Darkest Before Dawn - 116

Chapter 116

Part of the new security measures UA was applying involved slight variations in their schedule. Sometimes classes started earlier and sometimes classes started later. They weren’t changing what they had each day, but the order in which each day’s classes were placed varied greatly.

That was how Kazuki had managed to avoid the press during the first day after the break he had for I-Island.

Unfortunately, reporters weren’t that easy to dodge, he found the very next day. He realized this immediately when, walking up to the school, he saw a familiar patch of blue skin in the distance. ‘At least it’s Kizuki,’ he thought to himself. He’d have been a lot more annoyed and disappointed if it were anyone else. The woman was a dream come true, as far as reporters went, after all. Her questions were never bad, or at least not in the sense that he usually looked out for.

Hina had warned him of the woman’s views and the political undertone of the questions she directed at him, however. Still, she had also gone on to tell him that for the most part, the questions were tame so far. Maybe Kizuki was just nice or sympathetic towards him, or maybe she had some kind of agenda she was pushing. All the same, Kazuki counted her amongst his favorite reporters, if not his favorite outright. She even went out of her way to help him deal with problematic reporters, in her own way.

That had gone a long way to making him like her.

“Mr. Endo,” the reporter greeted and he caught a hint of weariness and annoyance coming from her. Maybe she’d been waiting for a while? “You’re a difficult man to get a hold of, these days. Although, I guess that’s on UA.”

Well, apparently people had already figured out more or less what was going on. Then again, it wasn’t precisely a secret. Nobody had told them that it was, for one, and for another, UA was a little too high profile for much of anything to remain strictly secret. The schedule idea could be effective all the same though, he was pretty sure.

“Ms. Kizuki, good to see you,” he replied with a smile of his own. “I’m sorry if recent changes have made things inconvenient for you.”

“Just the smallest bit, but nothing some determination can’t fix,” the reporter told him with a sharp, proud and somewhat hungry half-smile. “Especially for an international hero such as yourself.”

“Calling me a hero is a stretch, let alone an international one,” he said almost immediately. “However, I’ll take that as a compliment, if you don’t mind,” he added with a chuckle. “Now, I imagine this is about I-Island, then?”

“Of course,” she confirmed openly and he almost sighed. All the same, he settled to answer questions that he’d already covered when they had been interviewed back on the island. At least Kizuki, with her particular approach, tended to make the questions slightly different, so that made them less tedious, in a way.

Sure enough, it didn’t take long for a question that stood out from the rest to make an appearance.

“So, you and your fellow students used your Quirks without authorization during the incident. I-Island has different laws on the matter, of course, but what you all did is illegal and somewhat of a gray area as far as our country is concerned,” she said and Kazuki found himself standing straight and much more worried about his answer then and there. That was a lot more… sharp a question than what Kizuki usually threw his way. He didn’t detect anything too bad coming from her though, somehow, which confused him a great deal. “What do you think about that?”

“I think the situation was enough to warrant the Quirk usage,” he started answering, slowly but confidently. At least, on the outside, because on the inside he was very wary. “I think the laws on Quirk usage are based around much more common circumstances in which they can be harmful, either by themselves or – in situations somewhat similar to the one at hand – by hindering the work of heroes. Unfortunately, we could act and heroes could not, so we did what we could. I-Island itself released plenty of information regarding why what we did was justified specifically because most of us were Japanese and our laws are what they are.”

“Do you find yourself frustrated by the fact that people might be cross with you and your friends because of what you did?” Kizuki asked and it sounded – and felt, really – to Kazuki like the woman herself was the one that found it frustrating.

“I find it… sad, more than frustrating,” he answered with, but he was a lot less sure about the answers he was giving then and there. Those were not at all something he’d prepared for, but maybe they should have been. “... At the end of the day though, we did what we had to, as simple as that,” he said simply, because he felt like it was better to give short and vague answers than answers with more chances to get him in trouble.

