Death

by tmb1112

Death is a Quirk that can only kill. A perfect Quirk for a villain, but what if the boy who manifested that power just wanted to be a hero? Enrolling in U.A. might not be enough when all your Quirk can do is kill people. Follow Zach Sazaki from his first day in Class A on a story that spans years, as he learns to be a hero, finds out more about his Quirk, and too much to summarize!

85. Chapter 85

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 85:

"Midnight sensei said we can stay in here until the cops arrive to question us," Yaoyorozu said while stepping back into Class 2-A's classroom. Five students were gathered in their class on the first floor of U.A High School, four of them looking to the same dark-haired scar-faced teen.

Midoriya stood next to the desk Zach was sitting on the edge of, and the curly-green-haired boy was finishing wrapping up Zach's arm even though the bleeding had slowed already. "You really cut your own arm?" Mineta asked, then he gulped as Bakugo shot him a pissed-off look from a few feet away. Zach just nodded his head once at Mineta's question before focusing on Bakugo, and Midoriya lowered his hands down and took a step back himself too.

"Toga's in police custody," Zach said in a low voice. He had his phone lifted in his right hand which he had been looking at while Midoriya helped him after offering to do so once they entered the room before. "But we're not supposed to say anything about it for a while," Zach muttered, looking at the message from the principal closely.

"We are apparently being locked down to protect us from any other villains who could have snuck onto campus with Toga's help," Yaoyorozu said, as she had just talked to Midnight sensei about this for a little. "Something strange seems to be going on with the teachers-"

"I don't care about any of that right now," Bakugo snapped. He glared at Zach, and Zach stared back in his eyes seriously but without the same glare Bakugo was giving him. "What the hell was she talking about? The fuck happened in, Bangkok?" Bakugo asked it like he was confused at the name of the city and if he had really heard it right. Then he narrowed his eyes more and growled, "And why'd she call you Reaper? You knew that crazy bitch-"

"I knew her," Zach said. He stared at Bakugo and did not deny it. He glanced around at the others and got a pained look on his face for a second at Momo's look, Please, don't look at me any differently. I, I can't handle this. This suspense. Every time something happens, I feel like it's all going to come out. And sooner or later one of them is going to spill everything. I- I need to do this on my own terms. I want to! I don't want people finding out from others. I don't want people to become so suspicious, like Bakugo is, just from the smallest… "I knew her, well," Zach added in a softer voice.

"Zach, you don't have to," Midoriya began.

"Yes, he does," Bakugo said, shooting Midoriya a glare and then looking back to Zach.

Zach just nodded once at Midoriya to show it was fine. Yaoyorozu closed her mouth that she opened to tell Bakugo he did not need to do anything he did not want to. Mineta gulped and glanced towards the door, but he stopped himself from saying how he wanted to just go back to his room like the text he received from the principal ordered everyone do. Midnight sensei said staying it here was an option, but I don't really want to know… Whatever it is. Why are you saying this stuff, Zach? Mineta looked towards his classmate, and his friend, and he did not know what to say or do as Zach's eyes glanced over him too.

"I, didn't spend all my time with the villains saving people," Zach said. He sat on the desk and looked at Bakugo right in his eyes. "I'm sure you guys all noticed. I'm sure, people started wondering where I was long before VTS. They stopped me from really bringing people back to life in public. They wanted to wane Lifebringer out of people's minds, because it did not have the effect they were hoping it would have. They wanted people to question what it meant to be a villain, but all people were questioning was whether or not I was, not the ideology as a whole."

"So what does that-"

"You want me to tell you, or not?" Zach asked, cutting off Bakugo and glaring into his eyes for a second. He softened his look though while Bakugo gave him a glare back, and Zach knew this was not the time to be getting upset with his classmates. They're right, to look at me like that. I, I deserve it. I don't deserve life to be going as great as it is. Momo, my friends… I don't want to lose it though. I don't want to lose any of it. Telling them this might make me lose it though. It might, or, maybe this will be what lets me really move forward. Finally telling the truth, the whole truth to a group of people. I was worried just with Kaminari, but I told him a lot and don't regret it. I know I can tell things to these four, without them spreading it to everyone. Even Mineta. I can see it in his eyes; he wants to believe me right here.

Zach took a deep breath as no one else spoke up, then he started again in a soft but serious voice, "What Toga said, Bakugo. I never tortured people. She said that just so you would, well, do this," Zach muttered the final part with a grim look on his face. Bakugo kept frowning at him, but he stopped glaring as harshly. After seeing how Zach got the information out of Toga, he had believed what she said pretty definitively. After Zach's denial right there though, he did not think it was so any longer. Zach had already said more though that had him looking darkly at his classmate for a different reason.

"As soon, as I realized what they were doing," Zach said. "I decided I needed to get out of there. I- you know that I went in that portal on my own, but as soon as they started slowing down the amount of people they let me save, I decided I needed to escape." Zach paused and gulped. He could not help it, and he gulped but then continued strongly while keeping eye contact with Bakugo, "But the only way I could see myself escaping from there, was if I gained their trust. In order to move around more freely. In order to learn where I actually was, so that I could come back with real information to give the heroes, because I doubted they'd accept me back without it. I, and I didn't think I could just run away from there and make it. So I decided I needed them to trust me, but I told them that I wouldn't kill anyone for them."

