Chapter 44:

"Do you really have to mention it?" Zach muttered to the boy sitting on his bed in front of him. Zach was pacing back and forth in the middle of Midoriya's floor over his All Might rug, and he said while turning to him and turning to do another pace around, "I feel stupid enough for doing it already. I just, I doubted it would actually affect the real Ectoplasm for a second. I just told myself it wouldn't so I could try out my move in front of the teachers, and look what happened."

Izuku Midoriya held up his hands in front of him and waved them a couple of times. "It's not your fault. No one could have guessed it would make him-"

"I could have, and I did," Zach said, stopping and turning to Midoriya with a look of disbelief on his face. "I guessed that a long time ago. I don't know how my Quirk works, and no one else does either."

"Well you knew it wouldn't kill him," Midoriya offered, still a bead of sweat on the side of his face but a small smile too. "You didn't risk anything life-threatening."

"It's still," Zach started, but he cut himself off and just frowned again. He turned and started pacing back and forth, a frustrated look on his face as he thought back on the day's training. "How did it work on the real body?" Zach muttered, turning back and glancing towards Midoriya as he walked. "Does that make any sense to you? I mean, what kind of Quirk can do that? I don't like it. I don't like it when, I can't predict what Death is going to do. I felt like I had enough of a grasp on it, but there are still things… other than this too, just things about Death that I- ah fuck!" Zach hit his right foot on the corner of Midoriya's bed and shouted as he stubbed half of that foot's toes considering he had no shoe on.

He started hopping on his left foot and reached down to grab his right while snapping, "Fucking cunt, shit-" He stopped himself and just pursed his lips and let out a groan while lowering his foot down. "God damn," he muttered. How does a stubbed toe still hurt like that? After everything, that pain is nothing… but damn it smarts. He ground his teeth for a second then was going to get back to pacing, but a look at Midoriya's shocked face had him confused.

"That's uh, are you alright?" Midoriya asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Zach replied, shaking his head and smiling to show the pain really wasn't that bad.

Midoriya sweatdropped more at his reply though. "Well it's just," he started as Zach looked confused by Midoriya's expression. "That was some, pretty strong language."

"Oh, oh!" Zach did not even realize what he had said after stubbing his toe until Midoriya said it. "Sorry," he apologized, "just slipped out."

"It's, fine," Midoriya said. "Just surprised me," he added. I noticed he cursed sometimes in normal conversations now, and he didn't before. Still, that was a lot- though I guess, maybe he picked up on it while with, the villains. Midoriya's gaze lowered down to the floor, as Zach started pacing again. Should I ask? I tried pretty hard not to, since prying usually gets him to go away. But he's been opening up more recently. Midoriya lifted his head a bit, and he said, "Hey Zach."

Zach stopped moving again and turned back to Midoriya. He was about to say how he hoped Ectoplasm-sensei was back for math class tomorrow, but instead he just nodded and said, "Yeah, what's up?" He could see Midoriya had something on his mind, and he had wanted them to get back off of the subject anyway so he was glad for a change in conversation.

Midoriya looked a little hesitant, but he began, "The night All Might lost the last of his power." Zach nodded and got a more serious look on his own face as this seemed to be an intense conversation Midoriya was trying to start. "How do you feel about it?" Midoriya asked. Zach got a confused expression on his face and leaned back, lifting an eyebrow and humming like he was trying to figure out what his classmate meant by that. Midoriya saw the look and he grimaced but said in a softer voice, "He lost it, saving you and Kacchan." Zach's eyes opened wider, and Midoriya said, "I know Kacchan blamed himself, which is why I wanted to ask you. He let those feelings build up, and I-"

"It doesn't matter," Zach said. Midoriya stopped talking as Zach interrupted him, and Zach continued while making his expression straight. "Whether or not I blame myself is meaningless."

"I don't understand," Midoriya started, shaking his head as that answer did not really tell him if Zach felt it was his fault. "But All Might would have gone to stop them even if neither of you-"

"But he couldn't go all out from the start…" Zach started shaking his head quickly to stop himself from arguing here. "As I said though, it doesn't matter. Whether I blame myself or not, it's meaningless. Because at this point, I've already passed it." Midoriya's eyes started widening, while Zach's got darker and narrowed at a poster of All Might above Midoriya's head. "The question," he whispered. "Was a good thing that I was born? There's no longer any way for me to quantify, all the bad I've done," Zach said.

