Death

by tmb1112

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

94. Chapter 94

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 94:

Yabura Rendo opened his eyes and let out a slow, long yawn. He sat up using his strong ab muscles and shook his head about after waking up. The man with messy blue hair threw his legs over the side of the bed he was sitting up on, and he glanced behind himself at the empty other half of it. Maybe Ebizu is right, he thought, then he shook his head fast and hopped off his bed with a grin spreading over his face. Today's as good a day as any to get myself out there. And I'll show whatever lady I wow with my charm that she does not need to take care of me.

Rendo walked over to his bathroom and pushed the door open with his right foot. He stepped over to his shower, and he reached his left foot in this time to turn the shower knob. The eight foot tall man glanced at himself in the mirror, at his muscular body he flexed while stripping down out of his sweatpants and underwear. He turned side to side and his smile lowered down a bit, but then he shook his head and smiled again while turning back to the running water with steam coming off of it. He tested the water with a foot and then got in since it was a good temperature.

The former pro hero took a nice hot shower and then got out and started drying himself off. Drying off was actually pretty difficult, and his legs were only so flexible that he had to grab his towel out from between his toes with his teeth at one point to dry off better. Don't need anyone's help, he told himself, and he walked over to a custom-installed dryer next to his sink that he stood inside to finish drying the parts he could not reach too well. Rendo walked back into his bedroom and he got dressed, timing himself in his head and grinning as he finished up quicker than usual.

The eight foot tall man had refused to hire a personal home assistant to help him out after his career-ending injury. His former sidekicks and staff continued to suggest it, but he felt good this morning about his decision instead of frustrated like usual. "Alright," he said, and he hopped up and clapped his feet together twice. "Quick breakfast, then a nice morning run," the man formerly known as Grappler said, and then he headed downstairs in his house ten minutes outside of Hosu City.

As he walked down into his kitchen, a speaker on Rendo's ceiling binged on and a robotic female voice spoke through his house, "New message from Ebizu open parentheses Linebacker close parentheses." Rendo chuckled at the way his phone translated the contact name for one of his old sidekicks. His phone was connected to the speaker system through his house so he did not have to carry it around on him inside which was a task in itself. The shorts he had put on quickly had pockets in them, but it was pretty difficult to reach his feet up to his own pockets.

Rendo walked over to his fridge and opened it with his right foot, and he responded aloud to his talking house, "Read it for me."

The female voice responded, "Grappler turn on the news. Right now."

Yabura Rendo slammed his fridge door shut and ran past it into his living room. He jumped over his couch and kicked his right foot up towards his tv, put his toes around the side of it, and he pressed his big toe into the power button. His tv turned on and Rendo backed away from the screen that turned on straight to the news. He stared at the screen and his jaw dropped. Whatever he was expecting to see, the label on the bottom of the screen was just about the farthest thing from it. 'Kurogiri Dead. Lifebringer On The Run?' What the hell…

Inside Japan's most secure prison, Tartaros, Juno Kawasagi gulped and his eyes shook as he stared at the tv on the other side of the glass. The bulletproof glass separated prison guards from the villains who were allowed certain times for recreation so as not to be breaking international cruel-and-unusual punishment codes for prisoners. The villain once known as the Chemist stood in an orange jumpsuit staring through the glass in fear at the news program the guards had put on.

"What the fuck?" Bull growled from ten feet to Chemist's left. Fudgepack and SteelXtend stared with their bottom lips dropped at the tv, and SteelXtend suddenly regretted surrendering to Endeavor the other day instead of trying to fight his way out. Bull's fists clenched hard and he glared at the screen, snarling, "Kurogiri, is dead?"

Adam Ryusuke, the warden of Tartaros who was promoted to the position after the prison break in April, stepped up near some of his prison guards and stared at the screen in front of them. All of them felt an opposite feeling of relief as the prisoners behind them, though they continued to watch in mostly just shock. "…We still do not fully understand the events that transpired last night, however…"

In Feruchia City, Bikergang and Bouncer Man stared at the television on their wall. Keiko just arrived at the agency and she was staring past Daisy's back with her jaw dropped at the news she was just seeing since she had not checked on her way to work. Bikergang's wife had her hands lifted up in front of her mouth in front of Keiko, and Daisy whispered while shaking her head, "Lifebringer."

"That kid," Bouncer Man muttered. "Roady's not gonna be happy about this," he said in a lower voice.

Bikergang nodded his head with his eyes narrowed sharply at the screen on his agency's wall. Lifebringer. "…however, what we currently understand is that the League of Villains attacked U.A.'s second year Class A again. During the altercation, Lifebringer killed the League of Villains' executive Kurogiri, as well as five other villains."

"That little shit!" Roady shouted at his tv, leaning forward in a pissed-off way at his apartment three miles from the Dragon Hero Ryukyu's agency where his fiancé Popfire worked. She had already left for the day, and her soon-to-be husband who had been about to head to the doctor to talk about prosthetic options for his right leg grabbed crutches from where they leaned on the couch next to him. Roady pushed himself up and he glared harder at the screen he leaned towards, "First he gets Flamedrag stolen, then he…" Roady paused and he stared at the screen with his eyes opening wide.

"We have also received reports that Maye Sazaki and Tsura Sazaki, who have been missing for a week now, were killed by the villain Raijin who admitted to this last night… More with the story is our reporter at the scene now. Trisha, we're hearing you can better explain what's going on over there? The reports coming into the station all morning have been unconfirmed so far."

"I'll tell you what I've gathered from what people have been telling me all morning," Trisha Furaima began. The screen that had shown two pictures of missing persons and then went back to showing some morning news hosts switched again to a camera angle in the middle of a forest. "Behind me you can see the Police Force has cordoned off a large campsite in Enudora Forest just outside of Musutafu City. This is where the scene of last night's incident occurred." She moved to the side a bit as she was blocking the best angle into the campsite where tents were still set up around a fire pit full of wet wood and ash. A dented bus sat near those tents, there was mud all over the place, and cop cars were inside the perimeter along with some larger vehicles. "Along with the six villains Lifebringer killed last night, he also knocked out a Nomu which has been taken into police custody though it was still unconscious at the time."

"Trisha," one of the news hosts cut in. "What was Class A doing out there last night? Why did U.A., which is now a boarding school, allow them on a camping trip so soon after Killmore's attack the other day? They must have known the villains were targeting those students."

"Are all of the other students alright? And what is going on with Lifebringer-"

Trisha had her hand over an earpiece that she was listening to the anchors and nodding her head along with. She lowered it though while cutting back in herself before too many questions could be asked, "None of the students of Class A were injured last night, nor was All Might who was their sole chaperone. As for why they were allowed out here so soon after Killmore, Dadan, the answer is in the question itself. The new principal of U.A. Onono Ono has accepted responsibility for allowing Class A off campus for this camping trip, which All Might has apparently claimed was his idea of a reward for the students who saved two hundred and twenty eight hostages just the other day. It's so surprising to us that something like this was happening, because U.A. intended to keep it a secret so the League of Villains would not know-"

"And how did they find out? Have the police given any answers?"

"What about Lifebringer? We have heard that he has fled to avoid questioning, but if these villains attacked them on a school trip… what is it Trisha?"

Trisha had an uneasy frown on her face at the questions the hosts were asking her. She glanced behind her and at the crime scene, at the felled blackened trees and the clearing that she had arrived at earlier while the police had yet to move the bodies. The cameraman holding up a camera for her nodded his head at Trisha for her to continue, and she frowned but gained a steadier look to her face. "An officer I pulled aside for comment earlier informed me of several specifics, and, the reason Lifebringer is wanted is not for questioning over what he did here. There is an active warrant for Lifebringer's arrest, as he was the one, I have been told, who informed the League of Villains where his class was having this camping trip."

The hosts on the other side did not respond for a few seconds. They were glad the cameras were not on them but on Trisha, because they all started looking around at each other in confused ways. "Say again, Trisha? You did just say-"

"Yes," Trisha replied. "Lifebringer leaked to the villains where… I'm sorry, but that was all I was able to get before the officer I spoke to was pulled back to help with the crime scene. Back to you at the station," she said, wanting to get the camera off of her so she could regain her own confused expression and go try and learn some more about what was going on.

The news switched back to its station cameras, and the hosts tried to keep controlled and calm looks on their faces. "So, Lifebringer told the villains where they were, and then…" One of the men in the news team of five people sitting around a table in the morning lifted a hand and scratched the side of his head. He looked across the table and rose his eyes at a co-host who just should her head.

"I'll be honest with you Yusuke, I have no idea what to make of that," the bright-yellow-skinned woman with black spots on her lightly furred body said. She shook her head and then added in a lower voice, "But, a warrant is out for Lifebringer's arrest?"

"Again?"

"I don't see what the big problem here is. He fought some villains who attacked… but actually, I can't say that with confidence. We don't have all the information, and what we just heard is making me, well," the oldest in the group ran a hand up through his white hair and then pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "We expect to hear official statements from U.A., the Musutafu police chief, and hopefully we can hear from All Might himself what really happened out there last night sometime soon."

---

Behind Musutafu Police Department, the second years of U.A. in Class A climbed onto a bus with zero media presence around them. Only All Might was speaking at the press conference in front of the station, and all the tired students piled into the bus that Midnight and Ectoplasm were inside of. It was almost sunset, the sky was dying orange, and the students had been awake for over thirty-six hours since before school the morning before. Each of them had been through intense questionings by the police, and some of them had had really hard times trying to dodge questions or even lie. Lying did not work very well though, when others in the class did not hold back much at all in their answers to the questioning.

Almost all of Class A climbed onto the bus, though after eighteen students the line was finished. Ectoplasm looked behind them back at the station and then to the student who sat closest to the front. "Todoroki, where is Yaoyorozu?"

