Chapter 25
"You sure it's fine for me to come here?"
"Creepy, I've told you a bunch of times," Jiro told him, rolling her eyes as she moved behind him and started pushing him. "Come on, will you? There's nothing to be worried about."
"I mean, you said your parents know," he mumbled, dragging his feet forward at the slowest of paces. "That's something to worry about."
"They don't care, Endo," the girl told him, this time in a soft tone. "It'll be fine. We are just gonna go in there, have fun listening to music and maybe I'll get you to try an instrument or two."
"Couldn't we have left this for when someone else could come? No offense, but it's.. easier to talk to people when there's a group and all," he said, trying to gulp down his nerves. It didn't quite work, unfortunately. "No offense."
"You already said that," she told him, and he could almost see her rolling her eyes again. "And it's not my fault that everyone seemed to be busy today."
And he'd lament agreeing too quickly forever. How was he to know that everyone else would be busy when Jiro offered? After that, he'd have felt bad if he tried to use a quick excuse or something.
"Come on, it's not such a chore… right?" Jiro asked him then, giving up on pushing him to go faster. That question made him grimace, not because of the words but because of the self consciousness that he felt coming from the girl. 'Great, now I'm making her feel bad. Come on, Kazuki. You are already here,' he thought with a sigh.
"I guess we might as well get it over with. And no, it's not a chore, I'm just… I'm not much of a social person," he told her, receiving a disbelieving look from her. "I know. I just… Mineta was almost a fluke. I met Hagakure when she needed help during the Entrance Exam. Yaoyorozu approached me herself and so did you… So…"
"Right… Well, this will be fine. At most, my father will try and get you to listen to his preferred music, but it should be fine. He just likes older stuff but it's still good. And he won't be offended if you don't like it," Jiro explained to him, walking beside him. "And you can try any of the instruments in the store. My father and I can play pretty much anything so we can teach you whatever."
"You are rambling a bit."
"I know," she whined at his comment, embarrassment flooding out of her. "I just… I never had friends that were that into the music I like or playing instruments, so I'm… Kind of excited, I guess. Sorry."
"Don't worry," he waved off with a grin. "It's kind of adorable, and it helps me forget that I'm really scared. What if someone recognizes me? I could give your father's store bad publicity."
"Ugh, it's fine," she repeated, giving him an exasperated look. "I asked and he was fine with it. Stop worrying."
"Easy for you to say, but… I guess it's fine," he replied with a sigh. Then his eyes widened, his walking slowly drawing to a halt.
"So… is there any instrument that you want to play?" she asked, once they reached the store, approaching the door.
"..." Kazuki didn't answer though, nor did he follow. Instead, he walked to the side, looking through one of the front windows at one of the instruments on display. It brought memories back, and as many of his, none of them were particularly good.
"You could at least put some effort into it," he heard his mother say, as if she were towering over him once more. "Just like your father, not a care in the world for art. Or maybe you are just as useless as he is."
"That's a difficult one," he heard Jiro comment softly from beside him, bringing him back to the present. He hummed, eyes still on the instrument that laid there on display. "You could still try."
"I used to play it before… Before," he told the girl. "I wasn't very good. And I didn't like it, but my mother insisted."
"You can try some others. Guitar is easy enough and everyone likes it," Jiro suggested. He'd thought about doing just that when the girl had brought up the topic but…
"... No, I want to give it another shot," he said after a long moment of silence. 'I'll be a hero, mother… I'm not useless. And I want to prove it to you,' he thought. "You think I might be too rusty? It's been a long ass time since then."
"I'm sure you'll be fine," Jiro reassured him and when he turned to look at her she was grinning at him.
"Something in mind already, huh?" a new voice called and Kazuki turned to look at the man at the door of the shop. "Not one to take the easy way, huh?"
"No, sir."
"Kyotoku Jiro, kid. You can call me whatever you want, just not sir," the man told him, walking over and extending a hand. Kazuki focused on his emotions for a moment as he took the offered limb and shook it. The man didn't seem to hold any bad emotions at the moment, which was all the reassurance he needed… for the moment, at least.
"Kazuki Endo, but kid works, I guess," he replied with a slight grin. "And yeah, I want to try picking it up again."
"Well, let's go inside and see how much you remember, yeah?" the man asked and after trading a look with Jiro, the teenager, they set out to follow Jiro, the father.
Not before Kazuki gave the violin behind the glass a last look, however.
[}-o-{]
[Momo Yaoyorozu]
"Jiro's got him," Mineta told her, eyes fixed on his phone before he placed it back in his pocket. When the boy turned to look at her, she nodded. "We can get started. The others were plenty generous."
Normally, Momo would have been against shamelessly asking other people for money. Well, normally, the idea wouldn't even occur to her, since she didn't need more money, but if it did she wouldn't have done it. This was a special case, however, so she was on board with it when her friends came up with the idea.
Still, she was thankful that Mineta had decided to do the asking and she'd been able to just… not.
"Where to first?" Mineta asked then, looking at her with, for once, clear eyes. The boy's tendencies were well known through the class and even more so in their friend group. It was something that Momo could have honestly done without, but it was what it was. At least she knew that there was more to him than just that.
The group had gotten several such glimpses of that through the time they'd known Mineta, after all. He was a loyal friend, if the way he defended Endo was any indication, especially with how he'd acted towards Ashido and Kirishima after they distanced themselves. There was also an intelligent man under all those perverted thoughts. And those were just two aspects. If one paid attention, they'd see much more than just a pervert, even if Mineta didn't really do himself any favors.
"Well, you think we have enough for a decent aquarium?" she asked.
Because they were on a mission.
Of sorts, at least.
The two of them – well, four of them, really, but Hagakure was actually busy and Jiro was keeping Endo entertained – had set out with the objective of getting some stuff for their friend. Endo had, after all, been a good friend for them. Furthermore, he'd gone out of his way to help them during the USJ fiasco.
He hadn't told them in as many words, but they were almost positive that sending those grimm to help them had been the start of Endo's fall during the villain attack. After all, if he sent out two of his creatures to help them, then that likely had pushed him to make more and caused his control to slip. They also knew how much Endo risked by doing such a thing, but he'd still helped them.
So, they thought doing something nice for their friend would be a good way to pay him back.
In this case, it would be helping him with things for his apartment. Momo had been there now and she hated how bare it looked. It was nothing like the ostentatious home she had, for sure, but it was something more than that. The place barely looked like someone lived there. There were no pictures, no personal things laid around, except maybe his books and notebooks on the table. If not for that and the plants out on the balcony, one would have thought the place was empty.
Momo could hardly accept one of her friends living in such a place.
"Are you sure I can't-?"
"Very sure," Mineta interrupted her with an exasperated smile. "Endo gets weird when you do nice things for him, I've noticed. It's gonna be a hard sell to make him accept a gift as it is. If you go overboard with how much money you spend, it'll make things worse."
Some might be surprised to learn that it wasn't a new experience for Momo, to be presented with a problem that money couldn't solve. Money hadn't been able to buy her friends, after all. She'd thought it might, once upon a time, but she'd soon learned that she'd only been fooling herself.
The time she'd now spent with actual friends further proved that.
"I guess I'll defer to your expertise," she replied with a nod. "So, we know what to get, don't we?" she asked then, more as a way to get them moving than anything else. She had spent more than a few hours researching the topic to be well informed before this shopping outing. She had no doubt that Mineta had done much the same.
