Darkest Before Dawn - 103

Chapter 103

Kazuki’s weekend was shaping up to be more stressful than his week.

He did notice the irony in that statement, but that was the truth. All the way from the moment he woke up and the whole trip to the filming set, he worried and fidgeted. Because no matter how much Hina reassured him, Kazuki would be afraid of all that he’d done going up in flames. Dramatic, he knew, but it’d suck if all the effort and planning he – and others – had put into his acting project was for nothing.

So, he kind of wanted the whole thing to be a success, for himself, of course, but also for Hina and for all the people that would participate in the movie one way or another. All of them deserved a win, after all, and he wanted to try and do his best to make that happen. Unfortunately though, there wasn’t much he could do at the moment other than… Well, doing his best.

It didn’t feel like enough though. Walking into the set and introducing himself to the assistant that apparently had been assigned to him, Kazuki felt like he should be doing more. He didn’t know what exactly, but just couldn’t shake that feeling. Maybe he could have practiced more, or he could practice at that moment. Or maybe he could have studied more, seen more movies like the one he’d work on and take inspiration. Or maybe he should have asked Hina for more advice. Or-

“Hi hi~” a voice exclaimed and he almost jumped, turning to look at the girl that had approached him. “You’re Monster Daddy, right?” she asked, big brown eyes staring at him from way too close. Pulling back a little, he noticed that her straight hair was a few shades lighter than her eyes, almost blond, really. “You totally are! Oh my God! I heard you’d be here, but I didn’t know you’d be here today. I’m a super fan!”

“You are?” he asked, blinking as he tried to nudge his brain to catch up with the situation. The girl wasn’t giving him a single moment though, apparently, bouncing around – which was… distracting for… reasons – and skipping as she looked him up and down like an excited child. “Um… Anyway, I’m… Kazuki Endo, but you seem to know that already,” he mumbled, unsure of how to proceed from there.

He had come up with a hundred scenarios of how things could go in his first day as a proper actor while worrying through the week. He’d imagined all sorts of things happening and how people would be and… None of that matched what had happened right after he crossed the door into the filming set.

‘Off to a great start, it seems,’ he thought self-deprecatingly.

“I’m Camie Utsushimi and I play the queen bee!” she introduced herself and as she said that, Kazuki felt himself grow even more nervous. A small part of him though, found it amusing that she was acting like… a complete opposite of what her character was going to be like. “You can call me Camie though. Let’s hope the movie goes well, yeah? Haven’t even started and I’m already looking forward to the sequel!”

“You know I’m the main character’s best friend, right?” he asked hesitantly. Because that meant that-

“Right! And I’ll be your love interest in the sequel, isn’t that great?!” she exclaimed, like that was the greatest thing ever. Kazuki, for his part, felt a part of himself wanted to run away from that conversation. Alas, he couldn’t do that, so… Instead, he found himself baffled that he couldn’t pick up a single bad emotion that could be directed at him from the girl.

“Um, well… Yeah, I do hope this goes well,” he replied, overwhelmed, confused and unsure. “And, er, you can call me Kazuki if you want. I prefer going by my first name too.”

“You too?! See?! It’s destiny!” she cheered and he was taken further aback when she pulled his arm into a hug and then pulled him with her. “Now, come on! I gotta introduce you to the gang. We were waiting for you and-”

“Was I late?” he asked immediately, feeling himself pale more than he already was.

“No, we were just early. Sometimes we do that just to hang out with each other. They are all friendly, for the most part. You’ll like them!... Except Shizuka, she’s a bitch. But everyone else is nice!” she explained to him, her voice lowering into a growl when she talked about the Shizuka… girl? woman?... before bouncing back to cheerful a second later.

“Uh, sure then?” he hesitantly agreed, walking a little faster so the girl wouldn’t be literally pulling him along. “Hope we can all get along then.” He really hoped that would be the case. Because if it turned out his fellow actors hated his guts or were afraid of him, then that’d ruin everything.