Mineta let out a small relieved breath as he was starting to get worried with what Zach was saying. The others did not look as relieved though, and their eyes all started growing wide as Zach lowered his own to the floor and continued, "By late September, I had started… And by mid-October they really didn't have me doing much anymore with bringing people back. Public opinion of me had changed, and they needed to make me a villain so I wasn't just seen as… So, I started to do villain work."

I never even told Webb this. I was afraid of what he'd do right after I escaped. And I pretended, like none of it had ever happened. Ganji knew when I said that name. That name I chose so confidently, because I was used to it already. Because it was one that I had picked. Zach's eyes were dark as he rose them back from the floor, and he continued in a low voice while the others stared at him in shock, "They wanted me to kill right off the bat but I wouldn't, I wouldn't do anything close even which they saw when they tried taking me to situations where I might have to. So they put me somewhere to build up to it. I started off small. Just, packaging drugs. But I was an 'important piece' to Shigaraki, and I had been a part of the League for longer than most."

Zach grit his teeth harder and then said in a dark and low voice, "They started giving me more power quickly when they saw I was willing to do certain jobs. I was easily willing to package drugs if it meant Kurogiri kept taking me out to bring people back to life, just more privately. So they moved me up, to where I got to tell other people to package the drugs…"

This is, this is, Mineta's eyes started shaking as he stared at the taller boy sitting on the desk in front of him.

He's talking about being a villain, Midoriya thought with his chest pounding and his throat getting dry. An actual, villain.

You don't have to say anymore Zach. If it was just to gain their trust, we understand! Why, can't I say that aloud? Yaoyorozu pursed her lips instead of speaking.

That's… This is exactly, like what you did in the training forest. And in Camino Ward. I was pissed at you then too, but, you, Bakugo ground his own teeth, and then his eyes shot open wide again at what Zach continued with.

"But being able to tell others to package the drugs, quickly turned into being allowed to command them to do other things. As Reaper, I knew that Shigaraki wanted me to look like a worse villain. He wasn't going to show me off until I was willing to kill people which he kept thinking I would do, with enough time. He wanted me to do more though, and more, and I was willing to keep going as long as it meant I could gain their trust, and as long as I didn't have to kill anyone. Because that was the one rule I made for myself. The one thing I told myself would mean I had gone too far. Where gaining their trust wouldn't mean anything anymore."

Zach rose his left hand and put it on his forehead though, and he got a dark look in his eyes as he said, "But that line wasn't- It was still too far." Zach pressed his palm harder into his forehead, then he rose his eyes and glanced around his classmates staring at him wide-eyed and waiting for more. "They moved me up through the ranks so fast. It was out of my control, because I couldn't just say no. I did more, allowed myself to take on more, be a part of more. And one night, just over a week before VTS, I was in charge of bringing in a delivery. I had five guys with me, and I sent two of them up to open the truck's doors…"

Eight Months Ago…

"Kaizer, Flowgurt, open it up," Reaper motioned towards the truck with his head. He had on a black mask covering his face, his black hair short but sticking out over the top of his helmet that did not have any steel covering the scalp. The short, five foot three inch tall villain in all black stood with three others near the back of a truck that had gone in reverse through the gates of the compound on the outskirts of a city he did not know the name of. Behind him was a huge warehouse-kind-of building that had multiple smaller buildings on the side and some abandoned factories behind it that were not as abandoned as the public thought.

In front of Zach on his right a couple of feet stood a man shorter than him but fat so he weighed three times as much. The pudgy short man had a cigarette in his mouth like the tall man on his right wearing a black-and-white pinstripe suit like him. To Zach's left was an older woman in her mid-fifties who had long white hair and wrinkles all over her face, but a more sadistic look in her eyes than the men around her. Zach's black mask covered up his whole face except for his eyes and mouth, and behind the mouth hole his lips were twisted down in a deep frown. His eyes were dark and he stared straight at the truck in front of them with a look of disdain and dread. His eyes shifted a bit to his right at the fat man in front of him, and he ground his teeth as Potcobble called out, "Hurry it up. We don't have all night."

The two grunts near the back of the truck climbed up on the bumper. Flowgurt knocked twice while Kaizer leaned down to the latches on the bottom and flipped them. The truck had just backed in, and Zach glanced to the left and right but did not see anyone coming around from the front seats. He shifted his eyes back to the metal door on the back of the truck that started sliding up, expecting to see the drivers in there with their shipment. The door rose, Zach took a step back with his eyes opening wide, and Flowgurt and Kaizer flew backwards with bullets riddling their bodies.

The woman on Zach's left was the quickest to react, raising her arms and firing them like cannons towards the back of the truck before their comrades had even fallen away from it. The cannonballs she fired at the truck slammed into a purple forcefield pulsing out the back of it, though the other villains just on the inside of the truck stumbled back as most of them did not expect their own comrade to react that quickly. As the cannonballs exploded against the forcefield, a huge smirk spread on Reaper's face while he spun around. "Don't let them in Potcobble! I'm getting Stanks!"

