Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 5:

Outside of USJ, dozens of cop cars and vans to take away the captured villains were lined up. There were cops gathered all over the place, and criminals were being led out in a single file line in handcuffs all linked together by chains. One detective stood in front of Class 1-A, and he counted them all up in front of him, "…17, 18, 19," he finished his count and nodded his head. "Other than the boy who seriously hurt both legs and the one with the broken hand, everyone else seems unharmed." The detective turned to speak to another cop who stood near him, and the students who were told to gather for a head count started talking to each other.

"I was in the landslide area."

"They underestimated us just 'cause we're kids."

"Where do you think I was?"

"Anyway," the detective started walking back over while talking to another cop, "let's have the students return to their class for now. We won't be questioning them right away anyway, right?"

"Detective," Asui hopped towards the man in a trench coat distinguishing him from the other officers. "What about Aizawa-sensei?"

The detective held up a recording where the doctor who sent the message described the extent of Aizawa's terrible injuries. Ashido then asked about Thirteen and the detective assured them that he was alright too. "All Might will also be fine," he added, though the students did not seem worried about him anyway. "Recovery Girl's healing is enough to take care of him, so he's in the nurse's office." After such an incident, the idea that All Might saved them and only needed to go to a school nurse made most of the students smile.

"What about Deku?" Uraraka called out.

"And for Midoriya?" Iida asked, talking about the same person as Uraraka.

Kaminari looked towards them, then he spun to the detective too and added, "And, Zach? Is he…" Kaminari did not know how to finish his question.

The detective glanced Kaminari's way, then back to the other two who he said, "Treatment in the nurse's office is enough for Midoriya." He got a frown on his face after saying it, while the two he spoke to looked relieved. He glanced back towards Kaminari and had a hesitant look on his face for what he wanted to say.

"Thank goodness," Uraraka said, before opening her eyes and lowering her smile at the way the detective was looking towards Kaminari. Now that she knew Deku was safe though, she was able to shift her worry. She had not heard anything about the other missing member of their class yet, but Kaminari's face looked nervous after that question. Around the class, a few others also noticed that Jirou and Yaoyorozu noticeably looked upset.

"His injuries, would have been enough for Recovery Girl," the detective began. "However, he is in a different location."

The detective seemed to be hiding something from them, but the man noticed the other cop next to him spin fast and salute, and he turned around as well. The class looked behind the detective to see the principal of their school walking over, along with a police officer who seemed important because of how the detective also nodded respectfully and moved out of the way.

"Principal Nezu," Kirishima whispered at the look on the principal's face.

"I am sorry students, but please listen to the police captain and follow his instructions," Nezu said, and the other students who looked like they needed to say something closed their mouths at the serious tone in his voice.

"Three students are needed for immediate questioning," the police captain said, and the detective frowned as he had just told the students to go back to class as questioning could wait until later. "Will Momo Yaoyorozu, Denki Kaminari, and Kyoka Jirou follow me?" It was worded as a question, but it was not a request.

"Oi, hey what's going on?" Kirishima asked as Kaminari started walking away from him and the others near them.

"Couldn't this wait until-" the detective who was just speaking with the students began.

"No, Detective Tsukauchi. Protocol is different when there is a fatality involved." Most of the students in the group in front of the police officer opened their eyes wide, leaning back at the sound of that. "The boy we have taken into custody was-"

"You what?!" Kaminari exclaimed. He stopped dragging his feet and ran forward towards the cop who stopped mid-sentence and frowned down at the boy. "Zach was just trying to save me! He pushed me out of the way!" Kaminari bit down angrily and then yelled, "It wasn't his fault!"

Every student in the group behind the spiky blond-haired boy in shock, even the two girls who had been following behind him. Yaoyorozu took a few seconds, but then she ran forward and began in a more calm way yet still stern to the police officer, "Kaminari is correct. It was in self-defense that he-"

"We can talk about this in private," the police captain said, looking glancing the girl and making Yaoyorozu close her mouth fast. Both she and Kaminari realized what they were doing and who they were talking about it in front of. They each grimaced as they imagined the looks on the others' faces, imagined what they might be thinking at the moment. "For now, please just come with me. Thank you for telling me that though, as we were not sure what to think." The police captain's voice got lower as he led the three students, Jirou trailing a little behind the other two, back towards one of the police vehicles. The principal stayed with the main group of students and repeated what the detective said, sending them all back to the classroom. As the three students were led away by the police captain, he said in a softer voice, "All he kept saying, until he passed out, was 'I killed him.' We don't know any of the details, so I will need you to explain the situation to me. Each of you, separately," he added.