"Zach, you-"

"Already I thought the number was in the hundreds, thousands," Zach said, his voice low and stern, and his eyes narrowing more at that poster of All Might. Mom, Dad, All Might… "The people my par- my dad could have saved had I not- if I wasn't born," Zach whispered, and Midoriya felt his chest clench up as he did not know how to ask Zach about that. Zach continued, "But more than any of that, and more than All Might's retirement, there's something unforgivable I'll never be able to atone for. Or at least- it'll take me my entire life, no matter how many people I save. She died because of me, and that's one thing I'll never make up for. I'll never get over," he whispered at the end, his eyes lowering down to the floor at his feet and such a sad look forming on his face.

"Who?" Midoriya whispered.

Zach cleared his mind as fast as he could, as the sadness he was feeling was replacing with another emotion, and his sad thoughts were starting to be drowned out by screams. He clenched his eyes shut and shook his head for a second, switching his thoughts quickly to another "she" who he could be thinking about. Thinking about the woman he left behind in the villain's base in Higucha took his mind off of who he was just thinking about, but it did not change his expression very much. He just shook his head again instead of telling Midoriya what he was thinking about. "No one," Zach whispered, realizing he could not bring himself to talk about her either.

"Well whoever it is, I'm sure they wouldn't want you to think that way," Midoriya said quickly, and Zach lifted his gaze into his friend's in surprise. "Thinking you can never make up for it no matter what you do, that's not true. You've already saved so many lives, and if you keep doing it-"

"If a hero kills an innocent person," Zach began quietly, "then saves ten people, is that a good person?" Midoriya froze and stared at Zach with wide eyes, "If a hero saves a few hundred people, but then goes out and murders a couple, are those crimes forgiven because things even out? No, right? How could they? People wouldn't think of someone like that as a hero. They wouldn't be a hero, not in my eyes, not in yours," Zach got even softer and he balled his fists up at his sides. "So if I'm to blame for hundreds, then how could any number ever be enough? I can't match up one death for one save, it doesn't work like that. When someone dies, because of you, how can you ever quantify that? Do you think I can just go: 'alright I'll save twenty thousand people,' and that will somehow make up for that life? There's no way, I could do something like that… not anymore." Not, with Jenny. No amount of lives… Damn it, stop thinking about her.

"Bakugo blamed himself though?" Zach asked, changing the subject without caring that it was super obvious. "I'm surprised he told you about it, though I've noticed a lack of him cursing you out recently."

Midoriya noticed the complete turn of the conversation Zach was doing, but he did not know what else he could say. He wanted to tell Zach that this person he was blaming himself for, that if he did not kill her since he said he did not kill anyone since Mr. Compress, then it was not his fault. But Zach did not tell him the specifics, so he could not say anything. It still took a lot to hold himself back though, because he wanted to help Zach and not just pretend like everything was alright for him. "We-" Midoriya started. "Actually, I guess I should tell you this," he realized, his eyes widening. "Kacchan, knows about my Quirk now too. And about All Might and everything."

"Oh yeah?" Zach asked in surprise. He stepped over to Midoriya's desk chair and spun it around to sit on it backwards. "And what is, 'and everything?' Never really asked, and I've just got this weird vague idea about your Quirk."

Midoriya got a nervous look on his face like he regretted bringing this up now. "You don't have to tell me," Zach said, lifting up his palms and letting out a small laugh.

"You want to know though?" Midoriya asked, a little confused since Zach had told him it did not matter to him before.

"Well if you're saying Bakugo knows 'too,' I figure that means you consider me in the loop," Zach said. Midoriya's eyes widened again, and Zach let out a small laugh before saying, "So if I am, you want to tell me? I feel like it's a cool story. All For One and All Might, your Quirk, it sounds like an epic that not many people know about."

"No, not a lot of people do," Midoriya agreed. Izuku closed his eyes for a second then opened them and looked right at an All Might poster across the room from his bed. I don't know, if I'm supposed to keep it a secret from him. Or if All Might wants to tell him himself. Or never tell him. Isn't it more dangerous though, with Zach only knowing part? No, it's not I guess. "Zach, it's just-" Midoriya started, He looked into Zach's eyes, stared into them and saw Zach give him a small smile and shake his head, like it really was not a big deal to him. In fact, he was really just asking it because he knew it would be a great way to distract himself from things he was getting too depressed over. Midoriya could see that Zach was fine not hearing it though, but instead of finishing his sentence about how it was a secret, that look made him relax and let out a long breath. "All For One, has lived for a very long time. And a long time ago, he had a brother…"

"I'm going to try and go with Fat Gum again…"

Zach nodded his head at the spiky-red-haired boy next to him as they walked down the sidewalk with some bags in their hands. The two of them had just gone to the convenience store after school, grabbed some snacks and such. Kirishima needed some protein shake powder too, which he told Zach about while they were on their way there, and Zach wound up buying some himself. Kirishima started talking about his last internship instead of the next one that they were just talking about in the store, but Zach's mind started to lose focus as they walked back towards U.A.

