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!

136. Chapter 136

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 136:

"Excuse me, what do you think you're doing here-" The security guards at the front door of a skyscraper in central Tokyo were not moving aside, and the floor manager and their boss marched towards the entrance trying to block the heroes and police outside.

"We have a search warrant for this entire building," Lemillion stated, marching forward and ignoring the manager's denouncement of their entry. He waved a piece of paper that told him he could do this at the man in a suit who was trying to stop him. "Now stay out of our way or be detained. Your choice." Lemillion looked the man in the eyes and the man pulled his face back far as the hero looked prepared to fight him. Lemillion did not know who on the floor might be a villain in disguise though, and he treated everyone he saw as a potential enemy.

"Move upstairs," Lemillion called out after the man he just spoke to backed away. "She-Wolf, Gargantuan, on me. He should be up on the top floor."

Outside of the building, on the roof of a neighboring skyscraper ten stories taller than the one Lemillion's team just entered, Explosion King and Deku were looking down side by side though with a wide gap between them. There were tall skyscrapers all over the place in the area, and the one they had a warrant to search was not one of the tallest around. Most of the buildings around it were taller actually, and the one to Deku's right across the most main street in Tokyo was taller than even the one they were standing on. This building was just high enough over the other though that they still had a decent angle into the top floor of the other skyscraper, and the two boys were preparing as they awaited orders from the pro hero they were interning with over the summer.

The money trail got us the proof we needed for a warrant, but I should have realized why Lemillion was waiting to ask for one. Now we can go in the same time the meetings supposedly happen. If all goes well, we get even more proof and can lock up everyone involved. Midoriya stared at the building and he focused more on the top floor, trying to see through to something incriminating. If we were just a little lower, we could see straight inside. Using the roof of this building is one thing though, but forcing one of the offices below to clear out so we can use it for a raid on an entirely different building is too far. Even just getting a warrant for that whole building instead of just the top floor was difficult enough, but luckily all their computers are on the same server so every device in the building is suspect to search…

"Stay on your floor. There is an active investigation going on in the building," She-Wolf scolded some businessmen who faced the heroes in surprise when the elevator doors on their floor opened to show the lift was occupied.

Bakugo grunted in annoyance at the sound of the argument that commenced inside, and he glared harder at the skyscraper that they were not a part of sweeping. This investigation was not all that was bothering him, though he did curl his fists in frustration as all they were doing was sitting there and waiting for something. With Lemillion over there too, chances they need to call us in are slim. Damn it. If we had the League's list we could at least go after them right now instead of shady businesses… Bakugo's eyes started shifting towards Midoriya but he stopped himself and just ground his teeth while keeping focus on the neighboring building. It's not Deku's fault. We left the computer unguarded. We fucked up. Damn it, I fucked up.

Midoriya tried to stay more focused on the building than Bakugo, but his mind strayed to the same topic that had his eyes dropping down with guilt for a moment. He shook that guilt from his expression and glared down towards the streets below angrily. I don't regret it. I should, and I have no one to blame for not being able to go after Shigaraki right now except myself. I didn't ask Lemillion, I didn't do… but I don't regret it. Leaving that fight to save my mom, because I did save her. Wonderlass wouldn't have… not the first time at least, she wouldn't have been there on time. But I let them destroy the evidence. I didn't even see anything else on that screen once I saw Mom's name. And I let Wonderlass die!

Deku ground his teeth but then snapped his head up in the green mask of his costume. The muscular seventeen year old at five foot eleven glared at the penthouse office with an intense look returning to his face. She died a hero's death. Saving innocent people. It's been a few weeks already, it's time to get past it! All Might has, and he was closer to her. The way she talked at the end, they were definitely together… at some point. There are more pressing matters now though. I need to strengthen One For All. I need to control all my powers and get up to using all of All Might's strength, adding on more and becoming even stronger than he was! The League of Villains have returned, though they're still in the shadows and only sent foreign mercenaries after Mom. One of the guys they caught had a signal blocking Quirk too, so Raijin was never there. The Radians are still the most dangerous right now, but I know the League must be focusing on something big to have gone into hiding for so long. Shigaraki Tomura, Raijin, Himiko Toga, Dabi, All For One…

"We're reaching the top floor. Stand by." Lemillion lowered his hand from his earpiece and then prepared himself as the elevator reached the top floor and dinged to signal the doors opening.

The doors started sliding out from the middle, and a glowing blue light shone through the crack that got much brighter as the doors pushed apart. "MOVE!" Gargantuan yelled, while diving forward and making his body grow rapidly in size. Lemillion ran forward while also using his Permeation Quirk to avoid the blast being fired into a small space. She-Wolf stayed behind Gargantuan, jumping back into the back of the elevator as the larger man tried to use his body to protect her. Light glowed around the outside of Gargantuan though and the woman behind him yelled out in pain as the explosion blasted around his sides while he was still growing.

Lemillion dropped down to the floor below when he used his Permeation, but he dropped down in mid-sprint and then bent his knees and leapt back up without delay. He shot back up at the ceiling and phased his body through it again. Mirio Togata appeared on the floor above right behind the man with his arms lifted up with bright blue glowing cannons inside of them. Lemillion slammed his right fist up into the man's kidney while the villain was turning his head with huge eyes as the sight he glimpsed out the corner of his vision. Lemillion's punch crumpled the man to the floor in an instant, and the bland-faced hero darted his gaze around the area outside the elevator while his opponent was still falling. After making that scan of the room, and seeing just a couple of office workers cowered behind the reception desk of the top floor's office, Lemillion focused on the heroes before him. "Gargantuan! She-Wolf! Are you alright?"

"What's going on in there?!" Bakugo shouted from outside, putting his hand over his earpiece and yelling it as all they heard was static there for a few seconds before Lemillion's shout. The earpiece in Lemillion's ear was specially made just like the rest of his costume to prevent from slipping off of him when her Permeated as easily as normal clothing, but he still was not able to make noise while in that state and had not informed his confused interns as to the situation yet.

"I'm, fine," She-Wolf started out of the elevator that she was quick to exit when she felt it shake upon her first steps. The woman covered in a light coating of white fur under her red costume stepped to the side of Gargantuan and then reached down and flipped him over onto his back instead of his front that he had fallen down on. "Crap. We need a medical team to the top floor. Lemillion, go! I'll do emergency treatment," the wolf-looking woman glared over at the villain Lemillion had knocked out, and she ran to him and then shredded his shirt and jacket off with her claws. The man had been dressed in a business suit and did not look like a villain, at least until his suit was torn off and the tattoos covering most of his torso and upper arms were revealed. He had an ink dragon looking to be flying around his entire muscular upper body, with demonic faces making up its body instead of scales.

She-Wolf ran back towards Gargantuan whose body was shrinking down while he lay on his back with his eyes closed and his mouth parting open and closed as he gasped for breath. He had been burnt badly, though his arms had partially protected his chest and neck while getting the worst of the blast on them. She-Wolf did not know what to try wrapping up first, but she called out the extent of the injuries over their communications to inform the others downstairs how urgent the need for the medical support was.

Lemillion turned from the older woman as he saw she had this handled, and he glared towards a set of wooden doors leading into the main office of the top floor. "What's awaiting me in there?" Lemillion asked as he neared the door, turning his head to the reception desk where the scared workers were gathered.

A couple of them shook their heads, but the boss's private secretary opened her eyes wide at Lemillion's question and got back up on shaky legs as quickly as she could. She turned and looked at the door in front of Lemillion, gulped, then she replied to the hero, "Mr. Hirogani's business associate, Takahashi Haruto. He is, a very large man."

Takahashi's here as we thought. "Just the two of them?" Lemillion asked. He shifted his gaze from the doors to the wall on the left of them, and he stepped a bit to his own left before bending his legs in a running stance. The woman he questioned nodded her head while staring at the hero in a red cape with her eyes widening. "Thank you," Lemillion said, and then he sprinted at the wall and leapt at it. "Get over here!" Lemillion called out after hearing two more shouts in his ear, and then he slipped through the wall into the main office on the other side of the top floor lobby's wall.

The two on the other side of the street did not need any more convincing. They leapt at the building lower down and descended towards the roof while Lemillion landed in the office and skid forward as his body became solid again. Out the corner of his eyes he could see the doors he avoided entering through, and though there was no one waiting there to fire at him he still felt he had made the right choice being cautious. The fact that they did not try to get him with such an obvious trap though made him wary of the men he saw up ahead near the wide desk in the office. Lemillion's eyes started growing though as he looked closer at the man still in his chair at that desk, as Lemillion could see the CEO, Saito Hirogani was not moving despite his sitting-up position. His neck had a strange bump on the side of it, and Lemillion could see that it had been snapped and just propped up to make him look like he was still alive and staring towards him with a blank expression.

The second man in the room who stood over near that desk facing Lemillion when he appeared just smirked at the hero who came for him though. "Lemillion! Number 4, huh? Not bad," the villain smirked and showed off his mouth was full of sharp teeth. His lips curled farther back revealing how far up his gums those sharp teeth came up, and Togata could see stitching on the inside of his mouth on both his top and bottom gums. The villain wore a suit but had the jacket laid out on the desk behind him, leaving him in a white-and-yellow-striped button-down that his large body was pushing the buttons out on. His broad shoulders barely looked held within his clothes, his shirt appearing to be on the verge of tearing while tucked into his tight khaki-colored pants. His hands down at his sides were inside of gloves, but holes ripped on the ends of his fingers as claws extended out from his nails, and the entire gloves fell to shreds as his hands grew in size too.

"Takahashi Haruto," Lemillion began. "You are under arrest for the crimes of embezzlement, tax evasion, corporate espionage… and now murder." Lemillion glared at the villain and he started racing forward at the man who was preparing for a fight, not handing himself in.

"Ohh? Am I now?" The villain's smirk spread wider as the corners of his lips pulled farther into his cheeks. He opened his mouth and Lemillion saw light glowing in the back of his throat that confused him when he could see Takahashi's body bulking more and his already tight shirt starting to rip. The villain's blue eyes turned red and started glowing brighter at the same time as the light in his throat turned red too, but Lemillion kept sprinting forward despite it and charged straight through the three red beams that fired out at him from the villain's eyes and mouth.

Lemillion charged through the blasts, then he ducked under the swipe of Takahashi's right arm and came out on the villain's right side while the big man's momentum was leaving himself completely unguarded. Lemillion twisted his whole body and threw his full strength into his right arm as he swung it forward. His eyes were narrowed up at the head of the big man with short black hair who from this close Lemillion could see stitches around the hair line on his forehead too. Lemillion's fist slammed into Takahashi's body and he put his full power into the blow.

