Chapter 4
"Do… you think he's serious?" Hagakure asked, with what Kazuki assumed was her usual cheer nowhere to be seen. "He's not gonna expel us if we are last, right…?"
"Who knows?" Mineta replied with a shrug, even if he looked pretty nervous himself.
Kazuki didn't need to look at the people around him to know most of them were at least a little worried. It didn't exactly make sense to him though. Not all of them could have bad quirks for the tests that their teacher was suggesting, right? They were all in a hero class, surely some of them had powers that would make things easier for them.
'Maybe they aren't worried about being expelled as much as they are of making a bad impression? Stage fright of sorts?' he wondered as he looked around.
"Do you think he's serious, Creepy? You can sense his emotions, right?" Mineta asked, and that earned the full attention of their little group, formed by Hagakure, Ashido and Kirishima. Hell, even some of their other classmates seemed to have heard and looked over.
"I only know he's annoyed and very tired. Doesn't really tell us much, right?... Only to try not to make him angry, that is, but it should be a given," Endo said, his eye twitching. On top of the quirk apprehension test Aizawa had dropped on them right off the bat, his quirk was getting to him, especially because-
"Everything alright, Creepy?" Ashido asked then, tilting her head at him.
"Yes, I just wish those two would get it fucking together and calm the hell down," he growled, his shadow darkening under him the smallest bit. Taking a deep breath in, he did his best to push the foreign emotions aside, at least the overwhelming ones.
"Who?" Kirishima asked, looking around.
"Bakugo and Midoriya," he said, sighing. As usual, Kazuki wasn't having all that much success in keeping his emotions in check. "Mr. Angry might as well be hitting me over the head with a sledgehammer, as far as his emotions go. And Mr. Mumbles is so nervous I feel like my heart might just stop any second."
"He does look scared," Hagakure pointed out.
"They are starting," Mineta pointed out, and sure enough, Mr. Stick-Up-The-Ass was going to run the 50-meter dash against… Kazuki wasn't very sure who the girl was or what her quirk did. He didn't remember if she'd said anything after arriving and he'd been kind of occupied talking with his new group of… 'Friends? Not quite, acquaintances, I guess,' he mused idly.
The point was, he hadn't paid all that much attention to the rest of the class, if he was honest.
"Some people have all the luck," Mineta grumbled then, as the two's scores were announced.
"If we aren't first, we should make sure to think up how we are going to do the tests," Kazuki pointed out, taking another deep breath in as he tried to do just that instead of letting his quirk influence him. "Well, this one is easy though. I'll just make a Beowolf to mount."
"I haven't gotten my bouncing good enough to try that for a dash," Mineta lamented. "So, it'll be normal running for me," he added, looking down at his legs. Kazuki didn't need to read minds to know what he was thinking, the pang of frustration and some thinking did the job just fine at that moment.
"I'm sure there'll be another test that'll be better for you, Tiny," Kirishima reassured, placing a hand on the shorter boy's shoulder.
First test went without problems for Kazuki himself as he did exactly as he'd planned and rode a Beowolf as it sprinted for him. 'Summoning Grimm will be laughably easy with those two here, nevermind the rest of the class,'Kazuki thought to himself. And even with that advantage, he'd much rather the two got a fucking hold of their emotions.
It was getting to him. He was getting angry at any little mistake, thanks to Bakugo. Any little thing made him impossibly nervous that Aizawa would call him out for something, thanks to Midoriya. He could barely keep himself under control, and that was just because of all the practice he'd gotten in juvie, with much more wild emotions thrown around.
Another Beowolf took care of the second test, the grip strength test. For the standing jump, he just made a Nevermore big enough to carry him. Normally that one would have been more of a struggle, but with as many and as strong negative emotions that were around? Easy. Aizawa gave him an infinite value for that one, since he could technically fly forever so long as he got a steady source of negativity to keep the thing going. Sustained sideways jump was… Well, Kazuki couldn't think of a way to do that one with his Quirk.
The pitch throw had been taken care of beforehand by a Beowolf, considering Aizawa had made him do the example of throwing one before they started. He'd thought of using a Nevermore to carry it, but he was fairly sure wouldn't have gone as far. He had a range limit, after all, and the Beowolf could throw the thing further than the Nevermore could fly. That was his guess, at least. It wasn't like he'd checked that sort of thing before.
Ultimately, that assumption had been right, from what he'd seen.
'Why didn't we start with this though? We were already here for the example thing before,' Kazuki had to wonder as he looked at his classmates getting ready for that round of testing.. Ultimately, it wasn't too important. Maybe they were just doing it in the order the teacher had listed them for himself or something.
"I'm getting really nervous here," Hagakure mumbled, and Kazuki couldn't really blame her. She, Kaminari and Jiro weren't really getting all that many chances to use their quirks to keep them, or at all, really. And yet, Midoriya, despite having a better average, looked and felt like he'd faint any moment. 'Or have a heart attack,' Kazuki thought to himself, taking a deep breath in to try and calm himself. 'Why is he so goddamn nervous? He's doing well!'
"I was thinking about that, actually," he said then, trying to focus on a conversation instead of his senses. "Wouldn't make much sense for him to kick us out just because our quirks don't help with this, right?"
"I mean… yeah?" the invisible girl mumbled, still fidgeting with her hands, or so it seemed, from the movement of her sleeves.
"Only reason I can see for him kicking us out is if we mess around or if we do really badly," Kazuki added, tilting his head as he considered his own point. "Does that make sense?"
"A little," Mineta said, narrowing his eyes. "Thank god for the sideways jumping though. It probably saved my ass."
"Well, you are not wrong about that, Tiny," Kazuki agreed with a slight grin that only widened when the short boy shot him a glare. "So, do your best, it should be enough. I doubt he'd be that unfair, if he's a hero. I know he gave that speech about the real world being unfair, but still, if we do our best, what more can he want from us?"
"Well said, Creepy," Kirishima called, smacking Kazuki's back and making him grimace. That was quite the hit, for a gesture that was supposed to be friendly. "We just have to be manly!" he added then, grinning from ear to ear.
"Manly?..." Hagakure whispered from the side.
"Ignore him, that's kind of… his thing," Ashido pointed out with an awkward smile.
"Ah, like Tiny's is being a pervert?" Kazuki asked.
"Oi!"
"Ah, what's going on there?" Kirishima asked, pulling their attention from the conversation he had started himself, even if unknowingly. "Is he giving Midoriya advice or something?"
"Ugh, why'd you have to point that out?" Kazuki groaned, once more being flooded by the green-haired boy's nerves. "He seems to be even worse than before."
"And that's saying something, I guess, right?" Hagakure pointed out, finishing with a questioning tone. She didn't even know how right she was. "Oh, do we get re-tries?" she added, when they saw Midoriya move to throw again.
This time though, it got everyone's full attention, mainly because once he got around throwing the ball, the thing flew away with a loud 'Crack!'. Kazuki, somewhat away where he and the others he was talking with stood, flinched and grabbed his hand.
"The absolute mad bastard," he hissed, giving the green-haired boy an incredulous look that got even worse when he noticed the reddening finger.
"What happened, Endo?" Hagakure asked, forgoing the nickname and with concern filling her voice. "Something the matter?"
"Yes, that fucker broke his finger with that throw," he said, taking a deep breath in and doing his best to ignore that pain. "What the fucking hell?" he added, doing the same thing again. It wasn't really working. The fact that Bakugo seemed to have decided to finally explode… metaphorically speaking this time, didn't really help matters. Anger and pain weren't a good combination to keep a calm head.