"Hold on-"

Present

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Bakugo growled. Zach froze with his mouth open as his classmate cut him off in the story he started ranting about. "This, you were actually running shit-"

"I wasn't," Zach argued back, shaking his head once with a frustrated look on his face. "I, I really- they wanted to make it seem like I did. But those guys with me, they knew to do what I said, but they also knew I wasn't allowed to touch a cellphone." Zach turned his head and looked into Midoriya's eyes, and he snapped, "They knew not to let me wander around on my own, and that I couldn't leave the compound. I wasn't in charge of the whole place, Stanks was. I usually wasn't even one of the most- but that's not important. I couldn't escape. Or, or I didn't think I could. Not yet…"

"Zach," Mineta began quietly. Zach turned his way, and Mineta lifted his head and said in a stronger voice, "I, I don't blame you. For trying to make sure they believed you, so you could get out of there safely. Because when you couldn't," Mineta pursed his lips for a second and shook his head. The others gained softer looks too though Bakugo ground his teeth even as he thought about the torture he saw Zach go through at the Sports Festival. Even as he thought about the scars all over Zach's body he saw almost every day in the locker room, Bakugo could not fight the angry feeling he had as he looked towards Zach. Zach did not look relieved at what Mineta said though. If anything, he looked frustrated at what Mineta had said which made the shorter boy pull away in confusion.

"I didn't just-" Zach started. He clenched his teeth and then said in a whisper, "I never should have tried it. I should have ran, because it didn't matter anyway. I did all of that, and it didn't even matter. I failed at escaping at VTS anyway. I, I did all of it. I gained their trust, and-"

"Zach, VTS wasn't your fault," Midoriya started quickly, taking a step closer to Zach. He had such a hurt look on his face as Zach blamed himself for something he had not let Midoriya take the blame for himself so many times before.

"But, that doesn't matter," Zach whispered towards him. "Because it failed all the same. So everything I did, to get their trust… It just made me, it made me…" Zach's lips started shaking and his eyes darted around at the others, then he whispered, "It made me care for them." The others all froze and their eyes started opening wide at the pained look in Zach's eyes. "It made me, a villain. I, I had already betrayed their trust before, so I couldn't just get it back easily. I, I knew I couldn't just trick them. I knew I couldn't just tell them I was a villain and that would be it. I had to earn their trust. So, I couldn't complain about what I was doing. And, and I had to look like I didn't care about what they were doing anymore. But, but I doubted I could do that, if it was just pretend. I told myself, to just focus on not killing. I told myself that in order to really gain their trusts, to make them think I wasn't a hero, I had to… enjoy it. I had to cast away a part of my sou-" Zach froze with his mouth open.

Saying it like this. I, it wouldn't explain it well. It wouldn't tell them why. "That day at the compound, I ran away from the truck. I ran and left those guys there to fight the other villains who had come after us, who had stolen our shipment of villain costumes. They had killed our drivers and knew that we had other valuables at our compound, so they came in with an ambush. The guys I left behind were slaughtered, and when Stanks came out with the rest of the guys, even they couldn't handle the group that had come for us. Their guys died, and our guys died, and I was smiling the whole time…"

Eight Months Ago…

"They just killed Stanks! I'm in charge now and I have no idea what to do. I need help Kurogiri!" Reaper stumbled backwards while in Nightmare form, and he pulled up the communicator he had on him that only had connections to certain members of the League of Villains on it. He turned and started running as a wall in front of him blew apart, and he heard cackling laughter on his left side followed by the dying scream of a villain whose voice he did not recognize.

"Just hold on for a little longer Reaper," Kurogiri's voice came through the communicator, but Zach dropped it as two figures dropped down in front of him and glared his way with glowing blue eyes. The two of them ran forward and merged into one figure, a figure who doubled in size and lifted up hands that morphed into long ice blades.

Zach swept both arms up in front of him and released Death Winds from his arms. The villain before him crossed his big ice blades, then he stumbled backwards and fell to the ground before collapsing on his face. Zach smirked and he spun around, yelling, "Don't give them anything!" Zach pulled out a pair of knives as he spotted other villains he did not recognize running towards him. He took a step towards them, and then a thin razor wire flew out from behind the woman he was glaring at farther away from him. The wire wrapped around her neck and pulled tight before retracting so fast that it slit straight through her throat.

The other villain spun to their comrade, the turned and let out a pulsing scream that Twice had to dodge just like the girl in front of him who was almost at their enemy. "You alright there Reaper?" A voice asked behind Zach as Toga slashed down at the screaming villain's face. Zach started panting and he turned his head feeling a huge amount of relief as he saw the spiky-haired man walking up to him. Farther behind Dabi, Zach saw Spinner running with a group of others out of a portal and yelling about taking out all of the enemies.

"I'm fine," Zach said. His voice was deep and scratchy, overlapping with his normal voice in his Nightmare form. "Let's get them," Zach said with a smirk spread over his dark face.

Present

"…smiling the whole time, because villains started dropping all around me."

"You were smiling?" Bakugo asked, lifting an eyebrow and looking at Zach oddly that he would say that.

"I had spent the whole day, being a villain," Zach said. He shook his head and then said in a regretful tone, "In a villain base, doing what villains told me to, telling villains what to do. I went from feeling like a shitty villain doing terrible things, to watching villains fall all around me. Their guys died, and our guys died, and then the reinforcements came and some of them died while killing even more of the others. It was a fucking battle, and I was smiling and even laughing to better match how villains acted… But, I was smiling for another reason too," Zach said, and he rose his left hand and rubbed it on the side of his head with his teeth clenching tightly as he knew he had still been lying even while trying to tell the truth. "Because I called Kurogiri for help, and he sent it. Dabi came to save me. The others too. Toga, Twice, and, Spinner," Zach whispered the last one and he grabbed the side of his head even harder.