"Her parents picked her up," Todoroki said in a low voice without looking up at his teacher. He kept staring out the window and into the sky with a dark look in his eyes. Ectoplasm assumed what Todoroki was thinking about, but he actually had no idea. There were a few things the people on the bus did not feel the need to tell the police, and one of the things that not one of Todoroki's classmates had mentioned was the second to last thing Zach said before leaving. Touya. You, shouldn't be alive. Zach's… not lying though. He knew. He knew the whole time, and he didn't tell me a thing. Todoroki's eyes narrowed more and he glared harder into the darkening sky, Dad. How do I tell you… Would you even believe?

Sero leaned back as soon as he sat down towards the back of the bus. He closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh, then he slouched his shoulders and leaned back forward to wipe his hands down his face. They got on a bus yesterday just a little earlier than they did now, though it had been a lot more boisterous and full of happy faces. Hanta Sero glanced around while resting his chin down on his hands, putting his elbows on his knees and pulling in a big yawn. On the seat to his right sat Tokoyami who had his phone pulled out and was watching All Might's press conference streamed onto it. Sero did not want to watch though. The black-haired boy with tape dispensers in his elbows turned to his left and looked out the window in the narrow street behind the station dyed in a red glow from the setting sun. All Might told us we should answer all the police's questions truthfully. So what he's saying about Zach right now, it's probably not very good.

Sero glanced over the seat in front of him, leaning forward a bit to look down at the short boy sitting there who rested his head on the inside of the tinted windows with his eyes half-closed. Mineta's partially closed eyes were lifted up and gazing into the sky, the scattered white clouds basking in orangish red light. Yesterday at this time the sky had already been full of gray clouds, but Mineta still felt exhausted as it was the second time hitting seven o'clock p.m for him since he woke up around seven a.m. the morning before. Sero opened his mouth to say something to the shorter boy, only to see Mineta lift up his left arm and wipe it over his eyes once while he did not realize Sero was looking.

Geez, Sero sat back down and he ran a hand through his black hair. He glanced to his right again but in front of Tokoyami to the seat across from Mineta's where Ojiro and Hagakure were sitting together and whispering in quiet voices about how they were questioned inside. They both looked pretty sad too, but when Sero glanced behind Tokoyami he just got more of a sweatdrop on the right side of his face at Bakugo's closed eyes and tilted back head that made it look like he was already asleep.

Kirishima darted his eyes to his right from the seat behind Sero. He ground his teeth at the sight of Bakugo passed out there, as he himself still did not feel tired one bit. Even though there were bags under his eyes, he just clenched his fists while sitting in the back of the bus with his head bowed causing a shadow to cover his face. The bandages wrapped around his palms where he had cut them open with his own fingernails did nothing to stop the pain as Kirishima started clenching too hard again. "Goodbye." That can't have been it. I don't accept- but, but! But if they catch him, it's not like he'll ever be back. I need to- I need to talk to him though. Fuck, Zach! Why the fuck! YOU ASSHOLE!

Sero could almost feel the anger radiating off Kirishima when they were walking back to the back of the bus, so he avoided saying anything to him again. His right hand patted down on his pocket, and his fingers curled on his phone for a second but then released just as fast. He was wearing the same casual clothes he had on the night before, that had dried after getting soaked when Backfire's forcefield went down the night before. Sero thought about that storm, and he thought about Zach dropping his phone in the dirt made muddy by the pouring rain. His fingers loosened around his pocket and he flatted his palm out down on his thigh. No way to get in touch with you. You dropped all your I.D.'s too. It's like, you really are just tossing everything away, starting new. I get why everyone's so sad, or pissed, but…

The black-haired teen rose up his arms over his head and stretched them high. Then he brought his hands back and interlocked them behind his head through his hair. Tokoyami took his headphones out as All Might was finishing up his press conference just answering some questions, and he glanced to the left just like Ojiro and Hagakure as they saw Sero stretch up like that. All three of them opened their eyes wide as the corners of Sero's lips lifted up, as he closed his eyes there and had a satisfied expression on his face.

"Sero?" Tokoyami questioned. He got too confused by Sero's look to just turn away and look out the window darkly like he wanted to after hearing All Might let the public know what Zach had done.

"What are you smiling about?" Ojiro asked, his voice soft and confused. He wanted to sound a bit angry too, but his tone did not carry it and he really was just more curious. He had Hagakure's left hand held tightly in his right, and she looked around her boyfriend's shoulders from where she sat closer to the window.

Sero opened his eyes and kept his gaze towards the ceiling while taking in a slow, tired breath. He responded in a soft voice, "I guess, that Zach wasn't really, broken." Kirishima's eyes shot open wide behind Sero's seat, then his fists clenched up harder though he kept his mouth shut. Mineta's half-closed eyes widened too while he looked out the window, and as sad as he was he no longer felt like crying.

A seat in front of Mineta, Jirou turned her head and glared out the corner of her eyes at the seat cushion behind her after hearing Sero say that. Is he serious right now? Jirou thought darkly, bags under her eyes and her hair messy around her head. She felt like she needed the longest shower of her life, and she clenched her teeth so angrily as she thought about how Yaoyorozu's parents had shown up to get her earlier. What's wrong with you? Leaving like that, knowing how she- Jirou clenched her eyes shut and turned her back to the seat again. She pushed her head back on it too while pressing her eyes shut so hard to stop them from getting watery as she had been doing each time tears tried to come to the surface all day. How we, feel about you. You're such a jerk. The biggest, just the worst jerk. "The things I told you, I meant all of them." Damn it. Damn you.

"Oh," Ojiro said after a few seconds. Sero turned to him and looked at the blond in a soft way, his smile lowering a bit but his expression staying the same. "But," Ojiro started, then he stopped himself wondering if he should go on. He glanced next to him at Hagakure too, then back at a confused Sero, "Are you really sure, he wasn't? To do, those things he did…"

"Yeah," Sero responded in a quiet voice. He nodded his head, and he said, "I'm sure." Ojiro's eyes widened as he misunderstood that 'yeah' at first, thinking Sero might have been agreeing with him. Sero looked forward at the back of Mineta's seat and said in a low voice, "Those things he did were, well," Sero stopped himself and just lowered the corners of his lips a bit more. "But the way he looked before he asked if Raijin thought that was how he was really going to react, that expression on his face that he had been faking," Sero shook his head and his lips pulled up again as he imagined that look was so convincing to him. "I thought he was just going to stand there and let Raijin kill him. So, he wasn't as broken as I thought," Sero said, though he left wiggle room in the way he worded it to say he was not denying Ojiro might have been onto something too.

Ashido wiped her eyes in the seat ahead of Ojiro and Hagakure. She wiped them again and again as she had started breaking down silently when she had sat down, as she was finally given a moment of time to herself not surrounded by police and with none of her classmates looking at her. She shook her head a few times, not wanting to sit there crying like she was so sadly, as she had felt dejected like this for an entire day and it was really not her style. What did I tell Zach about moping? Ashido shook her head harder and smacked her own cheeks a few times, which worked in stopping her tears as well as waking herself up a bit.

Mina Ashido got up on her knees and she leaned over the seat in front of her. She put her head next to Shoji's that mostly stuck over the top of the seat anyway, and he turned to her in surprise as she suddenly bounced there when he had thought she was crying on the seat behind him. Ashido was glad that her eyes were black and yellow, as they did not get bloodshot so it was usually hard for people to tell when she had been crying. She froze for a second at Shoji's look though that made her think he really could tell, but she started fast so that if he was just suspicious she could push that suspicion away. "What do you think Shoji?"

"About what, Ashido?" Shoji asked from behind the mask covering his face.

"You know," Ashido said, though she had to think for a second about what she really did mean. "Do you think they're going to catch Zach? Do you want them to?" She added in a quieter whisper that had Shoji's eyes widen a bit under his silver bangs.

Shoji turned his head from the girl next to him who pulled her head back a bit at the look in his eyes right there. "Yes, to both," Shoji said.

Ashido's eyes widened this time, and she opened her mouth but froze with it that way before starting an argument. She froze because she saw Jirou on her left side looking towards her with such a frustrated look on her face, her lips twisted far down and her eyes wet and angry. Ashido leaned back in her seat and dropped her butt on the back of her calves. Am I, and Sero… are we the odd ones out?

Of course I want them to catch you, Shoji thought. Everyone will be looking for you. And you have too recognizable a face… Because, Shigaraki carved a knife into it, to force you to watch them murder your family. Shoji's hands clenched at his sides and he turned to glare out the window back at the police station. Those villains, you talked about them like you had been one of them. Drug deals in Shanghai? Anti-heroes in America and Russia? The Hunter, and whoever that Eziano person is who made All Might's eyes shake so badly. Raijin mentioned Diamondfist too; your trip to Kyoto was a lie after all. How? How did you do it all? How could you break all those rules for so long, and yet still try to be a hero? If you hadn't, I'd be dead… or, if I wasn't out there with you at the time- No. No don't ever think that, Shoji scolded himself for the way he just started thinking.

Zach, saved my life. He brought me back even though it caused him so much pain. I saw him screaming so hard in that video we watched on the first day back. But he- all to make people around the world feel safer, to stop a villain responsible for killing thousands? Shoji's narrowed eyes glaring out the window softened, as a conflicted look filled them instead. I want them to catch you. I have to want that, because you broke the laws. You knew- you, killed those villains as they ran away from you, screaming. I have to remember the look, on that man's face as he died just ten yards in front of the forcefield. Death. The Quirk you didn't want to use when you entered U.A., you injected yourself with Trigger and massacred… The people who murdered your family. How can I judge you, without understanding that pain?

