Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 90:

"It's good to see everyone here," Mother Russia said. Homeroom had just started, and it was the first day in a week that every student in the class was there. She had hoped that after the weekend they would all be there, but mid-week was not too bad. Each of the students had been into the class at least once already, though this was the first time both Mineta and Jirou had shown up on the same day, since the day after Jirou came back the first time she had gone home to be with her parents for an extended weekend.

Jirou stared towards Mother Russia with a frown on her face but lowered her eyes after a second when Mother Russia met her angry look. Mom's right. I have to focus on class. He won't go after them! Kami- No. Don't think about him this early- Don't think about him at all. Jirou lifted her gaze a bit from her desk and to the boy sitting in front of her. Like him. He's been here every day, Momo says. Why did you break up with her? It's not- Jirou's thoughts shifted as Zach turned his head a bit to the right and glanced back at her. He looked in her eyes, and Jirou suddenly saw someone she almost always saw with Zach. Every time the two of them talked in class, he was to their right and took part in their conversation. She glanced to her right but just saw Sero, and she clenched her teeth so hard.

Yaoyorozu looked forward and to the left where she saw Zach looking out the corners of his eyes back at Jirou. His eyes widened a bit as he stared at the hurt look Yaoyorozu also saw flash on Jirou's face. You're not the only one hurting, Zach. If you can't talk to me. If you really, just want to keep avoiding… You should at least talk to her. She might be the only one who can help you, and you her.

Zach took one look at Jirou's face, and then he turned back forward and glared towards the front of the room. His eyes were already dark before he had looked back feeling someone look at him, but Sero glanced nervously to his left now as he could only see half of Zach's face and yet half was all he needed to see to get shivers. The black-haired boy on Zach's right with tape dispensers in his elbows tried to keep a straight face and not look towards Zach, but he could not stop himself from glancing over and seeing shadows over Zach's eyes. His eyes were half-closed, his lips curled down at the corners, and Zach's hands were held together over his desk with his fingers interlocking so hard it was clear he was doing it to keep from balling them into individual fists.

As Sero looked at Zach's hands though, his eyes shifted down a bit towards Zach's arm. His right hand was covered in the thin black material of his glove, but Zach's sleeves had ridden up a bit when he put his arms over the desk, just enough that there was a gap between his glove and his sleeve cuff. In that gap was not skin though, but Sero could see something white wrapping around Zach's arm. It was on the other arm too which he just noticed a bit of white sticking out from underneath, and Sero felt the deepest pit in his stomach as he realized they were bandages.

Midoriya looked across the room and towards his friend whose eyes he had caught a glimpse of when Zach entered the room. It's more than it has been. Like, things are getting worse. Midoriya could see that Zach's expression was even darker than it was when he had first come in, but he turned away as Mother Russia continued talking about their practical hero training for the day which would take up most of their morning.

Mother Russia spoke about the training for a minute, her eyes shifting around the students to make eye contact with them as she talked as she always did. When her eyes shifted towards Sazaki though, she stopped talking and just stared into the boy's eyes for a few seconds. "Sazaki," she said. Zach lifted his head a bit and kept staring at her in the same way, "I want you to focus. Your eyes are full of rage. It is clear you are not paying attention," the Russian woman gave him a harsh look and Zach ground his teeth before shaking his head around.

"Sorry," Zach muttered. He blinked a few times and then lifted his eyes back up and looked like he was trying to change his expression. Mother Russia nodded and turned back forward to continue explaining their training, and Zach's eyes returned to the way they had just looked. His teeth bared behind his lips, and he looked so furious that Koda pulled back a bit while looking over at him still since Mother Russia had made them all just gaze his direction.

Zach moved his left hand subtly over to his right arm and started scratching the inside of his forearm. He flinched and ground his teeth more, then he lowered both palms to his desk and tried focusing on Mother Russia. His expression calmed for a moment, but he lowered his eyes down to his arms and at his sleeves that he saw bandages sticking out the ends of. He reached his hands to the opposite sleeves and slid them down a bit, stretching them since the uniform was not a perfect fit on him.

"Hey Zach," Sero whispered to his left. Zach turned to him, and Sero motioned down at Zach's arms with his eyes. "You alright?"

"Fine," Zach said while turning back forward. He pulled his arms back and lowered them down to his sides, and he focused up on Mother Russia so that Sero would do the same.

He's just trying to deflect, Sero thought while looking towards Mother Russia in the front of the room.

Kirishima glanced to his left for a second since he heard Sero just say something to Zach. He looked over himself and frowned deeply at the look on Zach's face as he watched their homeroom teacher. Kirishima thought about the night before when he tried to talk to Zach about how he stopped those car thieves. He had said that it was badass what Zach did, and Zach had nodded at him once before walking right past him. You can't just become like this forever. I won't let you. Kirishima's fists clenched at his sides. You saved my life. You're, an awesome hero. I didn't lose two friends that day. I'm getting you back, even if I can't get Kaminari- but you! I can help you. This time, for sure. I won't mess up again.

I'm going to kill that bastard, Bakugo glared towards Mother Russia. Mentioning Zach's rage-filled eyes had Bakugo thinking about why it was his classmate was looking like that. In his head he saw Zach strung up by metal hooks getting his body cut up, and Shigaraki Tomura holding up his picture and making Zach shout about him. Everything. It was all him. He told the villains where the training forest was. That mother fucker, got All Might- he got me kidnapped- because I wasn't strong enough! No, NO! It was his fault. It wasn't just you, Zach. He's been fucking with all of us. This whole time, that piece of shit.

Jirou looked down in front of her desk while partially listening to what Mother Russia was saying. She looked down at Zach's right hand that he had put down at his side. Lowering his arm straight down like that, rode up his sleeve even more so she could see what it was Sero had whispered and she had heard. His arm, Jirou thought, and her breathing started picking up speed. She glanced forward and towards Mother Russia, but their homeroom teacher was looking over towards Uraraka at the moment so she thought it was okay. Jirou leaned forward a bit and then froze. She did not know what she was going to say, but then she just whispered in a soft voice, "Zach. You didn't…"

Zach kept staring forward, ignoring the girl behind him who lowered back down into her seat as Mother Russia started to turn again. "It's nothing," Zach muttered out the left corner of his lips. He rose up his arms as if to show there was nothing wrong with them and he rested them over his desk. He placed them down gently though, and then he leaned forward a bit while trying to make his arms smaller and sliding them farther up into his sleeves. Jirou's eyes opened wide at his reaction, and she pursed her lips while feeling her eyes start shaking. Her heart rate sped up, I, thought about… But Zach-

"What's going on over there?" Mother Russia snapped, glaring towards the side of the room where Jirou spun to her with wide eyes. Jirou's eyes were sad too, but worried. She darted them to Zach who turned his head a bit and looked back at her. Then Zach turned and glared at Sero who had a hesitant look on his face while looking down at Zach's arms he seemed to be trying to hide. Mother Russia started over and she glared at the boy she had to speak to twice now about his expression in a few minutes. Her eyes shifted to where the other students were looking though, and then she narrowed them which made Zach ground his teeth more.