Bakugo's eyes opened huge. He thought about when he looked down towards the arena at the Sports Festival. He had seen Spinner, a villain he recognized, standing there next to Zach. He had gone down himself and attacked Spinner to get him away from Zach. How acquainted as he was with Spinner though, had nothing compared to what he was realizing now. Something that had confused him so much back when it had happened, but he started to understand why Zach was rubbing his head so painfully at the mention of Spinner's name. "They were my," Zach began, and then he clenched his eyes shut because it was impossible to say aloud, but the final word was implied.

Then Zach lowered his hand. His pained look went away and he ground his teeth as now was not the time for that. "But it was all faked. They never really were, my friends. I was lying to them the entire time. Tricking them." Zach frowned deeper and then he continued, "The other villains that night, I heard from Dabi afterwards that they were the Rough Riders. I didn't really know anything about the city where the compound was, but apparently the League were negotiating with the Rough Riders and trying to get some association going on with them. They were trying to trick us though- trick them… But I was a part of them at the time. There's no denying that," Zach whispered against his own attempt at countering.

"Zach," Yaoyorozu started. He turned towards her and looked into her eyes in such a pained way at her look. She smiled at him though and shook her head to make him stop feeling that way. "You were never a part of them. You were a spy on your own terms, don't forget that. Even if no one else can back that up." Zach's eyes widened as he stared into his girlfriend's, and she said softer, "That's what I believe, and that's what I know is the truth."

Zach pulled his head back and he clenched his teeth as her faith in him hurt so much when he himself did not believe it that much. "Thanks," Zach whispered. He glanced around after saying it though, and he sighed but sat up straight on the desk and got a more intense look on his face. "I, I'm not just telling you this to explain why Toga said those things." He looked mostly at Bakugo while saying it. Then he continued while looking Midoriya's way, "But I want you guys to understand, what I was really doing back then. How I got to VTS. Why it is, that Spinner…" Zach closed his eyes for a second and shook his head, then he opened them with a serious look in his eyes again.

"Some of the Rough Riders retreated, most of the rest who attacked were killed after the reinforcements showed up," Zach continued. "They left the truck behind, but the costumes that were supposed to be inside weren't there. One of the Rough Riders was left behind though," Zach said, his voice getting darker and a much darker look spreading over his face. "And they 'found out' where the ones who had taken the costumes were, and the five of us together went after the rest." Zach paused after saying that, and then he continued quieter, "There were some others there at first, moving with us, but in the fights that followed that night we dwindled down to just us five. Dabi, me, Toga, Twice, and Spinner. We kicked ass, and we drove around, Spinner yelling 'Grand Theft Auto," and Twice being his usual… and we attacked villains all over the city."

Mineta stared at Zach with his bottom lip lowered and his eyes huge. More shocking than how Zach was referring to the other villains, was just the activities that Zach was talking about had happened back in the fall. I never heard about any of this! I never even thought Zach was…

"We went from villain warehouses to different alleys, trying to find out where the Rough Riders had taken the costumes. Then the police got involved," Zach continued, and his friends and classmates opened their eyes huge at the sound of that. Zach's expression got so much darker as he said it too, making each of them nervous at what he was about to say. "We were in a car chase. We were following the Rough Riders, and the cops were following us, and even a hero… But we got away. We split off and found ourselves in an alleyway, the cops all gone probably chasing after the Rough Riders though they never got them. The hero though, he had come after us. He was just outside the alley…"

Eight Months Ago…

"No," Reaper said firmly. "We're not killing him."

"There's no other way, kid," Dabi said, though he sounded in part apologetic towards Zach as he did.

"We can't," Zach began.

"I'll do it," Toga offered excitedly, though still in a whisper as they were hiding in the alley, and there was a hero chasing them not too far away.

Zach darted his eyes around behind his dark mask, then he started in a low whisper, "If a hero goes down, more cops and more heroes are going to come out. We won't be able to keep looking for the costumes as freely."

"Good point," Twice said, bringing a hand up to his chin. "Kill him anyway!" He called out, and Zach darted his eyes back and forth down the dark alley hoping no one came from hearing that.

"There's no way around it," Spinner started.

"What if he's a real hero?" Zach said, looking away from Dabi who was about to say how they needed to go now. He looked at Spinner and said, "What if this guy is someone who Stain would consider a true hero?"

"I've never even heard of him," Spinner muttered, a frown on his face at what Zach was saying. "Which means he's just another fake-"

"Or," Zach countered quickly and harshly. "Maybe he's a hero who doesn't seek recognition for what he does. He doesn't go around flaunting his heroic deeds to the public, and that's why we don't know who he is."

Spinner's eyes widened a bit, but Dabi started, "We don't have time for this-"

Then Zach said quickly, "What we don't have time for is checking to make sure this is actually a fake hero, and not someone who Stain would recognize. Are a bunch of costumes really worth breaking the reasons we do any of this?"

"Hmm," Spinner hummed, and he leaned his head back. The green-skinned scaly man nodded his head and said, "You're right. I can't say he's an amateur, or a fake, considering he had the intuition to follow us."

"But if he is a good hero then," Dabi started. "Getting away without killing him is going to be that much harder."

