Chapter 25

"You sure it's fine for me to come here?"

"Creepy, I've told you a bunch of times," Jiro told him, rolling her eyes as she moved behind him and started pushing him. "Come on, will you? There's nothing to be worried about."

"I mean, you said your parents know," he mumbled, dragging his feet forward at the slowest of paces. "That's something to worry about."

"They don't care, Endo," the girl told him, this time in a soft tone. "It'll be fine. We are just gonna go in there, have fun listening to music and maybe I'll get you to try an instrument or two."

"Couldn't we have left this for when someone else could come? No offense, but it's.. easier to talk to people when there's a group and all," he said, trying to gulp down his nerves. It didn't quite work, unfortunately. "No offense."

"You already said that," she told him, and he could almost see her rolling her eyes again. "And it's not my fault that everyone seemed to be busy today."

And he'd lament agreeing too quickly forever. How was he to know that everyone else would be busy when Jiro offered? After that, he'd have felt bad if he tried to use a quick excuse or something.

"Come on, it's not such a chore… right?" Jiro asked him then, giving up on pushing him to go faster. That question made him grimace, not because of the words but because of the self consciousness that he felt coming from the girl. 'Great, now I'm making her feel bad. Come on, Kazuki. You are already here,' he thought with a sigh.

"I guess we might as well get it over with. And no, it's not a chore, I'm just… I'm not much of a social person," he told her, receiving a disbelieving look from her. "I know. I just… Mineta was almost a fluke. I met Hagakure when she needed help during the Entrance Exam. Yaoyorozu approached me herself and so did you… So…"

"Right… Well, this will be fine. At most, my father will try and get you to listen to his preferred music, but it should be fine. He just likes older stuff but it's still good. And he won't be offended if you don't like it," Jiro explained to him, walking beside him. "And you can try any of the instruments in the store. My father and I can play pretty much anything so we can teach you whatever."

"You are rambling a bit."

"I know," she whined at his comment, embarrassment flooding out of her. "I just… I never had friends that were that into the music I like or playing instruments, so I'm… Kind of excited, I guess. Sorry."

"Don't worry," he waved off with a grin. "It's kind of adorable, and it helps me forget that I'm really scared. What if someone recognizes me? I could give your father's store bad publicity."

"Ugh, it's fine," she repeated, giving him an exasperated look. "I asked and he was fine with it. Stop worrying."

"Easy for you to say, but… I guess it's fine," he replied with a sigh. Then his eyes widened, his walking slowly drawing to a halt.

"So… is there any instrument that you want to play?" she asked, once they reached the store, approaching the door.

"..." Kazuki didn't answer though, nor did he follow. Instead, he walked to the side, looking through one of the front windows at one of the instruments on display. It brought memories back, and as many of his, none of them were particularly good.

"You could at least put some effort into it," he heard his mother say, as if she were towering over him once more. "Just like your father, not a care in the world for art. Or maybe you are just as useless as he is."

"That's a difficult one," he heard Jiro comment softly from beside him, bringing him back to the present. He hummed, eyes still on the instrument that laid there on display. "You could still try."

"I used to play it before… Before," he told the girl. "I wasn't very good. And I didn't like it, but my mother insisted."

"You can try some others. Guitar is easy enough and everyone likes it," Jiro suggested. He'd thought about doing just that when the girl had brought up the topic but…

"... No, I want to give it another shot," he said after a long moment of silence. 'I'll be a hero, mother… I'm not useless. And I want to prove it to you,' he thought. "You think I might be too rusty? It's been a long ass time since then."

"I'm sure you'll be fine," Jiro reassured him and when he turned to look at her she was grinning at him.

"Something in mind already, huh?" a new voice called and Kazuki turned to look at the man at the door of the shop. "Not one to take the easy way, huh?"

"No, sir."

"Kyotoku Jiro, kid. You can call me whatever you want, just not sir," the man told him, walking over and extending a hand. Kazuki focused on his emotions for a moment as he took the offered limb and shook it. The man didn't seem to hold any bad emotions at the moment, which was all the reassurance he needed… for the moment, at least.

"Kazuki Endo, but kid works, I guess," he replied with a slight grin. "And yeah, I want to try picking it up again."

