Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 69:

It's not getting any better.

Zach walked down a main street of Musutafu in the middle of the day on the first Sunday after school started back up. He looked left and right as he reached an intersection, and though it was the middle of the day, he only saw one car driving down the road to his right. It's the middle of the day. It's a nice day out too. One of the nicest all year. Zach started crossing the crosswalk, and he lifted his gaze to the sky to watch some slowly moving white clouds cross the crystal blue sky.

This sucks, Zach thought, lowering his gaze with an intense look to him as he kept walking. Villains have gone past the line. The parallel lines keeping villains and the rest of us apart, they pushed against each other and the villains derailed those lines. We're on a new track now. Zach ground his teeth and his right hand twitched at his side, his fingers coming out of his glove. The world isn't safe for anyone. I can't just hide away at U.A., even if fuckers keep following me! Zach snapped his head to the side and glared behind him, but no one was there this time.

When I was walking that day with Kirishima, I noticed it, but was it happening before then? Who the fuck is it? Zach turned back forward and his eyes darkened while his fingers slid back into his glove. And at the hospital, someone came. They came and were watching me, but I never got a good look. Through the window once when I woke up after passing out, just watching me in my hospital room. Are they waiting for me to let my guard down? How would that not have been a good time?! Zach's fists clenched harder at his sides and he slowed down where he was on the sidewalk.

"Alright," he muttered under his breath. Fuck it. I'm not going on like this anymore. I have been ready for someone to attack me since I came back. Ready for an ambush. I know how to look back without letting people know I can see them! But this! This is so much more frustrating! Zach started walking again and dropped his guard completely. He unclenched his fists and relaxed, even laughing like he was just being paranoid in the first place. If you're not going to make a move, that's fine. He shifted the straps of his backpack a little on his shoulders, then he turned down the next intersection and lost his grin immediately but only for a second. I'm not going to be the one that's hunted, anymore.

A hooded figure leaned out of an alleyway looking down towards the end of the street and an intersection a boy just walked around. The person turned around in their alley and started running through it to the next road down. They hit that road and turned right, jogging down the sidewalk and then cutting right into another alleyway that was thicker than the last one.

The thicker alleyway was between two large skyscrapers, and there was some loose debris and broken furniture piled up in there like the original cleaning crews had just shoved it to the side and no one had bothered to come and clear it out yet. The hooded figure jogging down the alley cut left down another thin alleyway that would go out onto the sidewalk that the person they were following had just turned onto. They spun into that alleyway, and they came to a screeching stop swinging their arms out to the side in panic.

In the middle of that narrow passageway only wide enough for one person with their arms out to walk through, a five and a half foot tall figure covered in darkness glared towards the hooded person. Zach let out a deep breath and his black steam hovered in front of his face, then he rose up his hands that he had knives held in, and he growled in a menacing voice that overlapped a dark tone over its normal one, "Who are you?" Zach stomped forward, and the hooded person looking at him lowered their arms down to their sides but did not step back. "I'm not playing games," Zach warned. His red eyes kept everything in view, and he made sure he was focused behind him too though he was pretty sure he was clear in the back.

"I'm, sorry if I startled you," the figure began, and Zach was only a little surprised as he heard the high-pitched voice come from under the dark purple hood. The girl stood almost half a foot shorter than him, and she sounded young by the tone of her voice. "I, just needed you to see me today. I, let you see me this time because-"

"I've seen you before," Zach said in his low voice. "This time?" So this is the person who's been following me around. What the fuck is she doing? "Take your hood off," Zach ordered.

The girl in front of him lifted her head a little so he could see the bottom of her face, and Zach saw a nervous look on it. She gulped, and she rose up her hands to her hood and very shakily started taking it off. "I wanted to talk, but I was always too nervous to confront you," she started, and she took her hood off so Zach could see her face. His red eyes widened a little but he kept himself on guard, despite the look of the young girl in front of him. She looks, my age? She's cute too. The girl had long brown hair, green eyes that were somehow bright even in the dark alley, and despite trying to stay wary of her, he felt himself losing caution.

What is she talking about? Too nervous to talk to me? "I don't understand," Zach began, lowering his knives a little but keeping Nightmare around him.