"We already know where the next place we have to go to is," Zach argued. "And they shouldn't know that we got that information. Whether it takes us a bit longer shouldn't matter."

Dabi looked down into the holes of Zach's mask and stared in the younger boy's eyes for a few seconds. Then he nodded his head with a grunt and said, "Well, it is Stain's teaching." Dabi looked down the alley the opposite direction as he thought the hero was probably in. "Let's get out of here quickly then. We'll go find a new car…"

Present

"But they listened to me. I, was able to convince them not to do it. I thought maybe they'd just tell me to shut up, or something," Zach paused for a second and kept his eyes down while his friends gawked at him after what he just described. "But, they didn't. Because I was one of them. And they didn't treat each other like," Zach paused and he closed his eyes. "We, didn't treat each other, like heroes treat them. The League of Villains, was a place those villains wouldn't be treated like their treated in society. People like Toga…"

Zach cut off from his story and he leaned his head back for a second, such an angry look on his face as he mentioned the crazy girl who had just invaded their school. The girl who had cut him, and Bakugo who had a bandage on the side of his neck for a shallow wound. The girl who had abducted their kind school nurse. Zach lowered his eyes and looked at that bandage on Bakugo's neck to try and get angrier, but then he pictured a look in her eyes. "Toga was," Zach started. "Crazy. So crazy. But in the League of Villains, that didn't matter. And when I tried to get the villains to trust me, I decided not to treat Toga like she was crazy. I just, talked to her." Zach looked over towards Midoriya who was staring at him with as wide eyes as he had been for most of this. "And as crazy as she was about you, and about Stain, about so much, she wasn't like that with me. Toga didn't really like me that much at first, but when I didn't treat her funny, when I didn't insult her or call her crazy or, or try and stop her from being herself… She was so crazy, so having someone like that, I wonder how many people had been that nice to her before?"

Zach ground his teeth for a second, then he whispered, "And I was doing it just to trick her."

"She's a villain," Mineta started.

"But she's also human," Zach said, turning towards the shorter boy and looking at him so softly and yet with a pained look in his eyes. "I, I thought it would be easier to trick the villains, if I wasn't always looking at them with so much disdain. I thought it would be easier to act like one of them, if I could find good in them. Because if there was good in villains, then I could act villain-like without feeling like a total monster. So I searched for the good in all of them, and in doing so, I found it." Zach said it in almost a shocked tone, and he shook his head once after doing so. "It was supposed to just be to trick them. It was supposed to be so I could better understand them, but it got to the point that I wished I could convince them to stop being villains, to turn their lives around, or something. And when I was able to convince them not to kill a hero, I felt so good! It felt, amazing, knowing that they were willing to listen to me and only be villains to a certain extent."

Zach closed his eyes again and then opened them with such a look of dread on his face, "That night, was the closest I ever got. It was the point where any farther and… It was an eight hour long night, and we didn't finish until the sun was rising. We got the costumes back." Zach's eyes got colder and he continued while looking towards the windows and straight out them, "I never killed anyone that night, but I saw so many villains die, and the combat was nonstop thrilling life-risking… and we had each other's backs." Zach's fists clenched at his sides and his left arm and hand hurt as he did it. I hope they get Recovery Girl back alright, he thought at the feeling of his own pain and the reason his wounds were still there. The thought was also to distract from what he just said though, but the feelings lingered as he continued, "We fought together, guarded each other, we were comrades. I think that night is how I got them to believe I was on their side enough for me to get my escape chance at VTS."

Zach looked back in from outside and to Bakugo, and then over to Yaoyorozu who was staring at him in shock at all he was saying. Zach continued while looking in her eyes, "That's what I told myself afterwards at least, when I thought about how many laws I had broken that night without even questioning it. But when I think back on how much a villain I was back then..." Zach shook his head and then continued in a desperate voice as she was still trying to look at him understandingly, and how could she possibly understand this? "I acted as a villain, commanded other villains, was trained under villains, thought like a villain, became a villain. I was tortured by villains, and now I know how to torture like a villain because of it." He said the last part in pain because he knew the others had seen him get the information out of Toga, how he had manipulated her with a lie and caused her pain at the same time. Physical and mental, and Zach was punishing himself so much thinking back on that despite knowing that it was likely saving Recovery Girl as they spoke.

"I blurred the line between heroes and villains, trying to find the good in villains after seeing the bad in heroes." Zach closed his eyes and thought about his court case. He imagined his greatest hero up on the stand saying that he couldn't be a hero, after telling him to go after his dream when he was a kid. "Murderer!" The voices he heard shouting at him at the Sports Festival echoed in his head. Then he saw his father, wearing his old hero costume even though it had been months since his license was suspended, a beer in hand and a glare in his eyes. Zach grimaced and opened his eyes back up, and he had the biggest look of regret in his eyes that the others had ever seen. "It kills me, that one of the most villainous things I ever consider having done, was betraying the League of Villains."

"Ah," Momo pulled in such a big breath it made a noise. Midoriya's eyes opened so much wider, while Bakugo's narrowed again as his fists clenched tighter.

Mineta just looked confusedly at Zach though, not wondering how he got from what he was just saying to there. "Wh-What do you mean?" Mineta whispered.