Yaoyorozu's eyes opened wide. They don't want to give us time to get our story straight. In case we say contradicting things. They're treating him like, a real killer. "Zach wasn't-"

"Officer Kane, Officer Umbala, take one of the girls each down to the station. Kid, you're with me," the police captain said while looking down at the blond who did not have a good feeling about this either.

Kaminari looked left at Yaoyorozu who glanced back at him, both of them looking uncertain of what was going on. They each looked towards Jirou after, but she was just following one of the officers who motioned her to his vehicle. Yaoyorozu started for the other, but she looked down at the floor as she walked. I, should have done more. Something. Anything.

A day after the villain attacks at U.A. High School, the news on every channel was still talking about it. In a hospital in Musutafu, a boy laying on his back on a hospital bed turned off the tv in the room. Zach lay on his side facing the windows, not a scratch on him. Recovery Girl had come by and healed him the night before, and she sounded like she got in a heated argument outside the door before it happened, but since then the only people to come in had been hospital staff and the occasional police officer.

Zach thought about the last nurse to come in who had his lunch, how she had looked towards his right side and where his arm was surrounded by a black box halfway up his forearm. He thought about how when he watched her leave, he could see the two police officers standing outside his door. They said I wasn't under arrest, but I'm definitely under arrest, Zach stared out the window at the bright sky outside. I wonder if they're having class today. Probably are. The tv stations keep talking about how unprecedented this is, so if they take off any school, the whole thing will look even worse. U.A. is a symbol of heroes, his eyes clenched shut as he felt them watering up. What have I done?

The sliding door to his room opened up and a cop in full uniform walked towards his bed. "You have a phone call," the officer said. "You're going to want to take it," he added, while Zach turned to look at the man in confusion.

The cop had green skin and horns sticking out of his face, but he was the friendliest of the officers Zach had talked to so far. Zach lifted his left hand and the cop put the phone down in it, then the man walked back for the door and left him alone in there. Zach rose the phone and put it to the side of his head. "Hello?" He started.

There was a pause over the line as the person he was speaking to realized he was there. Then, a low voice Zach recognized well began, "Young Sazaki." He heard All Might's voice and pulled the phone from his head, his thumb hovering over the end call button that he wanted to press so badly. I can't talk to All Might. I can't face him! Zach's finger hesitated though, and then he brought the phone back up to his ear.

"All Might," he whispered. His voice was hoarse and he gasped out two more words before the tears built up in his eyes again. "I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to feel sorry about," All Might said. "Young man, you were a victim of-"

"I killed someone All Might," Zach whispered. He lifted his left arm and put it over his eyes, leaving the phone on the pillow next to his head so he could rub his eyes. He stopped rubbing them and just left his arm covering his eyes, and he continued in a hoarse voice that cracked with every word, "I, it wasn't an accident this time. I-I, I chose to, I decided!" Zach bit his lip but had to stop after a second because of how much it already hurt from biting through it all night and all morning. "And now, the things they're saying about U.A., U.A.'s a symbol of the hero society." Zach heard a surprised gasp on the other side of the phone, and he turned to look at the lit up screen next to him.

"You are even thinking about that?" All Might said, and Zach could not help but bite down on his bottom lip again. All Might's words let him know that he was not just being paranoid, because the hero said it like he had been thinking about that same thing. "Zach, I wish I could have visited you in person," All Might began, while he looked down at his injured body and grimaced. "But before I am going to be able to do so, I felt I needed to speak with you. I heard from your classmates the circumstances-"

"Snipe-sensei showed up in time," Zach gasped out. "He was there, but I still- I didn't know but I- I should have waited but I-" Zach started coughing as he was trying to speak despite the sobs forcing themselves out at the same time. Talking to the cops, he had kept it cold, he had stayed with exactly what had happened. He had tried telling them exactly the situation, once they had gotten him to stop repeating how he had killed the villain. There was no response over the line for a few seconds, then Zach stopped sniffling and he said with tear streaks covering his face, "And now the news is saying someone has to be held responsible for what I did. They're blaming teachers. And they're blaming the school. And I even heard someone, blame you, All Might," Zach gasped and his voice was so pained as he reached for the phone and put it back up to his head. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry All Might. I'm so sorry."

"Zach, this is not where your-"

"All Might," Zach said. He stopped crying and stared straight up at the ceiling above him. "Do you regret, telling me to follow my dream?"