"Can't you just… ignore it?"
"No can do," Kazuki muttered through his teeth, blowing a breath out of his mouth.
"Anything we can do?" Ashido asked, looking concerned between him and Midoriya. "And should we do something about him for that matter?"
"Sensei doesn't seem to care," Mineta pointed out, and sure enough, the man was still looking at Midoriya with narrowed eyes. In the end, he just gave a tight nod and told the boy his score. "Man, I'm suddenly not so sure about how true your words were, Creepy. That man really could care less."
"I guess," Kazuki replied, still rather tense, but regaining some measure of control. The fact that the pain had come out of nowhere certainly hadn't helped. "And the best way to get my head away from things is to distract me, most of the time. Unless it's really intense emotions… Like right now. Which isn't really helping."
"Good to know," Mineta said then. "We are really going to continue like nothing happened, huh?" he added when Aizawa called for the next person.
As it turned out, yes, they were going to keep on like they had already. Their teacher, they decided, was a hardcoreguy. Well, except Kirishima, who apparently couldn't decide if Aizawa was manly or not. Besides the "highlight" of having Midoriya with a broken finger and Kazuki having to deal with the pain too, there was little else of note, which was almost good, he supposed. At least the guy didn't decide to break anything else.
Seated toe-touch and sit ups he couldn't do much about, really. Well, besides using imps to try and help him out while doing them, but that wasn't nearly as much as he had done with the other tests. So, the examination continued without all that much of note.
That is, until it came time for the endurance running test. That one was… funny, one could say. Mainly because it became an infinite race between Kazuki and Yaoyorozu. The girl, who apparently could create stuff from her body… somehow, had made herself a scooter that could run forever.
As for Kazuki, he just made a beowolf and rode it next to her. With the amount of nerves that he was getting from the rest of the class, nevermind Bakugo's anger and Midoriya's nerves/pain, he could have the thing there forever, really. Hell, he could probably have made his limit of Grimm and not have to worry about running out of juice even if he had to constantly replenish them at that point.
In the end, Aizawa decided that they'd get an infinity score, just like Uraraka had with her pitch throw, and Kazuki himself had with the standing jump.
"Oh, yeah," Their teacher said once they were done and he'd finished noting everything down. "That whole "expulsion" thing was a lie," he announced with a completely straight face. Kazuki would go as far as saying the man was enjoying the class's reaction. "It was a logical ruse to pull out your best performances."
"So you were right, huh, Creepy?" Ashido pointed out.
"Come on," Yaoyorozu said, some distance away. "Of course it was just a ruse."
"Somehow… I'm not very sure that's what happened," Kazuki mumbled, looking as the teacher gave Midoriya some piece of paper and told him to go to the infirmary. "If he could lie about the expulsion, he could lie about the ruse."
"Who ca~res!" Hagakure exclaimed, before very audibly sighing in relief. "I'm just glad I'm not getting expelled. Look at this, I'm last place!" the girl whined, picking up the list the teacher had given… Kazuki hadn't actually seen who it had been given to.
'UA really likes its tops and rankings, huh? Makes sense, considering heroes also have that, but still. Well, some people might need the extra motivation, I guess,' he thought to himself, peeking at it from over the girl's shoulder. 'Maybe even through her head,' he added, somewhat amused. It didn't really reach his eyes, considering that Bakugo reached previously undiscovered levels of anger. 'That guy has issues, seriously.'
In the end, Kazuki was surprised to have placed first place once more. Then again, his quirk helped in basically all of the exercises. Some more than others, but that was still a fact. Hell, he'd pulled off two infinites. Most of the class couldn't say the same. Some of them had an advantage on a few of the tests, sure, but none of them in all exams.
"Maybe we should call you First instead of Creepy, huh?" Ashido pointed out with a grin.
He just gave her a dry look.
[}-o-{]
Kazuki moved through the school halls once more. He was alone, but only momentarily. To his immense surprise, his new – Friends? – acquaintances had decided to hang out after classes for a bit, so he'd be going with them for a bit. He'd already sent the message necessary for his guards/minders to not call the police on him or something. In turn, he'd gotten the message to keep them up to date every so often.
It was frustrating, but he was too surprised by the fact that he could probably have friends to mind all that much.
For the moment, however, he had something he wanted to do first. Hence, why he was still in the school instead of going to some cafe that Ashido had seen when coming to class. Fortunately, things shouldn't take long and he'd be on his way there soon.
"Ah, Midoriya," he called, making the green-haired boy tense up and turn almost mechanically. It reminded Kazuki of the guy with the speed quirk in their class… He'd already forgotten his name, but the point stood. "I wanted to talk to you for a bit."
"Ah… Ando, was it?" the boy asked, and Kazuki had to hold back a grimace. Not because of the mistake, but because of how nervous/afraid Midoriya was. Instead, he took a deep breath in before answering.
"Endo, actually. Endo Kazuki," he corrected and this time his face did twist in displeasure as the emotions of the other teenager spiked. "Relax, will you?" he growled, not really helping things. Realizing that things weren't improving anytime soon, he took another deep breath in and focused his mind. "Midoriya, do you know how my quirk works?"
"You, uh, create creatures?" he answered hesitantly, and Kazuki could tell that the question had confused the boy out of his other emotions… A bit, at least. "You can create a werewolf creature, a demon-like humanoid, and a corvid creature, probably some others? I wonder, do they have to have human properties or animal ones? There's the wolf thing, and the horns on the humanoid. Maybe they have to have both? But that doesn't fit with the corvid, that's just animal all around. The mask is definitely a thing they have in common. Although, maybe-"
"I can create those three," Kazuki interrupted, making the boy's mouth click shut. "And that's it, even if I'm thinking about trying to make different ones. I think it just depends on how I create them. I haven't been able to experiment much, but I think I should be able to create other things. I'll be trying that out as soon as possible."
"Ah, what ideas do you have? I imagine you want-"
"We can trade ideas later," Kazuki interrupted again, before the other boy could get going. He had the feeling that he could go on and on forever if left to his devices. "There's another part you didn't get to see, mainly because it's not visible."
"Oh, your quirk has two unrelated powers? That's super rare. Most quirks only have side-powers to let the person use-"
"Midoriya," Kazuki said, all but sighing the name as the green-haired boy shut up once more. "The other part of my quirk is that I can feel negative emotions. They give me energy to fuel the creature creation part."
"That's really cool!" Midoriya exclaimed, more excited than anything, which was relief. At least Kazuki didn't have to deal with the crippling anxiety anymore. For the moment, at least. "I wonder how that works? Do you get-"
"The point I'm trying to make," Kazuki started, taking yet another deep breath in. He had the feeling it'd become a stable part of any interaction with Midoriya already. "Is that I can feel your nervous ass like I'm feeling like that myself."
"Ah, I'm sorry-"
"It's fine," Kazuki reassured with a sigh. "I've long since realized that I can't change how people feel. No, the part that's important is the pain." He saw, then and there, how Midoriya realized where he was going. "Does your quirk always do that to you? Isn't there a way to not break something when you use it?"
"Ah… I'm, uh, working on it," the boy said, growing nervous once more, even afraid. Why, Kazuki had no idea. "I'm a late bloomer. I got my quirk just this last year and I can't control it… uh, very well."
