Chapter 60:
"Let the last fight of the first round of our final tournament, STAAART!" Present Mic screamed.
"Who do you think's going to win?" Ashido asked her dark-haired friend on her left side.
Jirou would have glanced at Ashido to answer, but she was watching too closely as Zach backed up from Shoji who sprinted at him right at the start. Zach looked like he was trying to fake which direction he would run to, but Shoji just kept barreling forward and Zach seemed to have second thoughts. He turned and started running before Shoji could get closer, pulling out his grappling gun as he did and darting his gaze over his shoulder every second to see if Shoji was close to him. "I don't, know," Jirou said slowly, as the start of the match was not giving her much confidence in her original pick.
"What are you talking about? It's gotta be Zach," Mineta leaned forward between the two girls, and Ashido reached up and pushed his head back because of how close he got to them.
"You think?" Ashido asked after pushing him. She kept looking down and watched as Zach ran around the outside of the arena, and she saw Shoji glance over at the boundary line they were running close to. That's smart! Ashido realized with her eyes widening, her mouth lifting into a bigger smile as she thought she knew what Zach was doing.
"Getting near the edge," Ojiro said and leaned forward, Hagakure looking left at him. She saw Ojiro looking intense, and she spun back and stared at the black-haired boy who looked back at Shoji and had a competitive look on his face, despite the sweat also on it. Ojiro continued in a low voice, "It makes sense, since Zach wouldn't be able to move Shoji very far. He's going for a ring-out… but Shoji can see that too."
"I disagree Mineta," Tokoyami said, and Mineta turned to the dark boy with a beak who was staring down at the arena intensely as well. Even though he was not in the next round, Tokoyami was focusing on his classmates whose fight he had been looking forward to. Tokoyami glanced right at Mineta who turned to him, and he said, "Without using his Quirk, Zach has an unbridgeable disadvantage. Shoji is too strong for him to beat without using Nightmare."
Mineta turned back to the arena and he gulped as he saw Zach look back with a more nervous look on his face this time. Zach tried feinting like he was going to spin and attack Shoji, but Shoji did not slow and only rose his arms like he was ready to counter, which made Zach dart a different way and start crossing the arena. Shoji did not expect Zach to move from the edge, as along with the others he thought Zach had him close to try and ring him out, so the gap widened between them for a second before Shoji started closing it again.
"Bakugo, you're not staying to watch?" Kirishima asked as the spiky-haired blond got up near him and started walking up the bleachers.
Midoriya glanced up over his shoulder and stared at Bakugo who kept walking after that question. "It doesn't matter. I won't be fighting either of them in the finals anyway, right?" Bakugo said, and he kept marching up and into the inside of the stadium's exterior to prepare himself.
Kirishima's eyes opened wide though at what Bakugo said, and then he grinned ear to ear and spun back to the arena himself. Tsuyu looked to her right and up at Kirishima, Bakugo-chan has a lot of faith in Kirishima-chan. "Gero," she croaked with a smile on her face, before turning back to the stage as Kirishima had.
Win Zach, Kirishima thought as Zach suddenly sped up after hesitating at the opposite side of the ring farther from Class A's area in the bleachers. He had looked hesitant for a moment, then he sprinted out of the way to avoid Shoji who reached for him. He sped up and tried curving around Shoji, only for a hand to grab him by the back of his blue uniform and for everyone in the stadium to lean forwards. Shoji's middle right arm had another arm sticking out of it and curving to the side Zach ran to, then another arm had sprouted from that one, and another extended even farther still.
"Whoa!" Sero leaned forward and took his hands off his knees, his eyes wide and a grin across his face. "He got him!" Sero sounded surprised in his shout, and he had really thought Zach must have had a better plan in mind to stay away from Shoji. Now that he was caught though-
Zach got lifted by Shoji's arm, and the boy whose feet left the ground instantly pulled his entire body up while twisting it around. He wrapped his legs around Shoji's arm that dipped down a bit but started pulling back, then Zach lifted his left elbow before Shoji got Zach within the reach of his other arms. Zach wrapped his right arm around without touching Shoji's arm with his right hand that still held the grappling gun, tightened the grip of his scissor-lock on Shoji's arm, and then he slammed his left elbow down while bending his whole body wrapped on the arm up. Zach cracked Shoji's extra arm, and Shoji's hand let go of Zach's uniform in the pain that made the larger boy close his eyes for a second.
Zach hit the floor, and Shoji snapped his eyes back open and glared down in front of him where he thought his opponent was. Zach was gone though. Shoji's eyes opened huge and he spun his head left and right, and then a foot slammed into the back of his right leg and he dropped down to a knee from the powerful kick Zach just slammed him with. Then Zach leapt backwards, surprising a lot of people who thought he was on a roll there and only needed to push Shoji out of bounds which was close to them. Shoji spun around after biting down in pain though, and all six of his arms including his middle right that was back to its normal shape missed Zach who just pulled back far enough away from him.
Zach started panting hard as Shoji got back up to his right foot too, having never dropped off of his left. No effect?! Zach turned and started running again, and Shoji narrowed his gaze but he started sprinting after Zach again. Or is he hurting? Zach wondered while glancing back. Shoji's silver hair blocked much of his face, and his narrowed eyes on the sides of his bangs just looked mad. He could not see a mouth behind Shoji's face-mask, so he did not know if the other boy was grounding his teeth in pain, if he even had a mouth behind there. Run more, make him run on that hurt leg. Get him frustrated…
Midoriya kept glancing over his shoulder up towards the exit from their section into the stadium. He looked back towards the arena again as Zach continued to run around the stage to avoid Shoji, and despite the small amount of action, the stands were still full of very loud cheering. Can Zach win? I know it would be wrong to underestimate him, but Shoji is too strong to just beat with a positive attitude. All Might was right back when he told me when I was Quirkless that there was not much I could do. Just a right attitude alone, the desire to be a hero… it's not enough to bridge the gap. Midoriya frowned more, then he glanced over his shoulder again. Uraraka never came up. Todoroki still hasn't come back since our fight either. Bakugo's warming up, but unlike him I don't think Kirishima is a sure-win over the winner of this fight. Midoriya looked back and he widened his eyes while leaning forward again, as Shoji was picking up speed and almost catching Zach, and he was not extending his arms this time.
