Chapter 85

"Pleasure doing business with you," he commented, mostly joking, as he took the offered money and absently counted it. It wasn't a lot, obviously, but it was also plenty when compared to what he'd actually done. Not that he was complaining though. He knew it was unlikely to go well if he rejected the payment, so he didn't even try.

"Way to make it feel like a transaction," Midnight commented, a half-smile on her face. Even with that though, there was no hiding her shame and guilt from Kazuki. He wondered what the latter was about, admittedly, but he didn't want to push for answers. She was an adult, his teacher and his minder. The last thing he wanted to do was annoy her.

Besides, she'd helped him out when he needed it, so the least he could do was return the favor in whatever way he might be able to.

"You're the one paying me," he pointed out with an amused grin. "You can just not, you know? You've helped me before. Making a kitten for you and giving you a meal I was already going to cook isn't all that much. Speaking of, I was about to get started on breakfast, you want some?" he offered with as kind a smile as he could plaster on his face.

Midnight had spent a good few hours at his place after she arrived and she'd been very out of it for most of it. He'd wondered, more than once, if that was how he looked to other people when his Quirk overwhelmed him, because she'd been a mess of bad emotions. She hadn't told him what happened to make her that upset, but it didn't take a genius to realize that she likely had come across something heavy while on the job.

So, they had spent that time just talking about nothing in particular, eating, drinking tea and so on. Kazuki had done his absolute best to keep the conversation going, if calmly, and offering her all the little things that helped him deal with his Quirk's emotions. By the end of it all, Midnight had still felt like shit, but she'd mostly been tired. It wasn't a huge improvement, but Kazuki felt like he'd helped all the same.

"I think you've helped me enough," Midnight said with a weak smile. "But I appreciate the offer and, about that help, that's my job, Endo. Still… I guess we are even. Spend that with your friends, alright? Have fun. You deserve that," she added and he decided to just nod.

"I'll probably add this to my savings."

"Those for anything in particular or just in case?"

"I want to buy a violin," he readily answered, smiling widely. It was something that he was kind of excited about, actually. "Those are expensive though, so it'll take a while. I'm getting there."

"Well, good luck with that," Midnight said, a weird smile forming on her face. Kazuki thought it looked familiar, but he couldn't quite place what it was. "I think I've bothered you enough though. Don't be late to school, alright?"

"Right," he answered, his expression probably turning a little brittle. It was kind of sad to see her leave when she was feeling bad, but it wasn't like he could force her to stay. Everyone had their own way of dealing with stuff and he didn't want to be a bother.

Besides, it wasn't like he was doing things for completely altruistic reasons.

He was also kind of selfish, he supposed.

"What's with that face?" Midnight asked, seemingly a little surprised by his reaction. "One would think you'd be happy to get rid of the sad old woman, nevermind having a teacher around outside school hours."

"It's…" he started, ready to lie through his teeth. However, as he went to do so, he paused. What was the point of that? Not worrying Midnight? She'd proved that she cared. Furthermore, she'd noticed something was wrong. Lying was likely not to do much of anything other than complicate matters.

"Find moments to be yourself."

"... It's nice to have someone around here," he said, somewhat embarrassed as he shuffled a little on his feet, looking at anything other than his teacher. "I've gotten used to being by myself, but I still enjoy having others around anyway. It's… better," he explained, finishing with a shrug and an awkward smile. He felt so incredibly stupid.

Why did he always feel like he was a walking, talking pity party whenever he talked about how he felt?

"Well, way to make me feel bad, kid," Midnight replied, his sense proving her words right. That wasn't what he'd wanted, but it was… kind of freeing to be able to talk about how he felt, despite how uncomfortable, awkward and embarrassing it was. It felt like getting a weight off of his shoulders. "How am I supposed to walk away now?"

"You should have known better. Now you've fallen for my villainous plot, heroine," he commented, not quite managing to put any sort of real acting effort into it. He was still feeling supremely awkward after opening up like that. God, maybe next time he should just not? That sounded better.