"I could tell," Kazuki replied before sighing yet again. "Quirks have limits, man. Learn where yours is and don't get past it until you are ready. Maybe go less All Might and more, I don't know, someone with less strength."
"Death Arms has a strength quirk that lets him-"
"You got my point, didn't you?" Kazuki interrupted, giving the boy a tired look. God, he was done with the conversation already. He wasn't sure if he was even getting anywhere anyway.
"Ah, I'll work on it?"
"I don't like that you said that like a question," Kazuki told him, but in the end he gave up. "Anyway, I'd really appreciate it. Also, breaking something every time you use your Quirk can't be good for you. I imagine you won't last very long like that. I don't think repeatedly breaking bones is very good for your health," he said, trying and failing to keep his tone flat.
"I-I know, I'm really working on it," the boy replied, looking like he was about to cry. He felt like he was about to too, really. Kazuki could feel the angst, the fear, the shame… Midoriya was feeling absolutely shitty, basically. Maybe it made him an asshole, but Kazuki really didn't feel like standing there dealing with it for longer than he had to. It wasn't like he could help the other boy with his problems.
"Just…" he started, before sighing. "Nevermind. I guess you working on it is the best I can get," he mumbled, running his fingers through his white hair. "If you need any help, just ask. I have a vested interest in you not breaking your bones every time you do something in class."
"Ah, I'll… keep it in mind?"
"Sure," Kazuki said simply. "See you later, Midoriya."
"Ah, see you later, Endo!" the boy called, bowing and all. In response he simply waved at him as he started moving towards the exit. God, he was already feeling drained from that.
'Just when I thought I was getting better at dealing with other people's emotions,' Kazuki thought to himself, keenly aware of the bundle of negativity that was Midoriya behind him. The other bunch of negative emotions he was getting from other people nearby didn't really help either, but at least those were mild enough to ignore… a bit.
'Here's hoping that I'll get a break with the others.' That was wishful thinking though and Kazuki knew it. No matter where he went, there'd always be someone that felt like shit. Be it mild annoyance or crippling depression, there was always someone feeling something negative wherever he went.
Still, he'd spent his whole life with his particularly awful brand of empathy. He could deal with it. Most of the time, that is, Bakugo and Midoriya had really tested the resistance he'd built against the emotions it projected on him. 'It'll be worse if I actually have to do hero work,' Kazuki reminded himself. No way villain activity or disaster victims would feel all that well. 'If anything, being in the same class as those two will be nice training, I guess,' he thought with a wry smile.
"Creepy!" Ashido called when he exited the school, making him blink at her. "Took you long enough, what did you even have to do?"
"Weren't you going to go ahead to this cafe you mentioned?" he asked, instead of answering her question.
"Yeah, but Tiny didn't want to leave without his best friend forever," the pink-skinned girl said, grinning widely as she signaled towards Mineta. Kazuki, meanwhile, raised an eyebrow at the short boy.
"Do you have to make it sound like that?" the guy asked, visibly annoyed by the "accusation", as it were.
"You don't have to hide that you care, Tiny," Hagakure reassured, skipping around the short boy before turning towards Kazuki. "And I'm officially Bubbly now!" she announced, much to his amusement.
"Well… I guess you can be the exception to the look rule," He replied with a slight grin.
"I'm exceptional, I know," the girl said, her floating clothes shifting. He was pretty sure she was nodding "sagely" or some such gesture. Difficult to tell with her, but he guessed he might get used to that sort of thing if she stuck around.
"That's one way to see it," Ashido commented with a chuckle.
"Can we get going? My parents said I could go for a bit, but I need to be back home early. Chores to do and all that," Kirishima asked, scratching the back of his head.
"Sure. You heard Pointy, guys. Let's get going!" Ashido exclaimed.
As they walked, both of the girls started talking between themselves while the boys remained mostly silent. Kazuki didn't know about the other two's reasons for that, but he knew what his explanation was. He was a little busy taking in the fact that maybe, just maybe, he could be a normal guy for once.
How many times had he cried himself to sleep, wishing he could be like everyone else? How many times had he dreamed of going to school, having friends and doing all the other things everyone else got to do? And now there he was, with all those things being handed to him on a silver platter.
And yet…
And yet, the Sword of Damocles hung over his head. What would his classmates think of him when they learned of his story? Would they be as friendly? Would they turn away from him? Would they condemn him? He was also very aware that, should things go badly, he'd be able to feel their hate, their disgust and everything else they might feel towards him.
'I guess I'll have to enjoy it while it lasts,' Kazuki mused to himself, chuckling at a comment that Hagakure made. Or, more accurately, at the reaction it got from Mineta, the little pervert. 'Let's see if it's better to have and lose than to not have at all,' He decided.
Chapter 5
'Stupid Mineta, stupid game,' Kazuki grumbled in his own mind as he made his way to UA. He wasn't quite late per se, but he was certainly later than he'd been during the first day of class. And it was all because fucking Mineta had thought it was a good idea to introduce Kazuki to some shitty game on his phone.
And goddamnit was it addicting.
The game wasn't all that good, admittedly. It was a gacha game with rather simple gameplay that stretched quite a bit. However, the important part was that Kazuki found that playing the game was very distracting. He had a great weakness to distractions, especially those good enough to get his mind away from the negative emotions around for extended periods of time.
So, he might have played the game for longer than he should have, especially since he wasn't even getting anything out of playing except his time being wasted. 'I regret nothing though,' he thought to himself, taking a deep breath in and slowing down as he got closer to the school. It had been a great night, even if he hadn't slept for as long as he should have.
Now though, classes were going to suck, he just knew it.
A spike of fear got his attention for a second though. Turning to the side, he saw where it had come from and Kazuki could see… 'Oh, fuck you too,' he growled in his mind, but otherwise just continued walking. The child's mother, meanwhile, put a hand on his shoulder and moved him along. There were no words of how it was rude to stare like that or anything. They just went on with their lives.
And Kazuki was supposed to do the same, with such a clear reminder that his looks were disturbing for people. How fair was it? There were people with all sorts of hair colors and eyes. Hell, there were people that looked like outright monsters out there. However, there was somethingabout his white hair, red eyes and black sclera. There was something about the dark gray veins on his pale skin that really spooked people.
Probably uncanny valley stuff, someone he met at juvie had told him back in the day. He looked very human, but not human enough. In a way, it'd been better if he looked lesshuman instead of how he did. 'Focus, Kazuki, don't let a child ruin your day,' he told himself. It was a lost battle already, but it was better to try and improve his mood than just continue brooding.
"Creepy, my man!" Mineta greeted him once he entered the room. Kazuki didn't focus on that though, instead grimacing as he felt a particularly sharp spike of nervousness in the room. His eyes immediately darted to the side and found Midoriya. Had he scared the little guy for some reason? "How far did you get in the game? You were still online when I got off."
"I mean, I got another ten pulls before I decided that maybe I should sleep," Kazuki replied wearily as he continued walking and took his seat.
"No wonder, that must have taken you, what, an hour after I left?" Mineta asked, looking like he was trying to do the math in his mind. For his part, Kazuki just shrugged. He wasn't very sure himself, since he hadn't seen when he'd gone offline. "Anyway, didn't expect you to like it so much. What with the… er… furry looking characters," the short guy continued, growing a little nervous as he got to the last part.