Yaoyorozu leaned up and she looked over to see what it was Mother Russia was staring at. Zach stopped trying to hide it at all. He just looked down at his own arms, then back at Mother Russia with his eyebrows lifted as if waiting for her to continue. "Hey Zach," Ashido began over across a couple of seats. A few others in the room just got grim looks on their faces as they felt bad that attention was being brought to him when he clearly wanted everyone to stop looking over. Those people looked over too though as Ashido continued, "Did something happen, to your arms? I… noticed that-"

Zach lifted his arms and put his elbows on the table so his sleeves lowered a bit. He reached to his sleeves and pulled them down himself with half-closed eyes. He looked dark still, but like he did not care enough to just sit there and come up with something. Zach slid his sleeves down looking bored. He lowered them to near his elbows and the rest of the class stared over towards the bandages with wide eyes, especially since there was red on some parts of them on the insides of his forearms. "I'm fine," Zach said.

Mother Russia glared at the boy sitting there but she got a somewhat uncertain look on her face. This is, beyond my expertise.

Zach looked around, and he saw pitied, sad looks around the room directed towards him. "It's not what you think," Zach said at their expressions.

Yaoyorozu's pained heart started slowing down a bit as her face covered in confusion. It's not?

"Wh-What do you mean?" Ashido whispered softer, though she regretted asking her first question now. Kirishima was staring over towards Zach's eyes with huge ones of his own, while Todoroki had an understanding look on his face like he half-expected this. Iida and Tsuyu looked over from across the room and both felt so much pain in their chests as they imagined Zach cutting himself, which was what most of the class had assumed at the sight of those bandages that looked like they were covering new wounds Zach must have inflicted and wrapped himself.

Zach looked forward at his arms and then said in a calm, dark voice, "I was on my laptop last night when words started covering my screen. Taunting me…" Twenty people stared at Zach with their eyes opening huge, and Zach just continued in his same tone, "Then after he started laughing, sending 'hahahahahaha,' a spark came out of my computer. I realized what was coming and tossed it up, but it exploded and slashed up my arms I crossed like this." He rose up his arms and put the backs of his forearms to his face, the soft undersides that had red seeping through the bandages pointed out to where he was exemplifying the debris had come flying at him from.

"What?!" Kirishima shouted over after a second of just gawking at Zach.

"I should have realized, he would do it-" Zach started.

"Sazaki," Mother Russia stated firmly and in a strong voice that kept everyone else from speaking up at once. A few others had jumped out of their seats looking like they wanted to shout things over at him, though none of them really knew what to call out. A couple of others pulled out their phones go get them out of their pockets and away from their legs, and then the others around them saw this and did the same. Mother Russia frowned at the boy's blank, dejected look that was still so dark but had not changed at all with what he had just said. "You should have said something."

"Why?" Zach asked. "It's not like Kaminari was there. It's not like we could have done anything." He paused and then looked to his arms and said, "And what if Recovery Girl was Toga in disguise again, waiting for me to come ask for help because Kaminari told her that I'd be on my way?"

Why does he keep doing this to you?! Ashido's eyes filled with water, and she turned away from Zach before lifting her right hand and rubbing them.

Bakugo stared over towards Zach with his eyes huge for a few more seconds, then he turned away and grit his teeth in such a pissed-off way. He's been fucking with all of us? What a joke. The fuck do I have to be angry about- damn it. How the fuck is Zach supposed to get over this, when you won't leave him the fuck alone?!

"Zach," Sero began while looking in shock at his friend on his left side. "You know, we're going to catch him. He won't be able to do stuff like that forever."

Zach lowered his arms down and looked towards Sero with the same blank look, and he said in a low voice, "No we won't." Sero's eyes widened more, and Zach just said in a dark tone, "We don't even know how he does what he does. We don't know how to beat him, and we don't know where he is. We're not going to capture-"

"Sazaki," Mother Russia cut in. Her voice was strict and laced with her thicker Russian accent that she hid most of the time at least a bit. She had an angry and disapproving look on her face though while Zach turned to her. There was no pity on it, and she just scolded in an annoyed tone of her own, "Stop talking like that. Saying we won't capture him, it's pathetic." The others looked towards their teacher with wide eyes, and though some wanted to tell her not to be so harsh they also hoped she knew what she was doing. Her eyes narrowed more and she continued, "If you have lost your motivation for being a hero, then-"

"But that's just it sensei, I have." Zach cut her off and looked in her eyes in a way that made Mother Russia stare back with wider ones. The rest of the class looked back towards Zach, while he just stared into the older woman's blue with his dark and cold ones. "He didn't just beat me," Zach said, his tone actually shifting a little while his eyebrows lifted, his face scrunching up. "He destroyed my reason for being a hero."

Kirishima was up on his feet, and he shouted towards Zach with his eyes huge, "Wh-What are you-"

"I believed, this world was amazing. I believed, people were inherently good. I wanted to…" Zach said a line from the end of his final report the last year. He said it in disbelief and his classmates felt pained that he no longer believed that. Midoriya stared towards him with wide eyes, his heart clenching up as he thought about how he had shouted that very same line at Inhuman at the end of the fight at the Sports Festival. Yaoyorozu looked towards Zach with her eyes shaking, as he continued, "But Kaminari was just a kid, and he became evil for no good reason at all. So I was wrong."

Zach shook his head with a dark but half bored look in his eyes. Mother Russia's eyes narrowed again at the boy who just muttered in a low voice, "I don't think I believe it anymore."

"But without a reason, why are you here?" Mother Russia questioned the student who was supposed to be a hero in training.

"'Why?'" Zach repeated, lifting his eyebrows up and raising his head to look at her closer. He gave her a look like saying 'are you serious?' Then he snapped, "Because where the fuck else am I going to go?"

"No cursing in my class. Go to the principal's office," Mother Russia said in a stern voice. Zach's eyes shot open wide, and then he slid out of his chair and reached down to pick up his backpack. "Stop at Recovery Girl's office first," Mother Russia added while Zach started picking it up. He froze with his hand on his backpack strap, and he closed his eyes as she finished, "And get a grip. This isn't the place for talk like that."

Zach walked straight for the exit and never looked back. He did not glance around at his classmates who all stared at him wanting to say, something. A few of them had thought Zach was being so strong coming to class every day since the incident, and those same students felt floored as they had no idea what Zach was thinking at all. Iida opened his mouth as Zach neared the row closest to the door, but the shorter boy walked out without hesitating, which meant the taller teen who was hesitating never got a chance to say a thing. Where else? Is that really, the only reason you are still here? Iida stared at the closed door for a second before turning back to Mother Russia who continued in a loud voice to get everyone to focus on her.

