better. His friends also told him that he had to be stopped less and they had to call for his attention less…
He wasn't sure if that was the case, since he was usually focusing too much to really pay attention to time and the number of times that happened, but he'd take their word for it… with a grain of salt. There was no telling how much was honesty and how much was just them trying to make him feel better. Kazuki could usually tell when people lied, but that didn't mean he was a perfect lie detector, after all.
'Hmm, maybe I should take a little break,' he mused after some time. Looking around, there were a few stragglers still, but Kazuki had all but given up already. Idly, he dispelled his current grimm and considered what to do. He had plenty of negativity to go through, even with what he'd burned by constantly having to recreate his creatures through his last bout of training.
There was less incoming negativity though, since there were less people around too. He did notice that the incredibly frustrated, angry, tired and envious girl was still there. 'Her emotions got worse,' he noted idly, but other than that he let her be. 'Well, at least I have a source of energy if I need it,' he thought to himself.
In the spirit of not continuing to work out after so long, he decided on something that might not even actually count as taking a break. Maybe he was training too much, if his idea of resting was using his Quirk more… Then again, making the "friendlier" grimm was nice, since it implied letting much more positive emotions through him to create them.
Trying for something different, he went for a King Taijitu this time, however. The result of the attempt was… actually quite nice. It was kind of funny that it was so small in comparison, since the two-headed serpent that resulted was about as big as the beowolf puppy. The two sets of eyes gazed up at him adorably, as if they were curious little children.
With a smile, Kazuki sat down on the ground and patted the friendly serpent. 'I really need to make this sort of grimm more often,' he thought to himself. Not only was the process much less stressful, but having the adorable little things around was great. 'Like providing my own therapy animals,' he thought, finding it a bit ironic – or maybe poetic? – that something made out of negativity could be used to drive said negativity away.
So, with the company of an adorable snake with a head on each end of its body, he sat down on the ground and absently patted their heads while looking around. The frustrated girl was still… doing whatever it was that she was doing. Kazuki could see some empty bottles on the floor and her waving her arms around but not much was happening. 'Probably why she feels like that? Wonder what that's about,' he mused, before turning his attention to the other students.
A few were hitting the machines, a few were training their Quirks. Some of those latter ones made for an interesting show, even an impressive one at times. Fortunately, those that seemed quite powerful seemed to be older students. Or, at least, he didn't recognize them from any of the two classes of first year heroics. 'Could be from one of the other courses?' he thought idly, but that was unlikely. With some of the powers he was seeing, it wouldn't make sense for them to not end up in heroics if they actually tried.
No offense to his classmates and 1-B's class, but they seemed better than some of the less gifted students he knew of.
"Excuse me," someone called and Kazuki turned to see the frustrated girl standing a few steps away from him. Blinking, he wondered why she could possibly have approached him. He hadn't even been staring at her at all or anything… at least not then. Unless she noticed him before? "I've seen you training with others with your… beasts?" she commented, the last word said more questioningly than anything.
'Oh? Interesting,' he thought, realizing what was going on.
"I have," he confirmed unnecessarily. With a groan, he pulled himself to a standing position. "Did you need something?"
"I've been practicing for the Festival, obviously," she said and Kazuki noticed that her expression didn't change much from the sullen one she'd wore… pretty much every time he'd looked at her before. She was feeling more frustrated than before though, feeling some annoyance and anger. "I was wondering if you could help me."
"Sure thing," he agreed easily, causing a change in her expression for once. He raised an eyebrow at her slightly widened eyes. "Surprised?"
"Shinso didn't have nice things to say about you… or your class," she replied, to which he blinked. 'Shinso?'
"... Shinso?" he decided to voice after a moment.
"He's my classmate. Said he visited your class and some… less than good things about you all, admittedly," the girl explained, which didn't really narrow things down.
"Uh, not to sound like I'm bragging, because I'm not, but a lot of students have been "visiting" my class," he said, making the quotation marks with his fingers. "If you could narrow it down a little?"