"Ugh-" Takahashi started leaning forward, a breath gasping out of his mouth with that loud grunt. He hunched, but Lemillion's eyes were growing wide as it happened. His eyes darted up towards the face of the man who looked out the corners of his back at him. Takahashi Haruto curled the right corner of his lip back up, "Just kidding." His hand started swinging around and Lemillion punched his own up towards Takahashi's throat a second behind the larger man's attack. His upper body was turning permeable for the start of his swing, then when the man's arm swung through him, he was going to return his mass for his next hit. He's strong- Lemillion's fist stopped rising as Takahashi grabbed him by that arm that Togata tried to make impossible to touch.

Lemillion's eyes that had just steadied bulged again. Takahashi yanked him up by the one arm so Lemillion's feet were hanging off the ground, and he brought his face up close to the hero's. "Did you think my Quirk was just the Energy Blasts, or the Shock Nullification?" Takahashi clenched down on Lemillion's arm and a crack echoed through the room as the young hero yelled out in pain.

Crash! "Lemillion!"

"DIE!"

Takahashi started turning his head, and a snarl spread across it with a look of fury covering his entire expression. "You," he growled, hatred clear in his tone. He tossed Lemillion to the side and he glared at the boy with curly green hair who shot forward faster than his comrade behind him.

"Get away from-" Midoriya had started yelling, before the villain in front of him tossed Lemillion to the side while turning fully to face him. Fast. Midoriya started swinging his right fist forward, then he flicked his right foot down right as the man brought his hand up fast to block him. He flipped up over the top of the man's arm, and he swung his left leg down on top of the villain's head. "Smash!" Takahashi's knees bent and the floor below him cracked, cracks shooting out in different directions all the way to the walls in two directions.

The wind from the kick cracked some of the windows, it blew the desk backwards and toppled the dead man sitting on the other side to the floor where he rolled away, and Bakugo had to blast a harder explosion behind him to get closer for his own attack. Bakugo redirected himself backwards though, kicking his legs forward and flipping himself with a pair of explosions out the green devices on his knees. He pointed his right hand out to the side and flung himself over at a chandelier swinging from the ceiling of the boss's office, and he held on with his left hand while glaring down at the villain in a furious way but with a bead of sweat dripping down his smirking face. "Oi oi…"

Takahashi Haruto rose his head up and he glared from either side of the steel boot slammed in his forehead into Deku's eyes. Midoriya Izuku stared into those eyes from up close, and then he pulled his head back with his entire body filling with chills. It was not the look on the man's face of hatred yet also smug satisfaction at the lack of pain he was feeling. It was not that fact that the villain did not fall to the floor even after he just used half of his full strength in a direct hit on the man's head. It was the fact that Midoriya had seen those eyes below his leg before. The man smirked with teeth not his own as they had not been that sharp or big before, and his face looked different but from this closer inspection Midoriya could see the changes that had occurred with the stitches on his hairline and gums and neck. "You're-" Midoriya started.

Takahashi snapped his right arm up, but Midoriya pulled his leg off faster. He flipped himself backwards, and Bakugo pointed his right hand up at the ceiling when the villain leapt after Deku. An explosion blasted out of Bakugo's right gauntlet and broke apart the support holding the chandelier up, and the blast also propelled him and the light fixture out of the air. Bakugo swung his left arm down and threw the chandelier at the charging villain, and Takahashi swung an arm and smashed the thing apart as it came near him. As the fixture was ripping apart though, Bakugo came in between breaking rubble so he was already right in front of the villain when his hand was glowing and swinging towards the man's face. Then the glow on Bakugo's hand vanished and his eyes bulged right as Lemillion rose up to a knee on the floor not too far from them. "He can erase your-"

Bakugo tried swinging his other hand forward to push away the hand reaching for his left arm, but the villain's arm was too big and did not get pushed away by Bakugo's attempt. Midoriya was bouncing back already though, and as the villain grabbed on he could not waste time, immediately swinging the blond boy towards his classmate who spun his body in midair and rose right above Bakugo. Midoriya swung his right leg around his body towards Takahashi's face, his body glowing and tensing up at 50% of his power as he was staying at in Full Cowling. Bakugo tried forcing explosions out of his hands as Midoriya's leg was swinging above him, and he found his Quirk working in a moment he was trying to force out a huge blast at the arm gripping him and swinging him around. The blasts shot out of Bakugo's hands, Midoriya's kick slammed into the side of Takahashi's face, and the two of them were thrown backwards by their own attacks away from the villain covered in smoke.

Bakugo and Midoriya landed near each other both skidding back and stopping with a few panting breaths as they stared at the smoke. There was a silhouette in the smoke still standing that made the two of them grit their teeth and glare harder in anger. Neither of them felt panicked though. "He didn't erase your Quirk," Bakugo said.

"And he stopped erasing yours," Deku replied.

A glow came from inside the smoke, and the two boys leapt in different directions right before a trio of red beams shot out towards them. Time to test it, Bakugo thought, while moving slower than Midoriya away from the beams coming at him. He moved slower but still dodged them, just barely though. The head of the man in the smoke started turning after him, and Midoriya stopped dodging to the side to instead shoot forward into the smoke so fast that the smoke completely blew away around him as he struck forward. The beams stopped, and Midoriya's fist slammed into the man's side only to stop completely on his body that did not flinch at the blow.

"It's Shock Nullification," Lemillion called out. "Energy Blasts, an Erasure power…"

"He can only use one at a time," Midoriya said too, while jumping backwards and dodging a swing of the man's right claw. The villain glared out towards him with his smile lowering down, and Midoriya added, "The shock nullification isn't passive, or he would keep erasing powers or using energy blasts while he gets hit. He can either be defensive or offensive."

"Looks like he's still just a small fry," Bakugo taunted, and he smirked more while crouching into more of a ready-to-pounce stance at the enraged look that flashed over the villain's face.

Lemillion darted a look towards Explosion King as he heard that, then he glanced Deku's way too as he saw the other boy knew what Bakugo was talking about. "You know who this is?" Lemillion questioned.

Takahashi started snarling as he saw Bakugo's lips curling up more. The villain opened his mouth to yell when he saw Bakugo getting ready to speak, but Deku's voice cut through the silence first, "He's the April Fool's Day Villain. I don't remember his actual name."

The man with his head half-turned to glare at Bakugo froze completely. He froze and his head slowly turned back to Deku with a look in his eyes that made the boy trying to get the villain to sloppily charge at him, regret just making that taunt. The April Fool's Day Villain's eyes looked deranged for a brief moment, and then his lips curled up and he let out a laugh that he looked to try and hold back afterwards. He let more out though, tilting his head back and laughing so much harder. "I hated that name," he called out, yet in a laughing voice like he was an idiot for hating it. "But I have to thank you kids. Sending me to Tartaros, on the day of my big entrance… It was the best thing that could have happened to me."

He lowered his head a little and he kept that smirk on his face. He was no longer laughing, yet his expression appeared so much more dangerous and not like a joke at all. The fun they were trying to poke at him fell flat, the mood of the room became much more serious and dark at the smile on the villain's face. "They weren't looking hard for me either, because you children allowed them to label me as a joke. Even though I know you remember how strong I was. Yet, I was defeated by children, and despite everyone knowing your strength, they mocked me for it."

"Blah blah blah-"

"And yet only I," Takahashi continued without losing his smirk at Bakugo's taunts behind him. His voice rose and he curled his left hand into a fist, that hand glowing bright red so much that it tinted the entire room in its glow. Bakugo's own smirk dropped and he glared at that hand hesitantly for a moment, before darting his eyes back at the villain with them growing huge just like Lemillion and Midoriya's. "Had the potential to accept all the Quirks All For One gave me and keep my mind STRONG! Only I," his right hand started glowing too, and his eyes began glowing a dark red as his sharp smile spread to cover more of his face. "Have the strength to withstand all this POWER!"

"She-Wolf get everyone off the floor!" Lemillion called out while reaching up and grabbing at his earpiece. "Deku!" He shouted towards the green-haired boy near him. "Evacuate! Explosion King-"

"I got it!" Bakugo roared, flying himself towards the villain with blasts coming out of his feet and his right hand reaching up to grab the pin of his gauntlet. Deku was already racing towards the side wall to get into the lobby and help get everyone else out as fast as he could, even dropping down some power and Doubling to move at his max power allowed. His right leg ached from the start as he did the one thing Recovery Girl warned him not to do for a few months at least.

Lemillion dropped through the floor, not fast enough to help but able to at least get out of Bakugo's way. The pro hero with a broken arm lost sight of Bakugo for a second before opening his eyes falling through the floor below, but then he turned himself Permeable again and slipped through one more floor for good measure.

"Hold on!" Deku shouted at everyone he had just rushed into the elevator. They were mostly yelling in panic as they did not understand what was happening Deku had moved so fast. Midoriya had ripped through the top of the elevator and a bunch of the people looked up at the sound of his shout. Midoriya felt the entire building shake at once, and he broke the wires holding up the elevator, used one hand to grab the parts still connected as the entire thing started to drop, and he dug his other hand into the wall. His head snapped up while the people below him shouted in panic, and Midoriya had to let go of the wall for a second to swing a fist up in the elevator shaft, pushing a counter-force into the explosion about to rush down at him. His punch upwards was so strong that it not only blasted the explosion the other way, but tore through the roof of the building over the elevator shaft and blasted debris into the air above.

As Deku grabbed back onto the wall to slow the rapid descent towards the surface without causing a painful jolt for those inside the plummeting lift, the debris he just blasted up through the top of the building all burned up in the explosion that tore out of the roof from a dozen different points. Bakugo tried forcing the explosions up as much as he could while attacking the April Fool's Day Villain. He had attacked when the man was attacking because the man would not be able to aim at anyone else, as he would not be able to use another Quirk to protect himself from what they understood about his powers so far. Bakugo flew out the side of the building though as even with his gauntlet, the attack he tried to power through was too much for him and overpowered his explosion.

