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!

140. Chapter 140

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 140:

Zach sat on his side of the Cyn wall separating him from the two guards facing him and looking down at their prisoner. Their jobs were to "stand watch," but Zach just asked if the two wanted to sit down since nothing ever happened there anyway that they would need to keep watch for. Neo and Edo gawked at the kid after he said that to them, considering what had happened just earlier that week. The same guard shift that Zach had when Faith was led down his hall closed their jaws as they realized the boy was just messing with them despite having said it in a non-joking way.

After Neo closed her mouth, she frowned and curled her lip down more on her right side at the inmate's expression that did not look different from usual. I don't, feel all that different though. Oda and Kaiyu had to take some time off, but the Warden says Sazaki told him it affects different people differently. Or is it just that different people take it, different ways? I don't know. I feel, Neo hummed and she opened her mouth to say something to the boy in front of her. "When you bring people back to life," she started, and Zach nodded to show he was listening and willing to answer her questions. "Do any of them ever, I don't know, break down?"

"That's what dying is like?" "I can't!" "I- I'm sorry!" "I offer you my life, my body… my soul." Zach heard voices in his head and he grimaced at what Neo asked which was not reassuring for the woman. "Why? Did any of the others I brought back, start acting funny?"

"No," Edo said, shaking his head and answering for Neo. "A couple just needed some time off. I think it's reasonable, to need to think over your life. I did. Maybe they, don't want to be prison guards anymore." Neo looked to her side at her comrade who continued softer, "I know, I considered quitting. I think what I do here matters though. I want to stay, and I know that for sure now." He cracked a smile and a glance at Neo to see if she thought the same way, though she was just looking at him with wide eyes at his answer before getting slightly red cheeks and spinning to Zach before her guard-mate could see those cheeks under her visor.

"I didn't think too hard about it," Neo whispered. "I mean, some things sure I considered- but wait! You say some people do?"

"I didn't say that," Zach countered.

"Well you sure looked like it was what you were thinking," Neo said, and Zach frowned at that response as he realized he was not really trying to hide what he had been thinking a minute ago.

"Sometimes people do, but not- they break down as in death can give them a completely new perspective on life. It happens a lot, but for some people the change is very drastic. It changes a lot about them and how they perceive the world and their place in it," Zach said this seriously but he smiled again after finishing. "But I'm sure the others will be fine, even if they needed some time off. How are you doing?" Zach asked, as this was Neo and Edo's first shift with him since that day and despite coming to see him already to thank him they had not talked about much together.

Neo started to frown again though after Zach's question. "Good," she said. She looked hesitant even as she frowned, like she wanted to sound upset here but that it was also hard with the boy who had revived her just the other day. "Inmate-" Neo began, hesitated, then she continued in a quieter voice, "Sazaki." Zach lifted his eyebrows as she called him by his name there, but Edo looked in at him intensely and in a sad and unsure way too at what he knew Neo was about to bring up.

"Yeah?" Zach asked.

Neo looked into his eyes through her visor and said, "The man we brought through here. The inmate who went by the name, Faith. He's…"

Zach stayed silent and did not respond to what was not a question even though Neo had trailed off and was looking at him almost expectantly. She looked to be awaiting a response but Zach did not have one for her, despite having a strange expression on his face that made Neo think he knew what she was referring to. She took in a deep breath though and started over, "You knew he was going to kill us." Her expression got harder, but Zach started shaking his head.

"I didn't," Zach said. "I knew it was a possibility. I was trying to warn you," he stopped himself as he saw the guards looking frustrated on the other side of the Cyn as they knew it was true. They cursed themselves for trying to hide who was being brought down the cell block for no reason other than keeping up their professionalism by not discussing prison business with an inmate. Zach could see both of them had already thought about how he had been prepared for Faith and they might have survived had they just asked for his advice. Zach stopped speaking as those looks covered their faces, and he continued, "But I also didn't know if he was going to kill everyone or not, or if he would just turn and give me a certain look, like a-" Zach got up and he turned to his right. The guards looked in at him as he started slowly walking across the inside of the Cyn with his head partially bowed and his eyes shadowing over darkly. Then the corner of his lip closer to them rose a small amount and his head turned to the side as he was pacing, and it was a look that gave the guards chills even knowing what the prisoner was doing.

"That kind of look," Zach said while walking back and sitting down again. He crossed his legs and then continued, "He could have done a lot of things, but the fact that he was coming down this hallway told me that he meant to come down this hallway. That he waited this long to give up information and the way he did it to manage what he managed."

"How could he have known he'd come through here though?" Edo asked. "How could he know he would come past you?"

"I don't know," Zach replied. "But he could have faked an illness to be brought to the infirmary. He could have faked a psychotic break by bashing his head into the wall to get brought to the psych ward. There were different options for him to get moved around this prison in different pathways, but he picked the option that got him walked right past me. He planned that out, because he believed himself to be a master manipulator." The two guards listening to Zach got more hesitant looks on their faces again. First at the mention of the 'psychotic break' and then the fact that Sazaki used the past tense for how the man 'believed' himself to be that good of a manipulator.

"So you know," Edo whispered. "Did you, do that to him?" He asked. Zach looked into Edo's eyes and the man said in a slightly more steady and stern voice, "Did you make him go crazy?"

"My Quirk can't do that," Zach replied. "That's what you're asking, but to say it was me wouldn't really be, wrong." Zach glanced to Neo and then back at Edo, and he finished, "But I didn't 'make' him crazy. He was already insane."

"But," Neo began. He turned back to her and she hesitated with her head pulling back for a second. She did not want to question him, as she cared more about him now than ever after he had brought her back to life. She was the first he had revived too, and she had seen how much it hurt him to bring back the others in that locked-down area with her after she had woken up from death. Neo stopped holding back though and said, "Why? You wanted this to happen to him? He's gone crazy. Not like before, now he's really… How did you do it?" She asked that 'how' question at the end instead of 'why' again because she thought the answer might not be as bad.

"I knew calling him 'predictable' would break him down," Zach replied. The guards who had been dead for that conversation had heard what Kaitou said about it, but their fellow guard had been shaken up and did not report very clearly what had happened and what was said. Zach could see the two guards were listening closely and believing him, and he took a deep breath and gathered his thoughts as he decided how he would move forward. Was it a crime? Do I want to lie? I don't have a good lie, so maybe this would be a good time to practice coming up with one on the spot and improvising… Or I could just tell the truth. I don't want to lie right now. Do they like truthful me or just the me who's always lying?

"As much as he thinks he was chaotic," Zach continued. "He was proud in his chaos and randomness, and that's what got him caught both times. I insulted him like he was nothing, not one of the most impressive villains I had faced; I made sure that man knew that he was barely anything to me." Zach paused and he kept his expression calm and steady, trying not to get disheartened by the way the guards started to look at him here. "I've seen worse than Faith," Zach kept going. "I wasn't lying the way I acted, I guess. He wasn't that impressive, though I did make it out like he was much less than I know he was. I didn't hear him out. I didn't let him speak about things I'm sure he planned out for a long time, nor did I give him a chance to fight back as I attacked him with a lot of Death from the start so he would know he was overwhelmed. I completely defeated him, and I did it after calling him predictable. That's what's most important. The fact that by the time we were in sight of each other, I was already exactly where I needed to be to attack him when the chance arose. I didn't flinch as he broke out of his cuffs while everyone else was so shocked it was happening, because I had accepted that it was one of the many possible outcomes. But to him, after telling him that I saw it coming, and then countering it like I had already planned that out too, I put the thought in his head that I knew exactly what he was planning from the start."

"That's crazy," Neo said, shaking her head at the boy in front of her. "How did you come up with all of that in the time between when we told you he was coming and when you saw him?"

"I thought he might come for me in here," Zach replied, shaking his head back at her. The guards looked at him in surprise, as apparently it was not all a lie and Sazaki had predicted the other man from the start. "It was a possibility, so I planned for it. I was coming to a place where everyone was going to be terrified of me, and people want to destroy what they fear. Every villain here who's afraid of me would potentially try to kill me, in order to prevent me from killing them. And I know so many villains down here, powerful ones, ones I've put in here, League of Villains, assassins," Zach paused and took in a deep breath to calm himself after spitting that word out.

