Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 89:

"Toga?" Zach repeated in a low, angry voice. He sounded like he was holding back even more anger though as he stared at the short woman in front of him. Softy gave him the most soothing expression she could manage to try and calm him down, and Zach took a deep breath before lowering his eyes from the woman on the chair in front of him. "She was- I accepted it after I fought her. The other day, I told some of my classmates things, that I haven't really told anyone."

"That's good," Softy said, lifting her voice and raising her lips into a tiny smile.

"Right before Kaminari betrayed us," Zach finished in a darker voice. She lost her smile as she had expected it was after that since the thing with Toga had coincided with Kaminari's betrayal or so she had thought. "Sorry, Softy," Zach said, and the woman who frowned in a sadder way at him just shook her head to show there was no reason for him to be apologizing. "But when I talked about it with them, I realized how much I had screwed up. With the League. With, the way I had been handling things."

"How so?" Softy wondered.

"I told you, that I needed to hate them. I told you that it was hard to do it, but I didn't explain why it was that hard." Zach paused and then he rose his left hand and ran it up through his hair. He leaned his head back and looked up at the ceiling, "But Toga, was like a sister to me. I learned things from her. She, she offered to-" Zach closed his eyes and the small smile that had spread on his face for a second dipped down far. "Even Shigaraki. There were times, when I didn't completely hate him. Times where I thought I saw good in him, like I saw in the rest…"

"Are you having difficulty, determining friend from foe?" Zach lowered his gaze to Softy and saw her examining him closely and in a worried way. "It must be difficult, to trust anyone after what happened."

"It is," Zach agreed with a nod and a grim look spread across his face. "But there are people here I still trust. People I, actually trust more now, now that I know Kaminari was the spy."

Softy nodded at him with a small smile again. "I'm glad. I hope you consider me one of those people. And, I'm glad you came in to speak with me today. Recovery Girl mentioned that you did not want to talk to me, so I was-"

Zach reached his left hand up to his head and rubbed it on his forehead with a pissed-off look covering his face. "Oh, I'm so sorry," Softy said with her blue eyes widening. "Did you mean to tell her that in confidence-"

Zach wiped his hand down his face from his forehead over his eyes and then his mouth. His eyes got darker as his hand passed over them, and then he stared at Softy in a cold way with his lips twisted down at the corners. "I forgot about telling Recovery Girl that. Can't make mistakes like that," he muttered to himself. Zach stood up from the chair and he turned around from the woman who got up quickly herself with a confused look covering her face.

"Z-Zach," Softy began to the student who for some reason she suddenly felt the chills about when he turned away from her. "I don't understand. Talk to me. What is-"

"Softy," Zach began while turned away from her. He took a step towards the door of her room, then he looked over his shoulder and asked, "How much of what I just talked about, was a lie?" The woman he questioned opened her eyes huge and she lowered her bottom lip for a second before closing it fast.

The school psychiatrist collected herself and then began in a soft voice, "Zach. If you really do not trust me, you don't need to come in here. There was no need to force yourself only to lie."

"Oh," Zach said, and he looked down at the floor for a second. "Then I guess, these aren't mandatory sessions anymore?" He lifted his head and started for the door, his expression cold and his fists tightening at his sides. "Thanks for everything, Softy." She's always been good at reading me. She didn't seem to notice. Good.

Softy stared at Zach's back as he walked out, and she started shaking her head once he was gone. She thought back on one of their sessions a couple of months ago. "Yeah, I have people I trust here. Who? Well, I guess Kaminari is the person I trust the most. I keep seeing that clip of us coming out of the War Boys' base together on the news, and we had this cool super move at the end of it. We started talking about maybe teaming up after we graduate to make a hero team…" He came so far, from the beginning of the year. In just six months he… But, it's all gone. All his progress is… No, it's something else. I, I should not have told him that he no longer needed to come in.

Zach walked down a hall of U.A. High School on a Sunday. He was already wearing casual clothes, and he started walking straight to the main office instead of heading back to his dorm. If I can lie to Softy, I can lie to anyone. What's next? Maybe, today isn't a day for "running." Zach slowed down and he glanced around him. He frowned and then kept for the main office with his teeth clenched behind his lips.

"Heading out on a run?" The receptionist asked as Zach stepped into the office.