Cross the stage, Zach thought. He started cutting across, and he looked straight towards the opposite boundary line. I'd clearly be going all the way for that before making my move, he spun his body and rose his grappling gun that he fired.
Shoji was caught off-guard by the sudden spin, but he reacted quickly and was ready to block. Recovering from Zach's spin was not all he needed to do though, as his eyes shot open wider in confusion as Zach's hook shot up away from his arms and past the left side of his face.
His arms, the hook, his bangs, Zach thought of everything that could cut off Shoji's vision, and he knew he was out of sight.
Clank. Shoji moved his arms and looked back down towards where Zach had fired from, and he saw a grappling gun on the floor that Zach had just dropped.
"What the…" Present Mic began.
Midoriya leaned forward farther on his seat, and then he heard Kaminari two seats down on his right side who just got a big grin on his face. "There it is," Kaminari said, while Shoji spun his head left and right and even looked behind him only not to see the boy the rest of them in the audience could still see. "I hate that move," Kaminari said, shaking his head and still smiling as he said it.
"That's, Toga's move," Midoriya whispered, and Tsuyu spun to him with her naturally big eyes getting even wider. She was the only one who heard it, and she looked back down towards the arena while thinking about a villain who made her tongue feel phantom pain.
Aizawa leaned forward in his seat in the commentators' booth, and Mic glanced at him only to get a nervous bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face at Aizawa's intense gaze. Himiko, Toga, Aizawa thought. Those aren't just movements you pick up watching someone, his eyes narrowed more, He incorporated it completely.
Where'd he go?! Shoji thought as he spun his head, Zach vanishing from in front of him. Shoji's fists all clenched and he darted his gaze around, Is he in my blindsp- his gun?! Shoji looked at the ground where Zach had dropped his grappling gun, and the weapon was gone. He heard a click and spun around, right as the hook snapped back into the gun thanks to Zach retracting it. He retracted the hook with a press of a button though, and when the click came it was after the hook pulled all the way back in, after Zach tossed the gun up again to it was close to the right side of Shoji's head.
Zach sprinted and Shoji's bottom right arm that turned into an ear caught his movements, and he spun after Zach jumped up and punched for the side of his head the clicking gun wasn't. Zach's left fist's hook for Shoji's left temple missed by inches as Shoji snapped his head down towards his chest, and then all three of Shoji's left arms swung out connected by the webbing between them. The three arms slammed into Zach, and Zach was really glad he decided to make his move in the middle of the arena.
Zach hit the ground several feet away on one leg as he tried to land it, then he fell on his back from the force still pushing him and rolled a few more feet away before recovering onto his feet. He rolled out with one foot planted just below him and the other stuck out to his right side straight out. Zach slid that leg behind him after a quick dart of his eyes told him the boundary was still far, then he sprinted forward and darted left and right while keeping up fast movements. He's still flustered- no, he's not! Zach stopped his sprint, and he cut to the right instead and dove, doing a forward roll and picking up his gun as he did.
"No," Yaoyorozu whispered as she saw Zach go for his gun. She had already seen Shoji look towards it while Zach was rolling away from his triple-armed slam. She knew there was a reason Shoji did not just go over and smash the gun, or throw it out of the arena. Shoji had never looked towards it while Zach ran at him though, so Zach hoped that Shoji had forgotten about it. The taller and more muscular boy would not make that mistake again though, and as soon as Zach darted to his side for the gun, Shoji moved for it too. Zach came out of his roll and dove to his left, slipping between Shoji's bottom and center left arms. Yaoyorozu and Shoji's eyes widened. Did he know? Momo thought.
Way too close, Zach thought, as he felt his legs skim Shoji's arms as he tried pulling them in to catch him with. Halfway through his roll he had seen Shoji almost on him, so by the time he finished it he was already ready to dive a different direction. The direction he picked had arms swinging in at him though, but they were spread wide to try and stop any direction Zach could dodge to, giving him the only option of going between Shoji's arms. Cheers echoed through the arena as Zach escaped, then he spun as they went on and fired his grappling gun towards Shoji's right leg. The reason Zach could not get out of the roll and dive the exact opposite direction as Shoji, was that the boundary line was close to them.
Shoji pulled his right foot up fast, then he stomped it down on the wire Zach shot past him. Zach pressed a button to retract it, but the wire did not move back towards his gun when he wanted it to. The wire was stuck at its current length, and then Shoji reached his arms out and formed more on top of them. The gap between the two was not wide, but Shoji was not stepping off of the wire easily while he could still reach from the distance. He made more multiple arms this time, three of them extending out of his other arms towards Zach.
Shit shit SHIT! Zach let go of the grappling gun he tried tugging with him, then he sprinted to the right, before cutting towards Shoji and running alongside the arm farthest towards him. He ran down the extended arm on the side where two had extended from, then he ducked under the third that swung at him when Shoji saw Zach making his charge. Zach exhaled while lifting his left hand, and he ducked under the third arm and pushed his left hand out at Shoji's right arm that dropped under his two extended left ones. Shoji did not think Zach saw that arm coming around, and he started pulling his left foot back to dodge Zach who he thought was trying to pull it out from beneath him.
