Chapter 31

"It'll be fine, Creepy," Hagakure reassured, patting him on the back. Kazuki wasn't quite that sure, but he didn't think that pointing that out would mean much. Instead, he just rubbed his hands on his face to try and calm himself down.

"I know," he decided to say instead. "I just… it's been a while, and I don't know how he'll react to me… To who I am right now," he admitted, deflating where he sat.

"The way I see it, if he doesn't like you anymore as you are, then he's not a friend anymore," Mineta commented, shrugging. "People change, maybe he was great before and all, but you are great right now, Endo. Things are going well for you. If he can't be happy for you…"

"Mineta's not wrong," Yaoyorozu agreed with a nod. "You both had bad experiences with heroes and society. If he can't let go of his resentment, then that's his problem, not yours. You are a good person, Endo, and he should be able to see that regardless of what you do or what your life is now."

"You are right," he conceded, pursing his lips. Even if they were right though, that didn't mean he had to like the idea of someone he'd considered a friend of sorts abandoning him, maybe even despising him.

"If things go wrong," Jiro started, drawing his eyes towards her. "Then we'll be here. You have friends now," she reminded him, to which he nodded. "I know losing someone sucks, I do. It'll probably suck more for you, I'm guessing, but it's not the end of the world. We'll be here."

"Yeah, that… that actually means a lot, thanks," Kazuki replied, this time with an uneasy smile. "Can we talk about something else though? I feel like I'm hogging all the attention."

"That's because you are," Mineta pointed out, only to receive a smack from Yaoyorozu. The girl seemed to be doing that almost out of reflex by that point. "Rude," the boy grumbled, rubbing his arm. "Anyway, I had some ideas I wanted to try with my quirk today. Like, attaching the beads to rope to make a net or something like that. Or maybe sticking them together to form a shield, kind of like your Grimm Guard."

"That sounds good, yeah," Kazuki commented, blinking.

"No need to look so surprised," Mineta muttered, giving him an unimpressed expression. "And I want to keep working on the bouncing technique, you know?"

"You have a name for all this stuff, right? Because it gets really confusing," Jiro asked, twirling one of her lobes on her finger.

"Grape Bounce sounds good enough, right? And I was thinking of Grape Buckler and Vineyard for the others," the short boy answered, looking excited. Kazuki imagined he'd spend a good amount of time thinking those over.

"Not Grapeyard?" he asked, unable to really keep a smirk off his face.

"Ha-fucking-ha," Mineta replied.

"Language."

"I want to work on my Quirk some too," Hagakure commented. "I was trying stuff at home yesterday and I'm pretty sure I got a shine out of my fingertip. I want to see if I can get it to happen again and maybe go from there."

"That's great!" Yaoyorozu exclaimed, visibly happy for her friend. "You have to show us!"

"I mean, um, I didn't get it to work again after that, and I stayed late trying but… I want to keep trying," Hagakure said, fidgeting with her hands. Or, at least, that's what Kazuki assumed, judging by the movement of her arms and the embarrassed feelings he picked up.

"Now I feel bad because I don't have anything new myself," Jiro commented, slumping on her seat. It was an exaggeration at best though, from what Kazuki could tell.

"I mean, you could probably practice stabbing things with those jacks. God knows they do damage to my grimm, after all," he pointed out, drawing a roll of the girl's eyes.

"Yeah, but it's not like I can stab real people like that. I should stop doing that. It's not very useful as training, considering I'll only be able to use it in a few situations," Jiro said, leaning back on her chair and pursing her lips. "Then again, maybe I can stab other things…" she added in a mumble that Kazuki only picked up because she was sitting next to him.

"Now I feel bad for not having anything new," Yaoyorozu commented jokingly. "How about you, Endo?"

"I have a few ideas I could try. Honestly, I just want to try and continue working on my pools… Not sure I'm getting anywhere fast on that front though," Kazuki answered, shrugging as he considered the question some more. "I guess I have a few Grimm projects I could try and get done. Might be a more productive use of my time. I'm kind of tired of always working on my numbers and making so little progress."

