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!

143. Chapter 143

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 143:

Inside of an enclosed room in a special facility south of Kyoto, a little over 4,000 aspiring heroes gathered for their hero licensing exam. The majority of the participants were high school students, and the number of participants was so high because there was only one testing location being used for the "auxiliary test" as it was being dubbed by the media outlets that had taken a large interest in it, (all of them). Even though the numbers were much higher than usual, for only one testing site the amount of applicants was actually smaller than expected.

Some people considered that it was because an extra test was being added that the average would go down naturally. Others suggested that some students were likely afraid of competing against Lifebringer when he was a known murderer. His kill count was currently at eight, but the mystery surrounding his actions over the past years led many to believe that the number could have been much higher. So as Zach stood alone in the middle of a huge room full of thousands of people, he was not surprised by the gap around him or the amount of people staring at him with nervous or angry or unforgiving gazes.

That's Lifebringer.

He really showed up.

That murderer can't become a hero. I won't let him. Whether or not I get a license, I won't let him succeed.

I just need a second in front of him. A single second and it's over.

Just go over there! Tell him thanks for Mom, then let him know you're not going easy on him! Do it! GAH! How is he so hot even with those scars?! Or is it that the scars are what makes him so hot…

Everyone knows what his Quirk is. Usually that would mean a disadvantage for him. Yet unlike usual U.A. students like some of the first years who came to try again, we don't know squat about his Quirk.

I saw some of it in the Sports Festival back when I was in middle school…

When he was fighting in Hokkaido I saw some of his fights. That darkness he emits can knock anyone out, and it risks brain damage. Fuck going after him.

A guy like him can't be allowed to become a hero.

Steer clear of Lifebringer as long as possible.

I don't want to get killed.

I can't let him go out there and kill more people, even if they are villains.

It's time to stop him here.

Zach saw a lot of different kind of gazes aimed towards him, though he stayed focused straight forward towards the hero official standing in front of the 4,000+ applicants awaiting their instructions. All of them were in their hero uniforms, except for Zach who was just wearing a black hoodie and a pair of black sweatpants. He had his hands down in his pockets and though looked like he was paying attention, he also had a calm expression compared to the other students all concerned about him or about how they were going to get their provisional licenses.

A couple of hero officials gathered everyone's attentions up towards the front of the room. A man with curly dirty-blond hair started to explain in a tired voice about the rules of the exam. So it's like that. Zach stared ahead unfocused but with his mind racing faster than anyone around him, No second chances. Good policy, though it might just be for this make-up one. The rules sound similar to what the others said they had for their test. Still get 5 balls myself, but only one one target and you're out. Five? Man, they are not looking for a lot of applicants making it. Maybe they expect me to get in no matter what they do, but they had to let everyone apply to not look like it was favoritism that got this whole thing set up in the first place. I shouldn't feel bad about it. If anything, I'm giving them an opportunity then. But most of the people here messed up before. Let's see. 200 can make it. It's unlikely that max number they set will actually be reached. If anyone takes down more than the 5 they're supposed to, or if a lot of people take out 3 or 4 only to be taken out themselves, there's a good chance the field gets thinned out under 100 even. Best chance of that not happening is with the large groups all making it. They won't go for more than they need, and teaming up against solo applicants will help out…

Zach reached out and grabbed a circular target that an employee was walking past him with. The woman was handing out the targets and balls for the applicants in the area, but though she hesitated and stared at Lifebringer for a few seconds after he grabbed it, he just put the target into the center of his chest over his sweatshirt and pocketed his ammo. Zach lifted the hem of his sweatshirt after pocketing his red balls, and he tucked the hem down into the stretchy waistband of his pants. When he did that, he revealed the four knives he had clipped to his waistband, two on either side. They were in black sheaths, and Zach caught a lot of people around him staring down at those weapons with nervous looks at how nonchalantly he revealed them without meeting any of their gazes.

Outside of the room Zach and the other contestants were in, there was a massive stadium that rose eight times higher than the roof of the small room in the center of the facility. The waiting room was in the middle of different kinds of areas such as an urban zone, a mountain one with a lot of rock surfaces and a few high elevated peaks and rock walls farther out from the center, a swampy area with a couple of rivers and streams and a big lake in the middle of it, even a zone where it was constantly raining over a grasslands. Outside of all those areas were the bleachers that wrapped around the huge facility, most of them empty not because there were not a lot of people gathered but just because the facility was so huge that there was no way the seats would be filled, especially when only those people with hero licenses were allowed in to watch the exam.

The press were being kept out along with just fans and other people who wanted to watch the exam. More heroes than usual did show up though, as did some Class 3-A students from U.A. who were sitting near each other in the stands. Not many had shown up, but Midoriya sat next to Uraraka halfway up the bleachers on one side of the facility with the two of them watching the small white room in the middle of the building carefully, each of them anxiously awaiting those walls to fall down just as they had for them over two years ago now. They could hear the directions being read from inside that room over the speakers throughout the facility.

Uraraka glanced over her shoulder and behind her a few rows to where the only other member of Class A who had shown up was sitting with his father. Todoroki and Endeavor were sitting next to each other (with a chair gap between them), and Uraraka got a bead of sweat on the side of her face as she thought, The resemblance… She looked away, nervous Todoroki might have heard her thought which she suspected he would have gotten mad about. I don't think Todoroki has even seen him yet. I don't like this, Uraraka got a sadder look on her face but tried steadying it again as she looked forward knowing the test was supposed to be starting soon. But what Zach said to Todoroki that night was… I try not to think about it, because I don't want to pry but- Dabi is Todoroki's brother? That's so weird.

I'm surprised no one else came, Midoriya thought. He glanced to Uraraka again and then to his other side and a few seats away where All Might was sitting along with a couple of other U.A. teachers. Midnight, Cementoss, and Present Mic had all come to see Zach, though they had also been able to use the excuse of coming to watch the make-up exam for 8 first years in the hero course who did not pass like the majority of their classmates at the last exam. Midoriya saw a lot of empty seats around them though that he thought would have been filled up by his classmates. I thought Sero and Ashido for sure would, but no one else really… Some of the others just went to see if he was alright, and the others who stayed and talked with him after Bakugo and I left the hospital, they sounded like they were going to stay close with Zach or at least try… but why isn't anyone here? Does no one else care, how he fights?

I doubt he's going to show much of his power here, Todoroki's eyes were narrowed and glaring hard at the white walls enclosing the test's 4,000 applicants. But I need to see how he fights now. Whatever he's planning, it will come down to a fight sooner or later. Dad warns me not to make too many assumptions, but I know. I knew it last time too, but I let you convince me otherwise. Not again. I'm not giving you a chance this time. Todoroki curled his hands into fists at his sides, thinking about how he heard Sero and Sato talking the day before at lunch. He had gone back to the dorm early to avoid the conversation, but as it returned to his head he bit down at the kind of argument they were having. It's not about whether he's lying about what he was doing. All of you should know it's a lie. What is he doing here? You doubted his story, but not his reasons. I won't be able to figure it out from up here, but I will get a feel of him. A first look at how he handles Death now, to start making my counters…

Loud clanking filled the room. The walls shook around the room in the middle of the facility, and a few hundred young high school students looked around in surprise if it was their first time with this happening. Most others were more prepared for it, but no one was ready when the officials who just dropped the walls announced, "Fifteen seconds until the preliminary round starts. Fourteen…"

The majority of the group was packed together in a single area, and there was a panic as people looked around and had to decide in a split second which direction to run. They needed to pick the environment best suited for them, while figuring out where those areas were as the walls had just hit the ground. Groups shouted at each other to stay together and move fast, and the pack started to scatter instantly as the aspiring heroes tried not to let the surprise countdown ruin their chances of passing the exam. As all those young heroes started running and picking directions in the first few seconds though, there were a few dozen to over a hundred who looked to Lifebringer to see where he was going. And the ones who looked to him stared in panic at the empty spot they had been keeping a close eye on during the entire explanation of the rules.

Four people, Zach thought, while shooting across the rock surface of the mountain zone. One really followed me, Zach thought, and he stopped for a second to glare back across the floor and straight into the eyes of a teen with a speed-type Quirk who pulled back and then turned and started running at Lifebringer's glare. Zach's feet flared black again and he shot away leaving a black circle on the floor spinning out from where he just was and then pulling away a second later at the wind that lagged after Zach.

The other three who saw which way I went were smart enough not to come after me. The really fast guy might even surpass my speed, but that one look and he knew to back off. Don't know if I'd give him a point for that for knowing he's out of his league or take one away for him being a coward. Zach jumped up and rose thirty feet onto the top of a rock pillar deep in the mountain zone. He turned while landing and crouched his right leg while sticking his left out on the descent. Zach slowed himself down but plopped onto his butt and stared back towards the middle of the room from very far out after only half the countdown. Not the best spot for a view of everything. I figure the urban zone will have the most people in it though. No need to get in everyone's way here. If it's not precise, I might make a mistake and take away someone's chance at being a hero who deserves it. Heroes are no longer in surplus. The country needs good ones entering the ranks…

"What's he doing?" Uraraka asked, glancing to her side at Deku to see if he knew.

Midoriya hummed and then started while looking towards where their old classmate was sitting, "There is no rush. The rules said that it would end when 200 people have passed, but Zach probably knows that 200 people aren't even going to pass in the first place."

"You don't think so?" Uraraka said, whispering it and not really asking like she expected an answer. Midoriya glanced to his side at her and saw the girl with short brown hair falling just below her shoulders staring out with a curious but reserved look towards Zach. "Is he going to look for targets from up there then, and then go after them? I thought," Uraraka hesitated, then she continued truthfully, "I thought Zach could beat anyone there so, I didn't expect him to try a big plan or anything."

He doesn't want to use much of his power in front of all these heroes. Todoroki's glare got colder as he stared out at Zach. So he's looking for the weak links he could probably take down without… Todoroki's thoughts stopped and he continued staring out coldly but now straight into the eyes of the teen he was looking towards.

Todoroki, Zach stared at his classmate with red and white hair. He could see Endeavor next to him as well as Midoriya, Uraraka, and his old U.A. teachers too. He's really suspicious of me. Too suspicious to even come talk to me. Does he think I might convince him of something? He's worried he won't be able to treat everything I say as a lie. He's so determined that it's all lies that he won't even come to me and ask about Dabi. Thought Endeavor would ask too. Well, I'll leave that for later. I have shit to do. Zach turned back away from the stands and he stared out towards a group of six students who seemed to be from the same school running in his direction higher in elevation on the mountain zone.

"Why are we going so far out?" Mizahi called out at his other classmates, the bulky boy with spiky orange hair glancing back over his shoulder with an annoyed look spreading over his face. He spotted an explosion back in the direction of the urban area, and a bunch of windows of a skyscraper shattered with water spraying out of them from a fight going on over there. The central area around where the waiting room collapsed was in chaos too, as hundreds of the most confident contestants did not run very far before turning on others when the countdown neared an end. Mizahi glared back that way and saw people battling it out in groups and in huge fights with lots of different Quirks, and he snapped while spinning back to his comrades who failed the last test with him, "We have to get thirty people between the six of us! If we wait too long there won't be enough people-"

"It's a marathon, not a sprint," a shorter boy at the front of the group said. He was an inch under five foot, he had short black hair, glasses, and his hero costume was bright blue with handcuffs on his belt along with a black baton. Ivo continued while still running at the front of his friends, "There are more than enough applicants. Getting into a fight so soon will just get us taken out-"

"Ah!" Obara exclaimed and then rose up both hands and covered her mouth at the involuntary yelp.