"I- I needed to talk to you," she said, taking a step forward and getting a more desperate look on her face. "Because, I can't let it go on anymore. Because you died, at the Sports Festival," she said it and got such a scared look in her eyes that set off a warning alarm in Zach's head. "I couldn't take it if something bad happened to you again and I wasn't there by your side, to save you!"

Zach leaned back and lowered his arms down to his sides. What the fuck is happening right now? "Who," he started. "Why-" he paused again as the girl in front of him leaned her head back and her lips started twisting in a depressed way. "What are you talking about?" Zach just whispered towards her, and he brought his right hand up and touched himself in the chest. He got rid of his black aura, and the girl in front of him smiled widely as she came face to face with him.

She stepped forward, but Zach took a step back to keep the same distance between them. He had a very uneasy feeling in his gut about this girl, and he started panting as the girl stopped only to lean forward his way and push her arms together in front of her body. She rose up her right hand and grabbed the zipper of her dark-purple hoodie, sliding it halfway down her body. She lifted her gaze after doing that, and she squeezed her arms together more pushing her C-cup breasts together and up to show Zach a bunch of cleavage. Oh man, Zach thought, and he gulped as he looked into the girl's eyes. "My life is yours," she said, and Zach's breath sped up even more.

The girl took another step forward, then her eyes opened wide like she realized something terrible. She dropped down fast onto her right knee, and Zach leaned back with an even more nervous look on his face. "I, I offer you my life," she said, bowing her head to her knee as she said it. "I offer you my body," she added, more seductively while lifting her head and pushing her chest out towards him again. "My soul," she gasped his way, her cheeks bright red and her eyes wide like she could not believe that this moment had finally come.

Oh fuck! This is creeping me the fuck out! I was, I was not expecting this! Literally anything else, would have been better! I was ready to get in a death-match, but, but this?! "You, you're-" he stopped himself from saying 'nuts,' even though that's what was on the tip of his tongue. She's just, some crazy fan. This girl is insane! "Who are-" Zach froze as the girl's eyes started shaking again while looking back into his. Her eyes shaking like that made him hesitate to finish the question, and he wondered why that would be. A strange feeling he had in his gut since she took off her hood started rising again, and his heart started pounding while his eyes opened huge. "You, you're…"

Eight Months Ago

"Eww! It's the Screwdriver!"

"I loved your father. I accepted that he had a daughter, but he's gone now. You aren't my daughter. You weren't that young, and you're even older now. You can get out."

I hate them. At the top of a five-story tall building, a girl with brown hair falling straight down just past her shoulders glared out over the city beyond her. I hate all of them. Her fists clenched at her sides, and then she lifted up her right hand and stared at her index and middle fingers. She stared closer at them, and her face started getting so frustrated as her fingers melded together and turned to steel. I hate this Quirk. She looked at the screwdriver she just created, and she closed her eyes as they were watering up.

The fifteen year old girl brought her hands up to the sides of her head and snapped her crying eyes open. "I hate you," she snarled, glaring out into the city and at a tall skyscraper in the center of it. "I hate you mo- stepmom," she said it with so much hatred in her voice. The screwdriver on her right hand that she had pressed up against her temple started turning into a blade, and she pulled it off of her head and looked at the sharp knife she created. The other three fingers on her hand turned into smaller blades, and a smirk spread across her face as she curled those fingers and twisted her hand around.

As she curled her larger knife the same way she did the others, she forgot about its extra length and nicked herself on the wrist. "Ow!" She winced and all of her fingers started turning back to normal. The girl looked down at her wrist and watched as red blood trickled down fast to either side of it, and it dripped off onto the ground below her feet. She looked down at those red drops on the floor, then back at her wrist as she thought about that pain. Her eyes widened, and she turned her left index finger into a blade this time. That, hurt, she thought. But it didn't hurt as much, as this does, she bit down hard and looked out over the city again. Why?

"What a stupid Quirk!"

"Creepy, what boys are going to want a girl who's just a tool?"

"It's not you, but the other girls say- well, I just don't want to get left out like you do. Please don't talk to me."

