Darkest Before Dawn - 139

Chapter 139

[Hina Maeda]

“Kazuki, you brilliant, brilliant child,” she whispered, the tip of her index finger running a feather’s touch on the top of the Nevermore’s head, almost like she was afraid it’d disappear if she applied more force than that. “Are you alright?” she asked, her heart twisting into knots at the possibility of getting a no for an answer.

She almost exploded in relief when the Nevermore nodded.

“Mr. Endo,” Nezu said then, calling for both her and the Nevermore’s attention. They turned to see the chimera principal setting down a laptop on the table beside the Grimm. “Can you type answers here?” the creature – calling him that sounded wrong, but she felt like calling him a man would be worse – asked before stepping aside and away so that he could look at the screen of the device if necessary.

Kazuki’s creation hopped on the table and up on the laptop before regarding the keys for a long moment. They saw and heard it huff and caw and Hina was almost positive that it was frustrated – Kazuki was frustrated – but eventually it pecked at one of the letters. Then after a bit, at another. It was slow, like watching someone that’d never used a computer try to write something.

‘Actually… has Kazuki ever used a computer?’ The answer was probably yes, she knew, but the real question was if the boy had used computers enough to be used to typing and she didn’t know about that. She doubted he had, before the Rampage happened. She doubted he had while he was in juvie. And after he got out… she didn’t remember him saying anything that’d clue her in if he had or not, but she was leaning towards not in that regard.

Those thoughts were pushed aside – but not forgotten – when the Nevermore looked up, done.

Im well - injures treated - pain but fine

Bar - villains

Her heart jumped at that part, but it was expected for as much as she’d have wished otherwise. There was also the fact that it was painful to know that he was in pain. She remembered the injuries Kazuki’s friends had mentioned and they didn’t sound “fine” by any stretch. Unless the villains had someone like Recovery Girl… which Hina didn’t know if she wanted them to or not. On the one hand, it’d be terrible if the villains had access to someone that could heal them. On the other hand, it would have certainly helped Kazuki, that was for sure.

Off to the side, she saw both Aizawa and Inui taking some notes, probably for different reasons. Nemuri, however, looked about as bad as Hina herself felt. It was nice to have someone that empathized.

The Nevermore was far from done though, continuing to type as if it couldn’t stop once it started.

Shig preach stain - lying to convince others

Shig not leader - called some1 sensei

Showed on tv – too dark – helmet device

Villains - muscular - dabi - toga - twice - spinner - magne - mr. compress - moonfish

Mentioned - giran

The bird typed and typed, pouring all the information Kazuki had likely wanted to scream at the top of his lungs ever since he was taken. Maybe it was Hina’s imagination, but she thought the writing was almost desperate, like the boy was trying to get everything and anything to them, in the hopes that it’d help. In the hopes that they would help him.

She could imagine him, tied down in some seedy bar, surrounded by all those villains and trying desperately not to die, not to give up, while controlling the Nevermore in front of them.

“Most important of all, Kazuki,” Nezu said, eyes fixed on the text on the laptop’s screen. He was likely pouring over that information like a starved animal – if it wasn’t offensive of Hina to think that – and trying to put it all together with what they had gathered. “Can you guide us to where you are?”

No typing needed for that. The Nevermore cawed and nodded.

“Are you in any immediate danger?” Nezu asked and the Nevermore seemed to pause, staying still for a long moment before turning towards the device. Hina could only stare, with bated breath, as keys were pressed, slowly, one after the other.

Define?

‘Define? Define immediate danger?’ Hina wondered, horrified. What did Kazuki even mean by that?

“Are they threatening you right now?” The Nevermore shook its head no, and Hina very obviously sighed together with Nemuri. Inui and Aizawa were more restrained, but she saw them relax the smallest bit. “Have they mentioned or hinted at you being hurt for not cooperating?” At that, the Grimm turned towards the laptop once more.

Want to recruit me - some more than others

Shig needs to keep appearances

Theres doubt

Some convinced they are working with stain

“Oh?” Hina could hear danger in that single thing coming out of Nezu and she could definitely see why. Some of the villains were convinced they worked with Stain? Funny that, considering the conversation she had with the man, a conversation that she’d shared with the Principal. “Would you say you’re safe for the moment?”