"I know it was the right thing to do," Zach started to the short boy. He could see Mineta was desperately looking to still believe in him even after hearing something so damning. Zach shook his head and then continued, "But thinking back on a night like that, when we all had each other's backs and protected each other in life-or-death fights. I know they trusted me." Zach paused and he continued in a strained voice, "And after that night, I realized I had gained their trust, and in that moment of realization I had felt one of the worst feelings in my entire life. When I knew it was time to tell Shigaraki that I wanted to make my declaration to the world, at the place it all started…" Zach's classmates looked at him with huge eyes, as he admitted that he was not just at VTS, but had suggested the idea of it in the first place in order to open up his escape opportunity.

"Because I knew, that staying any longer would have been villainous." Zach shook his head and then continued fast to his classmates who were all wide-eyed and staring at him in shock at everything he said, "I gained their trust, all as a lie. It was all a lie just so I could get my escape! Yet, when I killed Spinner at the Sports Festival," Zach said, and he shook his head while squinting his eyes a bit. Three of the others in the room did not know the truth about that, even though they had had doubts when watching the video in class on their first day back and saw Spinner die at a weird angle that made it impossible to see what Zach did if anything. "When I killed him, even though Spinner had stood by and watched as the person I loved the most was burned alive, even though he had killed that woman in Higucha, I knew there was not all evil inside him."

Yaoyorozu took in another gasped breath, trying not to let her eyes get watery but finding it hard as she saw the frustrated and conflicted look covering Zach's face. He mentioned the woman in Higucha who she knew he had told only her about. Yaoyorozu didn't know how Zach could feel this way about the man who had killed that woman when that was what he admitted to being his biggest regret. She did not know how that could be a regret of his yet betraying the League of Villains could be one too.

"You shouldn't regret, betraying them," Bakugo started. Zach turned to him and saw Bakugo's fists were unclenching at his sides. "You made the right call, leaving."

"I know," Zach said, his voice coming out as a breath. "But," Zach whispered. "But when they pulled me back through that portal at VTS, and I saw all their faces." Zach paused and he clenched his teeth so tightly, and he ground them behind his lips before whispering, "I knew I deserved the torture I received, because I had stood by and watched as they had done it to other villains before. Because I had seen them do things, not as bad as what they did to me… but terrible things. And I let them happen so I could convince them I was on their side. But even though that's why I think I might have deserved it, it-it was the moment I came back. I thought I had left them all behind escaping to VTS, but having to see their faces right after the betrayal was something I never planned for."

Zach's eyes started to water up, and he tried so hard to push them away. "When Shigaraki told me that I was going to wish I was never born, I looked around for help. I wanted one of my comrades to help me. But I had just- and they were watching- People I had gotten to trust me, people who I, who I think cared about me. People who realized that I had just been lying to them the whole time." Zach could not help it and he had to lift his right hand and put the glove over his face to hide his eyes. "They were so crazy, and insane, and they were terrible people. But I found good parts in them, and I tried to make those good parts more pronounced, tried to push the good things in them out. So can you imagine what they felt-" Zach paused and he breathed in sharply to keep his voice steady as it was starting to crack, and his felt his glove getting wet as he held it over his eyes. "Any good, inside of them. I could see it dying in their eyes. Like, like they thought I had really wanted to be their friend. I, I saw Toga look at me and-"

Zach pursed his lips below his right hand. He clenched his eyes shut and whispered, "I didn't see anyone looking at me in pity. It was what I wanted to see. Someone who pitied me enough that they would kill me and save me from whatever Shigaraki was about to do to me, but no one did. No one had any pity in their eyes, but they all looked so angry, so furious, so, betrayed." Zach lowered his hand down over his face and looked at Bakugo with his eyes bloodshot, water in the corners of them and such a furiously conflicted look on his face. "They, looked at me, like I was the monster. And as hard as I try. As horrible as the villains are, and as much as I fight them and keep trying to stop them, I can't just forget the time I spent with them. I can't forget the things I did with them that made me a villain…"

"It all happened so fast. I went through the portal at the courthouse because I thought I had no hope. I thought I had nowhere to go, nowhere villains wouldn't come after me because my Quirk was public, nowhere normal citizens wouldn't come after me and try lynching me because of what my Quirk was. Something I'd always been afraid of- It's what I thought the trial was- and then I couldn't kill them when I went through the portal, because of the box on my- and Shigaraki said I could be Lifebringer! It was that or die, and I wanted to save people so- and then it just started becoming to be Lifebringer and being a villain at the same time, or dying. And then I just moved to the next step assuming that if I didn't I would die, and I did things like I didn't have a choice. I did terrible things, just because I was scared. Because I was going with the flow. And I spent months with those villains."

"Zach," Mineta began quietly. "You didn't have to," Zach clenched his teeth and eyes shut, only to open them back up in confusion as Mineta finished, "tell us any of that."

Bakugo glanced to his left over at the short boy, but the kid with the Pop Off Quirk just looked softly at Zach and had water in his own eyes that made Zach's eyes open huge. "I don't know what I'd have done," Mineta whispered. "You, you didn't become a villain though. Even though you could've just… no one told you to come back. There was nothing for you back here, and you came back ready to get arrested. You tried turning yourself in at VTS." Zach lowered his head and sniffled in once, then he rose his right arm and wiped his eyes more thoroughly. He coughed once to clear his throat and tried getting himself back to normal, then he lifted his gaze back up with wide eyes as Mineta continued, "And I get, why you feel bad about, even betraying the villains. If you didn't, after all that stuff you talked about," Mineta could not believe he was about to say this, but he finished, "That would have made you more of a villain."