"You want to act in movies like that?" Midnight commented with a half-smile, but he noticed that she was just teasing and she was feeling better, so he counted that as a win. "Come on. I'll prepare something for the both of us. I only had a cup of coffee before coming here, so I could use something more filling. I'll pay for the ingredients too."

"I mean, if you're gonna cook, I don't mind-"

"Nope," Midnight interrupted, completely disregarding what he was saying. "I pay and I cook. Least I can do if you're gonna put up with my old, sad ass."

"You're not old," he argued, stepping away so that she could enter his apartment. "And I'm pretty sure I'm the sad one here."

"Don't argue with your teacher, Endo."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"That's the spirit."

Despite losing the argument without even being given a chance, Kazuki smiled widely.

It was truly nice to have company.

[}-o-{]

"I'm glad your weekend went well, Endo," Inui told him and he actually seemed to feel like that. Kazuki could hardly believe it, even after everything. However, his mood was so good those days that he just grinned and accepted it. Things were going that great as of late, to the point that he could almost brush off the nervousness that got worse and worse through the school. "Are you still nervous though?"

"Yeah," he admitted with a sigh and a somewhat annoyed half-smile. "I can't wait for these exams to be over so people will finally relax. Coming here is a cruel and unusual punishment at this point."

"Hopefully things will get better as the days pass."

"Doubt it," Kazuki commented with a snort. "Not to be the pessimistic ass I usually am-"

"Language," Inui interrupted, amused. After some time, he'd finally managed to relax with the cursing. It felt kind of restrictive to hold back all the time. So, he was doing his best to keep himself relaxed except when he was outside, especially during interviews.

It was a bit of a risk to let his guard down, but even Maeda had agreed that he needed to relax and if cursing helped, then he should just go for it. Kazuki was very grateful for that, because it truly felt a little weird to have to watch what he said all the time. Furthermore, it always left him feeling weird with his friends, being second Momo, and he didn't want to mess with his happy moments if he could help it.

"-but I really do feel like it won't happen. I bet each test will make them more nervous once they start over-analyzing and thinking they should do better and so goes the spiral to the end," Kazuki continued, explaining himself as if the interruption hadn't happened.

"That's… a distinct possibility," Inui said, unable to deny the truth. Kazuki tried not to be too smug about it. He probably failed, but he did try. "On a different note, Midnight," the man started and Kazuki winced.

"Is… Should I not have?" he asked immediately. He did think he might have done something wrong, but he wasn't sure what. Offering a hand sounded like a good thing, but maybe he should have left her alone? Maybe he'd overstepped some boundary or caused trouble somehow.

"No, no. No problem at all with what you did, Endo. On the contrary, you did well. She wasn't in any actual trouble, so most people would have just left her be. Everyone goes through things in their own way, so people usually don't step in when it comes to cases like that," Inui explained and that sounded true enough. There'd been some people that had been concerned for him back in the day, but no one had actually done much of anything. "I do have to ask, what do you think about this?"

"I'm… not sure I understand?" Kazuki replied, blinking confusedly. "I mean, I'm happy I could help? I've felt bad a bunch of times and I've always wanted someone to give a shit, so I thought about offering to just… be there," he answered, trying to figure out what Inui was looking to know. "It's nice to be able to use my Quirk to cheer someone up and…"

He trailed off for a moment there, looking up and almost wishing Inui wouldn't be his patient self. Alas, that was a hopeless wish. The man was too good at times.

"... and having company was nice. I love my place and I love having my peace and quiet often but… sometimes it's nice to have people around," he explained for the second time that day, which didn't lessen the awkwardness the smallest bit, unfortunately. "I'm not sure if you are looking for something or just making conversation though, honestly," he said in the end, giving up guessing. He knew Inui would sometimes just talk for the sake of talking so that he could maybe learn something that needed to be addressed and such.

After all, Kazuki's visits there weren't for any particular reason anymore. Sometimes they just had to look for one of his many issues and address it when nothing was actually going on. It wasn't like he didn't have many of those anyway, really.