"If you can't pay tuition anymore, you can't keep going to this high school. Can you work anything out?"

"The number you have called is not available…"

The girl brought her left hand over to her right wrist and slid a blade across it. "Snn, sn," she sniffled and clenched her eyes shut, pushing more tears out as blood ran down her arm. "I don't want to, be like this," she started, pulling her left hand away and clenching her eyes shut as blood ran down both hands now. "No one cares, if I do it. No one's going to ask me if I'm okay," she looked forward again, into the city that made her teeth bare and her mind scream in fury. Everyone here. They're all demons. They all, hate me- I hate them! I hate all of them! Tears spilled faster down her face, and then her right foot stepped forward and onto the ledge before her.

Her eyes lowered down to her foot, and then she stared in shock as she brought her other foot up too. She gulped and watched as blood dripped next to her feet, then she leaned forward and looked down off of the building. "It doesn't look so high, from here," she whispered. Five stories suddenly seemed a lot closer to the ground, and her breath started slowing down though echoing in her head. Would anybody care? If I didn't, would anyone? That thought made her heart squeeze harder, and her feet slid closer so they were halfway off and halfway on the ledge. No. No one would. She closed her eyes. She leaned forward.

Her feet came off of the ledge, and she started plummeting. Even though she closed her eyes though, she snapped them open after a second of free-falling through the air. She stared at the ground that suddenly seemed so much farther, though it was closing fast, and her face covered in terror as people screamed on the sidewalk and street below her. Tears flew off the sides of her face and blood off her arms, and she screamed, "AHHH-"

On a sidewalk of Genosi City, a girl laying flat on her back slowly opened up her eyes. She looked up, and into the hazel eyes of a boy leaning over her. He was wearing a black mask, he had short black hair visible over the top of his mask, and he smiled for a second when she opened her eyes to look into his. I, know him, the girl thought, and her breath sped up as she tried leaning up on the ground. She felt exhausted though, but her breath still sped up as the boy leaning over her lost his smile and started looking down at her with a worried and pained look in his eyes.

A black portal opened up in the air behind the boy kneeling over her. He glanced back at it, then he looked down at the girl he was knelt over who was staring into his eyes with huge ones of her own. "Don't," he started, then he pursed his lips and hesitated while glancing around towards other bystanders near them. He leaned down and he put his face close to the confused, disheveled one of the girl lying under him. "It's never worth it," he whispered, and the girl's breath caught in her throat as her eyes got as large as they possibly could be.

"Wh-wh-what?" She finally managed to gasp out at him.

"Live life," he said, looking down into her green eyes in such a soft way. "And never think you're worthless to anyone. Because I care if you live or die," he stood up and took a step back into the portal, while blue and red lights flashed around them and sirens blared so loud that the girl had no idea how she had been drowning them out to only hear his voice until then. She stared at his face as he stepped back into the portal, and she leaned up and reached a hand out after him, but the portal closed and he was gone. Her hand grabbed out into empty air, and she gasped while tears filled her eyes as he was gone.

Present

"You're, the one who…" Zach stared at the girl in front of him and pulled back while gasping in pain. No, he thought.

While Zach's face filled with pain though, the girl in front of him got a look of ecstasy on her face and gasped out in euphoria. "Out of all those people, you do remember me," she got up and stared towards him with shining eyes. "It's because of our connection," she said, and Zach felt a pang in his chest even as he had to back away from this crazy person.

When Kurogiri told me what it was, I didn't know if I should. I, but I saved her. I saved her because I had been in that place before. Because she was young, because, I needed to save her like I was saved. Zach was panting heavily as he stared at this girl whose brown hair was longer, who was taller and not as bloody, who was looking at him like he was a God.

"You're my savior," she said, and Zach gulped again as the girl standing before him put her hands together in front of her chest. "I'll, only live for you," she said, her lips trembling as Zach looked back into her eyes.

"This is, crazy," Zach said. He couldn't hold it back, and he stepped away again with an uneasy and scared look on his face. I don't like this. This is, this is too much!

"No one else cared, but you came out of nowhere. You, brought me back to life when I had accepted that no one cared! But you saved me!" She called it at Zach with a desperate look in her eyes. "You still care, right? You still care if I live or die?"