All the same, Kizuki looked very happy with what he’d given her already. He would admit though, he didn’t know if that was good or bad for him. Much as he liked the woman, a single tricky question, a single wrong answer and a single article would be enough for her to ruin Kazuki. He would never not be aware of that fact.

Thankfully, the questions that followed that returned to much safer topics.

That is, until at one point…

“You don’t have to worry, Mr. Endo,” Kizuki told him, a warm smile on her face. “You won’t get in trouble for the answers from before,” she reassured him, but that only made his nerves return. “Your answers were good and I’ll make sure to spin them correctly too. In case you hadn’t noticed, I like you. You always have great material for me, after all. The least I can do is look out for such a good source, isn’t it?”

“That’s very reassuring, Ms. Kizuki,” he answered, plastering his friendliest smile on his face, even though he wasn’t sure if he believed her. At least, there was no emotion denoting a lie coming from her, so that was nice. “And I had noticed something to that effect, I’ll admit,” he added slowly, carefully, once again. “You’ll understand if I’m wary though.”

“Indeed, but I hope I can prove that I’m trustworthy,” the woman said, reaching forward with her hand. “As it is, thank you for your time, Mr. Endo. And look forward to my article. It’ll show that I don’t lie.”

“I hope so, Ms. Kizuki,” he replied hesitantly. Then, he decided to take a leap. His idea couldn’t be worse than what she already could do to him, after all. “And while we are in such friendly terms, please call me Kazuki. I prefer that.”

“Call me Chitose then,” she shot back instantly, her smile widening before his eyes. “And thanks for giving me even more questions for next time.”

“You’re welcome.”

[}-o-{]

Despite the amicable way it ended, the interview before class had left him kind of… drained.

It wasn’t like it was unusual for that kind of thing to happen, admittedly, but Kazuki was kind of trying to recover from very depressing news and generally being very tired already. So, yeah, he wasn’t feeling too hot getting to class after what had been a somewhat stressful encounter with a reporter, liked or not. ‘What I wouldn’t give to stay home for a month or ten,’ he thought to himself, barely holding back a sigh.

Alas, all he could do was try to concentrate on what Present Mic was saying. English had become kind of important too, so he tried to give that particular subject a little extra effort. Not only would it make things easier with Melissa, but there was the fact that he – and some of his friends – had made a very noticeable appearance in the international scene. As such, he imagined it made sense for them to prepare, just in case. Nevermind the movie world he was stepping in too.

He ignored the corner of his mind that reminded him why he’d been good at English to begin with. He wouldn’t be running away anywhere, as things stood. He had goals and dreams and a life to look forward to. There was no need for old, desperate plans. And there was a difference between running away when he thought he didn’t have any options and doing so then, when he had all the options.

Still, much as he kind of liked English and even though he was very interested in improving his skills in the language, Kazuki still let out a relieved sigh when the bell rang.

“I wanna sleep for a year,” he grumbled, getting some agreeing grumbles right back courtesy of some of his classmates. Some of them were already moving out of the classroom, but Kazuki was trying to find the will to so much as move, let alone walk. “Does anyone have a Quirk that’ll get me to the cafeteria without moving?”

“... You?” Minoru pointed out, evidently feeling more energetic than him, since he walked up to Kazuki and all. Damn him and his normal battery levels. Why couldn’t his own be anywhere near that? “Granted, I think the teachers would have something to say about that regardless of who did it.”

“UA sucks,” Kazuki mumbled.

“Are you that tired?” Jiro asked him, peeking from over Minoru with some amusement.

“Not really, but I like my dramatics sometimes. It’s not just Minoru’s thing,” he answered, pulling himself into a sitting position instead of draping his body over the desk. “He hasn’t copyrighted them, I don’t think.”

“Good idea,” his vertically challenged friend said dryly, a flat look on his face. “Now, can we go?”

“What’s the rush? I’m the one that has to buy lunch. You got yours from home,” Kazuki grumbled, but he did push himself up and started dragging his feet out of the classroom. “Anyway, how’s it going? Didn’t get to talk this morning.”