But, he was talking about how we had to keep fighting. How we can't take a break because the villains won't either! Ashido thought. She yelled it at herself because she was so frustrated that she had no idea this was how Zach had been feeling this past week. He, on the news he said he was going to stop Kaminari. So that can't be your only reason for being here. You're, not just staying because you don't have anywhere else to go. I don't believe that. You've always been, a cool guy.

This is a problem, Shoji stared at Mother Russia, but like most of his classmates he could not focus very much. If nothing is done, we are going to lose Zach. In Shoji's head he saw the video they watched their first day back after the Sports Festival, when he and Zach started getting pulled towards Inhuman. He saw his friend holding onto him as tightly as possible to prevent from being pulled off, so that he could keep bringing him back to life. I won't let this break you. Zach, how could I call myself a hero if I don't help you now?

Midoriya looked ahead at Kirishima, then he glanced back to his left towards Yaoyorozu before spinning Mother Russia's way when he felt like her voice was directed straight at him to get him to pay attention. In the curly-green-haired boy's mind he saw the night of the Sports Festival when he arrived at the hospital looking for Zach. He had come into Zach's room to see him, Kirishima, Yaoyorozu, and Kaminari sitting together on Zach's hospital bed. He thought the three of them were all closer to Zach than he was, and he checked what Kirishima and Yaoyorozu were thinking because he did not know what to do about what they had just seen.

Mother Russia started talking about all of them getting new electronics based on what Sazaki had said, though she added the possibility that Raijin had done something to Zach's computer while he was still on campus that allowed him to do what Zach claimed. Midoriya listened to her and he looked at his phone he had already put down on top of his desk closely, but he was not really afraid that Kaminari was going to do something similar to him. I can see what you're doing, Raijin. Why you really said all those things to Zach that day. Why you're still, messing with his head. I won't let you do it. I won't let you… win.

As lunch was ending, Midoriya, Iida, and Uraraka started back towards their classroom. Lunch had been pretty quiet again today, though the cafeteria as a whole had been louder. Only a couple of people had dropped out throughout the entire school over Denki Kaminari's apparent infiltration. Most people actually felt better, outside of Class A, because the spy had been uncovered. Most people also did not know about there being a spy in the first place, but blaming USJ and all the things that had gone wrong for U.A. the past year on him meant that they were now safer without him on their campus. It was the same argument some of the Class A students had to make to their parents when they had tried arguing to take them out of school.

Uraraka looked to her right and up at Iida as he continued, "Organizing a day of class activities, or a competition with Class B could work. Not just for helping Zach, but to raise everyone's mood, and to show Kamin- Raijin, that we have not been defeated by him."

Uraraka nodded her head in agreement with that last part a lot. "I don't want him thinking he won. That look on his face, when he was talking about always winning," Uraraka clenched her fists at her sides and looked angrily down the hall. "And because of him, All Might…" she trailed off and glanced to her left at the boy next to her a bit shorter than the teen on her right side. Midoriya looked in at her, and then past at Iida who had also asked him about that once over the past couple of days.

I hate lying to them, but I cannot give away such an important secret just because they think they know something about it. I have to stick with him just comparing our powers to each other, even if, they don't all believe me. Midoriya opened his mouth to add something in himself and shift the conversation away from All Might and thereby him. He stopped though and looked down the hall as a door opened forcefully and Zach stomped out of it. The door was on the left side of the hall so Zach walked out with the right side of his face closer to them, his scar visible on the side of it as well as something else that had the three teens slowing down and stopping where they were.

"Mr. Sazaki," a voice called from inside the faculty room up ahead.

Zach turned his head to the right and started walking down the hall as soon as he stormed out of the office. His lips were twisted and his teeth bared furiously behind them, while tears streaked down his face covered in a look of unadulterated rage. Zach's fists clenched so hard at his sides but he had to loosen his right before ripping through the glove, only to tighten it even harder and ignore the fact that he felt it rip through. He parted his teeth for a second to take a deeper breath, but it came in gasped and choked out. "Young Sazaki," another voice called, and while the replacement principal stayed behind in the office, All Might came out and looked down the hall after Zach.

"Zach?" Uraraka questioned as Zach neared them.

Iida opened his mouth to say something about how Zach needed to stop. He was clearly emotionally unstable, and none of them had seen him since he stormed out of class that morning but it did not look like things had gotten any better since then. The look on Zach's face as he shifted his gaze the smallest amount towards them shut all of them up though. As angry as he looked while trying to glare at them, tears continued to spill out and slide down his face before dripping off his chin. He grit his teeth again and shook his head to the right, looking away from them as he walked past, ignoring All Might calling his name again from down the hall.

All Might started walking down the hallway as soon as Zach had turned the corner. "Wait," he started, as Midoriya started back the other way like he regretted letting Zach walk by like that. Midoriya spun his head and had a hurried look as he needed to go after him quickly before Zach got away. All Might shook his head though at Midoriya's expression, and his successor turned back fully to face him.

Iida and Uraraka both looked towards All Might wondering why it was he told Midoriya to wait, though they also looked back and forth between the two for a moment with something else on their minds. Uraraka shook her head though and then looked at All Might in a confused way, "All Might, why was Zach so… Is everything alright?"

"It was not just, about Kaminari?" Iida asked aloud what he had started thinking at the sight of those tears covering Zach's face.

All Might stopped in front of them. He hesitated for a moment and then shook his head at the students before him. He glanced over their heads and towards the corner of the hallway where Zach had sped around, then he brought a hand up to his forehead and rubbed it with a regretful look in his dark eyes. "Young Sazaki's, Aunt Maye," All Might began, and all three of the teens in front of him started staring with their eyes opening huge. "And her daughter, have both been reported missing. The police who went to investigate found," All Might paused and then finished in a low voice, "signs of a break-in, at her home. However there are no leads as to where they have gone- or where they have been taken."

Zach neared the back exit of the school. He had his arms over his face rubbing back and forth to wipe it of all the tears. There were too many people in the hallway, and he needed to get out of there without anyone else trying to stop him. He froze though before reaching the back door, as a voice called to him, "Zach." He blinked his eyes a few more times and reached a hand up, rubbing them to try and clear of any water. Then he turned his head with his lips flat and his eyes half-closed. AHHHHHHHHHHHH! "Where are you going?" Todoroki asked his classmate who stood there with a blank look on his face while screaming so loud in his mind that he could feel a headache coming.

Keep it together. Keep it- RAAA! "Home… I guess," Zach replied. He cracked a small smile after finishing his response, and he lifted his left hand up and pressed it against his forehead with a twisted lip and mad look on his face. Though, is it really my home anymore? Kaminari being there made it home- What did you do to them? What the fuck?! Zach blinked a couple of times and then lowered his hand and started looking blankly at Todoroki again.

"We have afternoon classes," Todoroki started. He walked closer to Zach and he narrowed his eyes at the boy whose expression had turned blank. His eyes were cold, his face emotionless, and Todoroki felt nervous while he opened his mouth to say something else. The gap between them was not very wide anymore, and Todoroki stopped to look as deep into Zach's eyes as he could. Todoroki paused with his mouth open and kept staring at Zach as he stood there emotionless after having such a broken-up look on his face. "I know you have a plan." Todoroki snapped it and then stared closely at Zach's expression to see how it would respond.