"Y-Yeah, of course!" Zach called out. He froze after saying it, Uh-oh. "But," he continued. "I, I don't want, I mean," he cut himself off again and had such a confused and freaked-out look on his face. "What, did you think was going to happen here?" He asked, lifting his right eyebrow as sweat dripped down both sides of his face. I didn't realize people would go crazy if I brought them back. Or maybe, she wasn't totally sane before it. I've got no idea, but, but this is WAY too weird!

"I started training my Quirk," she said, smiling at Zach and stepping towards him, only for Zach to take another step back and shake his head at her. "I'll follow you forever," she said, her tone begging him to let her do it.

Alright, so she's a crazy person. She's stalking me. This, this isn't as bad as villains coming after me, I guess? Zach started shaking his head more and he said in a low voice, "You, can't follow me around like this. I- when I'm in school, what do you do? I mean- what are you doing? Just waiting for me to come out?" She got an embarrassed look on her face and started twisting around her right foot on the ground in a shy way that would have been cute if it was not entirely too creepy.

"I don't want you to follow me around anymore," Zach said, trying to make his voice stern and get the girl to understand he meant it.

She looked up and into his eyes though, and she just kept smiling at the sight of him. "I love you," she professed, and then she turned and pursed her lips with bright red cheeks. I actually said it! EEEEeee!

Holy shit! I have to run! "Well, um, it was nice meeting you," Zach said. He turned around and jogged towards the end of the alley, keeping his knives in his hands as he did.

"Huh? Wh- wait!"

Zach ran out onto the sidewalk and he turned and started jogging down it. That was not an okay way to end that. How am I supposed to talk to her though?! She's crazy, and crazy about me, and even if she's cute this is way too wild. I don't want to call the police on her though. If she thinks I'm the only one who cares about her, Zach slowed down, and he glanced over his shoulder and looked back towards that alleyway. He spotted the girl leaning her head out of it and looking towards him, but as she pulled back like usual, this time she stopped and then slid her head farther out of the alley while smiling towards him. Nope. Nope nope nope. Zach turned forward and shook his head around.

This is not what I came out to do today! I just, have to ignore her. She isn't following me out on the sidewalk. It seems like she's fine with keeping her distance. To protect me? Oh shit, okay, okay… I can't pretend like I don't notice someone's following me. And I can't just let my guard down thinking it's just, whoever that girl is. What's her name? Well, whoever she is, she's going to make me drop my guard. I don't think she's crazy enough to attack me, maybe… She says she wants to protect me though, so even if I don't realize I'm about to be attacked by villains or something, maybe she'll help me out? This is too much. Zach lifted his left hand and scratched the side of his head. I want to be a little more suspicious of who she might be, but I've seen crazy people before. She looked a little like Toga there. That's bad.

If she is like Toga, I have to report her. But other than following me around, she hasn't really done anything. Killing herself… I remember, she had cuts on her arms too… Zach's eyes lowered to the floor and he bit down hard as he kept walking towards the library, his backpack feeling heavier all of a sudden. I had All Might. He talked me down, told me it was alright to have my dream. But her, what did I really do? I thought in that moment when Kurogiri opened the portal that I needed to do more. I thought that telling her those things would stop her from doing it again, and I was right! I was right, but I just left her after bringing her back to life. I left an emotional wreck who had thought no one cared believing that one person did, and she "trained" to follow me? I'm not a God! I'm just a student.

Except, I'm not, Zach thought. His fists balled at his sides and he got a more serious look on his face as he kept walking. I might be a kid, but I'm a hero. I'm Lifebringer. And, and I might not be able to help her, but there are things I can do. Zach reached up and grabbed his backpack straps, pulling them tight and staring towards the library up ahead that had received very little damage during the recent attack. He had a bead of sweat on the side of his face, but he continued towards the building and steadied his hands. I have to do this.

Zach sat at a table in the library with his headphones on. He stared at the screen and watched the end of a video on his incognito tab, then he darted his gaze around before opening a new tab and closing the old one. Zach typed in something new, then he jumped to the fifth search page right away. Doing something like this was making him nervous, and he thought while glancing around him again, The school hasn't mentioned anything about my old punishment recently. They probably would if they knew what I was doing now.