"Way to leave me alone, Creepy," Yaoyorozu said, in a rare moment of actually using one of their nicknames. She also added a fake pout for good measure. "What am I supposed to do now?"

"Try and start training to create something new?" Mineta asked, raising his hands in an overly exaggerated shrug. "Or just not be in the cool group with us."

"Right, the cool group," Kazuki commented dryly. "With you and me in it? I'd call it the losers' club but that'd be mean to the girls," he added.

"Way to bring my blooming ego down, Creepy. Really, thanks," the other boy replied sarcastically.

"That's what I'm here for, Tiny. That and smacking you when you get too perverted for your own good."

"I haven't even done anything like that lately!"

"So you weren't staring at me yesterday?" Yaoyorozu pointed out mercilessly, causing the boy to groan.

"You saw?"

"I'm pretty sure everyone saw," Kazuki answered, before being followed up by Hagakure.

"I think Yanagi was a second away from sending something to your head."

"Ugh."

"Maybe you should train on that, buddy."

"Shut up, Creepy."

[}-o-{]

"You ok, man?" Mineta asked, breathing harshly still and sweating profusely. "You don't look that much better than me," the boy added, and he wasn't wrong about that.

"Maybe… Maybe getting Beauty, Bubbly and Rocky in a spar against just me wasn't a good idea," he said, running a hand through his white hair to get it away from his face. "Just maybe," he repeated with a weary chuckle.

"Gee, you think?" Mineta mumbled with a laugh of his own, even if he sounded like he'd fall to the ground any second. "I'm gonna rest for a bit, if it's all the same to you."

"Yeah, I'm gonna try and make that new grimm now that everyone is busy," Kazuki told him, waving at him before rubbing his face. After a minute or two, he'd managed to get his breathing under control and regained a semblance of calm. He was still tired to the bones but he didn't need to be physically fit to use his Quirk, thankfully.

Drawing on the exhaustion and other emotions around him, he started without much delay. He had the plans and ideas, now he just needed to make them a reality. After having created a bunch of new grimm since he got out, it was becoming a little easier, or at least less of a big deal, he supposed.

This one might be a bit of an exception though, since he had to make this one entirely from a new place. There was no taking anything from the other designs, or at least for the most part. This grimm was different from the others he'd made, after all. Fortunately, it was also rather simple, so that should help even things out.

He started slowly, since he had plenty of negativity around from exhausted students. Maybe once there was less, he would try and speed things out. However, even if it wasn't energy efficient, going slow was the best way to prevent failure, or, at least, having to re-start from the beginning.

Kazuki saw the head rise from the shadows, watching intently for any mistakes. It was going to be a long process, he knew, since the base idea he had for the thing was rather big. Maybe bigger than was necessary, but he could always adjust the size of things. He had a feeling that this one's base size was bigger than the usual thing he created though, and those feelings were usually right.

So, he saw the head peek out of the shadows. Instead of a bone mask with red designs though, this one had plates on its head between its red eyes. There was little else on the form of armor though, leaving its pitch black body unprotected save for the scales that covered it. Those weren't quite as hard as, say, the plating on a boarbatusk, but they'd do.

Halfway through, things changed, because he couldn't quite continue, for some reason. No matter what Kazuki tried, nothing would click into place. 'Come on, what do you need? Things were going well,' he thought, glaring at the half-formed grimm as if it would give him the answers he seeked. It wasn't that something wildly different needed to be put there instead of what he'd planned. He was sure it was something along the lines of what he had in mind, else he wouldn't have been so sure this was how it was supposed to go.

He spent a good few minutes standing there, trying and re-trying to continue making the grimm. Eventually though, something clicked. 'Since when is that a thing?' he wondered, looking at the new side of the grim he was making. Instead of black, this other half was bone white, for whatever reason. He really didn't know what was up with that, but it worked and the design seemed to be clicking into place, so Kazuki would take it.