Zach stared blankly at him for a couple of seconds, then he leaned his head back and squinted his eyes a bit. "A plan?"

Todoroki was not having any of it. "I know it," he repeated.

Zach opened his squinted eyes back up and looked into Todoroki's in a sadder way. He lowered his gaze to the floor for a second and said, "I'm sorry, you think of me like that Todoroki-"

"You always bounce back," Todoroki said. He stared at his classmate who had come back the day after, who was as strong as he always was even when Todoroki thought he would never make it back. Todoroki ground his teeth at the look in Zach's eyes as he rose them a bit more and looked into his. "Every time."

"I have," Zach said. His voice was unconvincing, but he lifted his expression a bit from its sad look to a more normal one. His normal ones now looked so depressed, angry, and blank though that Todoroki ground his teeth even harder. The boy with half red hair and half white started going wider eyes though, as Zach continued, "I'm back. I'll become a great hero, and I'll, I'll try." He said it but then continued right away, "There is no big plan though. I'm not, doing that anymore. Any plan I come up with, Kaminari will know and break. I need help to do great things, but anyone I stay close to will get killed." Zach turned and he just spoke with his face half away from Todoroki's looking out the corners of his eyes at him, "So leave me alone, Todoroki."

Todoroki stood there and watched as Zach walked out of the school without looking back. His teeth unclenched and his fists that had balled up loosened at his sides too. Todoroki's eyes were wide for a few more seconds, and then he lowered them back to normal and stared down at the floor in front of his feet. That's not, you. When you said "Lifebringer" in class that day, so long ago now. You're not that person anymore. You really aren't, going to try and be amazing anymore? No plan? No, nothing?

Kirishima, Ashido, Asui, Sato, and Tokoyami walked down a street of Musutafu in the early afternoon on Thursday a week after Kaminari betrayed their class. They had gotten a pass to go out shopping as long as they returned within three hours, and they were walking to the train station now to head to a popular shopping district in Tokyo the train would only take twenty minutes to get them to.

Ashido had suggested it, and she was smiling and talking to the others around her fast so that there were never any silences where they would all know what they were thinking about. It was actually working too, and she was happy that asking about what Tokoyami was going to buy actually got him and Sato talking about it together too. Ashido let out a small sigh while they walked, and Asui turned and looked up at her pink friend. "Mina-chan, thank you." Kirishima just jumped in on the other guys' conversation so all three boys were in their own talk, and Ashido turned to her small frog friend who gave her a small smile at her confused look. "Admittedly, I have been scared of leaving campus since that day."

Ashido's eyes widened a bit, and Tsuyu continued to her friend in a soft voice, "I haven't told my parents that Kaminari, killed me, either. I wanted it kept a secret, like Iida-chan. I was afraid though of leaving campus, so I needed this. I do not think I could have left on my own the first time."

"Oh Tsu-chan," Ashido put her arms around her friend's side and pulled her in a side-hug as they kept walking. "Even if there are five of us here, you're still super brave coming out so soon. That idiot'll never get us a second time."

Tsuyu nodded her head and Ashido stopped hugging her as Kirishima glanced back in a confused way at them. Tsuyu continued to smile in a small way as they kept walking down the sidewalk, but she thought after what Ashido just finished with, Except, Ka- Raijin, is not an idiot. Mina-chan. We must be careful so he does not get us. Careful… but not paranoid. I won't be afraid to leave U.A. I cannot be, if I plan to be a hero.

Kirishima mentioned something back to Ashido who ran forward a few steps to get up to his side. "You really need more weights for your own room? The place was already full of 'em when we did the room contest!"

"Yeah, but I got stronger," Kirishima lifted his right arm and flexed, and Ashido rolled her eyes though glancing at his muscular arm at the same time. "So I need new ones. The school won't just let me take ones from the gym to bring to my own room, and the gyms are closed sometimes when I want to work out!" The boy with spiky red hair grinned his sharp teeth and then looked forward as they continued towards the station that was two blocks down now. It was not the station closest to U.A. they were going to, since the train line that would bring them to the stop closest to the shopping district did not stop at that U.A. station. It meant the walk from U.A. to the station was longer, but when they arrived at their destination the walk would be much shorter so that it was worth it.

"If it was a twenty minute walk to the station, we must be sure to leave Shibuya by… six thirty," Tokoyami slowed down while he was saying that after seeing the station up ahead. Kirishima glanced at him because he thought Tokoyami was a bit slow to do the math there, but Tokoyami had hesitated before finishing for another reason.

Sato also looked ahead with his eyebrows lifted up. Half a block in front of them, not at the intersection but out from in between two buildings, someone just stepped onto their sidewalk and glanced both ways. The person was wearing a black hoodie with the hood up, and they turned the opposite direction as their group and started walking the other way. The person was not walking too fast, but they were moving at a quicker pace than the group of five teens so they would never meet up with each other.

"Isn't it a little hot…" Ashido began while looking up towards the hooded figure moving quickly away from them.

"Think the guy recognized us?" Kirishima asked, narrowing his eyes and then speeding up himself. His fists clenched at his sides, and it had been a week but he had been looking forward to a chance like this that whole time.

"Kirishima-chan. We don't know that he is doing anything wrong," Tsuyu began while walking quicker after the boy almost jogging forward down the sidewalk. She had seen the person come out of the alleyway, but she had a strange feeling at the sight of him that made her hesitant about giving chase. Asui shook her head though, deciding that that feeling was probably her own fear after what had happened with Kaminari. I can't be afraid to confront criminals.

"Maybe he just likes the darkness of the alley," Tokoyami offered, speeding up a bit but arguing with Kirishima who sounded dead-set when he asked his question. Kirishima's question had obvious connotations. If the person recognized them as U.A. students with provisional hero licenses, and was purposely avoiding them, then there was a good chance he was in the middle of breaking the law.

"Or maybe not," Kirishima said. "Let's find out. Hey!" He shouted, changing his tone and yelling down the sidewalk to the hooded figure almost at the corner he could turn around. If the figure turned the corner though, the students would start running after him as it would be clear he was trying to escape them now. The hooded figure just stopped though, and the students who started jogging forward after Kirishima slowed down as they wondered what they were about to say to this person they were accosting for no reason. "What were you doing back there in that…" Kirishima looked the figure up and down when he got closer, and his eyes narrowed for a second in recognition before widening at the sight of the shoes he was looking down at.

The hooded figure turned and lifted his head a bit. His face that was shadowed when he first stepped out and darted his gaze back and forth got clearer when he rose his head. "Zach?" Kirishima asked. The scar-faced boy under the hood did not have headphones in. He stared out at Kirishima and narrowed his eyes, then he looked behind him and towards the other four students who opened their eyes wider as they saw him. He was wearing a new black hoodie that the others had not seen before, not that they had seen much of him outside of school lately that they would know what kind of clothes he wore.