"No," Zach replied to the woman who started writing out a pass already as she assumed what he was going to ask for. She looked up at him in a bit of surprise, and Zach asked, "Is anyone in Gym Gamma right now? Could I use it?"

The receptionist turned to her computer and did a quick check. "No, though TDL is optimized for use with Cementoss and Ectoplasm."

"I just need an open space," Zach said. He turned and he started back for his dorm. Somewhere empty, is better. I'd wind up breaking everything- and the training grounds are bigger so there's more of a chance of other people going there.

Zach returned to his dorm and he went upstairs. He went into his room and to his bed that had been replaced the other day with the rest of his furniture while he was in class. Mr. Ono had requested that he not destroy any more school property, though the replacement principal had gone on to thank him for not smashing his bedroom window or punching holes through the walls. Zach looked over towards some dents in his walls and places with chipped paint, then he looked back down under his bed where he had slid a box out from. He paused, then he slid it to the side and grabbed a different costume from beneath his bed.

Zach put on his black costume and did not grab his white helmet. He never got back his black helmet for his second costume that he had dropped in his attack on the War Boys. This black costume had not been upgraded in a while either, and it lacked a few knife sheaths that he wanted so he reached to his U.A. costume box and opened it up. He tossed the white helmet to the side, then he ripped the white sheaths off of his white costume and started attaching them to the belt he was wearing. He took off all six knife sheaths, then he grabbed the second grappling gun that was white too and he attached that to his belt as well. Having them all on my belt isn't optimal. Having to reach down every time becomes predictable too. Toga got her knives out of nowhere, or at least that's what it looked like to her opponents. In the sleeves, hidden- I need some straps.

Zach walked back downstairs and into the common room of Class A's dorm in Heights Alliance. He walked across the first floor and to the front door, and he put down his black combat boots that he slid into before walking out without a word. He did not look towards the couch area or the half dozen students who had looked his way when he came down but did not say anything to him. They were going to once he looked towards him, but it had not even looked like he was purposely avoiding all their looks. He just never turned their way.

"Was that, the costume he…" Tokoyami trailed off as he was about to finish with 'saved Kaminari in.' He thought about the white sheaths and grappling gun he had seen on Zach's waist too though, and he hummed considering all those weapons and how Zach looked while heading out looking like that.

"Where's Zach going?" Uraraka asked softly, looking towards the door that she had wanted to call towards but could not think of anything except 'good morning' to tell Zach.

"Training, probably," Midoriya said on her side. After saying 'probably' though, he narrowed his eyes and then lowered them to the floor. Why "probably?" Is there somewhere else he could be going? Should we, say something about it? Midoriya stood up and added, "I think I'm going to go train too." I'll look around for him while training. I need to train too. Kaminari, is so powerful. And he said that he's going to kill us. He knew about One For All. He told everyone… though no one's really asked me about it. A lot happened that day, that maybe they didn't really think much of-

"I'll come too Deku," Uraraka said behind Midoriya, and he glanced back at the shorter girl who looked up in his eyes in a serious way. She looked like there was something on her mind, and Midoriya started to dread the questions she was going to ask that he felt he had to keep denying. Kaminari wasn't just saying, that your powers are similar, Uraraka thought while looking into Deku's eyes. What did he mean? Deku?

Zach walked towards Gym Gamma, and he pressed his right hand into his forehead while he headed over. The black glove on his right was different than the one on his left for this costume, and the fingers slid back to let Zach touch his face with his own skin. A black aura surrounded Zach, but only the bones on his face showed through. Even the skull sticking out of his aura was still shadowed with a dark tint though. Zach's bones had vanished inside his costume that was made with bone itself, and a black veil surrounded him and rippled off of his body on all sides as he walked towards Gym Gamma just ahead of him. His vision started to tint red, and then his red glowing eyes darted around to take everything in as he neared the training gym's doors.

Stronger. Faster. Better. The best. I need to be, better than I am now. Stronger- strongest! Nothing will happen, if I stay like I am now. I can't do anything the way I am now. Don't slack on training. It's just as important as everything else.

Zach stepped into the middle of a huge, empty gym. He stood there in the center of Gym Gamma and he rose both arms up at his sides. He slid knives out of his sheaths and kept them covered in a veil of Death while flicking them around in his hands. He flipped the blades and turned the hilt between his fingers, and then he started slashing them. Zach slashed the knife in his right hand down and to the right, and the one in his left was a half second behind to slash horizontally across his body. He flipped his hilts and jabbed both knives back around while twisting his front foot, and more black slashes flew off his blades as he spun around.