Her classmates skid to a stop and looked ahead and up a rock pillar. They stared to the top and at the figure sitting up there in all black baggy clothes, his hood down and bunched up behind his neck, his hair short and spiky over the top of his head. I'm an idiot, Ivo thought, cursing his stupidity of leading his classmates straight to the one person in the building he was trying to avoid more than anyone. What he first thought was bad luck started shifting in his mind though as he saw the look Lifebringer was giving him. I was watching him! Did he see me, and he decided to come after the weakest? He knew I was weak and got ahead to just wait for me, and I brought 5 people straight to him! Oh my God I'm- I'm- Ivo's teeth grit behind his lips and he reached down for his black baton, I'm not letting them lose because of me! "Run back a different direction!" Ivo shouted.

"We can't escape him!" Mizahi snapped, and he marched forward with his lips curling up again despite the sweat on his face. "I saw how quick- or well, I didn't see him, but he's too fast. We have to fight."

"Well this sucks," Gregory muttered, the British foreign exchange student stepping back with a look of dread and even acceptance on his face.

"D-Don't give up," Railie saw Ivo drawing a weapon, and Mizahi had a somewhat confident look on his face too. Railie turned back and forth to Gregory and Obara, then she looked back at Rucco who was still slowly backing away. "We can do this if we fight together!"

"Railie's right," Ivo said. Mizahi is too. They can't run. I got them into this, but I can get us out! "He doesn't have a hero costume, after just being released from jail." Ivo's voice got sterner there and he continued while his comrades behind him glanced up towards his back, and Mizahi smirked more at what Ivo was doing even if he caught on. Ivo continued, "He's all alone. We have him surrounded, and he doesn't know our Quirks," the group did have Zach to a wall, and he glanced to his side and behind him where the edge of the battle area was not too far away. He turned his head more and saw he could easily move around the back to get to different areas, but Zach figured it was a fair point anyway.

Let's see if they can hold, Zach pushed his hands down on his sides without looking back at the group in front of him. He had turned away and looked like he was completely letting his guard down, but then he turned back towards them and the moment they had was gone. A few of them got more nervous looks and Mizahi started grinding his teeth right there at how he had frozen up to question if Lifebringer was really letting his guard down or just pretending not to take them seriously. The way he grinned down at them after standing made him feel like it was the former, and he started raising his fists that enlarged and hardened as he rose them.

"Obara, flank to the left and Railie-" Ivo stopped talking just as quickly as he started, and Mizahi's fists froze partially raised.

Zach's grin lowered so his lips were flat. He glared down at the six students who were all either sixteen or seventeen years old, and a moment of clarity filled their minds as they looked back at the insane-looking figure before them. His eyes were dark, cold, emitting an ominous feeling that sent chills down Ivo's spine along with another huge pulse of regret. He's a murderer! Ivo had started saying something about the prison before to try and get his comrades riled up as well as attempting to make the opponent clumsy or something, but he had not really considered what he had said until now. Ivo actually had a big problem with Lifebringer in the first place, but for the others who mostly thought he deserved to be released or at least did not consider him as a villain, their worlds were flipped upside-down and everything suddenly became a lot more real to them.

We're about to fight, Lifebringer. He killed Kurogiri, he killed a bunch of League of Villains and…

He was acting as a vigilante across the world for an entire year. Does anyone know if he killed any other villains while he was gone?! Why did they let him in here with the rest of us?!

A murderer. He's killed people. Those are the eyes, of a person who has killed other people.

Zach stepped his right foot to the edge of the rock pillar, and he leaned his head forward with his fists curling at his sides. "I won't let you, become a hero," Ivo's voice started off soft, but he rose his head and glared in an intense way up at the older teen who glared straight back into his eyes with the same look he just had. Ivo's classmates who were all considering turning and running, repeated all the things they had just been telling themselves, and then they repeated what Ivo just said in their own heads. Seeing the dark, evil look of the boy up on that pillar in front of them unnerved each of them but also made them know for sure, that they did not want Lifebringer out there representing heroes.

Not even the guy in the back? Zach looked towards that guy and expected more than just the small stumble of his feet before steadying himself. Rucco's eyes glowed dark purple, and his skin started to change color. Obara opened her mouth and released a wispy pink mist from her lips. Ivo darted his eyes around and opened his mouth to restart giving out orders to the others about how to fight. Mizahi rose his hands in a fighting stance though he did not run forward, accepting how dangerous this was and choosing to follow Ivo's suggestions since Ivo did have the highest grades in their class. Railie and Gregory rose up their arms as well and prepared to fight, but Zach stepped back from the edge of the rock pillar and turned his body to the right instead.

That was pretty good, Zach jumped off the pillar and over to another rock cluster than he pressed one foot down on and surrounded in darkness before jumping off it too. He ignored the shouts behind him and just ran off with huge strides that he put some extra mmf into each time. Don't know if they're going to pass, but I think they could if they play it smart. I know the only reason they stayed at first was because they thought they wouldn't get away if they did run. Would I have chased them? That could have been interesting to see how they'd react. I can only accept the whole 'they knew they were out of their league' thing for so long. Once we've dropped below half the applicants, it'll-

"We're now at 12 people. Those of you who have passed please move to the anteroom."

Zach rose his head when he heard the announcement. Twelve people already, huh? Over 4,000 at the start, but I really wasn't expecting that many so soon. Figured a lot more in that huge mosh pit at the start would be taking someone else then getting tagged while distracted by someone else, then that person getting tagged too so no one would pass. Might not have even been many people in that area though. Zach reached the outside of the mountain area and he had a steep drop to a industrial warehouse/scrapyard/factory kind-of area next. As he jumped up though while continuing his strides in that direction, he caught something flying towards him out the corner of his eyes and spun to the left.

Zach spun in midair to see a red ball flying across the room perfectly aligned with his chest once he turned that way. It had been leading him, but when Zach yanked his body to the side to avoid it, he saw the ball shift directions even at its fast speed in that final second. He started to dodge only in that last second, but when he saw the ball curving to follow him, his left hand snapped up in front of his chest and he caught the ball before it could hit him. Wow, nice throw. Zach looked across the room and he ignited his left hand in darkness that flared around the ball. He spotted the person in a different zone very far away jump up from a hiding spot and turn, jumping to a new location and then darting away once he was out of Zach's sight. He must have stopped controlling the attack directly if that didn't knock him out. Or maybe curving it in the first place wasn't him controlling the ball but applying an external force. Either way, it was impressive to go after me like that. He'll probably hit some others from a distance with ease.

I should get started now, Zach thought after dropping into the factory area. He jogged behind a stack of round steel tubes and glanced around to see if anyone was in his vicinity. There are going to be a lot of teams that get smaller as one or two of their members get taken down in each encounter. Some people might think it's unfair that one hit and they're out. Like they just got bad luck or were caught off guard, but I appreciate it being set up like this. One hit's all it takes most of the time. Zach's lips were curled far down at the corners and his eyes darkened as he continued his run, which was unlucky for two people who came out from the other side of the factory area after losing most of their classmates they had entered the testing site with.

"You have to be kidding me!" One of them shouted while skidding to a stop, a pissed-off and exhausted look spread over his face.

The other who had a bruise on his face and some blood on his right sleeve stopped too with a panicked expression spreading fast. This is so unfair! "W-Wait! Lifebringer, do you want to team-"

Zach pulled out a couple of balls and he kept sprinting at the two without slowing down. He was not winded, he was running without using his Quirk anymore and just moving at a very fast pace normally, and he rose his hands up with a ball in either one pointing them at the boys who panicked even more. "Screw it!" One of the two shouted, "I'm not going down that eas-" Zach flashed his eyes red for a brief moment, and all his skin on his face also flashed away so that in that brief moment it was just a skull with red eyes and some darkness around it. If they had blinked they would have missed it, and both wanted to believe it was a trick of the eyes, but both were too distracted by questioning it that they were not in the least prepared as Zach stepped on the gas and darted towards them even faster than before.

Zach leaned to his right at the guy who did not pull away as fast as his buddy. He slammed his left hand around and into the small circular target on the teen's side, then he stomped hard in the same motion and kicked himself after the guy reaching down to pull out a ball of his own to try and throw just to keep Lifebringer back. Zach did not slow and the second guy he tagged just bobbled his ball and dropped it while Lifebringer ran past leaving him with an illuminated target just like his friend.

That was a dick move, Zach thought while continuing to run without looking back. Yeah neither of them looked ready, but showing them Nightmare face like that was just mean. These aren't villains. Everything is not fair game. "Ahh," Zach sighed and shook his own head. Have I lost my combat sense? It doesn't even feel like I'm fighting. I mean it's not like they're hardcore villains trying to kill me, nor are they even heroes, they're just- no, there are definitely some strong ones around who can challenge me. I haven't had a fight, a real fight, in so long. How long? Time…

Back behind Zach, the two who just got knocked out of the exam dropped down to their butts next to each other. They were panting from running and also from what just happened, though they looked back at each other and had more disappointed looks than anything. One boy thought back on the face he had seen for a split second though and shivered, before gritting his teeth in frustration at the fear he felt which caused him to not even dodge despite how far Lifebringer had to run up on them.

"Hey!" The two boys turned and looked towards the trees where a group of eight students still in the competition came out looking for them. A couple had minor scrapes on them but they mostly looked alright even after a couple of squabbles with other groups and solo entrants.

"You got tagged?" A redhead asked, her eyebrows lifting up and then her red irises darting around searching for whoever did it. She knew they were not far behind these two, so she got a confused look on her face when she did not see anyone right around there. The two also looked like they had just been taken down by the way they were panting and sitting like that, and she looked down and said, "Tell us where the guys who got you went and we'll go avenge you. How about it?"

One of the two sitting down started shaking his head. "Even though you took out our classmates," he began, and he pushed his hands down on the ground at his sides to heave himself up. He looked at the girl and then around at her friends, before turning around and looking the direction Zach had run off to. "You should steer clear of him."

The other who just got tagged felt it was embarrassing, but the way his classmate just mentioned it reminded him who it was who just got him out and he nodded in agreement with his friend. "You just missed Lifebringer," he said, and he nodded the same way his classmate just looked which made the other eight contestants in front of them open their eyes wide and spin the same way. "He rushed us out of nowhere. I doubt even eight people could take him on."

"We could-"

"There's no point in trying," one of the others in the group started, interrupting the redhead. "He's here on his own, and we need to get enough targets for all of us to make it through. Going after someone who is probably about to pass anyway is a waste of time."

They seem to have good teamwork, Zach stood on a branch of a tree behind the group who had just come out of the wooded area. They don't notice the group trailing them though, at least not yet they haven't. Still early in the game. I shouldn't get in the way of this other group. Zach glanced back deeper into the forest and flashed a quick smirk before turning and leaping silently off through the trees, his feet light upon touching each of the branches he came down on.

"You're an idiot! Bringing me into a forest!" A huge red flame rose up through the woods, and Zach shifted his gaze away from it. Using the environment to his advantage. Either the person he's up against has a plan, is good enough to handle him without one, needs the forest for their own Quirk, or maybe they just messed up. Might be a trap and he's got other classmates around to attack when his opponent gets overconfident. Zach slowed and he turned, humming to himself and then leaping off across the branches back towards where that shouting was loudest. And… so he had a plan involving a couple of classmates- or maybe just allies? Teaming up against the strong fire-type Quirk, and it still isn't working. You got too confident about his overconfidence, but guys like that are overconfident for a reason. "Just two more!" That loud voice shouted, while Zach turned and started away again, It's because they're strong.