"I see. Can I tell her that?" Inui asked, making him blink again. "She feels like maybe she imposed on you somehow and that you were too nice to tell her that."

"I mean, not really, no. Feel free to tell her it's fine. I honestly didn't mind at all," Kazuki replied, a little caught off guard. Honestly… Well, he supposed he could see how his teacher could feel like they were burdening him or something, but he didn't feel like that at all. "It was… nice, to be able to help negative emotions go away," he tried to explain but he felt like he was failing miserably. "I'm not being very eloquent, am I?"

"Emotions are often difficult to express, mostly because we ourselves aren't very sure what we feel in the first place," Inui said, sounding like an all-knowing sage as he often did.

"Is this how you feel all the time, helping us?" Kazuki asked then, a realization hitting him. "Can you teach me?" he added, apparently taking Inui off guard, which wasn't something that happened often, admittedly.

"You want to learn…" the counselor started, training off as if he couldn't quite figure out what Kazuki was saying. That was kind of funny, coming from the guy that seemed to have everything figured out so often.

"How to help others," Kazuki finished for him. "Not just as a hero but… Actually, I think what you do counts as hero work, honestly. I want to do that too. Beating up villains is great and rescuing people is amazing too, but… I know very well that sometimes people need help against things that aren't… outside," he tried to explain, the resolution settling in as he spoke.

"... I'm… not the most qualified to teach this, I believe," Inui said slowly, as if considering his words carefully. "But maybe I can help you get started, if you are determined."

"I am," Kazuki said, because…

He'd needed rescue from his situation as much as he'd needed rescue from his own mind.

Maybe he could dedicate himself to doing both for others.

[}-o-{]

"So, what you are saying is that I shouldn't have a plan?" Kazuki asked, blinking repeatedly.

"Sort of," Masu answered, wringing their hands nervously as they tried to find the right words after the three of them had tried to explain things to him about how to approach social media. "If we try to just appeal to the public, it'll be obvious what you are trying to do. So, what we thought was just having you do whatever you feel like doing, be natural, use it as you think it should be used and as you feel comfortable doing it."

"I don't know how to use social media at all. I'd be fine not getting involved with that mess, honestly. The whole point is…" Kazuki started, trailing off as Masu grew more nervous. Nagashira wasn't too far behind either. Keage was a little nervous too, but he kept it together much better than the other two. Apparently, he'd either gotten too worked up without noticing or they were more terrified of him than he thought. 'Right,' Kazuki thought, sighing and massaging the bridge of his nose. "Doesn't matter. I guess you aren't wrong," he said in the end, deflating a little as he ran his fingers through his hair.

It was true that they weren't wrong. It was just that it felt like he was being told there was no way to make things better. So far, there'd always been something he could do to improve his chances. With UA, with the Sports Festival, with his big interview, with the exams that were around the corner, everything he had to face he could prepare for, study, train or generally just do something to have a better chance at succeeding.

"We aren't…" Masu started before their mouth clicked shut when Kazuki turned to look at them. He really hoped they'd get over their nerves around him, because it was both annoying and depressing. Kazuki guessed he'd gotten spoiled by everyone else either staying away or accepting him for who he was. Then again, most of the people he knew were heroes and hero students… and Mei. "We aren't saying there's nothing to do. We can help you filter what you actually post or say. Just that… we can't tell you what to. The more genuine things are, the better. Does that make sense?"

Ok, that sounded a lot better.

"... So," Kazuki started, frowning before taking a deep breath in and relaxing. "What you are saying is that I come up with what I want to share like I would "normally" and then send it to you instead so you can tell me if it's good or not? Am I understanding this right?" he asked, a little more reassured. If that was the case, there were plenty of chances of messing up, but at least it wouldn't just be him rushing into it blindly.

"More or less," Masu answered, their nerves calming down. "You'll have to do most of the work since it has to be… Well, you, but we can help make sure you don't post something that'd be bad or help you deal with any unexpected mistakes."