"Humans with animal traits and anthropomorphic animal characters aren't bad, man," Kazuki replied, leaning down on the desk as he felt sleep come back to annoying him. Fortunately – or unfortunately, depending on who one asked – there were Midoriya and Bakugou there to keep his ass pumped full of nervousness and anger. He'd have preferred to fall asleep, honestly. "It's when people get a little too into that that it gets weird… to say the least," he added. He would know, there was one particular weirdo like that in juvie. It'd been an awkward experience for everyone involved.
Especially for the guy with an animal mutation quirk.
"Ah, yeah, that makes sense."
"What are you talking about?"
"Ah!" Mineta exclaimed, jumping as the new voice came from right next to them. Kazuki himself had been quite caught off guard too, but his sleepiness had numbed down the reaction. Turning to the side, now more awake, he saw a school uniform floating in the air.
"Ah, Bubbly, how's it going? Just got here?" Kazuki asked, blinking his weariness away and leaning back on his seat. He honestly hadn't looked around much when he'd arrived.
"I've been here for a while, Creepy. You're the last one to arrive," the girl informed him, to which he double checked looking around. She was right, it seemed. Well, at least he wasn't late. Now, he couldn't imagine that would go well with the school staff.
"Did I miss anything fun?"
"Well, Tiny here," she started, signaling towards Mineta who was just then recovering from the scare. In fairness to him, Hagakure had also been closer to him than to Kazuki. "Was trying to get Pointy to join your phone game thingy. Wasn't very successful, sadly. I was listening though and I might give it a try."
"Seriously?" Mineta asked, eyes wide as if he couldn't believe he'd heard that right. Maybe he hadn't expected one of the girls to take an interest in gaming?
"Yeah, the art is pretty neat," Hagakure answered, placing her hands behind her back and leaning her body forward. "Must not be so bad if you two are into it?"
"It's a nice distraction… Maybe a little too good a distraction," Kazuki replied with a wry smile. "I played a little too much last night."
Before any more talk could be had, their teacher went through the door.
[}-o-{]
Second day of classes was… almost normal, or what Kazuki guessed passed for normal. It'd been a while since he'd actually had classes, at a school that is. The rest of his classmates seemed to find those exceedingly boring, and he got it, but Kazuki still found them to be oddly nice.
It was the kind of normalcy that he'd missed while in juvie. It was the kind of thing one complained about all the time until they experienced worse stuff. The saying was actually so very true. One really didn't know what they had until they lost it. Not that he'd really hated school at any point in his life.
After all, the more boring the class was, the better for him, really. After all, if the students were falling asleep, then they weren't feeling particularly bad in any way. Granted, sometimes there was a bit of annoyance or a bit of nerves sprinkled here and there, but nowhere near as much as other times, that was for sure. So, yeah, Kazuki would take a boring class any day of the week.
Not that he thought the classes were that bad. Present Mic teaching English was pretty good and entertaining, really. Modern Literature could be a fairly interesting subject by itself, really, and Cementoss wasn't too bad to have with it. Kazuki had a difficult time getting into the stories with his extra sense sometimes, but he'd managed to push those aside to read sometimes and he'd enjoyed it. As for Math with Ectoplasm… Well, everyone had a subject they liked less, he guessed. Still, even if he hated the subject, he didn't do too badly in it, so that was the silver lining on that front.
"Ah, thanks for that," Kirishima replied after Kazuki helped him simplify an exercise.
"You should still learn the way the teacher taught it, man," he warned more than advised. "I mean, my way works, but it might not in certain situations, really. And I don't know if Ectoplasm will be ok with you doing that either."
"Yeah, but thanks. At least I have a way to check if I did things right," the redhaired teenager replied with a big grin, smacking Kazuki on the back. "Thanks for that, Creepy, I think you'll be a life saver in Math."
"Which is great, because it's quite possibly my worst subject," Ashido commented, grimacing like she could already feel the trouble coming her way. Kazuki could tell it was a joke, for the most part. He could feel the slightest bit of nervousness but it was minimal, really. Might as well have been nothing.
"Why am I suddenly seeing a whole lot of tutoring in my future?" Kazuki mumbled as they walked towards the cafeteria.
"Having been in Pinky's class and all… Yeah, that's probably the right of it, man," Kirishima said, grinning like he was just casually commenting how nice the weather was. Kazuki, for his part, groaned. Tutoring suckedbecause it usually drew more frustration and annoyance from a person than normal classes did. With any luck, things wouldn't be that bad with his new friends. "That's not the most important thing at the moment though," Kirishima added.
"Right, we'll be having our first Foundational Hero Studies class after lunch and I already can't wait," Ashido joined in, grinning widely and practically skipping forward instead of walking. "What do you think we should do? Do you think we'll have a boring introductory class or we'll jump right to it?"
"God knows I hope for the latter," Kirishima replied to that, looking almost dreamily up in the air as if he could picture what the class would be like already. Precisely what he was imagining, Kazuki had no idea, but he could guess it probably wasn't very realistic. If he had to bet, he'd say the former idea was more accurate, even if it'd dash his new friends' hopes.
"Can't be worse than Modern Literature, ugh, I'm gonna have a hard time with that one," Hagakure grumbled from the side then. She hadn't quite gotten over that class yet, it seemed.
"I'm really hoping it won't be too… physical, honestly," Mineta mumbled, suddenly looking and feeling nervous.
"I'm sure you'll be fine, Tiny," Kazuki reassured with a slight grin. "I mean, it's the first class of the first year. How hard could it be?"
"Man, you don't know you don't have to say that? It's bad luck. Now you've jinxed it!" Mineta lamented loudly.
"Oh, my bad," Kazuki apologized with a grin that belied his true feelings.
"Why am I friends with you, Creepy?"
"Because I'm the only one that puts up with you?" Kazuki offered. "God knows it's not for my looks, right?" he added with chuckle as he ran his fingers through his white hair. He really hoped the true self-deprecation there hadn't shown as much as he thought it did a moment after saying that.
"What do you mean? You don't look bad," Hagakure asked, sounding confused and looking – as much as the invisible girl could look anything at all – like she was looking at him up and down.
"Yeah. Besides, you've got nice eyes, Creepy," Ashido said, jokingly batting her eyes at him. He knew what she was doing though. After all, she did have eyes very similar to his.
"If you say so, girls," he replied, shrugging before Kirishima pushed the door to the cafeteria open. Instantly, one of Kazuki's fears vanished into thin air. The part he'd been looking forward the least was eating lunch at the cafeteria, after all. He didn't think it'd be as bad as it was at juvie, but he hadn't expected it to be good.
Which was a mistake, because Lunch Rush – the hero in charge of preparing the food for them – was, in his humble opinion, pretty goddamn good. That one was probably the best meal Kazuki had had, ever, which was a statement that didn't quite do the food justice, really. He wasn't up to thinking too much about compliments for the meal though, because he and his mind were a bit too preoccupied eatingit.
That is, until something interrupted him.
Or, someone, to be precise.
"Ah, Endo, could- Uh, could I speak with you for, uh, for a bit?" Midoriya stammered from next to him, drawing his red eyes away from the food. With his mind no longer focused on the heavenly taste, he was suddenly back to sensing the emotions around, which weren't too bad. Lunch was certainly a good moment for the student body's general mood.
Except for the boy in front of him, that is.
"Uh, sure?"
[}-o-{]
[Midoriya Izuku]
To say he was nervous was a bit of an understatement, but he was doing his best to tone it down. After all, the person he wanted to talk about could feel his nervousness, as he now knew and that probably didn't feel too well. Unfortunately, Izuku had never been good at calming down.