He flipped the knife in his right hand and grabbed it by the blade, and he tossed the knife in his right hand up in the air. He covered the white knife covered in a black aura in thicker Death before tossing it up, then he flicked the knife in his left hand up in the air when his red eyes focused on the turn of the blade he lobbed. The blade of the knife he flicked slammed into the hilt at an angle that sent it flying out in front of Zach and into the floor where it bounced instead of sticking into the ground like he intended it to. Faster. Harder.

Zach had another knife already back in his right hand that he grabbed out of a sheath before flicking the one in his left up at the lobbed knife. Zach jumped up in the air though while focusing some Death down below his feet, and he whipped his left hand in front of his body and grabbed the knife that was spinning out after hitting the first tossed one. He grabbed that knife by the blade and focused Death in his palm as he could feel how sharp his weapons were. Didn't cut through the glove. Death works like a shield to a certain extent, but I still shouldn't grip a blade this sharp too tightly. Unless I focus more Death around it, just for a test… Zach's left hand started covering in a flame of Death that raged harder while the flaring black aura over the top of his head went down a bit.

Zach gripped tighter on his knife while focusing more Death on his hand. He started gripping harder and harder, because he could not feel the blade cutting into his hand with that much Death around it. Stronger! Zach clenched his left hand as hard as he could, and he glared at it through his red tinted vision with the teeth of his jaw clenching in rage. BREAK! He screamed in his head at the knife. Clank. Zach stared at his hand in confusion. He opened it up, and then he looked down at the floor beneath where the raging black flame had been.

On the floor beneath where he had been gripping as hard as he could, his knife lay with a black aura seeping off of it and vanishing in the air above the steel. Zach stared down at his blade in a confused way, and he bent down and picked up the knife with his left hand again. What just happened? He rose the knife and held it on his hand, and he watched as a black aura started seeping over it once again. Zach pulled his Nightmare form back from the knife as hard as he could, but he stared at the weapon and watched as black tendrils seeped up the sides of it from his palm. They wrapped up the sides of the knife and ran along the blade like blood trails seeping down the steel. The blackness surrounded the entire knife, and then Zach clenched his hand around the hilt again.

He rose the blade in front of his face and turned it back and forth in front of his eyes. Interesting.

"Whoa, look at that," Hanta Sero leaned forward and stared at the screen in Class A's common room. A new breaking news report was hitting and it mentioned Musutafu which made everyone sitting around him even more interested than they would usually be.

It was early afternoon just after school ended, and Sero was relaxing since they had had an intense training session with Mother Russia and Midnight before school ended. The teachers had some ANTs with them, and the students had to invade Training Ground Omega and capture the flag that the teachers and ANTs were guarding. It had taken them over an hour, but their class had succeeded in the end at getting the flag and winning the training. Mother Russia told them they still failed however, and that despite not telling them there was a time limit, they had gone over it.

Midoriya, Todoroki, Tokoyami, Uraraka, and Ashido were all sitting around the common area and most still looked tired from the training as Sero did. They all looked to the screen as the picture changed to show a reporter next to her news van on the side of the road on a street in Musutafu that the students all recognized. While they were watching, a short boy came out of the kitchen and started towards the couch area with a nervous look on his face as he heard someone say something about that being close to them. Mineta gulped and he stared closer at the screen without getting any closer to it himself.

Midoriya glanced to his right when he saw movement, and he looked over at the short boy with purple balls on his head who pursed his lips as Midoriya looked to him before turning away. Midoriya frowned as Mineta looked away from him without saying anything, but he spun back to the screen as the female reporter got louder. "Yes, yes, we've just received word that the chase is heading in this direction. We hope to catch a glimpse of it, and we think the carjackers may be coming down this very street…"

The camera was pointed into the road but farther down it one way where the car chase was going to be coming from. "A carjacking? So close to U.A.?" Ashido asked in some surprise, though her voice was quiet. She continued for herself in a slower voice, "I guess, maybe people don't think as much of us anymore…"

"We are going to back up here on the sidewalk, as reports have that the villains are using long-ranged Quirks to keep back the police and heroes chasing them." The reporter looked over her shoulder while walking forward, her cameraman backing up. The roads were pretty empty, and the sidewalks were almost clear too. The people on the sidewalks were mostly stopped and looking the same direction the camera was pointed though, considering the sirens coming from that way and now blinking lights that they saw down the road.