He clicked on another link and gulped at the naked women on the ads on the side of the screen. He quickly blocked those ads out, then he scrolled down and found another link with some big red 'X's before and after it. It had 'WARNING' written on the side and Zach was worried it might have a virus that would break his computer, but he read out the link in his head and knew what the warning was for. Zach tapped the link and a new window opened up, and a video started playing in the center of the window. I really, really couldn't have watched any of these on the school servers. Zach started glaring at the screen and the villain on it, calling to other villains while wearing a mask and flanked by a dozen others in similar garb.

"…need to find Stain and follow his commands! All who were influenced by the Hero Killer should adorn themselves in the attire of the Cult of Stain! Only Stain's teachings can purge this world of the darkness residing within. Only Stain can save us now! All Might is gone, so every hero who exists in this world now is a FAKE! And fakes, must be…"

"PURGED!" All of the followers behind the leader in a red robe called out. The leader's robe was all red, slightly different from the others who all wore black ones with only red stripes on the shoulders and down the middles of them. Zach leaned back from the computer and he darted his gaze around again worriedly that someone would see his computer screen, then he lowered the brightness and leaned forward himself with a terrified look on his face. No, he thought, while two men dragged a costumed figure onto the screen.

The man in charge started calling out about the hero's name, and the hero started begging for mercy. Zach 'x'-ed out the window fast when he saw a serrated knife drawn, and he still gagged even without finishing the video. Damn it, he thought, his hands shaking as he thought about the fear covering that tied-up hero's face. Someone needs to clean all these videos off the internet… not that other people won't just post them. Stain's video, my video, they never really leave the web. They're always there. Zach's eyes darkened and he moved his finger around the mousepad again to scroll farther down the page with that link on it that had opened a new window while leaving him on the site.

Zach watched more videos, ones deep in the internet that he knew might be illegal just for watching. His eyes were dark as he x-ed out of clip after clip of evil across the web. Then he stared at a page that was not as far buried in links within links, and he could get to it on the first page of a search engine. These petitions, are gaining steam fast. Zach glared at a bar indicating the number of people who had signed the petition he was looking at. He refreshed the page, and he saw a dozen more signatures added since he first got on the page. People calling for heroes to use their Quirks to wipe out villains. To change laws to allow for capital punishment and for heroes to be allowed to dole it out in the streets. They aren't that much to be worried about, but this…

The boy stopped on a page and lifted his left hand up to run through his dark wavy hair. His hair fell down at the sides and behind his head before waving up a little near the bottom, and there were some waves over the top of it too with some smaller strands sticking out as he did not spend much time on his hair in the morning. Running his hand through his hair made it worse too. Zach frowned and lowered his hand from his head. He stared at the bar labeled, 'No punishment for heroes.' Already twelve thousand supporters. People don't want heroes to be punished, or be afraid of being punished if they use their powers to kill someone. Maybe they think so much damage was caused because heroes were holding back? Maybe they're just afraid enough that they're willing to accept that. If heroes can get away with murder though, like I did… Zach narrowed his eyes more and he clicked off of that page.

Zach took a deep breath and he opened up a writing application on his laptop. He opened up an old file and started panting as he stared at it. Zach went back on the internet and opened up a couple of pages. He searched different things, and he went onto different message boards discussing the villain attacks, hero tactics, and changes in society. Zach took in a few deep breaths and let them out through his nose, then he copied and pasted into the message bars on each site. Label it anonymously, he thought, typing in 'Anonymous' as the guest user for each message. Then at the top of the huge essay he just copied and pasted, Zach started typing, 'This is a leaked report from U.A. student Zach Sazaki, otherwise known as Lifebringer.'

He paused, and then he posted it. He posted the same thing across a bunch of different message boards, and then he closed his laptop with big eyes. He panted a couple of times, then he tightened his hands on his laptop before removing them and lowering them down to his sides. He stared forward over his laptop into the wall of the tiny library box he was sitting at. It was a private workspace, and yet he still darted his eyes around to see if anyone saw what he had just done. Then his gaze became serious again and he put his hands together over the table in front of him. The date is the most important thing. I have the date I finished it on there, before the big event I mentioned in the essay.