Bakugo slammed into a building across the street that was much higher than the skyscraper he had just flown out of. It was higher than the one they had been watching from too, and there was a giant television screen on the side wall that he slammed into, though luckily he hit right below that screen between it and another one and did not smash through either. He did crack the two windows on either side of the steel support that his back wound up colliding into though. Bakugo winced and he seethed out some pained breath through his teeth, but his eyes opened up and he glared back towards the massive explosion on the building in front of him that his own blast had partially shot him back from though the enemy's really sent him flying with. He started to slide down the building he had slammed into, but his feet touched down on the top of the lower huge screen attached to the wall and he stopped himself there without dropping any farther. This guy, he's strong. He's right, he was strong that last time too. Him popping up made that trip to the mall not a total waste of time, actually made my day. He was an idiot though for jumping out while I was there, while everyone was right in front of him. He was, an April Fool's joke. What the fuck was he talking about?

Bakugo glared at the explosion and then up into the smoke where he just saw something rise up high before arcing back down. The villain slammed down onto a roof covered in cracks and holes with a lot of smoke pouring out where the flames had escaped from. All For One gave him powers? Is it like the Nomus? I thought they fucked up the Nomus' productions, made it so no more could… Is this different? Nomus are all brain-dead, but they were people once. They had minds. Is this what he is? A failed Nomu? Or the only successful one? He broke out of prison, he played it smarter this time after what happened last time… though he still left a money trail. He still made stupid mistakes that let us get a warrant to come after him and the ones he had working for him. Does he have a plan? Does he think, he doesn't need one? He wants revenge on us, so he's not running. He's just standing there. Because… because the name-calling does get to him. As much as he's smirking and laughing about it, he's not going to run away. Not while his name is still the April Fool's Day villain. He'll stay over there until he kills someone, be it Deku, Lemillion, or me. That would immediately surpass what anyone remembers about him the first time. So he's going to stay. How many Quirks does he have? Is it only the ones we've seen so far? Lemillion's arm broke, so we can add super strength as one too. Does he need to halt the others for that? I did pull my arm from his grasp when he turned on Shock Nullification. His body has been messed with though, and he's big. There's a chance he's that strong normally. Bakugo's lips curled up at the corners and he leapt forward off of the top of the big billboard screen below him.

Far down below, dozens of people were gathering out on the streets and sidewalks after hearing that explosion. Everyone was staring up towards the top of the skyscraper billowing smoke, and heroes were gathering near the civilians to protect from any falling glass or debris. Cars had stopped on the streets, and then the giant tv screen above the one that Bakugo had just been standing on changed the news it had been showing to a breaking news report. A camera angle shot at the top of the Tokyo skyline appeared on that screen, and even the people closest to the attack looked towards that screen as it did give them a better view of the top of the building than the bad angle they were at down on the street below. All they could see were the explosions of someone high above who many of them recognized flying back towards that previous huge blast, something that actually calmed a lot of them down and annoyed many as they wondered if Explosion King had just gone too far or something. The camera angle from the approaching news helicopter showed it was not just Bakugo up there though, as even after that massive explosion, there was someone up on the roof of the skyscraper whose body was half-shrouded in smoke.

"She-Wolf, evacuate the building," the boy who finally stopped the elevator leaned his head down towards the hole and called that for the conscious hero inside. He had brought them all the way back down to the first floor as there were no longer any wires holding up the lift if he were to try and stop higher up.

"You got it, Deku," the older hero with white fur called up. Then she looked around and yelled at the group in the elevator with her to get off, while she reached down and started hoisting Gargantuan back up to carry him with her. She-Wolf carried her comrade's body with his head leaning over her right shoulder, and she called ahead, "Hey medics! Take him!" She bent down and lowered the larger hero to the floor before turning and racing towards the stairs down on all fours. "Evacuate in a calm, orderly…"

Deku shot up the elevator shaft so fast that everyone in the lobby spun back towards the empty elevator where a huge gust of wind just slammed into them from. The boy shot up the shaft and he reached a hand out to the wall, grabbed a pipe and swung his body up faster, then he crossed his arms up above his head. "Carolina, SMASH!" Deku closed his eyes and then uncrossed his arms out in front of him, blowing away debris and smoke and some flames to give himself a hole to the sky above. He spun his body as he reached near the top of his arc, and Deku stared down into the light covering of smoke on the roof not far from the hole he had blasted earlier. On that cracked roof was a man who turned his head partially towards him before looking back the other way towards the approaching Explosion King.

A few floors below the top, Lemillion glared up towards the ceiling and his eyes narrowed before darting back to his broken right arm. I'm at a natural disadvantage so high up. The majority of my combos rely on popping back out of the ground like teleportation. With his only being able to activate one Quirk at a time, I could find a gap to attack him in. With my arm like this though, Lemillion heard a shout of fear and he turned his head, looking over towards some desks that he had not seen anyone at when he dropped onto the floor. The building just shook again though, and he called out, "This is the hero, Lemillion! We are evacuating the building…"

"Deku. Explosion King. Can you handle this?"

The two boys standing on opposite sides of the roof stared straight towards each other. Straight in between them was a man who turned himself sideways to keep his eyes darting back and forth to the teenagers facing him. Takahashi was wrong to assume they really were staring at him though. The smoke was fading around them as the explosions fired at each other before did not really set the building ablaze. Bakugo stared across the roof for a moment and his eyes locked with Midoriya's. The two of them then shifted their gazes right back at the April Fool's Day Villain. "Yes," Deku replied.

"No problem," Bakugo responded at the same time. Sparks came out of Bakugo's green boots specifically out of the sweat collectors on the backs of his heels. Despite it being towards the end of July, Bakugo had on long tight sleeves down his legs and arms that kept him even sweatier than he already was from all this physical activity. The sun was beating down hot on him, and sweat slid under his tight fabric that did not absorb any of it on its way to the many sweat collection points over his body. He curled his fingers forward at the end of his green gauntlets and leaned his head forward with a smirk crossing over his entire face. "You ready for this?"

"I watched your fight," Takahashi replied, his own smirk lowering down a bit but looking more dangerous the less deranged it appeared. "I saw the two of you so recently give everything you have. Show all of your moves. I thought, the fight was slow," his eyes started to glow red, and he crouched down harder on the roof of the building as he saw the boys moving.

He wasn't talking to you, Deku's body started covering in a faint glow. Energy rippled off of him and he clenched his fists in actions that made miniature shockwaves ripple out from the air around them. Any large attacks here will cause damage to the other buildings around us. And to the building that we're on right now that hasn't been fully evacuated. It's like our first combat training. We can't let there be a lot of damage. Neither of us can make huge attacks, and yet both of our finishing moves are big flashy attacks like that. You've seen them and think that we must be feeling constrained right now. You think you're at the advantage because you can go all out and we can't, but there's something else different about that day and right now.

Deku and Bakugo shot towards the villain at the same time. Bakugo pointed his hands forward and they started to glow bright white, but only for an instant before he blasted regular explosions out of them and bounced himself backwards and straight to the floor. Takahashi expected a Stun Grenade, and he was already reaching one arm to that side while squinting his eyes to grab at the boys' arms anyway despite it. His head was turning the other way too, seeing Deku flying fast at him from the other side. His squinted eyes that he was pulling away continued to glow red, but when the explosion went off on his other side instead of a flash attack, the villain returned his eyes to normal the moment he understood he misread the attacks.

Deku slammed his right fist forward, and he nailed Takahashi over his right arm that the villain was reaching up towards him. Takahashi was slower than before, but Deku saw that was because his focus was split everywhere and not that he was actually getting tired. The villain kept grinning as that first pushed into his chest, and he pulled his arm up faster and grabbed Deku by that fist. He started leaning his head forward with his mouth opening to say something to that boy, but another explosion at his back made him spin his head to the side and look behind him for the other fighter. Bakugo had aimed his explosion down while leaping at the villain though, and he was in the middle of flipping over Takahashi's head which had the villain turning back when he saw the teen's descent out the corner of his eyes. Bakugo was falling right in front of where Deku was pulling his arm back to little effect, but Deku was only struggling partially as his eyes were already closed.

As Takahashi's eyes shifted back, Bakugo fired from his hands that he snapped together in front of him again. "Zero Distance Stun Grenade!" The flash was bright and aimed straight into Takahashi's eyes. He reached both hands up and grabbed at his eyes while stumbling backwards at that flash, then he fell back to the floor as his left leg was slammed into his right by a spinning kick from a kid who opened his eyes after hearing Bakugo's shout. Deku took the villain off his feet, though from the vibrations he felt in Takahashi's legs he could tell the man had kept his Shock Nullification up even when disoriented.

Bakugo shot over Deku's head while his classmate was still crouched from that spinning kick. He raced at Takahashi and swung his right arm forward for an explosion straight into the man's face. His body's hard even without the shock stopping, the way they modified it to let him have these Quirks at the same time! But the backs of his hands were burned! Bakugo's right hand ignited and the explosion looked about to come off of it, when Takahashi's eyes snapped open and the explosion stopped completely. Bakugo saw it happen and his entire body filled with the most rage since they had gotten there, as it had taken looking at him to erase his Quirk right there. His rage was trumped by pain a second later as Takahashi swung a longer arm than his up and right under his own punching fist, straight into Bakugo's chest. Spit flew out of Bakugo's mouth, but his teeth clenched in anger as he felt the hand gripping into his back before he could get thrown off of the punch by the villain's own momentum.

Takahashi was leaning forward and trying to get to a knee, pushing forward on the boy he just slammed a fist into. Bakugo did not fly straight off the punch though, but was swung around the side of Deku's body behind him as his classmate was still rushing forward. Bakugo's right leg that swung out to the side while he was being flung around covered in an explosion again as Deku swung his fist forward. There was a chance, Bakugo understood, that the villain had gone back to Shock Nullification. Bakugo smirked though as he did not feel the wind coming off of Deku's punch when it was slamming into the villain, and he finished his kick that exploded on the side of the man trying to stop the punch he had just focused on. The last attack from Deku even while using Shock Nullification had still taken Takahashi off his feet, which he had not seen coming or even knew could happen. He wanted to blame the floor being too broken up below him, but he actually felt a lingering pain in his left leg where he was just hit which was why he went for erasure first and got hit by the exploding leg.

As claws dug into Deku's muscular right arm, the explosion slammed into the side of Takahashi's head and took him off his one knee to send him rolling across the roof instead. He brought his head up while in mid-roll, facing the teens who charged after him only to stop short at the sight of his mouth and eyes all glowing red. Deku leapt up high in the air, and Bakugo pointed his hands forward and fired explosions as the Energy Blasts shot at him. He had already proven he could counter with his own attacks, and he could not let them fly past him and into the taller building at his back. Midoriya flipped himself around up in the air above the flying red beams, and he kicked off the air and shot back down so much faster to the start of them before flipping around again and nailing his kick down onto the top of the villain's head.