"He said he spoke with you, specifically. Purple hair and tired expression?" she described and he immediately knew who she was talking about. 'Ah, that explains the slight spike in anger and envy, I guess,' he thought wryly.
"Yeah, I remember him. Didn't introduce himself, which is why I didn't know who you were talking about," he explained, hoping that she would believe him. Actually, he hadn't introduced himself back then either so…
"He didn't… Well, I haven't introduced myself yet either, I guess," the girl mumbled, giving him a wry smile before extending her hand. "Chikuchi Togeike."
"Kazuki Endo," he replied in turn, deciding to try to be nice.
Sure, she wasn't feeling great – possibly about him, his class or whatever – but still, he wanted to give people the chance he wanted them to give him… In most cases, at least. So, he took her hand and shook it with as friendly a smile as he could muster. Fortunately, while her emotions oscillated a little, she didn't seem to take too badly to him or his appearance.
"So, you wanted to train?" he asked then, running a hand through his hair as he made the Baby Taijitu slither its way up his leg and onto his shoulders.
"Right, um, I need to get more water bottles since… Well, I used the ones I got, but after that we can start, if it's not too much trouble?" the girl said awkwardly, rubbing her arm with one hand and looking away for a second.
"Sure, I can wait," he told her with a shrug, watching her walk away. 'At least I made the right call being friendly,' he mused then, letting out a breath he hadn't noticed he was holding and trading a look with the white head of the Baby Taijitu on his shoulders. 'She was feeling a little better, I guess,' he added.
At least there didn't seem to be much anger there, plenty of frustration and envy though. 'Just take the win,' he told himself, taking a deep breath in. Looking around, he wondered if Togeike would mind if he told her to go away once the place was more empty. 'Probably,' he thought wryly. 'Maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow?... Or maybe not,' he mused, trying to come up with a way to test what he wanted to. It was a shame that this one creation of his wasn't… crowd friendly, or at least that was what he assumed.
'Maybe I can check with the school staff? Wonder if it'd be too much to ask for some time alone in one of the fake sites,' he thought to himself. It was a possibility, but that might be too much favoritism or something like that. It was the safe thing to do, but maybe they'd want him to leave that experimentation for another time rather than push for things like that?
"Sorry for the wait," Togeike said, bringing him back to the present as he watched her carry a bunch of plastic bottles in her arms. A little rushedly, she set most of them down except for one. "Closest faucet isn't that close," she explained, and while her expression seemed just as bland as it did before, he could feel her nervousness. 'Does she think I'm just gonna leave?' he wondered as he blinked.
"That's fine. Did you have anything in mind for this… uh, training session?" he asked, unsure of how to call whatever they were about to do. "I'm not sure if you saw but I can make a bunch of different grimm… that's the name of my creations," he told her, adding the last bit when he remembered that she might not know what those were called. He was getting a little used to people knowing how his Quirk went.
"I was thinking we could start with different ones? Like the werewolf ones and the bird ones?" Togeike answered without even having to think about it too much. It was a bit surprising though, making him blink. A second later, the girl's cheeks dusted with pink as embarrassment reared its head in her emotions. "I… might have been looking when you and the others were training."
"Scouting competition?" he asked with a grin, to let her know that he didn't mind. God knew he'd checked on other students when they were training too to see what he might have to go up against. Still, it was a little amusing to see her get flustered. "Don't worry about it. I guess it's flattering, in a way. Then again, we must make quite the show too. We aren't precisely… inconspicuous, are we?" he realized after a moment. Especially when they gathered almost a full class of students to spar and such.
"You aren't," Togeike agreed, still feeling a little nervous but trying to hide that. "If it helps, I think you are one of the strongest students in our year," she added, to which he smiled.
"It does… I think," he commented. Deciding to get on with things though, he focused on his negativity pool, letting his shadow extend to the sides and creating a beowolf and a nevermore to get things started. "Is that enough or do you want more? How do you want to do this?"
"That's fine, maybe more later?" she answered hesitantly, as if she were catching up with the fact that all that was really happening. Kazuki wasn't sure why, but he didn't think trying to ask about that was a good idea… probably. "You think you can just… make them move around? I don't think I'm ready to fight them."