As soon as Zach blocked Shoji's other arm though, he crossed over Shoji's front while he longer arms were all pulling back in. He dropped down flat to dodge arms closing in, and he spun on the ground and slammed a powerful kick into Shoji's right foot, moving it a few inches, and releasing the wire beneath it. Zach dove back the direction he had been, where the extended arms had just pulled back from. Those arms reached out and one grabbed Zach by the right foot, but Zach kicked his left down his right leg scraping against his pant leg and knocking off his right shoe, freeing him from Shoji in an instant. He hit the ground and bounced back to his gun he pressed a button on quickly, and Shoji tried reaching down to stop the hook sliding by him, but Zach yanked the gun to the side and the hook avoided Shoji's grab.
Shoji ran forward, and Zach pointed the gun up as the distance was not huge and Shoji was almost on him. He fired at Shoji's chest, and Shoji sprinted straight through the blunt hook, barely wincing as it hit him. He slammed his arms down at Zach, and Zach with a panicked look on his face dove to the side and then scrambled up as he almost hit the out-of-bounds' line.
"Come on, Zach," Kaminari said, grabbing his knees tighter as it looked like Zach was going out for a second there. Zach jumped up and dodged one of Shoji's arms swiping beneath him, then he ducked and pulled his body to the left as he ran. Shoji's attacks were relentless, his arms extending different distances every second, and Zach's head was on a swivel as he looked for a moment.
Mineta was biting his fingernails as every swing of Shoji's looked like it could get Zach only for him to escape in the last possible second. Zach's face was getting more panicked every time, and people started cheering louder and louder around the stadium for him to hold on and keep in there. Tokoyami crossed his arms next to Mineta and thought, This is it.
Inside one of the waiting rooms, Uraraka turned from Bakugo who she was staring at in surprise, and the two of them listened in to the cheers that suddenly got much louder.
"Oh no," Mt. Lady held her hands together, and her and Kamui Woods looked up towards the big tv screen behind them with wide eyes, as Zach Sazaki's left foot got caught. It got grabbed around the ankle, not the foot this time so Zach could not just pull off his other shoe. Shoji was not waiting to let him try another escape though, and the extremely strong sixteen year old threw into the air towards the closest line marking the edge of the arena, which was only a meter and a half away from them anyway.
Zach rose into the air, and the panicked look on his face changed as he rose past the outside of the arena's area. No! Not yet! Zach pulled up his grappling gun and pressed a button with his right hand while pulling another hook out from behind his waist. He hit the top of his arc while he was clicking it into place, as Shoji pulled his arms and body back because he had expected Zach to try and wrap the blunt hook around him. Zach attached his sharp hook though, and he fired to the right a bit, got the steel of his sharpened hook to dig into the cement of the arena. Shoji started running towards it, right as Zach pulled himself in during his drop. The hook fired crazy fast, but it did not pull him in as fast. He got jolted back towards the arena, but he let go of the gun after it pulled him, diving with both arms out and throwing the rest of his body up to avoid the line marking where was out of bounds.
His expression was still panicked as he hit the ground in a dive, but when he came out of the roll his face was more serious and intense than it had been in a few minutes. He jumped straight up while keeping his momentum going, and he kicked up with both arms into Shoji's arms that he swung in front of him at them. Shoji tried grabbing Zach's legs in the middle of their kicks, and Zach leaned forward and clapped on the sides of Shoji's temples. He pressed his hands into the sides of Shoji's head, even though he was using his right hand too. He had an extra glove over his normal one though, a special one made stronger by the school so he would not be able to accidentally hurt his classmates. He stopped trying so hard not to use it, and this was him going all out as best he could without using his Quirk.
Zach grabbed the sides of Shoji's head after disorienting him with the clap, and he swung the rest of his body up as if to do a front flip over Shoji's head. Shoji rose two arms though, snapping his head back as he pulled Zach's hands away from his temples and down in front of him. Zach could not finish the flip over Shoji's head to kick him in the back, so Zach stuck his right leg out as Shoji pulled his body forward, and Zach slammed his right leg straight down on Shoji's face that just looked up at him. Then his other foot jammed forward into Shoji's chest to try and kick him back. Shoji was almost an unmovable object though, and an eye formed on one of Shoji's arms right after he got kicked in the face. He had left go of Zach's left arm in the pain he felt getting slammed in the face by the bottom of Zach's leg, but it was not so hard that when he realized he dropped it he was not able to grab on tighter to the right.
Zach bit down in pain as he felt Shoji squeezing his right arm so hard he felt it might break. Zach twisted anyway though, his whole body while just leaving his right arm in Shoji's grasp. Shoji was strong enough to hold Zach in the air, but Zach was also strong enough that despite the strain on his abs and all his muscles as he tried it, Zach twisted his body away from two of Shoji's arms reaching in to grab him. His foot that he slammed into Shoji's chest pulled back like the one on Shoji's face that the taller boy shook away, then Zach slammed both feet out this time at Shoji's face that he had to raise his other arms to block. Zach's left fist swung down and hit Shoji on the inside of his elbow of the arm he was grabbing Zach by the right arm with. Shoji uncrossed his arms from his face as Zach started falling from that arm's grip, and they both had intense looks on their faces as they swung.
Shoji punched down, Zach punched up right as his curled-in legs touched the floor. Zach's right fist his punched with pulled away though instead of punching Shoji in the knuckles, and Zach dove forward and between Shoji's legs. He wrapped his left arm around Shoji's back leg while Shoji was punching forward the other way, using the extra strength Shoji put into that punch to try and end it, against the larger boy. He got Shoji's leg up, and he wrapped his right arm around the leg too as Shoji tried pushing it back down. Zach had him at a weird position though, and he rose the leg higher so Shoji did not have a lot of force pushing down on it. Even what he did have with one foot on the ground and his body moving forward, was almost too much for Zach though who felt all his arm and leg muscles straining to just hold one of Shoji's legs.