"Well, let's go inside and see how much you remember, yeah?" the man asked and after trading a look with Jiro, the teenager, they set out to follow Jiro, the father.

Not before Kazuki gave the violin behind the glass a last look, however.

[}-o-{]

[Momo Yaoyorozu]

"Jiro's got him," Mineta told her, eyes fixed on his phone before he placed it back in his pocket. When the boy turned to look at her, she nodded. "We can get started. The others were plenty generous."

Normally, Momo would have been against shamelessly asking other people for money. Well, normally, the idea wouldn't even occur to her, since she didn't need more money, but if it did she wouldn't have done it. This was a special case, however, so she was on board with it when her friends came up with the idea.

Still, she was thankful that Mineta had decided to do the asking and she'd been able to just… not.

"Where to first?" Mineta asked then, looking at her with, for once, clear eyes. The boy's tendencies were well known through the class and even more so in their friend group. It was something that Momo could have honestly done without, but it was what it was. At least she knew that there was more to him than just that.

The group had gotten several such glimpses of that through the time they'd known Mineta, after all. He was a loyal friend, if the way he defended Endo was any indication, especially with how he'd acted towards Ashido and Kirishima after they distanced themselves. There was also an intelligent man under all those perverted thoughts. And those were just two aspects. If one paid attention, they'd see much more than just a pervert, even if Mineta didn't really do himself any favors.

"Well, you think we have enough for a decent aquarium?" she asked.

Because they were on a mission.

Of sorts, at least.

The two of them – well, four of them, really, but Hagakure was actually busy and Jiro was keeping Endo entertained – had set out with the objective of getting some stuff for their friend. Endo had, after all, been a good friend for them. Furthermore, he'd gone out of his way to help them during the USJ fiasco.

He hadn't told them in as many words, but they were almost positive that sending those grimm to help them had been the start of Endo's fall during the villain attack. After all, if he sent out two of his creatures to help them, then that likely had pushed him to make more and caused his control to slip. They also knew how much Endo risked by doing such a thing, but he'd still helped them.

So, they thought doing something nice for their friend would be a good way to pay him back.

In this case, it would be helping him with things for his apartment. Momo had been there now and she hated how bare it looked. It was nothing like the ostentatious home she had, for sure, but it was something more than that. The place barely looked like someone lived there. There were no pictures, no personal things laid around, except maybe his books and notebooks on the table. If not for that and the plants out on the balcony, one would have thought the place was empty.

Momo could hardly accept one of her friends living in such a place.

"Are you sure I can't-?"

"Very sure," Mineta interrupted her with an exasperated smile. "Endo gets weird when you do nice things for him, I've noticed. It's gonna be a hard sell to make him accept a gift as it is. If you go overboard with how much money you spend, it'll make things worse."

Some might be surprised to learn that it wasn't a new experience for Momo, to be presented with a problem that money couldn't solve. Money hadn't been able to buy her friends, after all. She'd thought it might, once upon a time, but she'd soon learned that she'd only been fooling herself.

The time she'd now spent with actual friends further proved that.

"I guess I'll defer to your expertise," she replied with a nod. "So, we know what to get, don't we?" she asked then, more as a way to get them moving than anything else. She had spent more than a few hours researching the topic to be well informed before this shopping outing. She had no doubt that Mineta had done much the same.

She was proven right when the boy pulled a list from his pocket, and further so when he spoke.

"I never thought I'd spend so much time researching how to best keep fish at home," the boy commented wryly. "You think we should get other stuff other than fish? Maybe a crab or the like?" he asked then, barely fazing her. She'd wondered much the same thing when she was reading up on the topic.

"Hm, I think Endo would appreciate that, don't you?" she shot back as they started walking towards their destination. "He seems to like less conventional animals," she added. She'd learned as much from their conversations when Endo and her discussed ideas for grimm. It was more that Endo liked all animals equally, but since some of them received less attention, he seemed intent on bringing them up more. Probably why he'd gone for a boar for his more resistant grimm rather than something more obvious like a turtle or something like that.

There were many such examples in conversations they'd had together.

"Yeah, I figured as much myself. Good to have a second opinion though," Mineta replied.