"Target practice then?" he thought, the gears in his head shifting. Yanagi and Mineta trained like that too sometimes, so he wasn't too surprised about that decision, nor was he inexperienced. "I can work with that," he agreed easily, giving his grimm a look before both of them took off. The beowolf zigzagged around and the nevermore started flying in random patterns over them in the air. "Whenever you are ready."
"Right…" Togeike mumbled, staring at the creatures. He felt some slight trepidation there, but it wasn't bad enough for him to be too bothered. People had felt worse just looking at him really, so getting that reaction to seeing his creatures of negativity wasn't that bad. "Right," she repeated, more decisively this time, opening the bottle of water in her hand without taking her eyes off of the grimm and then…
The water shot out of the bottle. Kazuki looked on with interest, as what seemed to be needles or bullets or something like that was fired from the bottle's mouth. 'Well, that's something,' he thought, looking as the girl continued training. The water seemed pretty dangerous too, he confirmed when one of his grimm was hit and the attack went right through them. 'Strong… I guess there wasn't any water in the Entrance Exam zone for her to use? I don't remember, honestly.'
Maybe he'd have to be careful with this girl during the Festival, Aoyama's might not be the only spot that got a replacement.
Chapter 33
After some time, the novel feeling of enjoying something as normal as class was starting to wear off. 'I'm suddenly understanding some of the others' complaints about school,' he mused, noting down the things All Might wrote on the blackboard. As he did though, he took a deep breath in to remind himself that no, his chest and stomach weren't trying to kill him. It was just his teacher's condition.
'Focus, Kazuki,' he told himself, shaking his head a bit. His thoughts were getting lost on everything and anything. Sure, what they were studying was protocols, which were important and he knew it but… They were so dull at times. There was a lot of detail, a lot of explanations and a lot of fancy speech that made it so that even interesting things could turn into white noise.
School had been nice at first, since things were very different compared to how they worked back in juvie. Now that he was getting used to his freedom and nice things actually being able to happen, Kazuki was feeling the wonder of attending normal classes just… wearing off. 'To think I missed school of all things,' he groaned internally.
It wasn't like he hated school though. He liked that he could go, and he liked learning how to do the job he wanted in the future. It was just the lectures and texts and homework that sucked. It didn't help that boredom and frustration of other students reached him too, amplifying his own.
Like Mineta, who was all but dozing off.
Rolling his eyes, Kazuki kept his eyes on All Might, who seemed to be focusing on his own notes, the blackboard and not messing up. The man was nervous on top of being in pain, so Kazuki imagined he wasn't paying all that much attention to the students. Fortunate for Mineta, he supposed.
Even with that, his class was one of those that were the easiest to focus on. Not because it was more interesting, even though it was, since it was heroics, but also because All Might was a good teacher. The man might have been a bit of a mess, since he clearly didn't know what he was doing, but that didn't make him bad at it anyway. After all, he was the Number One Hero, and while he might not have been the best teacher, he knew about what he was talking about.
From time to time, he'd deviate from the clearly already prepared speech and general lecture to instead impart on them some life lesson that he'd learned while on the job. Even those most distracted during the class would give the man their full attention whenever this happened. It was just that interesting, and most of those teachings came across as much more important when they were explained to them in a much more relatable way and also in a way that made it obvious that they could use what was said in their lives.
Certainly better than the droning, bland texts they had to read through.
Kazuki was actually making sure to note all those down separately and make flashcards with the pieces of advice the hero gave. He was sure he wanted to remember those, even more than the actual class material… Not that he was dismissing the rest of the class, of course, but still.
All too soon though, All Might's class was done and Kazuki had to prepare himself for a lot of duller classes to come. Of course, the other teachers weren't bad per se, but they had much less exciting classes. Present Mic tried though, and Kazuki was actually interested in English, so there was that, but the rest? Not even Midnight with her… advantagescould make her class all that interesting every single time. It was just how it worked. If anything, those might have worked against her from time to time, really.