Zach grit his teeth and pushed up harder though, and he rose Shoji's leg from in front of him to his shoulder, and then over his head with a single push up over himself when two of Shoji's extending arms wrapped around towards him. Shoji's other leg could not stay down with his legs split that far apart, and it staggered back to try and hop for balance. Then as he hopped one time, Zach put all of his strength holding Shoji's leg up, into pushing that leg forward. Shoji's other foot just came off the ground, his hands had almost reached around Zach's side, and he kept grabbing only to miss as Zach fell forward while throwing Shoji's leg with all his strength.
Zach fell forward, as Shoji was pushed forward with both his feet off the ground. Shoji fell, lowering his arms down below him, but also farther down his body he extended them to try and grab the floor still inside the arena, not where the top of his torso was falling. Zach lifted his head after hitting the floor first, and he saw Shoji's right foot drag up on the floor as two of his hands had just gripped the floor to stall his falling. Zach pressed both palms on the floor, pushed his body up in a push-up position, and then he spun his legs from behind him in front with a spin of his body. He slammed both legs into one of Shoji's arms, right at his wrist above the hand he was using to hold himself there as he tried to steady at the edge. Shoji was using those two hands to pull back his whole body, so suddenly losing one of them when he was about to put weight back on his right foot, meant that he was not ready at all for all the extra weight his other hand had to carry.
Shoji's eyes shot open huge, and he rose up his two top arms as his head was about to slam into the ground. He caught himself before hitting the floor, but he caught himself a yard past the out-of-bounds' line. Zach's legs dropped flat to the ground and his body leaned up more, his arms shaking and aching where he had just held them planted to do that final spin-kick. He stared at Shoji's legs in front of him that he pulled up so he landed on his knees, and he saw the outsides of Shoji's arms past them, past the boundary for what was in bounds. I…
Tokoyami's beak was open and his eyes were huge. Sato leaned forward farther in his chair, his jaw dropped as he was one of the people there who thought Shoji was going to win for sure. Sero leaned back and put his hands up through his hair, while his lips spread so his big teeth showed wider in a smile that covered half of his face. Mineta's hands shook at his sides balled into fists as he stared down at his two classmates. His lips were pursed together, and the short boy with purple balls on his head got up on his seat.
Hagakure turned in towards Ojiro, and Ojiro's wide eyes started to go back to their normal size, while his mouth lifted into a big smile just like the invisible girl next to him already had. Mother Russia lowered down to the stage on the side where Shoji was on his hands and knees, and she lifted up her left hand while Zach climbed up on his feet on shaky legs, still staring at Shoji in shock at what he had done. I… won?! A smile broke out on Zach's face, and Mother Russia called out, "Mezo Shoji is out of the ring. Zach Sazaki is the winner-"
The stadium erupted in cheers so loud that the woman in a tight red costume actually opened her eyes a little wider and stopped announcing. Zach spun his head around and looked at the stands on all sides of him, where every person in a crowd of tens of thousands was up on their feet. They were cheering, and yelling, and they were all smiling and looked amazed after that turnaround since Zach had been thrown from the arena only half a minute before.
"YES!" Kuroiro shot out of his seat and yelled. A lot of others in Class B who were jumping up to start cheering too after that fight spun towards their classmate who was always one of the quietest in their class. The rest of them started cheering too though, as Kuroiro cupped his hands to his mouth and called out another yell.
Class A were all up on their feet, even the ones who had been rooting for Shoji or thought he would win. "I can't believe it," Tokoyami said while lowering the hands he was clapping with. "Without using his Quirk," the dark boy muttered, then shook his head while smiling in an amazed way.
Bakugo heard the shout from Mother Russia outside followed by all that stadium-shaking cheering, and he bit down hard while glaring at the door to the waiting room he was in. No way. Damn- Whatever! Deku. I'm gonna kick your ass again, in front of everyone this time! Bakugo thought it angrily, but his gaze focused intensely after the thought to a point that Uraraka figured it was time to get out of that room he had walked in on her in, and she wiped her eyes again before heading for the exit.
"What an upset!" Present Mic yelled over the arena. He had yelled in the beginning when the two first got up to face each other that it looked a bit outmatched with the two's body types, even calling Shoji a 'tank' himself when mentioning how he managed to withstand Bakugo and Todoroki's collision during the previous event. "After being thrown from the ring, Sazaki makes it back in and pushes Shoji out of bounds! I thought he was done for!"
Zach kept panting as he looked around with a smile growing on his face, his eyes wide as he looked at all the people staring right back at him. They're all, cheering. Zach saw himself a year before on this stage, when he was getting ready for his fight against Jirou. He thought about the things he heard them whispering about him, muttering or even shouting about how he had killed the villain at USJ. Zach's smile calmed as his panting slowed, and he turned to Shoji who was pushing himself up after staring at the ground for a few seconds in anger and frustration that he had lost. Zach got a more sympathetic look on his face, his smile lowering a bit as Shoji turned to him obviously upset by the outcome. Then, the taller boy just nodded at Zach whose eyes widened at the acceptance of the outcome. Even though I didn't use Nightmare. I did as best I could like this, I really wasn't holding back, Shoji.
Zach, you're an amazing fighter, Shoji thought after nodding at his classmate. As much as Shoji tried his best not to hesitate or flinch after every surprising move his opponent made during the fight, when he threw Zach from the arena he was stunned at Zach's mid-air recovery. While he was on his hands and knees, he thought about how he wished he had slammed Zach down into the floor instead. He wished he had not let go the other times when Zach attacked him while in his grasp to force him to lose his grip. This is so frustrating, but you deserve this. Zach started smiling again and he turned to the right as he heard someone shout at the top of their lungs, "Lifebringer!"