Zach left the forested zone and he headed towards the urban area that a lot of smoke was rising from. All the action over here likely made a lot of people leave and start avoiding it. There are going to be groups that control sections of the city, with sensory types picking out prey for them all to go after. They announced 35 just now, so more and more people are going to realize that this is a war and not a race. Not a war. But, a battle… no. A fight that will last a while. Some people who fought early on and got a lot of take-downs aren't going to find many people out in the open anymore. They've already tired themselves out, they might be injured or bleeding, and when they look for somewhere to rest that's when someone who scattered right at the start and avoided conflict so far is going to strike.

At the outskirts of the urban area, Zach watched from a hidden outcrop in the "slums" area set up next to it behind one of the small buildings that looked like it was made from steel shutters and tarps. This isn't representative of anywhere in the world. Heroes don't let places like this exist. People built homes to replace structures like these in even the poorest countries… Damn, that was a good move. Zach leaned his back against a thin steel wall and watched with his eyebrows risen and a grin on his face. He was looking towards the girl with the weakest Quirk of the combatants but who had just had one good move which gave her an opening to tag one of her opponents' target.

"That's bull! It was fucking luck!"

"Damn it! It's our third year, and we've been training so hard- we all were going to get our licenses together!"

"One target left. We all just needed one more, but that stupid move- these rules are stupid to only have one chance! You don't deserve this."

They got all her classmates and got sloppy, except, Zach shrugged and shook his head as he thought about it. It wasn't actually all that sloppy. She's just really good. Her body contorted in a crazy way. Zach's smile lowered down at a remark one of the angered classmates of the guy who the younger girl just took out said. He leaned off of the wall and walked around the corner. Maybe I shouldn't. She's tired and in a pinch, but she's trying to be a hero like everyone else. With her team down though, this is a group just picking on her, and none of them deserve the extra point for getting her like this even if she is strong. Zach looked straight down the road outside of the city area towards the group nearly encircling the girl who had escaped the urban area.

A few of the girl's classmates as well as the other guy who got out on the chasing team were all just off to the side as they stopped to see how this would turn out. They started getting called to leave by the judges watching, but they were even more frozen now as were the older group's members who were still in as they looked past the girl they were about to close in on. They all looked towards the muscular figure with broad shoulders barely hidden in his black hoodie. He walked towards them calmly and with his hands down at his sides, resting next to the sheaths in a non-threatening manner but so close that he could draw them at any moment. "How heroic this is," Zach started, and he cracked a grin when the girl in front of him darted a look back his way. "Five on one? Mind if I make it five on two?"

Zach hoped the younger girl in front of him who looked like a first year though maybe a second would not get annoyed by him stepping in. He was relieved as she smiled at the sight of him and what he said instead of looking upset over it. She turned back to the upperclassmen who eased back as Lifebringer started towards them.

"Finish her quick then-"

Zach started sprinting forward, not going to let the girl calling that out finish with her plan and take out his new ally before he even got to her. He sprinted up and clasped his hands on the hilts of his knives, only to let go and bring his hands up with his fingers curling out in front of him and his elbows bent close to his chest as he slowed in a fighting stance. "On your right," Zach warned, as there was a sixth member of the older group who appeared around his age who just climbed up on the roof of one of the little shacks on the outside of the urban area.

"All at once. Lifebringer's just a name," the guy who said it looked straight into Zach's eyes even as he did. "We can take him."

Famous last words, Zach thought. How many times have people said that in front of me? And all those times they had much, much more than a four person advantage. They thought their lives were on the line, which occasionally they were- I should focus just in case.

"Maybe you could take me," Zach started. "But against the two of us," Zach smirked while the girl next to him opened her eyes wider only to keep smiling and grin at the opponents too.

Aiha did not know what she had done to get the famous Lifebringer suddenly backing her up in what had felt like a hopeless last stand for a second, but it spurred back the belief that she could win this and she balled her fists with her joints clicking throughout her body.

"Do it Aiha!"

"You can win this!"

"Guys, don't let them beat you," the guy who had just lost in the older group called at his classmates still standing. The judges called out in a more upset voice at the others who had gotten out already, and that group started backing away though they were backpedaling or looking over their shoulders the whole time. The guy who Aiha had beaten stumbled though while jogging backwards, and he dropped his jaw at the sight of Lifebringer speeding up between his classmates and causing two of them to fire too fast while spinning in at him, hitting each other with their Quirks instead as Lifebringer jumped up to dodge their attacks.

Zach drew everyone's attention with his sudden charge, and Aiha jumped up and slammed a knee into the side of an older girl who had started turning back while pointing her sharp paper hands up towards Lifebringer. The knee in her side made her spin out more than she was already turning back, and she gasped out spit but still managed to hold on enough that she was able to slash her arms inwards across her chest and protect from the ball coming towards her left boob where she had placed the target. Aiha yanked her right arm back, but she was too slow to change the momentum fully and part of her right hand got sliced open by what felt like a paper cut from her opponent's arm.

"I'll keep them off you, Aiha," Zach said while landing behind the girl (whose name he had heard called out by her friends). "If you can take her," Zach added.

"I can," Aiha replied with confidence in her tone, not taking her eyes off her opponent who stood back up straight and glared at the younger and shorter girl by over a head. The third-year from Isamu Academy rose her arms and they split apart into long thin white blades of paper that she spread out in front of her. Her younger opponent got a more hesitant look on her face for a second, only to hear the other older students who were friends with her opponent calling out in panic and pain behind her. She's worried. Thinking about turning to run and try getting her last hit somewhere else! Aiha charged forward. Her opponent slashed her right arm down, and the five different splits of sharp paper all cut down while pushing to the sides too in order to widen the range of the attack. Aiha's body twisted sideways though and bent backwards at the same time, her Quirk: Contortion, twisting her into tight openings in her opponent's attacks that she trained assuming people could not dodge into.

The Isamu third-year swung across the front of her body with her other hand, going horizontally this time and spreading out the range of her separate paper-thin attacks too. Aiha jumped up while in between two of the splits that had come down at her, and she spun her body in midair to go right between two attacks while slamming her right fist forward. The older girl stared in shock at the short, black-haired girl who just leapt between her attacks, only for her shocked eyes to squeeze shut when the fist indented into her nose and smashed her backwards.

Aiha hit the ground and fell immediately into a roll. She wasted no time as her opponent hit the ground, diving forward on top of her while pulling out another attack ball as she had dropped the first when her right hand was cut open. With that same bloody hand, Aiha rose up a new ball and pressed it down into her opponent's chest just as she was opening her eyes. The short girl leaned up on top of her foe's body, panting but grinning after a moment as she saw what she had done. Aiha then spun with a serious look again as she got worried her new ally was still facing off against bad odds on his own.

Aiha's bottom lip lowered, and she stood up as did the frustrated older teen below her to look over at Lifebringer and the five moaning figures around him. Aiha realized why it might have been that her opponent got distracted for a second at the start there, but the feeling that she did not take her opponent down on her own went away as the older boy in front of her turned her way and smiled seeing the illuminated target on her opponent's chest. "Nice job," Zach said. "You still have some left?" He added, as the judges did not just call out that another person had passed.

The younger girl looked surprised for a moment and then glanced around the other teens who Lifebringer had just taken down. "Aren't you going to," she began.

Zach shook his head. "They're yours. It was your fight and I stepped in, wasn't planning on taking the points." Zach turned and started jogging away without saying anything else. Aiha watched him start going, then her head snapped down and she saw a couple of the moaning upperclassmen struggling to push themselves back up.

Now you've got a choice. We were a team, so the people we fought were people we both took down. Any and all of them you could tag. Some people don't like to accept help. They were going to take you down with a whole group though against one young girl. If you let them get up, they might come after you. It's not always about just being super honorable. Do you want to be a hero badly enough? Will you just accept that I don't want them and not be stubborn? Hope I see you next round, if I make it there, Zach added the last part to remind himself not to be overconfident, even though he had just given up on the chance to finish the round.

Still thousands of people around here I can fight. A group of five who were actually willing to fight at the same time against me could have been better. After hitting each other with that first attack, the rest got nervous and started overthinking every move. They didn't know if I wanted them to do something or not, and I wasn't going to slow down to let them figure it out. Well, there should be some good fights through the city. Maybe a couple others I feel deserve it more, people who would do a great job as heroes like Aiha. No need to second guess that. I'm a great judge of character. She's someone I could trust on the battlefield. Lives on the line with gunfire raging around us, flames everywhere and bodies dropping by the dozens… There are people up there, twenty-eighth story. Zach leapt up and his feet that turned black before the jump got even thicker with it as he swung his legs up towards the wall of the skyscraper.

Zach picked up his feet even after slamming them hard into the wall in a solid enough spot that he did not break through but weak enough that he could dent it. He started running up the wall, windows cracking on his sides with every step up the vertical incline into the sky. Around the outside of the facility another region of it down, Endeavor finally spotted Lifebringer again after losing him for a while. There was only one reason he was there at the testing site, and it was to watch the teenager he had marked as the number one suspect for Death since he was put in charge of the Anti-Death Task Force. Endeavor stared out into the urban zone and Todoroki followed his father's eyes to catch where Zach was again too, and Todoroki's eyes widened a lot more than his dad's did at the sight of what Zach was doing.

That's, Todoroki thought, shifting his gaze to the side and the man sitting two seats away from him. He thought about old clips he had studied over the last year while attempting to mimic and adapt some of his father's strongest moves into his own. The way he saw Zach climbing the building was something he had seen before, and though Endeavor did it using different physics, both he and his father felt like the boy they were watching was imitating him. "I'm sorry I didn't say anything, but Endeavor's such a great hero, I couldn't stain his name by revealing the secret I knew."

Endeavor was thinking about the same thing. Todoroki had told him on a mission in Switzerland exactly what Zach had told him on the night of the Lifebringer Incident. The top hero lost sight of Lifebringer again as the teen moved into the building he had just been climbing up, and he lowered his gaze down to the grasslands getting rained on just ahead of their section of the bleachers. What is he still doing in this round? His actions are unnecessary at this point. He could have moved on several times, yet instead he continues to move about the room taking as many risks as possible. Unless to him, they aren't risks. Not in the sense that he's used to. If he was Death, then something like this really is just a joke to him.

"Deku, I don't understand what Zach's doing," Uraraka whispered to her side. She hoped Midoriya knew, as she knew the two of them had been much closer than she ever was with Zach. Midoriya was looking out in the direction where they had last seen him, his expression thoughtful and intense as he thought over what he was watching.

The longer he waits, the more he risks showing off his powers. Unless he's not trying to hide them? I assumed he was going to from the start, and I thought I had confirmed that but then why keep going? Midoriya responded after a couple seconds, "Me neither."

Zach emerged from the urban zone and ran around the edge of the facility through another few zones until he sprinted into the rain. The room was darker in this area, and Zach could feel his clothes start getting wet in the rain that fell at the same volume all around the grassy field. The field was not completely flat, with hills rising around it that people could be hiding behind. He also saw a couple of craters and missing patches of grass, some skid marks and slashes across the floor, and a very sharp cross-section of a hill was visible as a chunk of it had been removed in a precise manner.