Midoriya's Quirk is way too strong. He smiled at the thought but nodded like he was doing so to whatever Kirishima just told him that he kind of lost focus on. When he said "stronger" than All Might's was, I thought he was just being hopeful or something, but if it really does compound with each generation… He's really going to be more powerful than All Might! Still, it's crazier even that All For One lost that night in Camino Ward. I knew he was a legend in the villain world, but the things I heard I thought were mostly myths. He's actually an immortal monster who could have taken down the world! I mean, I knew he was that powerful a villain, but All Might beat him! That's so awesome! Zach forced his mouth to dip down as he tried refocusing on what Kirishima said instead of smiling in an excited way. When he started listening closer to what Kirishima was saying though, he turned his head and his eyes widened.

"Did you just say," Zach began. He stopped himself, but Kirishima turned to him while they walked and gave his shorter friend a confused look. Kirishima was just talking about his debut as Red Riot during his internship, and Zach said, "The guy you were fighting, he injected himself with Trigger?"

"Oh yeah," Kirishima said. He stopped walking and Zach got a nervous look on his face as his classmate looked at him like he knew why Zach had brought it up. "That villain you, Midoriya, and Todoroki fought two weeks ago, he was on Trigger right?"

"Y-Yeah," Zach responded, nodding and continuing to walk. It was almost two weeks ago to that day, one day off since it was Tuesday afternoon and it had happened two Wednesdays ago. Zach hesitated after they started walking again, then he said, "How strong was the Trigger? You beat the guy didn't you?"

"Uh huh," Kirishima assured. He scratched the back of his head and continued, "I don't know what you mean by 'how strong,' but it definitely made him a lot stronger. Even when I did my regular hardening his Quirk had gotten strong enough to cut me."

Zach grimaced deeper as they kept walking, a guilty look spread over his face and his fists clenched at his sides. He glanced next to him at Kirishima who stared at his expression like he wanted an explanation for it, and Zach just frowned more. They continued to walk, plastic bags in each hand with their groceries in them, but Zach spoke in a quiet voice to the boy next to him as they moved. "I know the League of Villains got a lot of shipments of Trigger in from China. They didn't tell me much about it, until after I had seen what Trigger could do," Zach frowned deeper and got a nervous look on his face.

"You've fought someone on Trigger too?" Kirishima asked, "I mean, other than the guy the other week."

"I didn't even fight that guy," Zach started. "And I definitely didn't fight the other one," he said, grimacing more as that made it sound like he couldn't do it. He continued despite that embarrassment though, "All I could do was run from that monster. It's what I-" he paused, then he turned in a little and thought about how Kaminari told him everyone had seen it. "It's what I was thinking about, during the bomb defusing training." Kirishima's eyes opened wide as he knew exactly what Zach was talking about, and he got a dark look on his face also looking like he felt bad as he thought about how scared Zach was during that. "I'd never seen something like it before," Zach continued, turning from Kirishima as he did not want to keep looking at that pitying expression on his face. "But once I knew about it, they decided why not tell me all about it? And why not, tell me all about what they were doing with it too?" He added that part in an even lower voice, his tone darkening and Kirishima's eyes getting wider.

"You knew what they were doing? Their operations and stuff?" He asked in shock, as all he thought was that Zach was healing people. Zach bit down hard behind his lips, feeling very conflicted as he wanted to say something but also knew it was a bad thing to do.

"Don't, tell anyone this stuff, okay?" Zach asked, turning to Kirishima with a softer look. Kirishima's eyes widened more, as he could see Zach meant with that expression and question. It meant what he was about to hear was not just a secret, but something Zach was really worried about other people finding out about. And even though that unnerved Kirishima at why he would be nervous, he did not waste any time to nod seriously at Zach and say he wouldn't say a thing.

I saved his life, would he really tell? He keeps his word too! He's that kind of guy, I think, as long as he's not the spy- damn it! Fuck, if he is, then it doesn't matter anyway now, does it?! Zach got angry at himself for considering it, then he just shook his head and refocused on what he was talking about with Kirishima. Why am I even bringing it up? Why not talk about it? He got hurt because of this stuff, and as long as he's not going to tell anyone, then he deserves to know. He should know! And I want to tell him. "The League of Villains wasn't very connected in drugs, at first," Zach began as they turned a corner to keep heading back towards school. "But after some other, large villain groups were defeated in the fall," he paused and glanced next to him at Kirishima whose eyes widened more. "Including, the Eightfold Cleansers," he said, confirming what Kirishima was thinking about and had just talked about a bit. "And the other groups were all pre-existing, established crime syndicates that were there before the League of Villains. After taking down a few though, and forcing others to cooperate, the League took over drug operations all over the place. A lot of gangs became their subordinates, as Shigaraki became the "Kingpin" of the Underworld, or so he called himself," Zach muttered at the end in an annoyed and frustrated way.

