Chapter 100

"I heard you told Shoto to ask me to work together," Asui said, sitting in front of Kazuki during lunch and he looked at her for a moment. She wasn't annoyed or angry or anything like that. He'd have thought she was, considering that almost sounded like an accusation, but then again, she was blunt. That was part of the reason why he'd done what he had though, so he was kind of expecting that.

It was good to know that he hadn't messed up though.

"I was," he admitted without problem, aware that the rest of his friend group was watching their conversation. Well, everyone but Shoto, who was eating like nothing was going on. That was also expected, really. "I hope things are going well with you two?"

"They are," Shoto answered instead of Asui. "Asui-"

"I told you to call me Tsu," the girl interrupted, but Kazuki's friend continued, undeterred.

"-is a good partner. We'll do well in this assignment," Shoto declared, not a hint of doubt in him. Interestingly, Asui broke eye contact with everyone at the table and turned her attention towards the plate. Not to sound like Mina or Toru, but Kazuki thought he was seeing something interesting there.

Just in case though, he decided to play it safe.

No need to make things awkward for anyone. So, when he saw that one of the aforementioned girls – Mina, specifically, although he wasn't ruling out Toru too, considering she was invisible and it was harder to tell – looked like she was going to say something, he intervened. Anything for the sake of keeping his table on a positive state and not having to deal with forced second-hand embarrassment or annoyance.

"Well, that's good to hear. Welcome to the group of weirdos and loners, Asui," Kazuki said with the same tone one might use to talk about the weather. "We're odd, but we are good… for the most part. Ignore Minoru, if you must."

"Hey, what the hell, man?!"

"Language."

"Good to be here," the frog girl replied and he thought he saw a hint of a smile in her usually stoic expression. He smiled back at her, pleased that things were going great. It was nice to have friends and it was even better to make more of those. "Also, call me Tsu."

"Sure thing, Tsu," he told her without hesitation. Did he think it was odd that she was willing to be informal right off the bat? A little bit. Then again, Kazuki himself was more than fine being on a first name basis with everyone. He was more than fine not being Endo as much as he could get away with, to be entirely honest. "You can call me Kazuki if you want. Or Kazu, or whatever else you want. I don't think my name's good for nicknames though," he offered back to her, a grin on his face as he added the nicknames to mimic her own. He thought it sounded terrible, but it was still better than his surname, as far as he was concerned.

"Kazu… I think I like it," Tsu replied and he was sure there was a smile on her face then and there. What made her so happy, he didn't know, but he was always willing to take an unexpected win. Some of his friends seemed to be a little annoyed that he went and got another nickname, but they'd get over it. "So, what do you usually do in this group?"

"Other than being awkward, socially stunted people?" he asked, receiving more than a few token protests from around the table. "Not much."

"Sounds like fun," Tsu said, the smile now gone but he was surprised she'd been so expressive before. It was already as much emotion as he'd seen from the girl ever since he met her. Then again, he hadn't interacted much with her through the year so far, bar some training at the facilities when she joined them and some quick words in between classes. "I think I'll like it here."

"Are we gonna have the whole class at this table?" Kyoka asked, making a show of looking around. "Because we're running out of space, just saying." Sure enough, there were only a few more seats open before they were occupying the whole thing.

Now that attention was drawn to that fact though, Kazuki noticed something else. They were kind of drawing attention from others too. It didn't take him long to figure out why either. They were, after all, the only table with so many people from the same group. Most others had a few people from one group on one end and some from another on the other, sometimes even with a third group in the middle and the numbers went from mere duos up to four or five.

Then there was Kazuki's circle of friends which… Had a few more than that.

"Maybe we can drag another table and put them together?" Toru suggested and he smiled.

"I like the way you think," he said and he was sure she was beaming, if he was reading her body language right. Was it slightly silly? Yes, yes it was, but Kazuki was all for spending more time with his friends. Then again, he might need to start splitting his lunch breaks between his friend group and the club. Not that those weren't friends, but the distinction was kind of necessary to keep things a little simpler.

"I don't think that's allowed," Momo pointed out, somewhat uneasy but also somewhat resigned.

"Might as well check, considering how things are going. We might have the whole school by the time we graduate," Minoru commented in wry amusement. "Not that I'm complaining, mind, but still."

"Being too friendly sounds like a problem I wouldn't mind having," Kazuki said simply and Mina barked out a laugh, smacking him on the back and almost knocking his food out of his mouth when he went to take a bite. Time was passing and he was running out of lunch break to actually have lunch.

The problem of having people to talk to.