"Even if you saw him attacking you as a possibility though," Edo started. His voice was low, and though he accepted what Sazaki was saying he also had a pit in his gut at it all. "I get that you couldn't just tell us all your fears and your plans, since it sounds like you have a whole lot that probably won't ever be useful?" He brought his tone up there at the end and Zach nodded once to show Edo was right in thinking that. The older man continued though, "But, I still don't see why you did things this way? Kaitou says you waited to get him until the cameras were off, was that so there would be no footage of your power? I know you never used it during the Sports Festivals, but there has been recordings of you using it other times. I get that you had to wait too, until we had already been attacked, or we would have had to give you a longer sentence… I know that! If you had suddenly attacked him just because you thought he might be dangerous-"

"I'm still sorry, I didn't do that," Zach said in a low voice himself, as Edo was trying to not get mad at him and Zach felt the man should be. Edo and Neo both shook their heads at him though. He lowered his head at their looks which told him they wanted to believe in him. The truth! "The reason I said the things I said to him though, in the way I said it that has made him break down, is different though. I could have stopped him any number of ways. Ways that wouldn't have done as much damage to him."

"Then why?" Neo asked.

"I'm glad that man will be stuck here forever knowing that he was no one," Zach said. His eyes were dark and he rose his head with an expression that scared the two guards facing him. The prisoners on the sides of Zach's cell felt afraid just from that answer alone, and Twice stared up at the ceiling with fear covering his face as despite being muffled, he heard that clearly and echoing in his mind. He had never felt more thankful for the forgiveness Sazaki had given him than in that moment. Zach stared at the scared guards and continued without reacting to their expressions, "I cast that doubt in his mind, and he will always question whether or not I knew what I was doing. He'll always wonder if I did it just to mess with his head, or because I really did think that he was not random at all like he cared so much about. Yet even that will plague him, because even thinking about that question shows that I was right and it is messing with his head, which means he is predictable." Zach's eyes shifted straight ahead, and he glared through the Cyn and across the hall with a thousand yard stare. "So is it both? Neither? One can't be without the other but neither had to be true in the first place as it could have all been fake."

The guards felt their heart rates racing so fast they could hear them pounding in their heads. They were shook by what the inmate just told them, and they were still struggling to wrap their minds around it which made their hearts race all the faster as Zach finished in his darkest voice. "It's a paradox that will trap him for the rest of his life. I heard that he gave Wrangler a heart attack, that he manipulated so many people and got them to kill each other, got heroes to quit and dozens of heroes murdered." Zach's eyes shadowed over as he thought about some of the things Lavamander had told him too, back when he needed to know more about the villain around the time the Stain Cult was destroyed. I had Scotland. Lavamander had X. At the time, that was the comparison I made between his story of that night he caught X. The night that caused Wrangler to retire the first time. "He was, and still is," Zach continued, lifting his gaze back up to Edo and then shifting it over to Neo. "A villain who deserves much worse than a nice cell like this."

"Even a regular cell is not punishment for those crimes, no matter how much useful information he may have given up." Zach paused and he finished in a lower voice only his guards could hear as he had been getting quieter there for a minute now, "Now a straightjacket and tiny padded room will be his physical prison, and his mind will be another. A punishment more deserving a man like him."

Neo gulped and she nodded her head in understanding at all the teen had told them. I, get what he's saying. I really, think I do. As terrifying as it is that he was able to-

"You really are crazy," Edo whispered. He shut his mouth as Zach looked back to him, like he realized he said that out loud only after the kid looked at him. His tone had been one of shock and revelation like there was no doubt about it now, and he pulled back at the look the teen gave him after hearing it.

Zach glanced down at the floor in front of his crossed legs. He let out a heavy breath and then lifted his lips back up at the corners while pushing dark thoughts from his head. "I might be," Zach admitted. He rose his head up still with that small grin and added, "But I saved your life." Edo's eyes opened wide, and Zach shrugged his left shoulder up like it was a silver lining that could make him accept the darkness of what he had just done. Zach kept looking at Edo too after that shrug, as if waiting for Edo to change his expression and accept it too. The guard did not know if he could that easily, and Zach added, "This guy killed five guards without batting an eye. He escaped from here once before, and started a hero-killing cult that became the strongest villain group in the country. If he got out of here again, not that I'm saying you guys aren't good at your jobs, but it is a possibility, he would have just kept killing more people. Putting him in prison wasn't a punishment." Zach shook his head and his smile lowered back down flat as he got more serious again, "He loves making plans and manipulating people with long strategies, and I'm sure he spent his first run in prison preparing for the day he'd finally get out and be able to use it all. What I did, was turn this place into an actual prison for him. His thoughts won't be as organized, he won't be able to enjoy just his own company as he's plagued by his mind that used to be his most precious feature."

The inmate leaned back where he was sitting and finished, "Prison isn't really prison for everyone. Not everyone hates it down here." He cracked a smile again without mentioning anyone in particular, but the guards in front of him did not need him to reference himself after they had spent the last several months with this boy who was always in an oddly good mood with his stories and conversations. Even now, as the things he talked about were one notch away from some of the darkest things the guards could think of, they felt like chuckling along with him as this was just his sense of humor. It was dark humor, but Sazaki had defended that humor of his to them before when they asked about him being insensitive about his dead comrades when talking about an old battle. He said that when death was a part of their everyday lives, they needed to not take things as seriously and to be able to joke about even the darkest subjects, because those were the only subjects they were dealing with. Neo and Edo had had a harder time just laughing along with Sazaki as they did not feel the same way, though they tried to understand how he could laugh at times like those. Once they accepted that he could too, and that it was his kind of humor, they started to get into it more and more.

Neo started to grin but she frowned quickly as she thought back just a minute to what he had admitted to them. He made Faith go insane. That's horrible. It really… fuck that guy though. He killed me! Could I, have done something like that to him? I could kill him. I won't say it aloud, but I want to kill him. I know some of the others feel the same. Maybe that's actually why they had to leave work for a while, they were afraid they might kill our prisoner out of revenge. The Warden might have even feared it from them and sent them on leave himself. Is this, better than death though? The cameras were off. He had just killed five of us. If Sazaki had killed Faith, sure there would have been a trial down here to determine if he gets more years added to his sentence, but nothing should have happened to him. He could have killed Faith. But, instant death? Did he want Faith to suffer? Or did he just not want to kill him? He doesn't usually sound so against killing, but he also gets angry and righteous about fighting killers. "I, don't understand you much, Zach Sazaki," Neo started. She shook her head and then looked down into Zach's eyes and cracked a dark smirk of her own. "But thanks for bringing me back to life. I can't say I agree with the new punishment for Faith, but then again," Neo shrugged and looked away, "what do I know? You're the one who makes the laws in this country."

Zach started laughing, and Edo cracked a grin too after staring at Neo in surprise for a few seconds there. "Lifebringer's Law," Edo said, looking down at the teen who only laughed a few times before gaining a semi-serious look despite the smile still there. "Must've been a surprise when you came back to see we named a law after you."

"That nickname was a surprise, I guess," Zach began immediately. "But not the law itself. I knew people wanted change." Zach smiled more and he whispered, "I hoped a law like that would have been passed already. I was disappointed they nicknamed it after me, considering all I had done. And also, because it's not everything I wanted. Not even close."

"It was your report though," Neo countered. "Read that whole thing online," she continued and Zach smirked after looking at her in smug surprise. She wanted to say something negative after that look, but she had to admit he had the right to look smug there. "I still can't believe you wrote that as a first year in high school."

If I report what he said to the Warden, will Sazaki be kept down here longer? Edo thought, his mind straying far from the current conversation. Would it even matter if we tried? If people knew about it, then they would definitely feel differently about him. Maybe… Everyone hates Faith. They all hated Kurogiri too, but Faith is really one of the most hated in Japan. People wouldn't have minded if he had killed Faith, but if we spread rumors that Sazaki… what did Sazaki do? He knocked out a villain who killed several of the guards. Admittedly, that's all he really did. He suspected how Faith might react to certain things, but there's no way he knew for sure what would happen. The idea that he had a hunch that by saying a few mean lines he could cause the villain a mental breakdown, is ludicrous. And even if he admits to it, what is the crime here? He did it while they were fighting, while we were being killed! For justice?! I don't know. I don't know what he was thinking- actually, I'm pretty sure he just told me. It's just hard to believe. But not as hard… to accept.

Lifebringer, you're insane, Edo thought, and then a smile broke out over his face. But I love you for it.

---

"And we can now call the Kyoto prefecture going for Kaizo Nikko."

"Woohoo!" Ashido called out, then she lifted a party favor to her mouth and blew into it to make a loud buzzing noise. She was in the common room of Class 3-A's dorm, along with half of her classmates who were all watching the live results for the nation's elections. It was not something they had done in past years, but Ashido had made it out like they were having a party and even got snacks and drinks so others would be more inclined to hang out and watch it with her.

One of the others on the panel of news hosts discussing results of the ongoing election mentioned to his colleague, "Kyoto was a closer call, but with it Nikko has now swept the Kansai region completely."