"Ok… Yeah… I can work with that," Kazuki said slowly, a little disappointed. It wasn't what he'd wanted to hear, but it wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be. That was the story of his life, he supposed. Had he ever gotten a straight out easy way to do something? Maybe it was his pessimistic ass at work, but he didn't think so. "I'll be counting on you guys, then," he commented, rubbing his neck.

He was feeling tense just talking about it. He didn't want to know how he'd feel once he actually had to go through with things. That was going to be a nerve wracking process. As such, he'd already decided to wait until after exams were over to get started, because he really didn't need to pile up on that.

"Great," Masu replied, beaming at him, their nerves long forgotten, apparently. "You are determined to put it off until after the exams are over?" they asked, to which he nodded and the three Management students shared looks between themselves. "Ok. We'll keep discussing things for the time being."

"So, uh, um… Boss?" Nagashira took over, sounding supremely nervous, bordering on scared.

"You can just call me Endo, or whatever. You don't have to stick with that nickname. That's just something those three chose to tease me with," he said, waving his hand towards where Mei, Neito and Chikuchi were having some more discussions in regards to support equipment. "Well, Chikuchi takes it a little seriously, but there's no need for you to do so."

"... Right," Nagashira replied, very much sounding like he didn't know what to do. Before Kazuki could try to better explain himself though, the boy continued. "I had something I wanted to talk about with the others, so, if it's alright with you, Boss…"

"Go ahead," he said, half admitting defeat, if only to himself. "You three are the ones that negotiated to be managers of the whole group," he pointed out, getting a nervous laugh and a mumble he didn't quite understand before the boy shuffled towards the other group. Idly, Kazuki noticed that he spoke to Neito in particular when he got there.

Before he could make any other observations though, Keage spoke up.

"Now, about this thing you mentioned, the movie thing," he commented and he held back a grimace. He'd told the Management kids because he thought they might help him figure out what he was getting into some more. He'd already talked plenty with Maeda, but he had some doubts and he didn't want to burden the woman too much. Maybe he could make things easier on her by learning more from other sources.

There was also the fact that the woman had told him to give them some test questions that she'd check on her end to make sure they were as good as he was told they were. It sounded a little paranoid, but who was he to judge someone for that? He wasn't that much of a hypocrite… probably. So, he decided to tackle the situation with a win-win approach.

"Right, what do you think?" he asked before blinking and turning towards Nagashira and his Sports Festival team once more. He'd just felt a spike of guilt from one of them, Neito, if he wasn't wrong. "Do you know what they are talking about?"

"Names, I think," Masu commented, to which he blinked.

Why would that cause that reaction?

[}-o-{]

[Neito Monoma]

He felt like a fucking idiot.

How was it that he hadn't realized himself without being told?

"Of course," he muttered through his teeth, uncaring for the nervous Nagashira. The Management student wasn't at fault, but he'd reassure him about that later. At the moment, he was too busy wanting to smack himself. "Phantom Thief is a godawful name."

He was a fucking idiot.

"I-It's not that bad," Nagashira denied, shaking his hands and all for emphasis. "It's just that… Well, it's… a little… It's…"

"It's not a good idea with Endo in our team," Chikuchi finished, her expression going a few levels up from the usual resting bitch-ness, which didn't help Nagashira calm down. She'd put it very well though, summarizing what Neito had been told masterfully.

He groaned, dropping his face on his hands.

Kazuki was doing herculean efforts to avoid staining his name and image as much as possible. He'd gone to an internship specifically to learn how to improve public opinion on him from the rock bottom spot it had been in before. He constantly had to deal with reporters ready to tear him to shreds at the smallest things and even in school Neito had seen him struggle to keep a nice front for everyone to see.

And then there was Neito himself, talking about being part of a team with Kazuki while picking a name like Phantom Thief.

"Someone please kill me," he muttered, torn between feeling embarrassed or just straight out angry.