Uraraka glanced over her shoulder a few seats in front of Shoji. She looked towards the back of the bus where Kirishima and Sero started arguing over something, breaking the calm silence full of just low whispers and murmurs. Many in the class looked like they were trying to just sleep after this whole ordeal, and Midnight and Ectoplasm looked around the bus from the front where the two were talking to each other about the things they had heard. Both teachers wanted to ask the students what had happened but kept themselves from doing so at the expressions on all their faces when they got on the bus. Uraraka looked ahead to them, and she asked in a soft and confused voice, "Are we not heading back, Midnight sensei?"

Midnight turned to the short girl with brown hair who had a confused look over the pain in her eyes that kept Midnight from smiling at her while responding. "Once All Might is here, we will be. After you return to campus, I'm afraid you can't all just go to sleep though." The other students in the bus looked towards their art teacher who sighed at their confused expressions. "We're going to need all of you to pack your things, you're being sent home-"

"You have to be kidding," Bakugo started to growl, his eyes snapping open and glaring towards the front of the bus.

"Wait, really?" Sato asked, too shocked to just believe that without an explanation.

Midoriya's eyes opened huge and he lifted his bowed head to stare at Midnight in shock. Iida on the seat to his left and Uraraka behind him stared at their teacher in astonishment too, and Midnight shook her head with a dark look at all their stunned and confused expressions. Ectoplasm turned away with a deep frown, and Midnight spoke in a louder voice for everyone as they were all looking at her a lot closer now. "It's not just you guys," she began. "U.A. is being temporarily shut down," Midnight said. "Your final exams for this term will take place, when school is back in session. The dorm system of U.A. is being put on hold though, and all students are to return home."

"But," Uraraka started. Midnight looked to the girl who appeared apologetic for cutting back in on their teacher, but then Uraraka continued, "Isn't the dorm system in place to protect us? Why would something like this cause the dorms to be shut down?"

"Ono was already in hot water, letting all of you go out to fight Killmore," Ectoplasm said. He looked back through the bus at the students who got surprised as he continued, "Hotter than we realized. They were already looking for a new replacement, leaving him in charge while they searched. They aren't waiting now though, and they don't have anyone to take the position in the meantime. And with Mr. Principal still on suspension too, and the fact that all of the other faculty members were oblivious to the whole thing… Well, it's a big mess Sazaki's put us in." Ectoplasm turned back and looked out the bus to see All Might walking out the back door of the police station he had gone through instead of around in order to lose his media following. The dark teacher watching the last person they were waiting for finished in a lower mutter only half the students heard, "Again."

Midnight turned to Ectoplasm, then she looked down at the floor after seeing his furious look at what he just said. She stared at the floor, and she thought about Zach returning from his internship and helping her fight a group of villains in the streets of Musutafu. She had been amazed by him as he rushed right in on the back of his motorcycle, when he had laughed happily when a civilian called out thanks to him afterwards, and how he had gotten so flustered when she teased him asking for a ride back to campus. That day she could not help but think about all she had seen happen to him on the screens at the Sports Festival. She could not help but think of his scars, how dark he had been when he returned in January, and how far he had come.

Kaminari, Raijin, he destroyed him though. Midnight closed her eyes while faced down at the floor. She thought about what Raijin had shouted, pressing his forehead into Zach's in the basement of U.A.'s Interrogation Building. The screams Midnight heard from Sazaki during and after he had brought back Tsuyu Asui, she could still hear them now. But I heard, Sazaki did not do what he did for Raijin. Nor for revenge at all. His target was Kurogiri. His goal was weakening the League, and, making people feel safer… But you shouldn't have killed them all, Sazaki. You can't- you couldn't do something like that, and you knew you weren't allowed to. You faced our justice system before, but this time, premeditating an, assassination? If you planned to kill Kurogiri from the start, and you got the help of villains to do it, it's just murder, Sazaki. You murdered him. You could have captured him, from what I've heard so far. Yet you killed him, and so many others. How many now?

Was he trying to kill Killmore? Was he trying to kill himself? Tsuyu looked down at her hands over her lap. "How many times have I almost died? How many times, have I thought about killing myself? How many times have I tried, just to be stopped?" Did I, stop you? Was that one of the times… "Eight years ago, you should have just let me fall when I leapt off my building." All Might, Tsuyu lifted her head and looked to the front of the bus where All Might was standing before all of them.

"I'm bringing us back," Ectoplasm said. He walked up past All Might who looked at his colleague only to feel a pang as Ectoplasm would not meet his gaze. Midnight felt a pang in her chest too as she felt Ectoplasm was not being fair to All Might, and she understood why it was All Might and Principal Ono had kept the trip a secret from the rest of them.

All Might looked around the bus and all the students on it who looked up front at him. He glanced at Midnight and asked, "Have you already told them-"

"Just a few moments ago," Midnight replied.

All Might nodded, and he took another step farther back in the bus while Midnight stepped to the side in the empty seat at the front right side of the vehicle. All Might walked back a few seats and stopped between Todoroki and the empty seat across from him once the rest of Class A other than Yaoyorozu and Zach were sitting and looking ahead to him. All Might stood there and rested his hands on the seat backs while bowing his head for a few seconds, then he began in a low voice but one loud enough that everyone on the bus could hear him, "Eight years ago, I met Young Sazaki, when he jumped off the roof of his apartment."

Midnight turned her head and looked at All Might's back with wide eyes, and Ectoplasm had to remind himself to focus on the road he just started driving on which had made All Might hold the seat backs. "He was telling the truth about that. I, saved him that day. And I came very close to dying, as he had removed his glove before he jumped." All Might lifted a hand and rubbed it on his forehead while keeping his gaze shifting around Zach's classmates in Class A. "And when he told me, what he had done to his mother… I asked him his dream. To be a hero. I told him, he could follow it…"

Midoriya stared at All Might with his eyes shaking. His fists clenched at his sides and pain filled his face as he heard this for the first time. He wanted to be upset that All Might had not told him before, but it was a secret he had kept with Zach which would have been terrible to bring up without Zach saying it first. Zach had told them all the night before though, when he was just talking to All Might without caring that the rest of them were there. The fact that Zach did not care, that he was not holding back anything, it made the idea of his goodbye seem so much more final to Midoriya who closed his eyes and leaned back as All Might continued.

"I have tried for a long time, to help Sazaki," All Might said. This time he did not say 'Young' before it, and his expression got steadier and more stern too. "I have not heard anything from the police, so I suspect none of you mentioned anything about Ganji, or Webb. Certain things Raijin and Sazaki discussed, that I would have rather you never- They are things I would have never told you, but those secrets no longer matter."

"All Might," Ashido began, leaning out of her seat farther and calling up to him. "What are you talking about? You knew about, those, anti-heroes?"

Midnight got a confused look on her face as did Ectoplasm at the front of the bus. All Might almost wanted to turn and see how they reacted, but he sighed instead as there was no point in trying to hide it or even ask the students to do so. I asked them, to help save Sazaki from the villains. They involved themselves with him because of me, and he wiped them… But, if I hadn't, would the Hunter have killed Sazaki in the street on New Year's? Would Sazaki have been brought back to keep being tortured, and turned into a villain? I cannot look back on it and say that what I did what wrong, because the alternative could have been as bad… However Sazaki, telling Raijin everything- I told him he could trust people, and Kaminari told him he could trust him, and he got them all killed. You considered Webb, your mentor? Ganji made that costume for you?

"Yes," All Might began after a painful pause of thinking of those people. "In our society there is- there was, a collection of anti-heroes. They were not like the vigilantes who occasionally get away with distracting villains until heroes arrive, or who use their Quirks for small good deeds. They were more serious, but… truthfully," All Might paused and he shook his head in a slow way, "I did not know much about them. What Raijin and Sazaki discussed, was beyond what I knew. That anti-heroes were connected in different countries, that Ganji was an organizer, how it was structured. I didn't know any of it. I only discuss it with you now, because I believe Raijin was not lying when he claimed to wipe them out."

And all because Zach trusted Kaminari with those secrets, Sato thought. He thought it, and then he immediately brought his right hand up to his head and ran it back through his hair in an angry way at himself. That was what he was shouting at himself for that night of Kaminari's betrayal. He knew, and there was no one he could turn to because it was a secret he had to keep. No one he could trust, to save those… What kind of pressure, what kind of weight was pushing down on him?

Midoriya closed his eyes even harder. You said people were dying because of you, and you couldn't tell us. I didn't understand. I, I- you used those contacts, to find out about Eziano Mozcaccio for me. It didn't take you long at all, and that unnerved me. I didn't understand. I didn't get how you could see those villains, as anything other than what they were. But when I see Raijin, I see the Kaminari we knew who was our friend. It's so hard to hate him, thinking of those times… Yet you had those times with all of them. And those people you couldn't hate, killed the ones whose secrets you told. If you couldn't hate them… Zach, you killed Kurogiri, for everyone else. And I get it. I get how, you did it. It's because, you hate yourself, isn't it? As much as killing people hurts you, you don't believe that it matters what happens to you anymore, so you just did what you thought would help the most people? You said you cast Zach Sazaki aside like it was an easy thing to do, but I've never seen anyone do anything so hard, as you pulling your eyes away from us to cast us all away.

"Students, young heroes," All Might started again after a brief pause as he let what he said sink in. "As much as I know some of you may feel for Sazaki, for what he has gone through, he is now a villain."

"All Might," Hagakure whispered. She looked up towards the front of the bus and lifted a hand to cover her mouth at the intense look that covered their teacher's face.

Iida stared at the former top hero with his eyes wide. He stared at All Might with perfect vision, as the scrawny blond hero continued, "He is working with villains. He is on the run avoiding arrest, and has threatened anyone who follows him. He told his associate to shoot anyone who chased after him." Iida closed his eyes and felt his racing heart start to slow down, and he reached for his pocket.

"Associate?" Jirou thought darkly. That girl, is someone he brought back to life. He went and recruited a young girl to help him? And she… that look in her eyes. When those two others with Zach said they were going to drive off with or without him, she would have stayed behind with Zach. He's using that girl. Like Kaminari, used me. He lied to us, like Kaminari… He's a villain, like Kaminari.