She was proven right when the boy pulled a list from his pocket, and further so when he spoke.
"I never thought I'd spend so much time researching how to best keep fish at home," the boy commented wryly. "You think we should get other stuff other than fish? Maybe a crab or the like?" he asked then, barely fazing her. She'd wondered much the same thing when she was reading up on the topic.
"Hm, I think Endo would appreciate that, don't you?" she shot back as they started walking towards their destination. "He seems to like less conventional animals," she added. She'd learned as much from their conversations when Endo and her discussed ideas for grimm. It was more that Endo liked all animals equally, but since some of them received less attention, he seemed intent on bringing them up more. Probably why he'd gone for a boar for his more resistant grimm rather than something more obvious like a turtle or something like that.
There were many such examples in conversations they'd had together.
"Yeah, I figured as much myself. Good to have a second opinion though," Mineta replied.
As they walked, Momo pondered, once more, on the fact that Mineta seemed to be more focused than she'd ever seen him. She had noticed no attempt to look at her curves at all, which was quite the accomplishment. She must have shown her thoughts in some way, because the boy turned towards her and smiled wryly.
"No need to look so surprised… Or maybe there is, I guess," he mumbled, turning away. "I just… The USJ affected Endo a lot more than he lets on. It shook him, and he doesn't really show much, at least not unless he thinks nobody is looking."
Momo hadn't noticed anything like that, she was ashamed to realize.
"So, I want to do something for the guy," Mineta continued then, talking almost absentmindedly. "He's more or less my first friend, you know? And he's good to me so…," he added then before seemingly realizing that he might have spoken too much and shrugging.
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Momo replied softly with a slight smile.
As they walked then, both of them shared a sympathetic look.
[}-o-{]
[Kazuki Endo]
"Everyone ready?" he asked, looking around the portion of the training grounds his group had reclaimed. In front of him were Mineta, Hagakure, Jiro and Yanagi. All of them nodded – or, the visible ones, at least – and he returned the gesture before letting his shadow expand to create four grimm.
He created them two by two, which pushed his control in an entirely different way. Summoning his creatures took concentration, after all. Not a whole lot, but making two was like trying to do two different things with both hands at the same time. Awkward, confusing and frustrating, which weren't good things to experience when he needed to focus on controlling his creations, that was for sure.
"Ok, we are ready then," he said, trying to keep his voice from sounding too… affected by the strain on his control. Then, Kazuki turned to regard Yaoyorozu. The girl gave him an encouraging nod to which he replied with a forced smile. Then he turned towards his friends. "We start in three, two… one, go."
And with that, his grimm charged, one at each of them. A nevermore for Mineta, who would have a harder time incapacitating it with his quirk. A beringel against Yanagi, so she would struggle to take him out with the projectiles that Yaoyorozu had provided her with. A beowolf faced Jiro, moving fast enough that she couldn't quite nail it with her attacks and forcing her to move and try to attack close quarters. And finally an imp to fight with Hagakure, since she was the most "average human" of the bunch except for her invisibility.
He was fairly interested in seeing how those matches went. It'd be a learning experience for everyone involved and Kazuki was already planning to switch which grimm he used with which person. That way, they'd get experience against different types of opponents and he'd learn how to best use his summons in a similar manner.
Kazuki was also considering extending that courtesy to other students, who he noticed were starting to look over at their group sometimes. However, he was a bit reluctant to do that. It'd bring more attention towards him, and attention meant chances of getting someone to notice who he was. He'd rather keep the peaceful atmosphere they had at the training facilities for the moment.
Granted, he was pretty sure that was just wishful thinking on his part.
"Let's go, shall we?" Yaoyorozu asked him, getting a stiff nod from him as they started moving towards the machines for a work out. He had some catching up to do, considering the week he'd been basically unable to do much of anything with his body.
He didn't speak much as they walked, but the girl beside him didn't really expect him to. Maybe once he got better with his control, he might be able to go about his day normally, but for the moment he didn't want to risk it. Better to give his full attention to the four grimm and keep his own body moving and his conscious fully aware.
Was that a little paranoid? Maybe. However, when the alternative was a chance of a Rampage, he thought being paranoid was the way to go. Better safe than sorry, especially when the lives of others were on the line.
"Aoyama wasn't here today," Yaoyorozu commented. "I talked about that with Aizawa but he said not to worry, that they were aware and working on it. Not sure what he meant though."
"Aoyama was feeling guilty about something after USJ," he replied, grimacing a little as his control over the beowolf slipped a little. Fortunately, it wasn't close to anyone at the time and he grasped at the "reigns" immediately after. "I told them and they said they'd look into it," he added, managing not to let his grimm be too independent.
"I see. Well, hopefully things go well for him. I didn't hear about anything happening to him there. Wonder if it's something he didn't tell anyone about," the girl next to him said as they reached the machines.
"You are nervous," he pointed out.
"About Aoyama? I'm a little concerned but…" she trailed off as he sent her a look from where he started his own work out next to her. "I mean, this experimenting you are doing…" That's not it either, because Kazuki is sure she'd be afraid too, on top of nervous, but she's not. There's only nerves there and a little bit of… something similar to guilt, but not quite. "It's… uh, it's a surprise," she confessed in the end, making him nod.
She seemed surprised that he left it at that, but she shouldn't have been. He knew his power was kind of… invasive, so he tried to work with some lines. If he felt like something was none of his business, then he'd leave it alone. No need to dig deep into other's lives just because he could sort of share their feelings.
Sometimes his curiosity got to him though, he'd admit.
"You were right, by the way," Yaoyorozu told him after some time. "Creating the same object repeatedly makes it easier to do so after some time. The process goes faster and more smoothly, which is good to know. I'll have to come up with a list of things that might be more "common" to make for me. That way I can perfect the process of creating those."
From there, the girl simply spoke to him about some other experiments she was trying and ideas she wanted to try in the future. He wasn't a great conversationalist at the moment, but he could at least listen well enough. He did have to pull his attention away occasionally, but overall he tried to not miss much, mostly succeeding.
Everyone was making progress, it seemed.
Kazuki wasn't sure about his own, but he could only hope.
[}-o-{]
[Katsuki Bakugo]
With his brow twitching, he looked at the gathering of people in the open area for Quirk training. More specifically though, he looked at the dark creatures that they were sparring against. Then, Katsuki turned to look at the summoner of such beasts, working out on another area altogether.
His mind, however, wasn't really focused on any of that. Instead, it was a mess of jumbled thoughts and memories. His palms clicked with miniature explosions as if they were tiny fireworks going off while he battled with the desire to punch something. Katsuki was angry, but that was nothing new to him. There was always that simmering anger at the back of his mind that told him that it was fine, that he could snap at someone, throw a few hurtful insults around, maybe blow a thing or two up.
He was better than them, after all, what did the extras matter, in the grand scheme of things?
Katsuki was better than that urge too, however. He knew he was, even if he'd lost that battle more times than he could count. He refused to just give up, he refused to let himself be the mindless bomber that some people thought him to be. He refused to be…
He refused to end up like Endo.
It would have been so easy too, so simple. He could have slipped just a little more, let his anger take just a little more control. His hand could have been just a little more to one side or another. His explosion could have been just a little stronger than usual. His… target could have been a little more fragile or worse positioned…
And then…
Katsuki's mind conjured the pictures he'd seen, the news articles he'd read regarding Endo when he started putting the pieces together. He imagined what the headlines would have said about him instead. What would they have said if he'd crippled someone? If he'd killed someone? How much damage could he have done if his parents hadn't curved his urges as best they could until he could do it himself? How much damage could he have done if he'd been just a little less lucky?