Bakugo grunted, as he did not know if he felt the same way there. He did not have anything to say though. He just glared down at the floor at his feet, and then he lifted his eyes up while his head was still bowed, and he said, "I hate the way you do things."

"I do too," Zach agreed softly. "But, sometimes they work out. Sometimes, I'm right." Zach thought again about today, about what he had done to stop Toga. He thought about what he said to her in order to get her to tell him where Recovery Girl was. "That doesn't excuse what I did though. The way, I did it."

Midoriya stared at Zach and was the one with the conflicted look on his face now as he saw Zach's expression steadying. I, I don't know. I don't know what to do. I thought of you- I think, you're an amazing hero. The things you've been doing with your report, trying to make the world a better place… I admired you, and I don't know what to do with this information. Midoriya's fists clenched tightly and he looked at Zach confusedly and in a sad way. He felt for the things Zach just talked about which he felt like Zach had never talked about before, since even Yaoyorozu looked shocked by most of it.

Zach rubbed his eyes a couple of times and then took in a deep breath as he fully calmed himself down. None of them are trying to capture me right now. I don't know if they're going to tell anyone either, but at this point they could or they could not. It doesn't matter. Zach took another breath and he let it out slowly while looking at Mineta. Is he the norm? Would others understand what I did? It hurts thinking about all of that. It hurts, reminding myself what I had actually done. I never thought about it that deeply at the time, because I couldn't or it'd risk giving away what I was doing. And I've hated them all so much since I escaped that it was hard to think of any of them with anything but hate. I told Softy as much. But, I also told her how hard it was to try and hate them completely. Seeing Toga, and Spinner, and just that look in Dabi's eyes in Mosu Esupa. Dabi, those burn scars, I thought they were you. But, the more I think about it… you were never there. Mosu Esupa, was the first time since, Jenny… Zach's expression got much darker and he ground his teeth furiously that he even tried to not just hate Dabi when reminding himself of that.

"You didn't tell the heroes any of this huh?" Bakugo muttered after Zach replied to him. There had been a pause while everyone just stood there, and Zach nodded at Bakugo after that question. "Didn't think so," Bakugo muttered quieter, in a more annoyed voice. Zach had just told them all of that even though it sounded like things that would have gotten him in a lot of trouble.

"So, who does know?" Mineta whispered, his eyes widening for a second as he realized what that meant.

Zach glanced around, then he said quietly, "You four. And Kaminari knows some- most of that," Zach glanced towards Midoriya and Yaoyorozu after replying to Mineta. "I didn't trust you guys before," Zach whispered with an apologetic look on his face. The two he was looking at were the two after Kaminari who he told the most, and he felt bad that he was telling them in this moment because he felt he needed to. He felt this was better though than at his own pace which really just meant at a pace slow enough that he would get to keep lying to them for a lot longer. "If you feel you need to tell people: heroes, the teachers," Zach began. "You can go ahead."

Bakugo frowned at Zach and then his eyes widened for a second before narrowing a lot in the next moment. Why now? It's because of Toga, isn't it? He really, actually, feels bad for that… Bakugo lowered his gaze down and grimaced more at the thought of everything Zach had said. Zach was not trying to defend himself very hard, but he had given his reasons for what he had done. And those reasons were enough, at least for Bakugo who grunted and rose his eyes back to meet his classmate's. "I didn't think too hard about it, but I already, I guess I knew it was something like that the whole time."

Mineta spun to Bakugo in surprise, but then he looked quickly back at Zach and said, "I'm not telling. You just stopped Toga. I don't think you're a villain or anything, and I don't want you to get in trouble."

You're not a villain, Midoriya thought while still looking at Zach in a conflicted way. Bakugo glanced over towards his curly-haired childhood friend and wondered what he was thinking at the sight of Midoriya's look. But, that doesn't make those things alright. You told me you didn't really have power when you talked about the Chemist in the hospital, and it sounds like you really thought you didn't. Yet, to me, it wasn't that Shigaraki thought you were an 'important piece.' You became one of the top members of the League of Villains, and you lied about it for months. But, you already paid for what you did. You paid more than you would have, just getting arrested like you wanted back at VTS. Because I couldn't stop the Nomu from taking you through that portal, you got so much worse a punishment- and yet you think you deserved it! Midoriya nodded at Zach when his black-haired friend looked towards him. There was a lot he wanted to say, but he gave Zach the nod to show he would keep this between them at least. I want to ask All Might… but I think, this is really something we just have to work out between us.

"Zach, you jumped in front of a bullet for me," Yaoyorozu said when Zach looked to her, a tone in her voice like it hurt that he would even look towards her to see what she would say. His eyes widened, and he leaned forward off of the desk and dropped to his feet next to it at the look on her face. "You died for me," Momo whispered and Zach's eyes widened even more, and he stopped walking towards her as he had started to do as the girl he went on a date with the night before gave him such a small but believing smile. "And I know, everything you did, you did because you thought it was the right thing to do. Only you, would look for the good in those villains. In someone like Himiko Toga."

"To a fault," Bakugo muttered behind Zach.