After some more time, he stood proudly as he looked at the particularly big creature. He checked the black half and the white half, the white plates on the black's head and the black plates on the white's. He saw it tilt its two heads to the sides, taking in their surroundings and letting their forked tongues out.

"King Taijitu," he decided to name it, smiling widely as he looked at the two headed snake grimm. A moment later, he commanded the white head to come closer and placed one of his hands on top of it. "Well, this is a first," he mused, looking at the very obviously light scales. So far, the most he'd managed to do was make the bone white plates. This one though, had white scales. Was that the key? To use scales instead of skin, fur or feathers?

Maybe he could test that later. As it was, he'd succeeded and a new grimm had been born. One more tool was added to his repertoire.

The idea for the King Taijitu was that he needed something to more safely subdue people. Granted, his other grimm worked, in a pinch, but they were not great at it, really. This new serpent themed creature though? It could just wrap itself around a villain or whoever Kazuki needed to subdue.

It was also big, which wasn't a great necessity, but was still useful. Besides, just like he could make it smaller if needed, he could also make his other grimm bigger. It wasn't efficient, but it was doable. Still, having something to fight something much bigger than the usual person could come in handy at some point.

He did remember that there were heroes that got bigger, like Ryukyu and Mt. Lady. He didn't remember if there were any villains with such skillsets, but Kazuki thought it was likely to be the case. Like the villain from the USJ. Nomu, he was fairly sure they were called. 'Slowly covering my bases,' he thought, dismissing the creature once he was done admiring it… for the moment. 'I really need to get better with numbers though. It won't be very useful if I have more grimm options than I can actually make and control. At least, it won't if I need them all.'

For the moment, maybe he could look for one of the others-

"B-Movie."

"Way to ruin a nice moment, Short Fuse," Kazuki said, sighing and deflating as he let the King Taijitu turn to black dust and disappear. "What do you want?"

"The fuck did you just call me?!" the boy exclaimed, tiny explosions going off in his palm.

"Thanks for proving my point," Kazuki replied blandly, readying himself in case he needed to make a sudden Grimm Guard to block an attack. One never knew with Bakugo, really.

"Fucking…" the blonde growled before visibly taking a deep breath in and calming himself. Kazuki was actually surprised. He didn't know the boy had that much self-control… which wasn't all that much, but still, more than expected. "I've seen how you train with others with your shitty monsters. Even the extras from the other class. I want in."

"I mean, they are shitty monsters, why would you want to fight them?" Kazuki asked, letting a lazy smile form on his face. He didn't like Bakugo and it wasn't a secret. The boy caused entirely too much trouble and while Kazuki seemed to mostly be able to curve most of it sometimes, that didn't mean they got along.

"Because at least I can blow them up without worrying," Bakugo muttered, glaring at Kazuki like he wanted to blow him up. "It's… difficult-," the blond continued, saying that last word like he was pulling his own teeth out. "-To train with my Quirk alone and risky with others."

"And why should I care. You've caused me nothing but trouble since we've known each other," Kazuki pointed out, tilting his head. The explosions on the other boy's hands grew a little louder.

"You are vice-president. Shouldn't you be more helpful?"

"Probably," Kazuki admitted, his smile getting wider. "But I never even wanted to be vice-president, so I don't much care for doing all that I'm supposed to. Wanna try again?"

"... What do you want, asshole?" Bakugo muttered under his breath, and Kazuki was having fun, even with all the anger that was coming off the other boy. It was strange, but… It was what happened. He wasn't very sure, but ever since his experiment with Aizawa it became… easier to tell what was his own emotions and what was others'. Maybe that would wear off, but if it did, then Kazuki would enjoy it while it lasted.

"You see, the Sports Festival is coming," Kazuki said, glad that they were getting to a point that he cared about more. "The world will know who I am once I'm on National TV. Someone is bound to recognize me then, someone that won't keep it a secret. I need to have as good a front to show as I can manage."

"And your point is? What do I have to do with this?" Bakugo asked, impatiently tapping his foot on the ground.

