Darkest Before Dawn - 121

Chapter 121

“Stop looking at me, B-Movie,” Bakugo growled at him, but Kazuki just stared at him and raised an eyebrow. Ultimately, the blond gave, scoffing and turning away. “I swear to God. Fucking…” And off the guy went, but Kazuki found himself pleasantly surprised.

“Inui and Eijiro work miracles,” he commented. Back at the start of the year, he’d have expected at least one Quirk explosion and three times as much anger coming from Bakugo. “Do you think we have the pull to throw everyone at those two?” he asked, turning towards an unimpressed Momo. Or, at least, that’s what she wanted to look like. He could see her lip twitching and sensed no emotions that supported that either.

Admittedly though, he was only half-joking. God knew a bunch of his classmates needed some counseling. Especially Midoriya, and he wasn’t saying that just because he wanted to deal with less nerves coming from the guy. He wasn’t sure if he was surprised or not at the fact that a class full of people ready to risk their lives for the good of others had a lot of issues. And he could talk, since he was the poster child for people with issues.

Or maybe that meant he couldn’t talk?

He wasn’t sure.

“I don’t think we have the authority, Kazuki,” Momo replied and he clicked his tongue while shaking his head.

“Shame,” he said, feigning deep disappointment. “How long do you think we’re gonna have to wait?” he asked then, looking around.

Their whole class had gathered at the school, together with Class 1-B, and they were waiting for the buses that’d take them to their training camp site, apparently. Aizawa hadn’t told them much else, but the annoyance he was projecting told Kazuki that the delay wasn’t part of some security measure. Or maybe it was and even their teacher didn’t know about it. One could never know those days.

UA could be accused of many things, but taking security lightly wasn’t one of them. The fact that villains had managed to poke at the school at all was impressive, in a very worrying way. He was really hoping that was over with or that the villains would get tired or arrested, preferably the later.

‘What even is the obsession with our class, man?’ he wondered with a sigh. There were perfectly good heroes out there for the villains to fight. Why’d they have to target his class at fucking school? Hell, if he felt especially shitty, he’d wonder why his class and not some other class. Although, maybe that was a bit of a dramatic reaction, since it’d only really been USJ and whatever had happened to Midoriya.

Maybe it wasn’t actually that bad and UA was erring on the side of caution?

Yeah, that sounded more plausible.

“Not too long, hopefully,” Momo answered, and he saw her glancing towards Bakugo. ‘Yeah, I don’t think the guy will be as “calm” for very long. Here’s hoping they get here soon,’ Kazuki thought to himself, running his fingers through his hair. “Do you think we’ll have time for ourselves?” his fellow class representative asked. This time, he caught her eyes darting towards his luggage. She was probably looking specifically at his violin.

“If I don’t get at least some time for myself, I might do something drastic,” he commented, and he wasn’t even joking. The least he’d do was complain very vocally, because he already worked himself into the ground enough as it was. If UA tried to push him even harder, it wouldn’t be pretty for anyone involved.

Although, Inui had reassured him that he’d worked something out. Kazuki trusted the guy, he really did, but he knew how hoping for good things had gone the last time. So, he was being… very cautiously optimistic at best. ‘I’d be more confident if I knew what Inui has in mind to help me here,’ he mused idly, reaching up to massage his weary eyelids.

Getting up at an ungodly hour hadn’t helped.

And that was saying something, considering he was one of the morning people in the class.

“I’m sure that won’t be the case,” Momo mumbled, but she wasn’t as sure as she probably wanted him to believe and he could tell. He appreciated the effort though. Her concern and comforting could be a bit annoying at times, he’d admit, but he knew it came from a good place. So, unless he was very upset, Kazuki tended to appreciate it.

“Here’s hoping,” he said, glancing to the side, to where the rest of their friend group had gathered. They couldn’t really join them, since they had to keep an eye on the whole class and be class representatives. In Kazuki’s opinion, it was more of a bother than anything else. It wasn’t like they were little children.