"Hey."

When Tsuyu passed by the alley Zach had walked out of she turned her head and looked down it. There was no one inside, but the alley went far and there were other cut-offs from it going around other buildings. It was dark, and she felt the most unsettling feeling in her stomach while turning forward towards Zach. "What, are you up to-" Sato began, though he stopped himself after saying it. He reworded it, "I mean, what's up?" He did not mean to sound suspicious but more like just a greeting, yet he had to change the wording because that question sounded like it could be asked.

"Running," Zach replied.

Kirishima's eyes narrowed at the boy in front of him and he took a step towards Zach. Zach stayed where he was and lifted his head just a bit to look into his slightly taller friend's red eyes. "In alleys?"

Zach looked over towards the alley, then around at the group of five in front of him. Kirishima looked accusatory, Sato a bit nervous like he had wanted to just change the topic but was now back on it and not telling Kirishima to stop. Tsuyu had a nervous frown on her face that also looked scared of what Zach's answer could be. Ashido looked at Kirishima like she wanted him to stop, then towards Zach and she brightened up her face for a second, "We're about to head to Shibuya-"

"Zach," Tokoyami said. His voice was serious, and Zach glanced to his left at the shorter boy with a beak on his face. "What were you doing in there?"

"Nothing," Zach muttered. He grimaced as all of them started looking at him even more suspiciously and in pained ways like they did not want to have those suspicious looks. "I thought-" he started but stopped himself. He ground his teeth and darted his eyes back to the alleyway, then he lowered his head a bit and shadowed over more of his face with his hood. "It's nothing."

"It's not!" Kirishima exclaimed. "You've barely been at the dorm lately. And you're hanging out in-"

"I wasn't!" Zach snapped. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself right after shouting, and he darted his eyes to the other side of the street where a couple of people started looking over and recognized some Class A students. He looked back at Kirishima and looked like he just wanted to leave, but Kirishima glared at him and did not look to be about to let Zach leave. Zach's eyes got darker and he glared right into Kirishima's eyes while saying in a dark voice, "I thought I saw Kaminari."

The other students stared at Zach with their eyes opening wide, and Tsuyu spun back towards the alley with her eyes wide. "He wasn't there," Zach said quickly as he saw Tsuyu spin around. "I, I thought I saw him watching me. So I went in, and I checked around for him. I looked around for ten, fifteen, twenty minutes?" Zach ground his teeth while Tsuyu looked back and his friends started staring at him with wider eyes as he seethed in rage. "But he wasn't there, just like all the, other times." His eyes that had lowered down while he seethed it through his teeth rose up slowly and locked into Kirishima's wide eyes. "I hate him so much."

"Zach, he's not just-" Ashido started, but she stopped herself and pursed her lips. Or is he? Is he watching you? He's always watching you! Always, messing with you. Is it actually good you're this paranoid? At least, I think it means you're being safe when you're out here. But, but if you thought you saw him- "If you thought you saw him," Ashido began softly. "You shouldn't have gone in on your own-"

"But I had to make sure," Zach whispered. "Because, it would seem crazy if I went around like the boy who cried wolf every time I imagined him watching me…" Zach shook his head and then frowned deeper at the group who made him say all this by confronting him. "Shibuya sounds fun. Enjoy it, I gotta run."

"Zach," Kirishima began. He stepped forward when Zach turned away from them, and he put a hand down on Zach's right shoulder. "You know we're all here for you, right?"

"Yeah sure, 'Kirishima.'"

Zach said Kirishima's name as if putting up air quotes around it, and Kirishima almost let go of Zach's shoulder only to grip it tighter and spin him around. Zach's eyes widened and Kirishima snapped at him, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

"Kirishima," Tokoyami began.

"No! It sounds like," Kirishima spun to Tokoyami, but then he glared back at Zach who turned his head and looked down at the hand gripping his shoulder. Kirishima did not let go just because Zach stared angrily at his hand though. "You really, think I might be a spy? You- you brought me back to life! They killed me." Kirishima's teeth clenched hard and started grinding while Zach lifted his eyes and looked into his. "Tell me, you really think I could be a spy-"

"I think you could be a spy," Zach said. He lifted his left arm and pushed Kirishima's hand off his shoulder. He looked deeper into Kirishima's eyes and the redhead opened his wide at how serious Zach looked after saying that. "And if you were smart, you'd believe that I could be one too." Zach turned away and he started jogging. His eyes narrowed darkly as he ran off, and he opened his mouth to keep his breathing steady as much as his heart was racing after what he just said. Sorry, Kirishima.

Zach's friends watched him run to the intersection and turn the corner. He was gone in a couple of seconds, and none of them had called out to him to stop him. Ashido looked in at Kirishima as he stood there with his face shaking in rage, his fists clenching so hard at his sides after what one of his best friends just told him. Kirishima closed his eyes tight for a second, Fuck you! I, I'm trying! But you don't just, get a free pass to say whatever the hell you want! Kirishima snapped his eyes open and he took a step forward, but then he stopped and his hands unclenched at his sides. He stared towards the corner and his angry eyes started to lose some of the rage in them. You really, think I could be a spy? I thought…

Ashido lowered her gaze to the floor as she glanced around at the others with her. Doesn't really seem like, a good mood for shopping.

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting it to be like…" Jirou paused and looked up at the ceiling above her. She glanced back down and finished with a tiny smile, "That. I just didn't think, she'd be so, so easy to talk to."

Yaoyorozu smiled at the girl sitting on the foot of her bed. Yaoyorozu was sitting on her own desk chair and she was so happy as she looked at her best friend and a smile that was the first one she had seen on Jirou's face in over a week. Wow. This Softy sounds amazing. I wonder if Zach progressed as much as he… as he had, because of her?

"I'm glad," Yaoyorozu said as Jirou's smile flattened back down for some reason. The taller girl was worried she had made a strange expression considering the thoughts she had just been having. She figured it could also be that Jirou was not really at the point where she could smile more than a few seconds at a time though. "I know I told you I thought it might be a good idea, but you can always come to me too Kyoka."

"I know," Jirou said and nodded at her friend who she did come up to talk to because she was feeling too stressed alone in her room. Alone in her room that she had been alone with Kaminari in too many times. Her talk with Yaoyorozu had been serious for a bit, but they also talked just about other things too that took her mind off of it. Jirou started another small smile and she got up off the foot of the bed. She walked forward and Yaoyorozu stood up before reaching froward so they could hug. "Thanks Momo," Jirou whispered while hugging her. Yaoyorozu had her hands on her back like she had in the basement of that Interrogation Building, and Jirou imagined how the first thing Momo had done when she had regained feeling was come to her side. "You're," Jirou started, then she stopped and pursed her lips.

The shorter girl pulled back from the hug and just said with an awkward look on her face, "Well, you know." She looked away while saying it, and Yaoyorozu smiled at her so brightly as Jirou seemed to be talking like normal at least. "Anyway," Jirou said, and she rose a hand and scratched the back of her head. "I'm gonna head back."