"Do you know where these drug operations are?" Kirishima asked in surprise, and some confusion as he felt like Zach would have given up that information already.

"I was always warped around everywhere," Zach replied with a small shake of his head. "Barely ever knew where I was. Not the city, not the country even sometimes," he added and scratched the side of his head. Kirishima looked surprised by that, but then he just frowned as he was hoping Zach would have useful information, even though he already figured he did not. Zach continued though and Kirishima's eyes opened huge as he turned to the right and his friend walking at his side, "Once Shigaraki had control of those, in those drug labs, different kinds of drugs were experimented on. And I knew about them all." Zach shook his head and then said in a lower voice, "And the scariest drug I heard of, is a mix between Trigger, and another one that removes powers."

Kirishima's huge eyes bulged even wider, then they started to narrow as a darker look spread over his face. "Zach," he said, and Zach spun to him in surprise at how serious that voice was. Kirishima stopped walking and Zach did too, and Kirishima asked, "Did you know about Eri?"

Zach shook his head around confusedly, and Kirishima relaxed and let out a long sigh. Of course he didn't, Kirishima thought. Then he frowned and got a bead of sweat on the side of his face, I don't want to tell him. He seems guilty enough just knowing, but… "The one that removes powers, shouldn't be out there anymore," Kirishima mentioned.

Zach started nodding at him, though he was a bit surprised Kirishima knew that much about it. He returned to his dark look and turned forward again to start walking while he talked. "You're right," he said to the taller boy walking on his left. "But the League knew it when the supply was cut off, and they stockpiled it," he said. Kirishima got a nervous look on his face and Zach continued in a lower voice, "There is a supply of that completed drug in storage, and some of it can be twisted with Trigger, spliced, and injected…" Zach trailed off and he bit down hard, but with a really anxious look on his own face that had Kirishima sweating. The idea of the Quirk-Destroying drug alone was one of the worst things Kirishima could imagine, so a drug even worse than that unnerved him.

"A drug that enhances Quirks, and one that makes them disappear," Zach said. "They, wanted to see what it could do. The results were," Zach stopped himself and pursed his lips before rubbing the back of his head hard with his left hand. He did not want to stop now though; he couldn't after building it up so much to Kirishima. "It completely destabilizes a person's DNA," Zach began. "It has the mental deterioration symptoms of Trigger, and after the effects, if the one who used it survives their Quirk's peak state, they lose their Quirk forever."

Kirishima's eyes were wide for the whole thing, and then he asked in a low voice, "'If' they survive the 'peak' state? What does that even mean?"

Zach shook his head a couple of times and replied, "Some people's Quirks are never meant to reach their full potential." He grimaced more thinking about his own, a really nervous thought trying to form in the back of his head that he quickly shook away. Instead he said aloud, "Imagine Thirteen's Black Hole at its maximum power." Zach turned and looked into Kirishima's eyes and said, "Imagine if he could create an actual Black Hole, one that constantly sucks in anything and everything. It could tear apart the planet." Zach looked back forward and said, "If that drug is injected into Thirteen and he loses his ability to reason while his Quirk runs wild…"

Kirishima's jaw dropped, staring at Zach in shock and stopping for a moment as he processed that. "You're talking about world-ending stuff here," he said, in a half-joking tone as if asking if Zach thought it was crazy too.

Zach just nodded though and made Kirishima gulp before walking again as his darker-haired friend continued, "That's why I'm glad there is not a lot of the Quirk-Destroying component left." Kirishima started to relax, and he did more as Zach said, "The Quirk-Destroying drug is powerful enough on its own, a secret weapon to take away heroes' Quirks in future battles. So most of it went into storage without being experimented on. But I also suspect," he continued, and Kirishima's lightening look got more serious as Zach's darkened. "That there are a few vials of that finished drug still out there. You're not far off, Kirishima," Zach said, glancing left at his friend again. "When you called it a 'world-ender,' because when the results of what it did were shown, Chemist named it Apocalypse."

Chemist? Kirishima thought. Must be another villain Zach knows. "Apocalypse, sounds way ominous though," Kirishima began, trying to lighten their moods. "And not too easy to say. Is there a shorter name?"