Really, so long as they kept an eye on Bakugo, it’d all be fine, he imagined. The rest of the class wasn’t what he’d call troublemakers. Well, Kaminari could be a bit of one without even meaning to at times, but other than that- Although, Eijiro could also be a bit too extra at times and Midoriya could have a meltdown at any moment, he was sure, but-

‘Nevermind, this class really does need babysitters,’ Kazuki decided wearily.

“Are you looking forward to it, by the way? I don’t think I’ve heard you say,” he asked, trying to keep the conversation going, else he might start falling asleep on his feet. Momo was always up for conversation, he knew, and he found the way she perked up whenever he talked to her a little cute, admittedly. He didn’t let his mind go too far down that line though, else he might think something entirely out of place.

“A little,” Momo answered with a shy smile. “I’m hoping you’re wrong and that this won’t be very tiring. I’m looking forward to spending entire days together,” she added, her smile widening. “Together with everyone, I mean,” she added, a little panic at the possible misunderstanding bleeding off of her.

“Yeah, I get what you mean,” he replied simply, trying to reassure her. He wasn’t sure why she was disappointed though. He didn’t get a lot of time to ponder on that, however, since the buses chose that moment to arrive.

[}-o-{]

“Yeah, Nemuri’s going to be taking care of the tank while I’m away,” he answered, closing his eyes and leaning his head against the headrest of his seat in the bus. “I’m not worried at all, honestly. She loves the thing almost as much as I do. Almost as good as a cat, were her exact words.”

“Eeeeh, that’s nice,” Toru replied, having been the one to ask what his plans were for the tank. Although, admittedly, there wasn’t even that much to do with the tank other than water top ups and feeding. Sure, some other maintenance would be nice, but the tank would be fine without that. It’d just look a little ugly without getting rid of algae and vaccing, but the parameters should be fine. “My shrimp is doing great, by the way,” the invisible girl added. “It really is as easy as you said!”

Since she wasn’t as interested in the hobby as he was, Kazuki had suggested getting a small tank with mostly plants and only a shrimp of some kind that she liked. Only the one though, because most of the time you either had one shrimp, or you had two million. No in-between with the little shits, unless they literally couldn’t reproduce, usually because they needed very specific conditions.

“Happy to hear that,” he replied with a grin. “Maybe I can drop by to check on the lil’ guy when we get back.” The expression was quickly wiped from his face though, when he felt her emotions twitch oddly. Was going to her place a no-no now? Had something happened? Or maybe his smile looked extra creepy? He’d noticed some people reacting oddly to it a few times already.

“Sure,” Toru said, but she looked away and she didn’t say it with a lot of conviction, so he decided that maybe it wasn’t a good idea.

Before he could dedicate too much thought to that, however, the bus apparently reached some kind of destination. Not their final destination though, because where they stopped was just kind of… a cliff facing a forest. There was little else other than some space off the road where their vehicle stopped, actually. Maybe they just wanted them to stretch their legs a little? Although, they hadn’t been traveling for that long, honestly.

Maybe it was another security thing?

Either way, it was nice to step out and the sight was beautiful. Kazuki wouldn’t honestly mind if they stayed there for a bit. ‘Shame we don’t have any snacks or drinks,’ he mused, running his fingers through his hair.

The rest of his class seemed generally confused though, and he didn’t really blame them. They had been told nothing about the stop, after all. Aizawa didn’t look nor feel very worried, so that reassured him that nothing was wrong.

“We stopped here for a reason,” the teacher in question said, and several of them turned to look at him. That’s when Kazuki noticed that theirs weren’t the only vehicles there. And from the extra one, the people that got off were heroes. Heroes that Kazuki recognized.

“Heya, Eraser!”

“Sorry. Haven’t seen you in a while,” the second person said and now they had everyone’s attention. Kazuki though, couldn’t help but look towards the deeply negative presence behind the heroes. It was a kid, and he was feeling pretty shitty, as it turned out. There was plenty of anger and hurt to throw around there and he was a little concerned, if he were honest.

Before he could dwell on that for much longer though, the two heroes started some kind of presentation/greeting that reminded him of sentai shows.

“We’re the Wild Wild Pussycats!” they announced, and Kazuki smiled a little. He knew them because they were rescue heroes. They were also fairly famous, for a rescue group, standing at a respectable thirty-something ranking.