“I’m doing well,” Shoto replied, bluntly, directly and also very much missing the fact that it was a conversation starter, leaving it at that. In his defense though, Kazuki would admit it was a weak attempt on his part. He had never claimed to be a socially capable person though. He just could now act the part when he needed to… to an extent.

“I’m excited,” Momo all but exclaimed, falling into step beside Kazuki and beaming at him. “My parents said we could drop by later today, so you can play for them and they can see that you’re good,” she added and he almost groaned. Not that he didn’t want to go and do that, but that wasn’t really helping his already overwhelmed ass.

If all went well though, he did imagine it’d be a nice mood boost.

“Should I play something I’m good at or just something random though, I wonder,” he mumbled, not even sure if he actually wanted to say that out loud but doing so anyway. On the one hand, playing something he was good at would show his best side. On the other, that wasn’t really an accurate showing of his skills, really. Something that he’d practiced more “averagely” – if that was even a word – would show what he could do in a normal situation.

After all, he imagined that if he did succeed, Momo’s parents would have a list of songs for him to learn and practice. If he was lucky, they’d pick songs that he already knew, but he wasn’t counting on that. It was a good thing that he was already getting the hang of his instrument once more, with more readily available practice time and all.

“Maybe a middleground?” Momo suggested and he nodded slowly. That made sense. Show his best side, but not an unrealistic one. It’d require more practice from him in the event that they thought he was good enough, but that wouldn’t be a chore really. He liked playing, so as long as he had a good timeframe to get ready…

“Hm, I can do that,” he decided, running his fingers through his hair and turning towards Mina when she started talking about something else.

[}-o-{]

After a long day, Kazuki was very much appreciating having something easy and calm to do while training.

A little bit of a contradiction, he supposed, since training was supposed to be all about pushing limits and what not. However, for what he was doing at that moment, it was less about pushing limits and more about finding them. Besides, he could take it easy while he was at it too, which was very, very nice.

He hadn’t quite explored his shadows as much as one would have thought, after all. Not quite yet, at least. Fortunately, he had friends and clubmates to point out things he might have missed. One such thing was testing if he could cover in darkness things that weren’t a surface. As in, if it was possible to make a sphere of pure darkness instead of covering in shadows the things inside a spheric area.

The answer to that was… no, for the most part. He could, theoretically, do it, but where regular shadow control barely used any negativity, doing that drained his reserves like nobody’s business. If he tried to fill up a small room’s worth of darkness? His reserves emptied, which was not something that happened often… if ever. He didn’t remember the last time he’d been completely empty, really. Granted, that was because he didn’t quite push those limits and there was always a supply of the stuff, but still.

So, he’d noted that down for further testing, maybe varying the intensity of the darkness or maybe not filling the space with hundred percent darkness and lowering the percentage. He didn’t know if that was even possible or how it would work, but he could try, he supposed.

From there, he tried to test how solid his shadows were… or if they could be solid at all. The answer to that was… no, for the most part, again. Once more the issue came down to negativity drain. The drain on making a shadow solid was about the same as filling a space with darkness, except even worse. That happened – Kazuki assumed – on account of the added solid condition on top of the darkness.

Neither approach to his shadow control was very practical as it was, but he’d work on it and maybe he could get somewhere in that regard. If nothing else, working on those was a lot less stressful than battling or rescuing or any other exercise they might get up to in the training facilities. Not that Kazuki wanted to slack off, far from it, but he appreciated having something to work on that wasn’t so… heavy, as it were.

“Having fun?” he heard Neito ask from beside him and he turned to look at the guy. He looked tired, but then again, he’d just gotten done with the machines, from what he’d seen while looking around. “Must be nice to just be able to sit here and play with shadows.”

“It is,” Kazuki replied, not at all bothered by the words. He knew Neito didn’t really mean any offense. He could sense that, after all. “People are leaving,” he commented then, looking around.