Midoriya was staring at the screen closely, but something caught his eyes that made him shift his gaze from where the reporter was looking and talking about how she could finally see the hijacked car. Midoriya got up from the couch, and Uraraka and Tokoyami looked at him in confusion. The two who looked confusedly at Midoriya suddenly noticed that Todoroki's eyes opened wide though, before narrowing quickly as he leaned forward in his seat.

"Oh crap!" Sero called out, as he looked across the street that was empty for a second and saw someone who stuck out because they were moving unlike the people around him. A figure in a black hoodie with the hood up and headphones sticking out in front of the sweatshirt up into his hood was jogging down the sidewalk in the direction of the reporter and her news van. His head turned a bit and he looked across the road to them, then his head shifted around a bit when he was almost out of the camera angle. He turned around between a couple of people who had looked at him oddly but refocused back down the road when they saw the car speeding down it with a villain sticking out of the passenger side window with his scaly arms pointed behind him.

The driver of the expensive-looking black car reached his own left hand out the window while driving down the block fast too, and all of his fingers popped open with oil pouring out of them and slicking the ground behind them. The road got covered in it, and two fast heroes who were sprinting ahead of the police cars behind them slipped on the oil and slid to the sides of the road. They maneuvered after their falls to get out of the way of the cop cars coming behind them, though those cop cars had to slow down anyway in order to prevent from slipping on the street.

The getaway car made the gap between them and the police wider, but the reporter started shouting as it increased that gap, "What is that person doing?! Get out of the road!"

Zach lifted up his hands while standing in the middle of the street a car was speeding down with two villains in the front. The men in the car turned towards him and the driver shouted the same thing the reporter on Zach's right just did. Zach lifted his right hand farther though, while clenching his left into a fist. His left was not in a glove, but his right hand was in a black glove that made the reporter's eyes start opening huge along with many of the people on both sides of the road and the villains in their hijacked car. Zach's fingers slid out of his glove and he pressed it into his chest. A black aura surrounded him while he started walking forward and then sprinting at the car that was only ten meters away from him now.

The sight of a figure surrounding in black flames and charging at their speeding car made the driver spin the wheel to the side. Zach swung his left fist forward, but the punch of Death that flew out of his fist missed the car that swerved to the right and to his left. The car slid by him with only a few feet gap, and Zach's head turned to the left with his red eyes glaring through the open window at the driver whose head turned left and looked right back into Zach's eyes in terror.

"LOOK OUT!" The villain covered in snake scales in the passenger seat shouted, pulling back into the car and holding on as tight as he could. The driver had swerved away from Zach but got too distracted by him, and there was a car parked on the side of the road that he had not paid attention to before since he was not planning on getting close to it. The driver spun the wheel the other way, but it just spun the back of his car around and into the car that the front right corner of smashed into first.

Civilians on the sidewalk near that parked car scrambled back as the parked car skid up onto the curb. The villains in the front seat of the car slammed forward and airbags went off to smash into them and keep them from getting seriously injured. The impact was not cushiony enough that the two of them were not disoriented though. The driver reached a hand up and pushed down on the airbag before taking in some deep breaths since the airbag had knocked the wind out of him. He started turning his head to the right to look at his partner, when a hand seeping black wisps reached around the side of his head and wrapped around his face.

Zach ripped backwards and dragged the driver out of the car and tossed him on the street behind him. Then he snapped his right hand back through the window and slammed down on a pistol the guy in the passenger seat rose up with his left hand while stuck in a strange position with the airbag half-down. Zach slammed down on the gun, and a gunshot went off followed by two others that made everyone on the sidewalks and watching on tv jump. Zach slammed the guy's hand down again while bullet holes ripped in different parts of the car but did not hit him, and the gun fell out of the guy's grip. Zach snarled through his clenched teeth that sounded like a horrifying scratchy growl coming from the demon holding the snake-like villain's hand. "I, I surrender-" the man started, though his eyes were starting to close anyway. Zach held his hand tighter and ripped back through the driver's side window that he was leaning through himself, and he tossed the villain unceremoniously on top of his buddy already laying unconscious in the middle of the road.