Yes-ish

“Is that good enough for you, Kazuki? We can go there and get you out immediately. We can follow your Nevermore and confirm the location and stage a raid to get you out,” Nezu explained slowly, and the Nevermore stared at him, tilting its head at the end there as if urging the Principal to continue. “Or we can take a bit more time and make sure the strike we deliver is a good one.”

The Nevermore stared at the chimera for a long moment before typing once more.

Im petty

Hina wanted nothing more than to get Kazuki out and back where she could hug him and never let go of him again. However, she could also see the appeal of getting some revenge on the ones that had caused the whole mess, of making sure they wouldn’t be able to do anything of the sort again. Because that was twice Kazuki had been in danger because of them, and that was two times too many.

Hina supposed she could be patient for a bit more, if it meant there wouldn’t be a third.

It wouldn’t make it any easier, admittedly.

“Perfect,” Nezu said and Hina wasn’t sure she liked how excited he sounded, at all.

[}-o-{]

[Kazuki Endo]

‘So, I have to stay with the crazies a little longer,’ he thought to himself warily and wearily. It wasn’t easy to reach with his Nevermore as far away as he had, but it helped to focus entirely on it, apparently. He’d about doubled – maybe tripled – his usual range, but everything seemed to fray at the seams the further he went. His control became choppier, his senses blurred and the wilder side of the Grimm became harder to reign in. ‘I could do without needing to be in a shit situation before finding out new things about my Quirk,’ he thought dryly to himself.

Alas, he wasn’t that lucky.

All his luck had gone to having Nezu and co. being close by. Although, that was probably because they already had an idea of where he was. They hadn’t been bullshiting when they said they were going to get him back on the TV. He hadn’t doubted, but it was still very nice to have confirmation.

Back to his situation and his conversation with Nezu though, he’d agreed. Because he wanted nothing more than to get back at said crazies. Every single one of them, if he could see them in jail, maybe he’d finally get some peace and quiet and he’d be able to attend UA like a normal hero student… if hero students could even be normal.

‘How fun,’ he thought, looking around the bar once more and pulling his attention back to himself rather than the Nevermore. He’d left the creature over there though, making sure to tell them to get its attention if they needed him. He couldn’t just be zoning out all the time while surrounded by villains though, unfortunately.

Although, he could get away with quite a bit. Not like there was much going on around the bar when Shigaraki wasn’t spouting his bullshit. Most of the other villains left him alone, after all. Well, when they weren’t being little shits like Muscular throwing stuff at him or Toga generally being a creepy menace.

Still, he could only stare at the TV for so long without it becoming suspicious, he supposed… right?

Kazuki almost laughed though, when he looked around and realized that… What else was he supposed to do? He was surrounded by villains, he couldn’t go anywhere and there was nothing around the bar other than tables, the counter and the TV… ‘They want me to talk to these crazy people, don’t they?’ he reasoned eventually.

That was the only reason he could see for them to just… let him be inside the bar with nothing to do. Either that, or they hadn’t thought things through quite as much as they liked to pretend, and there was nothing to do while waiting for Shigaraki’s next bout of “recruiting”. Kazuki found that thought amusing, although annoying too. Was he really supposed to just… wait?

Thinking about it further, he wondered if he’d thrown a really good curve ball at Shigaraki with his demand to see Stain. The man had outright left after that and he hadn’t come back. Glancing around, Kazuki was pretty sure the doubts in some of the villains had gotten worse as time passed, but that might have been wishful thinking. If he wasn’t imagining things though, he might have screwed up the… second in command? Leader in training? He might have messed with Shigaraki in just the right way.

Few things had ever made Kazuki as proud as he felt at that moment, imagining his guess was right.

‘Anyway, maybe I can make this everyone’s problem in the meantime,’ Kazuki thought to himself before starting to tap on the table he was sitting at with his fingers. Slowly, he extended the shadow of his hand on it and he glanced around with a smirk on his face as tiny Grimm formed on top of the piece of furniture. It strained his already tenuous control over the Nevermore, but the fact that they were Baby Series helped a little in that regard. He’d have to test his ability to extend his range past what he’d thought was his limit once he got the chance… if he got the chance.