"Zach Sazaki," All Might continued, his voice lower and more serious than it had been so far. Sero looked up towards the front of the bus with his eyes wide, and he gulped while staring at All Might's dark, intense eyes. "Has has his hero license revoked. A warrant is out for his arrest, for several crimes including murder of the first, second, and third degree. I am telling you this myself, because many of you will not like what is to come." That was the most ominous thing All Might could have told them, yet more and more of them had serious looks spreading on their faces anyway at what he was saying. Sero darted his eyes around nervously and saw Tokoyami getting a stern look on his face, and then Ojiro clenching his fists and narrowing his eyes towards the front of the bus.

"But you need to understand that what Sazaki did, was wrong. What we witnessed last night is not how the justice system works. It is not how our society works." All Might paused and then lifted his head to get louder, "And as future heroes who need to uphold the laws of this society, each of you must come to understand that Sazaki is a villain now. Because whatever your opinions on the subject, Sazaki broke the laws of this nation, and heroes are only public servants. You act according to the laws put in place to stop villains and keep the peace. You act in the service of citizens and have to abide by the same laws that they do. Heroes, are not above the law."

Yeah? And what if the "laws put in place to stop villains" aren't keeping that peace? Ashido thought in frustration at All Might who she could not speak out against aloud. The looks on the faces around her scared her, and she looked back a bit towards Sero who she saw looking around nervously as well.

Zach's, not a villain, Uraraka thought while looking straight at All Might. She wanted to say it aloud but could not with how serious her teacher looked. You can give me all the reasons in the world, All Might. Uraraka lowered her eyes down to her hands, and she closed her eyes and balled her fists while imagining herself on the floor with broken legs at the Sports Festival. She imagined Zach rolling over her so his back was to the villain shooting at her, and she saw the look of relief that came to his face the instant he had gotten her out of the way. Between her clenched eyelids water droplets formed, and Uraraka bowed her head more as no one else said a thing against All Might's speech either. I'll never believe it. Zach, I believe in you.

Heroes, villains, anti-heroes, where is the line? Ojiro stared at the seat back in front of him with his fists clenched. Sero thought Ojiro looked so serious and into what All Might just said, but his mind was swirling with so many different thoughts. Zach said it in his final report, that the line between being a citizen and a villain was closer than between being a regular person and a hero. Why is that? How could anti-heroes exist, in a society where the rules mean everything to heroes? But why is it in the first place, that heroes act only according to the law? Heroes were made into an official role to stop the chaos, to replace vigilantism, and to stop villains. The vigilantes didn't all get replaced though? And the villains aren't stopped. All that happened is that heroes have to obey governments and laws and rules, go through bureaucracy and licensing and reviews and paperwork. What happened to right versus wrong? Was what Zach did right? And even if it was, does that make a difference in our society? I wish it did. I believe it should. But right now, it doesn't. What matters most are rules. Heroes don't answer to the people first and foremost, they answer to their superiors, to lawmakers… but in a democracy, where people choose, shouldn't those be the same thing? Ojiro brought a hand up to his head and ran it back through his hair. I just want to give Zach excuses. Because he's my friend. Though, that's an easy thing to believe I'm doing to stop thinking about those deeper problems…

Zach. I'm really, going to miss you, the girl next to Ojiro thought. She leaned her head down on his shoulder and sniffled in once, and Ojiro rose his arm and put it around her shoulders to pull her in. They were close to U.A. campus again, and Hagakure sniffled again while leaning on her boyfriend who she just realized she would be moving away from for a time. "Text me every day, okay?" Hagakure asked softly.

"I'll call," Ojiro suggested instead, and a small smile formed on his invisible girlfriend's face while she nuzzled her head into his shoulder more.

Iida lifted up his cell phone and stood up from his seat. He opened up the class's group text, and he sent a message in it, 'Everyone, do the same right now.' It was what Mother Russia told them when she threw Kaminari's desk out the window of their classroom. And right after Iida sent the message, a notice appeared below it while everyone looked at their phones. 'Zach Sazaki has been removed from the chat.' Zach no longer had his phone; they all saw him drop it. It was an action that meant nothing, and yet at the same time signified the last part of Zach that had remained a part of Class A.

Todoroki looked back behind him and at Iida's face that stayed stern even as some people started staring at him with wide eyes or opening their mouths to argue. Some wanted to say something about Zach, about how they felt what he did was not all that wrong. Yet they stared at someone who Zach had brought back to life, whose expression was resigned but strong at the same time. Tenya Iida lowered his gaze a bit to Todoroki's a few seats in front of him, and after a second Todoroki gave him a serious nod back. Iida looked to his right then and at the seat across from him that Midoriya sat in. Midoriya looked a bit more like Uraraka than Todoroki though, looking back at Iida with so much reluctance on his face and a pained look exceeding what Iida was expecting.

There was no more talk about Zach. The bus had arrived on campus, and Class A got out and started for their dorm. Midnight, Ectoplasm, and All Might repeated to them how they were to pack their things. Their parents had already been contacted and were told to come pick them up at eight o'clock, so they barely had any time to get their things in order. No one knew how long they would be going home for, though most who did not have summer internships figured that it would be the entire summer.

Jirou packed her things fast as she had been texting her parents already and knew they were arriving earlier than 8:00. When she got back to the common room, she walked over to Midnight and asked, "Is Mother Russia sensei around. I want to say… what?"

Midnight had frowned when Jirou asked, then she lifted a hand and scratched the back of her head with a smile returning back to her face. "Sorry to tell you this, Jirou. Mother Russia is no longer in the country." Jirou's eyes widened, as did Mineta's behind her where he just came down the stairs. He started running over with surprise covering his face, and Midnight continued a bit louder for him to hear too, "This morning, a situation arose in Moscow where the Russian SOQUOC, or Secretary of Quirk Usage Operations and Control, and his family were kidnapped by a group of villains. When we heard that U.A. would be closing down for a while, Mother Russia decided to return home. She flew away saying that the situation in the 'motherland' required her attention. It was pretty sudden."

"Don't they want to like, interview all the teachers?" Mineta began confusedly.

Midnight scratched the back of her head and her smile turned a bit more sheepish. "Yes, though I would not expect Mother Russia to return for such a thing…" Midnight's smile lowered a bit more to a flat lip and her expression turned somewhat sad. "Though considering the gravity of our current situation, if she does not return for questioning even if it is just a formality," Midnight paused and the students in front of her opened their eyes wider. Jirou's eyes then narrowed in an angry way, and she nodded a thanks at the hero for letting her know. Midnight watched Jirou turn, her eyes wide at how upset the girl just looked there. So much anger spread on Jirou's face, and Midnight knew the boy that anger was directed at.

Mineta turned in surprise too at Jirou's look while she walked for the door. "H-Have a good summer, Jirou," Mineta said. The dark haired girl at the door froze where she stood, her eyebrows lifting so high up they were gone under her dark purple bangs. Midnight also gawked down at Mineta as he said that without sounding perverted at all, just like a decent human being. An improvement? It's his biggest flaw after all, Midnight smiled at the short boy who just gave Jirou a small smile when she looked over her shoulder in surprise at him.

"Yeah," Jirou said, though she looked suspicious as she replied. "You too," she said. The hell was that? She thought in confusion while leaving the dorm to head home.

First Kaminari, then Zach, Mineta thought as he watched Jirou walk away without staring at her butt. It hurts a lot. I know too. Mineta took a deep breath and then said goodbye to Midnight who his eyes lingered on but not for very long. She got so much more surprised as he turned from her, since she was testing to see how he would react while pushing her chest out for him as she told him to have a good summer. Minetawalked out of the building with an unsure look on his face though. He lifted his left hand in front of him while holding a suitcase in his right. Why did I come here to be a hero? It was, to be popular with girls. You believed in me though? You, really did. And when you told me that in the capture the flag game, and when we won that day, I really believed it myself- But I just wanted girls to like me…

"If I'm afraid of him, then, can you imagine how regular citizens feel? Every night, afraid for their children's lives in the next room because Kurogiri could be there. Afraid to walk down the streets, because Kurogiri could bring an army of villains to kill them and everyone they know?!" Mineta clenched his left hand in a fist, but it shook and then opened up so he was just staring at his open palm. He rose his palm to his head and pulled a Pop Off ball off. We came to the same hero school, and you got a worse score than me on our Quirk Apprehension tests. You couldn't even use your Quirk. But, your Quirk is so amazing- "You might've been just as important a player in the League of Villains' schemes, Raijin, but leaving U.A. has made you just another strong villain. Whereas Kurogiri, you're, you're the biggest threat to peace in our world."

Mineta stopped where he was on the street in front of the dorms. It's not about his Quirk. The biggest threat, to peace? Those are the kind of things that Zach cares about more than, anything. He broke up with Yaoyorozu… Yaoyorozu! So that he could, focus on peace in our world? And his Quirk isn't amazing. It's terrifying. He's, terrified of… He was. He considered it, a plague. A curse. He thinks he's cursed. I heard him say it, somewhere in there. He believes he's cursed, and bad things do happen to him for no reason, but he's so, so… You're just, so cool. Mineta shivered and kept walking down the street, But you're way way way too scary.

When everyone entered Class A's dorm, they all went straight to their rooms to get packing. Midoriya texted his mom that he would come home on his own though as he did not live too far from campus anyway. She had asked if he was sure, but he needed some extra time anyway. Midoriya stood in Zach's room. He had gone straight up there, and he looked around inside it for something, anything that could tell him where Zach had gone. There was nothing though. Just like with Zach's things at the campsite. He had not brought anything that if his stuff had been searched, it would have been suspicious. Even the Trigger he had used, Midoriya assumed it was the girl he had saved from the Nomu who had given it to him.