He thought about the early fights he saw over here from when he was sitting atop the rock pillar over in the mountain zone, and he pictured the large chunk of earth that had risen up with flat sides and sharp edges. So that's where that came from, Zach thought as he ran past the missing part of floor. He saw some pieces of that chunk scattered about over the grass, though there was a lot of mud on the ground too as the rain had saturated that turned-over dirt. Nice use of the environment, but what do you do when your trap fails?

Zach jumped up, and the two muddy arms that reached up out of the ground missed him. He had been in mid-sprint and did not look prepared to dodge at all, so the girl who just leaned up out of the ground to grab him dropped her jaw at the look he snapped down at her. Not a great reaction, Zach thought, while coming back down and slamming a foot towards her face. He kept the kick slow, and although she was slow at reacting at first, seeing him coming for that counter got her activating her Quirk again and sinking back into the mud. Zach's foot still slammed into where her head was sinking, though he kept the pressure low and then hummed when she was fully inside the ground and not coming back up.

She has a partner. Maybe she was supposed to just grab me then he or she'd jump out, but when she missed the other panicked. I should have grabbed her to see how the other would react. Well let's see how she does to this, Zach snapped his head over towards a chunk of upturned earth that he had seen someone poke their head out behind from thirty meters off. He darted towards it while pulling a knife out of the front sheath on his left side. Zach flicked the knife forward and right past the edge of the rubble, slamming it into the grass behind the sixteen year old boy who spun and stared down at it with eyes wide. His head started turning back, only for Zach to already be there reaching out for him.

Zach spun the guy around and put him in a headlock before the boy could even shout at him. He choked him with his right arm that he tucked under the boy's left armpit too, and he squeezed tightly while spinning back around and stomping out into the muddy area where the girl had dropped into the ground. "If you don't come out, I'm going to-"

"R-un," the boy in Zach's choke-hold gasped out for his hidden comrade.

"R-run…" Zach could see his own left arm extended out in front of him and his hand curled around the throat of a man he was holding off the ground. He saw his legs dangling and swinging back and forth as he clawed at Death's wrist to try and be let free. The villain's eyes had shifted over to the right though at a woman in the room with him, the same woman from the photo in the cracked frame on the floor with the man he was choking in it. And there was a little girl standing in the photo in front of the man and his wife who had such terrified looks on their faces as Zach choked him-

Zach released his choke-hold as the girl emerged from the ground in front of him. He pushed his opponent forward before she could even make a word out at him, and the kid he was choking fell into his comrade and they both toppled into the mud. The boy rolled off his comrade quickly and spun just as she snapped up to prepare for Lifebringer, only for the two of those panting kids to stare in shock and fear as the foe they had been facing was not there. They spun their heads and looked around, rain pouring down on them and drenching the scared teens trying to catch their breath.

Their opponent was gone though. He didn't want her getting up to protect her. She wasn't going to let me just keep hurting him. You two can keep trying. I'm sure that trap would have worked on a lot of other people, a lot of villains too. Maybe it already has and you only need a couple more. Hopefully you aren't too spooked from running into me that you botch your next attempt. Everyone keeps getting so scared. I didn't think people were that afraid of me in Japan. I've been trying hard to keep my appearance seeming friendly and- it's the way I fight. It's been years- months, months since I last fought. But all those fights of that year were so intense, and I didn't… Even when I held back, I was still being intimidating. People didn't know that I was holding back against them, because I was still being a monster to them. Every fight, I instilled terror. In order to become the Symbol of Fear.

I'm not going to be a symbol like that anymore though. I don't want to be. I can't be, not here. How do I fight against other heroes? Or actually, even if they were villains, how do I fight when people are watching Zach Sazaki? I need to be smiling. I need to be a role model when I'm Zach. Don't you remember that?! That was important! Just because the last time you were Zach, you stopped doing those things- that was just to lure the League into attacking! Those two weeks after Kaminari aren't a basis for how to act as a hero! I never should have done that. I never should have tricked everyone in this country, made them all think that I had been broken. I hurt a lot of them. I need to fight better. I need to fight, like a hero.

Zach slowed down his run and he looked ahead to a group he saw up ahead with six people in it. He recognized them, and his eyes shifted around a little, but the other two people in the area were not the other two who he remembered were in that group at the start. The team had initially had eight members in it, and Zach remembered looking towards them closely because a lot of the other contestants had been watching them closely just as he had been watched. The U.A. team. They're down to six people, but they just took out two more. How many more do they need to get through? Looks like they've been in more than a couple fights already.

"Is everyone at least at three now?" Reimi asked her classmates. She also checked on the three from Class 1-B who were taking the make-up test with her and her friends from 1-A as well. There had been two more from 1-B there with them at the start, but they were keeping their spirits high and staying optimistic about finishing this even after losing some comrades.

"You're just first years," one of the two who was just taken down and tagged moaned. He lifted his gaze angrier and added, "This was our last chance-"

"You can try again," the boy who just tagged the upperclassman said. The older teen lifted his head to him and the short boy shook his head and added, "But we need to pass too." He turned away without waiting to hear what the other student might say to him next, and Hono stepped to Oribia who he reached a hand down to as she had dropped to a knee after that fight which she had taken a tank position in. "Just two more for us, and one more for the others. We need to take down eight more opponents."

The two who had been eliminated took off to get out of the rain. They were frustrated and injured, and they were being called to get out of the playing field as long as they could still move. Zeira Eleinie watched them heading away, then the dark-skinned girl with two stag-horns sticking out of her head turned back to her fellow U.A. students. She was slender and had accentuated curves in her tight black costume that also had some knives and a grappling hook attached to the side of it. Her skin was covered in a very light fur on her arms and legs, though her face was just brown and thick-skinned leading up to her darker brown hair that fell long behind her back. "Come on," the girl who just needed to take down one more opponent started. "Only sixty people might have passed so far, but that doesn't give us any idea on how many are still left out there. Let's head over towards the mountain zone."

"Why the mountains?" Oribia asked, stepping away from Hono after he had helped her up and looking over the same way as Zeira herself. Oribia was shorter than her classmate in 1-B, with shorter and lighter brown hair too, as well as shorter horns though hers were just little triangular silver ones. Her horns did come out of the same point back in her hair just behind her forehead as Zeira's though. The girls who had failed the test in the fall along with three of their other classmates were glad to have this new make-up exam so that they could get out of their supplemental lessons sooner, and also so they could get on the same level as the rest of their classmates and start on the patrol courses that U.A. taught which they had to sit out over the last few months.

"There's been some loud fighting over there. If there's a battle ending, we might come across people who have let their guards down like we are right now," Ubo muttered, though he brought his voice up at the end as he wanted his comrades who he felt were too relaxed to get back into more prepared mindsets. The ones who were catching their breath or slouching stood up straighter and looked around to see if anyone was trying to get the drop on them like Ubo was suggesting they go try to do on others.

Zeira nodded while a couple of the others looked around. "That's right. Let's do it." Ubo said what she was thinking about, and she said that in a hurry as the fighting did sound quieter now so if they wanted to get a shot on a group they knew had to be over there, they had to move now.

"W-Wait," Reimi said. Zeira looked back and then spun around fully as did the others to look through the rain over at a figure walking slowly towards them. Hono and Oribia spun the rest of their bodies with their eyes huge and then narrowing. Eko's jaw dropped, but he snapped it shut a second later and balled his pale hands into fists.

The largest of the group, Eko stomped forward towards the taller and broader-shouldered teen heading his way. Oribia moved forward too and stood at his right side. All the fingers on Hono's right hand stuck together and then the tips of all of them slid open together into one long black slit into his arm. Reimi took a deep breath to soothe her nerves after stuttering there at the first sight of him, and Ubo glanced to his side at Zeira who walked forward with her eyes still big but also intense as she stared towards the man walking their way.

Lifebringer, Zeira thought. She gulped, and her heart was racing in her chest.

Zach stopped walking and stared between the two at the front of the group of U.A. students straight at the tall girl with stag antlers looking back at him. A black costume. Knives and a grappling gun? Zach cracked a smile and his eyes shifted around the other students he was facing.

"Hey Lifebringer," Oribia called out. "You don't want any of this." She flexed and her muscles bulged all over her body, but her legs got thinner after a moment as her arms and upper body bulked more. Her silver horns glinted and rain slid down them over her face and around her eyes. Her lips twisted up and her teeth were bared but in a grin at Lifebringer who she was not going to look afraid of if he was going to stand there and grin at them like he was the one in control of this situation.

In the bleachers not too far from what was going on, the U.A. crowd and Endeavor were all staring down at the fight clear ahead of them. All Might sweatdropped as he saw the team of six were facing off against Zach, and he said in a quiet voice, "I believe we are about to see someone pass." It was not like he was saying for sure that Zach was about to win, as they knew some of the other students in front of them only needed to take out one more person to be finished with the exam's first round.

As much as All Might worded it like he could be talking about any of them though, his somewhat regretful tone made it out like he thought Sazaki was about to end the chances of the U.A. students from passing. "This is crazy," Present Mic was leaning forward in his seat and his smile was huge even with beads of sweat rolling down both sides of his face.

All Might glanced over in a confused way at Present Mic, but then Midoriya and Uraraka, and Endeavor and Todoroki too all looked towards the only female teacher in the group. "Sazaki may be in some trouble," Midnight admitted. "He does not seem to be taking this seriously, or I am sure he would have already passed. Against that group though," Midnight started shaking her head and she looked over at some of her first-year students. Her eyes specifically focused on the girl in all black with weapons matching the ones Lifebringer used to use. Zeira never hid how much she respects him. This has to be a life-changing moment for her. For their first meeting to be like this.

I have to fight him. I have to win! Zeira shouted it at herself and her entire tensed body relaxed. She let out a long breath, and her face covered in so much intensity. Her fingers twitched at her sides like she was going to grab a weapon at any second, and she watched as Zach Sazaki put his hands down at his sides and did the same thing while still looking her way and starting to grin at her.

"Do it," Ubo said, his head bowed so his mouth would not be seen by the opponent up ahead of them.

Zeira stared straight into Zach's eyes, and her eyes rolled back in her head. Zach's eyes rolled back too and he completely froze while standing there in front of six opponents who all looked ready to charge at him.

"She got him?" Reimi asked, her voice raising louder in amazement and excitement at the same time.

Oribia's body lost its huge muscle tone, and Eko's shoulders slumped with him letting out a huge breath of relief at the same time. "I can't believe it," Eko muttered in shock.

"What's going on?" Uraraka was leaning out of her seat far forward and her eyes were stunned at what she saw down on the wetlands.

Uraraka and Midoriya spun their heads to the left, and Endeavor and Todoroki looked to the left a little too while staring down the bleachers at Cementoss. "Zeira Eleinie is a remarkable student. You may understand her better, if I compare her to Shinso Hitoshi. Although compared to Shinso, Zeira was much more prepared to be a hero when she arrived at U.A. with a Quirk that did not help her in the entrance exams. In that regard, she is much more like Sazaki himself."

"What's her Quirk?" Midoriya asked, turning back in amazement towards the group down below.

"Mental Infiltration," Midnight replied. She shook her head while looking down towards Sazaki who had looked to prepare himself before going after the group of first-years from Class A. He had watched them and then walked out smiling and like he was challenging them to a fight, and Midnight rose a hand up and ran it back over the top of her head before shaking it again at how Sazaki had played himself there. "She cannot use it more than three times in a day, but it has a success rate of a hundred percent."