He hated that he didn't know.
He hated even more that he had a pretty good idea.
More than anything though, Katsuki hated that he knew he'd been a step, a bad day, away from being seen as a villain. All his life, they'd sung him praises. He'd been told a myriad of times that he'd make a great hero in the future. He was really strong, and he was really smart, and he was really capable, and he had a lot of potential… And yet, nobody had told him that he'd be walking on a razor's edge all his life.
It'd taken him all that time to realize that, and now, he'd crashed against the brickwall that was reality.
Katsuki didn't know how to deal with that, but he knew one thing, however. He didn't want to end up like Endo. He didn't want to have such articles written about him, have people think he was a villain when all he'd done was… mess up. He didn't want to hide away who he was from people, looking over his shoulder and cowering away from the truth.
No, Katsuki was better than that.
'Just in case though…' he mused, turning back to the training group that was fighting the Endo's monsters. More specifically, he looked at the most humanoid of the creatures. 'Maybe I can practice some…'
A louder explosion cracked over his palm in between the tiny clicks.
[}-o-{]
[Kazuki Endo]
"Any particular reason why you felt like playing the violin again?" Inui asked him curiously, folding his arms over his desk. "The way you say it, one would think you'd have avoided it."
Kazuki leaned back against his seat, looking up at the ceiling as if it would give him an answer to that very question. Because, as it was…
"I don't know, really," he said in the end, not even sure if he should feel sad or frustrated or what. "I used to like it. Practicing violin was one of the few things that I enjoyed doing, one of the things that made my days better after my Quirk first manifested… Back when other people's emotions were all I had to worry about and there were no monsters coming out of my shadows."
"Was?"
"Yeah," he answered with a bitter smile. "I enjoyed it, but not because I particularly liked playing. It was fine, but I just started because my mother wanted me to. I enjoyed it because… Well, because I thought that if I got good enough, then maybe my mother would stop hating me. Maybe if I played well enough, then she'd stop feeling so… bad whenever she was in the house, whenever she was with me."
The teacher didn't say anything after that. Kazuki wondered if that was because he didn't know what to say, what to ask, because he didn't want to push or because he thought Kazuki would talk anyway. If it was the latter, then props to him, because he was right.
"Eventually, some time before she left entirely. I had practiced like crazy in my own time, when I was alone at home. I spent months learning and perfecting a piece that my mother liked," Kazuki related, his eyes still fixed on the ceiling, but he wasn't really seeing it. Instead, he was back home, practicing until his body hurt and protested, but he persisted. He'd been a boy on a mission.
"And did you? Perfect it?"
"Yes," he said, his smile turning the slightest bit more genuine before it died a quick death. "I had it ready for a full month, but I didn't want to risk thinking that it was good and then mess up when the time came. So I waited and continued practicing. And then…"
His hand balled into a fist as he chuckled hollowly.
"And then I played for her birthday," he said flatly, closing his eyes. "I played it and she told me that she'd liked it, that she was proud."
"I think there was more to it than that," he heard his teacher comment carefully.
"She said all the right words and her face showed all the right expressions too," Kazuki continued, opening his eyes and turning to regard Inui with an empty smile. "But inside? Inside she felt worse than she ever did. Somehow, what I did made her hate me more, made her feel more frustrated and disgusted. What I did just… made things worse."
There was silence then before his teacher spoke.
"You do know that it wasn't your fault, right? If you say that you'd worked on that piece enough, I believe you. This had nothing to do with you," Inui told him.
"Yeah, I get it now," Kazuki replied with a weak nod. "I think she just wanted to hate me because I reminded her of my father, just like I reminded my father of her. They hated each other and they hated me, by extension. Me doing things to stand out from who she thought I was only made her more angry, more frustrated. I didn't understand that at the moment though. Back then, I just thought that there was no way for me to make things better."
He sighed, trying to let out the terrible feelings that remembering such times brought. It didn't work, but he knew, he knew those things were behind him. Things were different now, his future would be different. He just had to work hard enough to make it so.
"Back then, if I tried to comfort a child that felt bad, they'd just feel worse, because I scared them. If I tried to talk to my father or my mother, their emotions would spike," he explained. "I thought I was cursed. That no matter where I went and what I did… things would just get worse."
"And now you know that's not the case," Inui pointed out. "Don't you? I've heard many things about you from the rest of the staff. You are as much of a hero as any of the other students here. More so than most, some would say."
"I think I do know that," Kazuki replied with a sad smile. "But old habits die hard."
Chapter 26
[Nezu]
"I can't believe this. When's the last time a student from the hero course became a villain?"
"We will have to check them more thoroughly from now on."
"But how much can we really accomplish that way? It's not like we can run a full background check on every student. There's always a chance that something slips by. Like with this very kid. Aoyama seemed like a perfectly fine candidate until now."
"There must be something we can do."
He heard them all, his teachers, employees, discussing the topic at hand. It was a concerning find, to learn that one of their students had worked alongside villains to the detriment of not only the faculty, but also the other students. It was also quite a blow to the pride of U.A. as a whole for it to happen, which Nezu was almost positive was kind of the point.
He knew that the Press Incident had been caused in order to get the information necessary for the hit at USJ. However, it wasn't necessary if they already had someone inside. No, they could have accomplished much the same thing without needing a student in the school.
Maybe Aoyama's role was minor in this instance. Nezu supposed that was a good enough explanation. Maybe he was supposed to do something further down the line. In that case, they'd been lucky to find him so soon.
"Maybe we can check those students that seem more… likely to be involved in such things?" Present Mic asked, and the question pulled Nezu's focus away from the tablet in which he'd been reviewing footage and information. It also caused silence in the room full of U.A. staff, mainly because of the glare Aizawa was sending his way.
"Did Aoyama seem like such a student to you, Yamada?" the man asked back, making his friend twitch a little. "Because I don't think you are suggesting that we discriminate against our own students, are you?"
Nezu had to hold back a smile.
"No, I just… Surely there's something we can do, right?" Yamada replied, clearly frustrated, which was understandable. Unfortunately, there wasn't a way for them to really effectively try to prevent such a thing from happening again.
"For now," Nezu said, turning all heads in the room towards him. "We have knowledge of a villain group that can work together, and it's not a small one."
That, by itself, was concerning. Yakuza groups were something that happened, for sure, but other than those, who tended to at least try to stay under the radar, villain groups were somewhat of a rarity. The last time they had to deal with a large villain group…
"All we can do is keep an eye on the students and try to pick up on any clues," Nezu continued, because looking further into the background of every student would take too much time and effort for too little gain. There just wasn't a way to pull that off efficiently… Which didn't mean he wouldn't try, but his staff would be better off doing something else with their time. "From there, this is what we can do…"
Not too long after that, the room started clearing while Nezu remained, back to looking through the gathered data in regards to the USJ mess and anything else that might be of note in that regard, like the Press Incident and even some old and not so old news. There were a lot of things to consider. A lot of things could have been overlooked, just like Aoyama.
It was so very frustrating, when his enhanced intelligence alone couldn't quite solve a problem as fast as he wanted.
However, it was also exciting to finally have a challenge.