"Relax, Midoriya. I'm not gonna eat you or anything," Endo reassured him, which only made him gulp. At that, and probably the fear he felt for a moment there, the white-haired boy narrowed his eyes. "Is something the matter?"
"I, uh, I wanted to talk with you about… Well, what I mean to say is that, er, I looked up some stuff after you spoke to me… And, I guess, I wanted… I mean I…" Midoriya mumbled, unsure of how to even express what he wanted to. "I found some old news and…" That was clearly not the right thing to say, because Endo stiffened instantly.
"And you found me," he finished, a bitter smile on his face. "Want to know what a villain is doing in hero school? Is that what this is?"
"I-That's not it," Midoriya waved his hands wildly in front of him, because it really wasn't that. He'd just found those news and being reminded of them had made Endo's creatures… Well, a lot more telling than before. "I just wanted to talk, I mean, not sure about what, but I felt like-"
"Like speaking to the criminal that caused the Black Rampage Incident, right? See how messed up I truly am and if I'm safe to be around or something?" Endo asked, his expression going from bitter to annoyed really fast.
"That's not it either!" Midoriya exclaimed, feeling like the conversation was already getting far, far away from him.
"I can feel your fear, Midoriya, there's no need to lie," Endo accused before taking a deep breath in. "I'm guessing you'll go to the staff? They already know about me. They brought me here. Although, they probably will put some more pressure and regulations on me, which I'm guessing isn't the expulsion you probably wanted but-"
"Endo!" Midoriya all but shouted, before drawing into himself and looking around the empty hallway they were standing on. "I, I mean…"
"Huh, didn't know you had it in you," the red-eyed boy commented, seemingly caught off guard by that.
Which, if Midoriya was honest with himself, same.
"I… I didn't want to accuse you of anything," the green-haired boy mumbled, fidgeting with his hands and looking anywhere but at his fellow student. "Or insult you, or anything like that. I'm not afraid of you or anything either. I just… Well, I'm usually very nervous and er… kind of a coward, really… But, um, what I'm trying to say is…"
"Yeah?" Endo urged, not impatient but curious now, it seemed. Tilting his head, the boy gave Midoriya his full attention. Which honestly made the whole situation even more nerve wracking. "You are a mess, dude. Honestly, maybe you need therapy for that or something."
"I… Maybe… Yeah…" Midoriya whispered, his voice growing lower and lower. He wasn't wrong about that, really. And he wanted to be a hero when he had problems speaking to someone? He wanted to be like All Might like that? It was-
"Man, relax, will you?" Endo told him with a sigh, running his fingers through his hair. "Look, I don't like talking about it, but I went to therapy myself… Still go sometimes when I feel like I need to. Going there doesn't mean you are broken or something. Just that you need help with something, like going to the doctor, for example. I think everyone could do with a little bit of therapy, honestly," his fellow student explained, awkwardly bringing a hand to his neck and massaging it.
"I… I'll keep that in mind," Midoriya mumbled, even though it still felt like a failure to him.
"Anyway, if you don't want to… do any of that," Endo commented, waving a hand in the air vaguely. "Then what did you want?"
"I… I think it was a tragedy, what happened…" Midoriya started, taking a deep breath in to try and steel his resolve. "But it wasn't your fault," he added, drawing a blink from the other boy. "I like Quirks, a lot, so I probably know a bit more than the average person. And, um, many Quirks can catch, you know, people off guard and cause trouble… It was just unlucky that you, I mean, er, that yours went a little further than that, is what I'm trying to say."
Midoriya wasn't sure, but he had the feeling that he'd screwed up somewhere in his speech. Besides the stuttering and mumbling, that is. Endo didn't look to be angry or annoyed though, so he took that as a win. Although, to be honest, the boy didn't show much on his face at that very moment.
"I… appreciate that, Midoriya," was the answer he got eventually. It wasn't like he'd been expecting a particular response to that, but it still felt sort of… lacking. Probably due to the somewhat flat delivery Endo used.
"And, um, there was something else," Midoriya said then, further resolving himself to go through what he wanted to tell his fellow student. Because it felt like the right thing to do. Because he thought Endo needed it. And because maybe, deep down, he wanted to do what nobody had done for him. "I think you can be a hero," he told Endo, looking straight into his red and black eyes. "Em, that, that is all, really, I'll… I'll just be going," he stammered as he started walking away, his courage having fled him instantly after saying those words.
[}-o-{]
[Endo Kazuki]
"IT'S ME!" A very recognizable voice called from the classroom's door and Kazuki grimaced. 'That's where the pain was coming from? Goddamnit, what did he do before coming here?' he had to wonder as he looked at All Might, feeling like his chest had been put through a meat grinder. 'Who the fuck did he battle to feel like that?' "COMING THROUGH THE DOOR, LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!" the number one hero announced.
It wasn't a very normal way to enter a room, but Kazuki was honestly too awed by the fact that the man looked perfectly fine. Weird, sure, but he still looked fine. One couldn't know about All Might and not expect some level of oddity, really. It was part of his charm, making him more human, and thus relatable. Or so the analysis that Kazuki had read said. The important part right then and there was that the man was ignoring the rather astonishing amount of pain and acting like nothing was wrong.
It was honestly a little humbling, considering that Kazuki certainly wouldn't be fine through the man's class putting up with that. Granted, he had that on top of other stuff, but still. 'Listen to the man, Kazuki,' he reminded himself. 'Focus on other things…'
"LET'S JUMP RIGHT IN WITH THIS," All Might exclaimed, taking some sort of card from his pouch and dramatically turning it towards them. "THE TRIAL OF BATTLE!" he announced, making Kazuki's eyes widen.
'Well, so much for starting off calmly, huh? Then again, All Might is quite intense, so I guess that's on me,' the boy thought wryly. Still, the idea of letting loose a bit was tempting. He'd been keeping his negativity levels under control by creating Nevermores at his place and such, but that wasn't the same as creating actual creatures and actually using them. His power didn't like being contained, even if it could be.
So, it was a slightly giddy Kazuki that took the box his costume was in and made his way to the changing rooms for the exercise. He'd had a hard time thinking about what he wanted to look like as a hero. After all, there wasn't much he could do to look friendly, which was what he'd prefer. He also didn't want to look scary, which he knew was a theme some heroes embraced.
It was neat for them, but he'd feel the fear of any civilians that came across him and he'd rather not. It probably was an inevitable thing, but he'd prefer not to encourage such reactions. Thus, Kazuki had tried to go for a more neutral look if possible. He wasn't sure how good a job he'd done when writing down his ideas for the suit, but with some luck it wouldn't be awful.
His fate was on whoever had made his costume's hands, really. He wasn't an expert on the subject, so he'd done his best to ask for general ideas vague enough that someone with a better idea of things could fill the blanks. Or so he hoped, if he was unlucky, he might have gotten something else due to being too vague, really. 'Good thing costumes can change,' he thought to himself, since many heroes changed costumes throughout their career, let alone in school.
Still, he'd prefer not to be overly embarrassed by a crappy costume, if possible.
With those slight worries in mind, he started taking out his costume from the box and putting it on. First were the baggy pants he found that he had no problem with. Those would be nice and comfortable to move around, at least. That was followed by a pair of metal knee pads and black boots with metallic shines here and there, belying the fact that they were quite protective.