Or maybe he was being pessimistic, but still.

“And, er, could you let go, please?” he asked, the awkwardness getting to him. Fortunately, she didn’t seem offended. Instead, she just immediately let go of him, stopping their walk short.

“Oh, sorry about that! I didn’t even notice,” she told him, beaming at him and he didn’t detect any bad emotions in her, so he guessed she wasn’t lying. Still though… ‘How do you not notice you’re basically hugging someone?’ he wondered, eyes a little wide.

It was one of those jarring moments in which he was different from others, he supposed. Because he couldn’t imagine being that close to someone and not being aware of it. To him, that was a bizarre idea. Like someone telling him that they didn’t notice when they were standing on a bonfire. It was odd to say the least, right? Unless there was a Quirk involved.

‘Maybe her Quirk makes her like that?’ he wondered idly.

“No worries,” he mumbled. She’d let go and that’s what mattered. So he put on his best smile on and took a deep breath in through his mouth. Courage gathered, it was time to face the music, he supposed. “Now, I think we were going somewhere?”

“Sure thing, Monster Daddy!” she exclaimed and he grimaced.

He really hoped that wouldn’t stick.

[}-o-{]

“She’s way out of your league, you know that right?” Kazuki commented idly, following his “best friend”’s eyes and watching Shizuka, the bitch, – Camie’s words, not his, but after meeting her… she wasn’t entirely wrong – walk away from them. “Like, way out of your league.”

“I know,” his “best friend” acknowledged, still staring at the girl while Kazuki turned to look at him and raised an eyebrow.

“That means you should, you know, go for someone more like us, normal mortals, instead-”

“You mean losers?”

“-of setting yourself up for failure,” he finished, ignoring his words entirely. The timing was a bit off there, but he pushed through all the same. If the scene didn’t work, then he’d leave that decision for the director to make.

“I know,” his “best friend” repeated.

“... You still wanna try, don’t you?” he asked, giving the guy a look as plain as he looked. Kazuki had half expected to need some heavy make up and such to make him presentable for the movie, but apparently the decision makers wanted him to stay the same as he was. They were just changing his Quirk for something else in case it came up. In this case, his quirk was Shadow Manipulation, which was… just him, using a part of his Quirk he needed to work on anyway.

He didn’t remember any scene where it came up, but improvisation was a thing that could happen.

Then there was the actual protagonist of the story, standing in front of him. Credit where credit was due, the people in charge of their appearance had managed to turn a pretty boy that would have Minoru tearing off his hair-spheres into what could pass as a normal dude. It was kind of impressive, he wasn’t even going to try and deny that.

“I have to,” the pretty boy in disguise said, feeble determination on his features.

“Well… I guess I’ll have to make sure you don’t crash and burn too hard,” he replied, letting out a sigh that was half disappointment and half exasperation.

“And that’s that!” the director called and Kazuki didn’t catch any bad emotions from him. Well, he had a few times felt spikes and such during the recording, but he tried not to let that discourage him from the scene. So far, they’d worked on a few of those and he’d learned that bad emotions didn’t mean the scene sucked. It was just the director being picky.

Just in case though, he’d ask once he managed to get a moment alone with the guy.

“Great work, everyone, that was great, much better than before. Although, I think we can get a few more tries in just in case,” the director said and he was being honest. Although, a part of Kazuki wondered about that. Maybe he was good at compartmentalizing? That could get in the way at times, if he wasn’t really looking into things, which he wasn’t at the moment. He kind of had to focus on his lines and such, after all.

“That was fun, wasn’t it?” the actor that played his best friend asked, a smile on his face. He was easy to get along with, from what he’d seen so far, which was great. It’d have sucked if he had to play best friend with Shizuka for example. He didn’t envy Camie that, that was for sure.

He knew that was part of the business, but he’d rather have it easier for his first movie.