As they walked, Momo pondered, once more, on the fact that Mineta seemed to be more focused than she'd ever seen him. She had noticed no attempt to look at her curves at all, which was quite the accomplishment. She must have shown her thoughts in some way, because the boy turned towards her and smiled wryly.

"No need to look so surprised… Or maybe there is, I guess," he mumbled, turning away. "I just… The USJ affected Endo a lot more than he lets on. It shook him, and he doesn't really show much, at least not unless he thinks nobody is looking."

Momo hadn't noticed anything like that, she was ashamed to realize.

"So, I want to do something for the guy," Mineta continued then, talking almost absentmindedly. "He's more or less my first friend, you know? And he's good to me so…," he added then before seemingly realizing that he might have spoken too much and shrugging.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Momo replied softly with a slight smile.

As they walked then, both of them shared a sympathetic look.

[}-o-{]

[Kazuki Endo]

"Everyone ready?" he asked, looking around the portion of the training grounds his group had reclaimed. In front of him were Mineta, Hagakure, Jiro and Yanagi. All of them nodded – or, the visible ones, at least – and he returned the gesture before letting his shadow expand to create four grimm.

He created them two by two, which pushed his control in an entirely different way. Summoning his creatures took concentration, after all. Not a whole lot, but making two was like trying to do two different things with both hands at the same time. Awkward, confusing and frustrating, which weren't good things to experience when he needed to focus on controlling his creations, that was for sure.

"Ok, we are ready then," he said, trying to keep his voice from sounding too… affected by the strain on his control. Then, Kazuki turned to regard Yaoyorozu. The girl gave him an encouraging nod to which he replied with a forced smile. Then he turned towards his friends. "We start in three, two… one, go."

And with that, his grimm charged, one at each of them. A nevermore for Mineta, who would have a harder time incapacitating it with his quirk. A beringel against Yanagi, so she would struggle to take him out with the projectiles that Yaoyorozu had provided her with. A beowolf faced Jiro, moving fast enough that she couldn't quite nail it with her attacks and forcing her to move and try to attack close quarters. And finally an imp to fight with Hagakure, since she was the most "average human" of the bunch except for her invisibility.

He was fairly interested in seeing how those matches went. It'd be a learning experience for everyone involved and Kazuki was already planning to switch which grimm he used with which person. That way, they'd get experience against different types of opponents and he'd learn how to best use his summons in a similar manner.

Kazuki was also considering extending that courtesy to other students, who he noticed were starting to look over at their group sometimes. However, he was a bit reluctant to do that. It'd bring more attention towards him, and attention meant chances of getting someone to notice who he was. He'd rather keep the peaceful atmosphere they had at the training facilities for the moment.

Granted, he was pretty sure that was just wishful thinking on his part.

"Let's go, shall we?" Yaoyorozu asked him, getting a stiff nod from him as they started moving towards the machines for a work out. He had some catching up to do, considering the week he'd been basically unable to do much of anything with his body.

He didn't speak much as they walked, but the girl beside him didn't really expect him to. Maybe once he got better with his control, he might be able to go about his day normally, but for the moment he didn't want to risk it. Better to give his full attention to the four grimm and keep his own body moving and his conscious fully aware.

Was that a little paranoid? Maybe. However, when the alternative was a chance of a Rampage, he thought being paranoid was the way to go. Better safe than sorry, especially when the lives of others were on the line.

"Aoyama wasn't here today," Yaoyorozu commented. "I talked about that with Aizawa but he said not to worry, that they were aware and working on it. Not sure what he meant though."

"Aoyama was feeling guilty about something after USJ," he replied, grimacing a little as his control over the beowolf slipped a little. Fortunately, it wasn't close to anyone at the time and he grasped at the "reigns" immediately after. "I told them and they said they'd look into it," he added, managing not to let his grimm be too independent.

"I see. Well, hopefully things go well for him. I didn't hear about anything happening to him there. Wonder if it's something he didn't tell anyone about," the girl next to him said as they reached the machines.

"You are nervous," he pointed out.

"About Aoyama? I'm a little concerned but…" she trailed off as he sent her a look from where he started his own work out next to her. "I mean, this experimenting you are doing…" That's not it either, because Kazuki is sure she'd be afraid too, on top of nervous, but she's not. There's only nerves there and a little bit of… something similar to guilt, but not quite. "It's… uh, it's a surprise," she confessed in the end, making him nod.