"It's not over," a female host started arguing with her male counterpart next to her. She had been an avid supporter of the incumbent Prime Minister Ippo, and she continued, "All the votes for Tokyo haven't been counted yet, and polls showed that Prime Minister Ippo was ahead by three points-"

"That was before the election started. You can see the live results right here. Nikko is ahead even in the prefectures Ippo was most favored to win in. The way this election is turning out, is looking to be a landslide in Nikko's favor."

"I have been calling it for weeks now. His poll numbers skyrocketed with each promise he made, but there's only one that really matters and I think a large number of Nikko's voters are single-issue voters."

In the common room, Sero leaned back on the center couch and he put his hands behind his head with an amazed look on his face. "It's really happening then, huh?" He turned to Mineta on his right who nodded while still looking at the screen in some amazement himself at the way the numbers were coming in.

"I can't believe how much he's winning by," Mineta began. "You guys think you did that?"

"Well, I would not say that it was due solely to our efforts-" Yaoyorozu began on the couch to the right side of the tv.

Ashido called out louder than her taller friend though, "It was definitely us! Or- we helped at least!" She changed it up a bit considering how different the numbers were, as she did not know if she convinced 1.3 million more people in Nara to vote for Nikko than the current Prime Minister.

"It's a huge margin," Sato admitted, though his voice was low and he was not being very vocal tonight. A couple of the others looked towards the large boy who had actually helped with the campaigning too, but who did not look too enthusiastic despite their candidate winning.

Hagakure looked over towards Sato and she felt her own heart flutter. She glanced down for a second and then next to her at Ojiro who was standing at her side and watching the tv with a small smile, though cautious as well. Hagakure glanced back at the screen, Is this really for the best? She hesitated for another second and then said, "I liked Prime Minister Ippo too…" The hosts on the screen were talking about the possibility that people were voting against the former Prime Minister, and Hagakure did not like that or think it was fair even if the woman's popularity and approval ratings had been down through most of the country over the past six months.

Others around the room looked back at Hagakure though at what she just said. She saw some of their looks and threw her hands up, her sleeves waving in front of her invisible body. "But I voted for Nikko! I did!" She assured them.

"There is no need to be defensive," Yaoyorozu began. "Even if it were not true, no one can tell you how you should vote."

Ashido opened her mouth to counter that with a joke about how they should vote though, but she closed her mouth while looking across the couch area towards Sato who looked down after hearing what Yaoyorozu said. Then he got up and turned to head over to the stairs, and Ashido got an even more confused look on her face as she could not tell what he was thinking. She looked to Koda who had been next to Sato and watched him go, and the boy with a head the shape of a rock looked back and shook his head showing he did not understand either before turning back to the screen in a hesitant way himself.

Yaoyorozu smiled as another prefecture of the country was called for the man who she had voted for in the first election she was legally allowed to vote. We did it.

---

"Oof. Shifts over already?" Zach asked, looking down the hall to the right the same way the two guards outside his cell just spun. "And I was just about to tell you about our final attack on the Queen's forces. The day I left that world."

"Well, I'm glad the story's nearing its end," Kaitou said with a grunt.

"Oh it's not," Zach assured the man who looked back at him in some confusion. Zach grinned and he asked the men standing there, "Who said Terra was the only world I traveled to?"

"What?!" Oda asked, before shutting his mouth fast and darting his eyes over to the man walking towards the cell with two others. That man gave Oda a strange look which had the guard feeling like an idiot, even as Zach spoke up behind him to answer his surprised shout.

"In my fight against the Queen, she fled that world as I had destroyed her entire country and defeated all her Generals. She could not leave me behind though," As Zach continued, he saw Warden Ryusuke walk into view with Tachibana and Neo right behind him though looking towards his cell with wide eyes at what he was saying in a somewhat loud voice. "Her power wouldn't allow it. She couldn't leave a stranger in a strange world. I chased her through the portal, barely even thinking about what I was doing, and the Doorway closed behind us. I had left Terra, and I never saw anyone from there again. I believe that without her there though, and with the momentum I had gathered, that the world would be safe even after I had left it."

"And the new world?" Ryusuke asked. Adam Ryusuke stepped up in front of the Cyn to stare at the boy whose stories he had heard rumors of. He felt like he was hearing a big one by the shock and excitement on his guards' faces, and he was interested himself so he asked the teenager in front of him with an eyebrow raised.

Zach grinned at the Warden whose face he could see as the man was not wearing a helmet like the guards. He saw Kaitou and Oda look in at the Warden and caught a small grin on the other side of Oda's visor for a second too, but he did not turn to the guard and just looked the Warden in the eyes with an intense smirk. "Was nothing like Terra, or our world. I spent nine months there-"

"Wait," Neo started, stepping forward on the Warden's left side. "You said you were in Terra for seven, and that you were back here before June after leaving in November-"

"Time didn't run the same way in that second world," Zach continued without getting halted by her question. Neo's eyes started to widen that Zach did have an answer for her, and he continued in an intense voice, "The amount of time I spent in Terra was almost the same amount of time that had passed here while I was gone. All the time I had spent in, that other world, was not even a day here. And because that world aged so much faster, it was so far ahead."

"Of what?" Oda asked.

The Warden opened his mouth while glancing at Oda, but Zach spoke up and stopped him, "Our technology. Space exploration. Warp travel." Zach's eyes filled with amazement and wonder, and he looked ahead as if looking somewhere else completely. "Entire galaxies were explored and connected by interstellar highways. There were as many different kinds of ships as there are vehicles on Earth. And as many different planets, with so many different species much crazier than any gnome or vampire or giant. And across that universe, ruling with an iron fist across the stars…" the guards in front of Zach started opening their eyes wider and holding their breaths at the intense look matched with his lips curling back down. "I fought against her in the Rebellion, to free planets from her Empire's reign. Not many Quirks existed in that world, but when battles were fought in space and with technology that far surpassed most powers, I needed to fight a different way. Because as powerful as Doorway girl was as the Queen of Arcasia, she never controlled everything in that world. But as the Empress, she ruled her Empire for a thousand years as a God. Disappearing for centuries at a time, and coming back at planned times that her followers heard through the generations that she would return in and then were convinced that she truly was God when she would return, what might have only been weeks or months of absence for her. And she could spend an entire year ruling there without missing too much in any of the other worlds-"

"Oda, Kaitou," the Warden started, cutting the prisoner off. He remembered what he was about to say before when Sazaki started that amazing story that he could not tell if had any truth in it or not. He motioned to his side with his head after the guards looked at him, and a disappointed look flashed over Kaitou's face for a second while remaining there on Oda's. Kaitou turned and started heading off, as their shift was over and they should have gotten going already.

"Don't tell too much of it," Oda started to the kid while turning to head after Kaitou back down the hall.

"Oh he's going to," Neo assured the man about to walk by her, making him frown in frustrated disappointment.

The Warden glanced at Neo for a second which made the woman close her mouth and get an intense look on it again while re-facing the prisoner. Ryusuke sighed and he looked in at the teen who chuckled at what Neo said to his other employee. I don't think he's secretly planning anything. This was a foolish guard posting for the last five months. No point in getting rid of it now though.

"Oh," Oda started, stopping where he was walking down the hall and looking back towards 1667's cell. "By the way, Merry Christmas, inmate."

Kaitou glanced back towards Oda who he saw turn forward again and then smile wide behind his visor. Zach looked down the hall in the direction of those two guards who he had felt were acting pretty strangely that morning. Is it just because it's Christmas?

Oda walked up to Kaitou and saw the uninterested look his colleague gave him at what Oda was smirking about. Oda elbowed Kaitou as he walked past and said with a chuckle, "Don't deny it. I know you voted for Nikko too." Kaitou rolled his eyes and just walked without humoring Oda with a reply, and without having to come up with a lie to tell about how he didn't.

"Mind if I come in?" The Warden asked the prisoner who rose an eyebrow at the question before nodding his head.

"You don't, have to ask," Zach replied slowly. He backed away from the Cyn since it did not seem like the three outside it wanted him to put his hands through the slot to be cuffed first. What does he want? Does it have to do with the looks on the others' faces? Something happened, but they seem pleased by it and think that I would be pleased too. Unless they're all sadists and just smiling- I've got nine months worth of stories I can tell now. I feel like I should have gone with a shorter amount of time, since I already used so many for those seven months. Guess I can stretch out the rest with more awesome detail.