[}-o-{]
[Kazuki Endo]
Kazuki looked at the tank set up in front of him. His vision blurred though, with the tears forming in his eyes but he blinked repeatedly to keep them away. His expression shifted, twisting uncomfortably as he tried to decide if he should be smiling or something else. He wanted to smile, he was happy and all, and yet he couldn't quite put that into an expression.
"Thank you," Kazuki muttered, his voice rough as he pushed the words through the knot in his throat. His arm rose, placing his fingers against the frontal glass panel and making one of the fishes in the tank swim away a little. "I can't believe you did this," he added then, but he didn't look away. His eyes simply darted around, taking in the clear sand at the bottom of the aquarium, the plants and rocks placed inside… And, more importantly, the life that also inhabited the small ecosystem.
There were snails dragging themselves around on the glass, shrimps floating and pushing water around with their little legs. Kazuki was pretty sure that more than swimming they were getting the food to move towards their mouths or something like that. Maybe it was both? And then there were the fishes too, which were just as great.
It was honestly much more than he'd hoped to get for himself, really. Kazuki had thought about getting a small tank with a couple of fishes and that'd be it. Instead, his friends had presented before him a tank the size of a TV, decorated and full of life.
"This is amazing," he said, but no matter what, he felt like he was falling short trying to put into words what he was feeling.
"That's because we are amazing," he heard Mineta replied, and he imagined the short guy was puffing his chest. That is, until he groaned, presumably because someone had elbowed him or smacked him, if the spike of pain was anything to go by. "Well, it wasn't just us. Everyone that you helped with your grimm during the USJ offered money for this too. But we did the planning and the shopping though."
"Thank you," Kazuki told them, still unable to tear his gaze away from the tank. "You have no idea how much this means to me."
And they truly didn't, he was sure. After all, this meant that the USJ Incident was more than just Kazuki slipping and almost causing another massacre. Other things had happened and, while he was intellectually aware of that, his mind seemed unable to focus on anything but his fuck up. This drew attention to that, to the nevermore he'd sent to help Yaoyorozu's group, to the beowolf he sent to help Mineta's.
Furthermore, he was pretty sure this was the first gift someone had given him because they wanted to. He remembered receiving some gifts from his parents at times, but they always did so with annoyance, as if it were all a chore they had to force themselves through. Never something they wanted to do for him. His friends, however, had done this out of their volition.
"Not to sound cheap, but it was very expensive, so I'd be glad if we can consider this an early birthday present," Mineta commented, before groaning again and this time there was an audible hit. Kazuki chuckled, doing his best to not let it turn into a sob.
"Yeah, I'm fine with that," he reassured his friend. "More than fine with that."
"When is your birthday?" Jiro asked curiously then, standing next to him and looking at the tank as curiously as he did. Apparently, she hadn't gone to purchase the thing, since she'd been tasked with keeping him occupied that day. He wasn't even annoyed with them for the sneakiness. No, he was just so happy to have them all he couldn't be bothered with such things.
"December 22nd," he answered.
"Annnd, done!" Hagakure exclaimed from somewhere behind him, making him blink and turn around. "Check it out!" she told him, even though he was already in the process of looking-
Kazuki blinked.
"And you thought I was silly for taking so many pictures!" the invisible girl told him and he imagined she must have looked supremely smug at that very moment. With good reason, if someone asked him. The tank was a great gift and an expensive one too. This one wasn't quite the latter, but it certainly fit for the first descriptor. One of the walls of his apartment, previously empty and away from anything that would give it some meaning like the bookshelves and such, was now occupied by pictures.
Photographs of him and his friends out and about. There were a bunch of them taken in a cafe they'd gone several times already. Another was at U.A.'s training facilities. There was one that Jiro must have taken when he was playing the violin at her store.
"I could kiss you all," he blurted out.
"Please don't," Mineta replied instantly, getting smacked again. "Stop that, would you?"
"Only if you stop being an idiot," Yaoyorozu told him, somehow making that sound dignified.
"You are all the best."
"Aren't we?" Hagakure replied and he imagined she was beaming.
He needed to find a way to show his friends how much he appreciated them, because all this? All this was priceless. It was a day like any other. Just a day where they'd gone to his apartment after classes. Sure, the USJ had happened but that had been days ago and everyone seemed to be moving on. It was just another day that his friends had somehow turned into one of the best days of his life. They'd done it casually too, as if it were a normal thing.
Kazuki didn't know when his life had taken a turn for the better, but he certainly wasn't complaining.
[}-o-{]
'I need to get armor or something,' Kazuki thought with a grimace as he blocked one of Kirishima's kicks with his arm. Fortunately, the other boy hadn't used his Quirk during the spar, on account of Kazuki being basically Quirkless whenever he wasn't using his grimm. Still, even with that and his own high pain tolerance, it was getting a little much for him.
Especially since he was training basically every day.
For the moment, he had other things to worry about than future changes to his costume. Chief among those being the fact that Kirishima was a breath away from kicking his ass and he'd be damned if he let him. He was rather proud to be one of the most combat capable people in his group, after all, at least in Quirkless fighting. Granted, that didn't mean much when the others were Yaoyorozu, Jiro, Hagakure and Mineta, but still.
No offense to his friends, they had their strengths and all, but combat wasn't one of them.
'And I need to get much better,' he resolved, fighting against Kirishima. He needed to be strong, after all. He needed more strength, more speed, more skill. That way, he would be able to help as much as he wanted, even when he didn't have his grimm, or when those were occupied, like then and there, since he'd set the four he was training to maintain on others of their training group.
He punched Kirishima's jaw and if he hadn't known any better, he'd have thought the guy had used his Quirk. He'd felt the pain of the hit though, so Kirishima obviously had too. A small reassurance, really, but it was something.
Still, Kazuki needed to be better, all around, or he wouldn't be able to be a hero. If he were stronger, he wouldn't be struggling so much. He wouldn't be feeling so tired. He wouldn't be feeling so frustrated. He wouldn't be hurting.
He needed to be better, stronger, more-
He needed more grimm.
His shadow darkened under him, extended and-
"Endo!" a voice called sharply and he froze. Kirishima stopped a second later. Then, Kazuki sighed, deflating and letting his grimm vanish into dust while the rest of their small gathering of students stopped their sparing too, since their opponents disappeared. "Sorry, did I call too early, I just thought-" Hagakure started excusing herself then, but he waved her off before she could finish.
"It was the right call, I was slipping. I would have made another one and that's not a good idea, especially when it's because I'm spiraling," he told her, sighing again. "At least this time I didn't have to get drugged, I guess," he muttered, side-eyeing the spray in the invisible girl's hands.
Not wanting to get in the way of his friend's training, Kazuki had come up with this idea. Someone always had to stand guard whenever he was pushing his Quirk still, but at least this way it wasn't always Yaoyorozu, so there was that. He'd have preferred not to be a liability at all, but that was a bit out of his hands, sadly.
"You are doing really well though. You are pushing more and getting further," Hagakure told him, offering him a bottle of water she'd been carrying in her other hand. As he took it, he looked to the side. Kamakiri, impatient guy that he was, was already asking Kirishima to spar with him in the meantime. As for everyone else, they sent some looks Kazuki's way but seemed to mostly just drift to spar with each other or hit the machines.
It was nice, to know that nobody cared overly much if he had to drop the training out of nowhere and stuff like that.
"Thanks," he said after gulping down some water. "For the drink and the kind words. I know I'm making progress…"
"Just not making enough progress?"
