Chapter 32

"So, moving on from first aid supplies to weapons, huh?" Kazuki asked, leaning back on his chair. "That's quite the jump, Beauty," he added in a joking tone, getting a roll of Yaoyorozu's eyes. "In all honesty, it's a good idea. Once the public starts knowing what you can do, I'm betting villains will try to take you out. You can learn to provide support items for other heroes, making them stronger, better."

"I… hadn't quite been thinking that," Yaoyorozu replied with a bashful expression. "I just thought that I wanted to help and I noticed that most people don't have weapons added to their costumes and such, for some reason."

"Well, that works too," Kazuki said with a chuckle as the girl blushed a little in embarrassment. "From there you could probably work through some general purpose things too, rope and such. Then there's trying to make more specialized support items, maybe? Would that be too complex?"

"It would," she agreed. "But it is what I imagine the progression would be. Basic to complex," she commented, looking down at a notebook in front of her and starting to write on it. "How about you?"

"I'm thinking that I'll have to tackle making a grimm with specific emotions soon. I've been making progress but I'm not really going anywhere until I try to apply what I've been trying," Kazuki answered, idly looking out the window. He'd looked through notes too much already. "From there, I have some ideas. Most of them just seem to be more or less variations of the same thing. If the specific emotion thing works though and it does have some kind of effect on the grimm… I'll see how it goes from there."

"Sensible," Yaoyorozu commented with a nod.

They stayed silent for a while then, being too early for most people to be there anyway. As usual, the two of them were within the earliest to arrive. Tokoyami and Todoroki were there too, as was part of the routine for the most part, but the two usually stayed by themselves and neither Kazuki nor Yaoyorozu felt the need to approach them.

Thus, the two simply remained in companionable silence for a moment.

"Things with the other representatives are going better, right?" he asked after some time.

"You'd know if you didn't basically zone out during the meetings," the girl replied wryly.

"I would, but the Gen Ed students are… intense," he commented, because they really were. There was so much envy and frustration there that he could probably make a gigantic grimm just with them. A beacon of negativity, those kids were, and it was getting worse and worse the closer they got to the Sports Festival. "Seriously, they need to chill and maybe train harder to see if they get a spot," he added with a roll of his eyes.

"You do know that your dismissal really doesn't help matters, right?"

"I've learned that sometimes it doesn't really matter," Kazuki said with a shrug. "If they are gonna feel like shit anyway, I'll just let them. Trying to make things better when there's no way to really improve things is effort wasted. At least this way I can try and push them out of my mind."

Yaoyorozu sighed.

"Look, I know it sucks, but at least they should calm down after some time has passed after the Festival, right?" he pointed out with an unsure smile. "Besides, you are the one that leaves me to deal with Bakugo and the rest of the problematic bunch. The least you can do is deal with the other representatives," he added, drawing a grimace from the girl.

"Touche," she replied with a sigh. "It's so tiresome though."

"There there, it'll get better," he reassured her with a pat on her shoulder. It felt weird to do, like it was probably the wrong move or something like that. 'Ah, maybe I should leave physical gestures to other people,' he decided, pulling his hand back awkwardly. At least Yaoyorozu didn't seem to be feeling nearly as bad as he did after that, so he soldiered on. "Everything will go back to normal, I'm sure."

"I sure hope so," Yaoyorozu commented, and Kazuki took some solace in the fact that she really didn't seem to care for the previous gesture. Maybe he was just being too dramatic or something. "They are unbearable."

"If worse comes to worst, I guess I can deal with them for you," he commented. "Don't expect me to do it a lot. I don't want people to think of me as the bad guy before they even learn who I actually am."

"Don't worry about it," she told him quickly and he felt shame rising in her. It seemed that she hadn't thought about that either. "I can deal with them… Speaking of…"

He groaned.

"What'd they do now?"

"Nothing, nothing," she answered just as fast as before. "I meant… how are you gonna tell everyone? It sounded like you would?"

"I reckon I won't have to," he said, leaning forward, crossing his arms on top of his desk and resting his head over them. "The Sports Festival is a very public event. Someone is bound to recognize me or my power. It'll come out on its own then. Besides… I don't think I have it in me to go and actually tell everyone. That'd be… a bit much," he admitted weakly. "Maybe that makes me a coward, but I'd like to hold onto whatever anonymity I have for as long as possible."

"I don't think that makes you a coward, Endo."

"Thanks. It actually helps to just hear you say that," he told her with a slight smile. "Heads up, Short Fuse is coming," he warned, getting a groan from her. "Oh, don't give me that. It's me that'll have to deal with his annoying ass."