Yaoyorozu heard that mutter though, and she countered, "It's never a bad thing, to try and see the good in people. You don't have to feel guilty about betraying them though Zach. You shouldn't. Those people, they've caused so much harm. Hurt so many good people." Zach nodded at her and what she was saying. They were things he tried telling himself, only to think about the faces of those people he was trying to dehumanize. Hearing her say not to dehumanize them, but still that he did not have to feel guilty about betraying them, it was exactly what he felt like he had needed now that he received it.

There were two knocks on the door as Zach opened his mouth to respond to Yaoyorozu. Zach almost jumped at the sound of them, then he relaxed his expression and made it stern and serious in the same moment while turning to the opening door. Mineta's eyes widened as he saw how quickly Zach's expression changed, then he tried to change his own just as fast since he told Zach he wouldn't say anything. The short boy with purple balls on his head did not want the person coming in to even wonder if something was up.

Two people walked into the room. The short one with white fur walked in front of a tall and muscular woman in a tight red costume that showed off all her muscles. "Yaoyorozu, Mineta, with me," Mother Russia said.

"I need to speak with the three of you in private," Nezu said while looking towards Midoriya, Zach, and then Bakugo.

"Oh, okay," Yaoyorozu turned back to Zach quickly but he gave her a soft and grateful nod, deciding to save his response to what she had just told him for later when they were alone. "See you later," Momo started.

"Now," Mother Russia said sternly. Yaoyorozu spun with a panicked look as their homeroom teacher sounded serious, but that rushed look actually got a lot more nervous at how dark Mother Russia's face looked beyond her usual serious demeanor. Mineta gulped and walked closer to Yaoyorozu as they headed out of the classroom, leaving Principal Nezu behind with their three classmates.

The door closed, and Nezu turned to Zach first. "Sazaki, you did well capturing Himiko Toga, and contacting me as soon as the incident began." The principal's face was grim as it had been since he entered the room. Even with his first statement none of the boys in the room relaxed even the slightest bit. Nezu's beady black eyes were dark, and he continued in a lower but still high-pitched voice, "For incidents regarding U.A. High School, a special task force was created with four veteran police officers. Those were the officers who I called as soon as you contacted me, Sazaki. All four of those men were just killed, transporting Himiko Toga in secret to Tartaros-"

"What?" Bakugo snapped.

Zach's eyes were huge, and Midoriya's head pulled back with dark lines covering the top half of his face in horror. "She, escaped?" Midoriya whispered.

"Impossible," Zach said. Nezu nodded once and Zach continued in a quiet voice, "The amount of Death…"

Bakugo's eyes shot open wide as he realized that himself. "Oh, wait. Wait, are you-" Bakugo glared at Zach, then at the principal, then his fists clenched at his sides. "Someone freed her?"

"No one except the four in the transport should have known what path they were taking to the prison," Nezu started. "Not even myself. However, the vehicle was found destroyed only a few blocks away, meaning they were attacked very soon after leaving the school. Soon enough that should someone have been on the lookout for an undercover cop car taking Himiko Toga away, they would have been able to follow it."

Zach started panting, his eyes losing focus at what Nezu was saying. Midoriya asked, "How could they have known?" Bakugo ground his teeth and his fists balled even tighter at his sides, but then Bakugo's eyes opened wide at what Nezu started continuing with.

"When Sazaki texted me, I was quick to send my own message to everyone in your class. I am sure you have already seen it," Nezu said. He continued without waiting for a response, "There was a reason for not contacting anyone however, outside of avoiding a panic. I ordered the students of Class 2-A not to send any messages outside of their own class. Others students who were inside the school building, as well as the faculty members who knew of Himiko Toga's appearance in the school, have all been accounted for. However, when Himiko Toga was captured, Mineta Minoru sent a message in your class's group chat that she had been caught. I was quick to tell each of the students to remain in their rooms without contacting anyone outside, and we isolated every other party who knew she had been detained. Even the five of you were not just waiting in here for the police to arrive and question you."

Midoriya and Bakugo stared at the principal with wide eyes, while Zach bowed his head and stared at the floor with huge ones that were shaking at what he was hearing. "I have sent Cementoss and Vlad King to take Class B on a surprise training exercise at Ground Beta. The excuse is that we had already planned on comparing Class A and Class B's resting and active heart rates during the physicals and that theirs would be going on as scheduled as soon as the training was finished. Neither Cementoss nor Vlad King know that this is not true, and only All Might who has gone with them knows the current situation."

"I'm, confused," Midoriya began slowly. "What are you-"

"Someone informed the League of Villains that Himiko Toga had been captured. Midnight, Present Mic, and Mother Russia arrived at the location of where Recovery Girl was being held in time to catch a villain attempting to escape with our school nurse." Principal Nezu paused and then continued in a low, serious, and dark voice, "There are very few people who knew Toga was at the school, and even fewer knew that she had been captured as there are still other students and faculty in isolation who think various things based on what we told them."

"So who knew?" Bakugo said in a low voice, trying to keep his voice steady though there was sweat on both sides of it.

"Myself, four others in the faculty, four police officers in total," Nezu paused, and then he finished, "And the entirety of Class 2-A."

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A/N Thanks for reading. Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and the flashbacks. So Nezu shows up at the end here with some bad news… And I just realized I totally forgot to name this arc. Welcome, to the U.A. Spy Arc. No more review responses. Enjoy the rest of the story.