"Basically," he admitted with a weary smile. "Maybe it's stupid, or self-centered, but I just… I want to do more. I cando more. If only my Quirk wasn't so…"
"I get you," Hagakure told him, giving him a pat on the arm. "I think stuff like that sometimes. What could I do if I had better control? If I could turn it off, or make my clothes invisible or make other people invisible or… Stuff like that. Would I be a better hero then?"
"Way to make me feel like an asshole…"
"What I'm trying to say-!" she told him, and he sensed some annoyance and embarrassment coming from her. "-Is that you shouldn't worry about that kind of stuff. Just do what you can, and do your best to improve. That's what we cando."
"Yeah, I guess you are right."
"Always am."
"Humble too."
"Of course."
Kazuki snorted.
"You want to take a break?" the girl asked him and he could almost feel her looking at him curiously.
"You can continue your training if you want to, but yeah, I might take a little bit and then do something light. I don't… I dont feel like trying to tackle the grimm again," he replied, his voice lowering into a mumble by the end. His shoulders dropped as he ran his fingers through his hair tiredly.
He'd admit, he was feeling kind of disappointed.
"Nah, I'm feeling lazy," Hagakured told him, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "So, you wanna be lazy with me."
"... Sure," he replied with a half-smile.
[}-o-{]
"I AM HERE!"
There was a moment of silence…
And then laughter.
"I- Ah, I told you- You couldn't pull it off," Kazuki said in between chuckles as he tried to regain some control of himself. It was kind of difficult, especially with how annoyed Mineta looked. Guy looked a second away from pouting. Fortunately, his feelings didn't seem to be too bad despite the embarrassment.
"As if you could do better, Creepy," the vertically challenged boy replied, glaring at him.
"I definitely can't," he answered with a grin while the girls finally seemed to start stopping their giggles. "I feel like if I tried to pull it off I'd either fail miserably or come off as a villain," he said, only half joking. "I think just a normal entrance will be my go to. Maybe a, what did you call it, a dynamic entrance? One of those with a grimm sounds fine."
"Fear factor can be a good approach, however," Yaoyorozu pointed out, although she did so softly, carefully. He appreciated that, since it was something that made him uneasy. He didn't want to make people feel afraid, he wanted people to feel safe around him. It was a bit contradictory, considering that he was at his strongest when people were feeling bad but… He hated being the cause of such emotions, always had.
"Can you imagine?" Hagakure asked, bouncing on her seat. "You appear out of nowhere with an "I am here" and the villains instantly surrender because you are just that scary," she explained, making him grin uneasily. Sure, that picture was good and all, but he was sure the general public would be just as afraid and that wasn't quite what he wanted.
"There's Gang Orca, he does something like that, right? And you can bet that people are terrified of Endeavor," Jiro pointed out, twirling one of her lobs absently. She didn't seem as into the conversation as the others, but then again, she always seemed to have that sort-of-bored look on her face unless they were talking about music. "So, you could work with that."
"I'm just… I don't want to scare people. I think I do that enough without trying," he replied, drawing into himself as he leaned back on his seat. "You get what I mean?"
"Totally, and it's fine. You can be whatever kind of hero you want to be, Endo," Yaoyorozu told him reassuringly and he scanned the rest of the table. He felt no negativity coming from his friends though, so that was nice.
"I guess I can give it a try though. We can't just laugh at Tiny," he said then, mostly because he felt bad for dragging the mood down, even if nobody was feeling bad per se. Regardless, he drew a deep breath in, smiling slightly when he saw the interested looks coming from his friends. He decided to do his best at it, if anything, maybe that'd make the whole thing more humorous. "I AM HERE!" he said, a little slower than he wanted, and his voice sounded a little too silly going that deep, he'd bet.
Sure enough, everyone started giggling – chuckling, in Mineta's case – and he grinned, shaking his head.
"That was… certainly an attempt," Jiro pointed out with a wry smile. "I wonder how it'd sound if you went all grimm about it though."
Kazuki froze up then.
"All grimm?" Hagakure asked curiously. Beside him, Mineta seemed to feel a spike of annoyance, bordering on anger.
"She means when he lost control," the little guy answered with a bit of a scowl. "His voice distorted, it was kind of…"
"Creepy," Kazuki finished for him, his tone flat. "That's the word you were looking for."
"Oh, you did something like that during the press incident, didn't you?" Yaoyorozu asked then, making him blink. She was right, but he'd almost forgotten about that. That day had been more memorable for other things, truly, so that part had been sort of pushed to the side.
"Yeah, I guess that happened," Kazuki confirmed with a somewhat uncomfortable nod, massaging the back of his neck. "I've never actually… tried to use that. It sort of happens when my control slips and emotions overwhelm me a bit… or more than a bit."
"Well, you do want to train with your Quirk, right?" Mineta pointed out then, hesitant. "Like, I know you don't want to scare people, but it might be useful in certain situations, right?"
"Could help get attention, snap people out of panic, causecriminals to panic. A call like that can help take the eyes off of other heroes, make villains focus on you instead," Yaoyorozu said, as if she were answering a question in class instead of just pointing something out in a conversation. "All Might also uses the catchphrase for comedy at times, which can be good to reassure people, especially children."
"I don't think I'd be reassuring anyone with a call, but sure, I guess you guys are right… I'm not stealing All Might's catchphrase though. That'd be… I don't think that'd be a popular decision," Kazuki commented with a wry grin. "People would probably lynch me or something."
"Well, you have an entire career to come up with one," Hagakure told him. "Now, give it a try, I wanna hear."
He was about to tell her that maybe he could leave that for later but everyone was looking at him, eagerly waiting. 'Peer pressure sucks,' he thought to himself as he sighed. Eventually, he took a deep breath in and decided to go for it. If it didn't go well… Then he just would try to avoid using that and that'd be it.
Pulling on his negativity pools, he let it flow up from his center to his throat and then he spoke.
"I AM HERE!"
There was silence once more, but Kazuki still grimaced. He didn't need actual words to know his friends' opinions. He'd felt it clear as day, the sudden apprehension that creeped inside them. 'Yeah, bad ide-'
"That was so cool," Hagakure breathed out, making him blink. The fear seemed to have vanished into thin air, he noticed, confused by the sudden shift. "You definitely have to use that. I can see villains just surrendering once you get a reputation."
"Definitely got the "strike the fear of God into people" part down well enough, I gotta say," Jiro agreed, looking… impressed?
'The fuck?'
"Really creepy though," Mineta commented, getting glares from all the visible girls around.
"Yeah, I figured," Kazuki replied with a disbelieving chuckle. That had gone a lot better than he expected. "Maybe I can appear calling out "be not afraid" like an angel. Biblically accurate ones are creepy."
"DO NOT FEAR!" Hagakure called out then out of nowhere, apparently deciding to give the All Might impersonation a try with a different phrase.
"Nice attempt," Kazuki told her.
"Thanks."
[}-o-{]
There was silence in the room.
"I can't fucking believe it," Bakugo said, and while Kazuki would usually find the language a little distasteful, especially in the classroom at a moment when everyone could hear him and with the teacher right there, he thought it was the appropriate response at that very moment. "The fucking gall of the extra!" the explosive boy exclaimed then, looking and feeling like he was ready to blow someone to pieces.
Kazuki could relate, the shadow under him darkening and wisps of would-be grimm escaping like a pitch black mist.