"Language," Yaoyorozu chided, more out of reflex than anything else. "And I know that… doesn't make him any less annoying."

"You have your annoyances to deal with and I have mine," he commented, drawing a wry smile from her. "That's how this works."

"I guess it could be worse."

"Gee, thanks for jinxing us."

[}-o-{]

Kazuki was more or less just waiting.

It was one of those days when he stayed way past anyone else in the training facilities of U.A. with his friends having long since gone home or somewhere else. He'd have asked them to remain a little longer if possible, since he wanted to try and make a new grimm and he kind of needed their opinions afterwards. Unfortunately, people were more and more willing to stay late with the Sports Festival coming. He didn't quite want to force them to stay later than they could just to realize that the place wasn't emptying.

And he very much would prefer for the place to be empty when he tried out his new creation.

For a definition of new, at least.

As it was, however, he was having no luck in even trying to make it. Not because he was struggling with the process but because people just didn't seem to go away. The facilities were only then, very late in the day, starting to be left by the student body. There were still quite a few people around though, and Kazuki was starting to wonder if it'd be more productive to just leave and try some other day.

It was only the thought that things were likely to get worse as time passed that stopped him. As it was, he was already exhausted from training, his body hurt, his stamina was low and he'd exhausted all the people that had approached him from his class or 1-B for training. At that point, he was just sitting on the benches, people watching as he tried and waited for everyone to leave.

'It's not to be, I guess,' Kazuki thought, watching the people around keep on training. He wondered if some of them had more energy due to their Quirks or if they were just really pushing things in an effort to better prepare for the Sports Festival. He didn't usually pay attention, but he wondered how many of those visited the training facilities regularly and how many just were coming for the event and then would go back to being lazy.

Was it arrogant of him to think like that? Probably, he supposed.

He let out a sigh, his eyes darting to a girl off to one side. She'd been standing there for a while, her frustration and helplessness growing by the minute. He had watched her a bit and her power seemed to be related to water, somehow. Kazuki had seen her holding water bottles and also shooting stuff around.

Besides that, he hadn't wanted to stare too much. Sure, he could pass it as information gathering but… Well, he had enough reputation worries without being considered some sort of stalker or creep. Thus, he'd erred on the side of caution and simply watched everyone without focusing on anyone in particular for long.

That girl was feeling some serious stuff though, at least compared to everyone else still around.

With another sigh, Kazuki stood up. 'It's none of my business,' he thought, moving towards one of the now more available empty parts of the training facilities. There, he made a bunch of grimm, five in this case. He was much more confident now with more grimm, but on top of that, they'd be fighting each other, since he was alone. That meant that he had less to worry about if he slipped a bit and he could just focus on keeping himself from creating more.

Besides, he'd been informed that a teacher was always around just in case and they were much more alert with him there. Kazuki supposed most other students were either a risk of something going off suddenly instead of a constant like him. So, they had to be mostly just waiting in case something happened and they had to step in and help.

Kazuki tried not to think too much on how his circumstances affected even shit like that.

'I'm letting it get me again,' he thought, sighing as he tried to distance himself from the frustration around him, especially the girl's. 'I'm here to train, so do it and focus,' he told himself, taking a deep breath in and then letting it out. With some luck, the other students would leave before the place closed off… 'Speaking of, I don't know when this place closes off,' he mused idly.

Something to check later, Kazuki supposed.

For the moment, he just kept making grimm and having them kill each other. If nothing else, it was a good way to burn through the negativity he was getting from around him. He just needed to be careful not to spend too much and leave some for the grimm he wanted to make. Especially because he wanted to do some experimentation, but there was plenty to use and he was getting a pretty steady stream of emotions as it was.

Thus, Kazuki wasn't too worried as he made his different grimm tear into each other, testing things by making adjustments to existing creations. Like making King Taijitu that were about as big as a normal beowolf, or making a beowolf bigger than usual, or making tiny imps. He didn't find any new things to improve on the increasingly bad efficiency of not sticking to established designs, but he was more doing it all to pass the time more than anything.

That and training with bigger numbers, which he was pretty sure he was making progress in. Although, being honest, sometimes it was difficult to tell. His mind was still scattered, the grimm still easily slipped past his control, he was still so very tempted by the negativity… However, he thought he was getting better. His friends also told him that he had to be stopped less and they had to call for his attention less…

He wasn't sure if that was the case, since he was usually focusing too much to really pay attention to time and the number of times that happened, but he'd take their word for it… with a grain of salt. There was no telling how much was honesty and how much was just them trying to make him feel better. Kazuki could usually tell when people lied, but that didn't mean he was a perfect lie detector, after all.