Who was she? Midoriya thought while leaning on Zach's recently replaced desk. He glanced to his left to see the bed made so perfectly, like Zach had known he would not be coming back there. When did you meet the Gentle Criminal? Who was that girl? Would you have really, gone and found someone you had brought back and asked for their help? It, doesn't sound like you. She was crazy too. She would have shot us, because you told her to. Why? We found your abandoned truck, where did you go from there? Midoriya's hands clenched on Zach's desk, then he shook his head around and walked to Zach's bed.

Midoriya lifted up the blankets and checked beneath them. He lifted Zach's mattress. He checked Zach's dresser, only to find mostly ripped up clothes. Midoriya lifted an 'All Might' tank top he had seen Zach work out in before, torn up and barely recognizable. Midoriya lifted his other hand to his head while lowering the tank back and putting it in Zach's drawer that he just left open this time. I don't want to accept it, Midoriya realized, as he found it so hard to leave the room despite it being clear that Zach had not left anything behind. You weren't just in my reach, I had you. You were right there, and I'm supposed to be a hero. You were my friend, but I wasn't yours. I wasn't… I failed. When it came to you, I failed every time. And I let you go down the wrong path, and, and now, I can't save you anymore.

Midoriya turned and walked out of Zach's room, closing the door slowly behind him. He walked down the hallway of the fifth floor, and he headed down the steps to his own floor. He had been in Zach's room for a while, and he looked at his phone to see it was already past when the others' parents had been told to show up and get their kids. He walked to his doorway and he brought his hand to his doorknob. His hand shook though as he held it near the doorknob. Midoriya thought about a conversation with All Might over text, and how he had to go talk to his mentor before going home. Thinking of All Might being his mentor, made him think of the man Webb who Zach had never told him about before. I'll ask All Might about him… If I lost All Might, I can't even imagine- But I wouldn't have, done, that. But your mentor was outside of the rules already? Losing him. Losing your family. Having them killed so horribly, just because Kaminari wanted to mess with you… I didn't understand you at all. And now you're gone. There's nothing left. "Goodbye."

Midoriya turned his doorknob and he pushed his door open. He stepped inside while reaching to the switch on the wall next to him. He heard a crinkling under his right foot and looked down in confusion as it did not feel like his usual floor but like he stepped on some paper. Midoriya flipped the switch and rose his foot, and then his heart that was aching so hard started beating faster and faster until his chest was pounding. Izuku bent down and grabbed the envelope on the floor, and he stood up and stared at the front of it that had 'Midoriya' written out in pen. He never knew he would recognize Zach's handwriting at first glance, but there was no hesitation in his mind at all.

He stared at the envelope that had been just on the other side of his door, as if slid beneath it. Midoriya turned his head and looked back in the hall, then he shook his head around in confusion as that did not make any sense to do. Wait, Midoriya thought to the day before, when he was already at Ground Zeta and saw Zach and Yaoyorozu walking towards the Training Ground together. They were the last ones, and I saw Yaoyorozu waiting outside for him already. He, put this beneath my door then. What if the villains hadn't come? He, would have found a way to get it back. Why? What, is in this?

Midoriya stared at the envelope in his hands, and it started shaking so he pulled it into his chest. If I open this, am I going to share its contents with anyone? I should just hand it to the police… Midoriya's hands were opening the envelope, and he looked down and watched as his hands pulled out a slip of paper covered in pen ink. The message was written by hand, and Midoriya read it with tears in his eyes. When he finished he lowered the paper and stared straight ahead in his room with so much pain strewn over his face. Zach… Goodbye.

---

"The clip we are about to play for you was recorded live from Tokyo Police Headquarters just fifteen minutes ago." A man in the middle of three sitting behind a desk in a news room said. His grayish black hair was receding on his head though thicker on the sides of it, and he had a serious expression on his face like the anchors on his sides. "Let's watch."

A box appeared in the corner of the screen and then spread to cover all of it. In a room full of police officers, a line of figures stood at the front in front of a panel of top hero officials who had summoned them there. All around Japan, people sitting on their couches or tables and watching the nightly news stared with wide eyes at the figures lined up before the Tokyo police commissioner. At one end of the line was Endeavor, the Number 1 hero in the country with his arms crossed over his chest and an intense look on his face as he stared forward. Next to him stood the second ranked hero, followed by the third, and the fifth. Hawks, Best Jeanist, and Kamui Woods stood gathered with Endeavor as the top ranked heroes called in, though the ninth ranked hero Ryukyu stood there too, as well as three other well-known heroes outside of the top ten. At the end of the line opposite Endeavor stood the top rookie hero whose expression was as serious and matched the others, different from Lemillion's usual public disposition.

"We have called on Lifebringer to turn himself in, but it has become clear that he does not intend to do so." The police commissioner began. She wore a blue uniform and had her hands held together behind her back while standing in the center in front of the line of eight powerful heroes called before her. "Tonight, we call on you heroes as we begin a manhunt for Zach Sazaki. He had been given time to turn himself in, because of his record as a hero and in hopes that he would come to realize what he was doing was wrong. But he has taken too long. Zach Sazaki's hero license has been revoked. He is no longer, Lifebringer."

There was a pause, and then the police commissioner continued, "Due to Sazaki's record, and the amount of lives he has saved, we are putting utmost importance on capturing him with the least amount of harm possible. However, All Might's statement shows that Sazaki will not come quietly. He is working with the villains Gentle Criminal and La Brava, and he has other associates as well as allies we may not know of. He used Trigger last night as well, so you must not rule out the possibility that he has more with him, or that he could use it in order to evade capture. His Quirk is Death. On Trigger, the risk to each of you would be heightened greatly. Keep that in mind when you attempt to apprehend him…"

The clip cut back into the corner of the screen and then faded to show the news anchors sitting behind their table. "So Kasami," the man on the right started, looking across the table past the balding man in the center. He looked at his thin younger co-anchor who had always been an avid supporter of Lifebringer, and Rashi continued, "What are you thinking? I've been keeping up with this story all day, and the rumors and reports over last nights events are, well to me, simply staggering."

Kasami started shaking his head slowly. The younger man with slicked-back black hair opened his mouth and started slowly, "I'm thinking, I'm going to sleep a lot sounder tonight, knowing Kurogiri's not out there."

The man in the middle of the three turned his head to the right and gave Kasami a harsh glare that stopped Rashi from remarking at Kasami's statement. It had Kasami uneasy too, but the younger man said, "I know that's not going to be your opinion, Bob, but it's the truth."

"Maybe so," Bob said. Kasami opened his eyes wider in surprise, and Rashi spun in shock to the veteran journalist in the middle of the three who had always been cautious of supporting Lifebringer too strongly ever since his first trial, even before it when information about him at USJ first came out. Bob's expression showed he was not stopping there though with that small acceptance of a piece of the truth. "But Kasami, however you felt about the villain Kurogiri, he was in Lifebringer- no. He was in Zach Sazaki's custody. All Might stated, that Sazaki had captured Kurogiri before killing him."

Kasami hesitated before nodding his head and opening his mouth again. Before he could speak though, Bob continued quickly and in a stern voice, "That sixteen year old boy, is not a judge. He is not a jury. And he is certainly not an executioner." Bob said it with no room for argument in his voice. He said a line that he had quoted before, from one of the prosecutors at Sazaki's first trial, but had never before held as much significance. "Yet he seems to believe he is. He has shown time and again, that he believes himself above the rule of law. Do you deny that, Kasami?"

"No," Kasami said, not wanting to be misconstrued there. "But Kurogiri… You have to admit, that every one of the League of Villains big victories. They were all reliant, on their Warp Gate."

"He was a man too," Rashi cut in.

"One responsible for killing hundreds, thousands of people-"

"He did not kill them himself," Bob countered strongly.

"But he helped," Kasami tried arguing back.

"There were hundreds of villains involved with the League of Villains during the Sports Festival Invasion," Bob said, narrowing his eyes at the younger man and speaking in an even sterner voice to have him be quiet. "Do each of them deserve to be executed? And whether or not you believe they do, since when do we leave decisions like those in the hands of a child? A boy still in high school?"

"To be fair Bob," Rashi cut in this time as it looked like the older man was not going to let Kasami speak up. "Lifebringer's not just a kid in high school." Bob turned and Kasami smiled a bit though nervously across the table at Rashi who held a palm up and continued, "This kid- it's hard to call him that considering all he's been through." Bob nodded his head, and Rashi continued while lowering his hand in a more confident way, "He's lost more than I can even begin to fathom. Seen some of the worst things, watched his family die, and we've all seen him get tortured until his mind had nearly broken. Truthfully, I'm surprised he held back for so long without killing the villains responsible for doing those things to him. That being said," Rashi continued, and Kasami's smile lowered down as the man across the table from him turned from Bob and stared into his eyes with darker look. "He's a killer. He didn't just kill villains trying to kill him, he killed ones he had captured and ones who were in the middle of running away. Sazaki explained his Nightmare form before, and he does not have to kill anymore with that Quirk of his. He didn't kill on accident this time. He didn't go too far. Sazaki planned, and carried out a murderous rampage against the villains without telling anyone what he was doing."

Bob nodded his head and then turned to Kasami himself with a darker look that had the pointy-eared younger man leaning back. "A murderous rampage, is exactly how I would describe it. All Might specified that Sazaki did not kill the villains for revenge. He did not go into Sazaki's reasons, yet I want to imagine the reason he felt the need to kill Kurogiri who was his main target, was for our sakes. I have never been vocal with my support of Lifebringer, in fact I often criticized him sitting at this very table. However I did so, because I wanted him to be better." Bob's co-anchors looked at the older man in surprise as he started shaking his head. "I could see potential in him, and any less than perfection made me think he was going to fall back into his old habits. I believed in Lifebringer though. I believed, that he was a hero." Bob took a deep breath and then looked away from Kasami who had an accepting look on his face, as reluctant as it was.