This time, Takahashi's jaw slammed shut and an explosion went off inside his mouth as the red beam had not finished flying. His head smashed into the ground and his whole body left a crater blowing apart in the roof. Broken teeth cut through his lips when his jaw slammed shut so hard like that, and blood started pooling out around the bottom of his face slammed into the roof so hard. Deku dropped off of the villain's body and he stared down with his eyes wide at the blood puddling there. Did I hit too-

Takahashi's left hand snapped out and grabbed Deku by his right leg. His head snapped up, and he whipped his left hand around the front of his body, slamming Deku straight into Bakugo as the blond teen charged him which threw them across the building. Takahashi's right hand was gripping into the floor while he swung with his left, and he yanked his entire body forward like a missile shooting after the two he had just slammed away. Both boys after hitting each other were disoriented for a moment but had started righting themselves in the air. Before they could fully prepare though, their heads lifted first and their eyes opened huge as the villain snapped both arms out and grabbed the teens by their faces. His feet hit down on the ground and he skid forward while slamming the kids' heads into the floor and dragging them across the roof.

Deku's teeth bared into the palm gripping his head, while Bakugo opened his mouth and let out a roar into it. Deku slammed his legs down on his sides and brought his arms in fast towards the hand gripping his face. He stopped his momentum short and yanked the hand holding his face up over his head, taking Takahashi's feet off the ground and starting to flip him over himself. As the man was starting to rise though, the two hands that had lifted right past his other arm and pointed up fired huge explosions up into the front of his body. He used his Shock Nullification but still let out a roar as the front of his body was burned, his bulking muscles turning red and blackening in the flames. His eyes glowed red in the smoke, then they turned to normal fast while he slashed both claws down instead into the smoke and at Deku. Deku flipped up though and kicked Takahashi's arms aside, opening the front of his body again for his comrade flying up right behind him with a bruised face and a huge smirk covering it.

Bakugo's explosions cut off before firing, but the teenager had more momentum than Takahashi was expecting. With his arms pushed to the sides by Deku, it did not matter that Explosion King could not make his explosions. Bakugo brought his right and left hands together and he swung his body ninety degrees to put as much force into it as he could when he smashed his green gauntlets up into the side of Takahashi's already bloodied face. He knocked the villain's head to the side, then as Bakugo started to fall backwards he extended his left hand and grit his teeth as Deku's right hand gripped into it during an upwards leap in midair. Midoriya threw Bakugo back up high into the air, right past Takahashi who snapped his eyes up right after clenching them from the pain. As he brought his eyes up like that though, he saw in the bottoms of his vision that Deku was still rising even after making that throw. "DETROITTTT-" Midoriya had his elbow pulled back far at his side as he rose towards the villain.

Takahashi's eyes shook as he saw the hero's costume ripping apart from his right shoulder all the way down to his fist. 100% Deku thought, and his body showed it as his arm filled with all the power possible. The thought to use Shock Nullification sped into Takahashi's mind and right back out without stopping, as this punch looked even harder than the others he had already been feeling. He erased the Quirk, and then as he started to smirk while slashing a muscular clawed arm down at the defenseless boy below, he saw the flash and heard the explosion above him. His eyes were still fully focused on Deku, but they just started pulling to the side the smallest amount- when he was hit in the back by a massive explosion from the boy flying out of the sky like a missile. At the moment that Bakugo's explosion went off, Deku felt his Quirk return and he finished swinging his arm while flooding One For All into it. He felt the heat from the explosion, but Takahashi's body missed his by inches, and he escaped the flames of the blast by even less space still.

The villain flew out of the air flipping and spinning, and he smashed into the roof so hard it looked like he must have been done. He was still conscious as he shot out of the air though, and he returned to Shock Nullification knowing that the ground must have been approaching. The explosion tore through part of his back, but when he hit the ground he started climbing up to his feet and he glared into the sky at the two teens who were panting while glaring back at him and falling from the air. Midoriya had blown himself away from the blast so fast that he had almost reached another building nearby, and Bakugo had slowed his own descent with his blast that started pushing himself back up in the air. The two of them grit their teeth at the sight of Takahashi getting back up again. Their eyes darted towards each other, and when they made that look they both saw two things. The first they saw was the big screen on one of the buildings that was projecting the top of the one they were fighting on, as well as the sky above it and the two of them. They also saw the helicopter curving around above that must have been aiming a camera at them.

The teens curled the corners of their lips up revealing their gritting teeth. There were glints in their eyes, and Takahashi pulled the bloody corners of his own up so much more as he saw that on the screen in his peripheral vision along with the shout of the reporter yelling about it from up on the helicopter. Yelling about the two who had fought each other with such passion and ferocity in the Sports Festival, how they were fighting together, how they were winning… Takahashi's eyes darted up towards the helicopter as he heard that last part, but he could not focus on the reporter for any more than that mere instant as there were two things flying back towards him out of the air all of a sudden. He started running forward and brought up his arms with bright red balls of light glowing in his palms, and he swung them forward only for the two coming at him to double in speed with explosions blasting out of Bakugo's feet and Midoriya kicking his legs behind him so hard that he accidentally kicked his right boot off.

Takahashi's arms were only half-swung forward, when the two boys reached him at the same time and slammed their fists forward on opposite sides of the villain's face. Bakugo from the top right side of it and Midoriya from the mid-left. The follow-through had an explosion added to it that sent the villain bouncing across the roof and dragging up debris in a trench as he went. The roof started breaking down below him into the already weakened top floor below, making mini-collapses down a couple of floors though luckily Lemillion had already made it down past all of those with anyone who had still been above.

The villain who skid back across the roof neared the edge of it, only for Deku to drop down on that edge and stop him with a foot. Bakugo dropped down at Takahashi's feet after blasting himself up in the air after him like Deku had done, and Bakugo's hands were curled down at his sides with bright glows coming out of them. He was panting just as Deku was with his right fist lifted up above the villain's head, glaring down at the man on the floor whose mouth was wide open and wheezed breaths in and out in pain. His right eye squinted open, and he stared above him only for it to shoot wider in fear of the two teenage heroes glaring into his eye. "Grrr, grr," he started growling from his throat, but his voice was weak and his vision was blurry and getting hazier.

Deku looked to the man's arms and saw his whole body twitching as he struggled to try and move them. All the fighting had completely burned off most of Takahashi's clothes, and they could see now just how many stitchings he had around his body. There were marks on his lower neck and around his shoulders, down the center of his chest and curving around his waist. Near his elbows and wrists there were marks too, and out from some of those stitching marks some blood was seeping out where neither hero had attacked him particularly hard. Deku was panting hard but he tried taking in some deep breaths to calm himself down and focus on the strange aspects of the villain's body. All For One… "I said that All For One could give Quirks to others, right? He made others trust him or surrender to him by giving them Quirks. But apparently, there were many given Quirks who could not bear the burden and became like living dolls who couldn't speak. Just like the Nomus…" He took these Quirks. He took them and it didn't turn him into one of those things, but, to have been given multiple Quirks and to just use them as he pleased? Why would All For One do that for him? What was he doing here? Was there something bigger?

"Takahashi, Haruto," Deku started, not calling him the April Fool's Day Villain this time or even considering it. He did not know if this was the villain's real name, but it was the one he was going by now. The villain lifted his one open eye up to Deku's face. The young hero looking down at him stopped panting and he said with a serious look covering his face, "Where is All For One?"

Bakugo rose his eyes up from the villain for a second to his classmate who he had just fought intensely with for the first time. Not Shigaraki? Bakugo thought, before grinding his teeth and glaring back at the villain below. I would have… Bakugo got a more annoyed look on his face as he thought that, as he realized what he would have done if his mom had been targeted on Shigaraki's hit list instead of Deku's. He tried to shift his focus from it, back to what he had just thought about with him and Deku fighting together like that in a way that pissed him off so much but worked out well. He got confused though. Something was bothering him and his face scrunched up confusedly as he kept glaring down at Takahashi. Where, are the… His head lifted up and he stared towards a helicopter up above.

"You think," Takahashi started, and more blood that had pooled in his scratched-up mouth spilled out from the corners down to his chin. "I'd tell you?" He said it smugly even without being able to move his body. "I'm not…"

No one's cheering. What's… Deku realized it when he saw what Bakugo just looked up at. He had heard the cheers before from higher up in the air above the building, when the reporter on the tv who had been shouting really loud had gotten everyone riled up about them fighting together. Deku started turning his head while he saw Bakugo looking down at him and past at the screen on the building across the street right behind Deku. As his head was turning, he saw Bakugo's bottom lip dropping and his eyes growing the size of saucers. The villain at Deku's feet had just lifted his eye past Deku too, and though the screen was upside-down for him, he read what it said on the bottom and his bloody jaw dropped.

Bakugo's expression shook as he stared at the big screen, "What the…"

"…Fuck?" Midoriya finished for him. Bakugo's eyes darted to his right for a brief second as he did not think he had ever heard Deku say that word before. He looked back though at the screen where there was a stage set up outside of a government building with a woman walking down the steps of the building towards it.

Prime Minister Ippo walked towards the stage with Endeavor not far from her, some other government officials coming down too, and all of them looking serious. There was silence on the tv as no reporters were speaking while the camera recorded Live which they could tell from the 'LIVE' in red on the top right corner of the screen. And at the bottom of the screen was the title that the channel had put up when they heard about the press conference and switched to it immediately from the end of the fight they had been showing. Everyone down on the street of Tokyo below the huge screen, and the three on top of a skyscraper across from it, stared straight at the label on the screen that had every one of them gawking. 'Lifebringer…'

---

"Are you sure about this?"

Zach nodded at the woman standing across from him in the small windowless room. They were on opposite sides of a wooden table that Zach had his hands together over while sitting much more calmly on his seat than the woman who was standing out of hers. She had purple skin covered in white dots, and her orange hair was tied back in a long ponytail behind her. She stared at the boy who nodded in that calm way with a resigned smile on his face, and she slowly took her seat again while trying to calm herself back down. "Why? I could get you- do you not think I could do it?"

"Maybe you could," Zach admitted. He smiled, "But Ms. Hanuri, I don't want you to try. It's better this way."

Rivera Hanuri shook her head at the teenage boy sitting across from her. The seventeen year old had a small smile on his face, and he appreciated the way his lawyer was looking at him appearing like she wanted him to change his mind. She opened her mouth to argue again, but that look on his face had her confused and she shook her head around at the sight of it. "Why?" She whispered. She looked into Zach's hazel eyes and questioned the boy, "If I try, I have a dozen different defenses that I could… Why plead guilty?"