Not that Kazuki would admit that out loud, but Mineta did it for both of them.
"I just know I'm going to forget half the things we need to do, even if they all make sense and are reasonable," Jiro grumbled, moving to take a seat as the group gathered once more. This time, they all sat around Mineta's desk by the window. Idly, Kazuki glanced towards Bakugo and Midoriya, who sat in front of the short boy. One was still a bundle of nerves, but somehow seemed to calm down a little at that moment.
Which was good, because Kazuki didn't feel like dealing with extra bad emotions.
"Same," he commented, shoulders dropping a little as he sighed. "There's a lot of things to remember. One step or two is bound to be forgotten. Better hope it's one of the less important ones."
"All protocol steps are important," Yaoyorozu chimed in, drawing groans from the rest of them. She was likely the only one that would be getting everything right and they knew it. As it was, Kazuki and Mineta were likely the best after her, academically speaking, and they still weren't sure about their memories being good enough. "It's a process, one thing leads to the other."
"It sounds neat when you say it like that, Beauty," Hagakure replied, all but whining. "But some of those things are so small and some of them aren't even related to the rest at all!"
"We can go over those later?" the rich girl commented. "Maybe we can go to my house this time. My parents don't mind."
"Ah… You sure about that?" Kazuki asked, grinning uncertainly. "Your parents are a big deal, aren't they?" he added, leaving unsaid that he could cause trouble with or for them… maybe even both.
"It's fine," she reassured, placing a hand on his arm and squeezing. "I talked to them and I did have to do a little convincing," she explained to him and he appreciated the honesty. He likely would have picked up on a lie and that'd have made things worse. "But they accepted in the end. I… I guess we can go somewhere else though. I can't promise that you won't pick up emotions from them," she continued, finishing a little withdrawn.
"It's fine. We can go there," he told her, already preparing himself for what she said could happen. He could have said no, of course, but Yaoyorozu seemed to want them to go there, so… He'd put up with that if he needed to. It wasn't the end of the world.
"I'm sure they'll realize that it's fine, and you aren't who they think you are," she replied, clearly very glad for his answer. Personally, Kazuki doubted they would, but he could hope. Things had gone well with Jiro's father and Mineta's mother, after all.
[}-o-{]
"You can do it, Creepy!" Hagakure cheered beside him, and he could occasionally see her, actually bouncing around and all with- 'Where did she even get pom-poms?' he wondered, pausing for a second and becoming distracted. Still, he'd admit that it was nice to hear the cheering and have someone put actual effort into doing that for him.
With a grin, he focused back on what he was doing, since it was kind of important.
After all, he was using six grimm in a spar session.
'I can do it,' he told himself, frowning deeply as he kept an eye on each and every one of his summons. They were all beowolves, since it was easier to control more grimm if they were of the same type. Not a crazy amount, but it was certainly better than trying to control six grimm that were nothing alike at the same time.
He took a deep breath in.
Things were going well, but that only added more pressure. He needed to keep it going like that. No slipping, no cracks in his focus, no distractions. 'Focus,' he told himself, feeling a little annoyed. The control part was going well, but the grimm's efficiency had taken a hit. He was reining in too much.
'Come on, I can make this work,' he told himself, letting go the smallest bit, trying to reach the same performance level that his grimm usually had. 'That's better,' he mused, trying to reach the perfect spot. He needed to be careful. He refused to slip up again. He needed to do this perfectly, if only to prove to himself that he could.
It was frustrating, to push his Quirk more and more and always be a breath away from slipping. It was grating on his patience too. Even then, after so long, he could easily slip with just four grimm if he wasn't careful. That was bullshit. He'd get nowhere at the rate he was going. His grimm were powerful. His Quirk was powerful. He was powerful…
He just needed to be better.
'Better,' he told himself, but it wasn't enough. 'Just a little more. Careful, but a little more,' he mused, taking a deep breath in. He needed to push a little more. Just a little, but not too much, which was a balance all sorts of frustrating to keep. 'That's it, that's it,' he thought, noticing that he had managed to reach the point he wanted. Now he just had to keep himself there.