"Walk to class together tomorrow morning?" Yaoyorozu questioned before Jirou could even turn to the door.

The shorter girl nodded her head and then lifted her right hand in a small half-wave. She walked to Yaoyorozu's door and left her best friend's dorm room. Jirou closed the door behind her and then let out a sigh before turning her head left and looking down the girl's side of the floor back towards the stairs. The second she looked to the stairs, she felt a chill in her spine and froze where she was. Looking at those stairs, leading to the third floor, where Kaminari had lived so close to her for so long, it made her freeze with her eyes opening wide. Damn it, she lowered her gaze to the floor.

Jirou clenched her fists at her sides. She thought about the reason she had to get out of her room in the first place. In her head was the day Kaminari had betrayed them, but before Zach had sent the message that Toga was in the school. She remembered leaving the nurse's office, and Zach walking in after her. As she got out she pulled out her phone that she had felt buzzing during her blood test near the end, and she had smiled at the text from her boyfriend. The blood she had just given was the farthest thing from her mind. Recovery Girl had seemed completely normal to her. She had told him she was coming back to the dorm, and she had asked if he wanted to come "hang out."

She closed her eyes in the hallway of the fifth floor with her hands shaking at her sides. What Kaminari had taunted her with in that basement echoed in her head, and Jirou thought about how she had checked that text while on her bed with Kaminari. How they had had their shirts off, when she had picked it up and realized that Zach was in the middle of fighting Toga. She had gotten scared, and when she suggested that he go back to his own room like the text said, he told her he wasn't going to leave her alone while the villains were at the school. It had been the most meaningful moment of their relationship since their kiss in the middle of a fight against villains during their internship. She hadn't known how far she was planning on going with Kaminari that day, but after he had said that to her… "If things had kept going for a bit longer, I really could have stolen something good from you…"

Jirou's clenched eyes clenched tighter as she thought about her bed downstairs, the one she was supposed to go back to right now. She opened her eyes and was about to start walking towards the stairs, telling herself that she could not be scared to be in her own room. She stopped though. Jirou glanced to her right and down the hall straight out from Yaoyorozu's door to the boy's side of the floor. In her head was the same basement, but she saw the boy behind that door in her head. Zach. I've heard people talking about you like… like you got it worst of all. I, I understand though. I could help you- Kaminari's voice echoed in her mind again, "In that girl's voice when she read your letter aloud, I heard LOVE! So much love. She loved you so much, but it wasn't just her love that I heard. I was worried you had sent information about the League, but instead you just wanted to tell her you were alright? You wanted to tell her not to worry about you?! Oh she may have spoken in a voice that told me she loved you, but the words of your letter alone told me how much you loved her… And you can bet, I told Shigaraki as much!"

The girl standing there on the fifth floor shook her head around. That's terrible. That's, just so… "I can't believe you didn't get their numbers," Jirou heard Kaminari all the way back when Zach did his sudden trip to Kyoto. "Guess you've already got a girl though huh? Bet Jenny wouldn't be too happy about that picture." The whole time. He, he knew. And when I asked him why he acted- She clenched her eyes shut again, "I didn't know it'd do that. They must have had a falling out or something…" In Jirou's head she saw the reaction on Kaminari's face at the Sports Festival when Zach screamed that girl's name. She had felt horrible for him at that moment as much as she had for Zach, because she realized that he had been saying those things about Jenny since Zach had returned with no idea that she was dead and he was putting Zach through so much pain each time he mentioned her. Unless, he really didn't know. Unless, that was the reaction, of someone who didn't really have that memory? No! Raijin, wanted us to see that face, so that we would think he was horrified for Zach's sake!

"And I tried- I really tried to stop watching, so Shigaraki dragged a knife under my eye, and he dug it in…" Jirou turned her body more to the right and started breathing faster while looking down towards Zach's door. "I thought, he was going to dig it out, so I had to open it again. I had to watch, knowing every second she lay there was a second closer to my time limit running out." She started walking down the hall and took in a few deep breaths as she clenched her hands at her sides only to open them and then clench again over and over nervously. "And when I close my eyes! I see her burning! She was my age, but I always thought of her like a little sister…"

"I know his neighbor though, she's his best friend. More like, a sister I guess," Jirou saw Kaminari scratching the back of his head in confusion as to why Zach acted the way he did at the mention of Jenny's name. She heard Zach scream how she was like a sister to him, and then she saw Kaminari pressing his forehead into Zach's while looking down into his eyes from inches away. "I told Shigaraki as much!"

Jirou stopped at the end of the hall between halls, freezing before actually stepping into the boy's half and up to Zach's door. What am I doing? I don't know, what to say to him. She closed her eyes and pointed her head down at the floor, imagining her room two floors down. In her head she saw Zach's arms that morning, covered in bloody bandages he did not tell anyone about. She thought about how she did not have her phone anymore so she just went straight up to Momo's room to knock and talk to her, because she had thrown her phone away at what he said about his computer. Iida had requested from the school a new set of phones and computers for their entire class, and the order was supposed to come in by the next day so they were not going to be stuck like this for long. Apparently we're going to be able to keep our phone numbers the same too… "I loved her, more than I knew I could ever love someone, and I only realized it as she screamed my name!" "JENNY!" "As she died, screaming out in agony yet still believing that I would come save her." "JENNY!" "Until her very last breath, she believed in me. And I failed her! I let her die!"

Knock Jirou froze with her hand on Zach's door after knocking into it. What am I-

"Who is it?" Zach's voice asked, scratchy and deep showing he was in Nightmare mode.

Hearing him using that form in his own room, Jirou knew he knew how she felt more than anyone. She froze though. She froze because all the things she was just thinking about made her question whether or not she understood what he was going through. "Um," Jirou began.

"Jirou?" Zach asked, and even his scratchy voice sounded surprised.

The two of them stood there on different sides of the door, and both of them immediately thought of a moment so similar that had happened to them once. Right after the first Sports Festival, when she had come to visit him at his apartment. His apartment was gone now though, and so were the two people who talked to each other that day. Kaminari, made it so you felt you had to leave the Sports Festival. All the way back then even, and before it too… "Are you," Jirou started.

Zach closed his eyes and lowered his head on the other side of the door. He opened his red eyes and glared down at the floor for a second. Don't. No. Shit. Shit! Zach rose his right hand up and he slowly pressed it into his chest as the girl on the other side of the door hesitated. You don't deserve this. Just because, you and him spent a lot of time together doesn't mean- It just means you're like me. I know that. I know, how much you must be hurting. Zach reached his left hand to the doorknob and opened it. But Jirou, I can't- just because I need to help you, that doesn't mean I can just…

Zach stared through his open doorway at the girl five inches shorter than him, who had entered school with him the year before at the same height. "Hey Jirou," Zach said. He did not move out of his doorway while he glanced around behind her without taking his hazel eyes off of hers. The door stayed half-closed behind Zach and he was blocking most of his room from view, and since the lights were off the whole room was dark. A bit of light from the hall got in though and Jirou saw under Zach's right hand he held on the door that there were some papers on Zach's desk, but his arm lowered down and he moved a bit forward to look at her closer where she stood in front of him. "You alright?" Zach asked.