"There is no simpler street name," Zach replied, shaking his head. "Because it never got on the streets. Who wants to buy a power-up drug that would get rid of their Quirk after a single use, or more likely, kill them? Plus, there just wasn't enough of it." Zach stopped shaking his head and speaking in his lighter tone, and his eyes darkened more than ever during the conversation as he whispered, "I watched a video of the test trials though with some other villains and Shigaraki." Zach's eyes narrowed down and his look was seriously dark, and unnerving for his classmate who could hear a cold and detached tone in Zach's voice. "Only two of the eight test subjects survived, and neither had their Quirks afterwards, and one of those two went half insane too." Zach's look was even more grim and the top half of his face shadowed over, but as dark as he was, he could not hide the disgusted feeling as his mouth twisted around. "Those, with heteropmorphic Quirks all died. Their extra arms, fell off. New appendages that grew and got really muscular, exploded maybe before ever reaching the peak. Skin pigmentation that wasn't normal melted through skin…"

"Dude, you don't need to think about it," Kirishima said, as Zach's face was getting more disturbed each second like he was imagining these things in his head. "I'm surprised though," Kirishima said after Zach's eyes snapped open and he realized what he was ranting, and Kirishima continued before Zach could get flustered, "Shigaraki, he let you see stuff like that? Didn't he realize you were just there to save people?"

"Guess, he thought I might've wanted in on the drug business," Zach said, and he cracked a small smile with it since Kirishima laughed afterwards. "I didn't want to be involved in it, but I'm kind of glad he did show me that stuff. Makes it so I know more now that can help with hero work since I'm back," Zach said. "If Shigaraki really thought I was going to change sides," Zach continued. He lost his smile but then forced it back up and shook his head, "He was an idiot. He just wants my Quirk now, and I wouldn't-"

"Zach Sazaki!"

Zach and Kirishima both spun their heads and looked across the street. They were just about to reach the gates to U.A. High School, but someone seemed to be waiting there for them. Zach almost snapped his right hand up to his own chest, but he calmed himself down as he saw the man running across the street. There's no way a villain coming to take me would shout my name before jumping out at me. I really haven't been on guard as much lately though, I wasn't ready for this at all. Would have taken a full second to turn Nightmare. Need to remember where I am.

"Who's this guy?" Kirishima wondered, looking at Zach to see if he knew what the guy was doing.

Zach shook his head though as the man in a long tannish jacket with lots of buttons on it ran across the street towards them. He lifted up a tape recorder in front of him and Zach grimaced, a sweatdrop rolling down the left side of his face as the guy stopped before him. Is this really the first time one of them's caught me outside the school? I really should have worn a hat, but it was such a nice day for once. Not cold at all, I'm just wearing a sweatshirt. Should have at least thrown the hood up. Stupid mistakes. Way too relaxed. "Hi, how are you?" Zach said, glancing at the recorder and wondering if it was already catching everything he said.

Kirishima glanced from Zach back to the man in front of him, then he started giving the reporter a dirty look as the man seemed to be waiting there for him. Kirishima and Zach both had a similar thought at the same time, since the guy was not there when they left the school which they knew since they took the same route to the store and back. Someone told him I left, Zach thought, grimacing but at the same time feeling a little relieved. Guy probably offered someone at the school some money to tell him… Damn it. Even though that's a good excuse to give the person at my school, like I can get how they could be seduced with that, what if this guy wasn't a reporter? What if a villain dressed like a reporter went and asked them to report when I walked out of school? Fuck it, I'm telling Principal Nezu this guy knew. How many people knew I was going out? The main office, the new security guard, a couple of teachers probably and some classmates.

"I'm amazed to finally meet you. You've been in hiding ever since you left the villains!" The reporter said. He had a tan hat the same color as his long coat over the top of his head, he wore a pair of glasses, and Zach thought he had the appearance of a rat with a stubbly beard and squinting eyes behind his glasses.

Kirishima got an even angrier look on his face, but Zach responded quickly as he expected Kirishima to say something fast and possibly damning. "Yeah, I don't really want media attention. I'm just trying to get through school." He paused, then he added while the reporter looked taken-aback by Zach's calm response. "Also, you have it wrong there. I didn't just 'leave' the villains. It was pretty difficult escaping from them, but that's not something I can really talk about here." Zach turned and he started walking for the school again. The gates were just up ahead, and he did not walk faster towards them or anything. He just started walking again, and he turned back only to Kirishima and said, "Let's get back. We don't have much time before the office wants us in."

Dammmnnn, he's playing this good, Kirishima grinned wide and jogged up to Zach's side. He started walking calmly next to him though he could not hide the smug look on his face that Zach hid from his own. Zach had a much calmer expression and a flat lip that made it look like he was annoyed even, though he saw Kirishima's smug look in the corners of his eyes and could not help but feel the same way.