"Because I am," Zach replied without hesitating.

She shook her head at him though. "We could argue an innocent verdict and you could be out today! Because of the circumstances, and Kurogiri's power, your age-"

Zach started shaking his head at his lawyer who bit down in more frustration at that resigned look like he thought there was no hope. She could see he did not believe her, and she balled her fists at her sides as this seventeen year old was resigning himself to a fate she did not want him to meet. And then she pulled back in her chair and stared at him with her fists unclenching, her frustrated expression disappearing and replacing with shock. "If I'm declared innocent for what I did, then other heroes may think it's alright to go around killing villains. People might think that what I did was okay… and I don't want that."

Rivera was stunned that the boy she was looking at was the same one she had met two years earlier who had been terrified at his court hearing. She remembered the short five foot tall child who needed her to do everything for him, who did not understand anything and just wanted to go home. Rivera gulped while looking into his eyes that she just noticed were not resigned, but determined. He wasn't just accepting his fate, he was actively pushing himself towards it. She leaned back forward after a few seconds and she took in a deep breath, before looking into his eyes and nodding her head once at what he just said to her. "I'll still fight to get whatever you're given reduced. You can't stop me from that."

Zach nodded back at her in an accepting way himself. Then he watched as the woman across from him glanced over her shoulder towards the door of the room, before shifting her gaze back to him and speaking in a quieter voice. "So, since we have attorney-client privilege," Zach leaned back in towards the table himself as Rivera started to whisper. "Are you Death?" She asked him in a quiet voice.

Zach smiled more and pulled his head back, and he shook his head at the woman across from him. "I'm not, sorry," he added at the disappointed and also hesitant look she gave him.

Rivera did not know if she believed him. After a few seconds she smiled at the boy though, I'm glad. Zach, you became a good man. When you disappeared from the courtroom that day I felt I had failed you. I'm, really happy you're still alive.

---

'Lifebringer Arrested? Prime Minister Ippo Calls Press Conference.'

The sudden announcement that all the major news media stations had received had everyone in Japan rushing to find their closest tv. Midoriya and Bakugo stared at the screen from the top of a damaged building that fire-fighting heroes were rushing up the stairs of at that moment to try and put out the smaller fires that the explosions had caused without yet getting out of control. Everyone looking at the label on the bottom of the screen rose their eyes to the prime minister as she headed straight up to the podium. "Greetings, citizens." Ippo wasted no time in starting once she was up there, speaking loudly and concisely to the crowd of reporters still gathering in front of her in a larger group every minute. "I have called this press conference to announce the conclusion to a case of great public interest that has been open for more than a year now. Zach Sazaki, the perpetrator of the 'Lifebringer Incident,' has been apprehended and is in the custody of the Japanese government."

"Ms. Prime Minister!"

"Prime Minister Ippo!"

"What's going on?!"

"When did this happen?"

"Prime Minister!"

Ippo was barraged by the reporters who could usually keep calm and wait until the time for questions before yelling them at her. Endeavor glared into the crowd and some police nearby looked like they were going to try and get things under control as the crowd seemed to fall into chaos. The announcement was unexpected, and the reporters needed more than what they were just given. Ippo took in a deep breath and then continued which was a better way at calming the reporters than anything else. "Two nights ago, Sazaki turned himself over to the authorities here in Japan without a struggle."

Endeavor stood to the side of the prime minister and back a few feet. His eyes were focused on the reporters and around at buildings near them in the case of an attack on the country's leader, but he could not stay too focused on security at the moment after what she just mentioned. Two nights ago, Endeavor thought, his eyes dark behind the flames covering the top half of his face. In his head he saw the empty lot that he was standing in with only some police there with him as backup along with a couple of his sidekicks. He thought about the other side of the lot, where a figure in a hoodie with the hood down walked cautiously towards him before going down on his knees and putting his hands up as was ordered of him. He acted like we had never met before. Maybe we hadn't. Not like, I played it as we had.

"He turned himself over?!"

"Why didn't we know about this then?!"

Ippo held up a hand to quiet down the reporters who started shouting again after just a single sentence. "Sazaki made contact before turning himself over, to inform us that he was going to come in. He made one request in exchange for turning himself over, and that was that we keep quiet about it until after his trial. As there exists precedent to do so, such as when he returned from the League of Villains, I saw no reason to deny him this request. The fact that his public trial was targeted by villains once before was reason enough to keep it a secret-"

"So he's already been sentenced?!"

"There will be time for questions at the end, so please hold all your questions until then," Ippo glared at the reporter while saying it, and the man pulled back before nodding at the prime minister. Other reporters who wanted to shout similar things there tried to settle themselves to stay respectful for a bit too, as many questions as they all had. Ippo took a deep breath and then started again, "Yes, Zach Sazaki has already faced trial as of last night. Now, there were many factors involved regarding how to treat him when it came to this trial. The fact that he was a minor at the time of the Lifebringer Incident, and still is a minor came into play during his sentencing…"

"Sentencing?" Midoriya's breathing sped up as he faced the giant screen in front of him.

Ippo continued, "…he also pled guilty with no contest, and he turned himself over without a fight. And, it could not be ignored that Sazaki had a provisional hero license at the time of the incident. He was given a license by the government that made him believe that his judgement as a hero was worth something, that he was someone who should seek out justice, and as such we must accept our part of the blame in giving him this power. However," her eyes darkened and she continued, "he still killed six people that night."

Bakugo's eyes started widening more as Ippo's expression hardened. The prime minister continued, "He admitted to it, to planning out the attack to kill Kurogiri and then continuing to fight and kill five more villains that night in the Enudora Forest. Because of his history as a flight risk, there is only one place to send him, and the nature of his crimes demands a sentence that I agree with the judge fits his crime." The reporters in front of Ippo realized that the sentencing had already taken place too and their eyes started to widen at the way their elected official just worded that last statement. Ippo's voice got lower and she went on, "Due to his record of saving lives and helping the innocent, and that the people in question were villains who he killed while in possession of a hero license, the punishment is one year, per villain who Sazaki killed in the Lifebringer Incident."

The breath that Midoriya just sucked in sucked so much harder and he froze with his eyes bulging at the screen. "…He will serve these six years with no chance of parole. And Sazaki will carry out this sentence in the maximum security prison, Tartaros."

Another breath sucked in hard on the roof of the building Midoriya and Bakugo were on. This time though, it was not from either of the boys. "No," a voice gasp-whispered between them. The two shocked teens still staring at the screen turned and looked down at the man between them who started struggling to move again. "Why? Why right now?" Takahashi Haruto glared down at his body and at his hands that he was telling to move but were only twitching at his sides. More blood spilled out of the stitchings around his body as he pushed his body farther past its limits. "I- I-" he rose his head and his good eye looked back and forth between the two boys. Then it shifted back to Deku and he said, "I'll tell you whatever you want to know about All For One, but then you have to let me go. Let me go free!"

Midoriya stared at the villain's face and he started shaking his head, his heart pounding even harder with a pit of dread forming in his chest. Bakugo stared down at the villain in confusion and then up at Deku's face in more surprise at the look on his classmate's. "We're not letting you-"

"You can't send me there!" Takahashi yelled. Blood splashed out of his mouth and he exclaimed in panic at a boy who recognized this look way too well, "Please, don't- he'll kill me!" Bakugo's eyes widened and shifted back to Deku again from the prisoner, and he lowered his bottom lip at the look on Deku's face that was regretful and pulling back from the villain's. Takahashi saw that look on Deku's face that made his own shake even more, as he could see the teen even believed what he was afraid of himself. Takahashi did not see them budging though, and he yelled, "You can't send me to Tartaros!"

---

On an island connected to the mainland by a long bridge, deep inside the most secure prison in Japan, Juno Kawasagi stared across the cell block with his eyes trembling at something he just heard a man over there shout. The prisoners were not all kept in small cells to stay locked up for life sentences, and the majority of the villains in the prison lived in cell blocks like these with several floors of cells and walkways outside of them. The walkways led to stairs going down to the floor of the cell block where there was a gym area, doors leading to the cafeteria and shower areas, as well as to the "yard" which was still not on the exterior of the building as much as it was made to look like it so as not to break international codes on cruel punishments for criminals.

The cell block was getting louder and rowdier as the rumors spread. Some of the prison guards who stood around the cell block to keep order maintained started getting nervous at the way the prisoners were acting. Tachibana Miyuki leaned to her side and muttered at the man on her right, "Let's cut free time short and have them go back to their cells. What idiot let it slip who's coming?"

Edo Ebboro nodded his head and he spoke in a low voice behind his helmet's dark blue visor, "Prisoners are getting riled up in here. Send some support to Block D, we might need to-"

"Block A is having, some problems."

"Come on," Tachibana grabbed Edo by an arm and tugged back towards a door of the cell block. She turned and started that way to get out of there, and she yelled to the sides, "Get back in your cells! We're doing a drill-"

A skinny man stumble-ran into the guards' paths. The two of them were quick to snap the black batons they had out in front of them with the weapons zapping the floor at their sides. The guards' gazes were dark and intense even towards what looked like an unthreatening villain. Other much larger villains around the area looked towards Kawasagi in surprise at his bold action, but the former scientist for the League of Villains did not look very bold right now. Instead, the Chemist looked terrified as he shouted at the guards in front of him, "Tell me it's not true! You're not bringing him here!"

"Out of the way, prisoner," Edo declared, stomping forward and moving his zap-stick to the side to show he was not afraid to use it.

A few other guards in the room started moving closer, but then a voice shouted through the entire block that had just quieted down to watch the confrontation. Others around this voice turned and looked towards a man who had a collar on and a thick steel blindfold around his face to cover up his eyes which allowed him to be in Gen-Pop with the others. Breakneck cupped a hand to his mouth and called out from up high on a third floor walkway to the middle of the floor down below, "Are the rumors true? You're really sending Lifebringer in here with us?!"

A large man sitting on the edge of his bed even though his cell door was open rose his head at the sound of that shout. Hydro got up and he marched out of his cell, a furious look spreading to cover his face as everyone else started murmuring or yelling too. "SEND HIM TO THIS BLOCK!" Hydro roared.

"Are you crazy?!" Damian yelled to his left on the second floor towards Hydro's cell. The bigger man turned to glare at him, but the red-skinned former member of the War Boys already had a terrified look on his face that only became furious at the one Hydro gave him. "You want him to come here?! Do you even know, what he's done?! What he does to villains now?"