They were also a little on the heavy side, but Kazuki guessed he'd have to get used to that. The protection would come at a price, he supposed, and the boots and knee pads would be useful if he developed a fighting style with kicks. That was something he might do, depending on the chances he was given through his education.
After that came the upper part of his costume, with a tight black tank top that had the one thing he'd specified. On the middle of the chest, there was a silver-colored seven-pointed star. The costume maker had apparently taken the liberty of extending the ends of the star into lines that went on for as long as the piece of clothing allowed, but Kazuki wasn't overly troubled by that. After that, there were the metallic elbow pads and a pair of black fingerless gloves with metallic knuckles.
Once he was finished, Kazuki stood there, looking at the empty box. He'd debated using a mask of some kind, trying to help his case and looking a little better for the people. That would be almost like he was lying to people, however, presenting a picture that wasn't him. Kazuki knew who he was, and he may not like it, but he couldn't change it. So… all he could do was stand tall and try to be proud of himself.
It was fine if people hated him. It was fine if he was the very last hero in the rankings. If he could save enough people to make up for the lives he'd taken, if he could help one child avoid ending up like him…
Then Kazuki would be happy.
"I think you can be a hero," he remembered. Words of encouragement from the last person he'd expected and yet… They were just the words he needed to hear. Nezu had given him the chance, yes, but he'd never outright said that he thought Kazuki could be a hero. Maybe the man was taking a gamble, maybe it was a political move, maybe… any number of other things. But Midoriya, he was different. Because if one person truly believed he could be a hero then… Then maybe he could do it.
Kazuki would certainly try.
Chapter 6
"The fuck are you wearing, Tiny?" Kazuki asked, giving his first friend an unimpressed expression. Well, an argument could be made regarding Bubbly, but the point stood. "Why does your costume have diapers? I know you are kind of a coward, but still, man."
"It's a bowl," Mineta growled at him, eye twitching. "It's bowl, and my hair is the grapes, don't you get it?"
"I mean, after you say it…" Pinky muttered under her breath, walking around the short guy, looking him up and down. "I can sort of see it?"
"Thank y-"
"Everyone will think it's a diaper though, at least at first," Ashido added, making the poor guy deflate. In their defense… What did he expect? His design and the idea behind it seemed to be a bit too convoluted. Or maybe it was just them that didn't get it?
"I think it'd be better if you changed it, man. You are already short and look kinda silly, you kinda need to bring your image up, you know?" Kazuki suggested, getting a sigh.
"No mercy even for friends, huh? As ugly on the inside as you are on the outside, Creepy," Mineta grumbled, making Kazuki smile wryly. That kind of stung, but… It was fair. He hadn't precisely sugarcoated his own words and it might have stung for his friend too.
"Hey, he's not ugly," Bubbly argued, making them turn towards her. "And there's nothing wrong with a cute design… Although, yeah, I agree with them, Tiny."
"Is she…?" Mineta asked, blinking at the invisible girl.
"Please tell me you're using something to cover yourself. Some kind of invisible cloth or something," Kazuki asked, because he knew that she'd gone kind of… naked during the exams, but surely that was because she had nothing to use, right? They had equipment and such here, surely…
"Well, I mean…" the girl mumbled, poking the fingers of her gloves together. "I got a message that they are working on something like that but for now… Yeah…"
"No way…" Tiny breathed out, looking like he was trying to unlock some kind of second Quirk that'd let him see through Hagakure's invisibility. "Am I dreaming, Creepy?"
"No, you are not, but are looking kinda stupid right now, Tiny," Kazuki commented, giving his friend an unimpressed expression. "I think you might need some fixing, or something. Pointy, you think you could help with that?"
"Bubbly?"
"Please?"
"Sure thing, then," Kirishima said, grinning as he pulled back his arm. A second later, a merciless slap was delivered to the back of Mineta's head, sending his purple, sphere-covered head straight to the ground. Fortunately, he was careful to avoid the balls on his head, otherwise things might have been slightly awkward. "Sorry, bro, but you were kinda out of it."
"You guys suck. What kind of friends are you?" the short boy asked them, glaring as he stood back up, rubbing his head. "Seriously, the fuck is wrong with you?"
"I don't know, but we are your friends, so…" Kazuki commented, giving his friend a shrug.
"Fair enough… Asshole…" Tiny muttered under his breath.
"Everyone looks cool," Ashido said, seemingly scanning the rest of their class in their costumes. "We do good work, huh?"
"Most of us, at least," Kazuki replied with a grin.
"I get it already, damnit," Mineta said, kicking the white-haired teenager on the shin. "Show off."
"Eh, honestly, I'm just happy you guys think I look decent enough. I was kinda nervous. Not sure I have much sense of style," Kazuki admitted, bringing a hand up to massage the back of his neck. "But yeah, everyone looks pretty good."
"Being in the hero course is great," Mineta mumbled, looking around more attentively and seemingly having forgotten about the whole previous part of the conversation. Kazuki, for his part, traded a look with Kirishima, who gave him a grin and a shrug.
"I mean, you are not wrong," Kazuki admitted, rolling his eyes at the wide-eyed look his short friend sent his way. "But you don't have to make it so obvious, man. I'm the one that's supposed to be creepy, you know?"
"I mean, have you looked at them? How am I supposed to not admire the view?" Mineta asked, waving his arms in their classmates' direction. Kazuki grimaced then, picking up on the uncomfortable and embarrassed feelings coming from their female counterparts.
"By looking and being discreet. Dammit, man, now they are feeling bad. That's not cool, man. Pointy, if you would?" Kazuki said, giving his short friend a bit of a glare.
"With pleasure," Kirishima said, bonking Mineta over the head with a hardened fist. Kazuki felt the pain too, but he was much better equipped to ignore that, fortunately.
"You guys suck."
"And you are a pervert," Kazuki said, rolling his eyes. "Now, get a hold of yourself, will you? Our classmates are hot, deal with it."
"Why, thank you, Creepy, the compliment is appreciated," Ashido commented, having followed the whole conversation from start to finish. Fortunately, she didn't seem to be overly insulted or anything. Kazuki had barely picked up on some unease when Mineta had been staring, actually, which was a lot less than he could say about the rest of their classmates.
"Just calling things as I see them, Pinky," Kazuki replied with a shrug. "Is that Midoriya?" he asked then, as the boy appeared last towards the training area. "Isn't his costume kind of…"
"Yeah," Hagakure agreed, tapping her finger against her… Jaw? Lips? It was difficult to tell, for obvious reasons. "Maybe he commissioned it himself from somewhere else?" she theorized.
"True enough but… Why not use UA's Support Course students when they are just… there and have good reason to do a good job?" Kazuki asked, drawing a shrug from the girl… he thought. 'Really makes it difficult to tell things, what with her invisibility being… augmented as it were,' he thought wryly.
"Well, look on the bright side, Tiny," Ashido said, sounding amused. "You're not the only one that will have to change their outfit sooner rather than later."
"You aren't gonna stop with those comments, are you?" Mineta asked, sighing despondently.
"Nope," they all replied, Kirishima even chuckling, for good measure.
[}-o-{]
"Kazuki Endo," he introduced himself to his partner for the Trial of Battle that All Might was setting up.
"Denki Kaminari," said the blonde boy with a streak of black in the shape of a lightning bolt. The teenager took the hand Kazuki offered and shook it with a grin on his face. 'Well, he seems friendly enough,' the white-haired boy thought to himself. "Let's do our best, yeah?"