"Aoyama was… he…" he heard Hagakure mumble, a pang of hurt that she wasn't the only one to feel reaching Kazuki then. The room was becoming a box of bad emotions. Anger and hurt being the most prominent ones. It all came together in a specific mix that Kazuki knew.
Betrayal.
Aoyama was the one that sold them out to the villains. He'd been a fucking spy. Aizawa had just told them that. He'd told them why they hadn't seen the blonde for a week already and why they would be short a person for the foreseeable future. It had been…
'God, I want to punch something, let my grimm tear something apart,' he thought to himself, trying and mostly failing to push the emotions in the room away from him. As if he weren't feeling shitty enough as it was.
He hadn't known Aoyama very well, or at all, but he'd been his classmate. It was safe to say that Kazuki wasn't that much of a social butterfly. He interacted with those in his group alright, but everyone else? They barely existed as far as he was concerned.
Aoyama was still someone he'd seen almost every day since he came to U.A. and he'd been someone that Kazuki had even interacted with on occasion. It might have been just a few words, a greeting here, a question about class there, but it was still something. Aoyama was still someone that Kazuki had known that didn't hate his guts or otherwise treat him badly. Every single of those people were important to Kazuki, regardless of if they were close to him or not.
Finding out what Aoyama had done was… a bitter pill to swallow. He'd looked like an alright guy as far as Kazuki was concerned. Sure, he'd been a bit on the weird side, with his comments about shining and sparkles and the french words and accent but… But he hadn't been bad.
"That's the funny thing about betrayal," he remembered someone at juvie telling him. "It's always a surprise. Otherwise, it's not a betrayal."
Aizawa had kept speaking, but all Kazuki heard was the vague sound of the man dismissing them eventually. Thus, the students slowly left the classroom, with a much more sedate pace than they usually did, for obvious reasons. Kazuki himself didn't move, even when he saw and felt his friends stealing gazes at him.
He felt them still, worrying on the other side of the door. He was grateful that they didn't stay or question him. He wasn't sure why he was so affected by the revelation. Or, at least, he wasn't sure why he seemed to be more affected than everyone else.
Sure, he'd been hit by everyone else's emotions but was that it?
"... Everyone in here so far has been good to you," Aizawa said once they were both alone in the classroom, without Kazuki needing to say anything. "More or less, at least. So, you were starting to expect them to be nice."
"Are you sure? Because that sounds too positive for me," Kazuki commented, but there was no real energy behind his words. He felt… Tired, for some reason. Weak, even though he didn't know why he would feel like that.
"You may think that they'll be bad, react negatively to you and such. But your experiences have told you otherwise, and so, you can't stop a part of you wanting to believe things will go well," Aizawa told him. "It's a good thing, but believing in good can be painful too."
"You aren't selling this trusting thing to me right now, you know?"
"Do you know why there are usually more villains than heroes?" Aizawa asked him out of nowhere, making him blink. "Because it's easier. It's easier to give up and let the evil of the world get to you. You should know that more than anyone."
And oh did he know that.
It'd be so easy, to give up and let the emotions lead him. To just… stop having to filter everything, stop keeping his mind calm as if he were constantly pushing against walls that closed in on him. It'd be so easy to just… let the negativity rampage.
"But you choose not to, the same way heroes and others do. You choose to be good, and it might be hard, and seem like it's not very rewarding most of the time," Aizawa explained to him, with more passion than Kazuki remembered him ever speaking with. "However, there's always that one moment, when you do good and you feelgood."
Kazuki closed his eyes.
"You were a hero."
"I guess I can understand that," he said, his voice soft and low, to the point where he wondered if Aizawa heard him. Evidently, he did, because the man gave him a nod before speaking again.
"And that's why we are here and we do what we do. Because the world sucks," Aizawa told him. "But maybe, just maybe, we can make it suck a little less."
Chapter 27
"I'll admit, I'm still not used to that," Jiro commented as Kazuki relaxed, letting the arm that held onto the bow of his violin drop. "I'd have guessed you'd play something with more… relation to what you like hearing."
"Hey, there's rock songs with violins involved," he pointed out. Unnecessarily, he was sure. No way Jiro wasn't aware of that. Sure enough…
"I know that. But still, you gotta admit that people don't precisely think of rock and violin together," she pointed out, to which he nodded, conceding the point. "And you are better than you said, especially for someone that should be rusty as-" She was interrupted by a cough from her father there. "-heck," she finished with a roll of her eyes.
"I guess it's… It's different from before," Kazuki replied, looking at the instrument in his hands, the one he'd been using the two times he dropped by at Jiro's shop. "I'm more relaxed now. It's less… Well, there's less pressure."
There was no one forcing him to practice but himself and his desire to improve. There was no need to try and impress his mother anymore. There were no scathing remarks about doing better or disdainful looks when he did well. There was nothing but him and the music he created, even if it wasn't the best.
Maybe one day, he'd be able to be proud of himself for that same music.
Maybe one day, that same music would help him as much as others' did.
"Thank you for letting me practice here," he said then, looking at Jiro. "I'll buy one whenever I get enough money. I promise."
"Hey, you helped my little girl," her father answered for her, making her cheeks turn red. "Letting you do this is the least I can do. I should be giving it to you for free, actually."
"I wouldn't accept it," Kazuki replied easily. "These aren't cheap, I would know."
His mother had complained a whole lot about that, after all, even when it had been her idea for him to learn. Same when she left and his father had sold the violin. He'd made a point to mention that at least that had been worth something.
Cheery times.
To push those thoughts aside, he straightened his back once more and prepared the bow.
"Oh, are you playing that one again or a new one?" Hagakure asked, reminding them that she was there this time. She sounded enthusiastic enough, and he was pretty sure that she was having fun too. However, Kazuki was starting to get worried, if he was honest. Ever since the USJ, she'd get flashes of panic, pain, and cold.
He was pretty sure she was remembering what had happened to her, so vividly that he could feel it through her, which was concerning. Everyone else seemed to be getting better, but she wasn't. Sometimes it didn't even seem to be related to that, considering the bitterness and helplessness felt different at times.
'Maybe I can do something about that,' he considered, starting to play the violin. If his sense was any indication, Hagakure seemed to draw as much comfort from music as he did. 'It's the least I can do for now.'
[}-o-{]
"That's a lot more people than I thought," Kazuki commented, feeling slightly nervous about things now that they were in front of his face.
A few days back, Kamakiri had suggested something that Kazuki had already been considering for some time but never really actually tried to do. That thing was acting as a training partner for more people with his grimm. After all, it was a win-win for everyone. People could get some actual experience against an opponent that they didn't have to worry about damaging and he got to try combat against different opponents.
Really, the only thing to stop him before had only been his… He didn't want to call it shyness, but it worked well enough. In the end, his friends had taken that choice away from him when Kamakiri suggested that. After he agreed, his group of friends had decided that 1-A couldn't miss on the training, so they'd gone looking for people that might be interested too.
The result, as it turned out, was half of each class or so standing in front of Kazuki.
One thing that didn't help his current unease was the fact that several of his classmates were feeling… Unsure, afraid, suspicious. 'They might know,' he thought to himself, looking at Sato, Uraraka and a few others. They'd probably seen his almost rampage at USJ like Mineta and were now feeling less than safe with him.
'But why didn't I feel that before?' he thought with a frown. 'For that matter, why are they here if they feel like that?'