Zach grabbed his laptop and put it away in his backpack. He stood up and started to leave the library, his expression intense and without regret on it. I wrote it, and nothing changed. Because nothing could change until the big event happened. I knew it as soon as the reports were over, and everyone just stopped really focusing on them. Or even while I wrote it… The only way my essay was going to have an impact was if people saw I predicted it coming. His eyes got darker as he thought that, but he continued on in his head, And if people think that what I offered in the essay might have actually helped stop it.

Zach reached the door of the library and headed outside. He walked out into such a nice day in mid-May, but there were not many people out there with him to enjoy it. There's too much negativity filling the web, and the news, and social media. Too many people saying things are worse and only getting even worse still. The solutions being offered like killing all villains, they aren't good ones. Not one that will create a better world. Zach started walking down the steps outside the library. I had an idea though. I thought it through, and I know it's a good one! Telling everyone to work on their Quirks, telling them all to be ready to face villains, so that next time a few hundred people attack a city of millions, it won't be as much of a bloodbath. It can work. I have to believe it can.

A/N Thanks for reading! Sooo... Zach's got a creepy stalker. Hope you guys enjoyed the introduction of this new character, as well as Zach's decision to post his final report from the previous year online to try and stop the negativity spreading since the Sports Festival Invasion. Next chapter's a little longer and the start of a new arc, so get ready! Leave a review below telling me what you think of these new developments, predictions and questions for Death! Review responses:

Super Power Sensei chapter 68 . 18h ago

Who is the person that was following Zack back when Kiminari got kidnapped and when Zack was alone with Kirishima?

Great question! XD Lol I laughed pretty hard when I saw this review knowing what the next chapter had in store. Glad you remembered her first appearance back when Kaminari got kidnapped since back then Zach didn't even notice it (too preoccupied at the time)! Hope you enjoyed the reveal and thanks for the review!

Shade11224 chapter 68 . 15h ago

Adding on to my theory of the supernatural it'd explain why Zach's quirk is the way it is. After all his father turned into steel I guess and his mother healed people through sadness, so that explains revival and nightmare mode and even his healing when he kills. What doesn't make since is its constraint in his right hand and why it seems to be a physical thing as it weakens the more it's spreads out, but his hand weakens too so that means it's literally energy that just decided to sit in his hand.
Besides all that your writing skills have had a drastic improvement since the first chapter and this one! I really hope you continue to flesh out the romantic relationship between Momo and Zach, so please don't kill her as that would bring the story to the point where you really couldn't grow attached to any character without fearing you'll off them. Also it'd make the story far more boring without the dynamic between the niceness of everyday life and the really dark moments. Now that I'm basically done begging, thanks for the chapter!

Won't confirm or deny anything about your theory, though I will say I like the ideas and the thought of making things more supernatural seems pretty cool to me. I'm also glad you think the story's really progressed since the start, and it seems like everyone's hooked on the MomoxZach ship by now... Won't say anything about it though, as always ;). Thanks for the review, and I hope you enjoyed the new chapter!

Crosswald chapter 68 . 13h ago

Can we have a list of all "important" dead heroes, i'm confused

Sure. Aizawa, Edgeshot, Snipe, and Tora and Air Jet too. The first three are the ones I think you'd consider "important" though.

Thebloodlord chapter 68 . 22h ago

Mother Russia sounds a lot like Izumi Curtis from FMA...

Glad you think she's a lot like the most badass chick in anime XD. Thanks for the review!

Guest chapter 68 . 20h ago

Right there Captain, on the horizon! Tis a ship!

Haha maybe, maybe... ;)

Momozaki chapter 68 . 16h ago

You damn ship tease...I needed that moment
thank you hope to see more
Hope it takes a while before shit comes again
Zach deserves a short break

Love it how you don't even have faith that Zach's out of the shit now. Just that it will take a while until the next time he gets fucked up is a good hope to have though! I'm glad you liked the chapter, and let's hope Zach' gets that break he deserves. Thanks for reviewing, and hope you enjoyed the newest chapter!