"Lifebringer!" Someone else shouted between just loud cheers, and Zach turned that way this time.
"Lifebringer! LIFEBRINGER! LIFEBRINGER!" Zach's eyes opened huge, as what started as just a couple of people calling out that name, became people calling it out over and over in rhythm with each other. I'm- This is- Zach gulped and he kept looking around with eyes huge and amazed. "LIFEBRINGER! LIFEBRINGER! LIFEBRINGER…"
"This is exactly what he was looking for. Let's begin."
"YOW! What's this? The audience has started chanting Sazaki's hero name like-"
Zach glanced towards the commentators' booth. It's not technically… but why is that? I'm, I am Lifebringer. He heard them all keep chanting, and he bit down behind his lips and then pushed out a smile with his eyes softening and looking through the crowd towards the Class A section. He thought maybe with everyone cheering for him like this, maybe his classmates would be upset he was robbing the spotlight. He just stared towards them though, and he saw his class up on their feet cheering like everyone else. I made it to the semi's. Everyone…
"Oi, this thing on?" Present Mic tapped his microphone a few more times, then he looked at Aizawa who tried saying something into his only for it not to work either. They could hear the loud chants of 'Lifebringer' from in their box, and Present Mic glanced back out with a sweatdrop rolling down his face. He kind of needed to continue this by mentioning how Zach was into the semi's, then he could move on to talking about what the first semifinal match was… but seeing that look down on Sazaki's face he figured they could fix the problem without being in too much of a rush. "Let's get someone on this," Mic said.
"Something's…" Aizawa began, a deep frown on his face. At the same time?
Principal Nezu stared up towards the commentators' booth where Present Mic's voice had cut off prematurely while he was in the middle of speaking. The mouse-dog-bear administrator thought that maybe Aizawa had cut him off, as Mic had seemingly forgotten that Sazaki had withdrawn 'Lifebringer' from being his hero name. Despite that possibility though, the principal had an uneasy feeling in his gut that had Vlad King glancing at the creature next to him hesitantly at his expression. Then Nezu's eyes suddenly snapped up, and Vlad King spun his head around.
Zach kept looking around through the crowds cheering for him, even as the chanting for his old hero name continued but started to get choppier as people started sitting. More people were just talking loudly and yelling at this point, and Zach glanced over at Mother Russia to see if they should go off. The teacher was looking up towards the commentators' box though, so Zach turned that way wondering if Mic and Aizawa would keep speaking now that the chants of Lifebringer were dying down. Huh? Zach stared above the commentators' booth at one of the four giant screens above the Sports Festival stadium.
The screen was black unlike the other three that were showing a zoomed image of Zach standing down on the arena. Shoji looked towards Zach and then up at the screen more people were looking towards even as the cheering continued. That black screen was replaced though, and the cheering died down fast as everyone stared up at the giant image projected for the audience to see. Cameramen pointed up towards the screen, only for most of them to just lower their arms and stare at the big screen with bulging eyes like everyone else. Zach's heart started pounding, and his face filled with distress, and his breath started coming out fast and ragged as he took a step back on the stage.
All of Class A turned their heads to the image that just appeared over the commentators' booth, and the smiling and cheering class silenced in an instant. A chill went through the stadium as everyone stared at the ominous room of white walls, a white floor, and white ceiling that just appeared televised on the big screen. They all stared into the center of that room where there was a single chair bolted to the floor, and a figure sitting on that chair with his head bowed, a crewcut of black hair over the top of that bowed head. He was not wearing any pants or a shirt, only a pair of black boxers on to cover him up. His wrists were bound to the arms of the chair, and his ankles to the front legs of it. There were bloody scabs above the ropes on the boy's ankles, wounds that looked fresh and had discoloring of the skin around them. His left hand was bloody too and there was a visible wound on the back of it while that hand was resting just over the end of the armrest it was over. And he had a black metal box over his right hand.
"What the-" Sero began, his face covering in sweat.
Mineta's eyes were huge and he just backed up, almost slipping off his chair and barely catching himself though he did drop to his butt after as he kept staring up at that screen with his jaw dropped.
What's happening?! Mother Russia balled her fists and glared harder at the screen.
"We've been hacked," Nezu said as he stood from his seat around the rest of the faculty. "Call security and have an alert-"
"I'm trying, Principal," Ectoplasm began. He lowered a communicator and then muttered in more anger, "It's being blocked."
Zach's eyes were shaking as he stared up at the screen, the screen showing a figure who looked way too familiar. It's not live, Shoji thought behind Zach, as he saw that expression on Zach's face, then looked down to Zach's left hand and a discolored scar over the back of it. Shoji's eyes lifted back to that screen, What are the teachers doing?
"Yo Aizawa, you seeing-"
"We have to get it down-"
Clunk- Chhh The figure on the chair flinched, as the sound of a steel door unlocking and then opening up echoed around the stadium. No one stepped into the frame yet, but the boy sitting on the chair snapped his head up and every person staring at the screen dropped their bottom lips. Zach Sazaki stared forward with his teeth bared, dried blood all over the right side of his face down from a gash cutting across below his eye from his nose to right through his short sideburns. The skin around the wound looked fleshy and weak, and there was pus coming out of it, but the worst was his right eye that was actually swollen from the wound below it that looked to be infecting his eye and making it squint. Even with one eye squinted though, Zach Sazaki's eyes were full of unbridled hatred, and pure bloodthirsty rage, as he screamed at the top of his lungs, "I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU!"
Why are they doing this? Why now? What the fuck? What the FUCK?! What's HAPPENING!?
Zach's bloody wrists reopened in the video, the wounds on his ankles too as he struggled to pull out of his chair but could barely move at all in his current binds. "RAA! RAAAA! I'LL MURDER YOU!"