"Inmate 1667," Ryusuke began after stepping into the cell that he closed behind him. The two guards stood on the other side facing in at them, and Ryusuke watched as the prisoner re-focused on him as it seemed for a moment there the boy's eyes were looking into his but not really paying attention. He had seen the same look when he first introduced the boy to the prison almost half a year earlier, though he was not annoyed by it this time. "As you may already know, this year there was an election over Japan's next prime minister."

Did Ippo not win? She was very popular when I got in here. Hope it didn't have anything to do with me. She was changing things gradually too. Is that why she got ousted? He wouldn't come in here to tell me about someone staying in office. Did people in this country think too much was- no, the looks don't match. Someone more progressive then.

"Kaizo Nikko won in an apparent landslide victory, after being far down in the polls only a few weeks ago when he first announced his run for prime minister. A former representative from Osaka, Nikko is an outspoken progressive promoting change in Quirk laws and policies around our country." Zach lifted the corners of his lips up a little and nodded in understanding, as well as gratitude for the Warden to come tell him this himself. Ryusuke continued to the boy while shaking his head and confusing Zach, "Many believe his policies will get through our legislature and be supported by most hero officials, fairly quickly. Looking at the huge victory he won, it is clear to the media and government what the people of Japan want. However, there could be some pushback on his suggested policies, as the landslide could be all for one reason that the election really became about in the past weeks."

"Which is?" Zach asked.

Ryusuke took in a deep breath and then smiled at the scar-faced prisoner in front of him whose heart rate spiked at that look. His mind was racing but Ryusuke spoke faster than he could conclude on his own this time. "The new PM gets into office on January first. He will be inaugurated that morning. And immediately after that he has promised to sign an executive order, which will pardon you of your crimes." Zach stared into the Warden's eyes with his own hazel ones wide and his mind racing even faster. Ryusuke continued even though he was expecting a surprised shout or at least a smile from the boy who had lowered it a few seconds ago. "It was something Nikko said he would do often, and loudly, while campaigning. There were not many vocal opponents, though there were a few, but there were many more supporters who came out in large numbers when he made that promise. A change in policy alone wouldn't have gotten as many people out to vote for their first times. People who never usually vote, new voters, the old, women, minorities, the media has been giving many reasons for his win but most attribute it to Ippo not budging and saying that she believed the justice system played its part without her involvement to deal the justice it saw fit."

The Warden paused for a second and then said with a tilt of his head, "Most people didn't accept that."

Shit. Shit shit shit. It's Christmas so New Year's is only a week away. I'm not ready to get out of here! FUCK! How am I- How do I- I need to make a plan right now! This was always a possibility. The possibility that I wasn't going to be thrown in jail at all upon return- can I adapt that strategy now? Damn it, they've had more than five months to build me up as some wrongfully imprisoned- gah! It won't work at all. I need to figure out what's going on. The situation of the entire world and how Japan…

"The paperwork has been filled out already," Warden Ryusuke continued. "On his first day in office, he will sign a signature that puts everything into motion. We'll be prepared already for him to sign, so that once he does you can walk right out the front doors." Zach stared into Ryusuke's eyes in more shock and the Warden finished, "You're already being processed. In a week's time, you'll be a free man."

Oh you idiots. Zach saw Tachibana and Neo both smiling at him through the Cyn behind the Warden. You stupid, stupid… they're all happy I'm getting out. They don't even look disappointed, they won't be able to hear my stories anymore.

There goes the best part of my day, Tachibana Miyuki thought, though she could not stop smiling towards that teenager who she was happy for.

I went out to that last rally for Nikko, Sazaki, Neo thought at the teen who she thought just glanced her way. Took a day off work for you. You have no idea how many people want you out of here!

"I hope not to see you in here again," the Warden finished to the teen who looked ahead and down a little into the shorter man's eyes.

Then the Warden held out his left hand, and Zach looked at it in more surprise before raising his gaze back to the older man's. Zach rose up his left hand and nodded at the man, shaking his hand and even lifting his lips up into a smile again. "Me too," Zach said.

"Like your Christmas gift?" Neo asked.

Zach glanced over towards Neo and replied with a happy expression, "I do. Thank you." Her eyes widened and then Zach looked to Tachibana too, and he added, "Tell the others too. Thank you." Zach looked back at the Warden right in front of him and rose an eyebrow while examining Ryusuke's face closely. He shifted his eyes around while the Warden kept his expression completely flat, or at least he tried to before grimacing at the smile that crossed over the prisoner's face again. "And thank you too," Zach said to the Warden whose look after he said it gave away who he had voted for since it did not before and Zach really was just guessing.

"Man, my last two Christmases stink compared to this one." Zach laughed and rose a hand up to his face, putting it over his eyes for a moment and bowing his head like he was getting broken up by all of this. As he bowed his head though, his eyes darkened more as he heard a man call at him, "Haha nah, don't worry about it! It's Christmas!" Zach thought about the man he robbed after fleeing from the League of Villains. I never did give him that wallet back. I can't even remember what his name was now, but I dropped it in the snow so he could find it after Hunter killed me. And last year-

"I'm so… frustrated." Zach knew it was not Christmas itself, but it was all he could hear thinking of the Christmas before. "I was, supposed to- to be a great… one who I could tell Ms. Calico- one… I'm so…" That was a good Christmas though. So was the one before it! I escaped. We saved Paris. And this time, I'm being told that I'm getting out of prison. Maybe, maybe Christmas really is good. I've been getting presents from something, somewhere… Cee dying, wasn't a present. That woman I left behind in Higucha. Not having a plan for what I'm doing. This news isn't the best, but it's not the worst. I can get out earlier. I have to get out earlier, but it's not like they're coming in here and telling me I leave today. I wish they had told me some stuff about this before, even if it might've "gotten my hopes up" with a challenger who hadn't been projected to win…

I have a week though. Adapt the plans. Prepare… I'm getting out of here. I'm, going to see everyone again. Only a week. A week from now and I'll be- I'll have to be… Zach Sazaki.

---

"My grappling gun and knife?" Zach asked the guard who had handed him his clothes a minute ago. He finished getting dressed into them and looked at the man who shook his head at the question.

"You can't have those back," the guard replied. He was not one of the ones who ever had to watch Zach Sazaki, so Zach did not know his name. The eighteen year old nodded at the employee of the prison though and thanked him for keeping his clothes in good shape at least.

Then Zach turned and he walked towards the doors where a couple of guards and the Warden were waiting for him. He put his hands down into his sweatshirt pocket and pushed down, leaning his neck back to try and stretch it out a bit. His ankles were showing out the bottom of his pant legs, and he had to pull the hem of his sweatshirt down to go over his waistband. "Looks like you weren't finished growing when you got here," Tachibana mentioned as Zach walked up next to her near the exit.

"I was always a late bloomer," Zach said, his voice steady and his eyes focused straight ahead. Probably done now though. I'm as tall as Dad ever was. Dad… Zach glanced to his right and at some long hair falling down the side of his head. He rose a hand up and pushed more of it back behind him, then he brought that hand to the top of his head and fixed up his hair a little more for a second. "Alright," Zach said, lowering his hand down and taking the other out of his pocket with a deep breath in. "Let's do this."

"Follow me," Warden Ryusuke said. He opened the door and Zach stepped outside the prison with the Warden and two guards coming with them. They walked up to a black van with 'TARTAROS' written in white letters on the side of it that Zach could see around the back. The driver's side door was opened up and he saw Neo sitting on the seat leaning halfway out with a lit cigarette in her mouth. Zach lifted his eyebrows in surprise as he did not expect the green-skinned woman to be a smoker. She spotted her passengers heading her way and turned to put the cigarette out in a spot on her dashboard. Then she looked back at the prisoner, or former prisoner, and she gave him maybe the most genuine smile Zach had seen on her face before.

"You ready, Sazaki?" Neo asked.

The Warden walked up to the back of the van and opened the doors. He stepped inside while Zach looked up towards Neo and gave her a soft smile only changing his straight-faced expression a little. "As I'll ever be," he replied. Then he climbed up into the van, and Tachibana stepped up after him while the other guard who Zach did not know well stayed back and then closed the doors behind them. He had seen that man a couple of times before when he filled a spot of a different guard who was not there and needed a substitute for their shift, and he knew the man's name was Ryumo but not much else. Zach thought Ryumo was staying behind, but the passenger side door in the front opened up after the back doors had been shut and the bulky guard just under seven feet tall got into the front next to Neo.

"Here we go," Neo called out, and she put the van into drive and started through the compound.

There were tinted windows on the back of the van, and Zach stared across the back over the Warden's head and through the windows on his side. The back of the van had benches attached to the walls with an empty gap between them. Zach looked out the window across the gap and watched the guard posts and buildings move by, though they did have to stop twice for other guards to check their vehicle and get security clearances from the Warden. It took ten minutes for them to get outside of the prison's walls, and then they started over the bridge that connected the Tartaros island to the mainland.

