Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 145:

In an office in Shiketsu High School, Zach stood before a desk with his hands held together behind his back. His bag was on the floor over near the door with his other change of clothes in it: his black sweatpants, sweatshirt, and long-sleeved shirt. His jacket was on a hook back near the entrance of the building, and his sneakers were in the front pouch of his backpack that was larger than a usual school bag but that he had decided would be the one he used once he started up school somewhere. At the moment, he wore a long-sleeved white shirt with two buttons below the middle of his collar, a pair of khaki pants, and nice brown shoes that he had picked out that morning and paid for with his new debit card.

Bag's getting too full. I need to find an actual place to stay instead of another motel room. Once I've decided- well, I have decided already. But if I'm accepted here, then comes looking for a place to stay. Can I do it in the time I have left today? It's already been a long one, shopping this morning before the licensing exam and then a long trip to this. "…and though you do have a provisional license, Sazaki, so do the rest of the third years here at Shiketsu High School. We are a very prestigious hero academy that takes our academics seriously."

"Was the entrance exam I took here a few days ago unsatisfactory?" Zach questioned. I thought I did pretty well on that one. Well, all of them I thought I did decent enough to pass at least.

"No, your marks were passable," the principal of Shiketsu replied. She sat behind her desk, a woman who looked like a fossil but who spoke like a woman in her mid-thirties. Her skin was tightened and wrinkled, her eyes sucked-back in her head but opened wide, and her hair had receded far on he top of her head but was still light purple and thick on the sides of her scalp at least. Principal Memuria had her hands clenched into one fist in front of her chest on the desk, and her head was leaning forward as she continued to interview the potential student of her hero school. There was another teacher next to her on her right side behind the desk, as well as four other members of the staff in the room, two on each side of Zach near the walls.

The principal paused for a moment, waiting for Sazaki to ask 'then what?' She frowned at his failure to do so and just finished on her own, "The true reason I will not allow you into this high school so readily is the same reason I am sure Principal Nezu has barred you from U.A. Your past." Memuria looked Zach deep in his hazel eyes and the boy stayed steady while looking back at her, even nodding with an accepting look at what she was referring to. She started shaking her head though, and she continued, "I would be happy to accept a young man such as yourself into our school, because you have been pardoned of your former crimes and we are a school that values the rule of law. Your full pardon allowed by the law only applies to the crimes you were imprisoned for, however."

Zach nodded again at Principal Memuria. He ignored the looks from the teachers on his sides and of the bald man standing next to the principal's seat who was watching him closely with light pink eyes that had black irises in the shapes of crosshairs. "I must ask you only one question, before I permit you to enroll in this school," Memuria continued. Her eyes narrowed and her eyelids sunk in a bit so her eyes were half-closed and dark at the boy standing before her. "Mr. Norasaki will know for sure if you are lying," she held up a palm to her right where the bald man was standing and staring closely at Zach. Zach glanced at that man in his eyes and then back at the principal as she asked her question.

"Are you Death?" Principal Memuria questioned.

Zach looked into the eyes of the Lie-Detector man, and he said directly to Mr. Norasaki, "No."

The teachers around the room kept watching Lifebringer and the administrators in front of him. The four of them were preparing themselves already, the two on the right doing their best to hide the anxious feelings they were having knowing he might get caught lying here. Norasaki stared back at Lifebringer for a few seconds though, before leaning back and looking down at Memuria who he gave a single nod at.

The principal frowned deeply at that nod, and Zach got a confused look on his face as he spun back to the bald man who nodded at her. He looked to his left side though as he saw the teachers there looked to relax a little, contradicting the principal's frown and showing him that the nod meant Norasaki knew he was telling the truth. Memuria frowned at Sazaki's follow-up reaction, and she spoke in a low voice without yet easing her look at him, "Allow me to correct myself, in case you feel you got around it." Zach looked the older woman in the eyes and his expression steadied though his lips did curl farther down this time as she questioned, "Were you ever Death?"

Zach frowned at the old woman and said in a low voice of his own, "You said only one question, but the answer's the same." He lost his darker tone halfway through the response, before they could start to get suspicious over the way he was answering it. "No, I wasn't." He looked back to Norasaki after saying it and rose his eyebrows expectantly at the man to give his nod. Can you imagine how annoying this is for me? The amount of people who keep asking me this question and then not being satisfied by my answers? Now that you've asked two and still not received the answer you want, I'm sure you have a thousand more too. Look at my face. I've heard them all. It's getting annoying.

Norasaki looked back at the principal after staring wide-eyed at the annoyed-looking boy for a few seconds, "He isn't lying."

On Zach's right side, one of the teachers, a blue woman with scales all over her body cracked a big grin at the sound of that. She looked at her fellow teacher on her right and rose her smirk more at the surprised and then frustrated expression when he saw her looking his way. The male teacher sweatdropped at her smirk, and he thought with regret, Stupid ten thousand yen bet.

