Chapter 38

The shift in emotions in the immediate surroundings was very easily noticeable even without Kazuki's sense of them. He could see it all, the way all the participants sagged and even Midnight, off to the side, seemed to slump a little. Fortunately for him, the effect didn't seem to reach far enough to affect the stands, which he was grateful for. He hadn't quite managed to test the range of the Apathy, after all.

He couldn't imagine it'd have done wonders for his image if it hit the spectators, but that was just how it was. That was the main reason why he'd waited for the very last few minutes. At least that way he had the element of surprise and he also made sure that he wouldn't put anyone under the effects for too long.

Pushing off the emotions, he was feeling, he looked at the clock. The seconds were ticking by, but he'd need time. So, he fed the Apathy more negativity, to make sure it kept going. He made the rest of his grimm disappear, just to be sure that nothing would happen due to unforeseen circumstances. Considering the specifics of practicing with the Apathy, he hadn't gotten much done in regards to getting used to it or knowing how exactly it worked in regards to a number of things.

"It's almost over now!" Present Mic called, the commentary breaking through Kazuki's concentration for once. "Now for the countdown! Everybody with me! Ten!" And so the countdown started.

Next and in front of him, Monoma and Hatsume seemed to fall a little, which made Kazuki's eyes widen. They'd held for a solid minute, which was a fair bit, he supposed. He wouldn't know for sure though, since he couldn't accurately know how being affected by the Apathy was.

He moved himself so that Togeike would fall sitting on his shoulders instead of to the floor. Using Grimm Guard, he made some Imp arms to hold her in place. She couldn't fall. They were almost done. Almost… 'Just hold a little longer,' Kazuki thought to himself, eyes darting between their surroundings and the timer for the event. Present Mic's and the crowd's countdown continued.

"Three! Two! One! Time up!" Only as he heard that did Kazuki let the Apathy dissolve. "Now, shall we see our top four?!" Looking up, he saw everyone start recovering from the Apathy, looking up at the scoreboard.

"Well, that warning you gave was clearly not enough," Monoma grumbled from the side, moving to help him lower Togeike, who was shaking a little. "But we won, so it's whatever."

"Asshole," the Gen Ed student groaned, slapping him in the chest with no real force. Then there was Hatsume, who turned to look at him with a blank expression before…

"How did you do that?!" she exclaimed then, all curiosity and no bad feelings coming from her whatsoever. "Do you think you can help me apply that to a baby? Want to make a baby together?"

"First of all, phrasing," he answered, leaning back a little. "Second of all-"

"In first place, Team Endo, who managed to hold off everyone else and keep their ten million points!" Present Mic unknowingly interrupted him then, making Kazuki grin regardless. They'd won. They'd stayed at the top. "Second place goes to Team Midoriya, who did a spectacular job staying under the radar compared to the other teams led by Class 1-A students!"

At that, Kazuki turned to look towards that particular team. Midoriya had worked together with Uraraka which was not really all that surprising. Tokoyami was more surprising though and then there was… 'Kamakiri?' Kazuki thought, eyes widening a bit. Had the 1-B boy interacted with any of those three at any point? Tokoyami and Midoriya had been to training sessions with Endo at times but still… That was unexpected.

'I might have focused too much on keeping everyone away,' he realized then, a little amused. He'd been so concentrated on that, he hadn't even really paid attention to the other teams much until they were running towards him. His Grimm might have gotten a look at things, but he'd been more worried about controlling them and keeping every front under control.

'Awareness might be a problem,' he thought, gulping down his sudden insecurity.

"As for third place, that one belongs to Team Todoroki!" Beside him, Kazuki heard Monoma click his tongue in annoyance. It was no surprise though and he could understand. After everything, to see so little of the other boy's class was… He felt a little bad, honestly. On top of that… "And for fourth place, we have the upset, Team Shinso!"

There was more commentary then, but he turned his attention to his team.