"Everything ok, Creepy?" Mineta asked from his side, to which he nodded slowly. "You are looking a lot less sure than you were before, man. We can call this off, you know? Have normal spars and shit. No need to push yourself."
"Thanks, but I'm fine," he replied, rubbing his face. Then, with a deep breath in, he set out to start producing grimm. He decided to start with beowolves, since they were a good enough "standard" option. "You guys ready?" he asked Mineta and Yaoyorozu, who would be staying by his side just in case. "Because we can-"
"We are ready, Endo, and so is everyone else," the rich girl reassured him softly, an amused smile on her face. "We don't know if you are ready though."
"I am, I just," he started, before sighing. "We are getting started, five at a time!" he called, having decided to push a little more. That was why both Mineta and Yaoyorozu were by his side. On top of that, with so many other students around, they'd be able to get him under control relatively easily. It was unlikely that he'd spiral out of control quick enough to be a real problem.
Even if he did, he could see Aizawa sitting on a bench off to the side, so…
It was fine.
The spars that followed were a bit of a blurr for Kazuki. Keeping track of every grimm was a struggle by itself, but he wanted to do more than that. He wanted to get better, be able to sense better through them, be able to do other things while having a higher number. His concentration slipped a lot, but he could tell and that was what was important, because he could snap himself back into focus.
There were a few close calls when things had started spiraling. He'd get frustrated and the negativity would get to him. He'd get distracted trying to reel in a grimm only for two others to slip from his metaphorical grasp. He'd get worried whenever a grimm got a hit that was a little too solid for comfort. In those instances, he dispelled them and started again after re-focusing.
Kazuki would take no chances, and he was grateful that nobody seemed to mind overly much when he did that. That might be because they could use those pauses to take a break, or switch with the people that didn't get to have a grimm to spar with. Most of the rest seemed to either spar between themselves or going to hit the machines in the meantime. It was…
It was nice, really. Kazuki knew it probably wasn't a very good "school experience" to get an idea of, but since he'd never had a normal school life before being sent to juvie… Well, he was taking what he could get, as it were. 'Wonder how different this is to how school would have been if things went a little better for me,' he thought to himself, cracking his neck as he decided to spice things up. He switched a few beowolves to nevermore and another into a boarbatusk.
Things were going relatively well, after all. His control could use work, but that was precisely why he was doing what he was doing. There hadn't been any real risk of a disaster happening and that was giving him hope that maybe he could actually get a good handle on his Quirk. So, with the situation relatively safe, he decided it was as good a time as any to push more. He wouldn't be able to do that if he was only with a small group of training partners, after all.
"Switch?" Jiro and Hagakure asked his two minders at some point and Mineta and Yaoyorozu did just that. After all, Kazuki would have felt bad if he took away from their training time… too much. 'They are still great though,' he thought to himself.
With that in mind, he decided that he could try and give them an even better training experience to make up for things. It was the least he could do. He was sure Mineta would appreciate it, even if he'd also curse him a lot.
[}-o-{]
'God, I hate people,' Kazuki read from yet another message courtesy of Distressed. A regular occurrence, really, since it seemed that wherever the guy went, he'd be met with some sort of discrimination. Kazuki would have thought he was exaggerating or something but… Well, he knew how people could be first hand. Then again, he could feel when people were feeling particularly discriminatory and Distressed likely didn't so…
'I mean, people do suck, not even gonna try to lie there,' he agreed with a shrug, even if that couldn't really be appreciated by the other person. As he waited for the inevitable rant, Kazuki looked into his aquarium, watching the little inhabitants swim around and generally go around their days. It was a really peaceful sight, and he loved sitting there just watching them do their thing just as much as he did sitting in between the plants in the balcony.
'... Are you even reading this?' Distressed asked after several paragraphs of not so polite… opinions.
'Sure am, buddy,' he replied with a half-smile. 'You've got to stop letting people's opinions affect you. It sucks, I know, believe me that I do. We can't do anything about that, just stand tall, head raised and keep going.'
'Inspirational as fuck, Knight, but it still fucking sucks and that's not changing,' Distressed argued.
'I'm not going to tell you you are wrong, Distressed. Things won't change if you just complain about them. I'm not sure things can even change at all but… We can change how we go about things on our end, as opposed to trying to change how others do,' he told his… friend, he supposed. He wasn't too sure how to call their relationship.
'Sometimes I wonder about that. I'm sure they'd change their tune if I showed them how beastly I can be…'
'That's not the answer, Distressed,' Kazuki told the other person firmly, hoping that the words would convey how serious he was. 'All that'd do is ruin your life and probably very little else.'
'And you'd know, wouldn't you?' He could almost feel the snarl there. He could certainly feel the emotions behind them, at the very least.
'I would,' Kazuki replied, a sad smile on his face. 'You'd snap, do something that you'll regret and ultimately, they'll write you off like one more madman of a villain. They'll never bother to learn why you did what you did. Believe me, I know.'
There was a long pause there, but Kazuki was fine with that. As it was, he was feeling a little uneasy about telling Distressed that. He was also feeling… sad. Fortunately, he had music and a tank full of life to distract him from that stuff.
'It still sucks though,' Distressed replied, and from what Kazuki could pick up, his anger had diminished even if the sadness and frustration remained. There was also some shame there, hidden underneath the rest. 'It's not fair.'
'Life rarely is,' he told the other person. 'Doesn't mean we can't try to make it suck less though.'
'I guess…'
[}-o-{]
"What's this idea you had, Creepy?" Hagakure asked as they walked off to one side of the training facilities. "And how embarrassing is it gonna be?" she asked then, making him pause. "Must be, if you asked to step aside."
"I actually don't have an idea," he answered truthfully, and he felt her confusion appear. "I just thought it'd be better if we talked, just the two of us, about something."
"Is this a confession? Because I'm not mentally prepared for this if it is, Endo," she said, faking nervousness and all. To that, he just rolled his eyes.
"I can feel it, you know?" he told her with a sad smile on his face. "The way your emotions spike from time to time," he added, and she tensed up. "Are you ok?"
"I'm…" she started immediately before trailing off. "... not," she admitted then and he was grateful that she didn't deny it. He didn't know if he'd have pressed her for it. After all, he wasn't sure it was his business to get involved, even if she was a friend. People didn't like others meddling in such things, he was fairly sure. "I just… I can't get the USJ out of my head… I thought I was dying," she told him, rubbing her left arm with her right hand.
"You want to talk about it?" he asked her softly, trying not to sound like he was pressing or anything of the sort. "It's fine if you don't."
"I don't, not really," she answered, helplessness bleeding into her emotions. "I just… I don't know what to do," she added, deflating.
"Well, if you don't want to talk to me, maybe you can talk to Hound Dog?" he asked her.
"The student counselor?"
"Yeah," Kazuki nodded. "I know it's kind of… awkward, I guess, but it does help to talk about things. It's helped me, at least. And it's somewhat easier to talk to someone that's more… disconnected from things. I know it'd be a little uncomfortable to talk about some of the things I've told him with you guys, and I'm a lot closer to you than I am with him."
"I guess…" she replied, unsure.
"Just, think about it, ok?" he told her, running his fingers through his hair. "And I'm sorry if this is… You know? Maybe it's none of my business," he said, deciding to voice his doubts.
"It's fine!" Hagakure reassured him quickly. "I just… wasn't expecting that. And it's also not something that I'm… happy with, obviously, so…"
"Yeah, I get it. I just wanted to try and help you out, is all," he commented awkwardly before deciding that he'd done enough. Maybe he'd bring it up with a teacher or something later. "Now, what do you want to tell the others?"