'Hmm, maybe I should take a little break,' he mused after some time. Looking around, there were a few stragglers still, but Kazuki had all but given up already. Idly, he dispelled his current grimm and considered what to do. He had plenty of negativity to go through, even with what he'd burned by constantly having to recreate his creatures through his last bout of training.

There was less incoming negativity though, since there were less people around too. He did notice that the incredibly frustrated, angry, tired and envious girl was still there. 'Her emotions got worse,' he noted idly, but other than that he let her be. 'Well, at least I have a source of energy if I need it,' he thought to himself.

In the spirit of not continuing to work out after so long, he decided on something that might not even actually count as taking a break. Maybe he was training too much, if his idea of resting was using his Quirk more… Then again, making the "friendlier" grimm was nice, since it implied letting much more positive emotions through him to create them.

Trying for something different, he went for a King Taijitu this time, however. The result of the attempt was… actually quite nice. It was kind of funny that it was so small in comparison, since the two-headed serpent that resulted was about as big as the beowolf puppy. The two sets of eyes gazed up at him adorably, as if they were curious little children.

With a smile, Kazuki sat down on the ground and patted the friendly serpent. 'I really need to make this sort of grimm more often,' he thought to himself. Not only was the process much less stressful, but having the adorable little things around was great. 'Like providing my own therapy animals,' he thought, finding it a bit ironic – or maybe poetic? – that something made out of negativity could be used to drive said negativity away.

So, with the company of an adorable snake with a head on each end of its body, he sat down on the ground and absently patted their heads while looking around. The frustrated girl was still… doing whatever it was that she was doing. Kazuki could see some empty bottles on the floor and her waving her arms around but not much was happening. 'Probably why she feels like that? Wonder what that's about,' he mused, before turning his attention to the other students.

A few were hitting the machines, a few were training their Quirks. Some of those latter ones made for an interesting show, even an impressive one at times. Fortunately, those that seemed quite powerful seemed to be older students. Or, at least, he didn't recognize them from any of the two classes of first year heroics. 'Could be from one of the other courses?' he thought idly, but that was unlikely. With some of the powers he was seeing, it wouldn't make sense for them to not end up in heroics if they actually tried.

No offense to his classmates and 1-B's class, but they seemed better than some of the less gifted students he knew of.

"Excuse me," someone called and Kazuki turned to see the frustrated girl standing a few steps away from him. Blinking, he wondered why she could possibly have approached him. He hadn't even been staring at her at all or anything… at least not then. Unless she noticed him before? "I've seen you training with others with your… beasts?" she commented, the last word said more questioningly than anything.

'Oh? Interesting,' he thought, realizing what was going on.

"I have," he confirmed unnecessarily. With a groan, he pulled himself to a standing position. "Did you need something?"

"I've been practicing for the Festival, obviously," she said and Kazuki noticed that her expression didn't change much from the sullen one she'd wore… pretty much every time he'd looked at her before. She was feeling more frustrated than before though, feeling some annoyance and anger. "I was wondering if you could help me."

"Sure thing," he agreed easily, causing a change in her expression for once. He raised an eyebrow at her slightly widened eyes. "Surprised?"

"Shinso didn't have nice things to say about you… or your class," she replied, to which he blinked. 'Shinso?'

"... Shinso?" he decided to voice after a moment.

"He's my classmate. Said he visited your class and some… less than good things about you all, admittedly," the girl explained, which didn't really narrow things down.

"Uh, not to sound like I'm bragging, because I'm not, but a lot of students have been "visiting" my class," he said, making the quotation marks with his fingers. "If you could narrow it down a little?"

"He said he spoke with you, specifically. Purple hair and tired expression?" she described and he immediately knew who she was talking about. 'Ah, that explains the slight spike in anger and envy, I guess,' he thought wryly.

"Yeah, I remember him. Didn't introduce himself, which is why I didn't know who you were talking about," he explained, hoping that she would believe him. Actually, he hadn't introduced himself back then either so…

"He didn't… Well, I haven't introduced myself yet either, I guess," the girl mumbled, giving him a wry smile before extending her hand. "Chikuchi Togeike."

"Kazuki Endo," he replied in turn, deciding to try to be nice.

Sure, she wasn't feeling great – possibly about him, his class or whatever – but still, he wanted to give people the chance he wanted them to give him… In most cases, at least. So, he took her hand and shook it with as friendly a smile as he could muster. Fortunately, while her emotions oscillated a little, she didn't seem to take too badly to him or his appearance.

"So, you wanted to train?" he asked then, running a hand through his hair as he made the Baby Taijitu slither its way up his leg and onto his shoulders.