"No," All Might responded.

Zach lay there staring at the ceiling for a few seconds. He hesitated. Zach lowered the phone from his head to the pillow next to him. Tears stopped coming out of his eyes, and he stared straight at the ceiling without moving a muscle. All Might started saying something inspirational to him next to his head, but Zach just drowned it all out. Of course he does. The League of Villains didn't manage to kill All Might, but what I did caused so much damage. The school getting attacked is one thing. Students fighting villains too, but barely anyone got injured. But when the world heard that the villains attacked the top school for heroes, and that one of those heroes-in-training killed a villain, I corrupted the hero society. "What are they teaching their students?" "Why won't they release the name of the student involved?" "These students held off a villain attack, but were their actions justified?"

It's not just me. Everyone would have been treated like celebrities, but no one cares about any of that. It's not long before someone in my class says something to the news, or even to just a friend of theirs who tells a friend who tells the news. Zach lifted his left arm and wiped off his face before sitting up and leaning back on the wall behind his pillows. He looked down at the black box on his right hand. All Might, was just saving someone. That day, he wasn't really telling me to be a hero. He said, exactly what a hero should. He got a suicidal kid, to stop thinking those kinds of thoughts. But in his head, he probably hoped that I would change my mind. He probably thought that my goal to be a hero, that with my Quirk, I would realize it was hopeless and give up. Instead I did something stupid. I spent my whole life working towards this goal, and now he can't even tell me the truth. He knows how much it would destroy me, how much I'm destroyed right now.

Zach felt his chest clench up in so much pain. "…there will be a school review when you get back. Do not worry though, the other teachers all understand what-"

"All Might," Zach said in a quiet, pained voice. "I can't return to U.A.," he whispered. "I can't return to that class," he added. "I can't face the others," he said the last part louder and then let out a sob and turned his head away from the phone. "You were wrong. It wasn't a magnificent dream. My Quirk, is Death." He sniffled and then reached back for the phone, "What kind of hero kills people? What kind of hero, kills his parents?" Zach ended the call and then called out, "I'm done!"

The police officer opened up the door and looked across the room at the boy who was sitting up and turned away from him. He started walking over and saw the phone sitting on the side of the young man's bed closer to him. As he neared it he began, "Our posting outside of your door has just been called off. The review is officially over, and we've called your aunt. She's coming here to pick you up." Zach spun with wide eyes, and the green-skinned cop leaned back at the red-eyed, tear-streaked face of the child who he thought would have felt better after a talk with All Might.

"I'm, free to go?" Zach asked, his voice shocked and shaky. "B-But, I…"

"You're not under arrest," the cop said, something he had told the boy a few times already. "No charges have been filed against you, and the department has marked the incident as self-defense, as it should be." The cop smiled at the boy whose whole body started shaking. "Your name has not been released to the public, and it's up to you whether or not you decide to say anything." The officer did not know what else to say, so he just gained a softer look and said, "Things will work themselves out." He turned to go but then paused and added, "You'll have to wear that box for a while. Your school is going to take care of it though."

Zach watched as the cop left, then he leaned back against the wall again. All Might knew I wouldn't get in trouble. So did the other teachers. They already knew that I'd be back in class, but even when All Might said it, I still thought maybe… Zach looked towards the door again, but he did not see silhouettes through the glass. They're really leaving, he thought. Just leaving me. That's it. The incident is over for them. The guy I killed- damn it, Zach lowered his gaze towards the black box around his hand and lower arm. I, failed.

8 Years Ago

"It's okay, why?! Because I am here!" All Might called out to the crowd as he held the villain he just took down in one arm, and some hostages in another. All Might turned and looked towards another part of the street where another hero who had been at the scene before him was looking his way. Titanium?! All Might thought, his eyes widening as he recognized the other hero.

All Might cut his press conference short, and he caught the other hero after he left the scene and was already another street away. "Titanium," All Might began after catching up.

The other hero looked back at him and gave him a small smile. "All Might, thanks for coming when you did. I didn't know how I-"

"You should be home," All Might said. "I am here. I can take care of hero duties in this city for a few days."

"There's no need," Titanium shook his head at the stronger hero. "I appreciate your concern, but I- I can, I can do this." The strong man with spiky black hair going straight up over his head a few inches clenched his teeth after saying it, trying to force the smile out.

"All Might!" a citizen walking around nearby called out.

"Oh look it is All Might!"