"Hold on, wait a second," the reporter jogged after the two boys and up on their side where he walked again. They were really close to the school now though, and the reporter darted his head to look towards the gates he would never get through and then back to the boy he wanted more from. Zach turned his head to the man without slowing his pace, and the guy asked quickly while holding his recorder forward, "Why are you trying to avoid this conversation? Why don't you want to answer to the media?"

"It's not that. I'm just busy with schoolwork."

"Then why are you out of school at all?" The reporter asked quickly, getting angry at Zach's quick responses.

This time Zach just lifted up his arms a bit to show the grocery bags in them. "The school feeds us well, but I do need some snacks. Late night studying sessions and all," he said, and this time he even smirked at the reporter whose bottom lip dropped as Zach deflected perfectly. Even Kirishima's eyes widened a bit at how well Zach responded to the question, while Zach tried hard not to laugh aloud as he gave the perfect response for a great student who appreciated his school.

They waited at the crosswalk before their school for a total of one second before the sign turned green and they could go across. Zach could only grin more at his luck, while the reporter walking alongside the two of them looked to be thinking fast about what questions he wanted to ask before losing the student everyone wanted an exclusive with. Kirishima kept quiet even though he wanted to start up a different conversation with Zach, as he did not want to let the annoying reporter not leaving them alone get anything more. He decided he would just wait until they were through the gates, though the conversation he would start once they were inside was going to be about this anyway.

"Do you have any comments on the Lifebringer video?"

Zach slowed down in the crosswalk, his smile lowering down into a flat lip. He did not slow his pace that much, but he did dart his irises to the corners of his eyes and stare at the reporter walking alongside him and holding up the recorder near his face. "The what?" He asked, though he did not slow down. Which video? What's he talking about?

The reporter had sweat all over his face, and he rose his free hand and pushed up his glasses again before saying, "You have not seen it? It has been taken down several times, but it is quite an interesting video. Are you sure you have not seen-"

"What is it?" Zach asked, slowing a little more. He glanced ahead towards the gates, and since they were across the crosswalk now he did not have to go far to get away from this guy. He shook his head after a second though and then picked back up his pace to get onto school grounds.

"You really, haven't seen it," the reporter said, and Zach's eyes shot open wide while he stopped in his tracks. Was that… pity? Zach spun his head towards the reporter who lowered his arm a little, and he actually looked like he felt bad for Zach as he did that. Zach stared at the guy with wide eyes, no longer seeing a rat-like appearance from him at all as he turned off the recorder and shoved it back in his pocket.

"What is it?" Zach asked, more serious this time as he took a step towards that reporter. "What are you talking about?"

"Hey Zach," Kirishima began. "Let's just get inside."

"Your biography," the reporter said, lifting his head and looking into Zach's eyes again. "The Lifebringer video," he turned away and started off, lifting both hands and rubbing at the sides of his head in annoyance. Zach watched him do this and could imagine the man yelling at himself for letting up an opportunity. The teenager with black hair thought he had a good read on the reporter: do anything for a story, even pay people at a school to give him information. Seeing the man so frustrated that he was giving up though, it matched the personality while just giving the guy a bit of humanity, depending on what the video he was talking about was.

Zach turned away from the guy and he had a dark look on his face as he walked back for the gates into school. He entered and then he and Kirishima both held up their I.D.'s for the security guard put into place because of Zach's escape a few weekends before. The human factor of the security measures nodded at them and let them through, though he stared at Zach's expression hesitantly before letting them go. Kirishima looked in at Zach nervously too as they walked towards their school, then Zach said in a low voice, "We have to find that video."

"Hey guys," Kaminari said.

Kirishima and Zach were sitting in different parts of Kaminari's room with their phones up in front of them. They looked to the desk where Kaminari turned from his computer and gulped before motioning back with his head at the screen.

"You found it?" Kirishima asked.

"Are you sure?" Zach questioned. He had found enough fake videos already, or ones that he clicked on only to see a 'removed video' notice pop up over the screen of his phone.

"Yeah," Kaminari said. "I think," he added while turning back, as the others walked up on either side of him. Kaminari's room was cluttered with things: a dart board, maps, common posters, and signs on the walls, sports equipment like a basketball and skateboard lying around, there was stuff everywhere. It was the exact opposite of Zach's room that still had little furniture or any decorations in it. Kaminari's rolling desk chair pulled in a little, and he moved the mouse next to his keyboard to slide the cursor over the 'play' triangle button in the center of the bottom of the screen. "I let it run for a second, but I think this might actually be it so I pulled it back to the start."