“They sure are,” the blonde acknowledged idly while taking a seat by Kazuki. “We going to the club room after this? More brainstorming?”

“You know it,” Kazuki confirmed with a nod. “Unless you had something else to do?”

“Not really,” Neito answered with a shrug. “I’ve just been thinking-”

“Woah, that sounds dangerous,” he commented, but his words were thoroughly ignored.

“-and I had two ideas, one much more important and serious than the other.”

“You mean more dramatic,” Kazuki translated, pretending he didn’t see the twitch of Neito’s eyelid. “Just like you.”

“First of all though, I think I’ll skip today’s meeting, if you don’t mind. Pretty sure the Management team doesn’t have anything for me to do right now and the mad duo can throw their insane ideas at me some other time,” the blonde explained, apparently deciding Kazuki’s nonsense wasn’t worth his time.

“Sounds fine, you guys know meetings aren’t obligatory or anything. So long as your absences are reasonable, it’s fine,” Kazuki replied with a shrug. They all had to juggle different duties and schedules. So long as everyone made a reasonable amount of time for the club, then it was fine if people had to miss their afterschool meetings and such.

Hell, Kazuki himself was going to miss a lot of them to go work on the movie or just to hang out with friends. That might seem irresponsible to most people, but it was important for him to spare at least some time for his friends besides what they could spend at school. Similarly, he wouldn’t mind if the others decided to take a day or two off. So long as they didn’t completely forget about the club and its members, then it was fine as far as he was concerned.

All that aside though, Kazuki was careful not to turn too sharply towards Neito. Because he didn’t want to make it obvious that yes, he had noticed the spike of nervousness and concern in the other boy. Something was going on with the blonde, something related to his other idea, he figured.

“Yeah, I know,” Neito commented and when Kazuki turned to look at him, the 1-B student was doing a terrible job at disguising how uncomfortable he was feeling all of a sudden. “So, yeah. I’m just gonna be going to hang out with some friends, but I’m sure you don’t-”

“Neito,” he interrupted, raising an eyebrow. “Maybe you should stop beating around the bush,” he suggested as gently as he could while still keeping a hint of firmness in his voice. “If you don’t want to tell me this other idea of yours, that’s fine.”

“I want to, it’s just…” Neito started, before trailing off and groaning. “Maybe I should have waited to bring it up, sorry,” he mumbled, running his fingers through his hair. He didn’t move away or try to change the topic though. Instead, Kazuki felt him war against his feelings for a long moment, before he seemed to find a resolution. “Yeah, I’ll… I’ll think about it some more.”

“Ok,” Kazuki said, because he didn’t know what else he could say to that, really. He was curious, of course, and maybe he could have pressed and Neito would have told him. However, after seeing how much the matter weighed on the blonde, he’d have felt bad for doing that.

“Yeah… Say, Kamakiri was mentioning how much he misses you kicking his ass,” Neito commented and Kazuki chuckled.

“I doubt he said that, especially with those words,” he replied, deciding to allow the topic to change. No reason for him not to, unless he wanted to make the entire situation more awkward for the both of them than it already was.

“Yeah, well, that’s what he thinks, I’m sure.”

“Let’s check the veracity of that, eh?”

“Wait, you’re not gonna tell him I said-”

“I definitely am.”

“Boss!”

[}-o-{]

“So, your idea should be a nice extra bit of publicity for the sale of the plushies, so that’s good,” Ronaudo commented, writing stuff on a paper sheet like his life depended on it. He had made the mistake of peeking to check what he was doing and he’d seen more numbers than he ever wanted to. “Between that, what we can do ourselves and maybe roping in some friends and organizing a giveaway, we should get other people to know that yes, we’re doing stuff. Futo is also working on our social media accounts-”

“Those aren’t ready?” Kazuki asked, more confused than recriminating. The guy had said he’d work on that a while ago, so unless he spent all his time doing something else – which he might have – then he couldn’t understand how it was taking him so long.