"Yeah," he agreed with his exercise partner. "Do you mind if I ask you what you can do? I don't remember from the Quirk Assessment," he asked with an awkward expression.
"My Quirk is Electrification, I can discharge electricity from my body," the blond said with a confident grin and a thumbs up. "Although, uh, using too much electricity kind of… takes me out of the fight," he added and Kazuki could feel his slight embarrassment at admitting that. "You could make… creatures, right?"
"Yeah, I can make and control three of them but I can only summon one at a time," Kazuki explained, looking around to see the other groups talking between themselves too. Well, most of them, at least. "I can also sense negative emotions, like anger, or nerves, or such."
"Woah, that sounds cool," Kaminari commented, slightly wide-eyed before he frowned. "What does one have to do with the other though?"
"Well, I kind of use the negative emotions thing to fuel the creature creation part, if that makes sense," Kazuki replied with a slight shrug. Even he himself wasn't too sure how it worked, only that it worked. Nobody had been too keen on him using his Quirk much before, especially so after they'd found out that he had it more or less under control. Everyone seemed happy forgetting it – and him too – were even there.
"I guess it does… a bit, at least," Kaminari nodded. "Well, I think our chances are good, man. Our Quirks are good."
"They are," Kazuki agreed… somewhat. He was a little reticent in calling his Quirk "good" but it was certainly useful in the right situations, like it was the case at that moment. "So, if we are villains, I guess you can stay by the… bomb, was it? And shock anyone that comes near it. That's as much as I got, honestly."
"Works for me, man," Kaminari commented with a chuckle. "We can wing it from there."
"Good, then-" Kazuki started, only to get interrupted by All Might's voice.
"THE FIRST VILLAIN TEAM IS…" the hero called out, sticking his hand in a box and bringing it out. "GROUP D!"
"Man, the first two to go, huh?" Kaminari mumbled from next to him, and Kazuki could both feel and relate with his nerves. Being the first ones to go could be either a good thing or a bad thing.
"AS FOR THE FIRST HERO TEAM…" All Might continued, unaware of their unease. "GROUP F!"
'Hagakure and Midoriya,' Kazuki identified, glancing towards the group that would go against them. It wasn't a difficult thing, not only was Midoriya basically a beacon to his senses, but he seemed to be especially nervous. Not that the pseudo-empath blamed him in this case, considering who his partner was and what her… "costume" was. Poor guy was red from head to toe, or so Kazuki assumed from what he could sense.
"So, invisible girl and normal dude that can break his bones to get a power up," Kaminari commented, frowning a bit. "I don't want to sound mean, but I think we can take them. You can find Hagakure, right?"
"I should be able to. Even if she hides in my sensing blind spot, my creatures should be able to smell her out," Kazuki muttered, already deciding to create at least one Beowolf. Maybe two and a Nevermore for air coverage, he supposed would be the right call in this case. He could make an Imp and give him the Capture Tape too though…
"Then we've got this, just gotta be careful with Midoriya," Kaminari commented confidently.
"PLEASE, MOVE TO YOUR STARTING POSITIONS AND GET SETTLED WHILE THE REST OF THE CLASS AND ME GO TO THE MONITOR ROOM!"
Moving to where they needed to be took both longer and less than Kazuki expected. Before he even realized it, Kaminari and him had a make-believe nuclear weapon to position somewhere within a tall fake building that would be their playground for the exercise. They had a good minute before the exercise started but neither of them said anything.
"Ok, better get started," Kazuki said then, drawing his partner's attention. It was both annoying and a little relieving to know that he had more than enough negativity to create his Grimm. Midoriya had enough nerves and embarrassment for that, quite honestly, and even if he didn't, Bakugo and Todoroki certainly would have made up for that loss. Nevermind the almost overwhelming amount of pain that came from All Might.
Kazuki was still having some trouble powering through that last one…
His shadow darkened and extended in front of him and, soon enough, a Beowolf stood right there.
"Man, that's… intimidating," Kaminari commented, his face showing a lot less fear than he was feeling. To his credit though, it still was a lot less than Kazuki imagined others would feel when seeing a monster made of darkness with what seemed to be a bone mask. "You sure it'll be able to smell Hagakure?" the other hero-to-be asked.
"Unless she has some way to mask her scent, it should," Kazuki reassured with a wave of his hand as he prepared to create a Nevermore. It didn't take long, but it was better to take his time. There was no rush and-
"START!" All Might's voice announced and Kazuki nodded, the person-sized corvid finishing its appearance a second later.
"This one will keep an eye for us outside, just in case," Kazuki said before pursing his lips. "What do you think I should make the third one, another Beowolf," he started, waving towards the aforementioned werewolf-like creature. "Or a more humanoid one?"
"Hmm… I mean, we have plenty human between the two of us, don't you think?" Kaminari replied hesitantly. "Although, I'm not much of a fighter but-"
"But if we want to fight, the Beowolf's better for that," Kazuki finished, getting a nervous "yeah, that" in response that made it obvious that wasn't quite where his partner was going. Still, that was good enough reasoning for him. "I'm not much of a fighter either, but I'm pretty sure neither is Hagakure. Midoriya had good scores even without using his Quirk in the assessment which tells me he's no slouch on the physical department."
"Paid more attention to him, huh?" Kaminari asked, drawing a wry grin from Kazuki.
"Kinda difficult not to, when he broke his finger and I could feel his pain," he answered, making his partner grimace.
"Ouch, fair enough," the boy replied with a nod. Then he looked towards the entrance to the door of the room they'd set the fake nuclear weapon at. Or, more specifically, he watched Kazuki's Grimm leave through the door. Except for the Nevermore, which flew out of a window. "Feels too easy, don't you think?"
"You're not wrong," Kazuki said with an uneasy grimace. "Let's keep our guards up, yeah? I don't want to lose because I was overconfident," he added, taking a deep breath in as he tried to follow his creatures movement and what they did. It was weird, as usual, but he could get a sense of what they were doing. Not really sense through them, but he knew if they found something or if they were just moving or anything else.
Back to his partner and the conversation, he really didn't want to fail in class. Everyone else might get a bad grade and that would be all, but Kazuki… Kazuki might lose his chance and be sent straight back to juvie. Maybe it was exaggerated and dramatic to think like that but… He couldn't risk that. Not right then and there, when his resolution to be a hero was solidifying.
"Sure, man, I don't want to look like an idiot either," Kaminari said, scratching the back of his head. "I already do that enough whenever I overuse my Quirk."
"That what you meant when you said it takes you out of the fight?" Kazuki asked, blinking at his partner.
"Yeah, it kind of… fries my brain, you could say. It's not as bad as it sounds but… Yeah," Kaminari explained, clearly embarrassed by admitting that. Enough that Kazuki could have been able to tell even without feeling that himself.
"Better try not to overuse it unless you need to then," Kazuki commented, still looking for the "heroes" with his Grimm and finding nothing. He was starting to get nervous, honestly.
"Yeah, I kind of want to meet up with the support course. I added a request for some things but they gave me this," Kaminari said, gesturing towards the ear-piece of his costume. "For communication and told me they'd need to have more information for anything else."
"Makes sense."