"Hydro," Fez started, glaring a few feet away at the big man in the same white jumpsuit the rest of them were wearing. "You fucking idiot. Don't you get it? The reason he's coming down here!"

"Did they capture him?!"

"How'd they get him?!"

No one captured him, Tachibana thought hesitantly while looking around at the yelling prisoners all around her. He, turned himself over.

"He's coming for us, isn't he?!"

"You can't be serious! You can't let him down here!"

Over in Cell Block A, the guards all made it out of the cell block and locked the doors inside. Oda Bunogawa pulled the microphone up to his mouth and shouted into the cell block that they just locked up. "Get into your cells in ten seconds! After that we are going to close the doors and you won't be allowed back in there until we've gassed-"

"You don't understand!" A man inside the cell block yelled, running towards the door that the guards just left out of. He slammed his fists into them and then ran to the long bulletproof glass window next to the door that he banged his fists on again. Lee banged on the window and pleaded, "You can't let him down here! We aren't safe! None of us are-"

"Oi gaijin! Shut your fucking mouth already," Killmore snarled over at the chubby non-Japanese man. "You don't even know that he's really-"

"I do!" Lee shouted, spinning towards the blue-skinned man and yelling it with a look of fear covering his face.

"Lee," Phinx started, moving towards the man and his old partner who was starting to say too much.

"No!" Lee yelled, spinning to Phinx with a horrified expression. "You've seen him! You know he's Death! And, and you said he wouldn't come for us in Japan! You said we'd be safe from him here!" Lee's face trembled in terror which had the other villains around the prison block who had started to get to know the two mercenaries over the past few weeks and thought they were pretty hardcore getting very nervous. Some of them wanted to just believe that they had the wrong idea about Lee, but Phinx had sweat on his face too and looked towards the glass as if looking to see if he could try breaking out from there.

"If, Death's after them," Needler lifted his head from the floor and glared towards the mercenaries.

Gahandi darted his eyes over to Fudgepack and he nodded his head. The two of them started forward, and they looked across the cell block at Killmore who frowned back at them before shifting his gaze to the mercs as well and balling his fists.

Phinx saw movement all around him. He heard the guards start yelling at everyone to get back in their cells again, but Phinx turned and looked around at the men coming towards him. "Death's not coming for us," Phinx snarled, though there was still sweat on his face and his nervous look showed beneath it. The others all stopped coming towards him though as the hitman shook his head. Their eyes started to widen and they pulled back in fear just as the guards on the other side of the glass did, as Phinx called out at the top of his lungs, "Death comes, for ALL villains!"

---

"Tsukuyomi," Hawks said, dropping down on a rooftop next to his intern for the past two years. Fumikage Tokoyami glanced to the side at Hawks before looking back out from the roof into the darkness ahead of him. "You're going to want to see this," Hawks added, as Tsukuyomi refocused on the task at hand quickly without seeing the look Hawks was giving him.

Tokoyami took his eyes off of the big beach house they were staring towards on the coast of California. His summer internship with Hawks had started off intensely, and none of his classmates knew where in the world he was currently. He looked to Hawks and got out of the zone he was in though, noticing Hawks' look and stepping closer to look at the phone Hawks pulled out and then turned sideways so they could both look at it. Tokoyami stared at the screen and his beak parted with his eyes bulging in shock at the sight on the screen.

In Musutafu, in Class B's dorm building, Komori turned her head and called out, "Hey Kuroiro! Come down here and look at this!"

"Oh man," Kosei Tsuburaba ran a hand up through his spiky brown hair in shock at what he was seeing on their common room's tv screen. "He just, turned himself in? That's-" Tsuburaba stopped himself as he caught something out the corners of his eyes. He turned his head, and he stared where Komori and Kodai were already looking with wide eyes (not that anyone could see Komori's under her long bangs). "H-Hey Kendo," Tsuburaba started hesitantly.

Kendo snapped her head back and she spun to her classmates, then she reached an arm up and rubbed over her eyes quickly with it. "Oh, I'm sorry. I- don't know what came over me," she said, laughing about it before lowering her arm and staring at the screen in amazement again. He's, really back. He's alive. Kendo smiled and felt her heart racing with relief.

Just next door to Class B's building, a group of Class A students could barely close their mouths while staring at their television. "…the prime minister's sudden announcement came as a shock, to I think everyone? Am I right? I mean, Lifebringer getting caught, or something, I could understand. I never imagined he'd be back of his own accord though."

"Clearly he understands now, that what he did was wrong. He- pled guilty to the charges."

"Now, this also comes as a surprise especially, because of Prime Minister Ippo's mention that he turned himself over two days ago. Yet the report yesterday of the Army of Death sighting in China-"

"I told you he wasn't Death. This whole time I kept saying it…"

"Well maybe he was-"

"No! How can you still be saying that? In the report yesterday even, we just overlooked it because it had become so common at this point, but there were accounts of people being brought back to life by someone in the Army of Death who showed up to fight those villains. Confirmed reports, which isn't any different from all the other times except that now we know that it wasn't Lifebringer who was doing it at all."

"You're right, it does seem there is someone else out there with the power to bring back the dead."

"Get back to talking about Zach already," Ashido snapped at the tv screen in front of her. "We- I already knew, I didn't think he was Death already. What's going to- how's this…" The pink girl shaking in her common room with dried tear streaks on her face spun to look at the others around her but they were all still glued to the tv screen themselves. She looked back and she said in a low voice, "What's going to happen to Zach? Why- I don't want him to go to… he doesn't deserve to…"

Mineta glanced to his left towards Ashido and then back at the screen himself. Straight to Tartaros? That's, where the worst of the worst go. Zach doesn't belong there!

"Ito! Where have you been? We started the discussion-"

"I just received a report, about a riot at Tartaros earlier today," Ito started to his fellow hosts in the news room already discussing the press conference that happened not long before. They all stared at him in shock just as the students watching the screen did only with a lot more fear on their faces. "I went to look for a story there as we heard that, Zach Sazaki had been brought in before the announcement was made-"

"What happened?!"

"Is Sazaki alright?"

"How did they let this happen-"

Sero started shaking his head, a worried look spreading over his face as he stood up from the couch he had been sitting in with a shocked expression for the past twenty minutes straight. "No way," he whispered. A panicked look covered Ashido's face and she shouted at the screen in worry, and Sato leaned forward towards the screen himself only to be yelled at by Uraraka to move out of the way. The brown haired girl ran forward too to look around Sato, and they all stared closely as the hosts barraged Ito with questions.

"They didn't get to him, did they?"

"You don't understand," the reporter who just came back began. He cracked a small, nervous smile after he said it which quieted down his colleagues and the worried students yelling at him. "The riot wasn't because the villains were going after Lifebringer, to kill him. It was, the exact opposite."

Sato leaned back and he stared at the screen with his eyes shaking. Sero leaned forward on the center couch and a look of confusion crossed over his face. "What does, that mean?" He muttered to himself.

"Shhh!" Ashido yelled around even though her own breathing was what was so loud that she thought she needed more silence.

Ito Uniro lowered his small grin and he explained to his colleagues and the cameras pointed at him, "When they heard that Lifebringer was being sent to Tartaros, the prisoners started a riot to keep him away from them." Class A's students gawked at the screen, and they all watched with their jaws dropped as the reporter continued, "They think that he's turned himself in so that he can get revenge on all of them. They think, that he got himself sent to Tartaros so that he can get to them."

One of the women in the news room leaned back in her chair and her eyes grew huge. "Oh my God," she whispered. "What if, that is-"

"You can't really think-"

"Apparently Keishi's not the only one to think so," Ito cut in on one of the other hosts before that man could scold the woman next to him. The other hosts looked back at the man who just came in with that announcement, and he continued, "Because the Warden accepted the prisoners' concerns as valid and agreed that Lifebringer should be put in a different holding area than in Gen-Pop with the rest. I didn't get more information than that, but I can only assume that means he'll be kept in private confines."

"Hmm, I hope that does not mean he's going to be kept in solitary," one of the older men at the table began, collecting himself as they were on tv after all. "Though, I suppose I am glad that Lifebringer's not being thrown in with all those other criminals. He is a different case, after all."

"I wish they didn't send him to jail in the first place! It scares me that this kid is now trapped with all those villains who want, to kill…" the woman speaking trailed off and got a more hesitant and confused look on her face thinking about what Ito said. "Though, it seems the villains haven't gotten the message about him not being Death, if they're all so afraid that he's coming for them. Haha, ha…"

"Well, we do know that he is already there," Ito began. "So, at least he hasn't done it yet," he said, shrugging his shoulders. He had a joking look on his face that for some reason did not appear 100% genuine, almost like he was trying to make a joke even though a part of him believed it was really coming.

Inside Lemillion's agency building in Tokyo, Midoriya and Bakugo were standing in a room with the pro hero they were interning with. The three of them were watching this so soon after their recent fight, because the press conference they had after it was cut so short with only a couple of reporters even bothering to show up. After hearing that the main perpetrator of the incident was none other than the April Fool's Day Villain too, even less people cared about it with full focus of even that press conference becoming about Lifebringer which was why Lemillion cut it short. After all, his interns did not know how to respond to the questions the reporters were asking while still overwhelmed by what was happening themselves.

"You two can head home for today," Lemillion finally told the two as all they were doing was watching the news together. "Work starts, same time tomorrow," he added when they looked to him. He had an arm in a sling but it sounded like it would be work as usual moving forward. Lemillion stared at the screen after saying so, and as his interns started away his eyes narrowed down at the news he was watching. Not that, there will likely be anything tomorrow. Is that him? I've seen Death from up close on multiple occasions. I saw his Army fight in the League of Shadows' base, and I saw his Army save Qingxiao. I've seen the clips of him in Frunoco, and Guatemala, Gorran and India. His body type, could match Sazaki's. If someone's still out there bringing back the dead though, then was Sazaki's disappearance really just a… coincidence?

Midoriya looked at the screen one more time as he was heading out of the office. He looked back while Lemillion kept sitting, watching it with an intense and focused glare. Midoriya looked at the woman on screen who he remembered from Zach's first trial. Rivera Hanuri was back up in a video call with the hosts of the news show, and Midoriya lowered his gaze at what he heard her saying before turning to follow Bakugo out.