“I’ll have it ready soon, Boss!” Futo exclaimed from where he was typing up a storm on the club laptop, which was actually an old one of Komako’s. There was a slight amount of panic and hurt coming from him, he noticed with some concern. That’s when Kazuki realized how what he said could be interpreted. Alas, someone seemed to have caught on and spoke up before he could.

“He didn’t mean it like that, Futo,” Komako reassured, having been standing next to the boy. Helping with the social media stuff, if Kazuki had to guess. “Also, we’re not just making accounts, we are making sure our presentation there is good and that we’re presenting information well. We’re also planning the first few posts and some for the future.”

Ok, evidently, the Management Team had given that a lot more thought than he had and there was a lot more involved in that than Kazuki was aware. ‘Good to know,’ he thought as he nodded at Komako. ‘Hadn’t even thought about making the sites as good as possible. I just thought-... Actually…’

“Should we all do something about our own accounts?” he asked and both Futo and Komako looked up, together with Chikuchi, who had been talking with Melissa. “Kind of expected for our profiles to look the part if the club’s does, isn’t it?”

“... It might reflect badly on the club if the member accounts don’t look good,” Futo mumbled as a follow up, frowning and biting his thumb’s nail. “It might also make the accounts look worse than they actually do, by comparison. Nevermind the fact that it’ll make whatever publicity we try to do work less than it should if the general account doesn’t look good, so…”

And off he went on his analysis of Kazuki’s idea. He hadn’t considered most of what he commented on, but he was glad to know that he hadn’t said something stupid. On the other hand though, it’d mean more work for the Management Team. More work for the club in general, really, but he imagined everyone would have a lot less to do than the Management Team.

Adding those three students had been a blessing in disguise, evidently. He hadn’t known how useful they would be until he had them. There seemed to be no end of stuff that needed to be done and they were much better equipped to do so than the rest of them. Kazuki was actually feeling a little bad, but they always seemed very excited.

He guessed it was like the more practical exercises they did in the training facilities?

“Well, have fun with that idea, you three,” Kazuki commented, sharing an amused glance with Chikuchi. “Let us know what we can help with,” he added.

“Will do, Boss,” Futo replied, almost absently, before turning towards the laptop once more.

“Komako,” he called, however, before the other Management student could get back to it too. “Can I talk to you for a bit?” he asked and they seemed a little surprised, but nodded with no hesitation.

“Need anything, Boss?” they asked and he gave them a flat look. His only response to that was an expected amused look, however. He was never getting rid of that nickname and he was mostly used to it, but still…

“Do you guys need help with all the work here? I don’t know how good a chance we have at recruiting people, but if you need help, we can look for someone,” he offered, glancing towards Futo and Ronaudo, both busy with their own things. “Or we can try to help as best we can, although I don’t know how much we can actually do without getting in the way.”

“Don’t worry, Boss,” Komako told him immediately, apparently having understood halfway through his little speech and beaming at him. “We’ve got it for now. It’s a little much for the three of us, but we can manage. We’ve also been talking to people in our free time in between classes too, which is where we found the plushie contact-” Was it just Kazuki or was it funny to hear that said out loud like that? “-, and we expect that people will come to join us once our activities are a little more well known and successful. Or, at least, they should be easier to convince to join. So, we’re planning to actually start working on recruitment once we have more concrete things to present. Besides that…”

As he listened, Kazuki thought that maybe he’d unleashed something he shouldn’t have.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Well, this seems like a chapter of middle-stages. Like, every scene is kind of a middle point for plotlines. None of them really that important, I guess, but all the same necessary for the sake of the whole. Does that make any sense or am I just inhaling the copium?

All the same, I’m happy with the chapter, even if I imagine some people will find it a little boring.

I hope that’s not the case though, and that you enjoyed it.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: More of a random challenge, I guess, but can you come up with a “common rank” Quirk? Like, the kind of Quirk a normal person would have in the MHA world. This is totally not because I might need ideas for extras down the line, honest.

See you.