"Good job, everyone. Couldn't have done it without you," he said, drawing a smirk from Monoma, although it looked muted. There were some lingering effects of the Apathy there, he noticed. Maybe he was more affected because they were close? Hatsume seemed fine though. Maybe it was something else? "Thank you for helping me."

"Yeah, well, just returning the favor for the training," Togeike mumbled, looking away as she spoke. "Besides, now I might have a shot at getting into a hero class, especially since I worked with two others and even got support equipment. That'll look good."

"Glad to help then," Kazuki replied bemusedly. "Good luck in the next part."

"I don't need luck, but thanks anyway," Monoma told him, still grinning. "You are not bad, for a 1-A student."

"I'll take that."

"Do you think people saw my babies?" Hatsume asked, looking towards the stands as if the crowd could give her the answer to that. Kazuki did the same with completely different reasons, reaching for every source of negativity over there. How many of those were because of him? Because of who he was? Because of what he'd done?

"Sure did. And you'll get to show off more in the next stage," he said, suddenly feeling a lot less happy.

"The next event will be in one hour, so, get something to eat and drink, because you'll want to be at your best for what's to come, people!" Present Mic called and Kazuki nodded slightly.

"I'll go check on my class then," Monoma said, starting to walk away. "See you at the next stage."

"I've got to look over my babies. They need to be perfect for the next part!" Hatsume announced before rushing off. That only left him and Togeike, who was suddenly feeling very uncomfortable, from what he picked up. She didn't seem very sure what to do, evidently not eager to go together with her Gen Ed classmate.

"Want to come with me?" Kazuki offered, making the girl turn towards him with wide eyes. "My friends are weird, but they are nice."

"Huh, em," Togeike mumbled, stumbling over her words in her awkwardness and surprise. Kazuki just waited, realizing that she was probably a bit overwhelmed by the bunch of things that had happened in the last few minutes. He was guessing that was why Monoma had rushed off. Hatsume might have just been herself though. "Sure?" the girl eventually answered, more a question than a statement, but Kazuki would have felt bad if he left her by herself, so he took that.

"Great, come on," he told her with a smile and then took off to where he saw his usual group talking to each other. They were feeling a little downtrodden, of course. All except for Yaoyorozu, that is, since she'd been in Todoroki's team. However, they weren't feeling terribly bad. "Hey, guys, had fun?" he asked, making them turn towards him. "Did I miss much? I was a little too focused on my grimm and the general… mess that the whole event was, honestly."

"I did worry a bit when you summoned so many grimm," Yaoyorozu answered first, making him rub the back of his neck uncomfortably. She wasn't wrong, he supposed. "Todoroki wanted to get through your snake grimm really badly, which is why we didn't get as many headbands as we probably could have…"

"Better than the rest of us," Mineta continued then. "I think the girl from 1-B that can separate her body parts took our headband. Either that or your teammate when he used the same thing," he continued, giving Kazuki a half-hearted glare. "That sucked, by the way. Our strategy was good, with Asui and I inside a cocoon of Shoji's arms, in case you didn't see us."

"Rocky and I teamed up with Sato and Kaibara, from 1-B," Hagakure took over then, moving to stand next to him. "We… didn't do a terribly good job, and I'd rather not talk about it," she added then, shifting in embarrassment.

"I'm consoling myself with the fact that Bakugo is out," Mineta commented, actually looking quite happy with that fact. "Dumb bastard wouldn't stop going after you, and lost his chance because of that. Sometimes Karma really is great."

"You shouldn't wish bad things upon your own classmates," Yaoyorozu chidded, making everyone turn towards her and raise an eyebrow. Her eye twitched then. "Anyway, that was an interesting team you formed, Endo."

"I know, right? We were great," he bragged goodnaturedly. "Togeike here was a great find, I gotta say. I really lucked out meeting her and earning her favor, it seems. And Monoma is… Monoma, but he's… not that bad."

"Wasn't that good…" the Gen Ed student mumbled, but Kazuki doubted anyone heard her. Maybe he'd have to work on her self-esteem or something? That was getting a little weird.