Another figure walked into the frame. A man everyone knew. The most wanted man in Japan. Midoriya stared forward with his shaking eyes getting even wider as he looked at that screen, as his eyes lingered on Zach's chest and legs and ear. There aren't any, scars, Midoriya thought, and his body started shaking as he looked at the boy tied to a chair with Shigaraki Tomura walking up to him. It's after VTS, he thought, and his heart clenched up as he thought about how close he was that day. He thought about Zach getting pulled into the portal, and the things he had imagined happened to him once he had gone through. They didn't kill him though, Midoriya thought, while Shigaraki stopped in front of Zach Sazaki's chair.
"Stop this," Nezu said.
Snipe pointed his guns up towards the screen on the opposite side of the arena, and he fired a few times at it. Bullet holes went through the screen, and the image flickered a few times, only for the three other screens above the bleachers to all turn off and then flash on with the same image the first was still showing, though now with cracks in it. One of those cracks on the first screen went right through the middle of Zach's face, right as the boy screamed, "LET ME OUT! I'LL KILL YOU!"
"You can't anymore," Shigaraki said in a smug way, his voice sending chills down the spines of many who also felt them when Zach screamed the first thing in the video. "Remember?" Shigaraki asked, his lips curling up behind the hand attached to his face.
Zach's face in the video scrunched up, his whole body shaking, and then he snapped his head forward and his mouth curled up violently at the corners. "I don't need Death to kill you! I'll rip your fucking throat out! Just get a little closer," Zach snarled, and he chomped his teeth a few times forward while struggling forward in his binds.
What is he talking about? Kirishima thought, his heart racing even faster at that last exchange. Death, won't work on him anymore? Did they- Kirishima thought about how Zach could not use his powers on him, and why that was, and his eyes grew even wider as he stared at the madman on the screen. Did that guy kill himself, and force you to…
All Might spun from the screen he was staring at back down to the arena where Zach was standing with his eyes stuck on the screens just like everyone else around him. Zach was panting hard, and All Might could see the boy's face twitching, his eyes shaking, his lips trembling. Young Sazaki. Turn away. "We must get the hacker out of the system," All Might said, spinning to the other heroes around him who were all standing like he was.
"If it's that Hackerman," Power Loader began in a frustrated voice. "We still don't know how much his Quirk controls. He could keep it going-"
"I'LL KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO THEM!" Zach screamed, his face filling with agony and his body straining even harder against the binds, only for him to collapse back into the chair and start wheezing in pain and exhaustion. Them? All of his classmates thought while staring up at the screen, except for Jirou and Yaoyorozu who felt their hearts pounding harder each second.
"I didn't do anything," Shigaraki began.
"YOU KILLED THEM!"
"Did I?" Shigaraki asked. Zach leaned back in his chair, even his squinted eye opening wider as Shigaraki leaned towards him. "I wouldn't have even known their names, if it weren't for you. And if you didn't try and be a hero… heh," Shigaraki leaned back and then stared down at the boy whose face had distraught and horror covering the rage. That only lasted for a few seconds before Zach's eyes started to narrow again, but it was nothing like the rage from before.
Zach's face in the video became more calm, more dangerous. Even some of the heroes who were in the stands and trying to figure out what was going on found themselves freezing as Zach's voice began in a cold, low tone, "Everyone you care about." Zach paused, while the present Zach rose up his left hand and put it over his face, his eyes huge and his mouth wide open as he stared into his hand. No. "I'll kill them all, right in front of you. I'll rip them to fucking pieces, and I'll MAKE YOU WATCH!" Zach screamed it in the video, and every person who a minute ago was calling out 'Lifebringer's name stared at that same boy in horrified ways at the sound of that threat.
Shigaraki just hummed at Zach's threat, then he turned and started back for the door. Zach snarled and tried pushing forward out of his seat again, losing that calm look as he desperately tried to pull himself free. He stopped after a second and just started panting again, his body and mind exhausted from the looks of him. Shigaraki stopped after leaving the frame, but his voice still came out as Zach sat there panting with his head bowed again. "I thought you might have been getting tired, but you don't get to sleep anymore." Zach started lifting his head, and Shigaraki continued, "I'll think about finding some music you like, but in the meantime you can just listen to this."
A speaker on the ceiling of that small room turned on, and a scared girl's voice came out loudly. It came out so loud that it blasted in that small room, but it also filled the entire stadium playing these videos on their big screens. "He's going to save me," the scared voice said. As soon as that voice came out, both Zach in the video and the present version of him standing on the arena froze. It had been months since Zach had heard that voice, and he started lifting his other hand to his head too, his eyes clenching shut while he started shaking his head around at the sound of it. "He'll come here, and he'll bring back my parents. He's going to save me."
"Ahhhhh," video Zach breathed out hard, and he looked to be trying desperately to keep a look of rage on his face as he started shaking in his chair.
"We have to cut this off," Aizawa said, glaring through the booth towards the three big screens around the stadium that everyone was staring at. He also saw Sazaki down on the arena though, and he thought, He's losing it!
"Zach!" The scared girl's voice shouted, different this time, more afraid.
"Jenny!" Zach screamed as he yanked forward in the chair. He started shaking his head around, drool splashing form his mouth and an insane look in his eyes as he glared forward, unknowingly straight into a camera. "JENNY!"