Zach leaned back once they were on the bridge and moving faster. He continued to stare outside, the others in the back with him and even the ones glancing into the rearview mirror staying silent when they saw his expression. They elected a prime minister for me. I got a full pardon, because the people of Japan wanted me to get one. Not all of them. I'll be controversial now more than ever… Not all of my friends too, I'm sure. My old friends. The ones, I said "goodbye" to. Zach's eyes darkened and he stared out the window with his gaze getting more hesitant for a moment. It wasn't long enough. 6 more years would have been. But this, is such an awkward amount of time. And it's such an awkward age too. At the divide between adults and kids. School almost over, but still high schoolers, yet already considered heroes. And though some stopped coming to visit me, and the visits did decrease in number, people were still coming all the way to my last day. They didn't forget me. Not all of them, at least.

There'll be different levels. I ignored them for over five months. I didn't give them an explanation even as they came to hear one. Some I'm sure, maybe even some who were still for me when I returned, gave up on me in this time. They didn't expect I'd be out so soon. I didn't expect it either. Who cares? Who doesn't? Everyone does… at least a little. I'm sure. How do I-

Zach looked out over the water past the bridge. The sky was bright blue, with a few white clouds in it but nothing much. He saw some trees on the edge of the land they were getting closer to, leaves blowing around in a wind that made Zach feel like it was windy out right now. He had not felt it within the high prison walls, though it had been cold inside them too. This hoodie isn't very warm. Not that I can't handle the cold. Blizzards, and freezing water, high elevations and ice powers completely freezing me over… The van started to slow down before they had reached the mainland. Right off the bridge then. This should be quite a spectacle. I'm a free man, but I'll never be free. There are things I need to do once I get out of this van. Things I'll be expected to do. I wish I could just, fly away. I'm free now… but I have to follow the rules. I will not give them reason to doubt me.

Neo whistled and shook her head as she stared through the windshield to the end of the bridge up ahead. Ryumo looked back and forth along the end of the bridge too, and he shifted his gaze to the back for a second with a look that showed he did not envy the boy behind him. Zach sighed at that look while leaning up a bit and staring through the windshield himself, and he sat back down with a half groan for just the other four in the van with him to hear. "Man, it's going to be tough being so famous," he said it like he was complaining yet was bragging at the same time. The bragging tone was sarcastic though and the Warden just sighed while Tachibana rolled her eyes at him. Ryumo let out a low chuckle and Neo snorted, smiling again and feeling more confident that the boy behind her was ready to handle what they were driving into.

The van drove close to the police barricade at the end of the bridge just outside of the guard post that the van was going to have to go through for one last check first. Considering there were cameras pointed at it too, the guards at that post had to go extra by-the-book to make sure that everything caught on camera was exactly how they were supposed to do things. They checked the van out, looked inside and talked to the Warden who asked them how things were looking out there.

"Literally, thousands of people are here," was one of the two responses the guards gave after the Warden asked.

"Some people flew in from around the world to see it. There were less people at the inauguration, though many who went this morning came straight here afterwards anyway just making the crowd bigger." The other guard looked to Zach who leaned his head back and took in a deep breath while telling him all this. "A lot of people came out to see you, Lifebringer."

"Yeah," Zach said and nodded. "I know."

"The new prime minister's here too," the first guard mentioned again. Loud yells and cheers were coming from around the front of the van and over near the crowd ahead of them, and Zach could hear people yelling at the guards to let him go already. The female guard who started speaking only to be cut off by an extra loud shout continued after it, "There's a stage they set up. I think Nikko- Prime Minister Nikko, is going to make a speech and then invite you to make one too. We're about to let you out, but there are heroes and cops all over the place out here to keep order among the crowds."

"We have to get going," the Warden cut in. He wished they had more time to prep Sazaki too, but the boy was no longer going to be his problem in a minute and he did not know much about what was happening after they released him. The two guards who were "checking" the interior of the van nodded at their boss and then got back out, shutting the door behind them and allowing Neo to drive through the final guard post and up to the police line. The Warden spoke to his released prisoner while they were slowly rolling forward to their final destination, "Sazaki, I was harsh with you when you were first thrown in here." Zach looked into the Warden's eyes and the man across from him had a serious look on his face that Zach matched. "You were a criminal in my mind, so I treated you just like I would any other inmate. Yet you saved my subordinates. You brought them back to life and stopped an insane villain from escaping."

I remember, Zach thought, though he refrained from saying the sarcastic response aloud he really only thought to ease his own nerves a bit. "It's alright. I'm sorry for calling you a fat fuck. I didn't really mean it," Zach admitted. The Warden sweatdropped as he was trying to be serious there.

Neo snorted and tried to keep her mouth shut and not start laughing at her boss's expense. Tachibana smiled and shook her head at the boy next to her who she was glad to see making jokes even at the very end of their time together. He's an interesting guy, Tachibana thought. Her smile lowered a little thinking about how he declined bringing a killed prisoner back to life, but it stayed risen just a bit at what Kaitou had told her he did when Faith attacked. Neo also thought about that, and her own smile dipped a bit at the thought of what Sazaki told her he did to Faith and why he did it.

Neo thought about all those amazing stories she had heard over the last half a year. She thought about the scars she had seen on his body many times that matched scars from the fantastical tales. The things she had heard from him, the way he described the stories made it impossible to not believe him. No one is going to believe him though. No one else. They don't have the time or patience to sit there and really understand… Maybe that's why he told us. Maybe he knew, no one else would ever believe it. "Wish I could've heard the rest of that story," Neo said as she slowed the van down just behind the first cop cars. There were two lines of cop cars and police, making a gap that Zach would have to walk through after getting out of the van. He needed to cross a thirty meter gap in order to reach the crowd and the stage set up on the wide street closed-off for the day at the start of the Tartaros bridge.

"Nahh," Zach said, looking up towards the front and the woman who parked the van and looked back at him. He flashed her a smirk and said, "The rest was boring anyway."

"Oh I'm sure," Neo replied sarcastically, then she started laughing and Zach laughed along with her.

Zach laughed and he saw the Warden moving to open the back door for them to exit out of. Zach nodded back at Ryumo who looked at him and gave him a nod, then he glanced at Neo again who was still laughing though it sounded nostalgic now as she knew she would miss talking to the boy behind her. "Good luck," Zach started. The Warden opened the van's back doors while Neo looked into Zach's eyes in a somewhat confused way with her smile going down. "With Edo," Zach added, and he cracked a bigger smirk as Neo's eyes opened wide in the driver's seat. Zach then turned and he hopped out of the back of the van, landing next to the Warden and giving him a nod before stepping around the side of the vehicle.

Tachibana spun her head and looked up to the front with her eyebrows lifted high. Then her bottom lip lowered at Neo's dropped jaw and pink cheeks, the completely shocked look on her face at what Sazaki just said to her. Ryumo had turned to Neo in surprise too, and then he chuckled at the younger woman's expression showing she was totally caught, though she tried to hide it when Tachibana gawked at her. Neo spun and she rolled down her window as Zach started around her side of the van. Over all the cheers that just started getting so much louder, Neo hissed out at him, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Zach just grinned and kept walking, not even looking back to the right to give Neo an even more flustered look at how knowing his expression was. She just felt that look was knowing and smug though, while really Zach had to push Neo from his mind while walking past the van with a small smile and a confident expression. The Warden came up with him, then he stopped at around the first police line while the boy in a black hoodie and black sweatpants just kept walking. Zach walked forward in black shoes, and though he wanted to put his hands into his sweatshirt pocket because of the cold, he knew he had to keep them down at his sides for appearances' sake. His right hand was inside of a black glove on one side, his left opened and unthreatening on his left, fully in view for anyone to see that he was not armed and did not feel the need to hide anything.

Warden Ryusuke stopped behind Sazaki and watched as he walked between two cop cars and then between two lines of officers who all looked in towards him. Their faces were covered partially but by clear visors, and they were wearing dark blue mostly though many did have a lot of black on them in their body armor and vests. Zach looked up ahead and to his right where the stage stuck out a lot on the street. It was turned sideways on the road so that the huge crowd would be able to just turn and look towards it once he got up there. On top of the stage, Zach saw Endeavor and Best Jeanist, along with a police chief, and a man and woman dressed nicely who Zach suspected were the prime minister and his wife.

He's young, Zach thought at first glance of the man up there. He had short blond hair, wore a nice suit with a black tie on under the jacket, and his face was young and clear. He had fair skin and was clean shaven. Zach looked him over once and thought, He might be younger than my parents would be even. Or maybe even younger than Dad was, when he died. I hope he's experienced. His strategy was smart, but I don't like this. I won't be used for your political gain, if that's the only reason you released me.