"What about the Support Course student?" Jiro asked curiously.

"She's… really into her gadget making," Kazuki answered hesitantly. "Hatsume was great too though, those devices came in handy a time or two."

"We noticed," Hagakure said and he could hear the amusement in her voice.

"Endo," a voice called, cutting through their conversation. "Could we talk… in private?" Todoroki asked him. 'Huh, deja vu,' Kazuki thought to himself as he regarded the other boy.

"... Sure," he answered after a moment of thought. "Don't be too weird with Togeike, ok, guys? And Togeike, please feel free to ignore or smack Mineta if you feel like it," he said to his friend group. The Gen Ed student felt a little spike of nervousness there, so he felt the need to reassure her. "You've met Yaoyorozu, right? They'll look after you and I'll be back in a bit."

"What's with that, man?" Mineta protested then, looking mighty offended. This time though, it was his turn to be the target of everyone's stares. "You guys suck."

"I'll be fine," Togeike replied then, apparently having gotten a hold of herself and going back to her usual resting-bitch face. That was good to see… in a way, at least.

"Great. Don't get anything to eat before I come back, yeah?"

"No promises!"

[}-o-{]

"So… What did you need?" Kazuki asked once they'd moved to a spot that was distanced enough from everyone else. There were some fluctuating emotions coming from Todoroki, as far as he could tell, which usually meant conflicting thoughts. He didn't like guessing though, especially in a situation like that, so he'd take what he could read and go from there.

"You said that it would help to talk to someone about things," Todoroki replied, making Kazuki blink at the blunt, out of the blue statement. Whatever he'd been expecting, that wasn't it.

"I might have, yeah. I do advise that to people a lot," he said, not really remembering word for word what he'd told the boy in their only other meaningful interaction. "So, you wanted to talk about something or just check?" he asked, unsure of what to do.

"I wanted to… talk, yes," Todoroki answered, looking down. As he did that, he brought his left hand up and started at it. "I used my flames today, to stave off the cold of my right side," he added, but Kazuki didn't know very well where that was coming from. The most he guessed was that using his flames meant a lot to Todoroki. After all, the boy hardly ever did. Hell, he didn't even remember seeing much of it at all before that day. "I promised myself that I wouldn't use it."

"Can I ask why?" Kazuki said then, making the other boy look up.

"You must know about my father, Endeavor," Todoroki answered before a bitter expression formed on his face. "He's been the Number Two Hero since forever ago now," he added, and there was something in the way that he said "hero" that expressed a lot more than the words did. Especially when Kazuki took into account the emotions rolling off of Todoroki.

"I'm familiar, somewhat," he said in the end. And it was difficult to forget Endeavor. Back in juvie people felt a lot more identified with the less than friendly man than they did All Might, the hero of legend, shining example of everything they'd never be.

"Do you know anything about Quirk Marriages?"

"Can't say that I do, no," Kazuki admitted, watching Todoroki take a deep breath in to calm himself. Judging by what he was picking up from his sense, he wasn't very successful.

"After the first few generations of Quirks… People started trying something," Todoroki started explaining, looking off to the side for a moment. "They started choosing who to have children with, trying to enhance their own Quirks for the next generation."

'And he has Endeavor's fire, obviously, so the ice… I'm getting the picture, yeah,' Kazuki thought. He didn't know where it was all going, but he had some ideas as to why Todoroki didn't use his fire much. He'd thought it might be because it was more destructive than ice. Maybe he had a bad memory in regards to the burn mark over his eye… Now he knew he might be right, but also not close at all.

"So, my father ingratiated himself to my mother's family," Todoroki confirmed with a smile that held absolutely no mirth or happiness behind it. "For the sake of his ambition, he took his Quirk, took my mother's… And created me. His tool, the one he'd raise to finally stand above All Might."