"The point is that you are a fucking menace, Bakugo," Kazuki accused, giving the other boy an unimpressed expression. "People will take one look at you and assume I'm a terrible influence or some shit like that. I can imagine it already, people saying that it makes sense for someone like you to be in the same class as me."

That seemed to shock some of the anger and impatience out of Bakugo.

Good.

"So, I want you on your best behavior, or you can bet your ass that I won't train with you ever again. Hell, I'll make it a point to train with everyone but you," Kazuki told the other boy, walking until he was face to face with the blonde. "Because things are hard enough for me as is. If you make it harder, I'll make sure to find a way to drag you down too."

"That's not very nice of you."

"Haven't you heard? I'm a villain," Kazuki replied with a half-smile.

"... Deal."

And that was that. Not even a minute later, Kazuki was maintaining three grimm on Bakugo at all times. They got blown up a lot, but that didn't really matter all that much when he could just make more. If anything, it was good training to get faster with his grimm creation.

As they sparred though, Kazuki started experimenting. Because he knew even Grimm Guard wouldn't totally protect him from one of Bakugo's explosions. The damage they did went even beyond the grimm. Even if it didn't, the grimm would be pushed back, which would cause damage too.

'Is there any way to block that?' he wondered, narrowing his eyes. 'The shockwave alone… How do you stop that? The push of the explosion?' he mused, looking at the ongoing spar and trying to find at least a clue.

'Wait…' he thought then, seeing one of his grimm vanishing after being blown up. 'What if I…?' he thought, making one of his grimm vanish before being sent away but after being hit by the explosion. His eyes widened and a grin spread on his face when he saw that the explosion's effects were reduced to a simple gust of wind with grimm dust in it instead of something more dangerous. 'Ok, that works… Might even work with other attacks. I have to practice that.'

Then again, he was fairly sure that he'd already thought about something on those lines before, but he hadn't quite tested that yet.

Good to know it worked, not he just needed to get better with the technique.

And that's exactly what he did through the hour that it took for Bakugo to decide that he was done blowing up his grimm and that he wanted to do some other training. Kazuki was fine with that, he needed to get some work on the machines anyway. And besides, he was now left wondering what else could he do with his grimm and potentially with his Grimm Guard. 'This is why I wanted to get training with more people,' he thought, grinning and shaking his head.

There was a lot of work to be done before the Festival, but he was optimistic.

[}-o-{]

Kazuki sat alone in a cafe, checking his phone for the hundredth time to see if he had anything to do while he waited. Unfortunately for him, there was no such thing to keep his mind from worrying. It was silly, he knew, but he couldn't help it. He was finally going to meet a part of his past that he didn't hate or want to forget and he was nervous.

He took another sip from his drink then, noting that he'd likely have to order another by the time his friend made an appearance. Not that it was the other boy's fault, really. He'd arrived stupidly early because he was anxious and wanted to make sure he was there first. He wasn't even sure why that was supposed to help, but he'd still done it.

"Endo, looking as unnerving as ever, huh?" a voice called, making Kazuki turn with a slight smile. Sure enough, there he was, looking as skinny as he ever had.

"Io, still looking like the kid people push around," he replied, his smile turning into a grin. "You are early."

"You are one to talk, how many have you ordered so far?" the sandy haired boy asked as he took the seat across from him.

"I'll have you know that it's the first one," he defended… although even he knew it was weak at best.

"So, what are you doing here? I can't say I wasn't surprised when you sent that message," Io replied, looking about as curious as he sounded. "I thought you still had time in the hole left."

"Yeah, I… I got out early," Kazuki answered, hesitating for a moment. "People from U.A. got me out, so I could be a student there."

"U.A.?" Io asked, brown eyes widening. It almost made Kazuki flinch, the way anger and envy flared up inside the other boy. He'd expected that though, so he wasn't really surprised, at all. "Well, someone's moved up in the world, huh?"

"You could say that. So, I guess I'm trying to be a hero now… I… I kind of like it, honestly. I want to be a hero," Kazuki said, gaining confidence in his words as he spoke. He still was nervous about how Io would react, but he believed what he said and that made him feel better.