Zach's eyes shifted back across the crowd. From farther away past two police lines and thirty meters from the start of the crowd, Zach could not see much at all. There were some excessively large people whose faces he could see in the crowd on the wide street, as well as on the road straight ahead of him that connected to the wide one along the edge of the mainland. The road straight ahead off the bridge extended farther into the city, and though the crowd was already huge just on the perpendicular street he was about to step out to, the one that continued ahead of him was also packed with tons of people. Some of the taller ones were starting to shout around at the people with them, though they did not need to as there were big tv screens set up on the sides of buildings that showed what the cameras at the front of the crowd and sides of the bridge's start were picking up.

There were some camera crews just on the other side of the police line, though the very center was cleared of any media presence. There was not a gap for Zach to be able to get to the stage, and Zach was starting to wonder how they were going to get him over there. They'll probably open up a line to get me over there. Most people are cheering. They're happy to see me. Zach's eyes scanned back and forth alone the crowd, though his eyes were high and he looked at all the buildings on the other side of the wide road as well. He saw people in windows leaning out and watching him, and there were some posters and signs hanging out of those windows just as there were on the street. There was one hanging out of a window that was unlike the others, and it read: 'MURDERERS SHOULD BE IN JAIL' which Zach read and then looked right past without lingering on.

His eyes scanned down the long road ahead full of people deeper into the city next to Tartaros. The buildings on either side of that road got taller the farther from the coast they got, until the first skyscrapers started a few kilometers away. Rairosu City was very large, one of the ten biggest cities in Japan. Connected to it was the longest bridge in Japan, keeping Tartaros far from civilization and surrounded in more security checks than ever before after a beefing up of security a year and a half before. Zach's eyes scanned over the buildings of Rairosu. His gaze shifted to either side of the bridge, but the water was clear of boats which he figured was due to it being illegal to drive boats close to the Tartaros prison.

Zach stared ahead again and past the cops who were on both sides of the next line of police vehicles just off the bridge. The cops were facing him on his side of the vehicles, while the line of officers on the other side were keeping the crowd from rushing towards him. The crowd was not moving at this point though, with everyone having been in their spots for a while. Some people at the front did not have to arrive early to get their spots, (not that they did not come early), but they were allowed straight to the front to be at the edge of the bridge when he got there. And as Zach looked past the lines of cops to the area he would be walking through, his eyes focused on some of the individuals gathered there who were already looking to him or leaning around to try and see him past cop cars and the police.

The first person he saw was hard to see, but that's why she was so easy to pick out in the crowd. He looked towards the open space over a red jacket, something he almost missed but could not with the man behind her being so large that it was clear it was not his head sticking out of Hagakure's jacket. He looked towards that open space and saw a sleeve lift up and start waving at him, and he heard her voice call out his name loudly even over everyone else crowding around. Standing next to Hagakure was a blond boy who Zach was happy to see standing so close to her. Things might not have changed that much, Zach thought, feeling relieved and keeping his steady smile on his face while making eye contact with Ojiro for a second.

He's really, tall, Ojiro thought. He looked at the teen who he knew was younger than him, but who had kept growing to be over four inches taller than him now. And he still didn't get a haircut, Ojiro continued to himself, seeing Zach's long black hair falling behind him and some to the sides of his head. He had some long bangs but they were mostly pushed to one side or the other and there were only a few strand clusters crossing down over top bridge of his nose and dipping over his eyebrows. He looks so, different, Ojiro thought. Not just Zach's height and his hair, but his body tone with his shoulders broader and his stature straight up and not slouched at all. His smile that was not too happy but showing a look that was putting people at ease, despite the scars on his neck and face and left hand.

Zach's eyes shifted past Ojiro and Hagakure to Ojiro's right side, more in front of him but not directly yet. Standing there was a tall boy around his height, with messy black hair and long arms with round elbows full of tape. Sero stood next to a boy with purple balls all over the top of his head who was jumping up and down for a minute but stopped when Zach got closer and could make eye contact with Mineta. Mineta's eyes opened wide when Zach looked into his eyes, then the smaller teen who looked at him like that smiled huge as he came face to face with Zach again.

In a different part of the country, in the Class A dorm building that was more than half full, Rikido Sato stood in the kitchen with his hands on the counter and his body leaning forward towards the common room. His eyes were narrowed, and the large spiky-haired boy frowned at the look on Zach's face he saw on the cameras. Why didn't I go? Sato thought, and his fingers curled on the counter in a frustrated way. I supported Nikko for just this reason! But, I don't think… "Goodbye." You ended things. I'm not, going to go try and start things again.

Tokoyami sat on the couch in the common room that Sato could not calm himself down enough to go sit in. The dark boy sat next to the dazzling blond with a bellybutton laser, and Aoyama was leaning forward with his eyes big as he watched Zach walking forward. Tokoyami's expression was unreadable to the others around him, and his mind wandered far from what he was watching. I just missed him in Italy. And in America, and Australia. Hawks admitted we were avoiding him after the last time. I knew it since Italy, that he did not want to take part in the fight against Death. If I was not certain that it was Zach, would I have felt the same?

On the couch to Tokoyami and Aoyama's right sat Shoji with Kirishima next to him. Kirishima was frowning more than the others in the room, and he glared at his old friend walking forward with a smile like he was supposed to be there. Kirishima's hands curled in on his knees and his eyes narrowed more in anger as a camera panned to show some of the Class A students at the front of the crowd too. This isn't right. You shouldn't have- I always wanted you to… but to be caught! Not on your own. Not like this, when it feels like…

On the couch on Kirishima's right, Tsuyu Asui had a dark look on her face and kept frowning as she stared at Zach herself. It feels like this is your plan. You look so, calm. Zach-chan. Tsuyu hummed deep in her throat and she felt an uneasy sensation at his cool, collected expression. Is he playing everyone right now? He wants us all to see that look. He's manipulating the media again, always, isn't he?

Uraraka and Koda sat next to Tsuyu watching the live projection too. Uraraka felt hesitant as the camera showed the others in Class A, especially as the reporter just mentioned over the sound of the cheers about how few of Class A's students were there. I should have gone. Deku went, and Mina…

Ashido, and Midoriya, Zach stared at the two who were standing next to each other up ahead of him. He had spun to them because of how loudly Ashido just shouted his name, and she lowered her hands that she cupped to her mouth to stare at him with her mouth lifted into a giant smile. Zach looked into her happy, relieved, teary eyes and he tried to keep his expression the same even as he gave her a somewhat softer and happy look himself at her call to show he heard it. Then his head started shifting in more towards the middle, right over Midoriya who stared into his eyes more intensely than anyone else in the crowd had.

Midoriya stared at Zach who looked back into his eyes only twenty meters or so away. They looked in each other's eyes and Zach's smile looked less genuine for a moment, as he saw Deku frowning at him and his expression serious. Zach kept walking forward though, and he steadied his expression again despite how Midoriya was looking at him. Is he planning something right now? Even now, he could be. Midoriya Izuku was apprehensively watching Zach approach, but his frown started to lift as Zach looked into his eyes and continued to smile in a way that spoke so much to him. Midoriya stared in Zach's eyes that were soft, despite the marks on his face and neck that showed that a lot had happened since the last time they saw each other. Midoriya's expression was telling his old friend something, but Zach's told him something back about how he did not care about how Midoriya was looking at him suspiciously there, and Midoriya's eyes softened at that look for a moment and his lips curled up a tiny bit more as his heart started racing. Zach.

Zach's eyes were already shifting off of Midoriya though. The cops directly in front of Zach moved to open a path between cop cars to the front of the crowd. The prime minister started calling out to 'Lifebringer' and making the crowds cheer louder. The heroes on the stage called out orders to the cops nearby as did the police chief, and other officers around the crowd started moving forward to get the civilians open a path up for Sazaki to move through. Zach did not hear the crowds get louder, nor did he hear anything the prime minister just shouted. The cops in front of him moved away and everything else faded away, as he could look straight ahead at the seventh and last of Class A who came to see him get out of prison.

Iida sat at his desk with his laptop open in front of him. His headphones were in and he was tapping his foot on the ground quickly as he examined each and every thing about Zach at the end of that bridge. His eyes unblocked by glasses scanned around and then shifted back up to Zach's expression for a moment as he saw his feet stop and his classmate stop walking for a second.