Kazuki gulped, suddenly feeling terrible. He'd been feeling Todoroki's emotions for as long as they'd been in the same class. How had he not noticed anything? Why had he dismissed all the negative emotions like that? Was it because they were too low? Was it because it was easier? He didn't know.

He hated that he didn't know.

"In my memories, my mother is always crying," Todoroki continued then and Kazuki almost wanted to tell the other boy to stop. How was he supposed to deal with this? 'You encouraged him. You are going to be a hero,' he told himself in his mind. 'So, listen and be a hero.' "She told me that my left side is ugly," the boy said, bringing his left hand to the scarred part of his face. "And she dumped boiling water on me."

"Are you even listening to me, you stupid-!" Kazuki heard then, as if his father was right next to them.

"So, I promised myself that I'd be the Number One Hero, and that I'd do it without his power," Todoroki said, looking straight at Kazuki with his determination shining bright in his heterochromic eyes.

"My father was the one that caused me to snap when I was a kid," Kazuki told the other boy, making his eyes widen. Obviously, Todoroki hadn't been expecting that, it seemed. "I guess one could say it was both my parents, because they hated each other and they hated me… But that day, it was just my father. My mother was long gone and we were there… He was shouting at me, he hit me, there was more shouting… and then I just found that I could create my grimm… in the worst way possible."

"The Black Rampage," Todoroki finished unnecessarily.

"The Black Rampage," Kazuki confirmed with a nod and a bitter smile. "I swore, after that. I swore that I wouldn't summon a grimm ever again… But I couldn't. It was a part of me and it didn't want to be contained. I couldn't contain it, no matter how much I tried."

"I can."

"You can, so I wish you all the luck trying to get to your goal," Kazuki told the other boy, drawing a blink from him. "I've seen you start using it."

"I had to use it back at the USJ. If I hadn't, Hagakure…" Todoroki replied, his emotions spiking once more, full of shame and guilt. "I couldn't not use them."

"And that's good," Kazuki told him. "I think it says a lot about you, that you gave up your resolution to save someone. It's a good thing, as far as I'm concerned. Sticking it to your father is great and I'm all for that, but… The people you have to save, the people that you are a hero for, they deserve your all, not a literally half-assed attempt."

"I know that," Todoroki replied with a nod, his expression blank but his emotions a mess. "Does it get easier, hating it?"

"No, but I've learned to make the best of it," Kazuki said with a half-smile. "I've learned to try and see the positives instead of reminding me of the negatives. I don't do a great job at it, admittedly, but I like thinking I'm getting better."

"I hope to do the same myself then," Todoroki replied, looking to the side, outside the passage they were standing on. "As it is… I think you were right. Maybe talking about things does help."

"Well, glad that I could help then. If you need a chat, I'm always available… I can't promise I'll be able to help, but I can listen," Kazuki told the other boy, unsure if he should be doing that at all. He couldn't very well turn his back on Todoroki after all that though. "I do suggest you visit Hound Dog though, he's much more qualified than I am."

"I'll keep that in mind… For now, I think I've taken enough of your time, Endo," Todoroki said, giving him a nod and then starting to walk away. Kazuki stood there for a long moment, however, unmoving.

That had been a lot to get thrown at him. He didn't even know what to do or say in regards to that. Should he just go on as if he hadn't heard all that? And yet, he didn't know what else to do, at least for the moment.

After some time, he moved towards the lunch hall, his mind clouded by the many thoughts demanding attention.

And behind a corner wall, looking at his retreating back, a third person stood.

[}-o-{]

"So, do I have to smack Tiny here or do I have to smack him twice?" Kazuki asked once he reached the table where his friends were sitting at.

"The hell, man?"

"Surprisingly, you don't have to hit him at all," Jiro answered, twirling one of her jack-lobes. "I know, right?" she added, seeing his mock shocked expression.

"I already made a wish!" Hagakure joined in.