"... Well, better you than half the spoiled little shits that go there, I imagine," the other boy replied, still seemingly caught off guard and uncertain, but seemingly meaning that. It reassured Kazuki a great deal, if he was honest. "And here I am, still in the same shit place I was when I went in and when I got out."

"People still suck then. No surprises there," Kazuki said with a sympathetic smile on his face. "I get it. People still feel like shit around me too."

"Yeah… I guess I didn't help myself snapping either. People won't forget now. I made things worse… obviously," Io commented, leaning back on his chair. Then they paused their conversation to order some drinks when the waitress dropped by. Or getting another one, at least, in Kazuki's case. "No surprise there."

"I mean, you did go crazy with your Quirk back then. And, to be fair, the only reason I'm not getting lynched is because people don't know I'm there… for the most part," Kazuki commented, giving the other boy a nervous smile. "That's gonna change with the Festival."

"It's going to be a mess, yeah," Io agreed, not seeing a reason to sugarcoat things. That was fine, Kazuki would have known if he lied and the other boy knew it. "You say that some people know?"

"My classmates, the faculty of course. I have a friend group and all, believe it or not."

"They grow up so fast," Io said jokingly, wiping an imaginary tear. Kazuki knew better though, and even if he didn't, he could feel it. The other boy wasn't feeling so good with that whole thing. There was envy, bitterness and more there.

"If I can get people to accept me, so can you. And if nothing else… you know I'm in your corner, Io," Kazuki reminded the other boy. "I took a few too many beatings for you, we've got a bond and all now."

"I do believe I took more beatings for you than the other way around," Io pointed out which… fair enough. "So, if anything, you owe me, man."

"I guess that's fair," he replied, his expression falling for a moment before he pulled the backpack he'd set on the floor and opened it to look for something. Eventually, he found what he'd been looking for. "Part of my payment," he said simply as he offered it to the other boy.

"Pay… ment?" Io asked, taking it with a confused expression before he looked at what it was. Then he fell silent, staring intently at the piece in his hand. After a few seconds, his hands shook a little. "You remembered?" he asked softly.

"Course I did. I promised I'd get it to you if I had the chance, right?"

"Endo, we made that promise half out of it with how many punches we'd taken."

"Still a promise, right?" he asked with a shrug. "If people can believe and have faith in me, think I can have a better future waiting for me… Then there's no reason you can't get the same benefit, Io."

"You were always a sentimental little shit."

"I'll have you know I'm taller than you, scrawny boy."

"Shut up," Io grumbled, chuckling wetly. "Man, I didn't expect any of this when you sent me that message. I just thought… I didn't even know what to expect."

"Me neither," Kazuki admitted.

"So, what better future is there for me? I didn't get the chance to go to a fancy school, you know?" Io asked then, his bitterness and frustration returning with a vengeance.

"You didn't, but I can offer you the chance they offered me. I can help you, once I become a hero," Kazuki said. "And that's a promise," he added firmly before grinning. "And I don't even have my brain scrambled because of a fight this time."

"Guess I can trust that if nothing else," Io said, not having taken his eyes off the All Might autograph even once. "So what? You'll make me your sidekick?"

"I mean, it depends," Kazuki commented, leaning back with a smirk. Things had gone much better than expected, and he was very happy about it. "Do you still think you'll go with that lame ass name you'd thought up in juvie?"

"Hey, I'll have you know Mustard is a perfectly fine super name!"

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

And there it is. Did you see that coming? I have it on good authority that someone guessed it ahead of time, but did you? Don't lie to me. Did you?

Anyway, things are still going, life happens, interactions are had and training is done… I promise we'll get to something else eventually. I just really like to do this Slice of Life kind of chapters, so if I were you, I would expect them to be the norm instead of the exception.

Still, I hope you liked 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: I don't remember if I asked this already, but if so, I'll do it again. What do you think could be Kazuki's hero name?

See you.