Jirou looked up into Zach's eyes, and a hurt expression came to hers. The way Zach had just blocked his room off from her, was as if trying to keep her out of it. "So you don't even trust me?" She asked quietly.

Zach looked down into her eyes from up close, and his expression stayed dark for a few seconds before he shook his head once slowly back and forth. "I get it," Jirou whispered. Zach's eyes started to widen as hers lowered to their feet. "Because I, eavesdropped on you. That night," Jirou lifted her eyes back up and into Zach's wider ones that he narrowed again but could not fill with anger while looking into her sad ones. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"You already told me that," Zach began.

"Not, for listening to you that night," Jirou cut in. "But, because-" she paused and heard his voice echoing in her ears again as it did when she was on her way to his door. "Because I don't trust you either. Even though," she clenched her teeth so tightly thinking about those screams, and Zach froze with his bottom lip lowering down and his eyes bulging at the sight of the untrusting look that spread over Jirou's face. She pulled back from him a bit and narrowed her eyes, and then she said, "I heard you and Kaminari one day, when you were training for the Sports Festival in Ground Beta…" Jirou glared into Zach's eyes, and then a hurt look replaced the pained and untrusting one. "You told him- you suggested that he should ask me-"

"I didn't," Zach began softly. He stared down at Jirou in shock for a few seconds, and then he brought his left hand up towards his head to run it through his hair. He froze though with his hand half-lifted, because she darted her eyes to it for a second in a way that made him scrunch his face up.

"But you told him," Jirou whispered after seeing that look. "Not because you were, trying to make us close so he could- you did it because you could tell I liked-" she scrunched her own face up and her hands shook at her sides. "I know that. I know, you were just trying to help. And I know, because I can hear those screams when you were on the roof, and from the Sports Festival, even now. He did so much to you," Jirou looked so painfully up into Zach's eyes. "He, worse than me, he- he- and yet I still can't trust you. Why can't I?" Her lips started shaking.

When I've been brooding and pushing everyone else away, I've seen you. I, I am trying to distance from you all… Zach's eyes shifted to his right and down the boys' hall, then past Jirou and towards Yaoyorozu's door. In class, you have the same look. You're trying to hide it. Because, you're, you've always been…

"We were the two closest to Kaminari, I thought," Jirou whispered. "I just- I wanted to-"

Zach lifted his left hand out and placed it down on her right shoulder. He did it slowly, and then he squeezed there while looking down in her eyes. Her face tilted back and such pain filled her eyes, as Zach looked into them with an understanding look. She had come to help him, but Zach's hand comforted her more than she knew it could. The single look in his eyes, of understanding that no one else in the building could know. "I cared so much about him," she gasped at the boy looking at her in that understanding way. He nodded, and tears that were forming in her eyes spilled out the corners of them. "Why? Ah ah, why did he- ahh," Jirou was trying to keep a conversation going, but Zach's face matched her expression as she started getting emotional, and it only made it easier for her to start breaking down like this.

He lifted up his left hand and rested it on Jirou's cheek for a second, and he lifted his thumb and wiped a tear from under her eye. I came here to help you! She yelled at herself after closing her eyes and just pushing her face into that hand for a second. She tried pulling away after thinking it, and Zach moved his hand only to brush off a tear from the other side of her face. She sniffled, and she opened her eyes partly to look at the black-haired boy in front of her who had barely said a thing since he opened the door. Yet without saying another word, Zach took another half-step forward and put the hand near her face behind her head, and he pulled her face down in his chest which allowed her to let out the rest of her tears. "Ahhhh," she sobbed, her voice muffled in his shirt. Zach felt his chest get wet through the fabric, and he put his right arm around Jirou though just pressed his forearm on her back and kept his hand past her other side carefully.

And as soon as Zach pulled Jirou in so she could cry with him, his understanding, sad, betrayed look faded. He looked out down the hall over her head and his eyes were dark. His arms held her in the same way, and his body did not give off any different feeling as he made sure it did not. Zach's eyes glared down the hall though and his lips curled down at the corners. …When he's gone, it will be so much easier. It won't be much of a problem. What happens after, to me, is a different story. Media would split, people would too. Can't let anyone find out. Zach felt Jirou start pulling back and his expression changed back while he looked down at her.

"Everything he told us," Jirou whispered, lowering her hands that she had grabbed Zach's sides with as he held her for a few seconds there. She sniffled and pulled back, before raising her own hand to wipe her eyes. She had to keep wiping though as tears formed again with what she was saying. "Every word of it. That we believed," she shook her head and her lips twisted as she bowed it a bit to the floor. "How he cared, how he thought I was, beautiful. He told me it, even though I never believed- and he talked about my music, my instruments like, he said they weren't girly but he was into, and he- he just, it was all a lie."

"He might've been lying," Zach whispered. Don't lie. He was not going to tell her that there may have been a real Kaminari in there the whole time. He could not do it just to make her feel better as he knew it wouldn't since he did not want to believe that himself. "But that doesn't mean it's all a lie."

Jirou pressed her arm tighter on her face, then her eyes opened behind her forearm as Zach said quietly, "Because you are beautiful." Jirou's eyes opened wide as she was not expecting to hear him say that, then she closed them again and started shaking her head as she knew he was just telling her what he thought she needed to hear. "I mean it. I always, thought so. And who cares if playing all those instruments isn't girly?" Jirou started lowering her arm, and she saw Zach frowning down at her. He had pain in his eyes, but he also looked mad at her as he looked into her eyes. "Being girly, it's overrated anyway. You're, you've always been, the coolest girl in the class."

Momo might be the strongest, the most beautiful, but I'm not lying Jirou. "I think so, and, I'm not lying to you." Zach stared at her seriously and then said in a softer voice, "I promise. I'm not lying." Jirou's eyes grew wider and she stared at him in shock at what he just told her. "I wouldn't lie to you, not about stuff like that. You're cool, and pretty, and, you're strong. Don't let that bastard take that stuff away from you."

"Snn, I-" Jirou paused after sniffling in and starting to respond. She stared at Zach with her eyes wide, and then she shook her head around and rose her hands. She clapped her cheeks a couple of times before pursing her lip and giving Zach a small frown. "I wasn't going to. If he did that, then he'd win." Zach nodded back at her in a serious way, and then Jirou lowered her voice a little. She remembered why she thought she had come here, and she started quieter, "And you, don't let him take away what makes you, you." Zach's eyes widened a bit, and Jirou finished while turning away from him and towards the stairs. "Being the kindest, best person I know." She walked away instead of looking at Zach while she said it, so she missed the flash of pain that covered Zach's face as those words left her lips.