That was also a problem he didn't mind having.

"That's the spirit, Kazuki!" the self-proclaimed alien queen exclaimed happily and not at all minding disturbing him.

"Yeah, this looks like a fun table," Tsu declared, finishing the statement with a ribbit as if for emphasis.

[}-o-{]

"Eyes on me," Kazuki said, calling attention to himself and his training group once more.

Why had he started to do that? Because they were plenty and the facility was only so big. So, since they occupied a chunk of space, he'd started using his Grimm Voice to warn others. It had all started after one of their training exercises – a rescue one, funnily enough – had ended up with someone else becoming collateral damage. Thankfully, nothing actually bad had happened, the whole thing ending with just Momo being a little embarrassed and apologetic.

Since then though, they were careful to make sure that others would know they were about to get started. It was good awareness training for them, of course, but if the other people could also keep an eye out, all the better. So far, there'd been a few close calls and nothing else after that one incident.

"Lights out," he said, his shadow extending and Grimm starting to pop out.

It wasn't always that he used a "catchphrase" actually, but the Management Team had heard one of his joking moments and now Nagashira had him trying out ideas. He wasn't quite a fan of them, but maybe it was just him. Not like he was all that embarrassed and nobody had laughed at him all that much, even with the worst ideas, so he just went for it.

Once more, the Management Team were the experts on the matter, so if Nagashira wanted him to try out catchphrases, he'd do just that. Who knew? Maybe he'd strike gold and it'd be another step in the right direction. Kazuki was willing to try a lot of things for the sake of improving his situation.

Although, admittedly, sometimes he felt a bit like a lab rat.

With that cheerful thought in mind, Kazuki decided to focus back on the training. At the moment, he was trying to work on his Alpha line of Grimm controlling the normal ones. He needed his whole focus for that, after all, so he better push away other unnecessary musings.

He was a little wary of letting go of control over his Grimm, admittedly. It drove home how reckless he'd been during the exam, but still, at least then he'd had teachers around. For training though, there was usually a single person keeping an eye on him. So, Kazuki had waited for Aizawa to be that person, because he could put a stop to his Quirk real quick and let him get things under control again. There was someone on knockout duty too, as usual, but Kazuki wanted a little more contingence power than that.

He really didn't like letting go of his control over the Grimm. He didn't trust them, at all. Not keeping a tight leash on them felt like he was tempting fate, dangling a juicy piece of meat in front of a starving dog. It could only end one way, in his mind, even though he knew it wasn't like that at all. He knew that the Alpha could control the other Grimm just fine, much like he did and if he kept those firmly under his thumb, everything would be alright, but still.

It'd take some time to get used to letting go of them for this particular approach.

He was also testing things to see how far he could push and it wasn't a matter of multiplying the number of Grimm he could control by the same number. The Alpha line couldn't control the same amount as him without things slipping up a little. It was a bit like a Telephone Game. Some of his control and command was lost in the process of communicating it to the Alpha and from the Alpha to the normal Grimm.

So far, he was fine controlling his maximum safe number of Grimm as Alphas and those controlling three normal creatures each. He thought he could push that to four if he really needed to, but that'd be a little like pushing for the maximum number of Grimm as a whole, which meant asking for trouble. That was fine though, a great deal better than what he had the normal way, certainly.

Still, creating that many Alphas in a real situation wouldn't be the same as creating them in training. Alphas required him to use his nodes to create them, and making that many of the boss creatures left him very much affected by the node usage. Channeling raw emotion like that took its toll on his mind, after all, and that was probably where a great deal of his struggles came from.

In a real life situation? Kazuki doubted he'd be able to make that many Alphas under pressure and not mess up somewhere. Either the creation would fail or he'd fail to keep them all under control. That's what practice was for though.

He could do without the process sucking as much as it did, but such was his life, he supposed. The nodes were really strong, so he'd just have to suck it up and get used to those moments of overwhelming emotion. Either that, or he'd mess up his own mind in the process.

He was sure Inui was keeping a close eye on him just in case.

"Boss?" Masu called and he blinked, checking on every "thread" that connected to his Alphas to make sure none of them had slipped while his mind got lost. Evidently, he was still a little out of it. None of them had quite gotten away though, but some had been close.

"Sorry. Thanks," he mumbled, getting an uneasy smile from the Management student.

They had offered to be on knockout duty, actually, for some reason. They'd also been surprisingly insistent on the matter and Kazuki hadn't seen enough reason not to let them go for it. It freed his friends to practice too, which was great. That was also part of the reason why he'd gone for it only knowing that Aizawa was around though.