"Titanium, I saw on the news. I am sorry-"

"I'm fine, All Might," Titanium said, turning and walking away which made some citizens near them look at the heroes oddly.

All Might smiled at them to show nothing was wrong, then he jumped up and into the sky. Although he did not want the citizens to think anything of their confrontation, All Might was not finished yet. So he returned to Titanium's hero agency, and when he got inside the first thing a young female sidekick who ran up to him said was, "Please, All Might. Help Titanium."

All Might headed to Titanium's office and walked in while the man was over at his windows, staring out into the city. "Titanium," All Might began. "It has only been a day. Go home," All Might stopped smiling once he was out of the main room where Titanium's sidekicks and staff were gathered. "I hear you have a son. Be with him-"

"I can't!" Titanium shouted, spinning and glaring at All Might furiously at the suggestion. All Might leaned backwards. He had worked with the other hero before, and they had always gotten along. They were not close friends, but All Might considered him a comrade in the same field. He thought he knew the man, yet he had never seen such an expression of this on a man's face. Any man's. Titanium was sad, grieving, but his expression was furious, and yet he tried forcing a smile, because he was a hero. "I can't, look at him," Titanium said. "So I need to go to work, to get away from him. So he doesn't see me, look at him like that."

"I don't understand," All Might began.

"He killed her, All Might," Titanium said. He stepped towards the more muscular hero and hissed through his teeth, "My son, killed my wife. They're testing him right now, testing his 'new' Quirk, but I already knew." He pursed his lips, and All Might stared at the man in shock as he said, "We both knew. My wife and I, but we didn't say anything. Because he's, he's not…" Titanium seemed to realize what he was doing and he leaned back, regaining a calm expression on his face and frowning in a stern way at the other hero. "All Might, I ask you don't repeat-"

"Sazaki," All Might said, using the man's name while stepping closer to him. "What are you talking about? I promise, I will not repeat it."

Titanium bit down so hard that he had to turn his teeth into titanium to prevent them from breaking. Sparks came out from between his teeth that ground over each other, then he opened his mouth and in a raspy voice said, "The boy. His power had manifested, but not like- We didn't know what it was, but our dog died… It just died one day, while playing with him. He thought it went to sleep, and we told him it ran away. But we brought it to the vet to see what the cause of death was, and the vet said he never saw anything like it. The dog's heart just stopped for no reason. A young dog. Healthy. It's heart stopped, so we thought, maybe it was a heart attack. After all, he was six already. He shouldn't have gotten a Quirk if he didn't have one by then- but then," Titanium pursed his lips again, but All Might nodded at him to continue.

"He came home from school one day, and he told us that the class pet had died. He said they held a little funeral for him, but when we asked how it died, because we needed to ask, he told us that it just died right after they took him out to play. The teacher said that, 'things happen,' but things without explanations don't happen twice around the same person. That person, becomes the explanation," Titanium's lips trembled as he pursed them again. "We knew, but what are we supposed to tell our son? That when he gets close to animals, plays with them, he kills them? Instead we made up an excuse, telling him that the doctor just found out that he's allergic to animals. We were too stupid, I was too stupid," Titanium put a hand on his forehead and he rubbed it so hard All Might was worried he would turn his hand to steel and rip through his skin.

"But, it had never happened with people before. But then my wife…" Titanium gasped and stared into All Might's eyes with huge ones of his own. "The boy- the- Z- I can't use his name. I can't talk to him. I can't even tell him it's alright. He's so scared, but I can't even look at him."

"Sazaki, it is not the child's-"

"I loved her so much," Titanium gasped out. "She was, my world," he reached up and grabbed his chest in agony. "Do you love someone All Might? With all your being, love someone?" All Might hesitated for a few seconds, then Titanium continued, "Well if you do, can you imagine if someone took them away from you? Can you imagine how you would feel? What you would want to do? But you know you can't do it, you know you can't get revenge or justice, but worse than that, you have to look at this person who you can't do anything to, and not just look at him, you have to love him? I can't handle this. I couldn't handle a simple fucking job!" Titanium spun and slammed a fist towards the window behind him. The force of the punch shattered the window and he screamed out it, out into the air over the city.