Zach took a few deep breaths in and out as Kaminari spoke and held the cursor over the 'play' button. What is this? What is the 'Lifebringer video?' Is it like a video of me saving- no, no the reporter called it a, he said it was a 'biography.' What does that mean? I think I know- or at least I really hope it's not what I kind of think. Stain had a video. That one got taken down a lot too. Is this going to have the criminal stuff I did on it? If so though, why would the government take it down? Why not just come and arrest me? I need to know. Zach nodded at Kaminari and said, "Do it." These two are two of my closest friends here. Hopefully this doesn't destroy that. Maybe I should just have him text me the link- too late. Zach stopped trying to convince himself out of it, and the three of them just stared at the screen to watch the video they had spent the last hour searching the web for.

Kaminari gulped again, then he clicked. The black screen gained letters on it that faded in at the center in a big font covering the screen. 'LIFEBRINGER' formed in white capital letters across the screen then started fading after a couple of seconds. A voice started speaking. It was a regular-sounding male voice, but Zach and Kaminari both recognized it immediately. Zach looked at Kaminari who shook his head back at him, since he had only made it a few seconds in before sliding it back when the video worked and seemed like it might be real. "Lifebringer," the voice had said, the same exact voice that Zach had heard over and over again after his internship at Hosu City, because he had watched the Stain video every night.

"What's wrong?" Kirishima asked the other two who reacted oddly to the first word.

"This guy narrated the Stain video," Kaminari replied quietly.

"Real name: Zach Sazaki," the video continued, and two pictures of Zach showed up on the screen. The first was a picture of him from the Sports Festival that was shown up on the big screen when he came out for his fights, his school photo in his blue uniform. The next showed him in a hoodie with the black hood bunched up behind his neck, a smaller smile on his face, and a scar under his right eye and a split ear. Despite him smiling in both pictures though, the shading of the screen made it look darker and then a red tint covered it before the narrator continued. "His mother Kaitlyn Sazaki, 33 years young, dies mysteriously of a heart attack when Lifebringer was 7 years old."

Zach's two friends on his right side sitting on a chair and standing next to it both turned their heads in. Zach did not take his eyes off of the computer screen, but his lip was trembling and his eyes were huge. Both Kirishima and Kaminari opened their eyes wide in horrified realization, while the voice on the screen continued after showing a picture of the woman it mentioned. "What could cause such a healthy woman to die so suddenly and without warning? Soon after her passing, her husband- the hero Titanium's drinking problem becomes public knowledge, and he has his hero license suspended. Records of Titanium's death are troubling," the video narrator continued, while showing a video of Titanium yelling drunkenly on camera and swinging his arm in front of his body. That faded though and a piece of paper started getting zoomed in on in the black background.

"Official reports claim that Titanium's death was a result of natural causes. Further investigation found this however," the voice paused and the piece of paper getting zoomed in on came to cover the center of the screen. There was a written report there, and certain lines got underlined in red while the voice started speaking again, "This is an original police report from an officer who responded to the call on the day of Titanium's death. His exact words here are, 'I found a man matching Titanium's description, though different from the last time I saw him. Disheveled, scraggly, he had clearly been in distress. I found him hanging by his neck from his bedroom fan.'" The voice on the video paused, while Kaminari and Kirishima both dropped their bottom lips farther.

Zach leaned away from the computer and lifted both hands up to the sides of his head. No one's supposed to know about that! Dad, no. People, people shouldn't know-

"The report goes on to mention the one who made the call to the police," the narrator of the video continued. The image zoomed in and the paper that was zoomed in on slid up to show a highlighter part lower down. "The report claims there was a child at the apartment at the time who led the officer to the room Titanium was in. The boy showed the cop the man hanging there, then he walked away without saying a word. The very last line of the report states, 'I have never been more afraid of a child.'"

Zach's hands grabbed the sides of his head tighter and he was starting to breath faster as he watched the screen start changing again. "A former hero committing suicide is too much for hero society however," the narrator said, while showing unrelated news clippings of what did come out on the day of Titanium's death. "The society supposed to praise heroes and treat them as such let one of these heroes fall apart, so it was swept under the rug. Lifebringer was the boy in the report, only recently turned ten years old at the time. Maye Sazaki, his aunt, claimed at Sazaki's court case that she never took charge of Lifebringer, leaving him alone during which time he trained himself in martial arts. His goal was supposedly to become a hero, but deaths racked up and he joined the League of Villains at age 15." In the video background, images of Shindeki Buda, Atsuhiro Sako, Titanium, and Kaitlyn Sazaki all appeared.