"Stop being such a drama queen," Chikuchi told him flatly. "It's not that big of a deal," she added. He knew shew as right. It was just a name. There were worse things out there, and in the grand scheme of things regarding Kazuki, it was almost nothing. But almost nothing wasn't literally nothing, and that bothered Neito. He didn't want to be part of the problem, no matter how small his contribution to it might be. "Just fix it and be done with it. Or don't. Kazuki probably wouldn't hold it against you if you chose to keep it."

But she would, Neito knew was being left unsaid. He didn't mind that. Hell, Neito would hold it against himself if he fucked over one of his few, so very few friends just to stick with that stupid ass name. He'd deserve to be smacked or something if he did, quite honestly.

It wasn't even that he was attached to the name, really. It had been a petty choice to begin with. It was just something Neito had picked to rub it in the face of everyone that had ever called him a Quirk thief. He'd wanted all of them to know the thief had become a hero and a damn good one at that.

At that moment though, with it having become somewhat of an… inconvenience, to say the least, Neito couldn't help but question it on several fronts.

Was it a good idea, to let people that had made his life hell take over yet another aspect of his life? He wasn't a thief. He was trying to prove that he could be a hero. Why was he sticking with that even then? Had they gotten to him that much? Had he let them win again?

'Fuck, Kazuki's right. I really need to talk with Inui,' Neito thought to himself, sighing.

"Right, the Second-in-Command has spoken," he muttered, hating that he had to call Chikuchi that. However, just that one instance, she deserved it. "What do you think, Nagashira. Any ideas?" he asked, wanting to put the whole thing behind him… or at least get started on that. He knew he'd be thinking about it a whole lot and that it wasn't going to be fun.

"A-A few?" the Management student squeaked at his glare. Maybe he should calm down. He was just so damn annoyed-

"Calm down," Chikuchi told him, slapping the back of his head. "Not only are you scaring him, but Kazuki can pick up on your emotions," she reminded him and he took another deep breath in before sighing again. "Better," she said, nodding her approval.

"So glad to hear," he drawled. "Now, those ideas?" he asked Nagashira, careful to keep his tone as even as possible. Judging by the ginger way the guy passed him a list of ideas, he didn't succeed all that much. "These are a few?" he asked, eyebrows raised as he started reading.

His only response was a nervous chuckle.

He didn't mind though. He was too busy going over the long list of names. It was a standard sheet of paper, but it had four columns of ideas that went from top to bottom on both sides and the letter size was normal printing… maybe even smaller than normal.

Well, Kazuki certainly knew how to pick team members, if nothing else.

So, Neito lost himself on the ideas.

"Do you think Thorn works for me?" he absently heard Chikuchi ask but he didn't pay them too much mind. Well, not other than one little detail. She'd picked a simple one word name and Kazuki had picked Beacon, which was much the same. 'There could be a theme there,' Neito mused, going over the list of ideas once more.

Calling himself a thief or anything related to that was out of the question, of course. However, there was no denying – much as he wanted to – the fact that it was a sort of accurate name. He did take other's Quirks for his own benefit, just a slap of his hand and their powers would be his to use. Just a touch they might not even notice and… 'Hm, that's an idea," he thought, tilting his head.

He didn't find said idea in the list though, which was honestly surprising considering how extensive it was.

"Say," he started, getting both Chikuchi and Nagashira to look at him. "What do you think about Sleight?"

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

Another Slice-of-Life-ish chapter for you, guys. I do think at this point you must like them if you've stuck around so long, but there's always that one person that pops up in late chapters to complain. No idea how those happen, but oh well.

I don't feel too bad about this chapter though, I have to say. I'm a little nervous about the Midnight thing, but not too much. And I do think the last part with Monoma might be a little "overdramatic", but I'm gonna choose to believe I've presented and explained the situation well enough that you won't think that.

Look at me, being confident in my writing and all.

… World's probably gonna end soon.

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 is/are the tabs next to the one this chapter is on for you on the browser? I've got the DBD Drive folder on the left side and a video I'm gonna watch while eating after this on the right side. And if you are reading this on the phone, what's the app you've got open next to this in the menu?

See you.