“These are the pro heroes that will be helping us this time,” Aizawa announced, his dead inside voice clashing very hilariously against the upbeat, excited tone of the Pussycats. Off to the side, Kazuki could hear Midoriya going on one of his hero trivia rants, only to get interrupted by a clawed glove to the face.

‘Mental note, don’t mention age around Pixie-Bob,’ he thought idly. As he did though, he couldn’t help but glance to the side, to where the kid was. He rather doubted the Pussycats were the issue, so maybe something had happened for him to feel that bad? He’d ask later if he didn’t get better. Maybe it was a tantrum or something, but…

But Kazuki wouldn’t risk it.

“Your lodging is at the foot of that mountain over there,” Mandalay told them and he followed the direction her finger was pointing towards with his eyes. Around him, he could tell people were figuring things out. Kazuki himself wasn’t too worried though. “It’s 9:30am right now,” the hero continued, and there was a bit of a sadistic edge in her voice that was… something, coming from someone dressed as she was. “Kitties who don’t make it there by 12:30 won’t get lunch.”

‘Harsh,’ he thought idly while most of his classmates started panicking and going for the bus. As if it’d be that easy for them. It was supposed to be a training trip, wasn’t it? Idly, glancing around, Kazuki started extending his shadow a little, trying to be as subtle as possible. He had a feeling, after all-

“Sorry, kids,” he heard Aizawa say from where he stood. Interestingly though, he was moving aside. That was very telling, in Kazuki’s opinion, which made him throw subtlety out the window. reaching further away with his shadow and starting to create a Grimm off the side of the cliff. “The training’s already begun,” their teacher said, at the same time that the cliff turned into an avalanche of dirt.

‘Well, I didn’t see that coming,’ he thought as he ran off towards the cliff, the only place he could run to, really. It made him feel better about his guess, because not even Aizawa was sadistic enough to throw that at them and expect them not to use their Quirks… right?

“This is our private property!” Mandalay shouted over the sound of the very earth coming for them. “So, feel free to use your Quirks!”

‘Say no more, woman,’ Kazuki thought, reaching the end of the cliff and jumping off and on top of an already half-formed Nevermore. ‘Come on, come on,’ he urged himself, knowing that any second the avalanche would get to him and- ‘Safe,’ he thought as he took off. ‘Good luck, everyone,’ he added, saluting his fallen classmates as some got swept in the wave.

“You’ve got three hours-!” Mandalay continued her announcement without issue and when he turned, Kazuki saw that she was apparently completely safe from the avalanche together with Aizawa and Pixie-Bob. “-to make it through the Beast’s Forest!”

‘Beast’s?’ he wondered, looking down at the forest. Then his eyes widened when he saw a very frightening monster in between the trees. ‘Was there anyone with a Quirk like mine in the Pussycats? No way. Someone else? Or…’ he pondered, eyes a little wide. Then something occurred to him and he looked back towards the pro heroes. Sure enough, Pixie-Bob still had her hands on the ground, even though the avalanche was over. Looking back at the beast, he was pretty sure it was suspiciously earth-colored and there were branches sticking out here and there… ‘I see who’ll likely be working with me,’ he mused to himself.

He hadn’t seen her use her earth manipulation that way when he looked the group up though.

‘I might have been more inclined to take their internship offer if I had known that,’ he mused as he flew away. It had been fairly close when he’d been deciding between them and Hina, actually, so he might have even gone for them. Granted, that was then. Knowing what he did, he would choose to go to Hina for his first internship anyway, no questions asked. ‘Oh well…’

And with that, he flew away. The earth beast wasn’t his problem. Could he help his classmates? Of course. It was all for training purposes though, and he’d decided to take it as easy as he could on the trip, for his own sanity. He wouldn’t necessarily slack off, but he also wouldn’t go out of his way to do stuff if he didn’t think he needed to. Making some random Grimm to fight the beast was something he didn’t think he needed. What difference was there between that and sparring with his classmates, after all?

‘Wonder what we’ll have for lunch…’ he thought, his mind drifting off a little as he flew leisurely in the direction Mandalay had pointed towards. As he did though, he wondered if it was even supposed to be possible for them to reach the place on time, especially with Pixie-Bob making earth beasts for them to fight. That was going to be challenging, to be sure.