Zach took a few deep breaths with black steam coming out of his open jaw. The steam clouded his face and made his red eyes and skull harder to see for a second, and then he rose his hand and pressed it into his chest which made the dark aura fade away from him. The boy standing there in the road next to a crashed car and two unconscious villains glanced around, then he looked towards the camera for a second, then he turned to the left and some cop cars slowing down near him. He still had his hood up, though his headphones had fallen out so the boy had to reach down his right hand and lift them back to his hood. Zach put his headphones back in and grimaced while turning from the cops and walking the other direction.

In Class A's common room, his classmates stared at the screen with lowered bottom lips, but a few of them sweatdropped as Zach started walking away. "Can he, do that?" Ashido asked. She glanced to her left at Sero who shrugged his shoulders looking a bit confused on top of the pity and sad expression on his face.

"Zach's usually pretty good when it comes to being on camera," Sero mumbled. He reached a hand up and rubbed it through his hair. The reporter called out for 'Lifebringer' to wait, and then she told her cameraman to come with her as she ran towards the boy who stopped in the road, apparently hearing her over the headphones he put back in.

There's paperwork to do when a hero takes down villains, Todoroki thought while staring closer at the screen. And, he needs to arrest them properly. Not just, leave them like that. What was he doing? Stepping out in front of a speeding car like that and, punching at it? That was reckless.

You're right, Sero, Midoriya thought while looking at the screen nervously. But, but Zach knows that people have been saying things about him on tv recently. He's good on tv, when people have been saying good things about him. He always avoids talking after something bad comes out. Zach, you'll be fine as long as you keep your head.

Zach turned towards the reporter and he reached up to take his headphones out. He took his hood off too while removing his headphones, and he turned straight to the camera with the most forced smile any of them had ever seen. It was so fake that the reporter froze after opening her mouth to ask him a question, and Zach's smile lowered back into a flat lip like he could see it obviously was not fooling anyone. Zach put his hands down in his pockets and he looked at the reporter, "Yeah?"

"Lifebringer," the reporter began, and she took in a deep breath. Every news program in the country wanted an interview with Lifebringer at any time, but right now the demand was at its peak. And even better, she was the only one on the scene which meant she had him all to herself. "Everyone wants to know, about you and Denki Kaminari." Zach's expression stayed the same, but his eyebrows started to narrow in as the woman finished and did not continue with anything else for a second. She could see he needed something more specific, and she continued quickly, "Did you know about him being a villain?"

"No," Zach said. He scrunched his face up like he was insulted by the question. "Of course I didn't."

"But you were with the League of Villains yourself for a time. Did they not mention anything about-"

"No, they didn't," Zach said. He frowned harder and glanced over his shoulder, then ahead towards the cops who looked his way before turning back to the heroes who had come with them. One of the heroes had looked towards Zach and then back to the officers before saying that they would deal with the paperwork. Zach was hoping for that exact thing though he wondered if he knew the hero who just said it since he did not think he recognized the man. "If that's all," Zach muttered, and he turned away and started walking again.

"Wait! How can we believe you?" The reporter ran after Zach and up on his left side, and the cameraman followed after quickly as well. People on the sidewalks wanted to rush over towards Lifebringer, but they also looked hesitant to do so. The reporter got real close though, and she continued to the boy whose lip twisted down on the left corner as she got that close to his side. "The incident with Shatterer and the War Boys. There are rumors that you had to go through an official review because of that, as you left U.A. in order to rescue your classmate." Zach stopped where he was on the road and his teeth clenched harder. "So you must have been close to this, Raijin. How do we know that you did not know about-"

Zach turned his head to the left and glared at the woman next to him. "I didn't know, anything." The woman had kept pushing him, and the students in Class A's common room got nervous looks on their faces at the snapped expression on Zach's. A few of them got up worriedly and stared at the boy who looked way too angry all of a sudden. "Kaminari, was the one I was protecting at USJ, when I killed Shindeki Buda." Zach glared at the woman harder and leaned his head towards hers which made her pull hers back. "He told you that it was me when the school kept it a secret, got me targeted by the villains, told the villains about my family! Got them slaughtered in front of-" Zach froze and his eyes darted to the left, then back into the eyes of the woman in front of him. "Shi-" he turned away and said in a low voice but as loud as he was just speaking, "So no. I didn't know my best friend was betraying me the whole time. He's a villain. He's, my nemesis."