Kaminari was already standing out of his seat. He stood there staring towards the big screens with as wide eyes as the rest of his classmates, but he started leaning back with a wave of realization crashing into him. Others who had heard Kaminari mention that name, always to off-put reactions from Zach, started staring in even more shock at the screen where they could hear that girl screaming over the speakers. "ZACH!" Jenny screamed, her voice full of so much fear than her previous shouts, an urgency to it that had everyone leaning forward, while the kid in the video strapped to a chair just screamed at the top of his lungs. And then the girl's voice screamed more, "ZACH! HELP MEEE- NO! AHHHH! AHHHHHHHHHEEEE- EEEEAAAAHHHH! EEEAEAAAAGGGHAAAAHH- AHHH AHHH! EEEAAAaaaahhh…"
"Holy fuck," Sero pulled his hands back from the top of his head where he was holding them as he listened to those screams. Listening to the screams was bad enough, not knowing what had happened to the girl to make her scream in such a way was almost as bad, but the worst thing was the look of the boy in the video whose screams cut off as the girl's faded off. His whole body was twitching, and then the recording restarted. It restarted, and his expression turned dark. The door of his room had closed during the girl's screams, so he was all alone in there now. He stared forward with dark and narrowed eyes, his body twitching, his lip flinching at the corners that lifted up and curved down just as fast.
Uraraka and Bakugo stood at the exit onto a part of the bleachers full of spectators that they rushed to hearing the strange things echoing around the stadium. Uraraka had tears in her eyes, but she lifted a hand up and covered her mouth as she saw that look cover Zach's face. Zach's teeth bared, and then they opened and a cracked noise came out of his throat. His lips curled up past his teeth that bared again, and then his eyes shot open huge as Jenny's voice called out for him in the background again. Bakugo stared at the boy up on screen, his eyes as wide as everyone else around him. What the, fuck?
Outside the stadium, Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods, as well as everyone around them and all the security included were staring up at the screen on the outside of the building. A camera angle inside was pointed up towards one of the hacked big screens, transmitting the images from inside out to everyone. Kamui Woods shook his head quicker than the rest of the security, and his eyes darted around the curve of the huge building. Hackerman. His range is unknown, but there's a chance he's around here. "Everyone," Kamui Woods called out to the rest of the large security force gathered near him, "we have to search…"
Back in Class 2-A's area of the bleachers, Yaoyorozu did not look at the screens around the top of the stadium like the rest of her classmates. She looked down towards the stage where Zach was standing, his hands on the sides of his head and a distressed and horrified look on his face. "I loved her, more than I knew I could ever love someone, and I only realized it as she screamed my name! As she died, screaming out in agony yet still believing that I would come save her. Until her very last breath, she believed in me. And I failed her! I let her die!" How many times, Zach? How many times, did you have to listen to this?
Jirou had her right hand up over her mouth, and she thought about the same thing Yaoyorozu just did that she heard on the roof that night. Tears filled her eyes, and then everyone staring at the screen froze as the image suddenly changed, and Shigaraki was in the room again. The image cut so suddenly that it was strange the shift, except Zach's facial expression only got much creepier in the next frame as the boy was looking up at Shigaraki with his head cocked to one side and a mad smirk spread across it. The scab on the right side of his face was smaller and there was no dried blood around it anymore, no swelling around his eye, though he did have a bloody gash on his left shoulder, and a new but scabbed-over wound on his right knee, and three very noticeable scabby gashes over the left side of his chest on his muscular pectoral.
Shigaraki held up a picture, and Uraraka gasped with her eyes shooting much wider. Bakugo darted his gaze to the girl next to him, then up at the video where he saw Zach smirking at Shigaraki like a lunatic. Zach turned to the picture Shigaraki was holding up, then he laughed and said, "Oh! Mina Jirou." He nodded at Shigaraki with a big grin on his face, and he started laughing harder before going, "Quirk- Hardening. Umm, she likes long walks on the beach and-"
Shigaraki reached forward and tazed Zach in the gut, and his smug and smirking look wiped from his face as he let out a bloodcurdling scream. Heroes started yelling to get these videos taken down, but there was no response from the people in charge of the Sports Festival. They were not announcing what was wrong, and all the speakers in the stadium were blasting Zach's screams instead. Mina Ashido dropped her jaw as she was mentioned a moment ago, and Jirou and Kirishima were also staring up at the screen in shock at that response. Uraraka's eyes started watering up more though, as it was her picture that Shigaraki was holding, and she thought, Was he still, even then, just trying to protect-
The images changed quickly, and the room changed this time too. On the stage, Zach's hands dropped from his head, and his eyes opened huge as he stared up at the cracked screen he was still looking at over the commentators' booth. He thought maybe he was seeing things wrong, and he turned to the right with a shocked look on his face and looked up at a different screen. A few of his classmates who glanced down at the arena a couple times, and Shoji from not far from him, saw a shocked and nervous look on Zach's face as he stared up at that screen. I don't remember this! Why don't I- I, I remember everything! I wasn't repressing it that much! I, I don't know this room!
Shigaraki had a picture lifted in front of him before the new image even cut on. Most people gasped at what they saw up on the screen, but then a whole lot of them stared in even more shock as Zach spoke in a low and shaky voice, his eyes darting from the picture down to the floor beneath his dangling feet. "Toru Hagakure. Quirk Invisibility," Zach darted his eyes up in that video, and Shigaraki kept staring at him from between the fingers of the hand on his face. "Uh- um- she's, she's really girly. And I- I think she likes Ojiro."
What am I doing? Zach stared up at the big screen, his breath picking up and his eyes shaking in horror at what he was watching. Why, don't I remember this? I, I remembered… but, I must not… Oh my God. Shigaraki lifted the next photo, one name farther down in the class alphabetically. And after him, is… Zach looked back towards the Class A section, and he stared in terror right at Midoriya who was staring back at him with as wide eyes.