"That time is over though," Bob said. He looked at the camera and the cameraman zoomed in on him as he spoke, "Tonight, I wish there was only good news to report. The loss of Kurogiri is certainly a devastating blow for the League of Villains. This is not a night for celebration though. Lifebringer is no more. Zach Sazaki is a fugitive. His face is plastered on every tv, every newspaper, and every person in Japan knows what he looks like, yet he has gone on the run. He is armed with a powerful, terrifyingly so, Quirk, and he has allies with him who will help him avoid capture. He has firearms, Trigger, and a determination not to be arrested. He is extremely dangerous, and there is no accounting for his mental state."

Bob took in a deep breath and then his eyes narrowed in more as he stared into the camera, "People of Japan, do not attempt to help Zach Sazaki. He is a murderer. He has become a villain, in a society that needs heroes more than ever. He must be brought to justice to answer for his crimes, and if you see him, report him immediately to the authorities. Sazaki put all of his classmates in U.A.'s second year Class A in grave danger to lay a trap for Kurogiri, and if he is willing to use them he may be willing to put you in danger as well. Traffic cameras using facial recognition software are searching for him. All airports know his face, as do train stations, subway stations, all public transit. This is Zach Sazaki."

Bob motioned with his hand, and over his face on the screen appeared two visuals. The left half of the screen covered in a picture of Zach Sazaki with a long scar under his right eye and split on his left ear. His mouth was dipped down and his eyes dark, his hair messy and wavy in the freeze-frame picture taken from Killmore's Office Takeover. Then next to that picture on the right was Sazaki in Nightmare form. His body completely dark and seeping black wisps, his glowing red eyes cold and impossible to see emotion in, his skull only translucent through the black veil. "This is not the face of a hero who you want to see. This is the face of a troubled boy who has killed upwards of ten people. However you feel of his first kills, last night, Zack Sazaki murdered six people in cold blood. He planned to trap them, and he did not hold back his Quirk, instead massacring the villains he had trapped while under the influence of an unstable Quirk-enhancing drug. He planned his attack with villains, he is on the run from authorities, and he thinks himself some sort of hero outside of the laws and rules of other heroes. This is not the case. Lifebringer, if not captured and brought in soon, will be branded as a terrorist. He is a fugitive from the law. He has ignored the rule of law for the last time. U.A. High School has been temporarily shut down because of him. Hero resources are being diverted from other tasks, in order to bring him to justice. Sazaki, is a villain, and there is no getting around it. And like all villains, he must be arrested. It is up to our country's heroes to do it."

Shihai Kuroiro bowed his head over his desk, closing his thin eyes and clenching his teeth so tightly behind his dark lips. Zach. If only, I never told Kaminari about the letter. Would that have made a difference? Did I, do this to you?

Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu clenched his fists that turned to steel while standing in front of the couch his parents sat on. Damn it! What the hell was that bastard thinking?! His report, he talked about how killing the villains was a mistake! Because he couldn't control his power! Were you lying the whole time?! Was this all because of that fucking Kaminari?! "RAAA!"

"Neito, you didn't finish your dinner," Mrs. Monoma started to the blond boy who just pushed out from his seat. It was the first home-cooked meal he was eating in a long time so she hoped he would eat more.

Neito Monoma glanced behind him at his mom and then over at the tv. He looked at it and at the pictures of Zach spread across it. "I'm not hungry," he said in a low voice. It's what you deserve. I should feel bad, or sad… But, the heroes won't catch you.

Ochaco Uraraka's mom held her daughter around her head, and her father rested a strong hand on her back and started rubbing up and down as the girl between them on their couch cried.

Rikido Sato clenched his fists and his eyes so tightly as he sat at his desk chair. You lived next door for so long. I should have helped you. It wasn't enough, just not telling people about your nightmares… And I couldn't even do that right! Sato slammed a fist into his head and he pushed his eyes shut tighter to stop the water trying to build up in them. "Bob's right," Sato muttered aloud. He lifted his head and looked at his computer screen seriously, "Bob, is right. Zach is a v- a v-" he choked on his words and closed his eyes again. Like I could ever, believe that.

Inko Midoriya sat on her couch with her head shaking slowly while staring at the screen in front of her. She got up from the couch and turned her head, and then her eyes shot open wide at the sight of a boy standing there just at the end of the hallway. He had not yet said anything, just standing there holding a packed bag in hand with his backpack on over his shoulders. Izuku stared past his mom and at the screen with Zach's pictures on it, and he had come in just in time to hear the anchor call Zach a "villain." It's up to heroes, to arrest Zach. Up to us…

Inko was running around the couch towards her son before he even dropped his bag. She took one look at his face and ran up to him, and she threw her arms around the taller boy and pulled his head down into her shoulder. "Oh Izuku," she said in a sad and understanding way. She shook her head and nuzzled it into the side of her son's, and she heard sniffling next to her as her shoulder started to get wet. He had managed to hold it in for a long time, but what he just thought had his heart tearing apart and his eyes filling with tears.

"I don't know what," Midoriya gasped into his mom's shoulder. "I should do." In the backpack he still had on his back, he imagined a slip of paper that had his eyes filling with so much water and spilling out faster as his mom held his face to her shoulder. '…I know you can do it. Master One For All, Midoriya. Become better than All Might. The new pillar. A stronger pillar…' "He was my, friend," Midoriya whispered, hearing the understanding in his mom's shushes she kept making while rubbing her head into his. "I failed him, Mom. And now, I have to…" '…Goodbye.' "I have to think of him, as a villain." Izuku closed his eyes in his mother's shoulder and he slowly lifted his head up after rubbing once more to clear them. "I have to capture him."

She looked up in her son's eyes when he lifted his head. Inko's heart skipped a beat and she felt her own eyes start to water more at how serious he looked, how mature her son was while standing there looking down back at her. What he just finished saying, the way he looked to have filled with resolve, she could not say a thing against it. She just nodded her head that that was her son's decision, then she lowered her hands down and put them in her son's to hold hands between them. "If that's what you think is right."

I think, it really is. You've said your goodbye Zach, and I've, I've made my peace with that now. It hurts so much, because I can't save you anymore. I can only save you from yourself, by capturing you. You'll go too far again. You'll put people in danger, like that girl you brought back and took with you. I, I've said my goodbye. Zach, we're different people now. All Might wanted us to go camping so that we could enjoy still being kids, but you made one thing clear. We aren't anymore. We had to grow up fast, but there is no going back. This isn't a game. Decisions are final. They change things. From now on, I will really think of you, like I know, you knew I would. When I find you, you won't come quietly. You'll fight me. And you, not Raijin, not Shigaraki, not even All For One… Because I believed in you. I still believe, in you. So whatever you're planning. Whatever, you're about to do, I believe you'll succeed. And you must believe that too. So you won't want me catching you. You'll fight me. We'll, fight each other.

In Midoriya's head he saw Zach throwing a fist, then kicking up at him only for him to duck. He watched as Zach leapt forward though and spun his body to slam a kick into his side and knock him down. And then he saw Zach step towards him and lean down, extending his left hand to help him up while giving him a pointer on how to fight. Not a spar. Midoriya thought. He pushed those thoughts from the start of their first year out of his head. Instead he thought about Zach fighting Killmore as he fell from twenty stories up, blood splashing off of him though he barely flinched and just knocked his opponent out in free-fall. He saw Zach roaring at Kaminari that he did not feel a thing, and he saw Zach moving so fast surrounded in his Nightmare aura powered up from killing those animals, from Trigger, from murdering his enemies. That kind of fight, Midoriya thought to himself. And when it comes, I can't hesitate. Because I know you won't. Because I know you. I finally, understand you. If only, I had sooner.

Inside a mansion's enormous living room, on a couch worth more than eight months rent at the Midoriya apartment, Momo Yaoyorozu sat with her legs curled up in front of her. The huge plasma-screen tv that covered the wall in front of her showed the face of Zach Sazaki next to his expression in Nightmare form. She was not afraid of those looks. She just stared at the screen with water in her red eyes and streaks down her face. Momo was exhausted, but she could not stop watching the news since her parents picked her up from the police station earlier.

Mrs. Yaoyorozu stepped up behind the couch slowly and looked down towards her daughter. The woman had shorter black hair than her daughter that was tied in a neat ponytail bun behind her head. She looked down at the girl sitting in front of her on the couch, and she hummed while nodding her head. "Heartache, is a hard thing Momo." The girl in front of her had noticed her approach but just sniffled at the sound of her mom's voice and kept staring at the screen. "There will be other boys-"

"I'm afraid mother," Yaoyorozu said in a hoarse voice.

"Ah," Mrs. Yaoyorozu said, nodding her head at the sound of that. "Yes. I heard he had become quite a monster…"

Her daughter started shaking her head and the woman stopped. "I'm afraid, for Zach," she whispered.

"Honey," Momo's mother began.

"I don't know what he's going to do from here on," Momo said. She stared at the screen with her eyes scared, and her voice shook but got louder as she turned her head to look back at her mother. "But he doesn't care about his own life." Mrs. Yaoyorozu stared down at her daughter with her eyes growing wide, and the girl in front of her said in such a pained voice, "He only cares about other people, and I'm not there to save him anymore."