"It's not a Quirk that helps her out too much when it comes to big competitions, such as the first rounds of the Sports Festival, or the previous licensing exam where a bunch of U.A. hunters came at her at the same time and she was unable to use it and leave her body unprotected." Midnight paused for a moment and then added, "But even in that fight, she defeated two of her opponents while cornered and on her own and without the use of her Quirk."

That does, sound a lot like Zach, Uraraka stared down towards the girl who was standing still while her comrades moved around her. She sounds, amazing.

He really messed this up, Todoroki thought in shock.

"It should be Hono or Oribia to hit his target," Ubo started to his comrades.

"I don't feel right about it," Hono said. He looked to Zeira who was in his class just like Oribia, and Oribia had a similar look to her face as he did. "Zeira should get to tag him."

"You two still only have three," Reimi argued, raising her eyebrows and saying it like it was obvious. "And then we'd lose a teammate as Zeira would have to go to the anteroom ahead of us. That doesn't make sense-"

"You guys don't understand," Hono started in a lower voice, and he glanced back towards where Lifebringer was standing. "How much this means to her. How much it would mean if she defeated Lifebringer."

"Well she did," Eko said. "But you think she'd want us to have less of a chance of moving on to the next round because of her? I think immobilizing him is enough." Hono and Oribia looked at each other, and they hummed and nodded as that did sound more like their classmate. "So one of you go and we-"

"AAAHHHHHHH!" A high-pitched scream cut through the area and the group spun as a whole back towards Zeira whose legs were coming out from below her. This was her second time using her Quirk today, and she had told the others who did not know as much about her Quirk the full usage of it before even showing it off the first time. So every one of them knew that this was unusual, though that pain-filled ear-piercing scream gave that away anyway.

Zach's eyes rolled back and his lips were twisted down deep at the corners.

12 Months Ago

On an airship flying across the sky, Zach sat on the floor of The Cloak's training room in the open sparring section. His sat cross-legged in front of a beautiful woman also sitting there with her legs crossed, her purple eyes focused in on his hazel ones as they talked. Zach was sitting in his full tight black armor though with his weapons resting off to the side so he could at least sit in a more comfortable way, while Seraphim had on a black tank top that pulled close to her slender and sexy body. Her hair was not tied up in a ponytail as it usually was, instead falling straight back behind her hair and getting wavy near the bottom. There were a few strands falling over her shoulders and to the sides of her chest, and though she was not wearing make-up, she looked great for it being three in the morning.

Seraphim had just gotten out of bed, unable to sleep. She met someone else who was not sleeping well over the past couple of weeks, training on his own in the dead of night while she was going to try and get her mind off a few things herself. Their talk had distracted both of them from the friends they had lost in the Dragon's Den. Zach had spent the night thinking about Cee, and how she died, while Seraphim felt a phantom feeling on her lips that had kept her lying awake at night. The first and last kiss from Juno before that fight was haunting her, and she was stuck wondering why as they had only really known each other for a couple of months.

Neither of the two insomniacs had brought up what they were awake for to each other. Instead their conversations had been focused on the future, on upcoming fights or the ones even more recently than the Dragon's Den. Many of those locations they had been hitting with the information they got from the Syndicate had been fruitful in giving them clues on more of their large enemies such as the League of Shadows and the Fergus Conglomerate.

Seraphim was just mentioning information she got at the last base they had attacked only earlier that day, and Zach questioned the older woman sitting only a couple of feet in front of him, "You said that Rorquet pushed you out? What do you mean by that?"

The purple-haired woman nodded and replied to her commander, "Brain Trap is not a perfect Quirk. No Quirks are. Although we made Rorquet talk, I am sure he trained in combatting against Quirks like mine because these Quirks are how heroes get around not torturing villains and still obtaining information in some instances. Even though I failed, he thought I would do to him the things he knew heroes couldn't though, which I know because I told him I knew why he trained in countering my Quirk but that I was not afraid to go farther." Zach nodded back at her in a way telling her that was good work, as he had been training the others in the AoD recently about how they should coerce information out of villains without really torturing them.

"And how did he train to combat Quirks like yours?" Zach asked. "Not so that I could stop yours or anything-"

"I understand why you'd want to know," Seraphim said, shaking her head as there was no need for him to explain himself and she did not think he wanted to know just to counter her. "And I can teach you," she added which had Zach smiling in a glad way that she did know and was willing to. "Rorquet was not the first to counter Brain Trap. Years ago in my early days as a vigilante I met a villain who could force me out of his head. It was before Brain Trap immediately worked in knocking my opponents unconscious, when I still had to hold my hands to their heads for more than a moment. As I grabbed his head though, I was faced with a barrier in his mind that stopped me from using my Quirk effectively."

"And you've built up that barrier in your own head?" Zach asked.

"It's not a real, physical barrier," Seraphim started, shaking her head at the way Zach phrased that. "And you do not leave it in there. However it can be 'built' in an instant as long as you teach yourself how to feel when it is a mental attack is coming. I am sure there are certain mental abilities that it will not work against. However, most Quirks like mine do have a brief moment before your brain is affected by it where someone who is trained to notice can feel the foreign infiltration and stop it. It takes great mental control, to be able to block off certain points of one's own mind."

Zach nodded his head at her in understanding. His expression darkened a little and his eyes lowered off of Seraphim's. "What is it?" She asked him, wondering if she had said something.

"Nothing," Zach replied fast. He hesitated after looking back in her eyes though, then he said softly, "Kaminari. The villain going by Raijin, my old best friend." Seraphim nodded at him already in understanding, but Zach continued, "He was able to block off parts of his mind to be a better spy. Creating an entire personality to be a good person and my friend. But also, when he went after Cee," Seraphim's eyebrows lifted and she stared closer at Zach as she had not heard this story and also understood why he had gotten darker while speaking on it. "Cee once told me that she used her Quirk on Kaminari, but he had such mental control with his electricity that he rewired his brain as soon as she used it and managed not to get turned around."

"It's kind of like that," Seraphim said. "Though for people like us who can't rewire our own minds physically, it takes intense concentration." Zach nodded and refocused fully on practicing how to counter mental attacks, shifting away thoughts of Cee again. "To fend off a foreign invader using only your own mind, when they have the power of their Quirk helping them. We'll practice with mine, and the counter you build up should work even better against others who are not expecting you to fight back. Luckily, most of the time, someone with a mental ability like mine is very confident in their Quirk. People with mental Quirks often consider their powers as hack-abilities or trump cards, and not all of them fight often enough or against strong enough opponents that they knew that they do have weaknesses. The counter isn't a certainty to work, but no Quirk works every time either."

Wreck'd, Zach nodded at Seraphim and quickly pushed the thought of Wreck'd out of his mind. His comrade who pushed him out of the way so he would not get killed by the monster who had ran right through Death faded from his mind just as Cee had before him. Zach took in a deep breath and he said, "Then let's begin. The stronger my mind becomes, the less ability villains will have to use a 'hack' Quirk to get information out of me. In fights too, and just in general it would be good."

"Then I'll use Brain Trap on you. I will start off as weak as I can, and we will build up from there." Seraphim lifted her hands, but she stopped and glanced towards a door to the training room where a few people just walked up. Zach turned his head and looked over at a group of three who were also having trouble sleeping. "We're training counters for mental attacks," Seraphim explained, mainly looking towards Darling as she said it. She looked to La Brava and Michael too afterwards and then questioned, "Would you like to join?"

Anything to shift my focus, Michael thought, and he nodded towards Seraphim and started over. Darling ran over first so that she could sit right next to Zach, and she asked Seraphim what they needed to do.

La Brava hesitated longest, giving a glance behind her wondering if she should go try and get back to sleep. She also considered heading over to Gentle's room to see if he would talk to her about the blonde girl in her nightmare, but she turned back to the group ahead of her and finally started over to sit with them and train something that sounded to her like a good thing to know. "You'll need incredible focus," Seraphim started once the four were seated in front of her. "So first, clear your minds. Prepare to be attacked. You won't always be ready for a mental invasion, but for the first tries we'll get you as prepared as possible to just look out for the feeling right when I enter your heads. Once you know what that feeling is, it shouldn't matter whether you were ready for it or not. You'll be able to fight back. And people with Quirks like mine often let their guards down once the trap is sprung…"

Present

Zeira's teachers at U.A. stared down in shock at the girl screaming after using her Quirk in a way they had never seen before. It had only been around fifteen seconds since she started using her Quirk, but they had never heard her talk about a time limit before. Nor had they ever heard of side effects that would make her reach up to the sides of her head like she had and start screaming. Zeira clenched her eyes shut harder while her head pounded in pain, feeling like it did when she would use her third Mental Infiltration for the day except much worse. It was the feeling she got if she went for a fourth try and kept pushing even after failing. She felt drained of Quirk power and her head had an agonizing migraine.

Midoriya leaned forward with his eyes growing huge again as Zach's head snapped up. His smile was gone. His lips were flat and his eyes cold. The others in front of him had all spun to Zeira as she let out her scream, and none of them saw that look that flashed over Zach's face in the same moment. Then Zach ran forward.

No one knew what had happened. They did not see Zeira's mental body inside of Zach's head, confused as it was stuck behind a large wall that she banged against and tried tearing through. They did not see Zach's own mental body that appeared in there, screaming in a way that made the entire mental world that had been created with her Quirk shake violently. Zach roared at her so that she would leave his mind on her own, as he did keep enough sense not to just use Death in his own mind to knock her out as he always did as a counter when he was attacked in his own mind. He had never been attacked in that way since learning how to tell it was happening and create counters, without reacting very strongly though. No one had infiltrated his mind in such a powerful way without him being in a situation that required immediate and harsh retribution.

STAY OUT OF MY HEAD! Zach sprinted forward with his eyes dark and his entire body pushed forward, his legs fully extending behind him with every step of a sprint that carried him across the gap in a second.

The group who had spun to their classmate started spinning back at the loud footsteps slamming on wet ground and charging them. The sight of their comrade collapsed to her knees told them what they needed to know and they all tried recuperating even though they were shocked that her attack failed. Oribia spun back quicker than Eko, but she still needed to re-bulk her body and she jumped backwards to gain distance with a panicked look covering her face at just how close Lifebringer already was. Zach did not run at Eko because he was not dodging yet though. Zach's eyes locked on Oribia's light brown ones and he turned a bit so he was sprinting straight at where she was coming down to land.

As Zach was running by Eko's side though, as he was finishing turning and realizing how close Lifebringer was, Zach's right arm shot out and he clotheslined the younger bulky teen. His forearm shook from the impact but did not slow down, with Zach's arm dragging Eko's face along with it so fast that his whole upper body followed and Eko's feet lifted off the ground. Eko's back slammed down into the floor as Zach started swinging that right arm around the front of his body for Oribia's left side as she was landing. Oribia's eyes darted to it and specifically his glove. Her upper left side bulked and prepared for the impact, but Zach's left hand swung into the unguarded right side of her head before she even saw his arm raising.

Zach's left hand curled into the right side of Oribia's head while it was still moving across the front of his body so fast that it pushed her to her left. Her legs came out from below her and swung up to her right side as her upper body was pushed to the left. Zach released her parallel to the ground straight at Ubo who was quickest of the others to react and start running at him, and who Zach saw approaching on Oribia's left side while he started his feint at it. He threw Oribia into him so hard that it stopped Ubo's momentum and made him stop using his Quirk at the same time to catch his comrade instead. This gave Zach only one opponent to target on as Reimi was still running at him even without Ubo to back her up on Zach's other side now.