"That's what we're here for," Masu replied dutifully and he grinned.

Yeah, the club had been a great idea, even if the actual club hadn't been planned at all.

[}-o-{]

"I do wish you didn't need to do what you do with your Quirk," Inui told him and Kazuki gave him a weary smile. Even after the training session was done and over for a while – since he was the third of his friends to have gone in for a consulting session –, he still felt his nerves recovering from the frying of the nodes. And that was the least of his symptoms, really.

"Do you think I don't?" Kazuki asked with a helpless shrug. The nodes were necessary for him to use his Quirk most effectively. It was how it went. Nothing he could do about it.

"I wonder sometimes," Inui said, his tone odd and pity coming from him. Kazuki didn't understand what he meant though. Did he think he liked using the nodes? Why? "As it is, I'd like you to space out training like what you did today, alright? I know you were already going to do that," the man told him, adding the last part when Kazuki had almost gone to say something himself. "But this is to make it more official, alright? Don't push yourself too much on that front. Even if the emotions are forced and foreign, as you say, they still have an effect on your mind and even your body. So, use it sparingly until you get a good handle on it, alright? I'd like it if you did so even then, admittedly."

"I like the sound of that," Kazuki replied with a slight smile.

"On a different note, the club. I thought you'd bring it up on your own, admittedly," Inui started, leaning back on his chair in a way he often did. Kazuki always thought it meant the man was more interested, but in a way that meant whatever the topic was wasn't bad. He guessed it was fair though, all things considered. "Any reason you didn't?" Inui asked and Kazuki considered that for a long moment.

"I guess, I got swept away dealing with it on my own," he answered, but that didn't sound right even to himself. It was the truest statement he could give though. "The rest of the group and I, we've been talking about it non-stop and I guess… I don't know, honestly," Kazuki ended up saying. He gave up halfway through his attempt at explaining himself because he didn't believe a word he was saying and lying to Inui sounded like the stupidest thing to do, ever.

"You don't need an answer, Endo," the counselor told him, seemingly more amused than anything else. There was that underlying pity and sadness though, but Kazuki was starting to think those were just permanent as far as he was concerned. He almost wanted to ask about that. "No one but you feels the need to talk about everything with me. I'm here to help you with things that you feel the need to ask for help with. The meetings might have been deemed necessary after the USJ, but that was only in relation to what happened and to make sure that you were alright and nothing would happen."

"I just… I want to do things well, that's why I ask so much. I'm sorry if I'm bothering you," Kazuki said sheepishly. He didn't regret doing what he did, of course, but he did feel bad if he was being a burden or anything of the sort. He didn't think he'd be half as successful in much of what he did without Inui, after all.

"Not a bother at all, Endo, I assure you. It's true that I've been getting a lot more students coming my way and more regularly at that, but my job doesn't usually see much to do, actually. It'd be a good thing, if it weren't because students that need the help avoid coming for one reason or another," Inui explained and Kazuki didn't need to be explained more. He'd seen first hand how reluctant some students could be and he understood, a little, but he didn't agree.

"Should I say that I won't do it again or that I will?" he asked, unsure.

"It's a good thing that you're encouraging others to get help, but do try not to pressure them into doing so. An idle piece of advice though, since you've been doing well on that front too," Inui told him, waving off any lingering doubt he might have still had. "Back to the topic at hand though, I'm glad you feel confident dealing with things on your own. If you need help, I'm here, but don't be afraid to tackle things by yourself. Failing is part of life and for as much as we want to teach you so you avoid mistakes, striking out on your own is just as important to learn."

"So, I shouldn't ask for help?" Kazuki asked, half amused and half confused. He understood though and he was… kind of happy to hear that too. Had he ever done something without checking with Inui or someone else? Granted, he was checking with the Management Team in regards to the club, but that felt different. It felt… like he was the one in charge, he was the one doing things just as much as them.

It was a strange feeling.

"If you want to, do so. If you don't, then that's fine too," Inui said, somewhat cryptically.

Kazuki considered that for a long moment and thought about the club. He'd been reluctant at the start and there was a part of him that was full of doubt, fidgeting at the back of his mind. However, there was a part of him that was looking forward to it, swept in the excitement of the group. After all, it wasn't just the Management Team that was interested in the club project. Even Neito, Chikuchi and Mei – admittedly with varying degrees of interest – were getting into it.

"I think… this time, I want to try doing this on my own."

[}-o-{]

"You took your time," Nezu told Kazuki at the end of that day when he went to his office. The break was upon them already and he wanted to get the club situation settled before then. That way, the Management Team would have time to actually work on things properly. That and maybe Mei and Keage could work on how the club's existence would affect their support equipment budget.