She seemed surprised that he left it at that, but she shouldn't have been. He knew his power was kind of… invasive, so he tried to work with some lines. If he felt like something was none of his business, then he'd leave it alone. No need to dig deep into other's lives just because he could sort of share their feelings.

Sometimes his curiosity got to him though, he'd admit.

"You were right, by the way," Yaoyorozu told him after some time. "Creating the same object repeatedly makes it easier to do so after some time. The process goes faster and more smoothly, which is good to know. I'll have to come up with a list of things that might be more "common" to make for me. That way I can perfect the process of creating those."

From there, the girl simply spoke to him about some other experiments she was trying and ideas she wanted to try in the future. He wasn't a great conversationalist at the moment, but he could at least listen well enough. He did have to pull his attention away occasionally, but overall he tried to not miss much, mostly succeeding.

Everyone was making progress, it seemed.

Kazuki wasn't sure about his own, but he could only hope.

[}-o-{]

[Katsuki Bakugo]

With his brow twitching, he looked at the gathering of people in the open area for Quirk training. More specifically though, he looked at the dark creatures that they were sparring against. Then, Katsuki turned to look at the summoner of such beasts, working out on another area altogether.

His mind, however, wasn't really focused on any of that. Instead, it was a mess of jumbled thoughts and memories. His palms clicked with miniature explosions as if they were tiny fireworks going off while he battled with the desire to punch something. Katsuki was angry, but that was nothing new to him. There was always that simmering anger at the back of his mind that told him that it was fine, that he could snap at someone, throw a few hurtful insults around, maybe blow a thing or two up.

He was better than them, after all, what did the extras matter, in the grand scheme of things?

Katsuki was better than that urge too, however. He knew he was, even if he'd lost that battle more times than he could count. He refused to just give up, he refused to let himself be the mindless bomber that some people thought him to be. He refused to be…

He refused to end up like Endo.

It would have been so easy too, so simple. He could have slipped just a little more, let his anger take just a little more control. His hand could have been just a little more to one side or another. His explosion could have been just a little stronger than usual. His… target could have been a little more fragile or worse positioned…

And then…

Katsuki's mind conjured the pictures he'd seen, the news articles he'd read regarding Endo when he started putting the pieces together. He imagined what the headlines would have said about him instead. What would they have said if he'd crippled someone? If he'd killed someone? How much damage could he have done if his parents hadn't curved his urges as best they could until he could do it himself? How much damage could he have done if he'd been just a little less lucky?

He hated that he didn't know.

He hated even more that he had a pretty good idea.

More than anything though, Katsuki hated that he knew he'd been a step, a bad day, away from being seen as a villain. All his life, they'd sung him praises. He'd been told a myriad of times that he'd make a great hero in the future. He was really strong, and he was really smart, and he was really capable, and he had a lot of potential… And yet, nobody had told him that he'd be walking on a razor's edge all his life.

It'd taken him all that time to realize that, and now, he'd crashed against the brickwall that was reality.

Katsuki didn't know how to deal with that, but he knew one thing, however. He didn't want to end up like Endo. He didn't want to have such articles written about him, have people think he was a villain when all he'd done was… mess up. He didn't want to hide away who he was from people, looking over his shoulder and cowering away from the truth.

No, Katsuki was better than that.

'Just in case though…' he mused, turning back to the training group that was fighting the Endo's monsters. More specifically, he looked at the most humanoid of the creatures. 'Maybe I can practice some…'

A louder explosion cracked over his palm in between the tiny clicks.

[}-o-{]

[Kazuki Endo]

"Any particular reason why you felt like playing the violin again?" Inui asked him curiously, folding his arms over his desk. "The way you say it, one would think you'd have avoided it."

Kazuki leaned back against his seat, looking up at the ceiling as if it would give him an answer to that very question. Because, as it was…

"I don't know, really," he said in the end, not even sure if he should feel sad or frustrated or what. "I used to like it. Practicing violin was one of the few things that I enjoyed doing, one of the things that made my days better after my Quirk first manifested… Back when other people's emotions were all I had to worry about and there were no monsters coming out of my shadows."