Midoriya's huge eyes shook and his whole body flinched. It sounded like such an imaginary concept. It sounded like something someone would bring up if they were treating heroes and villains like a game. He had never heard anyone word fighting a villain like that before, and he figured that if he had heard it at any other time it would sound different. Tokoyami imagined that if he had heard a hero say that word on tv, it would sound more like an excuse that a villain the hero had fought before had escaped from them to fight another day. Only villains who were not sent to prison could be fought again, unless there was another prison break, but the word "nemesis" had so much emotion in it as Zach said it aloud.

Ashido clenched her hands tightly at her sides. He's all of our… but, but he targeted you. Specifically. More than, except for Jirou, more than anyone… Maybe even Jirou too.

Todoroki started breathing faster. He kept his breaths silent, but he stared with widening eyes at the boy on the screen. What is he doing? Is this really… I thought he had broken down, but he came to class the next day. You were stronger than I gave you credit for. But, but now that I know how strong you are, then this isn't you being weak is it? Or, can you really not take this? I don't know. I, can't talk to you.

Mineta stared at the screen and his eyes were huge. The small boy lifted up his hands and stared down at them, and then he clenched those hands into fists and brought them to his watery eyes to rub them hard. What are you doing-

"And I'm going to get him," Zach finished as he started walking away from the reporter.

The tone of his voice unnerved the reporter and all the teenagers watching over the news. Then the woman asked a question each of them had just subconsciously had. "Are you going to kill him?"

Zach froze. He grit his teeth and turned, and he looked past the reporter and back towards the camera. "Of course I won't. I'm a hero."

"'…Told the villains about my family! Got them slaughtered in front of-' That was a clip from earlier today after Lifebringer stopped a pair of carjackers in Musutafu City." A man and a woman were sitting behind a table reporting the news, and they turned to each other after looking away from a screen where they had been watching the same clip that had appeared in the corner of the news program. "Now Kanami," the woman began while continuing to her co-host. "I said it before, but I'll repeat tonight. I don't think Lifebringer had any idea Raijin was-"

"I'm gonna stop you there Kyoko," Kanami said, holding up a flipper to the woman in front of him. The man with flippers for arms lowered it and then said, "I agree. I just needed to hear it from Lifebringer myself, I think. I feel bad for him now," the man added, as things he had been saying on the program made him seem really unsympathetic and like a bad guy after the clip they had just seen. "Now, the 'family,' we think Lifebringer was talking about here…"

"Yes," Kyoko said and nodded her head, agreeing that they should move on to that. "As most people know, Zach Sazaki's father and mother were already deceased. And he had been living on his own for a long time." The woman with shoulder-length black hair looked to the cameras and continued, "However at Sazaki's trial this past fall, if you remember, a man by the name of John Akers went on the stand to testify for Lifebringer's character." In the corner of the screen appeared a picture of a man standing behind the witness stand. That picture stayed there while Kyoko's expression got a bit darker, "This station tried to get in touch with the Akers for comment after the trial, but they asked to be left alone."

"However," Kanami started up. "John Akers, his wife Mary, and his daughter… Jennifer," Kanami paused while looking into the camera. "All three died in a reported house fire in November."

Kyoko shook her head and had a sad expression on it just like her co-anchor's. "This was only a few days after the second break-in on U.A. premises, now known simply as VTS. At the time, we reported that Lifebringer had captured two of the villains he infiltrated U.A. with, however he had not returned but gone back with the villains. Many believe now, what he did at VTS caused the villains to kill the Akers."

"In fact, some students from Jennifer Akers' high school were willing to comment on this," Kanami added. A clip appeared in the corner of the screen that the anchors turned to where a microphone was held out for a couple of girls wearing high school uniforms.

"Yeah, we knew Jenny. She was actually a friend of ours."

"A good friend. It was terrible what happened to her."

"And do you two know what did happen to her?" The reporter questioned.

"Well, we heard that there was a house fire."

"But there were a lot of rumors going around."

"Yeah! Jenny had been talking that day about how her best friend Zach "Lifebringer" Sazaki had caught those two villains. One minute, she's talking about how cool it is those villains got caught, the next… sn snf."