Anyway, the villains around grew wary as they watched, not at all trying to keep up appearances anymore.

‘As if I didn’t know you are all watching me like hawks,’ Kazuki mused with a roll of his eyes. A moment later, he started having the miniature Grimm fight each other on top of the table. It was actually kind of fun, even when he didn’t control them much. Especially when he didn’t control them much, actually. The unpredictability was nice and he liked how some of the villains would twitch if a Grimm did something particularly attention calling.

So, that meant he had about as much fun watching the villains as he did watching his creations fight.

Amusing as that was though, Kazuki couldn’t quite shrug off the mantle of unease and worry that had wrapped around him ever since he woke up in that bar. He knew he was still walking on a tightrope and that anything he did could mean a lot of pain in his future… if he was lucky. However, his little pro-Stain speech seemed to have earned him a lot of favor with the crowd.

He almost wished he could have done that sooner, but he also knew that was likely to be an issue in the future. He was sure that the villains would release some of that to screw him over if he escaped… That was a problem for future Kazuki though. Present Kazuki had to make sure that a future Kazuki existed at all and that was hard enough, but he’d managed to do a good job at it, he supposed.

The sharp, loud sound of a dagger being stabbed on the table, through a miniature beowolf, snapped him out of his thoughts.

“This is really annoying, you know that?” Spinner, the lizard man, growled, eyes narrowed… But Kazuki was confused when he didn’t pick up any actual annoyance from him. The most he got was some worry. Maybe he was putting on an act to mask that Kazuki scared him?

He’d be scared too, he supposed, if he were trapped with the guy that had caused a massacre as a child. That was an amusing thought too, the fact that these fearsome villains could be the ones frightened by him. ‘Do you think you’re the ones trapped in here with me?’ he thought with a hint of a smirk.

“I have nothing better to do,” he said with a shrug. “Have to entertain myself until Shigaraki comes back to spew some more lies my way,” he said, watering those seeds of doubt some more.

“So you say,” Spinner hissed, taking the seat across from Kazuki and starting to scrap the table with the knife he’d used to kill one of the mini-Grimm. Kazuki wondered if that was supposed to be threatening. It probably was, but he wasn’t too affected, not when he could continue to pick up on that worry, that fear, those nerves. “So, you think you can be the knight in shining armor in Stain’s vision?”

“Shining armor would probably look terrible on me,” he answered with a shrug. “But I could be a regular knight, I guess,” he added, his smile falling off his face as something crossed his mind. “Been one before, of a sort.”

“Had a damsel in distress to save over at hero school?” Spinner asked, although something odd happened with his emotions then and there. What little negativity he received seemed to vanish for a moment and it made him frown.

“Was no damsel. The guy would stab you for calling him that, I think. He was distressed alright though,” he replied all the same, trying to not let that affect him too much. That is, until Spinner pulled his knife away from the table and stabbed it down again. That’s when Kazuki looked at the table… and saw two words carved on his side of the knife.

“You think you can be a knight in shining armor?”

“Had a damsel in distress to save over at hero school?”

Kazuki looked at the carving and then back up at Spinner.

“What was your name again, D-something?”

“Close,” Spinner replied with a grin that Kazuki knew he meant even if he made it look annoyed, angry even. “Spinner.”

“Hm, so, you bored as much as I am, Spinner? We could make some bets,” he offered, making the remaining Mini-Taijitu and Mini-Ursa face each other. “I won’t even control them to skew the result. Hero’s word,” he said, making an exaggerated gesture of placing his hand over his heard and speaking solemnly.

“Snake’s gonna win,” Spinner said and Kazuki grinned.

“I’ll take that bet,” he replied, quickly setting the creatures on each other.

There was relative silence after that, only broken by the TV and conversations from other tables. Although, Kazuki thought he caught several villains glancing at his – was it “their” then? – table and that was plenty fun by itself. He wondered if maybe he could further get them all on his side if he entertained them. Shigaraki was really doing himself no favors by having everyone bored to death in that bar, least of all the unstable pieces of shit that he formed his group with… Spinner not included, he supposed.

Jury was still out though.

In the meantime though, Kazuki made sure to have the Grimm thoroughly ruin the “Hello, Knight” that Spinner had carved on the table.