"... Just that I told you your idea wasn't gonna work?" Hagakure suggested, her voice low as if she were thinking about something else. "I don't want to lie to them, but…"
"I understand. This is private. Sorry again for kind of… forcing the issue," he apologized, feeling more and more like he should have just kept his nose out of things.
"Endo?" Hagakure called him as he grimaced, trying to decide what to do and failing not to feel awkward. "Would you mind… um…"
"Yeah?" he encouraged softly as he saw her nervously shuffle on her feet.
"Would you mind accompanying me? To Hound Dog, I mean."
"Not at all," he answered, a small smile on his face. "If that'll make you feel better or something, sure."
"Thanks," Hagakure replied hesitantly, poking at the ground under her with her foot. "I really appreciate this, Endo, and I'm sorry if I made you feel bad with my emotions."
"Hey, that's not what this is about, ok?" he reassured her, waving off her worries. "I mean, it sucks, but I don't go around asking every person I know feels bad about it. I've learned to just… leave them be. But you are a friend, and I don't want you feeling bad. I wanted to help, that's all. Nothing to feel bad… Er, worse about, ok?"
"Ok," she replied, her voice barely above a whisper. He felt her negativity recede, however, so he took that as a win. "Ok," she repeated, this time much more decisively. "It helped you? Talking to him?" she asked then, more curious than anything else.
'Didn't I answer that question already?' Kazuki wondered. He was fairly sure he'd commented on that already. Although, maybe Hagakure just wanted it to be repeated, to solidify her decision or something.
"It did. Even if sometimes he doesn't say much, it's nice to have someone just… listen," he told her with a smile. "And when he does say something, it's usually helpful, or at least… comforting, I guess. It's nice to know that there are people that care. I'm new to that."
"We care too, Endo," Hagakure pointed out, standing next to him and pushing against him with her shoulder. "I hope you know that, or we'll have to punch it into your head."
"Wow, where's this sudden bout of violence coming from?" he asked, joining her joking tone. "Here I am, trying to help, and suddenly you want to punch me. That's not nice, Bubbly. Not nice at all."
"Thank you again," Hagakure told him and he could almost hear a smile on her voice. That was nice. Not only was his friend feeling better, but he had helped her feel better. Maybe it was self-centered, or something like that, but it was always great to know that he could have that effect on people besides the more… usual and negative ones. "For talking to me about this, I guess I needed someone to talk some sense into my head and… Well, thanks for caring too."
"Hey, you've got my back and I've got yours," he replied with a grin. "It's the least I can do, really. Especially after you got me those photos… I don't think you realize how much those meant to me."
"They were a group effort," she mumbled, a little embarrassed, which was an improvement from the previous mood, so Kazuki would take that.
"And I guess I'll have to see what I can do for the others, but the point stands."
"I'm not gonna win this, am I?"
"I knew there was a brain somewhere in your invisible head."
"Rude, Creepy, very rude."
"Why, thank you."
[}-o-{]
"How was it?" Kazuki asked when the invisible girl came out of Hound Dog's office.
"It was… nice, as you said," she answered simply, but he could get a lot from just that. For one, he didn't feel any strong emotions from her, even though there'd been a few spikes while he was outside. For another, her voice sounded more… calm, certainly not that strained casualness she'd forced before. Moreover, even her posture seemed to have relaxed.
"I'm glad to hear," he said, giving her a smile. That is, before she hugged him tightly out of nowhere. Now, Kazuki would be the first to say that he didn't have much social experience and that went double for more physical parts of it. 'When was the last time someone hugged me?' he thought as he stood there stiffly, before awkwardly moving his arms to return the gesture. Somehow, he was sure he was doing it wrong.
"Thanks," she told him, her voice muffled by his uniform. "For making me come here and for accompanying me."
"It was no problem," he told her. If anything, he'd been nervous this was too personal for him to really stick around, especially since he felt like was intruding, considering his Quirk. Hagakure had been clear that she wanted him to stay though, so he did.
"So, um," she started, pulling away from him and fidgeting a little. "You go next?"
"I kind of have to, yeah," Kazuki answered, running his fingers through his hair. "You can go if you want to. This takes a while."
"No, I think I'll wait, like you waited for me," Hagakure said firmly. "And maybe…" she trailed off, her shoulders visibly dropping a little. "Doesn't matter, I'll wait."
"If you are sure," he told her with an appreciative smile. "I'll try not to take too long."
"Take as long as you need to," Hagakure replied before motioning with her hands… or arms, really. "Now, shoo shoo."
With a chuckle, Kazuki did just that, stepping into Hound Dog's office himself.
"That was a very nice thing you did," was the first thing the counselor told him, making him smile a little wider. "Sometimes, being a hero is more than punching a bad guy or rescuing someone from a building on fire. Sometimes, it requires doing very little and yet few do even that."
"Well, that's a great thing to hear first thing in here," Kazuki said, taking a seat on the armchair in front of the desk. "I… I just don't get why people are reluctant to do stuff like this. Everyone has problems they could use help with, I'd know. And yet…"
"Having problems and admitting as much is hard for most people, Endo. Admitting to having them and actually looking for help is even harder. People are complicated like that," Inui explained in that calm, collected voice that made it hard for Kazuki to even feel annoyed, despite what he was saying.
"People are stupid," he mumbled, leaning back on his seat. "I… I don't feel like talking about anything too deep today, you know," he added then, turning a little to look at the office's door. Hagakure's session had been draining enough on him, and he hadn't even been involved really. He didn't feel like adding on top of that.
"That's fine. We never really needed to do anything in these sessions anyway," Inui reminded him, for what felt like the hundredth time. "Is there anything you want to talk about?"
"You know that I've started training with more people. People that I don't really call friends in any sense of the word. Classmates at most," Kazuki said, drawing a hum from the counselor. "It got me thinking. Maybe I should try and improve my image, make it so that people will have a better… impression of me. Does that make sense?"
"It does, but improve your image how, Endo?" Inui asked him, leaning forward. Whether it was a tactic of some sort or if the man was genuinely interested, Kazuki wouldn't know. "Do you want to change who you are, just to be accepted?"
"No… Not really. I don't think I can, even if I'd like to," Kazuki answered, shrugging. "I was thinking more of… You know, showing them my good side, as it were. Not sure how good that is, but it might soften the punch when they get to see… the rest of my shitty self."
"First of all, there's nothing wrong with you, Endo. You had a hard life and suffered through a series of unfortunate things. That doesn't make you a terrible person in any way," Inui told him, also for what felt like the hundredth time. Kazuki couldn't even find it in himself to roll his eyes at the words anymore. "Second of all, how were you planning on doing that?"
"That's the fun part. I have no idea," he replied, chuckling weakly. "I just… I was just thinking about it… Maybe I could get a manager from the business courses?" he asked jokingly. His smile slowly disappeared when he heard the counselor hum and say nothing for a long moment.
"Well, that's not a terrible idea," Inui told him, surprisingly. "Granted, you'd have to find a student that you can trust to do a good job. And what you are saying sounds an awful lot like PR work, and I can tell you that it's much more difficult and exhausting than most would have you believe."
"Well, I was mostly just doing random thinking and joking but…" Kazuki mumbled, giving what he'd said some more thought. "You think it might be a good idea?"
"If you do it right? Sure."
"Any advice?"