Upstairs one floor, Bakugo lay on his bed with his phone lifted up in one hand over his face. What's he doing? Bakugo thought, his expression flat and his eyes narrowed darkly at the boy he was watching. What's his plan here? He'll reveal it in this first moment. The way he talks. Figure out what he's pushing.

Todoroki Shoto sat on the edge of his bed with his head dipped down and his eyes dark and glaring through his bangs. You're actually coming back? You think that's okay? After what you did… Todoroki glared harder at the teen smiling in a strong way, even if his face did look less genuine with it and his feet stopped moving for some reason. Todoroki followed Zach's eyes straight ahead, and his eyebrows rose up at what just made Zach come to a stop.

On the third floor two down from Todoroki, Jirou sat behind her drum set and kept banging away loud enough that Iida had to put headphones in across the floor. Jirou bashed away and continued reading the sheet music she had written herself, then she paused and stepped over to her keyboard and started playing a chord that she nodded along with and then turned to grab her sheet music and write another part to the song she was making. I don't care. It doesn't matter. Doesn't bother me- Jirou's pencil tip broke on the sheet of paper she was drawing new lines in, and her teeth clenched hard as she could no longer even continue that line until she grabbed a new pencil.

Jirou threw the pencil to the side into a wall and marched towards her desk to grab another one. Her eyes shifted down to a drawer on her desk though, and her heart rate continued pounding as hard as it had been all day. FUCK! Momo's gonna know! I lied- I should have known. It's his fucking fault for coming back! After saying goodbye like that- and why the fuck leave notes unless you were really leaving forever?! You fuck! You don't get to come back now! Jirou turned and marched back to her drums as her fists were clenching too hard, and she grabbed her drum sticks before wailing away on the set again.

On the edge of Rairosu, Zach's feet stopped. He finished a step so his feet were next to each other, and he looked forward which to most people looked like him waiting for the crowd to start parting as the prime minister was calling out about. His expression had not changed that much, to normal people who did not know him at least. But Zach froze where he was while looking past where the cops just moved out of the way to give him a clear view. He stared towards the girl in a white turtleneck sweater who had her black hair tied up in a spiky ponytail.

Zach's eyes locked with Yaoyorozu's. She stared back at him with a similar look that he had on his face. It was reserved, but there was a smile there on her face that had Zach's heart pounding faster and faster, and his mouth opened up to breathe in harder which he was not expecting. His thoughts had cut off too. What he was thinking about while scanning the crowds and then looking at his former classmates, it had all faded away with the noise around him too. He stared at the girl in front of him who rose her lips up more at the corners while looking into his eyes in a way that made Zach's heart slam into the front of his chest.

Zach's eyes started to lift off of Yaoyorozu. He rose them at the sight of something small in his view flying at him. Zach's eyes started to turn red, while Deku's eyes darted up with everything else moving in slow motion around him. Deku's eyes started pulling back down with his lips that had just started lifting a small amount dropping down in panic. Zach's eyes locked on the object he saw fly over the heads of all the civilians and cops. Sni-

There was no flash or gunshot, but Zach flew backwards with blood splashing out of his back and his body spinning out to the right. His feet lifted off the floor as millions of jaws started to drop. His teeth clenched and then his mouth opened up with spit flying from between his lips. The shot that flew out of Zach's back hit the ground at the start of the bridge, digging deep into the cement back around the cop cars behind him he had walked past thirty seconds ago. The shot hit the ground while Zach was lifting off of it. Blood splattered out of his back onto the floor while his body was falling backwards, his legs flinging up in front of his body as his right shoulder spun backwards and his left spun to the front. His body that lifted off the ground and was turning in midair started to drop, and Zach clenched his eyes shut while trying to lift his head a bit, but the collision with the floor still snapped his head back down and into the hard ground below him.

The shot was silent, but the cameras aimed at Zach were televising him all over the crowd and through this section of the city. The sight of him flying off his feet like that with a hole ripping in the front of his sweatshirt and blood splashing out of his back, caused hundreds of people to start screaming and just as many to turn and try running away. Panic started immediately, only for Endeavor and Best Jeanist to jump out into the middle of it all and start yelling at the cops and other heroes to calm everyone down immediately. Endeavor yelled while getting cameras to spin to him that they would protect everyone, and they had other heroes start yelling to people as well that they were getting this under control before a stampede could start and someone could get hurt.

As the heroes started an immediate reaction to what had happened, Momo Yaoyorozu sprinted straight ahead past the cops who had all looked back in shock at what just happened. One of the officers turned in and started, "You can't-"

"Call an ambulance!" Yaoyorozu shouted while spinning to the man for a moment. She spun back forward and continued running while yanking her white sweater up over her head, revealing her light purple long-sleeved shirt she had on under it. She ripped her sweater while sprinting towards Zach who lay on the ground with a puddle of red spreading quickly below where he lay on his back. "Stop moving!" Yaoyorozu shouted as she dropped down on Zach's right side. His hand that pressed down on the floor next to him shifted away the smallest amount as Yaoyorozu put her knees down there next to it, and Yaoyorozu's eyes widened at the movement before her heart that ripped at the sight of it raced twice as fast at a glance up at Zach's face.

"Zach! Stay with me! It's not that bad," Yaoyorozu lifted Zach up and she felt around his back while pushing another hand down with part of her sweatshirt over the entry wound.

Ashido and Sero started running forward, yelling at the cops that they had provisional licenses which those men did not need to be shown since they knew the famous teens and just moved aside for them. Mineta was still staring forward in shock, as was Ojiro though he put his arms around Hagakure and pulled her head towards his chest at the scream she finally let out after the immediate shock started wearing off. Midoriya took a step forward to get to Zach, but his head spun and he stopped thinking about going towards him when Yaoyorozu was already running there and ripping her sweater up. He knew that she could do more than he could, as Yaoyorozu could create bandages and other emergency medical supplies they needed right now. As she started doing that though, pulling her shirt down around the collar and popping out medical supplies from her chest that she yelled at Sero and Ashido to help her with, Deku's eyes shifted past them and towards the spot on the ground he saw a bullet slammed into that a few cops behind it were looking towards.

Midoriya looked back towards where Zach had been standing, not where he landed. He lifted his head to the level of Zach's shoulder that was about the same level as his own as they were of similar height. Then he thought about how high above his own head that shot looked to fly, and he turned his head the rest of the way around while moving farther from the front of the crowd to better look over everyone behind him's heads. Mineta looked to the side and up at Midoriya, then his eyes opened wide as he saw what his classmate was doing. Midoriya's legs bent down, and he leapt up very high into the air after judging the angle of the shot based on the three locations he had seen it.

The trajectory was almost straight, so it has to be the right side of the road straight ahead. How many buildings are feasible shot locations? They get taller farther out, but how far a shot is possible? How high up to have that angle? Not the first one, but… Midoriya kicked himself towards the top of the building closest to him on the other side of the road and the crowd that looked up as Deku went flying over them. Some people started yelling up at him to catch the shooter, and Deku landed down on the roof of the building with his eyes darting over every window on the buildings in front of him. Someone shot Zach. So many windows are open, but so many people were watching with open windows! Is there smoke? None of the people in those windows are looking at other windows like they saw anything!

"Zach!" Sero shouted as Zach's shaky eyes were shifting back and forth while he lay on his back. "Stay with me buddy! You're back! Right? You can't go-"

"Sero! Use the scissors and cut his sweatshirt and shirt off! Ashido, now." Yaoyorozu created another bandage and she rose it up below Zach's right shoulder on the upper part of his chest where lots of blood was getting all over her hands. Ashido stuck a needle down into Zach's chest when Yaoyorozu told her to, then Yaoyorozu tilted Zach onto his side, something which caused a lot of movement around the wound and which Yaoyorozu wanted him numb for. The needle Ashido stuck him with was around the hole, and Zach could not feel pain there anymore as he was tilted on his side and Yaoyorozu started pushing down bandages on his back and putting a lot of pressure on them.

Zach's vision was getting hazy, but he shook his head around and blinked a few times. This doesn't hurt too much. Zach's unfocused eyes looked from Sero over to Ashido who had a terrified look in her eyes while looking at him which made Zach's face scrunch up and his own eyes to get shakier. Ashido's eyes widened at that look, and she started yelling down at him that he was going to be alright, until her eyes shifted down from his face and she became instantly silent. Sero had cut Zach's clothes from around the wound around his sides, and he pulled off all of Zach's upper layers revealing his chest, stomach, and arms to the three bending over him and the cops who had gathered on their sides.