"Titanium!" All Might shouted, reminding him by using his real name what he was doing. The glass falling out the window could hurt innocent people, and All Might had to run outside, plant his feet on the wall of the building across the road, and shoot himself down to make sure that the sidewalk was empty… which it was. All Might looked up as the glass fell towards him, and he punched all the shards to small pieces that would be harmless even if people were to step on them. He jumped back up for the window and looked in harshly at Titanium who was leaning back on his desk, hands on top of his head and a shocked expression at what he had just done. "You are a hero Titanium. Overcome this!" All Might shouted, and Titanium's eyes grew huge. "Go to your son. As much as you are feeling this pain right now, try to imagine the kind of pain he is feeling too. As I said, I will take care of hero duties here, so you need not worry about any criminals you may have stopped in the next few days. Take some time." All Might walked to him and put a hand on his shoulder, and he added at the end, "You can mourn."

Present

The door to Zach's hospital room opened. He turned to see if his aunt had arrived to take him home. It had been a little while since the cops left, but it was not his aunt standing there. Zach stared at the man in a white t-shirt and green pants, and he said, "Who are you?" The man at the door had blond hair in a weird style, with two long bangs falling down the outsides of his face and the rest of it wavy and pushed back over his head. He had a very sharp jaw-line, and his eyes were dark while he stood there with his mouth flat.

The man closed the door behind him and Zach tensed up where he was sitting. Is it a villain coming for reve-

"Young Sazaki," the man inside the door began.

Zach blinked a few times, his body relaxing while at the same time flinching and starting to sweat. What? He thought, then said, "What?" in just as confused a tone out loud. He looked the man up and down again, then down and up, then he focused on the bangs sticking down the outsides of the man's face. He looked at how loose the clothing was, then at the bangs again and the position they were falling from. If those bangs stuck up and out, and his body could get muscular… "Nope, I don't see it," he tried picturing a change from the man in front of him into All Might, but it still did not work.

"Listen, I-" the figure in front of Zach coughed and blood splashed out of his mouth, making Zach drop his jaw.

"Do you, want the bed?" Zach asked, wondering if this was a patient who had wandered off and actually needed to be laying down. He had concern in his eyes, as dark as those eyes were.

"Young man, I want you to listen to me," All Might said. His voice was the same, the biggest reason Zach could hardly breathe while staring at this figure. "You have what it takes to be a hero. Your friends told us what happened, every detail."

"W-W-Wait a second," Zach stumbled over his words but managed to get it out. "I don't get this, I'm not- you're, All Might?"

All Might nodded his head, then he continued to the boy who finally accepted it and freaked out for real this time. All Might kept a serious look on his face though, and Zach's calmed down after a few seconds too, an even darker look returning to it. "This is why, I said I could not come earlier," All Might began. "Not many know this secret, but when I heard what you said to end our call, I needed to come."

"All Might, I-"

"You are a talented young man, but I want to take back something I said earlier." Zach looked into All Might's eyes confusedly, then the skinny man with blood trickling down from the corners of his lips said, "I do regret it." Zach's eyes opened wide, and All Might walked over and took a seat at the foot of Zach's bed. "I could not say it, but my hesitation told you the truth, did it not?" All Might let out a low chuckle, then he said, "You are very perceptive."

Zach stared in confusion at the man at the foot of his bed. "Why would you come, just to tell me that?"

"Because lying to you was the wrong choice," All Might said. "Which is why I have come here, in my true form." All Might turned and he reached down to the hem of his shirt, lifting it up and showing Zach his side, and the terrible wound he had hidden there. "I'm getting weaker, because of an injury I received six years ago." All Might lowered his shirt and finished, "I can only stay in the form the public knows me as, an hour and a half each day, after this most recent event cut down my time limit once again."

"All Might," Zach whispered. "Why are you telling me this? I just, told you that, I was dropping out-"

"I don't want you to do that," All Might said. "That's why I am here. I came to tell you the truth, and to offer you a proposal." All Might sighed and slouched over again, turning away from Zach to look towards the wall the door was on. He spoke while facing that way, "I regret what I told you that day. But I do not regret saving you. You should never consider killing yourself."

"I did again," Zach whispered. All Might spun to him wide-eyed. "After I, did it. Right after. I'm not anymore, but I- if I do it again, I'll… no, I won't do it again. I say that- yet-" Zach clenched his mouth shut and he leaned his head on the wall behind him again. "All Might," he whispered.

"I regret telling someone with your Quirk to follow a path that would result in you needing to use it. It was foolish of me. I treated you like a child, but you had already been through so much that you were prepared to take those words to heart. And because I was the one who put you back on that path, who told you to follow your dream, I could not tell you to give up on it. Then you passed the entrance exam," All Might curled his fists and he leaned his head back. "I was terrified that this day would come, but I told myself it would be far in the future. I told myself again, that you would realize your dream was impossible when you could not use your Quirk, and that you would give up. But you're not one to give up."