What a surprise that had been, but then again, of course his friend would make such a questionable set of choices.

It was still nice to have a friend around though, he’d admit.

[}-o-{]

[T---o ---mura Shigaraki]

It was a mistake.

He’d thought Kazuki Endo someone he could convince. Someone like the rest of them – like him –, someone with enough anger to lash out, truly lash out. How could he not, when Endo had – like him – caused so much chaos when he was a child? Surely he was just waiting for the chance to slip his leash off and let loose again, to show the world that he wouldn’t be contained.

Instead of a helpful NPC, however, Tomura had found another Stain. Someone that should have been a companion, but instead turned out to be an enemy mob, maybe a mini-boss, if he was generous. Furthermore, not only was he not going to join him – he was sure of that, no matter what the crafty little shit said –, but he was also poisoning his leadership. The others, those that had joined thinking he was in league with Stain, were starting to see the holes in his lies.

Now, Tomura had been driven to a corner and he really didn’t know what to do. Furthermore, he couldn’t call Sensei, not again. That’d be like asking for hints in a mystery game, that was losing without admitting to, and Tomura Shigaraki was no loser. He had already asked for help once and that was all that he’d do. He’d trust Sensei to help him if he needed it, if the heroes and the law made nuisances of themselves.

Endo though, he had to handle Endo himself. No way that boy would show him up. He wouldn’t let him. He couldn’t let him. And yet, the last thing he wanted to do to “handle” that boy was recruit him. No. Tomura wanted to make him disappear, to decay him…

“I had my eyes on you, back then.”

When had that been? Tomura couldn’t help but wonder. Sensei had already saved him, helped him, by the time the world’s eyes had been forcefully turned towards Kazuki Endo. Had Sensei looked at that boy while Tomura had been learning, preparing, for what Sensei had in store, to take over, to be his successor…

Had he been looking for a replacement? Had he been looking for a spare?... Or had Tomura failed all the way back then, and Sensei had been looking for someone else that might work better? Had he ran out of lives already and there was a Player 2 around? Or was it just that there could have been one?

He hated that he didn’t know the answer to any of those questions.

And he hated Endo above all.

He had to deal with the situation all the same, however. Tomura couldn’t just dust him, no matter how much he wanted to. He’d said way too much in front of his League of Villains. They wanted Endo by then, they wanted him to join them, join their cause, because they thought Endo was one of them, like Tomura had once upon a time. They didn’t realize that he was lying to their faces, that he was a hero through and through.

Even Sensei had noticed.

Tomura refused to believe Sensei could be fooled like that.

The problem was that if they were the kind of people that could pick up on stuff like that, they’d have seen through Tomura himself too. So, he was the one that had to do something about it. What to do was the real question. Because there was no hope of recruiting Endo, that was for sure, the heroes were likely circling them like sharks smelling blood and his own people were starting to doubt, to suspect.

So, Endo was a lost cause and the heroes would reach them soon… That meant Tomura needed to make sure his people didn’t leave. Much as he’d like to, he wasn’t playing a single player game. He needed other people to be able to pull off what Sensei needed of him, wanted of him. What he wanted of himself, even.

[}-o-{]

[Shuichi Iguchi]

What a mess.

He’d thought he could do something, when he’d been offered the chance to join a group such as the League of Villains.

It’d been a day like any other, where he’d gone to one of the places he frequented, where heteromorphs frequented, and he’d been given an invitation. He hadn’t been the only one, but he’d, apparently, been the only one to consider it, to accept it, from everyone that had gotten one, all the most vocal people. That should have been telling enough, really, but Shuichi was mostly embarrassed to realize that he might have listened before too…

Before he’d been given some hope for the future.

So, he was there for Endo, because of Endo. Where once he might have joined the League with the intention of tearing society apart and trying to build a new one, just like Shigaraki said, he was instead there to stop them. He was there to help, to be a hero and save lives, because whatever they were trying to do, it’d end badly for someone, just like it had already ended badly for Endo.

He’d joined the League to be a rat, but maybe it was no surprise that he’d failed. All that he’d done, it had been for nothing. The one thing he’d wanted to do, the one time he tried to help, he failed, miserably at that. He’d been late, and things had happened anyway. He’d achieved nothing.