“Yeah, it was,” Kazuki replied, an unsure smile on his face. Camie had introduced him to basically everyone – that was around their age, at least – and they all seemed like cool people. He was just… surrounded by strangers and it had been a while since he’d been in that position by himself. Most of the time, there was someone he knew around, and when it wasn’t the case, the situation usually didn’t last long. He was going to be there with only strangers for hours.

He really hoped he got used to them all soon, or he’d been in trouble.

“Good work!” Camie’s voice called, cutting through his thoughts and slapping him on the back. “Not bad for a newbie, huh?” she added, and it was kind of jarring to see her going from the queen bee character she played to… Camie.

Kind of like Shizuka, but in her case it was the opposite, actually. Why hadn’t that casting gone the other way around, actually? That’d have made much more sense. Kazuki didn’t voice that though. He imagined it’d be rude to everyone involved and that the producers had their reasons. One of those was a main role and the other wasn’t, after all, at least not quite, until the sequel, if it ever happened.

“Thanks. You did great too,” he replied, rubbing his neck nervously and wondering if he should say something else. The fact that the rest of the other teenage actors were gathering around their group wasn’t helping, honestly. Still though, he took a deep breath in and tried his best to keep himself calm.

“Aww, he’s shy. Ain’t he cute?” Camie asked one of the other girls around, who giggled in a way that made Kazuki want to summon a maw from the ground to eat him whole. “I told you girls that he’d be. He’s hot and he likes kids. Dreamy, right?” she asked, swooning exaggeratedly at him.

Kazuki felt his eye twitch.

And it only got worse from there, because someone said “Monster Daddy” from behind him and Camie was off. Suddenly, she was telling everyone about how he’d been at the hospital with the kids and… It was honestly quite mortifying. At least none of them disliked him, he supposed. Not even Shizuka, surprisingly enough.

Maybe he could actually do this acting thing.

[}-o-{]

“How was your first day?” Hina asked him as soon as he got in the car she picked him up in. Well, she had a chauffeur, but the point stood. “Did you have a good time?”

‘Why do I feel like a little kid after his first day at school?’ he asked. Granted, his own mother hadn’t done that back in the day, but it was how he imagined it went for others, at least. He found that he didn’t dislike the feeling, even if it was a bit embarrassing. It meant Hina cared.

“It was… exhausting,” he said, letting out a weary sigh and dropping on his seat like a puppet with its strings cut. His mentor wasn’t feeling very empathetic though, if her amused expression was anything to go by. Why wasn’t she encouraging him or something?

“Tough scenes on the first day? Not the usual thing to do, but it’s been known to happen. Some directors can be hardcore,” Hina commented, like he wasn’t sitting there suffering. Why had he thought she was kind?

“Not that,” he grumbled, cracking his neck and sighing again as he tried to draw strength to sit straight. He only half succeeded though. “Too many strangers. My social battery is in the negatives,” he explained and the woman had no response to that other than mercilessly laughing at him.

He should have gone with Endeavor for his internship.

“Then it’ll get better. They can’t all be awful,” Hina told him, which was more along the lines of what he’d expected and wanted. She could stand to be a little more understanding and kind instead of dismissive and amused though. He’d have appreciated that. “Anyone give you trouble?” Well, the sudden steely edge with which she asked that was more supportive, he supposed.

“There’s this girl Shizuka… something. I don’t remember her surname, actually. She was kind of a bitch, but she wasn’t a bully or anything,” he answered with a shrug. He didn’t want to get that girl in trouble. Having an awful personality wasn’t a crime, as far as he was concerned, even if sometimes it felt like it should be. “Everyone else seemed to at least leave me alone. Some of them were kind.”