Momo turned back to the tv as the anchors started talking again. They talked and it went back to their faces, and she glared so harshly at the balding man who just said all those things about Zach. Her eyes got even more pained though as the other two next to Bob agreed with what he had said, though Kasami turned to the camera and started calling directly on Lifebringer to just turn himself in and prove everyone wrong. Momo lowered her eyes from the screen and stared at the floor beneath it while shaking her head. As much as you protected me at USJ, at the Sports Festival, I saved your life too. I- It wasn't just a one-sided… I saved you, with Killmore. And, on the roof… "No one deserves that much power. And the stronger I got, the more control over this power I had, the more like Death I actually became. So before I go back to thinking that way. Before I become the real grim reaper, who commands death, a demon…" You didn't go back to thinking like that. You haven't, not yet. But, but you were close. You started shouting about Death being a concept, about it coming for the villains…

I won't be there to stop you. I wanted, to protect you. Like you wanted to protect me. I wanted to protect you from those, from your own demons too though. I wanted to keep you on the right track, but I let you push yourself away. No, no I tried. I tried so hard Zach. And you knew I would feel this way! Why? How could you- I, I lo- I really, think that I…

In a dark warehouse in Shikoku, Shigaraki Tomura threw open the doors and rushed inside the building where a dozen other League of Villains members were gathered. "Sensei!" Shigaraki called out.

"You're here, Tomura," All For One said. He turned his head to the right from the chair he was sitting on, IV's stuck in his arms and a black mask covering his face.

Shigaraki nodded and slowed his panting while walking up to his teacher's side. Behind him back at the doors, Shooter walked inside and then nodded at the guy on his right to shut the doors. Holy shit, Shooter thought while finally relaxing for the first time all day. Getting from Hokkaido down to Shikoku without Kurogiri, it's fucking ridiculous. Can't use planes. Sea heroes like that fucker Selkie already stop some of the ships we use even without any wanted guys on board. No way we could have taken a boat all the way from Hokkaido, but damn we couldn't even risk meeting up with Dabi and Raijin on the mainland with them so close to the search grid. News is only talking about Reaper, but they've got the big shots after us. They're trying hard to make it look like the kid's the focus though. Can't make it out like what Sazaki did is doing them a favor.

Shooter tssked and walked over towards some guys he knew who nodded over to him. He glanced out the corners of his eyes over towards Shigaraki though, Should have just let the kid stay at U.A. after he turned us over. Why'd you have to create, such a fucking monster?

"Tomura, you lost again," All For One looked to his right and at the man with hands all over his body. Shigaraki looked back at him with wide eyes behind the fingers over his face. The older villain in the chair shook his head once and then turned back forward to look at a tv screen ahead of him playing loudly.

"…it's a blemish on hero society, another on U.A., and on top of that Class A," one of the news anchors speaking shook his head with a dark look on his face.

"Even someone like Lifebringer who brought so many innocents back to life, despite the pain it caused himself, can be corrupted by the evil of villains. They killed his family over and over, tortured him, until he finally became what Shigaraki Tomura tried turning him into…"

"He killed," Shigaraki started.

"Was it worth it?" All For One asked.

Shigaraki Tomura ground his teeth in anger while staring at the screen. He lifted a hand and started scratching at his neck, "No, sensei. But now I will take care of him myself-"

"Don't," All For One said. He looked right at Shigaraki and questioned in a low voice, "Stay away from that thing. Sazaki has caused you far more trouble than he was ever worth."

"Sensei?"

"You lose focus in your anger, Tomura," All For One said. His voice got lower, more annoyed as he kept staring at the screens ahead of him. "And now all of your bases in Hokkaido are gone. In one fell swoop, you were forced from the island."

"We should have only freed you," Tomura started in a quiet hiss.

"Yet you freed many Tartaros inmates who are still by your side other than me as well. The ones who left though, you should have kept a closer eye on. Now they have their opportunities." All For One got lower and said in a deep voice, "The villains who have been plotting in the shadows since their escapes, waiting for a chance to slip in, they have it. The death of Kurogiri means nothing less than the downfall of the League of Villains' dominance in this country. You stopped Breakneck from becoming the great threat he would have turned into, thanks solely to Kurogiri. Yet you knew of his lab because of all your many operations that took place in Hokkaido already. Your information network- broken, your ability to travel freely to any place- destroyed, and therefore your ability to act whenever and wherever you please is now greatly diminished. Tomura, you have had many victories in a row. Too many," All For One turned back to his apprentice again and saw Shigaraki's eyes shaking behind the fingers of the hand attached to his face. "Now that you have lost again, you must regroup and change all of your plans. Start anew, planning for a League of Villains without Kurogiri."

Shigaraki slowly started nodding at his teacher, and he bowed his head to the floor with a furious and dark look on his face. Everything, has changed.

Behind Shigaraki and leaning over a railing back on a lifted area of the warehouse, a teenage girl with blond pigtails looked ahead to the big screen past her bosses. You lied to me about Stain-san. You didn't know anything about him. And you killed Kurogiri and Backfire and Freshy. You're… "Hey Toga-chan, what was that thing you did back there that let you get behind the Ghosters? Wow, that's pretty cool. You think you could teach me how you do it?" You're a big meanie, Zach. I'm going to kill you someday. A big smile spread over Himiko Toga's face. Because you're not a real hero like Stain-san likes!

On the northernmost of Japan's four main islands, Hokkaido, in a small village forty miles to the north of Feruchia, a shrine at the top of a mountain path was full of villains. Five miles away from the shrine there was a secret base once used by the League of Villains that a hero had come out to investigate after the shrine's elder reported something weird happening there earlier that day. The shrine's elder was dead though, as were his daughter and two granddaughters.

The hero who had come out to investigate came without any backup as it was reported that a fight had occurred earlier but both parties had scattered. Gogogo lay flat on her back in the middle of the shrine's main prayer room, her arms and legs pulled taut to her sides by white ropes and a gag in her mouth, though she did not regret not bringing her sidekick with her. Sameko, I'm sorry. Don't come after me alone. Please! The female hero on her back had a terrified look in her eyes and tears spilling down her face while she lay in a puddle of blood pooled in the center of the room. There were corpses piled up on her left with their throats slid and laying on slabs with their legs lifted up so the blood would pour her way, there was a pentagram carved into the middle of the shrine, and all of the religious icons in the building were defaced and splashed with blood.

In the old-fashioned shrine, there was a single tv that was very old and box-shaped. It was in the corner of the shrine room, and a man in a red cloak looked towards that screen and the images of Zach Sazaki on it with an impressed look on his shadowed-over face. "Lifebringer, is a true hero. Stain would approve of him, as he did what he thought was right without caring about his image. He does not care about money, or how this broken, ugly society views heroes. Not like this pretender." The leader of the Cult of Stain turned and looked down at the woman in the middle of the floor. His followers in white cloaks splotched with blood stood around the room, so many of them that Gogogo could not see the walls around her considering the dozens of members the cult had in their ranks.

Their numbers were daunting, and Gogogo had no idea what she was stepping into when she accepted the call to come up to this small village. She shook her head and muffle-yelled through the gag to try and talk to the villains, but they were not listening. The man in the red cloak looked around at his other followers who had wanted to see what the news thought of Lifebringer, as he did. He turned around and turned off the tv, and then he walked into the middle of the floor and between Gogogo's legs pulled to the sides. The room was illuminated in candlelight, and it filled with the sounds of much more panicked mumbling through the gag. "This fake is another sacrifice towards the world we envision. Now, like our master Stain once said:"

"SOMEONE MUST BE DYED IN BLOOD! SOMEONE MUST BE DYED IN BLOOD!"

"Mmmmfff-MMMMNNNN!" Gogogo started screaming into the cloth as the cult leader lifted up a three foot long serrated and twisted dagger. He rose it high in front of him and grabbed the hilt by two hands, and he looked down out the shadow of his hood and into the pro hero's eyes while his followers chanted around him. Gogogo's muffled screams cut off at the terrifying smirk on the man's face that only she could see at the angle up into his hood. And then he brought the blade down and into her chest.

---

"Every airport, every train station," La Brava muttered with her laptop on her thighs and her back against the wall. She sat in the back of a white van with a gardening company logo on the side of it and some tools on the roof to make it seem less conspicuous. They were parked for the moment, but the hot-pink-haired woman leaning against the wall grimaced as a timer in the top right of her computer screen started blinking. She looked across the back of the van and at the boy a couple of feet taller than her which still had him at only five and a half feet tall. His eyes were closed and she glanced up to the front of the van at her partner who had his chair turned around and was sipping tea from a fancy cup in his hand he stole from a nice hotel they stayed at a week ago. "Gentle, everyone's looking for us."

"Isn't it wonderful?" Gentle asked, and he leaned back in his seat and lowered his tea cup down for a second. "And I know what you are going to say. Even though it was with Lifebringer's help though, I have never been more famous. This is what I desired, La Brava."

Her eyes opened wide and she started smiling at her partner, but she lowered that smile as despite what he said Gentle was not smiling as wide back at her. He lifted his tea and took a sip, and he looked down at the boy who turned his head and opened his eyes to look back at him. "Though your little rampage will cost us. Capturing Kurogiri and killing him, are different things."

Zach nodded his head. He could see Gentle was annoyed over not being told the full extent of the plan, and he leaned his head back on the wall behind him again. "I know. It was, a dick move. Getting you to go along with this without telling you what I was planning… But Kurogiri just, he needed to die. No one would do it." Zach said that softer and he stared across the back of the van with a hurt look in his eyes. In that moment hyped-up on Trigger and fueled with some recent kills, it had still been a hard thing to do. He had still hesitated, and he had shouted all his reasons at Kurogiri because he could not just kill him in cold blood without explaining himself. Without any of that stuff fueling him, he was stuck thinking about the hundreds they had saved as a team together. "I didn't want to be the one… but things couldn't keep going like that. Someone had to be the one, and I- I think that waiting for someone else to do it would have been selfish."

"Yeah, well it was pretty selfish of you to drag us into your plan without-"

"La Brava," Gentle said. She closed her mouth and just started frowning more at Zach, and Zach lifted his eyebrows and then shifted his gaze towards Gentle. What's their relationship? She's a lot younger than him. He doesn't seem to be forcing her to be here though. Like, Darling? Are they the same? La Brava definitely looks in love with him.