Reimi was expecting to get the drop on Lifebringer because Ubo was faster and going to reach him first. Instead he was moving towards her halving the time that it would take for the two of them to reach when she already was not prepared to fight him head-on even if it had taken double that time. Zach slammed his left fist forward and lodged it in Reimi's gut before she could get a guard up. Then he opened his hand and curled fingers into her costume while reaching his right hand out and grabbing her by the collar as she hunched forward. He yanked up and flipped her over his head but did not slam down into the floor behind him, instead stopping and holding her in the way of Hono who had just fired long black tape from both of his arms aimed forward at Lifebringer's side. Zach finished spinning around fully himself while Hono snapped his arms to the side, barely getting them apart fast enough to prevent his thick black tape that was sticky on both sides from colliding with Reimi.

As Hono's tape was passing by on both sides of Zach, Zach lifted and let go of Reimi. He brought his arms up just a bit so that she would rise for a half second and then start an arc down. It was not much, but it kept the center of her body level with where Zach's foot extended into a second later as she started dropping. His left foot slammed down on the floor and his right kicked out into Reimi's back so hard that she flew between Hono's attacks and slammed into his front hard enough to knock him on his back and for both of them to roll over each other backwards ten feet. Then Zach turned and he ran towards Ubo who was helping Oribia up on shaky legs as she was still disoriented after the slam of that hand into the side of her head strong enough to throw her into Ubo.

Zach jumped up before reaching them and he slammed a foot down towards Ubo's right hand that he rose up. Zach flicked a knife down near Ubo's arm as Ubo rose it, making him pull away even though the knife had not been on target to hit him anyway. Ubo dodged though and missed blocking the foot that slammed a heel down into the top of his head and dropped him back into the ground. Zach stomped his other foot down on Ubo's back and he reached his left hand forward, grabbing Oribia by the front of her costume again.

"Not again!" She yelled at him in a defiant voice. Oribia clapped her hands inwards with her arms bulking up in strength to stop him this time, but Zach released the costume and swung that arm up in an uppercut under her chin. His punch collided the same time that her hands clapped together, knocking her backwards and off her feet so she fell to her back. She groaned after hitting her back and started leaning up, but Zach's eyes had darted over to Eko who had been dazed after that clothesline and subsequent meeting with the ground.

Eko was in the middle of getting back up, so Zach dipped his right foot under Oribia's side and yanked his leg up after getting enough of it under her. He tossed her body with one leg up in front of himself, then he did a roundhouse kick into her side while she tried to swing a punch at him with one arm that she bulked up to four times the size of normal. Zach felt a strong wind slam into him but nothing else, as Oribia was already flying over the ground and crashing into Eko who rose his arms to try and catch her. He was not in a good position to do so half-up on his knees, and she was too high that even though he rose his arms up, they got pushed back and she smashed straight into his face.

"Stop it," a low, raspy voice hissed. Zach turned his head towards the position he just heard a voice he recognized, because it was one he had heard in his head a few seconds ago before he started smashing on all her comrades. Zeira had her head lifting up, twitching and her lips trembling and flinching as she strained her whole body just to do this. She ignored the pounding in her head that was not as strong as when she was forced out but was still insanely painful. Zeira glared at Lifebringer and she slammed her right fist down into the floor in front of her. Her shaking left hand curled into a fist a couple of times itself before opening up and yanking a knife from a sheath that she slammed into the ground too and used to pull her body forward.

Zeira pushed down on the hilt of the blade, struggling up to one foot first and then the next with a furious look covering her face. "How?" She said, her voice still raspy but stronger as she got up to her other foot too.

The U.A. group, Zach thought, his breathing coming out heavy all of a sudden even though during all that combat he had not been panting. He calmed himself and thought in a dark way, Are actually pretty good. Better than most of the others I've run into. What am I doing? I guess it was combat again, for a second. They were actually putting up good counters and defenses. This girl though, Zach thought, staring at the brown girl covered in fur and with long majestic antlers. He had not expected her Quirk to be what it was, but as soon as she started it he realized what was happening. The reason it took him too long to counter was only him trying to figure out how best to push her away, though he failed at coming up with one and just pushed her out without much grace. I can't treat them all like there's nothing they can do to hurt me. They might not be heroes yet, but there are people here who will one day be the strongest heroes in their generation.

He looked straight into Zeira's eyes while thinking that, and he got his expression looking serious again with his breathing fully calmed down. She looks up to me. I could tell. When she was looking at me before, she was determined to show me what she could do. She wanted to prove it to herself too. Even though I broke free from her hold, and her 'how' sounds like she didn't think that was possible, she's still standing up ready to fight me. Holding back against someone like this, holding back so much, it's disrespectful. And I do respect her. Enough, that I'll take her seriously.

"No Quirk is perfect," Zach replied to the girl before him who was the last standing of her friends now. The others were all moaning and groaning on the ground, struggling to hold themselves together and not yell out from the pain they were in. Zeira glared into Zach's eyes, hers bloodshot from the pain she was in and the headache that was pounding at her mind and making it difficult to think. She was able to listen though, and she stared at Lifebringer as he continued to her, "Many people consider mental Quirks as like trump cards. Unbeatable. You know that it's not that easy though. That no matter how powerful, it's not going to help you all the time. That's why you have those weapons, why I'm sure you've trained with them. Yet you're still overconfident in that Quirk. As much as you know it won't help with everything, did you think it would always work? Did you think no one in the world knew how to counter it?" Zach looked at her skeptically and frowned at the younger girl like she was not putting up much of a fight, like she was not prepared to be a hero, and like she was definitely not ready to fight against someone at his level.

Frustration spread across Zeira's face so much more, her teeth clenching down and her fists balling so hard around the hilts in her hands. She flicked around the knives and then rose her arms up and held one blade pointed out to one side and the other pointed the other way. "You're still going to fight me?" Zach asked, cracking a smirk at her for attempting it. "After your friends together, using their Quirks, couldn't do a thing? You know there's a difference between stubbornness and stupidity."

"I'm going to beat you," Zeira said. Her legs bent down and she looked ready to charge forward.

"In that case," Zach said. His tone had completely changed. He was no longer taunting her or talking down at the girl he wanted to see not back down even after he said all those things. He did not expect her to, but he wanted to check to make sure anyway that it would not be easy to break her down. "I'll fight you seriously," Zach said. "What's your name?" He rose his hands up with his arms extended straight out in front of his body.

"Zeira Eleinie," she said firmly, still frustrated over the way he had been talking but losing some of her anger at the way he just spoke to her that filled her body with a different emotion. The way Lifebringer was looking at her in a way she did not expect him to in their first meeting. The intense way he looked, ready to fight like she was someone he needed to look that way for, it felt so much more real than all he had just been saying to her. "Hero name: Lifesaver."

"Alright, Zeira," Zach said, calling her by her last name instead of her hero one. She felt like he said it on purpose like that. He said it in a tone that spoke full sentences at her, like she needed to prove to him right now that she deserved that hero name. Her hero name that sounded like his. Just speaking out her last name alone had her heart racing and her adrenaline pumping like crazy. The way he said it had her feeling like this was going to be an intense battle, and yet it was when the darkness appeared that she really understood what she had just gotten herself into.

Zach's fists were pressed together out in front of his body. His thumbs and index fingers started pulling apart from each other slowly, though instead of a gap between his hands, Zach was sliding his hands apart in either direction down a black staff that spread in the gap. The staff was not wisping with darkness, but it also did not look fully solid as smooth as it was. Zach slid his hands farther apart and made the pole of darkness longer too, until it was four feet long when his arms stopped spread far apart. Zach let go with his left hand and slid his right up to about midway up the pole, lowering the bottom down near the ground where it stopped a couple of inches off the floor, and yet the green grass around the bottom of that pole was still shriveling up and turning brown. The top of the pole extended up some more, though the darkness got more wavy above the pole once it rose over five and a half feet.

Most people in the bleachers near the area were all looking at the same spot now. A few of the U.A. students who had been taken down managed to lift their heads, only Oribia and Hono so far though and neither could stand up or thought they should considering the way Zeira was looking at Lifebringer and him at her. They also did not want to stand, because at the top of the six foot long staff Lifebringer had created, the darkness stopped raising up. It had flared at the top in less of a solid form, but that flaring black mass had pulled forward towards Zeira like it was trying to attack her. The darkness pulling her way started to settle into a shape too though. The darkness curved up and then down farther out from Zach, in the shape of a long curved blade with a sharp point at the end.

"What the fuck was she talking about, Reaper?" Midoriya heard Bakugo growling that at Zach after his fight with Toga, after she had said something about the things Zach had been doing with the League of Villains. He stared down at that scythe that had caused him to take a sharp intake of breath. And then he watched with wide eyes along with the others around him as Zach started spinning his large dark weapon.

Zach spun the scythe around in a full spin with the blade coming down forward and then back up behind him into its original position. It kept spinning though, Zach opening up his hand and flicking inwards and to the side, his scythe moving like a blur and spinning around in circles on his right side and then in front of him and to his left. His left hand took the scythe that it never fully gripped around but the weapon started spinning around too. The long blade sliced at the ground below Zach's feet and carved through grass and dirt tearing some up with some fast slashes of that pure darkness. Zach spun the weapon over the top of his head and then around his back with it extended six feet out behind him and then in a full swing around the side of his body so anyone who had been in a six foot radius of him would have been slashed. He continued spinning it around his other side and then swung up and over his head down to in front of his body with the end of the scythe pointed straight at the front of Zeira's body.

There were slash marks all over the ground around him. He held his right arm out fully extended with his hand curled on the bottom of the scythe that looked to weigh nothing considering how it was not dipping down at all. He had eight feet of reach out in front of him extending his arm like that, two feet of arm and another six on top. Then the long hilt of the scythe for six feet out from his hand ignited in a roaring flame of darkness that ripped off the thin weapon a couple of feet up. Zach's arm was extended straight out in front of his chest, so the rising black flames cut up in front of his face and blurred it in darkness from Zeira who bit down hard and then snapped her right hand down and grabbed her grappling hook.

It's clear you won't be getting within striking range of me, Zach thought. So that would be the right move, Zach swung his right arm up and let go of the scythe he had just shown off so many cool moves with. He tossed the weapon up high into the air, and Zeira's eyes darted up but darted back to him quickly in case it was just a misdirection. She kept him and the scythe in her vision though, and she jumped backwards to increase the distance between them as she did not know what his current plan was. Zeira felt like he wanted her to go back on the decision to grab for her gun though but she was not going to hesitate.

Zeira aimed her grappling gun forward and fired. Zach clenched his right hand into a fist and her eyes darted back up to the scythe that exploded above. Zach pulled his head away from the grappling hook, and he started running forward while reaching up his left hand now and grabbing the wire that missed him and did not redirect quickly enough. Zach's left hand curled on the wire, and without that hand even covering in darkness, a black flame started racing down the wire faster than Zach was running at her. Zeira stomped forward and threw the grappling hook, lifting her other hand with the knife in it and running at the older boy who no longer had that scythe in his hands. She threw her gun at him, another move Zach was very familiar with and did not falter at, just running through the weapon that hit into his body and bounced off.

There's nowhere else to go! Zeira saw the scythe explode in the air above her without fully taking her attention off of Lifebringer. The weapon had exploded and mixed in with the rain, and it was raining down with it behind her and on both her right and left sides. She pulled out a second knife again while running forward, in the only path she had which made it so obvious as a trap. Yet even though she knew it was a trap, there was no other direction she could go to. She charged through the path in the black rain, making it so there was less time before their collision than if she had stayed in place and waited for him to run all the way up to her.