The spar was going well now that his creatures were fighting well too, which just made everything better. The students of 1-B were sure to be grateful… even if they were likely to get a bruise or two. That was what training was for, after all.
"You are doing great," he heard Hagakure say from beside him. He knew he was, but somehow, hearing it being said out loud was a lot better. He'd make sure to thank the girl once he could afford the brain cells to focus on her instead of training.
"Maybe I won't even need to spray him today," he heard Yaoyorozu comment from his other side, jokingly.
"That's not nice, Beauty!" the invisible girl exclaimed, before giggling a little.
Kazuki heard them, but he wasn't thinking about what they said too much. He needed to keep his focus. He needed to keep his Grimm going and under control. 'I can do this,' he repeated in his mind, grinning widely. It was progress, progress without slips, without failures, without frustration.
He could get better. He could improve. He could be stronger and be a hero. Now he just needed to keep going and show everyone that. The Sports Festival was the place to do that. The place where he'd either make or break his career. He would be a hero regardless, but he needed to start working on his reputation, or his dream job would become a nightmare.
Kazuki needed to be at his best for the Festival, so that everyone could see. He needed to be strong, but more importantly, he needed to be in control. Everything had to be perfect, because if he slipped on national TV, then he was screwed. If he was too weak, it wouldn't be much better. If he made any mistake during the whole event, then the already steep slope he faced for his future as a hero would get even worse.
'Don't think about that,' Kazuki told himself, balling his hand so hard it started hurting. He needed to focus on the fight, on the grimm. The future was the future and the present was the present. He couldn't worry about what was going to happen if it would just mess up with what he was doing.
He was training, he was preparing.
He was doing his best, so he'd just have to hope that it'd be enough. If it wasn't, then he'd cross that bridge when he got to it. That was all he could do, keep working on things to the best of his ability. Show the world the best him he could be.
If it wasn't enough, he'd just have to be better.
Eventually, with some luck, the public would see that he wasn't a monster.
Hopefully.
[}-o-{]
"Finally alone here," Kazuki thought out loud, looking around the empty training facilities. It was Friday, so he supposed most people had better things to be doing during their weekends than continuing to train. Or maybe they had other plans for such things? Regardless, he would take the opportunity, since it didn't look like he'd get many of those the closer they got to the Sports Festival. Most of his friends did, except for Hagakure who had said she'd go ahead and visit Hound Dog while he did his thing. He'd go afterwards himself, actually…
If things worked out, at least.
'Ok, let's get started before I get kicked out,' he decided, looking off to the side to see that Aizawa was there to keep an eye on him. The teacher nodded and Kazuki nodded back. Turning back to look forwards and licking his lips, he shook his shoulders, cracked his neck and got ready. By then he'd kind of gotten used to creating new grimm, but this was different. He'd be trying a completely different process now, which meant that he was the smallest bit anxious and also eager to get to it.
Closing his eyes, he reached for one of the nodes in his negativity pools, a very particular node at that. He had some ideas of what would work with the grimm he was gonna try and work with. That grimm being the crowd control project he'd kind of put aside some time ago. Now, maybe this could be what he needed to actually make it work.
So, he reached into his first option, touched it and resisted the urge to let go instantly as crippling exhaustion seeped into his body. He pulled at the string with energy he didn't feel he had, barely managing to stay standing. Once he had enough, he started the process of creating a grimm, with the string reaching through the shadow and into the body of the creature.
The humanoid body hadn't changed much since the first time he made it. The big chest for bigger lungs was still there, the arms were still ridiculously long with equally long fingers. This last part he imagined would be useful to have the thing grab someone. The thing had almost no muscle, but if it could be a bother, Kazuki would call it a win.
He knew, however, that things were different this time. The grimm looked mostly the same as it had all the other times Kazuki had made it while practicing and such. However, there was a slight shine to the creature's eyes, ominous despite the lifeless way it stood in its stick thin legs.