"…I attempted to defend my client, however Mr. Sazaki was very accepting of his crimes and told the court that he believed he deserved to go to prison for the crimes he pled guilty to. I have also heard about the riot in Tartaros earlier today, and I am going to make sure that my client receives fair treatment while incarcerated. I will ensure that the demands of those villains do not come above the needs, of Lifebringer."

Midoriya walked out and over to Bakugo who grunted as Deku stepped to his side but did not say anything about it. Bakugo waited a few seconds, then he shifted his gaze to the side at his childhood friend whose face was so conflicted and lost in thought. He thought about the way Deku looked when the April Fool's Day Villain was begging not to be sent to Tartaros, and it made him grind his teeth in annoyance combined with the look Deku had now. "You don't really think he came back to kill the Tartaros-"

"No," Deku began quietly, shaking his head and cutting off Bakugo who continued to frown. Even though Deku was denying it, he did not know if he believed that denial with the look still on his green-haired classmate's face. Midoriya glanced at Bakugo and then back down, and his hand rubbed over his phone in his pocket that had buzzed before with a worried text from his mom. "But," he continued slowly as they walked for the elevator to head down to the ground level of the skyscraper Lemillion's agency was in. "That wasn't, the first time I… Those men who came after my mom," Midoriya said softly, and Bakugo lost his annoyed look a bit.

Deku looked back up and into Bakugo's eyes, stopping where he was before they reached the elevators. "When Wonderlass died, I shouted for Zach. I, I yelled for him to come and help… and those men," Bakugo had started grinding his teeth more at what his classmate was bringing up there, but he froze at what Deku was continuing with. "They looked terrified," Midoriya whispered. "They were, so scared that Zach would actually come for them. They begged me to send them to prison instead… the looks on their faces, were worse than what I saw on Takahashi's but, but even he was still willing to do anything to stay away-"

"He's Death, what do you expect?" Bakugo said in a low voice, and he turned from Deku as his classmate stared at him in surprise. They had never talked about Zach together before, and Deku ran after Bakugo while asking him how he knew. "How do I know?" Bakugo grunted back in annoyance after pressing the down button for the elevator. He stared at the closed elevator doors and replied, "What? You really don't think he is anymore, just because some new people claimed they got brought back? He told whoever he left to be the new Death while he's gone to tell the people they save to go around saying that they were revived. Most people will buy it, but it's something he would think of and is pretty fucking obvious."

Midoriya stared at the side of Bakugo's head with his eyes shaking for a few seconds, then he lowered them down to the ground and clenched his fists at his sides. Kacchan's right. I always knew it was you. It's just, for a while I really thought you were… dead. Then a report comes in about the Army of Death, and you just happen to already be in custody about to reappear? It's not a coincidence. And even if more reports come in… I, I'll ignore them. Ignore reports of the dead coming back, just because I think it's probably lies? What if they're not though, and there's someone else you left behind who can revive people? That still, doesn't change that you were Death. I know you were.

"Oi Kirishima, Tetsutetsu," Togaru Kamakiri began to a pair who just walked into Class B's dorm. The two were coming from training together somewhere on campus, and they were still wearing their hero uniforms while sweating badly as they had raced back in the sweltering July heat. The two boys who were arguing loudly about who got there first looked over towards the boy who looked a bit like a praying mantis with his two sharp pincers sticking out his mouth and the green on his mohawk. Kamakiri mentioned his own classmate second, and he looked back specifically at Kirishima after when he saw them look at him confusedly. "You two haven't seen the news yet?"

Others in Class B looked over at the muscular pair who started towards the common area. "Why? What's going…" Tetsutetsu's voice trailed off as he stared towards the screen.

Kirishima stopped in place and his heart rate skyrocketed at the label on the bottom of the screen. 'Zach Sazaki sentenced to 6 years in Tartaros.' "What?" he whispered in shock.

A few hundred miles away, Raijin rose a hand to his chin and started scratching his stubbly blond beard. He leaned back on his couch while other villains talked loudly at each other around the room. His eyes were narrowed at the screen but his lips curled up at the corners at the televised conversations about the one person who had ever beaten him. What are you planning? I don't know yet. You surprised me again. Zach! I'm going to beat you this time.

"Those guys in Tartaros are fucked," Shooter muttered, lifting a hand and rubbing the side of his head with it as he leaned on a back wall.

"Glad I'm still out," Meta agreed on Shooter's right side.

Diamondfist stopped arguing with the men in front of him for a second, turning and glaring back at the screen himself as he heard laughter from the news hosts about the possibility that Lifebringer was on a revenge quest. "Those idiots don't know what they're laughing about. Fucking-"

"Zach's not there to kill them," Raijin started, speaking to the man behind his couch without turning his head. Ten League of Villains' members in the room looked towards the leader of their team who chuckled at the fears they had been voicing. "He's not that, petty," Raijin said in a lower voice. "Something so petty… It's not about you, Kaminari, but, but it's also not about me." "Whatever he's planning," Raijin continued after recalling something Zach had said to him in the Enudora Forest. "It's going to be big."

"Whew!" Mt. Lady leaned back on her bed with a look of relief splayed out on her face. She put her back up against the headboard behind her with pillows piled up on her sides, and she turned her head to look out the open doors of the balcony to her hotel room. The pro hero in a white bathrobe stared out over the ocean that her balcony had a view of back in the direction of Japan, and she smiled while thinking, I'm glad he's still alive. I was getting tired of all the mysteries and stuff.

"You're happy?" Kamui Woods asked, looking at the woman sitting up next to him on the bed in their honeymoon suite. "He is going to prison-"

"Well I'm not happy about that," Mt. Lady said with a sigh, looking next to her at her new husband with her smile dropping down. "But it's still a relief, that he came back. Don't you think?"

"Mmm," Kamui Woods nodded his head and he refaced the television in their hotel room. "I, hope so," he replied.

"…This just in: after much argument, the demands from the media are being met. The government declared on their own that they were going to keep the trial a secret, but we demanded to see it and there were in fact cameras at the trial location to keep a record. We will show any clips that we receive as soon as they arrive…"

Jirou lay flat on her back with her phone on at her side. The sound was on but she was not watching, just listening as she stared up at the ceiling with her face conflicted and covered in frustration. Why'd he come back? Damn it. Momo's, going to go see him. I know she will, and… and what if he mentions the letter he left her? She'll know it was me. I grabbed some things for her from her room, to give her when I went to visit the days after… She'll know I took it.

She turned her head to the side as the hosts kept talking about the boy filling her with frustrating thoughts. Then she sat up and looked over towards her desk. Maybe I should destroy them now. I still, haven't read my own… but I didn't need to. You idiot, why even leave those if you were going to come back?!

In another room on Jirou's floor, Iida was having the same thoughts while staring over towards a single pair of glasses he had remaining in his room. They were a reminder, and he drowned out the sound from the video and thought about the letter he had long since thrown out. 'Goodbye.' He, was leaving for real. I never expected to see him again, unless he was captured by the authorities or killed… but to turn himself in, after leaving like that? I don't understand. Zach, what possessed you to return? Have you really, accepted that you did wrong and chose to come back solely to face the music for your crimes?

What's he doing here? Todoroki glared out his window with narrowed eyes and a suspicious gaze. He's using this. The way he returned is important. What could he gain from doing it like this? Handing himself over, taking the blame for his crimes, it has to be pushing towards something. The way the media is talking about it is the way he expected them to. So what does that mean? I have to figure it out, Todoroki lifted back up his phone and he watched carefully as the people on it were talking about getting a clip of Sazaki's sentencing soon.

"The look in his eyes when it started raining, right before he left," Sato started while sitting on a couch in the common room, eight others in Class A around him. Others looked over at him and they all thought back on what he was talking about. They could see the conviction in Zach's eyes as he said "Goodbye" and Sato clenched his teeth in more frustration as he heard it ring in his head again. "What does he think he's doing, coming back after…"

"This is a good thing!" Ashido called over at the larger boy. "He's, he turned himself in. Isn't that what everyone wanted?" She asked it like no one should say anything against it, and no one did.

Tsuyu looked over at her pink friend though and then lowered her big eyes down to her feet. I didn't, Mina. I never wanted him to come back. The Zach we knew, wouldn't have come back after saying that. He really believed, he was never going to see us again. So then why is he here? For him to have come back…

"Do you guys think, he's got something planned?" Mineta asked, glancing around at the others and then turning right next to him as he saw Tsuyu look at him in surprise. He looked in her eyes and he saw that she was not surprised by his question, but that he was thinking it too. "You do?"

"Hmm…" Tsuyu hummed, hesitant to answer.

"Well of course he does," Sato muttered. Shoji looked over at his spiky-haired classmate who curled his hands down into his knees in anger. "He wouldn't have come back on some half-assed whim. If he's here, it's because he's got some crazy plan. Not that, I'd know what it would be. I don't even know who-"

"It's Zach," Sero said, cutting Sato off and then staring him down when Sato turned towards him with a dark look. Sato's eyebrows lifted up and he pulled back after a few seconds, his fingers loosening off of his legs. Sero smiled softly and looked back at the screen with a more relaxed look than all of the others around him. "Even if he's got a plan, even if he's here to do something crazy… it's still Zach. I'm not worried. I'm just," Sero's lips started curling down and he stared at the screen in a sadder way. "It sucks, he's going to jail. I'm glad he's back, but I guess we all knew that even if he came back, he wouldn't really… be back."

"Only six years though, for what he-" Mineta began.

"'Only' six?!" Ashido shouted at the short boy who pulled his head back at that exclamation. "That's still crazy! He- he shouldn't be… and in Tartaros too?! Where we send the League of Villains and the worst of the worst?!"

"That certainly, isn't Zach," Shoji agreed, though his voice was softer than the pink girl's. But he is a flight risk, as they said. They only charged him for his murders, but putting him in Tartaros is like sentencing him for running away. If he had just turned himself in that night, would things have been different? Perhaps, they would have given him a different sentence. Then again, Zach's popularity rose back up the longer he was gone. The longer the League of Villains were in hiding after losing Kurogiri, the more people believed that what he did put a stop to their plans. The more, people started to accept that Kurogiri's death was an acceptable loss… not that too many people were necessarily angry over it in the first place…

"Alright! Our producers have just let us know that we are the first to receive the actual footage from the end of Lifebringer's trial. We won't delay it any longer, so let's watch…"

The screen switched from the room the hosts were in to a courtroom that looked pretty much empty. There was a judge in the middle of the room up behind the bench, there was a panel of hero officials who had been asking questions who were on one side of the room, and Endeavor and Mr. Principal were on the other side. Rivera Hanuri was standing at a table next to the podium that a figure was facing the bench from behind. And for the first time in over a year, everyone was given a glimpse of Zach Sazaki as he stood with his back to the camera, in a white jumpsuit with his hands handcuffed behind him and a black glove over his right hand. There was no box on his hand, but apparently it was deemed unnecessary since Sazaki had turned himself in and was not resisting.