Yaoyorozu's eyes shifted for a second before she clenched her teeth harder and forced her attention back to Zach's current wound. Sero dropped the scissors and his jaw dropped at the sight of Zach's body. The blood trailed over scars covering his chest and arms and neck. The blood better defined all those wounds, but there were so many that the blood spread and smeared over them and just left indents on his reddening body. Zach's head lifted up a little and he looked down towards his upper body that he felt getting really wet. "Hey- hey hey Zach! Stay with me!" Sero shouted in panic as his eyes finally rose back up too.

Zach's head dropped back down onto the pavement and his eyes felt so tired. Heroes were yelling with the police to get everyone else to calm down, and the crowds were calming more and getting worried about Lifebringer instead of about the sniper who did not seem to be going after anyone else. The new goal of the heroes and the civilians all over the street was to move to the sides enough to clear a path for an ambulance that had its sirens on and was blasting them as loud as possible to tell everyone in front of it to move aside.

Back at Class 3-A's dorm at U.A., Jirou walked out of her room and towards the stairs with a cup in hand. After smashing away at the drums so hard there for a few minutes, she had actually started to tire herself out and needed a glass of water. She heard a loud noise around the corner though and turned her head to see Iida sprinting down the hall towards the staircase. He had a panicked look on his face that got Jirou's mood switching fast and her panting breaths to suck in. "What happened?" Jirou snapped, anger covering her face as she imagined she knew what Iida had been watching. What did he do-

Iida stared at the girl with is eyes growing wide and his feet skidding to a stop. She wasn't watching?! "Zach," Iida began, and he saw Jirou's face twist in anger that made his own heart turn over at what he could see she was expecting to hear. Why am I still here? Iida thought in anger at himself for having felt the same way she looked to be, when now… "He was shot on his way out of prison." Iida kept running and he turned into the stairwell to get downstairs where they both heard Kirishima start yelling.

Jirou was frozen in place as she heard the yells coming from downstairs. Her heart pounded and she stared after Iida's back, then she took a step forward, and her foot froze on the ground with her whole body tensing up. She stopped herself cold. Her huge eyes narrowed down, and she just ground her teeth in annoyance before turning back around. Always something new. He won't die. Not from this. Jirou walked back towards her door, her hand tightening around her cup and a look of anger splayed over her face. He probably planned it himself for the media. A plan in motion.

Jirou was not the only one thinking it. Kirishima had his fists balled in hatred though, all directed at himself, for the thoughts he was having after his initial shock and panic. What is wrong with you?! Kirishima roared mentally at himself as his classmates were panicking and trying to figure out what was going on like the reporters on the tv. Uraraka started crying and Koda was trying to tell her that he would be alright, but Uraraka called out in despair that she didn't go to see him for stupid reasons, which had the majority of the people in the room getting guilty and regretful looks over their faces. He did it to get sympathy- FUCK! NO, he didn't! He got shot! Kirishima lifted a hand to the side of his head and gripped through his red hair as he watched an ambulance driving through a path in the crowd on tv. Zach! Damn it, damn it damn it ALL!

I'm not there right now to help my friend who's dying. I never saw him again, and if I don't, it was because I was acting too stupid! Kirishima lowered his hands and he turned to the door of the dorm. "I'm going," he said, and without another word he ran for the building's exit right past Iida without giving the class rep a second glance. Kirishima rose an arm to his face and rubbed it hard across both eyes. Zach. Don't you die!

"Deku!" Midoriya turned his head and saw the Flame Hero rise up to the building he was standing on. Endeavor landed behind him and called out, "Any idea where the shooter is?"

Midoriya opened his mouth to reply, but the number of areas he was thinking were too dispersed. There were too many people around them, and it had been too long already with people who had been crowding around backing away from the windows or scattering off. The longer he had looked around for some sign of a location to check, the more hopeless the situation had gotten for him. Deku's mouth closed and with a frustrated expression he just turned back the direction the shot had come from and started shaking his head. Endeavor looked over the younger man's head and stared out at all the buildings a shot could have come from. Endeavor's eyes searched the area, There are thousands of people who could have done it. If we can find the weapon, we could track the assassin. Was it Eziano? That kid's an idiot, if he really is Death. Death would have known that the assassins were coming for him. Maybe he really isn't Death. Or maybe he was hoping that walking out there without protection would convince Eziano of it, because there's no way Death would be so stupid! Shit! Where is the shooter?!

"Keep a perimeter up around them until the ambulance arrives," Best Jeanist ordered through the high collar that blocked his mouth from the police chief he gave that order to. "Do not give an angle for the sniper to get a second shot on Sazaki while he's down."

"Best Jeanist!" The third-ranked hero in the country turned and looked towards the man who just called that over to him. A team of special secret service members were around the Prime Minister already, but Nikko held his wife close and called to the hero, "Get us out of here!"

They aren't after you. Not if this is what I think it is. Best Jeanist nodded at the prime minister despite his assumptions, as there was a chance the PM was a target too. The man was also his boss technically, so Best Jeanist nodded and then spun and called out at some other cops to get a convoy together to protect the prime minister and get him and his wife out of there.

The ambulance driving through the crowd was able to speed up as more control was taken by law enforcement after the initial panic. The ambulance with loud sirens and flashing red and blue lights on top of it sped over to the edge of the bridge and then turned and went through the police line that the cops pulled their cars apart from already to make a larger gap. "Move back," Sero called at the cops around him who were crowding close as per other orders but who were also blocking the ambulance to be on the side of the potential shooter. Those nervous cops were happy to move aside, though they stayed close to the edges of the ambulance as it pulled back towards the boy in the puddle of blood on the ground.

Ashido stood up and she brought a hand up to her mouth to cover it, only to stop and have to move her sleeve over her mouth instead as she had too much blood on her hands. Her whole body was shaking, and Sero saw her trembling so much that he moved around and stood at her side. He put an arm around her and said, "He's going to be alright." Sero did not know if he believed it himself, but though Ashido was his ex-girlfriend, she was also one of his closest friends in the world and shaking worse than he had ever seen her before.

Behind them, the four Tartaros workers who had been watching Zach leave were stuck behind the first police line that did not let them rush at the injured former prisoner. Neo had her hands up over her mouth, and she dropped down to her knees which had Ryumo putting a hand down on her shoulder. The Warden was still staring shocked ahead towards the boy as he had been since the kid flew backwards with blood splattering out of him in their direction. Tachibana had a hand lifted up and pushed through her hair, her helmet in her other hand down at her side that just slipped through her fingers as the paramedics got Sazaki up on a stretcher, unmoving.

Zach was lifted on the stretcher and pulled to the back of the ambulance they climbed up into and pulled him inside on. Yaoyorozu was at his side and helping the EMTs get him inside, and she continued putting pressure on his wounds even as there was blood covering her upper body now too and even splashed on her face. One of the EMTs told her she could not come with them, but Yaoyorozu snapped at them, "Get us to the hospital now!" There was no time to argue about it, and the young famous hero was not getting out of the ambulance and did not look like she was going to listen even if they asked again. The man who had told her to get out in the first place just spun his head and shouted to the front to get them out of there.

Zach's vision was hazy and all sound was blurred for him, but he could hear that voice and see the face that his eyes were locked with on his right side. She moved around to let the actual paramedic check on her immediate work and apply more emergency treatment. Yaoyorozu went to Zach's other side as the back doors were slammed shut and the ambulance started driving. She was telling the EMT all she had done so far to try and help him, and the EMTs were basing their work on what she told them had been done so far. After Yaoyorozu finished shouting it, she looked down at his wound and then up at his face again that was tilted to the left now. His eyes were only open a crack but they parted a bit more as she looked towards his face. His vision cleared up, and despite the blood all over him and his wound that was still bleeding badly, he felt relieved at the sight of that face again so close to his. She was on his left side, and Zach's left hand twitched and moved towards her a little so she could take it.

Yaoyorozu looked down at that hand and her breath sucked in. Her own hands trembled as she thought about when she grabbed that hand the last time Zach was laying down all bloody like this, and the feeling she had when that hand lost its grip as he stopped breathing. Her hands only trembled in hesitation for a second though, before she reached forward and grabbed his hand with both of her own. "You're going to make it," Yaoyorozu said, leaning down a bit towards Zach's face. His eyes were closing already, just a small smile on his face even as his hand loosened its grip. "You hear me? Zach! You're going to make…" Zach's eyes closed and his hand slipped from Yaoyorozu's.

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A/N ... Well, Zach's out of prison. Put a few hints about the new prime minister last chapter, but now he's been elected and has pardoned Zach Sazaki of his crimes. Wonder if anyone saw that coming, but within the same chapter Zach has now been shot! His big release from prison party has fallen into chaos and Zach's getting taken by ambulance away. Is he dead?! Again!? We'll see. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, tell me what you think in a review below or comments/predictions/questions for the story ahead!