"D-Do you really need me to say?" Zach asked, as Shigaraki held up a picture of Bakugo. "You know him already-"
Shigaraki started lifting a different hand, and Zach screamed everything he knew about Bakugo. Zach was dangling in the air in a darker room. There was a metal bar hanging off the ceiling, and his wrists were held to it by rusty hooks. His left ear was split. His hair was a little longer. The wounds from the other clips had become scars or were old scabs now. He had fresh burn wounds on his torso, the skin melted off, and he had blood dripping off of his feet as he hung there rambling about Bakugo. "…hates Midoriya-"
Shigaraki moved away Bakugo's picture and said, "And Midoriya?"
Nezu froze as he was giving out orders to the teachers in front of him. He turned like All Might had in front of him, and they stared with wide worried eyes towards the screen across the arena. Bakugo's eyes narrowed in on the screen up above him, and he clenched his fists tighter at his sides, Don't you…
Midoriya stared up at the picture of his face, then to how scared Zach was as his lips trembled, his body hanging off the floor and dripping blood. He clenched his teeth so hard, water in his eyes, and he thought, I don't blame you. In his head he saw Zach's face now as he looked down at the fighting stage, and he knew the boy he had looked at did not remember what he was seeing. I let you get taken, to go through all of this-
"Izuku Midoriya, Quirk Power-Up. It's strong but he can't control it so he breaks his body easily." Zach responded to Shigaraki, and then the image suddenly cut again to show Zach back in the white room he had been in before, only he was wearing all black now to cover up most of his body.
For the majority of people watching, the scene confirmed that Zach had not been able to hold out as he rambled about his classmates. A small few got a very different meaning out of that short clip that only lasted thirty seconds total. Nezu and All Might stared in shock at the screens then down to Sazaki, and Midoriya spun around with his eyes wide too as he looked down towards the arena. Bakugo was breathing heavily after he watched that, and Uraraka glanced at him in confusion as to the wide-eyed look on his face from what Zach just said. He turned and looked down towards the arena, where Zach had his head bowed and his eyes clenched so hard shut.
It was unbearable. The weight Zach felt crushing in his heart right now. I told them, everything. I told them about my classmates… was I the spy? Am I- I, I didn't say I knew about All Might's connection with… but what if I did? What if Shigaraki just wants me to think I held out, and I'll just tell him in a different clip? I don't remember. I forgot. I didn't think about my scars, because it hurt to do so. But I, I really don't remember, where I got those burn marks. Wasn't it Dabi? Was Dabi ever there? Was any of it real?! Zach's eyes shot open and he stared at the floor in front of his feet in horror. Echoing through the stadium he heard his own voice, "Yes, I'll kill him."
"What if I told you to kill All Might?"
"I'll kill him."
Heroes stopped trying to get the screens cut off on their own as some of them just started trying to do. They all stopped and stared towards the screens, at the boy wearing all black, whose hair had gotten longer, and who was answering in a very calm way for speaking to the man who had tortured him.
How did Lifebringer escape the villains?
There were no hero rescue operations.
I heard he escaped on his own, but it didn't make any sense to me.
"And if I told you to sneak back in…" Shigaraki began. Even more people around the stadium started turning back towards the arena stage now, where the dark haired boy on it was not moving and was slowly lifting his gaze up into the stands. Escape, Zach thought, and then his eyes opened wider as he stared out at people looking down at him with fearful and suspicious gazes. That's all I was thinking about. That's why I, said all these… "Would you play a hero for me?"
"Yes," video Zach replied.
Mineta leaned back on his seat, his eyes shooting open huge and his chest pounding over and over. Wait wait wait. If Zach really was, then, then why would the villains be doing this?! Mineta's eyes grew even wider, then he spun his head around and saw that not everyone in the stadium was putting that together. Zach! The short boy thought, but he could not shout it himself when he heard Shigaraki's voice question, "And would you kill your classmates?"
"Yes," Zach responded with no more hesitation than any of the other questions. He just stared straight up at Shigaraki and nodded his head, his eyes looking half-dead, his whole expression just making him seem broken.
"That's good," Shigaraki said, smiling creepily behind the hand down at Zach.
Zach in the present started twitching, his whole body full of fear as he saw what was happening on the videos. Everything else blurred out of his vision and all he could see was Shigaraki standing in front of him and saying those things, and it made him start darting his eyes around in more of a panicked way.
"This is bad, Eraser," Hizashi Yamada whispered to his fellow commentator. "Kid looks about to lose it down there."
"Start shouting," Aizawa said as he finished coming up with a plan. They could not get in contact with the principal and Aizawa did not want to mess with whatever plan the short furry creature was coming up with, but he couldn't just sit in there any longer. "Shout over everyone and say that we're working to get the screens under control, and that this is nothing to-" Aizawa's head started turning around to look farther back in the commentators' booth, and his eyes bulged which made Mic spin his head around too.
"Then one last thing," Shigaraki Tomura said in the video, leaning forward towards the boy restrained to a chair. "Who are you?"
A look of sheer terror and panic covered Zach's face in the video, and he screamed at the top of his lungs while slamming his back into the seat he was in, "NOT LIFEBRINGER!" Jirou, Iida, Ashido, Kirishima, and Midoriya all stared in horror at the screen, thinking about what he shouted at them on that day he had run away back to the dorms so he wouldn't get captured again. They felt their hearts breaking thinking about how they confronted him for that, as Zach screamed it again, "NOT LIFEBRINGER! NOT LIFEBRINGER! NOT LIFEBRINGER! NOT LIFEBRINGER! NOT LIFEBRINGER! NOT LIFEBRINGER…"
While screams of 'NOT LIFEBRINGER' filled the stadium, the air in front of Zach on the stage darkened. "Not…" he started to whisper, only for his eyes to shoot open wide as black wisps appeared in front of him. Zach stared straight ahead with a terrified look on his face, and an explosion went off on his left up at the commentators' box, and thousands at the Sports Festival started screaming.
Zach stared at the portal in front of him, and a low voice came out of it, "Commence Phase Two."