The judge began reading off the sentencing, first quoting the same things that the prime minister had mentioned earlier before handing down his verdict. Prime Minister Ippo was amongst the hero officials watching from the side, but no one was focused on her or even listening too closely to the dark-skinned judge reading off his damning sentence. "…and despite the heinous crimes of the villains, the justice dealt out by you, Sazaki, was no justice at all. Your actions are indefensible, and for that you must face punishment. There is little precedent for how to judge a crime like this, but I am fair and I am understanding. When all factors are taken into account, I believe, that a sentence of six years: one year for each life you took that night, is a punishment that fits this crime. Due to your past record, the only location fit to hold you is the maximum security prison: Tartaros. In addition, there will be no possibility of parole. This is my decision, and I believe I have carried out my duties to the fullest extent of the law. If you have any complaint or wish to say anything now, please do."

Hanuri looked towards her client and the video showed that she was looking like she did want to say something. She frowned though and then looked back at the judge and shook her head. "No. My client does not contest…"

"In that case," the judge slammed his gavel down. "This trial is adjourned. Zach Sazaki, you will be immediately taken to Tartaros. There are guards and police here ready to transport you." The judge turned his head and nodded towards something off the camera, and some men in police uniforms came forward towards the podium and Zach Sazaki who turned away from the bench.

All anyone had been able to see so far was his back, along with his long black hair that fell down below his shoulder-blades and around the sides of his head to drape over his shoulders on his sides in a messy way both in front and behind them. The length of his hair surprised his classmates who guessed he must not have cut it once since he left them thirteen months earlier. His height was some surprise too as he had grown another half foot in the past year since he had left. When he turned though, he turned left so the left side of his face was the first thing visible. His hair was dropping around his head in such a way that it blocked the left side of his neck, and his bangs covered up most of his forehead and even the tops of his eyes partially. What people could see though from just the start of his head turn, was the scar that cut from the middle of his cheek to just below his ear, as well as in the other direction from his cheek down to the left side of his chin. Everywhere in between those two lines was a darker shade than the rest of his light skin.

The more Zach turned, the more of his face became visible as did the front of his neck that had red marks on it and a scar that looked like something had cut through. His former classmates staring at the screen held their breaths at the sight of these marks, and of the line that cut under his right eye and confirmed to them that the person they were looking at really was their old friend. The guards started leading Zach Sazaki forward towards the door behind the cameraman, and the camera began to pan slowly to follow after Lifebringer as he walked back through the courtroom. As he was walking back through the room though, his eyes shifted towards the camera that was aimed at him and pulling after him.

His steps slowed down and the guards at his sides looked in at him. They looked like they wanted to tell him to keep moving, but Zach only slowed his steps, he didn't stop completely. Zach just slowed down and looked straight into the camera, which meant that he was staring through every television screen and into the eyes of a few million people staring back at him. This had happened much earlier for him, but it still felt to everyone watching that he was looking straight at them. His eyes that had looked so dark as he was walking back through the room suddenly looked softer and just, sad. And he said in a soft yet strong voice, steady and loud enough to be heard on the camera but yet quiet and reserved as he looked like he wanted to turn away in regret, "I'm sorry."

His head turned back forward as if being pulled to look that way, and he quickened his pace again to make up for slowing down there. "Stay with us," one of the guards ordered in a firm voice, making Zach slow back down and stay right between them as the camera panned to follow. It pointed at their backs and then cut off before they reached the doors. The screen went black and then returned to the news room where all the hosts were sitting, frozen after watching that for the first time themselves.

He's, sorry? Mineta thought. Was he…

He's always using it, Todoroki lowered his phone and he ground his teeth quickly to shake off the thought that almost pulled into his head. He's not apologizing to me. That's not- it's an all-encompassing apology. Say it like that and…

"Lifebringer, apologized," one of the hosts began. "To all of us."

"You think that's what he was doing too? I mean, he must have known we'd all wind up seeing that even if he had asked them not to make the trial live."

"He let down everyone. People, really looked to him. He was a symbol, he stood for something and he betrayed the trust people put in him… He understands that, and I think that's why he turned himself in…"

"Even though he killed Kurogiri, for us? Maybe he accepts that he did it in part for revenge too, do you think?"

"I don't know. But, he sounded sincere. I know when villains go up and apologize you never really think much of it, but I mean, I wouldn't really consider Lifebringer a villain in the first place…"

You think he was talking to all of you. But, that apology has more meaning than you get. The way he left us like that, he knows how much it had to hurt. Sero shook his head while listening to the hosts bicker and banter back and forth about Lifebringer. That was for us. It felt like, he was looking straight at me. You don't need to apologize, man. I know, you did what you thought was right.

Who is he apologizing to? Shoji wondered, imagining that it could be for someone in particular and not for him like he initially thought while looking straight into Zach's eyes and hearing that. It, could be… He lifted his gaze up and stared at the ceiling above him.

In her room on the fifth floor, Momo Yaoyorozu stared at her computer screen where the news was being live-streamed. She wanted to rewind and watch it again, but her hand shook on her mouse as she kept listening to the reporters instead. "…I think, he was apologizing to all of us. Not for letting us down, but for the incident itself. He's apologizing for killing the villains, as he's matured and clearly understands what he did was wrong now to have come back and turned himself in."

"He's still a kid for God's sake! Not even eighteen yet, and he was only sixteen at the time! And he was doing a public service. He helped bring about this new peace we're living in now, and he's still apologetic over how he did it. I can't believe that judge thinks his judgement was 'fair' when he just sent a child to the strongest prison…"

Momo's eyes had water in them again, just as they did when she first heard the news. She couldn't rewind back to what she just watched, but she only needed to see it the one time. He was talking straight to me… That apology, was directed straight at me… Yaoyorozu slid her chair out from her desk, pushing back with her hands and looking down between them. "No," she whispered. She started shaking her head, a small frown on her face. "That's not true." He, has a lot of people he's apologizing to… He does, and every one of them are going to think it's towards them, in some way… but, but that doesn't mean, it's not true.

She lifted her gaze back to the screen and she did not have to rewind it anymore as they replayed the clip anyway. Her hands slid off the desk and she watched as he turned around and then looked back into the camera again with a face so different yet one she would never forget or fail to recognize. That may have been meant for everyone, for all our friends too… but I know it was to me as well. Zach, I just- Her thoughts cut off as the boy in the replaying recording said it again, "I'm sorry."

---

A/N ...and he's back. Kind of... April Fool's Day Villain fights a teamed-up Bakugo and Midoriya, then the world is shooketh by Zach suddenly turning himself in. The villains in Tartaros lose their fucking minds at the idea that Death's coming for them, some people are suspecting some plans coming from Lifebringer, Death's still out there and bringing people back to life, or so the reports say. Zach gets 6 years in Tartaros... Thanks for reading! Leave a review below telling me what you think, questions, predictions for what's ahead.

Lief 17 chapter 135 . Jan 20

Wait... wtf... okay... This is a plot twist I didn't expect! Now you need to provide another chapter coz this cliff is too steep for me... I was about to sleep when I got a notif so I checked it out. Hopefully we still see the AOD in this next arc and hoping for the long-awaited return of Zach to Japan.

Plot TWIST! I'm getting really busy as it's my last semester at school and I've got a whole ton of stuff I gotta do with my thesis and job applications and stuff, so chapters gonna be slower down to probs 1 or 2 a week for now on but I'll try to keep up the intensity! Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoyed the start of the return arc!

Anime Profile Picture chapter 135 . Jan 20

I think that is the most brutal Zach has ever been. Cutting off somebody's tongue, fucking up their V. cords, and mincing their fingers, effectively removing most forms of communication. God, I'd rather be dead than live in that form. Next time however, I'd like to know what goes through his mind while he performs acts like these. How he copes. To determine where this man falls on the spectrum of sanity.
Anyway, it seems like Zach took this 'defeat' pretty hard and now whats to leave. Where to? Probably nowhere near U.A. (RIP Wonderlass ;). DEAD BY BROWN SPEAR THINGIES BIGGER THAN ALL MIGHT'S MEAT SCEPTER). He is leaving Darling behind too, which actually surprised me since those two were like fucking Batman and Dick Grayson Robin levels of close.
Overall, good chapter.

Zach's brutality put on full display there, though it was up against one of his worst enemies through his time as Death who he still held back from killing. Zach leaves Amaterasu unable to blackmail anyone ever again, hopefully, and as for where Zach falls on the sanity scale... well I direct back to his thoughts at the start of last chapter for a good measure of where he was at lol. Also, glad you appreciated the Wonderlass/All Might interaction there at the end, hope I got some laughs even in that dark moment. from you guys. We'll see how Zach moves forward from here, and thanks for the review!

Shinn of Destiny chapter 135 . Jan 20

...what
...just
...happened

Zach's on his own now. New plan. Secret plan. ;)

Todorokiii chapter 135 . Jan 21

No. No. No. He's insane! How could he just leave his army after everything!? My mind can't process and absorb the whole Zach giving the title Death to Gentle. I'm crying (not really). I mean, what would happen next? Will he go back to Japan after leaving? Why? Isn't it happening to soon? (If he is going back to soon then Momo and Zach interaction) Quick quick! Also, what would he do? Hide in the freaking shadows or be stuck in jail or something? (I don't think it would happen, if it happens, I call for a time skip or he will be saved or escape) Btw, please don't tell me he's going back as hero shit (I don't think it would happen, but Im freaking out) I just want him to be Death and Death alone, and if he has another identity, well shit! Urgh! Author-san, why are you making cliffhangers? do you that could also make people insane. Shoutout to Amaterasu by the way! Anyway, I was shook why it was short (not complaining), Im just surprised that's all.

Yes yes yes. Zach has returned, and nice call with one of those with getting stuck in jail (even if you didn't think it was really coming). Def a short chapter last time, but a short and important one. This one near 20k to make up for it lol. Thanks for the review and hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Big Fan of Death chapter 135 . Jan 22

What
What
Why is Zach stepping down?
Wtf is going on?
You will explain yourself in the next chapter hopefully?!

Explain myself? Haha, never!