“So, what’s the problem? Is it just because they are strangers?” Hina asked him and the soft voice was a lot more like the empathetic woman he’d expected her to be. Why’d she have to be mean right off the bat? Actually, hadn’t there been some kind of negative emotion before? What had it been? He hadn’t been checking, considering how done he was overall, but he definitely noticed when it was gone… Would it be bad to ask? Probably. “Because if you say some of them were nice, then it’ll get better.”

“I know that. Doesn’t make me feel any better now though,” Kazuki muttered, pressing himself against the back of his seat. “I’m so done with this day. Did you have anything planned?” he asked, praying to any deity that might hear that she would not, in fact, have anything planned and he’d be able to recover with a nice cup of tea and some snacks.

“As a matter of fact, I do!” Hina answered cheerfully.

He should have known better than to trust deities anyway.

“What did you have in mind?” he mumbled, wishing for death but knowing there was only suffering in his future.

“I thought we could pick up some of the worst junk food ever, some sodas and sit on the couch back at the agency and watch some shows or movies, what do you say?” His expression must have been quite something because the woman burst into laughter immediately. “What kind of monster do you think I am, Kazuki? You look like death warmed over. We’re taking it easy, alright? Maybe once you don’t look like you want to die, we’ll be able to do other things when you come for a visit.”

“You make it sound like I don’t come to work, you know?” he grumbled, ignoring everything else she’d said. “And that idea sounds like heaven right now. It’s been forever since I really went all out on junk food.”

“Don’t do that much with your friends?” Hina asked, eyebrows raised.

“One of them has a strict diet to follow to recover from a Quirk drawback he wasn’t aware of until recently. Besides, some of the girls in the group aren’t fans,” he answered with a shrug. Minoru really did need to watch what he ate very seriously if he wanted to fix the damage his Quirk had done to him as much as he could. Much of his window for growth was gone, after all. He was probably never going to be tall, or even average height, but he might reach a normal height for someone short, which was more than what he had at the moment.

Then there were the girls. Toru and Mina didn’t really mind what they ate too much, but Momo certainly did. Which was kind of funny, considering she was the one that shouldn’t care for that, but she worried for them. Kyoka, for her part, was somewhere in the middle of that. In the end though, they tended to side together, which meant that they mostly followed Momo.

“Well, they don’t know what they are missing. Terribly unhealthy food is just what you need once in a while,” Hina told him with a grin that he returned weakly. “Sure, a healthy diet is great for your body and can even taste good, but there’s just something different about junk food, isn’t there? It’s good for your mind in a way. I’ll never forgive you if you’re an idiot about it and ruin yourself over it though,” she explained, finishing with a narrow-eyed look that had him raising his hands placatingly.

“The thought never crossed my mind,” he said quickly, which was the truth. It wasn’t like he needed to be told that even though Hina allowed this instance of terrible food, he shouldn’t go overboard. That’s why he had a healthy diet to follow. It was good to know that he could relax once in a while though.

[}-o-{]

“So, you’re working with Nora’s girl, huh?” Hina commented with a grin. “She must be a character, if she’s anything like her mother.”

“She wouldn’t stop calling me Monster Daddy, can you believe it?” he asked, the words coming out like a groan, especially regarding that ridiculous nickname. Hina didn’t have any compassion for him on that front though, because she found it hilarious if the laughter was anything to go by. “She was… nice though, I guess. She introduced me to everyone and never seemed to have any negative emotions for me to pick up on.”

“Yeah, Nora’s like that too. Kind of flippant, but she’s great, really. She just doesn’t take things too seriously unless she needs to, which is almost never,” Hina commented, looking up thoughtfully, as if remembering this Nora woman she was telling him about. “Make friends with her, yeah? Then Nora and I can organize play dates between our kids.”

At that, Kazuki rolled his eyes with an exasperated expression.

He really hoped she couldn’t see through him.

“That aside, I don’t know, most of the rest were just… there. Some of them were nice and all, but I was kind of focusing on not messing up. Camie and this Shizuka girl were the only ones that stood out to me,” he told Hina, picking up a handful of chips and starting to eat them one by one. Idly, he checked the show they were watching. Some soap opera about a hero agency, apparently. According to Hina, she’d done a guest appearance in one of the chapters.