‘Godspeed to you all,’ he thought, sending a salute his friends’ way.

As for him, it took him a while to reach the place while taking his time. He didn’t have his gloves or his glasses, so going fast wasn’t something he was looking forward to, especially if he didn’t need to. He also didn’t want to, really. The sights were great up in the air and he didn’t get to fly around a lot, what with all the Quirk laws. Certainly not as freely as he was flying then and there.

‘I’ll ask if I can fly around some more later,’ he thought, feeling the breeze on his face. It was very pleasantly peaceful in the air, especially with the vast forest and the imposing mountains. ‘Actually…’ He paused for a moment and then pulled out his phone. Might as well take a few pictures. He could share them with everyone later, send them to Nemuri and Hina, maybe Inui too whenever he made a call to catch up with his counselor.

‘Wonder if these are good enough to post,’ he thought after taking a few shots and looking at the pictures. He’d have to check with the Management Team for that, but that was a problem for future Kazuki. He didn’t think he’d be allowed to post it until the trip was over anyway. Present Kazuki was busy landing his Nevermore mount on the ground in front of the building that he guessed was supposed to be their lodging for the trip.

“That was fast,” he heard when his fit landed back on the ground and he turned to grin at Mandalay.

“Problem child,” Aizawa greeted with a nod, sounding unsurprised. Kazuki would have been offended if he was though. At least, if they weren’t expecting him to stay on the ground fighting, for whatever reason. They had never explicitly said that he needed to fight his way through the forest though. “It’s early for lunch, so you can get settled and wait until then,” his teacher said.

“Follow me, I’ll show you to your rooms. You can pick your own, since you’re the first and only one here,” Mandalay told him and Kazuki smiled at the woman. She just had a really positive vibe, he supposed. It reminded him of Hina when she was having a good day. The cheer was infectious and he liked that.

“Thank you for having me,” he said softly, rubbing the back of his neck and moving towards the bus where they’d put their things to look for his. Once he had his suitcase and his violin, he was set. “Lead the way.”

“You any good with that?” Mandalay asked, gesturing to his instrument.

“I do alright,” he answered, wondering if that was modest or obnoxious. Sometimes it was difficult to tell the difference, but he didn’t want to say stuff like “Yeah, I’m good”, because it felt a bit… much.

“Maybe you can play for us at some point?” Mandalay suggested, all smiles and positivism. “I used to play piano, but I haven’t touched one in forever, so…”

Maybe staying with the Pussycats wouldn’t be as much of a pain in the ass as he thought.

Even if the name made him cringe internally every time.

[}-o-{]

“Wow, I can tell that’s hard to play,” Mandalay said, eyes a little wide as she slow clapped when he finished playing Devil’s Trill for her, the Pussycats that were around and the kid, Kota, as he’d come to learn. Mandalay had introduced him as her nephew, but the kid was still sulking around and glaring at stuff like a mini-Bakugo instead of talking. Kazuki’s only comfort was that his emotions weren’t always tuned up to max.

“I know nothing about music and I can tell,” Ragdoll commented, for her part.

‘Should I call them by their names, actually?’ he wondered at that moment as he went to set down the violin. They were at the hero group’s place, after all, and they were hardly on duty, right? Then again, they were in costume, so there was that.

“Thanks,” he replied with a smile all the same while inwardly deciding to ask later and just go for hero names for the moment. “It’s my favorite,” he added with a slight smile.

“It shows,” Mandalay told him with a soft smile that had him smiling back almost unconsciously. “Well, your classmates are gonna take a while, it seems. Pixie-Bob is having fun,” she commented and he raised his eyebrows. Maybe he’d underestimated the distance while flying? That could be a problem. He’d have to work on that.

‘As good an excuse as any to ask for flying time,’ he thought with a half-smile.

“We’ll go check on them, if you don’t mind waiting here,” the hero continued before turning towards the kid. That’s when Kazuki felt her generally calm emotions spike a little, just like every other time she regarded Kota. There was plenty of sadness and hurt there. ‘Something’s definitely going on here,’ Kazuki thought. “Kota do you want to come with us?”