"The school didn't really tell us what had happened. But no one around here really thinks it was an accident anymore…"

The clip cut off before showing how the interview with those girls ended. "You think the Akers were the ones Lifebringer was referring to earlier today?" Kanami asked his co-host.

Kyoko nodded her head at him, and she said, "I remember watching the Sports Festival well. And I heard you hesitate to say it Kanami," she added, and the man nodded his head in stoic agreement. "That name, Jenny. I remember hearing Lifebringer yelling it while the villains tortured him. They made him listen to her screams even."

"Over and over," Kanami added in in a softer voice. There was a pause for a few seconds as neither host said anything. Then Kanami rose his head up and said, "Yet he's still a hero." Kyoko looked over and into her co-host's eyes and nodded her head. They had watched the entire clip earlier and only replayed the end part they paused on to discuss a bit about his family. Kanami continued, "He didn't look it too much in that scary Nightmare form of his, but he stopped those villains without anyone getting injured."

"I still think he did it too recklessly. Stepping out in front of the car like that," Kyoko argued with a shake of her head.

"You saw him rip those guys from the car and throw them halfway across the road," Kanami countered right back. "Maybe he could've taken a hit."

"His Quirk is Death," Kyoko argued back. "Not super strength."

"But if you remember his press conference in Mosu Esupa at the end of last month, you know he said he's still just mastering this form. He didn't even know it existed back in the fall," Kanami held up a flipper and offered, "Perhaps, he's still just getting started understanding all there is to know about his Quirk. Which brings me back to an older topic, though still Lifebringer related." Kyoko sighed and rolled her eyes which just made Kanami continued quicker, "I really think they should start up training Quirks in elementary school."

"A bunch of super-powered kids is not what this society needs right now," Kyoko argued back.

"I beg to differ. Those kids are the next generation of-"

Midoriya turned off his phone that he was live-streaming the news on. He did not want to watch with others down in the living room, and he stared up at his ceiling and imagined a couple of floors up what Zach looked like right now. Why do they talk about the Akers like that, knowing that he might be watching? I know it's the news, but did they really have to talk about Jenny? Showing those girls say that Jenny called Zach her best friend, right after Zach saying that Kaminari had been his best friend. It's what he's already thinking about.

Midoriya clenched his fists at his sides and he started sitting up to get off his bed and go upstairs. He froze though and his hands shook, and he closed his eyes tightly thinking about all Zach had screamed about the night Kaminari betrayed them. I could be there for Eri. I could hold her, and tell her that someone in the world cared about her. But, but it's not that easy with you. Zach. You're my, you're one of my closest friends. One of my best… but I don't know what those secrets are that you say you told Kaminari. Things, that people's lives depended on? Whose lives? You said they're already dying, and I want to ask you and help you stop it. That's what you're doing all these days you leave, isn't it?

Is it?

I don't know what you're doing. You're pushing everyone away. Breaking up with Yaoyorozu and leaving campus all the time. No one knows, how to help you. We all want to though, Zach. Midoriya lifted his eyes to the ceiling again with a sad look in them and so much frustration on his face. But why can't, I think of any way to save you? I thought you were someone who didn't need saving, but no one can be that strong all the time. Everyone needs help, sometimes. I want to help you. Let me help you.

Three floors up from Midoriya, a dark form covered in black wisps lay flat on his bed. Zach reached for the ceiling, and he forced Death up his right arm in Nightmare mode. He glared at his hand, and he watched as Death pooled there. He stared at his fingers surrounded in thick black tendrils getting thicker each second. He focused more and more, making that right hand bigger and covering more of his arm in a dark black aura. A larger black hand surrounded his right, and then he focused harder on his fingers that were swirling around and losing form only to reform in under a second. Those fingers started to thin and look like they were shrinking, but they stopped when they were thinnest at the tips and thicker farther back. Zach glared with red eyes up at the thin, sharp points of each of his fingers on his right arm that looked bigger than usual, and longer too.

Death Claw. Keep the gap between fingers thin enough that he can't dodge between them. Jenny. Raijin. Mr. Akers. Dabi. Mrs. Akers. Kurogiri. Dad. Mom. Mr. Ganji. Aizawa sensei. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Focus. Always, focus…