She’d also supposedly been asked to become a more regular appearance in the show in the second season too in order to see if the character took off, but she was thinking it over.

“Doesn’t bode well for the main character if you can’t even remember his name after a day of working together,” Hina commented, but she didn’t seem to be disappointed in him or anything. She just felt… pity. “If he didn’t make an impression with his acting, then that might not be great for him in the movie.”

“Should I be worried?” Kazuki asked, already feeling like that but wanting confirmation.

“Nah. Even if an actor does badly or a character flops, others can be successful. Even if the movie is a complete failure, you can still shine. Don’t worry your pretty little head, Kazuki. You’ll be fine,” Hina told him and he thought there was an “I’ll make sure of it” added there at the end, but he didn’t point that out. “Besides, between you, Camie and this Shizuka girl, you’ll be fine. Enough presence to carry a story, I imagine. If you shine enough, they might even change the script for the sequel to make you the protagonist!” she explained, growing more excited towards the end.

He didn’t share the sentiment.

“You say that like it’s a good thing,” he mumbled, suddenly wishing the couch would eat him whole. Just thinking about how being the main character of a movie would feel left him without energy. He was already feeling like the world was on his shoulders just by being an important side-character. Then again, maybe by that point he’d be more confident?

Still, at that very moment it sounded terrifying.

“Don’t worry about it, Kazuki. It’ll be a while. You’ll kill it if that happens,” Hina reassured him, almost like she could read his mind. “So, it’s a great thing. Don’t be your usual pessimistic self just yet, alright? Believe me, it’ll be fine.”

“I believe you. I just… I guess today was more draining than I thought,” he mumbled, picking up more junk food to eat. “Optimism had to run out at some point, huh?”

“Nu-huh. None of that. You’ll be fine and cheerful tomorrow, or so help me, I’ll have to do something drastic,” Hina said and he almost felt like that was a threat, even though it should be reassuring. Or was it? He was kind of confused.

“Thanks, I think.”

“Don’t mention it,” she told him, beaming and evidently ignoring his unsure tone. “So, anything else you wanna tell me about besides Nora’s daughter, Shizuka the bitch herself and the flopping main character?”

“He might not flop,” he defended, but it sounded weak even to his own ears and the disbelieving look Hina gave him didn’t really help. “He might not. I was kind of overwhelmed today. And besides, it’s just the first day.”

“Main characters are supposed to leave an impression, Kazuki,” Hina replied and he shrugged. “But yeah, anyway. Anything else?”

“I mean, other than the exhaustion of being around strangers all day… I guess I liked the actual acting,” he commented with a slight smile. “It was nice to just… be someone else. It made my problems seem less important because I wasn’t myself, I was my character. Does that make sense?”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it, Kazuki,” she said softly, but he sensed danger, because she was feeling very sad and a good amount of pity all of a sudden. “Don’t get lost in that dissociation though, alright? That’s really not good.”

“Aren’t you already looking out for that already? You even got Inui, Nemuri and others doing it,” he pointed out with a smile. He didn’t like making people worry about him and such, but it was nice when it happened regardless. Did that make him a bad person? Probably, but he couldn’t help it. “And yeah, I know.”

“You can never be too careful with this kind of thing,” Hina told him, sighing.

“Anyway,” he continued talking, because he didn’t want to let things get stuck on that point. He’d rather move on to something else. On that note, they’d been talking about him so far, so… “How about you? What’d you do while I was suffering from social battery deficiency?”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Man, I feel tired just putting myself on Kazuki’s shoes. Imagine having to spend the better part of a day working and talking to complete strangers. And without anyone you actually know around?

That’s the stuff of nightmares right there.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: I don’t remember if I asked this, but how do you think the movie thing will go?

See you.