“I’ll stay,” the kid grumbled, making the woman’s emotions get worse, her expression falling and all. Beside her, Ragdoll and Tiger patted her shoulders.

“... Mr. Endo, do you mind keeping an eye on Kota for us?” Mandalay said, but he could tell she wanted to insist on the kid going. Or maybe she wanted to stay too, but she couldn’t. All the same, at least Kazuki was sure the problem wasn’t quite her fault, or at least not in any way he might fear when faced with such situations.

“Not at all, and call me Kazuki if it’s not too much trouble. I prefer that,” he replied and a few minutes later, he was alone with Kota and playing his violin again. He pondered on the merits of trying to talk to the kid, because he didn’t want to just turn away. He was a hero and he wanted to help, especially kids. At the same time, he wasn’t sure if it was his place to get involved or not this time.

Ultimately, the choice was kind of taken from him.

“You’re ridiculous,” Kota mumbled, glaring at him like Kazuki had personally offended him.

“Not a fan of violin?” he asked, pausing his playing and looking at the kind. That was understandable, what he usually played wasn’t always to people’s tastes, especially kids, he imagined. Maybe he could try to play some less classical songs? He had considered playing covers of some of his favorite rock songs. Maybe he should give that a shot.

“Not a fan of heroes,” Kota corrected and Kazuki blinked.

“You’re gonna be annoyed for a while then, with all of us dropping by,” he replied wryly, leaving aside the fact that his aunt was a hero too and he apparently stayed with her. Maybe it was a very unfortunately timed visit?

That was when Kazuki noticed that his response seemed to replace the boy’s anger and hurt with confusion.

“You don’t find it weird, that I don’t like heroes?” he asked, as if he couldn’t believe that.

“You wouldn’t be the first person I’ve met that didn’t like heroes,” Kazuki replied with a shrug. He did find it weird, but mainly because it was a kid that had heroes as family. He’d met a lot of people that hated heroes in juvie, and not always for the obvious reasons. Besides, what’d be the point in telling the kid that? That’d probably just make him more angry, right? “Is there a story to that?”

“You’re weird,” Kota answered, spitting the words like he wanted them to smack Kazuki.

“I am,” Kazuki acknowledged with no issue, further confusing the kid. Some of that confusion was evidently turning back to anger though. He could literally feel that happening in real time.

“You’re a hero,” Kota pointed out.

“Training to be one,” he corrected.

“... I don’t understand you,” the kid said in the end, scowling something fierce at Kazuki.

“I don’t blame you,” he replied with a chuckle. “I don’t understand myself most days,” he added. Then he took a deep breath in and decided to leave the chat there. Kota was obviously not going to tell him much then and there and that was fine. He was a stranger, after all. “Do you mind if I continue playing?”

“Do whatever you want,” Kota answered with a huff, turning away. “That’s all you heroes are good for anyway.”

‘Well, that’s very telling, even if I don’t know what it’s telling me,’ he thought to himself, placing the bow of his violin over the strings. ‘I wonder if this is how Inui feels with me,’ he mused wryly as he started playing.

Because if so, then he had a newfound respect for the guy.

Couldn’t be easy dealing with his mess of a mind.

Without a Quirk to help even.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Finally got to the Forest Training Camp arc. It only took us like a thousand chapters, eh? More of a transition chapter, really, with some conversations here and there. Not the most exciting thing ever, I know, but it’s how my writing goes.

I don’t remember if I mentioned it, but yeah, one of the options for Kazuki’s first internship were the Pussycats (what a name, by the way, I just can’t help but mentally pause everytime it comes up). They were the second option in mind back in the day, since they are rescue heroes, they are nice and they are well liked. Alas, Uwabami won by virtue of having maxed out the skill that Kazuki most needed.

Well, with that fun fact out in the open, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, even if it was kind of tame.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Weird that I haven’t asked this (I think), but do you like classical music? I… kind of do? I’m fine with it, but I don’t usually listen to it when I decide to listen to music. Unless I get in the right mood while looking for songs for Kazuki to play, but that doesn’t happen often. (Btw, yeah, all the named songs Kazuki plays are actual songs.)

See you.