Kazuki looked at it for a long moment, looking to the side towards Aizawa once more. The hero was feeling a little nervous, he noticed, and wary, but overall he didn't seem to feel too bad. His teacher nodded once more, and Kazuki took a deep breath in.
'Moment of truth,' he thought, looking at the creature and giving it a single command.
Then, the grimm looked up, opened its jaws and screamed. Immediately, he felt the difference. Or, maybe it was more accurate to say that his teacher did, because he felt the exhaustion suddenly creep into the man's sense through his Quirk. Kazuki grinned slightly. It worked.
Then he frowned.
It had worked, but the design didn't click. It wasn't finished. There was something missing there, he knew, but what he didn't know was what. Letting it dissolve, he frowned at the spot where the creature had been. 'What do I have to do for it to click into place? What do I need to do for the design to be perfect?' he wondered.
'Another emotion?' he thought, steeling his resolve to do just that. It sucked, but if he could get some results, it might help motivate him to put up with it. So… he reached for something a little harsher than just exhaustion. He reached for sadness… And then he stopped.
'What if it's not an emotion, but a combination…?' he wondered. 'Fuck, this is going to suck,' he added then, grimacing. Taking a deep breath in, he reached inside the negativity pool once more, towards more than one node this time. Sadness, exhaustion, boredom, frustration… He needed all of those to create something else.
Depression.
'It's the Quirk, not me,' he told himself, pushing through as he pulled on the strings and the emotions filled him. All he wanted was to curl up on the floor and cry, but he wouldn't. They weren't his emotions, they weren't even someone else's emotions, they were just that, emotions, plain and simple.
They were a resource, nothing else.
So, he used them as such, slowly creating the grimm again. It took him no time at all to notice that things were going differently. Not on how the grimm looked, but that the design felt much more natural this way. This was the way it was supposed to be. 'It's working, keep going,' he told himself, even as the feelings tried to drag him down.
Eventually, thankfully, the grimm was finished once more.
Taking a moment to get it together again, Kazuki commanded the creature to scream once more. He knew, as he heard the cry, that the thing was done. He could only hope that the process would be easier now that the design was done and after getting some practice, because that had been awful.
"A strong one," Aizawa commented some time after the grimm stopped its scream. "Many villains would just drop at that."
"Better be strong, with how much it sucked to make it," Kazuki grumbled. "How strong?"
"It will definitely have an effect, even against those that have a strong enough will… That's what I think," his teacher told him, making him nod. It'd work as crowd control and maybe even for single targets, although it'd depend. As it was… Kazuki was happy. "Do you have a name in mind?"
"Yeah…" he commented, looking at the new grimm's shining eyes. "Apathy."
[}-o-{]
"Doing better?"
"Mhm."
"Glad to hear, I guess," Kazuki commented, looking at Hagakure as she hugged a puppy beowolf to her chest. They were both sitting outside Hound Dog's office after the invisible girl had her session. Kazuki could have gone in already, but his friend had come out feeling a little down, if better than before, when he felt her emotions spike as she spoke with the counselor.
So, he'd decided to wait a bit and help his friend before going in. Hound Dog hadn't called him in or anything, so it was probably fine. He guessed the hero knew what was going on and approved… Either that or he'd be told something when he finally went in.
"Thanks," the invisible girl told him, and he could almost hear the smile on her face, even if she wasn't feeling great. "I appreciate this… I always wanted a dog, you know?"
"You can't keep it," he replied with a grin.
"But I'll take him on walks and all!"
"... him?" he asked, his expression turning confused. Did she really just do that?
"He looks like a he, so he's a he," she said, as if that made any sense. "You sure I can't take him?"
"I'd let you, but I'm pretty sure that'd count as public use of my Quirk, which is kind of a no-no. You live further than I can reach with my range anyway," he pointed out, and he was pretty sure she was pouting, even if he couldn't see it. "Sorry to disappoint."
"It's not fair," she whined, pressing the poor creature even harder against her. Although, to be fair, Kazuki thought it was a bit of a shame that he couldn't quite feel through his grimm as much as he sometimes wanted. "Not fair at all."