Zeira brought both arms up for her initial slash, and Zach's hands snapped forward and grabbed her by the wrists faster than her arms were slashing or able to pull away. He yanked those wrists down and in front of her legs that she could have kicked up at him but now had no ability to. Then once he stopped her momentum, he tossed those wrists right back up again while she was opening her hands to try and flick the knives forward. Zeira hesitated as now that she had her hands back she did not know if she should let go of the knives, nor would the angle she had been preparing to throw at work anymore. As she had that moment of hesitation to think, Zach slammed his right foot into the ground just in front of her, and he twisted his body to the right in a spin kick that collided his left leg with the right side of Zeira's torso just below her ribs.

Zach saw Zeira's face flash with pain along with dread, frustration, and regret at the moves she had made to put herself in that position. The dread was because of the power that he hit her, showing over the pain of the actual hit itself because she knew that with that much force she was about to go flying into the dark rain falling on her left side. She was flung off of Zach's leg hard, slamming into the ground and bouncing away before sliding through mud to a stop twenty feet away from him. As she had flown away from him though, Zach focused on the Death he had dropping on his right side. All of that Death stopped falling with the rain and pulled to the sides of where she was kicked, and then the last of it hit down into the ground.

Not many people who were watching caught the rain getting less dark in the area Zeira flew through. She was just down in the mud and the last of the Death fell, leaving Zach standing alone with six injured opponents now. Midoriya stared straight towards Zach with his eyes full of confusion. He darted his gaze over to the girl who he knew did not get touched by any Death, and he watched as she moved, though just enough to turn her head to the side in the mud and take in a huge gasp of breath. Midoriya stared back at Zach and watched as he pulled a red ball out from his sweatshirt's front pocket. Why leave her conscious just to take her out?

Zach tossed the ball up in his right hand a couple times. He looked around and said while looking back towards where Eko and Oribia were laying near each other, "When you heard Zeira scream, why'd you turn away from me? You were the front line so you should have had your guard up better than everyone else. You all let your guards down just because she got me too, and you waited too long to come after me when she made her move. You shouldn't have let your guard down until my target was tagged." Zach paused and he glanced over towards where Zeira was lying, her face still turned to the side though moving a bit to look more back towards him. Her hands were dragging up through the mud too, and Zach saw a couple of the others looking frustrated and motivated enough to try and get up if it was between that and getting tagged right now. "But that was a pretty good fight. Good luck making it to the next round with those injuries. Or just give up and stay down, doesn't make a difference to me."

Zach pocketed the ball again and started running off. He picked up speed fast to not have to answer any of the questions that just got shouted at him. I'm not not finishing you off because I don't think you're worth it. It's the opposite, but that'd be weird to say. Plus I don't know if you are yet. Get up and go manage to take down eight more people while sore and aching all over. Then I'll feel like you all really deserve it. I'm just being overly cocky and risking failing this exam just to go get in more fights. Think of it like that… Because that's the truth? Is that the truth? Am I even thinking about what I'm doing? What is truth when it comes to stuff I'm doing? I guess it's really what I have been thinking about. What Zach's been thinking about? Fuck, I am Zach. I'm Zach Sazaki!

Up in the bleachers, Present Mic had a hand running up through his blond hair over and over again. There was some sweat on his face, and he grimaced at that expression he knew he had. He tssked and turned away after watching Zach run off for a few seconds. Kid just beat the crap out of them and left them there. It's like he's not finishing yet just so he can go beat up more applicants. What the hell is that?!

Midnight closed her mouth and she shook her head in disbelief after just watching in shock for a minute there. He broke out of Zeira's Quirk, and he beat the rest without even using his Quirk. That's remarkable. Midnight looked out into the distance where she could still see Zach though he was heading into a different area with a lot more obstacles in it that would be harder for her to see into. What was he telling them at the end? Was he giving them advice? Is he impressed with how they stood up to him so he's letting them go? If it was just him wanting to stay in the fight for longer, he would not have taken the effort to leave them all conscious.

All Might felt a strange feeling stir deep in his chest. He did not know how he felt about what he just saw. He thought he should feel relieved that his students were not knocked out of the exam, or feel happy for Sazaki for progressing so much which he could see in that fight he just witnessed. Instead he felt, uneasy. Combat skill like that… it's not, not something one gathers through any amount of training. Only experience. Experience that told him how every person around him was going to act and react to each of his moves before he even made them. His speed and reaction time alone would make it difficult for anyone to counter him, but that experience is what sets him apart. And yet he's acquiring more experience even now. As he runs off because he is being given the opportunity to fight more people, to test out more Quirks, and to find someone who can challenge him and maybe even defeat him. He said it in that forest, that every defeat he has ever had has made him stronger. And he is so strong now…

Midoriya's hands clenched over his knees. Uraraka had been staring in astonishment at the scene below, but she caught Midoriya's hands shaking on her side and turned to look at him. Her eyes widened more at the locked-in look on the curly-haired boy's face. He's a fighter. He's always been, a fighter. When we sparred to prepare for that first Sports Festival, I saw how good of a martial artist he was. He needed to be that good because he didn't have a Quirk he could use though! And yet, even with Death being, so, so strong. He fights without using it. Except that's not true either. He did use it, just not offensively. Or is that just a fighting style he's using because this is just a test? Is he intentionally holding back a lot of power because of the kind of opponents he's up against, does he not want to knock out people and risk hurting them, does he not want us to see his Quirk in action, or is it something else? He's strong.

I've always known Zach was strong though, Midoriya grabbed his knees even harder at that conflicting thought he just had. Then what is it? Power, without trust? But I decided that the Zach I talked to the other day is the one I know, the one who said it would be "too sad" if people hurt each other because of what All For One's after. Yet All Might said that what Zach said doesn't sound like All For One. Was he lying? Or does he think it's true but he was still just lying about that to make me believe him? I can't trust him. And because I can't trust him… if Zach becomes my enemy, like I accepted he was. I had accepted, that I was going to have to fight him. Is that why I'm hesitating? Because even after he turned himself in I didn't, take that back? I still feel like I'm going to have to fight him. Like he's a final boss, who has so much more influence and power, and I can't do anything about him until he does something even as he gathers up more power and position- NO! That's not Zach! Except, even if that's not what he's planning, it's what he's doing. He'll do it, and then what if he does become my enemy again? What if he does break a rule, and it becomes up to me to stop him?

He's not just strong, Midoriya looked back out into the direction Zach disappeared in as there was too much in the way between them now. He's, smart. He's tactical. He's confident in his decisions! That's what it is! There was no hesitation there. He changed up his plans from when he stepped out to when he actually started fighting, but everything he did, he did right. He told me that he thought I made better in-the-moment decisions than him. I thought he was right about that because of what he did in the training forest and at Camino Ward, and even now, does he know what he's doing? He could have lost and not gotten his hero license if he had messed up there. And, how did he break out of that Quirk?

A couple of rows behind Midoriya, Endeavor got up from his seat. He turned away and his son looked up at his back. "Where are you going?" Todoroki asked as his dad looked to be leaving. After what he had just seen, Todoroki thought his father would have even more reason to stay now than before. "Did you recognize anything?" Todoroki asked.

The others in front of the two of them looked back too as they heard Todoroki's question. They looked at Endeavor who frowned while turning back to his son, then he glanced out into the middle of the facility testing grounds. "It won't matter even if Sazaki uses attacks I recognize," Endeavor replied. Uraraka looked up at Endeavor with her eyes big at what he was talking about, and she looked around quickly to see if everyone else already realized why Endeavor had come to this. She spun back as Endeavor continued though, "I came to check, but I can't tell. Yet it wouldn't even matter if I could. Because Sazaki got out in front of it and told everyone that he thinks Death has the same Quirk as him."

Shoto's eyes widened and he spun from his dad to look back farther into the facility. His eyes narrowed in a darker way that Uraraka gulped at the sight of, while Midoriya was still just staring up at Endeavor with big eyes at what he said. Endeavor continued as Midoriya's mind was racing, "Now, nothing I say about his Quirk being similar to Death's will be considered proof to anyone." Endeavor frowned and kept glaring out looking for the boy one more time. Death could have planned something like that out, or it could just be Sazaki saying it. He has to address Death in some way because of all the rumors and similarities. It's impossible to tell whether or not he says things the way he does to stop people from thinking he's Death because he's really not or because he is and doesn't want anyone to know.

Endeavor turned around and started walking away. His eyes darkened as he thought about his last meeting with Death. After those villains had been killed- a day he had buried just as he had burned those bodies. And he thought about why it was that he caved and kept what happened a conspiracy. "You really think I'm just a fucking mask?! There's a person inside here, you know?" The shaky voice he heard from behind that mask after the modulator had been turned off echoed in his mind. It had been so shaky, raspy, and desperate that he could not even match it up in his memories with the voice he heard from Sazaki when he apprehended the boy in late July. Yet when he took the first look at that boy's face when he arrested him, he had the same doubt about him being Death that he had had that day of the Sports Festival. He was enjoying himself down there.

"If you tell everyone what they tried to do, then, then what did I kill them for?!" Death, wouldn't be able to just come here and fight a bunch of kids, would he? Not looking like that. "You think I want to kill people?!" Then again, what if he finally decided he was done? He just stopped killing people, because he really couldn't handle it anymore. Except, Death was strong. If he ever reached the point that he couldn't take it anymore, then that would mean he had been completely destroyed. That didn't look like the face of someone broken. Endeavor turned his head again even though he had already decided to leave. He looked out and he spotted Sazaki running across an area in the distance, this time with a red ball back in his hand as he chased after someone running away from him.

"You think, it was easy to do that? To kill them when they couldn't even fight back? Of course it wasn't. I'm, I'm not a monster. But! I did it, a monstrous thing, so that no one will have to know what they attempted here today. So that anyone around the world thinking about becoming a villain only sees the power of heroes today, their strength and resolve and the fact that no villains were brave enough to try ANYTHING! But if you tell them, then regular people watching the finals right now with a pit in their chest, who are going to be so relieved and laugh at their own anxiety, they're going to think that it was right for them to be afraid! They're going to be TERRIFIED! And, and villain activity around the world is going to surge again and Endeavor, I- I can't deal with it this time. I can't be everywhere at once. I can't- I have to get out of here right now because there are too many, they're everywhere, and if you make another surge- IF YOU! Create a surge in villains just because you can't deal with breaking a couple of rules, you're going to destroy the world! I CAN'T DO THIS, if you create thousands more villains. And that's what you're going to do if you tell people what happened here."

Endeavor turned and walked away for a door at the top of the bleachers he could go through to leave the facility. It's not him. Death, hasn't finished yet. He's still out there and I'm wasting my time with Sazaki. Death told me himself that day. "I'm not Lifebringer." He made it clear. "I'm not Zach Sazaki. I just, have a similar Quirk." The kid back there hasn't done the things that Death has done. To not show any sign that he had done those things, isn't Death. He always tried to hold back but, that's part of the reason he has that mask I'm sure. In order to be a symbol for his own men and for villains. Death, I'm still coming after you. I don't know if I'll be able to defeat you when I find you, but we will meet again…

You're wrong Dad, Todoroki looked out towards Zach who he saw tag another opponent which still somehow was not his fifth as he turned and went after someone else. There's more than enough proof that he's Death. You might not think it's worth it to keep watching him, but I know he'll slip up. Zach gets emotional. Just before, you saw how he looked after he broke free from that girl's Quirk. He held back, but that rage on his face- is something that Zach could have had too… Except the one I'm thinking of who looked like that was the fake expression he showed everyone after Raijin, it was all fake! And now, him looking like it's not all weighing him down is also fake. Every second, every single thing he does is part of lulling us into a false sense of security. I won't let him do it this time. I won't be tricked again. Not by anything you say or do.