"Right, um, I need to get more water bottles since… Well, I used the ones I got, but after that we can start, if it's not too much trouble?" the girl said awkwardly, rubbing her arm with one hand and looking away for a second.

"Sure, I can wait," he told her with a shrug, watching her walk away. 'At least I made the right call being friendly,' he mused then, letting out a breath he hadn't noticed he was holding and trading a look with the white head of the Baby Taijitu on his shoulders. 'She was feeling a little better, I guess,' he added.

At least there didn't seem to be much anger there, plenty of frustration and envy though. 'Just take the win,' he told himself, taking a deep breath in. Looking around, he wondered if Togeike would mind if he told her to go away once the place was more empty. 'Probably,' he thought wryly. 'Maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow?... Or maybe not,' he mused, trying to come up with a way to test what he wanted to. It was a shame that this one creation of his wasn't… crowd friendly, or at least that was what he assumed.

'Maybe I can check with the school staff? Wonder if it'd be too much to ask for some time alone in one of the fake sites,' he thought to himself. It was a possibility, but that might be too much favoritism or something like that. It was the safe thing to do, but maybe they'd want him to leave that experimentation for another time rather than push for things like that?

"Sorry for the wait," Togeike said, bringing him back to the present as he watched her carry a bunch of plastic bottles in her arms. A little rushedly, she set most of them down except for one. "Closest faucet isn't that close," she explained, and while her expression seemed just as bland as it did before, he could feel her nervousness. 'Does she think I'm just gonna leave?' he wondered as he blinked.

"That's fine. Did you have anything in mind for this… uh, training session?" he asked, unsure of how to call whatever they were about to do. "I'm not sure if you saw but I can make a bunch of different grimm… that's the name of my creations," he told her, adding the last bit when he remembered that she might not know what those were called. He was getting a little used to people knowing how his Quirk went.

"I was thinking we could start with different ones? Like the werewolf ones and the bird ones?" Togeike answered without even having to think about it too much. It was a bit surprising though, making him blink. A second later, the girl's cheeks dusted with pink as embarrassment reared its head in her emotions. "I… might have been looking when you and the others were training."

"Scouting competition?" he asked with a grin, to let her know that he didn't mind. God knew he'd checked on other students when they were training too to see what he might have to go up against. Still, it was a little amusing to see her get flustered. "Don't worry about it. I guess it's flattering, in a way. Then again, we must make quite the show too. We aren't precisely… inconspicuous, are we?" he realized after a moment. Especially when they gathered almost a full class of students to spar and such.

"You aren't," Togeike agreed, still feeling a little nervous but trying to hide that. "If it helps, I think you are one of the strongest students in our year," she added, to which he smiled.

"It does… I think," he commented. Deciding to get on with things though, he focused on his negativity pool, letting his shadow extend to the sides and creating a beowolf and a nevermore to get things started. "Is that enough or do you want more? How do you want to do this?"

"That's fine, maybe more later?" she answered hesitantly, as if she were catching up with the fact that all that was really happening. Kazuki wasn't sure why, but he didn't think trying to ask about that was a good idea… probably. "You think you can just… make them move around? I don't think I'm ready to fight them."

"Target practice then?" he thought, the gears in his head shifting. Yanagi and Mineta trained like that too sometimes, so he wasn't too surprised about that decision, nor was he inexperienced. "I can work with that," he agreed easily, giving his grimm a look before both of them took off. The beowolf zigzagged around and the nevermore started flying in random patterns over them in the air. "Whenever you are ready."

"Right…" Togeike mumbled, staring at the creatures. He felt some slight trepidation there, but it wasn't bad enough for him to be too bothered. People had felt worse just looking at him really, so getting that reaction to seeing his creatures of negativity wasn't that bad. "Right," she repeated, more decisively this time, opening the bottle of water in her hand without taking her eyes off of the grimm and then…

The water shot out of the bottle. Kazuki looked on with interest, as what seemed to be needles or bullets or something like that was fired from the bottle's mouth. 'Well, that's something,' he thought, looking as the girl continued training. The water seemed pretty dangerous too, he confirmed when one of his grimm was hit and the attack went right through them. 'Strong… I guess there wasn't any water in the Entrance Exam zone for her to use? I don't remember, honestly.'

Maybe he'd have to be careful with this girl during the Festival, Aoyama's might not be the only spot that got a replacement.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

Well, new character is introduced, it seems… I'm starting to get worried that there's too many people around. Why do my characters insist on filling the stories with characters and plot lines and more? Just… why?

Anyway, I hope you guys 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 kind of shirt are you wearing? I have a long-sleeved shirt that's… I think it's like, faded pink color?... Ish? Something like that.

See you.