"He is right," Gentle said after a few seconds. Zach stared into Gentle's eyes, and the older man twice his age took in a deep breath before saying with a grin, "Losing Kurogiri is a huge loss for the League of Villains, especially if All For One is down like you say." He lifted his eyebrows at the boy who nodded once as he really believed that, as much as he had used All For One's ability as one of the reasons he would not just capture Kurogiri. "In that case, the League has no warp power. Let us hope, at least." Gentle added.

Two knocks on the back of the van cut off the conversation. There was a few seconds' pause, and then three more knocks got the others in the van to relax. Zach leaned to his right and flipped a lock with his right hand that he had been keeping away from the others since it was still in his glove ripped around his palm. He regretted digging his nails through it, but hearing about Webb had almost made him lose his cool and charge at Kaminari despite his plans. Zach did not need to worry about having his hand close to the door though as he unlocked it, and he allowed the girl behind the van to climb in fast and close the door behind herself. "How'd it go?" Zach asked.

"Bought you some clothes," Darling replied with a smile. She lowered the plastic bags she had on her right arm and handed Zach a bag with some new clothes in them, then she put down another that had food for their group. "Took most of what I have left though," she added in a sheepish voice.

Zach lowered his left hand for his pocket where he had some bills he pulled from his wallet while dropping it. Darling reached out though and shook a hand at him as it looked like he was going to try and pay her back. "My money is your money."

There's no getting around it now. I decided I wouldn't leave you, but as long as things are like this I really can't. "Alright," Zach said, moving his hand away and nodding at the brown haired girl with a small smile. "What about the situation out there? Think if we've got disguises we could move around outside without making a big deal?"

"Everyone's looking for you," Darling said. She started to pout and got a darker look in her eyes, "I hate how the news is referring to you. They don't understand your greatness."

La Brava looked at the girl in front of her with her eyebrows lifted. She turned to Gentle to see if he thought what she was thinking, though Gentle had a bead of sweat on the side of his face while glancing back towards his partner. Seeing this from the outside, is strange…

La Brava's eyes widened at Gentle's look, then she spun back to the other two farther back in the van with her. "You know, this girl is crazy?" La Brava asked while looking straight at Zach. The dark haired boy across the back of the van as her got a bead of sweat on the side of his face, while Darling spun with her bottom lip dropped at La Brava's sudden insult. Gentle sweatdropped like Zach did, wondering if his partner just snapped that to show a clear difference between the two of them after seeing him look at her. La Brava's eyes narrowed at the girl who glared back at her, then she continued while shifting her gaze to Zach, "She would've shot your classmates if they had really come after us."

"No I wouldn't have," Darling said in an annoyed but also smug voice at the older woman. La Brava glared skeptically back at her, only for her eyes to widen as Darling continued, "Because I know Zach enough to know that he told me that loudly, just so his friends wouldn't chase us. That's why I acted so ready to shoot them. I never would have actually done it," she leaned forward and smirked at the surprised woman in front of her.

So, she's not completely crazy. "Darling's still not a real name," La Brava said, and Darling's smirk wiped away before she started insulting the name 'La Brava' right back.

Zach sighed as the two of them started arguing. Then he looked from La Brava over to Gentle who met his gaze and gained a more serious look at the boy's expression. "The Sports Festival created a dark turn," Zach started. The arguing girls stopped and looked at Zach who turned from Gentle and glanced into Darling's eyes. "It broke the lines keeping the peace, and villains have come out of hiding and are being bold all over the world. What I- what we did last night won't stop any of that. It will only weaken one group of villains. And I don't know what that power shift will do around Japan; what other villains may rise now, or what the dynamic will become. Even if it will be positive…"

"What can we do about that now?" La Brava asked in annoyance. "The whole country's looking for you, Lifebringer."

"I'm not Lifebringer," Zach said. He did not say it like he used to say 'Not Lifebringer' after his torture. He was over that, and the others could tell in his voice what he meant though Zach finished softer, "Not anymore."

"What should we call you then, 'Reaper?'" La Brava asked in a sarcastic tone, annoyed as Zach tried to be all serious about his name change. Zach looked into the short woman's eyes, and the pink-haired girl six years older than Zach stared right back into his without any fear despite all she had seen last night. After all, Gentle was to her right only a few feet away, so what was there to be afraid about? "I saw all those files in Hackerman's computer," she explained how she knew that name, as it was not just from the night before that she heard it.

Zach just shook his head at her again, then he held up a hand to stop Darling who started snapping at La Brava for taking that rude tone with Zach. "I, don't know," Zach said after a few seconds. He thought about how he told his friends the night before that he was tossing 'Zach Sazaki' aside, but he whispered in a low voice, "Zach's fine. And Darling," he continued, looking next to him at the girl who got on her knees and was glaring at La Brava for speaking down to Zach like he had no plan. "La Brava's right."

Darling spun back to Zach, and La Brava lifted up her eyebrows while staring at the boy who leaned off the wall and got on his knees. Zach started looking through the bag of clothes Darling had gotten for him, and he nodded his head before starting to take his shirt off. "The whole country is on the lookout for me, and we won't make it very long staying here." Zach took off his t-shirt and then started putting on the long-sleeved one in the bag. He did not look around, at either Gentle or La Brava who saw a more full extent of Zach's scars than what he showed them when they first met, or at Darling who went bright red in the face as Zach changed in front of her. He slid the long-sleeved navy blue shirt on and then reached into the bag and pulled out a baseball cap and sunglasses. "If anyone wants to leave now, last chance," he lifted his head at La Brava but turned to Gentle who he figured was the one about to make this decision.

La Brava turned towards the taller man farther at the front of the van too, while Darling told Zach she would never leave him. Gentle watched that young girl promise Zach how she would stay by his side, then he looked back into the younger man's eyes and said, "I agreed already. We made our deal, and I will stand by it as long as you do the same."

"And I stand by Gentle," La Brava added, turning from him quick back to Zach to give her response now that she knew what it was.

"I'll follow you anywhere," Darling finished after the other two agreed.

Zach nodded seriously at each of them as they agreed to come with him. Zach lifted his new hat and stared at it closely, No chance. He rose it anyway and put it over his messy black hair pushing some bangs down over his eyebrows. He stood up, and with a determined look on his face he said, "Then it's about time we get out of the country."

---

A/N Thanks for reading! Lot of reactions this chapter as I jump around the country in the day following Zach's trap in the forest. U.A. shuts down temporarily and the students are forced to move out. Heroes are sent after Zach, though we also see from the villains' point of view that the heroes are coming down hard on them too. Zach's classmates all have different feelings on how to think of what Zach did, some of them are really broken up over it, others angry, some glad he wasn't broken, yet others frustrated they didn't see everything he was going through. And we see Zach at the end with his new team who are sticking with him, as he decides to leave the country. Hope you all enjoyed, and leave me a review below telling me what you think/ questions, predictions, comments for upcoming chapters!

LordOfTee chapter 93 . Oct 11

T... you're killing me with these sad as hell updates.
Thx for another long chapter, I'm gonna go cry now.

XD Sorry 'bout that, but yeah def a tough chapter to write at some times too. A couple of big emotional moments in there. And we see in this chapter a bit more of how Zach's classmates handle what happened. Anyway thanks for the review, hope you enjoyed!

IntricateHummingbird chapter 1 . Oct 11

1 mil words! Congrats. This is undoubtedly in the top 3 of the best fanfics I've ever read

Thanks! Glad to make the list!

Shade11224 chapter 93 . Oct 11

*Kowtows* This one was foolish! Please forgive me! That was probably the best chapter in terms of progress you've written yet besides when he escaped the league after being tortured.

There is nothing to forgive, my reader. Lol glad you really liked it, and hope you continue to enjoy the story! Thanks for reviewing!

diddles321 chapter 93 . Oct 12

Glad I stuck around. Congrats on 1 million words. This chapter was goddamn brilliant.

I'm glad too! Thanks for the great review! Hope you enjoyed the new one.

Shinn of Destiny chapter 93 . Oct 12

Zach: darling! cover fire!
Darling: yes sir!

oh my gosh I COULD FEEL THAT SYNERGY!

Darling joins Zach on his quest! The two of them show a bit more of their Synergy connection this time when Darling countered La Brava about how she wouldn't have killed Zach's classmates like La Brava, and All Might and all of Class A, thought she would. XD Thanks for the review!

Momozaki chapter 93 . Oct 11

Fucking intense. I'm honestly impressed with Zach here
It's ironic how now none of the 2A students are gonna trust him
On another note
Is the ship gone? Say it ain't so! I need more Momozaki in my life!

Zach goes all out this time, and he loses Class A, All Might, everything in the process. As for the ship... well, we saw Momo this chapter being pretty sad about it. Zach's leaving though. But ultimately... just gotta wait and see ;P

Tism-schism chapter 1 . Oct 11

Ok, I haven't really worked up the nerve to attempt this story yet. But how in the ever loving christ have you managed to cross the million word mark in such a short period of time? I've seen fics not even a 10th as long that have taken 10 years to finish. I'm usually hesitant to start fics that are incomplete, but I'm sure at the rate I would read it would have another extra 150000 words for me to enjoy. Catch you on the flip side real soon.

I feel the same way! Haha, don't know how long it'll take you to reach this far and hopefully read this comment. Looking forward to you catching up though (if you kept reading). Never thought I'd make another story reach 1 million after writing my Nexus stories, but Death just gave me more and more to work with!

Guest chapter 93 . Oct 11

Soooo, what now? Another time-skip? Or some sweet delicious story arcs with Zacks new team?

Only time will tell. What comes next? Where does Zach and his squad go from here? Leave predictions below and let me know what you guys think is coming up! Finished a few more chapters before posting this one, so I should get some daily posts up the next couple days! See you tomorrow!