"Was?"

"Yeah," he answered with a bitter smile. "I enjoyed it, but not because I particularly liked playing. It was fine, but I just started because my mother wanted me to. I enjoyed it because… Well, because I thought that if I got good enough, then maybe my mother would stop hating me. Maybe if I played well enough, then she'd stop feeling so… bad whenever she was in the house, whenever she was with me."

The teacher didn't say anything after that. Kazuki wondered if that was because he didn't know what to say, what to ask, because he didn't want to push or because he thought Kazuki would talk anyway. If it was the latter, then props to him, because he was right.

"Eventually, some time before she left entirely. I had practiced like crazy in my own time, when I was alone at home. I spent months learning and perfecting a piece that my mother liked," Kazuki related, his eyes still fixed on the ceiling, but he wasn't really seeing it. Instead, he was back home, practicing until his body hurt and protested, but he persisted. He'd been a boy on a mission.

"And did you? Perfect it?"

"Yes," he said, his smile turning the slightest bit more genuine before it died a quick death. "I had it ready for a full month, but I didn't want to risk thinking that it was good and then mess up when the time came. So I waited and continued practicing. And then…"

His hand balled into a fist as he chuckled hollowly.

"And then I played for her birthday," he said flatly, closing his eyes. "I played it and she told me that she'd liked it, that she was proud."

"I think there was more to it than that," he heard his teacher comment carefully.

"She said all the right words and her face showed all the right expressions too," Kazuki continued, opening his eyes and turning to regard Inui with an empty smile. "But inside? Inside she felt worse than she ever did. Somehow, what I did made her hate me more, made her feel more frustrated and disgusted. What I did just… made things worse."

There was silence then before his teacher spoke.

"You do know that it wasn't your fault, right? If you say that you'd worked on that piece enough, I believe you. This had nothing to do with you," Inui told him.

"Yeah, I get it now," Kazuki replied with a weak nod. "I think she just wanted to hate me because I reminded her of my father, just like I reminded my father of her. They hated each other and they hated me, by extension. Me doing things to stand out from who she thought I was only made her more angry, more frustrated. I didn't understand that at the moment though. Back then, I just thought that there was no way for me to make things better."

He sighed, trying to let out the terrible feelings that remembering such times brought. It didn't work, but he knew, he knew those things were behind him. Things were different now, his future would be different. He just had to work hard enough to make it so.

"Back then, if I tried to comfort a child that felt bad, they'd just feel worse, because I scared them. If I tried to talk to my father or my mother, their emotions would spike," he explained. "I thought I was cursed. That no matter where I went and what I did… things would just get worse."

"And now you know that's not the case," Inui pointed out. "Don't you? I've heard many things about you from the rest of the staff. You are as much of a hero as any of the other students here. More so than most, some would say."

"I think I do know that," Kazuki replied with a sad smile. "But old habits die hard."

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

I'm a little unsure of this violin thing I introduced. Less so for the thing itself than for how well I'm using it. I feel like I could have handled it better. On the other hand, these little details are how characters gain that little more life, so I decided to keep it and just hope for the best, I guess.

Also, the group is being sneaky about being good friends. How dare they?!

There's some more training too, some talking, business as usual. And if you noticed the other thing, then kudos to you. I'm not gonna mention it here.

Then there's Bakugo, who… Ok, full disclosure, guys. I don't like Bakugo. I stopped reading MHA's manga before he was giving his "redemption" and I didn't like him then. Now, after consuming MHA fanfics, I'm even less inclined to like him. Which I know is silly, but that's how it is.

Despite that though, I want to try and not let my biases affect the story. So I'm going to try and do what I did with Mineta, which is giving him a chance. Not sure how close to his character I'll stay, because, as I've made no secret while talking about this story in Discord, I don't know as much about MHA as I probably need to to write a good story for it but… Well, I'm going to try, is what I'm saying. Here's hoping I do a decent job at it.

Anyway, with all that random babbling done, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

As always, if you can't wait until next week for next chapter, or if you just feel like supporting my writing, there's up to three new chapters in my Pa tre on:

P a treon . com (slash) AdrianKing

Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: What's the last take out meal you bought? I had, er… Empanadas, not sure if there's a word in English for them.

See you.