All Might looked back down and turned to Zach again. "That is why I feel so troubled now. After all of your hardships, after all your loss, after all you have struggled to get past, for this to be the reason you give up- I could not accept it." Zach's eyes started to widen more, his heart speeding up as All Might got up off of his bed. "So I regret it. I regretted it for so long. But when you say that you're finished, because of the guilt you feel over an action that protected other students' lives, I cannot accept that."

The hero in front of Zach looked angry as he was saying it, angry at himself more than anything. "To have even considered staying where I was, accepting that you had finally given up on your dream, it left the most disgusting taste in my mouth. The Symbol of Peace would mean nothing, if I were to let you leave on that note." All Might rose his arms at his sides. "So try again," All Might said.

"B-But you just said, you wish I would give up," Zach said, his eyes huge as everything All Might was telling him was contradictory. "And I didn't protect the others. Snipe-sensei saved us. He would have saved us, even if I hadn't-"

"You don't know that," All Might said. "Perhaps it is true, perhaps it is not. But you pushed Young Kaminari out of the way, and tell me, for whose sake did you use your right hand?" Zach's eyes shot open even wider, and in his head he saw two faces. The two girls who were standing in front of him, terrified looks on their faces as they held their hands up. How defenseless they looked, the laughter of the villain, how he knew the villain was going to kill them because they were trying to protect him. Zach's eyes started watering up again, but he held them back as he pursed his lips and stared into All Might's eyes. "So this is my proposition. I want you to return to U.A. I know you are afraid of what will happen. I know you do not think right now that you can still be a hero, but you have just been introduced into the villains' world at such a young age. You have seen what they can really do, and you will become stronger from this."

Zach's breathing started speeding up. "How many first year students ever experience something like this? Not many, and now you will use this experience through the years we spend teaching you at U.A. You will build off it," All Might's arms rose up higher at his sides and he tilted his head back. "Do become a hero. You have what it takes." All Might had such a frustrated look on his face that he had to keep looking at the ceiling for a few more seconds. I do hope, I will not come to regret this too. He thought it, then he said aloud in a lower voice, "Prove me wrong."

Is that him, still being honest? Zach thought, his heart racing as All Might lowered his gaze and looked at him. He, he hates that he's doing this right now. All Might, knows that I could hurt more people. The safest thing would be to let me give up, but his emotions are in the way. The responsible thing to do here, would be to leave on my own anyway. Wouldn't it? But if I left now, the answer would always remain the same. Zach bit down as hard as All Might was doing, and he got just as frustrated a look on his face as the hero in front of him. "Was it good that I was born?" Zach said. All Might's eyes opened wide at the sight of the boy's face as that question escaped his lips. "All I've wanted, is to change the answer to that question," he said. "Saving people. Bringing life. Instead of taking it away." Zach shook his head and his left fist clenched hard, and then his right did as well inside the black box that he turned to look at. "I've considered myself a curse on this world, many times. Because I love this world so much," he said, turning back to All Might to see if he understood. The hero was just staring at him with huge eyes though, and Zach shook his head and continued. "The people. Our society. Heroes. Nature. It's all so amazing. Yet, my mother, who saved so many lives. And my father, who saved maybe even more."

Zach shook his head a few more times and then he said while closing his eyes. "And how many others would they have saved, if I was never born? I ask myself it, every night. So not just the lives I'm responsible for, but the ones they would have saved too. Even if I spend my whole life as something other than a hero, I doubt I can save two people, let alone all the others I need to save, in order to make it worthwhile. If I killed myself, I would have been nothing but a plague to this world." Zach lifted his gaze again into All Might's, but his expression was stronger than the last sentence he just said that sounded like he was putting himself down. "That's why I'm going to keep trying. If you think I have what it takes, then I'll try again. I'll make it so you don't have to live with the regret of telling me to follow my dream, because you're a hero and you don't deserve that."

What a heroic thing to say, All Might thought while leaning away from the boy's bed.

Zach lifted his left hand and clenched it into a fist in front of him. "I've seen what villains can do. That man, he's not the worst of the villains out there. I know I'll have to face others like him again. But next time, I'll be ready for them." He swept his arm across the front of his body and said, "I'll do it."

"Yes!" All Might called out, feeling motivated himself by the boy's motivation. "Show me, Zach Sazaki, the type of man you will grow to be!"

A/N Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed. Leave a review below!