There was a brief hesitation as the screen turned black again, then Zach's face reappeared but in a different picture taken from a distance and showing Zach again as he looked now only with a much darker look than the smiling picture from the beginning. His mouth was dipped down, his eyes narrowed, and the scar on the right side of his face was more pronounced than it was in the first picture. "At 16, Lifebringer returned to hero society, after raising the dead over a hundred recorded times, with dozens of other unconfirmed reports." News articles and clippings appeared all over the screen in one massive collage as the narrator said this. Then the man with a slightly high-pitched voice and interested tone continued, "He has control over life and death, some might even think him a God. But a clip from the Wild Dogs Tv web show caught a glimpse of the, 'Lifebringer,' during one of his visits to a hospital where the police attempted to apprehend him."

Zach's eyes opened wider and he started panting heavier, his entire chest heaving as he stared at the screen where he appeared. Zach was smirking on the image behind a black mask, and he was lifting his hands to the back of his head. Then he touched his head, and the camera started to drop, but the image froze right as it was about to start getting blurry. The masked figure's eyes had just flashed red behind the holes of the mask, and darkness came out all over his body giving him a horrifying black veil which looked worse than usual since it had not formed fully, freezing the frame in mid-transformation. The video zoomed in on that dark figure with blurry black wisps coming out of him, and the narrator's voice said in a lower tone, "Hiding in a human's skin, the creature that killed its parents, the demon of Japan." The screen turned to black again and the word 'LIFEBRINGER' reappeared on it, but the white font started turning red and then each of the letters bled down the screen from the bottom in a menacing way. And then the video ended and a 'replay' button appeared in the center of the screen.

Kaminari stayed staring in shock at his screen for several seconds after the video ended. Then he leaned back in his chair and turned to the left. Kirishima was still gawking for a second after hearing how they ended the video, then he spun to his left after seeing Kaminari turn that way. Both of them had seen the form that was starting to appear in the video already, so they were not that shocked by it, but a lot was said in that video and they turned to the boy it was about to say something to him. They each froze though after looking at Zach.

Zach stood there looking at the screen with his eyes at normal size and his lips barely parted as he panted through them. He turned his head right to look at the other two, and he said in a soft voice, "I'm, going to go get some rest."

"Hey Zach," Kirishima began, stepping back around Kaminari's chair.

"Dude, it's-" Kaminari started himself.

"I mean it," Zach said, his voice getting harsher while at the same time straining not to crack. "I'm going to my room to be alone," Zach said, and he turned from them and walked towards the door fast. His face scrunched up as soon as he turned away from them, and his teeth ground over each other, and his eyes filled with water. "Don't, come up," Zach said, and he walked right out of Kaminari's room without waiting for either of them to respond. He stepped out of the door and started for the staircase, but both Kaminari and Kirishima ran out the door right behind him.

"Zach, wait a second," Kaminari said, pleading as he did not want to leave Zach alone after hearing all that.

"You can talk to us man," Kirishima tried, holding up his hands showing he was down. He had been hanging with Zach since class ended earlier, and the look he just saw in Zach's eyes was like none he had seen today or even in the past few weeks. Zach kept walking, but he heard the other two coming up from behind him and slowed down. Kirishima took another step towards the stairwell, then said, "We don't think like that. It's just a video, no one really thinks you're a, demon." Kirishima ended it in a skeptical, laughable tone.

Zach did not laugh though. He just lowered his head a little while still facing away from his friends. "I just need to be alone right now," he whispered. "Please, just leave me alone." Kirishima's eyes opened wide and his joking look vanished at the pain in Zach's voice. He lifted his hand, but Zach sped-walked into the stairwell ahead and instantly started up the stairs. Kirishima lowered his hand once Zach was gone, and then he clenched it into a fist hard in front of his body.

Kaminari brought both hands up to the sides of his head and ran them through his downwards-pointing spikes. "Zach," he said, shaking his head while looking towards the stairs. He turned towards Kirishima who looked back towards him, and they shared such a sad look in the next moment. "It was all true then, yeah?" Kaminari wondered aloud. Considering Zach's reaction, there was no denying what they had just seen, at least the early parts that they had seen his reactions to as well. Kirishima grimaced deeper and turned back to the stairs with a hurt look on his face, and Kaminari frowned too before looking back himself. "That's what I thought," the blond whispered. "That, really sucks… No, that doesn't even come close. Zach, I'm sorry."

A/N Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed. Leave me a review below telling me what you think.

Guest chapter 43 . Jul 21

Can we get a rundown of Zach's current skills with his quirk, weapon techniques and level of martial arts technique?

Zach's current power level is about 120. Hope that helps!