The field's really thinned out, Zach thought as he searched for a fifth person to eliminate. Hope I didn't wait too long. Zach slowed and he turned to his right where he saw someone peek their head out from behind a rocky outcrop at the edge of the mountain zone. Zach was near the middle of the room so there were a lot of sections that connected around him, and he half-expected a confident team to be laying in wait around there for people crossing into different sections. That guy doesn't look very confident though to be over here. He looks worried actually. Looks pretty injured too. Probably has a few points himself. He's making eye contact with me and doesn't look all that afraid.

"Hey, Lifebringer." The boy walked out from behind the rocks and he darted his eyes around to check if anyone else was near him. He started forward slowly towards the only other person in the vicinity. "Do you want to team up? I'm sure there aren't too many people left, but there are probably some big teams that tried spreading out the points and are now trying to finish, so I was thinking if I had someone else to help me, but the rest of my classmates were eliminated already, or passed." He muttered the last part quieter, looking like he was thinking about a friend who had gone on ahead without him.

"How many points do you need?" Zach asked. The boy's eyes lit up at the question, as Lifebringer did not just shut him down on the prospect and actually sounded like he might consider it. Zach looked at him carefully though after that enthusiastic reaction. Is he going to try and betray me? Try it and you'll be the final person I get out. This is a test to become heroes. It's not very heroic to come to me with a plan like that only to betray me. Especially if you do it badly. I'll kick the shit out of you before tagging you too. Show you what will happen if you half-ass an infiltration. Betray villains and they'll rip you to fucking pieces. So this better be a real team-up you're offering. Even if you do tag my target, I'll still beat the shit out of you.

"Only two more. I've only seen teams for the last couple of minutes though. Like all the solo entrants are out, or through already- but how many points do you-"

"Just one," Zach replied. The teen he said that to nodded with his eyebrows lifting up as if saying 'huh' with a very high-pitched voice. Yet he still stood there without backing off, and Zach shrugged after a couple seconds and then smiled. "Sure, let's team up."

"Wait- really?" The guy asked in surprise, sounding stunned that it worked out.

Is he that good at faking it? It's okay to trust people here. This is a place for future heroes. He's not going to trust me though, and people fear what they don't trust. They attack what they fear in order to protect themselves. If he thinks I might attack him, he might attack me first to prevent that from happening. "Yeah, why not? Sucks about being left as the last one on your team. What's your name?"

"Oh, um, Amakuza Sirio. My friends call me Siri though," he added at the end, offering it up for Lifebringer to use.

"Alright, you can call me Zach then, Siri," Zach told his new ally. "I'm thinking there are definitely some groups stacked up back in the urban area. Hiding in some buildings waiting with traps set for applicants to come searching, desperate to find people. Let's go spring a trap on their trap."

"Will that work?" Amakuza asked, running up to Zach's side. He slowed when he was almost up at his new ally, but then he pushed down his feet and ran the rest of the way without getting afraid. Screw it. If he gets me he gets me. There's no way I beat Lifebringer, and I doubt I'm taking down two more people on my own. I'm barely standing as it is! He exaggerated the last thought mainly to tell himself there was no option except doing this, but he was relieved when he got up to Lifebringer that the target on his left side was not being tagged.

Alright, he really seemed worried there for a second. Has the thought of turning on me even gone through his head? I didn't see a second hesitation like he was reconsidering changing his plan. Maybe he's too trusting. Sometimes heroes need to suspect other heroes in order to keep things secret… but that's not heroic. And corruption in heroes is rare. Rarer now I'm sure after people saw what countries did to corrupt heroes, and how they were treated by everyone else, and most heroes wouldn't get corrupted in the first place! Zach shook his head to stop thinking about so much after just being asked a question he had yet to really consider. "Yeah, it'll work," Zach replied after he remembered what was asked. Anything I do will work. I have to make sure to get Siri through though. If I lose him, consider it like I let a comrade die. I won't let you lose. Zach's face started to get way too serious, and he saw Siri looking at the side of his face with big eyes behind his square glasses.

"What's your Quirk? Let's come up with a plan," Zach suggested. He relaxed his expression a little but made sure it looked like he felt they needed to get things moving. Siri started explaining his Quirk and then they brainstormed some ideas off of each other. Zach had a couple well-thought-out plans himself, but he wanted to see what kind of plans Siri could think of too. Though he was disappointed he did not hear any good plan he had not already considered, some of the ones he had thought of were mentioned and he decided to go along with one that Siri said something along the lines of. He agreed that it sounded like a great plan, and the two of them headed off for the urban area together.

Only six minutes later, Zach and Siri stood together on the third-to-the-top floor of the fourth tallest building in the urban zone. There was a whole team eliminated on the floor around them, and Siri gave Zach a strange and hesitant look after what Zach just did. Siri had tagged his two people once they had launched their trap and taken down their opponents, but then Zach quickly tagged the other seven on the floor. The announcement called out that he had passed slower than he was able to take them all down, and the others' targets that he had tagged were all illuminated instead of just the first person's that would have been his fifth anyway.

"Why'd you tag them all?" Siri asked.

"It looked like they had this trap set up for a long time," Zach replied. "For it to fail this badly with so many of them here, none of them were going to make it to the next round." Siri looked at Zach in surprise at his quick response that sounded strange to him but not like Lifebringer was making it up. "Plus, I don't think anyone else should be moving on to the next round just by taking out one of them," Zach added with a nod at one of the injured and moaning opponents they had just taken down. A few of them looked towards Lifebringer in shock at the harsh insult directed at them, but Zach looked right at their faces and added, "To waste the entire exam up here planning a trap and for it to fail in seconds from a lack of communication, a couple disorienting moves on our part, and a fear of your opponents even though you had us seriously outnumbered? Rethink that strategy," Zach suggested with a scoff, turning away from the group and looking back at Siri. "Let's go, number 92."

Siri felt like Lifebringer might have gone too far there, but he grinned again hearing that number that the announcers had called out after he got his final tag. The two of them headed out, leaving a disappointed and frustrated team behind them. Zach glanced back once when he was almost out of the room, giving the ones glaring after him a frown that had them looking away. Those are the ones who will probably come back and try again. A lot of them just look exhausted and tired of all this. Not everyone's cut out to be a hero. Some of them looked older than me. I don't want to cause people to give up on their dreams, but if what I just said was enough to make them quit then they shouldn't be trying to be heroes anyway. Sometimes someone just needs to tell you to quit, tell you that you're wasting your time. It could be a wake-up call. It could be, you find jobs you're actually good at and thank me for this. Or maybe you curse me over it for years, or blame your defeat this time only on the fact that you had to go up against the Lifebringer.

"That plan really worked out," Siri said as the two of them were heading down a flight of stairs much slower than he had come up. Zach had come in from the outside of the floor they had attacked once they knew which one it was, so it was Zach's first time on the stairs instead of climbing straight up the side of the building. "Don't you think?"

"Yeah," Zach agreed with a nod and a shrug of his right shoulder. Shrugging just that shoulder closer to Siri made him wince, and Zach lifted his left hand and rubbed the right side of his chest up near his shoulder for a couple seconds as they continued down the stairs.

Sirio stared at Zach in confusion for a moment as he had not seen anyone hit him during that brief fight, then he wondered if maybe it was one of Lifebringer's fights earlier that round. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks, as he thought back to not even a full week ago and what he saw while watching live from his home. "Are you alright? You got shot and I- I didn't even ask-"

"I'm fine," Zach countered quickly before the younger boy could make a bigger deal of it. He lowered his hand and thought, If I had stayed in the hospital for another day, Recovery Girl probably would have come back again to give me one last kiss. I'm glad she still likes me. Then again, it's because I stopped Toga and saved- no, she's just a nice woman, and a hero. And she cares. She looked so hurt when asking me about the wounds I kept lying about. My arm, my heart, my kidney, my lungs, my neck. "It was just a flesh wound," Zach joked as he saw Siri still looking hesitant about it. "Looked worse on tv than it really was. The shooter was a bad shot," he finished, still in a joking tone though his smile did lower down a little.

"Well I'm glad you're alright," Siri said. Zach turned to his side at his new friend who added, "We were up- my family and I, all night until they made that press release that you were going to be alright."

Zach smiled in a softer way and he nodded at the sentiment. "Thanks," Zach said. He did not know after he said it what he just thanked Siri for. Yet he did feel grateful to hear that. People were worried about me? They were stuck awake worried I wasn't alright? I don't even know them. They care that much about me? "Did I, bring back someone you know?" Zach asked, unable to keep himself from questioning about it.

"Huh? Oh, no," Siri replied with a shake of his head. He looked at Zach after with a questioning look at why he would ask something like that.

"Oh," Zach replied back. What the hell am I doing here? I have no idea what I'm doing. If I hurt all these people again. The country cares about me. If I had just stayed missing forever, this wouldn't be a problem. Now though, I can't die. I really can't, do that to these people. I used to feel that way too. Back when Zach would think about how he couldn't kill himself or the people who cared about him would be hurt. But he- I never thought, so many people would… And it's not just here. People who believe I'm Death, exist all around the world. If I were to die then how many- How many people would I be hurting? Death could have died any day and nothing would change. A new Death would take over and things would keep moving but, but as Lifebringer I can die at any time and it would change things. I can't die. I can't let myself die. I have to protect myself better. I let my guard down. That was stupid, I understand that and I'm sorry. I won't let it down again. I won't die. I promise.

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A/N Thanks for reading! Zach makes it through the first round of his hero licensing exam, which was not all that difficult for him to do. Hope you guys enjoyed the fight scenes and new characters I added in. I didn't really have anything prepared for this arc, just "hero license test" written in my long summary list of what's coming up in Death that usually gets a lot more specific as I plan things out pretty far back. Doesn't mean I haven't incorporated all new ideas and other ones into this chapter too though, but just saying it was more created on the spot than most chapters I've been writing. (Got this chapter out pretty quickly too don't you think?) Anyway, leave a review telling me what you think or predictions for the next chapter!

DarkJokes chapter 142 . Mar 5

It's finally here yeah! Is it too much to ask my boi Death to be back. I love lifebringer but before he left to become death he was whiney and looked weak. Just hope this time when he becomes Lifebringer he's confident and skilful at fighting.
Also I miss all the villains fearing him. It was so fun to watch the cower at his name. God I'm just waiting for the ship and the death crew to just drop done one day in Japan. And Sazaki walks out of the crowd wearing his death helmet.
Would be the most epic scene ever. P.S would his quirk evolve. You know when you mentioned All for one looking to a world ending quirk. Like Sazaki has death which is linked to chaos as well. Death brings chaos so maybe his quirk could potentially evolve into another root of pure chaos.
Thanks for another awesome chapter!

Lots of predictions, always fun to hear though won't say nothing about them. Zach's back and oh he's confident and going off in his fighting, kicking the shit out of people at only _% of his true power level! It's not even his Final Form! XD Thanks for the review and hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Naruffoku chapter 142 . Mar 5

Finally... Zach is ready to whoop Jap ass

And now he has. Thanks for reviewing!

Guessst chapter 142 . 7h ago

MOOOAAARRRR

*7 hours later... Here is moar for you. Hope you enjoyed!