"That's just life," he told her, leaning back against his seat. "Things are going well then?" he asked softly, causing a small spike of emotion before it went away. He almost apologized just for that, but Hagakure beat him to the punch.
"Yeah. Yeah, I think it's helping," she told him and he found it difficult to place what her voice was sounding like. It was soft but… it didn't seem sad, but something like that. "I've been feeling better. Besides, I'm doing better with my training too, so I… I feel less helpless."
"I'm glad to hear that," he told her with a grin. "And don't we know it? You'll leave us blind before too long. Just please don't make it permanent," he commented.
Hagakure had been doing better and better. It turned out that she was right and she had been able to make her finger shine that one time. Now, after some time working on it, she was getting better, causing flashes of light and such. She also said it was even enough to lit up dark places, which was surprising, since there shouldn't have been enough light in, say, her room at night for her to do much with.
Yaoyorozu had reasoned that she used her whole body to gather light with, so it made sense that she could make a stronger light than one would expect if she focused all that in a single spot. It was as good a theory as any, and Hagakure had confirmed that the light she could get in dark spaces was much weaker than normal. Maybe there was a bit of Quirk bullshit applied to that, Kazuki supposed. After all, Quirks could be all sorts of strange and nonsensical.
He would know.
"I make no promises," she commented, bringing his mind back to the present. Then she sighed, slumping down. "I think I should go now. You have to have your session and I have… I have things to do too."
"Sure, don't have too much fun, yeah?"
"No promises about that either. I still have to catch up with you in the game," she told him and he could almost see her sticking out her tongue. He wasn't sure if it actually happened, but he liked thinking it did. "Thanks for accompanying me and all," she added as she stood up. "I really appreciate it."
"Don't mention it," he told her, standing up too and placing a hand on her shoulder. "If you need anything, just ask, ok? That's what friends are for, pretty sure."
"I will," she replied, giving him a quick hug. "Same for you, Endo."
"I'll try to remember."
"There's no try-"
"I'm gonna stop you there for the sake of the moment we are having, Bubbly."
"Fine, ruin my fun, why don't you?"
A minute later, he walked inside Hound Dog's office.
"What'll it be today, Endo?" the man asked him, sounding like he was in a good mood.
"I'm still very nervous about the Sports Festival," he answered, groaning as he sat on the couch in front of the counselor. "I know we've talked about this but-"
"But this is a very important moment for you. You want it to go well," Hound Dog told him, making him grimace. He was becoming predictable, he supposed. "You have to remember that even if things go badly, you have years here still and then out there to show them that they are wrong. No matter what, you are not alone, Endo. You have this institution's and its staff's support. You have friends that will stand by you, even if somehow things end up badly."
"I know that, I just… I can't shake the feeling that if I fail now, I'm screwed," he said, placing his head on his hands and covering his eyes. "I know I'm being dramatic and wasting your time, sorry."
"Never think you are wasting my time," Hound Dog told him firmly, sitting a little straighter. "Just because your problems aren't as serious as you think they are, or as someone else's, doesn't mean they aren't problems, or that they are irrelevant. They are important to you, therefore they are important."
"You are not selling me that, you know?" Kazuki asked with a weak smile. "It feels like it'd be self-centered to see things like that."
"All extremes are bad, have you heard that?" Hound Dog replied, amused. "Don't try and twist it into a bad thing just to keep feeling bad, Endo. You've been doing very well, between our sessions and your effort. Don't let the Sports Festival ruin things for you."
"I'm trying. I thought that if I worked harder, maybe then I'd… I don't know, feel more confident."
"Sometimes, things like this aren't that rational," Inui told him sympathetically. "You'll do fine, Endo, and if you don't, it won't be the end of the world. You are a student, you are supposed to learn here, be it from your successes or your failures."
"Yeah… Yeah, I guess you are right."
"I should be," the man pointed out. "I'd be a terrible counselor if I didn't know how to give some advice, right?"
"Fair enough," Kazuki replied with a chuckle.