The kindest? You've seen me do, terrible things. You- why would you say that? Why did you have to say, something like that? Zach rose his right hand and pressed it into his forehead. Jirou tinted red in his vision as she kept walking away, while he slipped back into his room and closed the door.

Momo Yaoyorozu ran down the stairs after Todoroki. They hit the fourth floor and spun around to sprint down the next flight, and they saw Iida running out of the third floor below them and not saying a thing about everyone running in the stairwell. Jirou ran out behind Iida right as Yaoyorozu was reaching the floor, and Jirou shoved her new phone back in her pocket with her eyes still wide while looking up at her best friend. Yaoyorozu nodded seriously at her and then continued running down the stairs with Jirou at her side now.

"They're getting gutsier," Jirou said in a low voice as they ran to the second floor platform. "Even after the Sports Festival, having U.A. in the city is supposed to deter them."

I know what you are thinking Kyoka. U.A. has lost respect with Kaminari's betrayal, and crime in the city has increased because of it. But still, something like this… The girls ran out of the stairwell and over towards Todoroki and Iida who stopped behind the middle couch of the common room where all their classmates were gathering.

On the bottom of the screen showed a big label in all capital letters reading, 'HOSTAGE CRISIS IN MUSUTAFU.' There was a big "BREAKING NEWS" graphic on the top of the screen, and the actual image on the screen was from a cameraman in the central finance district of Musutafu. There was a twenty-three story building in the center of the camera angle, though a police perimeter outside of the building on the sidewalks and through the street as well as into the alleys on the sides of the building and presumably around the other side.

"I know that building," Sero said as he looked at the screen in surprise, running over behind Yaoyorozu and Jirou as he had been late to leave the fifth floor as he had to throw some clothes on first. It was after school and he had just gone to his room to relax when a bunch of messages ruined his afternoon. His eyes opened wide as the camera zoomed in on the third floor of the building, as a window just shattered and a villain was shown inside the office building with a woman grabbed in his right hand around the back of her neck.

"Oh my God," Hagakure whispered, her body shaking as she got up from the couch.

It looked like the villain might throw the woman outside, but he just shouted at the top of his lungs, "Anyone tries to come in, the hostages are dead!" The blue-skinned man threw the woman back behind him and she let out a scream of pain that reached the camera and made all the police and the heroes gathered outside start shouting. Some yelled up at the villain, others yelled around asking what the situation was, and the reporter started calling out fast about how the situation was in chaos.

"…around thirty minutes ago, a coordinated attack went on throughout the office building behind me. Inside are a multitude of different companies, with the most notable and largest inside being Friedman's and Reich, and Koyota. We don't know the exact numbers, but there are at least two hundred office workers trapped inside the building at this time. The first floor has been barricaded, all exits are sealed, and the villains have yet to give any demands."

"What are they doing?" Kirishima asked in confusion while staring closer at the building on screen.

"Why that building? Why not a bank or something?" Ojiro wondered.

"Maybe there's someone in particular, and the villains just took the whole building hostage because they panicked- or to hide who the real target is?"

"Why wait so long for demands, unless they don't know what they're doing?"

"If they don't have a plan, that may be even worse for the hostages."

"…Phone calls from inside the building to the police indicated different numbers for the amount of villains inside, but we know that there are at least ten from the descriptions and pictures we've received. Most of the windows on the higher floors have been covered however and we are currently in the dark as to the situation of the hostages. We believe their phones have been confiscated…"

Yaoyorozu stared closer at the screen as the reporter talked and her classmates hypothesized around her. "At least ten?" And there are hundreds of hostages. This is something exactly like, what the answers in your report would prevent. These people need help from heroes though. They don't know how to use their Quirks, and heroes have to save them. Yaoyorozu clenched her fists at her sides, But in a scenario like this, what are the chances heroes can sweep the building and take out all the villains, without losing any of the hostages?

Ashido leaned back on the couch and she ran a hand up through her wavy pink hair. "What are those people going to-"

The entire front of the office building changed color. All of the windows and the entire flat surface of the building from around midway up the second floor to a floor down from the roof changed color. A giant image covered the wall of the building so that the lines separating the windows behind it were somewhat visible, showing it was a giant translucent projection covering the wall. Cops and heroes and the reporter all stopped talking and looked up at the giant projection. In the projection there was a man with dark blue skin who everyone focused on despite what was behind him.

The man was clearly a villain, and the fact that he was the one in the center of the projection despite there being other villains in the room gave the feeling that he was the one in charge. He was bald but had short spiky bumps on his skull, his eyes were pitch black but with glowing blue irises a brighter shade of blue than his skin. He wore a black and red costume that was a lot more black than red, just with red highlights around his shoulders, waist, and knees. He had no sleeves so his blue muscular arms covered in the same short spiky bumps as on his skull were visible. Down on his waist were some weapons including a pistol holster and two sheaths that if the blades inside matched the leather holdings, they were long serrated knives.

"I am Killmore," the villain on the projection announced while everyone stared at him. "With the League of Villains."

"The League?" Jirou whispered quietly. Her eyes widened but her fists clenched at her sides a second later.

"And I have but one simple demand," Killmore said.

Behind him, there were a group of over fifty hostages all sitting on the floor. They weren't tied up, but there were three other villains around them who were wearing costumes, and only one of them was holding an assault rifle. The fact that they did not all hold automatic machine guns gave a sensation that they were strong enough that holding them was unnecessary. Some of the hostages looked bloodied and bruised in the group on the floor, and there was blood on those men's hands. None of the hostages looked up towards whatever was making the projection, which people were assuming was another villain considering how big the images were being displayed on the building in some mysterious way.

Killmore looked straight into his comrade's eyes near the windows of the third floor where the guy had pointed his hands back at. He smirked and he said, "If every member of U.A.'s second year class A comes here, I'll release the hostages."

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me!" Tetsutetsu screamed in Class B's dorm next door to Class A's.

Class A's dorm was a lot more quiet as the villain made his demand. They stared in shock at the screen and the man who kept smirking with such a confident and knowing look on his face. He leaned his head forward, his dark eyes narrowing and the right corner of his lip pulling up a bit. "Think it over kiddos. You've got thirty minutes. But hey, if these hostages' lives don't mean anything to you…" Killmore glanced back towards the hostages, then he turned his head and his smirk lowered down. His eyes got colder and he said in a lower tone, "Then maybe this'll get you to come. Raijin told me he let you know how he shot your old homeroom teacher, Eraser Head, in the back. But you want to know, who put the bullet in his head?"

Everyone in Class A started opening their eyes huge. Tetsutetsu leaned back from the tv in his own dorm with his jaw dropping and immediately regretting what he just shouted. The Class A students held their breath and they watched as the dark blue villain on the screen glared straight into whatever was projecting his face. The tv cameras were pointed straight at the projection, so Killmore was looking straight into their eyes as he opened his mouth again.

"That would be me."

A/N Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Leave a review below telling me what you think, comments, predictions, or questions!