"Anything useful in those pouc-"
"I found Midoriya," Kazuki interrupted, his head turning sharply as he followed his Beowolf's senses. Not that it was a very difficult thing to do, finding the nervous wreck of a boy. However, knowing his general location was a lot more different than actually having himself or one of his creations see him. "He's a few floors beneath us," he added, getting a nod from his partner but he wasn't paying too much attention to that. Instead, he focused on his creation, trying to see how best to control it to make it win the fight against the green-haired boy. "Huh?"
"What's up?" Kaminari asked, focusing his attention on Kazuki. Probably since he was the only source of information he had, really.
"He's using his Quirk, I think, but he's not breaking-Ouch," he answered, grimacing as a shot of pain coursed through his arms. "Ok, he's got more control but that hurts a lot," he muttered through gritted teeth. 'As if All Might wasn't enough,' he grumbled internally. "He took out my Grimm though," he added, his shadow extending to create another monster of shadows. "He didn't break his arm but that hurt too much for him to just shrug it off… Or maybe not," he related, feeling Midoriya fighting his second Beowolf as the one he just created moved out of the room. "I found Hagakure."
"Really?" Kaminari asked, blinking at him.
"She got nervous," he answered with a slight smirk. "I don't know how she got there, but she's on the floor below us. Let me just…" he mumbled, dismissing his Nervermore and starting to create a third Beowolf.
"I can cover the entrance, man. Just tell me if she gets close," Kaminari told him, already moving towards the doorway. "I gotta do something or I'll look bad, right?"
"Guess that's fair," Kazuki agreed, only then realizing that if he did all the work, then that might negatively affect his partner's grade or something. Besides, it didn't sound like the worst idea ever, to let Kaminari stand guard at the door and shock the invisible girl if she got close. Kazuki and his Beowolf could be the last line of defense if it came to it. "She calmed down a little for now- She's down the hall," he informed, correcting himself mid sentence.
"We know you are there, Hagakure," Kaminari said to the empty corridor in front of him. "And Midoriya is basically out, fighting Endo's monsters. It's over."
"That's what you think, villain," the invisible girl replied from… somewhere. 'Guess she's getting in character, huh?'Kazuki thought, somewhat amused. If the idea didn't make him uncomfortable, he guessed he'd have been good for that kind of thing, considering he was supposed to be a villain.
He didn't need to add that kind of thing to his reputation though.
"She's right there, Kaminari," Kazuki informed his partner, his Beowolf stalking towards the entrance, just in case. He was fairly sure it was unnecessary though, because Kaminari was doing a good job of keeping the door covered as best he could, so that Hagakure couldn't find a free spot to squeeze through. It did make him look kind of silly, since he had to move his arms and legs around erratically, but it was effective all the same.
Kazuki's attention was pulled then when he felt another spike of pain and his second Beowolf was forcefully vanished. 'Fuck, that did break his arm,' he thought, grimacing as he held onto his own left arm. There was still the third creature he'd sent before but still… 'God, I'm gonna have to have another talk with Midoriya, won't I?'
Still, he pulled on all that pain to create yet another Beowolf.
As the creature of darkness was born though, things kept going around Kazuki.
"Got you," Kaminari exclaimed, his arm extended as if it were grabbing something. Hagakure, evidently. However, things didn't quite go as he expected, Kazuki was sure. Especially then, as the invisible girl opened her mouth.
"Did you know I'm naked?" she asked and her voice almost could be passed for innocent. That is, if Kazuki weren't able to feel her embarrassment and nerves. Her little ploy worked though, because Kaminari pulled his hand away as if he'd been burned, just as embarrassed as the girl was, apparently.
That was the room Hagakure had wanted to create, immediately vanishing from Kazuki's sense. Probably out of delight that she had a chance to succeed then. A chance that was taken from her as a Beowolf's arm/paw swept to the side, hitting her and sending her to a wall, if the pain Kazuki could suddenly sense was any indication.
The other Beowolf charged at the invisible girl, finding her by scent and pressing her to the ground.
"Well, that sucks," Hagakure whined. "Wait, Creepy, you aren't being a pervert, are you?"
"Not gonna work, Bubbly. I know those are your arms… or legs, maybe-"
"Are you calling my arms fat?" the girl asked, and he felt the twinge of irritation and anger.
"Not at all, just difficult to get a real sense of things. Feeling through my Grimm is weird," he explained with a shrug, taking a deep breath in as he tried to push down the pain he was feeling from Midoriya just like he was with All Might. At the same time, he sent his second, now free Beowolf out just in case.
"Man, that was just… embarrassing," Kaminari grumbled, facepalming as his face turned red. "All I ended up doing was standing there waving my arms around and then failing because- Because… Well, that," he complained.
"If it makes you feel better, at least I think we are winning this," Kazuki commented with a wry smile.
"Only barely," the blonde muttered as he walked back towards Hagakure. "But thanks anyway."
"Don't mention it," he replied, a grin forming on his face. "So, did you at least grab something interesting?"
"Endo!"
"Creepy!"
He just laughed then, at both teenager's indignation. It was almost enough to make him forget the desperation that was suddenly filling Midoriya at the same time as pain. Pain that was only getting worse as the boy fought his Grimm. Beowolfs that he had no chance at beating, since he had a broken arm.
What was concerning was that he was still pushing his body, using his Quirk, making his legs start hurting just as much as his arm was.
"Secured," Kaminari called, having put the Capture Tape around the invisible wrists of Hagakure. "How's the fight going?"
"Nowhere, apparently, but Midoriya is basically out too. Especially now," Kazuki commented, guiding his third Beowolf down towards the fight. "If one and two Beowolfs were enough to keep Midoriya busy, this should- Fuck!"
"What?"
"He got, away," Kazuki muttered through his teeth, grabbing his right arm, where one of his fingers burned with new pain. "He broke one of his fingers, like in the Quirk Assessment," he added. "Bastard," Kazuki added. Sure, he had to get used to pain if he was going to be a hero, one way or another, but that didn't mean he had to like it. "He's coming here, I've already set a Beowolf in the way but- Ugh," he groaned. "He killed it using another finger."
"I got this," Kaminari called, having moved to the doorway once more at some point. Kazuki was glad for that if nothing else. He almost didn't want to send the remaining Beowolfs towards Midoriya if it meant the boy would continue breaking more fingers.
He wanted to lose the exercise even less though.
"Sorry, man!" Kaminari shouted, and Kazuki got a sense of frustration from him before the entrance to the room they were at was covered completely by electricity like someone had set a living lightning bolt free right then and there. 'Cool,' Kazuki thought to himself.
Because yeah, maybe Kaminari's Quirk sounded like it was kind of a one time thing, but it looked pretty great. If he got some support items to go with all that power… Well, Kazuki expected he'd make a good hero in the future. With some luck, he'd also be a good hero, which would be a nice plus.
Still, as he watched the scene, Kazuki pulled back his Beowolfs, well the remaining one, that is. Because of the two that were still there, one got pulled into Kaminari's attack. He still pulled from the negativity around to create another Grimm. This time it wasn't a Beowolf though, no.
It was an Imp.
Throwing his Capture Tape towards it, the creature caught it and started moving forward. The electricity wasn't around anymore. Instead, there was Kaminari swaying on his feet and turning towards him. Off to the side lay Midoriya, twitching on the ground before he was pressed to the ground by the Beowolf, awaiting restraining by the Imp.
"Yay~!" Kamimari muttered, giving Kazuki a thumbs up with the dumbest expression.
"Good job, Sparky," he congratulated with a grin.
"THE VILLAIN TEAM WINS!" All Might announced, making him smile even wider.