Provided his talk with the principal went well.

"I'm sorry if that was inconvenient, sir," he said, taking a deep breath in and trying not to panic. He needed a calm mind if he wanted to be able to remember everything he needed to know. He'd brought his copies of the club papers and notes he'd been given by the Management Team, but he was keenly aware that it'd be better if he didn't check those too much, or at all.

"Not at all," Nezu told him, waving him off with a hand that held a cup of coffee. "I'm excited for this like you wouldn't believe, but I'm patient. I'm sure the wait just made this whole thing better," the principal added. It did look like the man was in a very good mood, for whatever reason.

Kazuki couldn't figure out what the big deal was. Or, well, maybe it was better to say he couldn't figure out what the big deal was for the principal. The club was huge for them, but not so much for the faculty, right? Or was he missing some key piece of information somewhere?

Some of his confusion must have shown on his face, because Nezu chuckled before he could try to respond to his words.

"I'm excited because this will be a huge step for this school. Attempts have been made to replicate agency circumstances in controlled situations inside schools, but the results have been… lackluster. Not enough drive, not support, not enough students, not enough outside participation," Nezu explained to him and Kazuki took a moment to process that. Unfortunately, with the principal, it was difficult to have a moment, actually. "You have all of those, even if the latter of them is… a little more negative than would be preferred. You've been doing a spectacular job at improving your situation. I have high hopes for this club project, Endo, and I can't wait to see what you do."

"Thank you, principal. That's… very kind of you to say," Kazuki replied hesitantly, leaning back and taking a deep breath in. He could have done without the man making them sound like a group of lab rats, but that was fine. He could deal with an eccentric personality if it was on his side and Nezu seemed to be on his side. Weird as the… man? creature?... seemed to be, Kazuki didn't think he wished them ill, so he'd roll with the punches.

"You're just incapable of disappointing, aren't you, Mr. Endo?" Nezu told him and Kazuki detected a manic hint in the principal that honestly scared him a little. "Now, I'm sure there's plenty to talk about. Unless you're agreeing with the current draft?"

Kazuki almost didn't believe his Quirk when he sensed disappointment trickling out of the principal when he asked that last question. Did Nezu want them to argue against the "contract" and negotiate? Were some of the points the Management Team asked him to check things the principal had set there for them to find?

He had a feeling that running the club with Nezu as their advisor would be… interesting.

Whether that meant good interesting or bad interesting, it was anyone's guess though.

"Right," he mumbled, straightening where he sat and organizing his thoughts one last time. It was time to get to it. "The first and most important point is the budget and general money situation involving the club and our own budgets, in the case of the Hero and Support students," he started and the way Nezu perked up, almost vibrating on his chair, kind of unnerved him a little. Still, he soldiered on as best he could. "We want a number of things, primarily amongst which is the possibility that we might be able to use our own personal resources for the development of the club and our own equipment. Would we be able to gather money through the club if the activities align with the spirit of it, that being to mimic an agency? Would we be able to sell merch and organize events to gather resources? Beyond that, would we be able to use personal money to fund the club and ourselves? The school rules are a little unclear on the second and the draft is even more so on the first."

"Ohohoho, yes, perfect. That's not even one of the things I had in mind for this conversation. This will be an amazing project, I can already tell," the principal said, all but confirming Kazuki's suspicions about them being set up to have this conversation from the very beginning. "To answer your questions, yes, you can use your own personal resources for the development of your equipment and the club, if you're so inclined, but everything should be checked with school staff and the club advisor in the latter case, which can be me in the former and is me in the latter. I also encourage you to collect your own funds through club activities. Much better than just bringing your own money into this, I'll admit, but I won't stop you if you want to do that."

Oh, Kazuki just knew that Keage was going to love that answer. The guy was almost desperate to get some actual business going with the club. There were already talks and designs for merch bouncing off between his and Nagashira's heads.

"What's your next point?" Nezu asked, and it was difficult to tell, but Kazuki was sure the principal was positively ecstatic.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

Well, term is finally coming to an end. It got a little longer than I expected, but oh well. A few more chapters and the break will start… I'm sure that'll be fun, huh? Nothing bad could ever happen in an UA school trip. Especially for Class 1-A.

I have no idea why you guys are looking at me like that.

Anyway, I hope you all 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 profit seeking club activities do you think Keag- I mean, Pharos will come up with? Yes. I am, once gain, picking your brains for ideas. What are you gonna do about it?

See you.