"... You guys suck," Mineta grumbled. To the side, Kazuki was happy to see that Togeike seemed to have calmed down a bit. He'd even say that she was having fun, judging by the way her lips seemed to twitch into a smile. 'Victory for the weirdos.'

"So, what did I miss?"

"Bubbly is trying to make Togeike a gacha addict," Yaoyorozu informed him, to which he hummed. "Something about needing more people to give her points on some base thing? I'm not very sure."

"Really?" he asked, turning towards the invisible girl, who seemed to shift on her seat, embarrassed. "Any luck? I could use some of those myself."

Both Yaoyorozu and Jiro facepalmed loudly at that.

"You actually play that?" Togeike asked, seemingly surprised.

"Yeah? It's a fun game to play whenever I have a minute to waste. Distracting too, which is nice. I like the roguelike mode."

"Roguelite,"Mineta corrected.

"Same thing," Kazuki said with a shrug, getting a groan from the shorter boy. "Actual levels are too hard for my smooth brain though, so I check guides for those."

"Disgrace," Hagakure and Mineta both hissed at him, making him roll his eyes.

"This is my friend group now," Jiro lamented, deflating and looking up at the ceiling. Next to her, Yaoyorozu gave her a comforting pat on the back. As for Togeike, she just… looked confused.

"By the way, Kirishima and Ashido didn't join us?" he asked, looking around. He found those two a moment later, sitting at the same table as their cavalry team, with Sero and Bakugo. The latter of which looked anything but happy, that much was evident. As he glanced in search though, his eyes found Kamakiri, Yanagi and Monoma, all of which waved at him when they caught him looking at them. Even the latter one, surprisingly enough. Sure, they'd just gotten through the last event together, but he'd just thought it'd be a little harder to befriend the blonde.

"Fine by me," Mineta grumbled, clearly still not quite done forgiving the duo. Kazuki appreciated that, but he'd honestly prefer if they could let go of what happened. Sure, they weren't great friends anymore, but there was no need for hostility. "I know, I know," the short boy muttered, rolling his eyes. Apparently, Kazuki was so easily read that his friend could basically read his mind or something.

The rest of the lunch break was a calm affair, with some idle conversation and some more talk about what had gone on in the last event. With how little attention he'd paid to what actually was happening away from his team, Kazuki appreciated that last bit. He welcomed the familiar peace more than ever too, considering he was still hyper aware of the negativity around. Not even the talk with Todoroki had made him forget, because he just couldn't forget.

It was going to be there the whole time, he knew, at the back of his mind.

'This day can't be over soon enough,' he lamented, as he ate his lunch. It was nice to be away from the spotlight for a bit, despite everything. At least that way he didn't have to worry about every move he made, every expression, every word… He didn't have to watch himself or worry about his already slim chance at a good impression on the public going down the drain.

Instead, he could relax, as much as he could with his damn Quirk on all the time.

Eventually, the break was over and they had to go back out.

"And after that!" Present Mic started eventually, once the break was over. It was time for the show to go on. "It's time for the last event to be revealed! From the four teams, sixteen participants have made it through. And the last stage is… a tournament!"

'Does that mean what I think it means?' Kazuki thought, glancing towards his competition on both sides as they all walked towards the stage. They were all standing straight, nervous, but nothing else. There was no fear, no frustration. It was not the time for those.

He had an idea of what was coming and judging by some expressions around, he wasn't the only one. None of the events were ever fixed, but the one that followed was a common enough one appearing often as the last stage. It was, after all, a rather dramatic and showy event. One that would also offer a great way for students to show their potential without there being a any attention directed any other way.

Which is to say…

"We are pitting them against each other!" Present Mic confirmed his suspicions then. "In One-On-One Combat!"

'Ok then… Let's do this.'

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

I honestly don't know what to put in these notes today. I'm not particularly nervous about anything, despite the Todoroki talk being important and all. I think I've managed to at least not screw that up. Might not be great, but just like Kazuki with his speech, I'll be happy with a meh.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter though.

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: How are you seeing that top three now?

See you.