And yet, despite that, despite how ashamed he felt, how much of a failure he felt, Shuichi had approached Endo – he’d gotten better at not calling him Knight anymore, at least – and he’d revealed who he was… And Endo had been relieved. He’d see it in his eyes, even if his act was good. He’d seen it because he’d been looking for it… Or, well, he’d been looking for disgust, maybe hatred, and instead he’d seen his friend’s eyes soften and a hint of a smile tug at his lips for a split second.

He almost thought he’d imagined it, but then Endo had done nothing else other than let him be and erase the evidence of who he was, the idiot that he was.

Shuichi wondered if Endo realized what he’d done, why he’d done it and how. He couldn’t help but think about it, about how he’d messed up trying to do something good. Because Endo had inspired him, shown him that they could achieve something even if society was a mess. Had shown him that they didn’t need to be monsters to get things done.

‘And I went and ruined it for him, didn’t I?’ he thought, ashamed, like he’d been ever since the greatest failure of his life. Because now Endo was no longer out there, showing people like him that they could be someone in life, that as much as society tried to beat them down, they could exist, they could live, they could thrive.

No, instead, he was injured, held hostage and having to play a dangerous game just to not be more injured and probably dead. And Shuichi could do nothing other than watch, which only made the entire thing worse. He had to sit there and pretend he was a stranger, that he was an enemy even as Endo tore down Shigaraki’s lies… Lies that to further his shame, he hadn’t noticed.

In a way though, knowing that they were lies helped a little, at least.

In the wake of that, he’d decided against his better judgement to try to help once more. He’d started whispering in people’s ears. He’d pulled up all the public knowledge about Endo’s Quirk and how he could, indeed, be telling the truth about Shigaraki. He wracked his brain for memories of Shigaraki’s act failing, stuff he’d said, stuff he’d done, stuff he’d planned to do. It was all there, if they knew where to look, if they actually looked for it…

And Shuichi was more than willing to do just that, because Knight had shown him the way once more, and he’d followed… and he’d succeeded. More than one of his “fellow villains” had listened, at least those that had a good opinion of Stain, their doubts raising. Some of those were a little more stubborn, but all of them listened. They were looking now too, and that was enough.

It was a shame that nobody of importance had done so though, admittedly. Dabi and Toga were still going forward all the same, and a bunch of the other heavy hitters weren’t even there for Stain. Still, if he could get even one person to leave the League, then he’d count it as a victory. That’d be one less person going along with whatever madness Shigaraki had in mind.

“That’s three for three,” Endo commented as his monster choice lost yet another fight. Shuichi looked up to see an entirely too smug expression from someone that was probably cheating. He had to be. “Your luck sucks,” he added and Shuichi mentally added a ‘still’ there. Because of course the bastard would remind him.

He’d probably gotten the limited pull on the first ten in the last event or some bullshit like that.

He had not missed that part of his friendship with the guy.

“Best four out of seven?” Endo asked with a shrug and a smile. A smile that probably was supposed to pass for smug like before, but there was softness there that reassured Shuichi a great deal. His friend was still there, he was still Shuichi’s friend, it seemed… It was so good to know that.

Maybe what he’d done hadn’t been for nothing… and if it was, at least he hadn’t lost what he’d had before. If it was, then maybe he still had time to actually do something worthwhile. He could only hope.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

There you have it, folks.

People have been guessing that Distressed was Spinner since forever ago (not all of you guessed though, thankfully). Initially, I was going to make him be some unnamed villain, probably picked at random from the USJ group. I think I almost decided on a woman that had some kind of hair Quirk? But then someone said Spinner and it got me thinking… And here we are.

In a way, I’m glad I didn’t go with my initial idea, because using OCs is always a little tricky. People tend to not care as much for them, I think. On the other hand though, stuff like this sometimes leaves me feeling like I forced things, like it’s too “coincidental”... But I think that’s just me, really.

Notes aside, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Also, I hope 2026 treats you better than 2025 did!

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Do you prefer to send messages or audios? I prefer to send and receive messages, honestly. I guess writing and reading is more my thing. I always zone out when I have to listen to audios for some reason and have to repeat them a bunch of times, which makes them very annoying for me, especially when they are long.

See you.