I really thought he was, Norasaki thought after telling the principal what his Quirk told him. He looked back to the boy afterwards who regained his composed and calm expression. Then what was he doing all that time?

"In that case," Principal Memuria slowly got up from her chair, pushing her palms down on her desk and rising to her full four feet behind it. "Mr. Sazaki," she began, and she gave the boy a stern look though her lips rose up the smallest amount too. "I accept your application to Shiketsu High School. You will be in Class-1 with Mr. Hazano." Memuria motioned to her left at the man currently regretting making a bet with the other third-year homeroom teacher standing next to him. "He will explain to you the strict rules of Shiketsu High, what will be expected of you over the coming term, and he will supply you with forms that you must fill out regarding various important things such as your sizes for your uniform and health information."

Health info's gonna suck. I shouldn't lie on the form, but I'm not a minor so I don't know if they can force my medical records out. Yet they could ask me to bring them in, attach them to the form I fill out to make sure it's all legit. Zach nodded at the principal, then he turned to Hazano again. He looked at the man who was bald like Norasaki but looked younger and like his head might have been shaved instead of his hair all falling out like the Lie-Detector's appeared to have. "I'm in your care," Zach said, bowing to the teacher who now had to help him out with several things. Few days left before the start of the term. Still a lot to get done.

Zach thanked the administrators then was led out of the room by Hazano who no longer felt nervous as he had when he was waiting to hear how Lifebringer responded. Whatever Lifebringer was really doing all that time, the anxiety he felt was only over whether or not the boy was actually the international terrorist Death. Zach was surprised at the casual way in which his new teacher started speaking to him, but he spoke back in a more respectful tone anyway that had Hazano raising his eyebrows while faced away from the boy following behind him. He shrugged to himself though at the idea of Lifebringer speaking to him he was talking to a teacher, even though they technically had not had class together yet. Hazano explained to Zach the rules of Shiketsu that Zach noted were much stricter than U.A.'s despite Shiketsu not even being a boarding school.

Uniform code is pretty strict. Guess the black hat would cover up my spiky hair, maybe make me stand out less. Except once it becomes known where I'm going, everyone's going to be looking out and the hat will actually make more people turn heads. Zach accepted the forms from his homeroom teacher who handed them to him, and he filled out the ones that were needed earliest right then and there. There were other forms that were not necessary to fill out immediately, and Hazano told his new student that he could hand them in on the first day of class instead. He also told Zach that his uniform would be mailed to him so that he could come to school in it on the first day and not waste a single second of school time for getting changed.

Zach scratched the back of his head though when he was asked where the uniform could be sent to. "Do you not want people to know?" Hazano questioned his student.

"It's not that. I just, don't have a place yet. As I didn't know which school I would be attending," Zach explained and Hazano nodded as it made sense to him. "If you give me your number though, I could text you tonight once I've found an apartment."

"Think you can manage that by tonight?" Hazano asked in surprise. Worrod Hazano lived over thirty minutes from the school himself, still inside the limits of Yutapu City but closer to Osaka in the south than Kyoto in the north. Shiketsu was the most prestigious hero high school in the west of Japan, the U.A. of the West, and it was located in one of many large metropoles clustered in a close area to each other. There were millions of people living in the many cities gathered around there, but housing could also be very expensive especially near the famous high school in the best part of the city. "You might have to look around a wide area to find the closest place."

"I can do it," Zach assured him with a nod. Besides, living too close doesn't matter. I should actually live father out intentionally. Not too far that it leaves too much time of me on the road on the way to school each day that people could determine which direction I'm coming from, but far enough that anyone just looking around near the school doesn't have a good look and I can slip people on my way back without being seen. Then again, this only really works for shit villains. Since I can't keep my location a secret, determined villains will discover where I am sooner or later. I have to be more convincing that I'm not Death while at the same time more discouraging for those who come after me…

Zach thanked his teacher again as they were nearing the front of the school together. They had been walking to the exit since Zach finished up his forms and slid the other ones into his bag that was back on his back now. Hazano paused when Zach kept walking towards the exit, and he added before his new student could leave, "By the way, our class is scheduled for a joint training session with U.A. this term." Zach looked back over his shoulder in surprise, and Hazano nodded at him showing he was serious about it.

"Thank you, for telling me," Zach said. Then he left the school without changing his expression based on what he just heard. His thoughts had completely derailed though, as little of an outwards expression as he showed. Now I'll be forced to meet with Todoroki and Jirou at least once, in case I don't get to see them anytime soon, Zach felt glad at the thought though also a stranger swirling feeling in his gut. I don't know if I'll see anyone again soon. I assumed I wouldn't have reason to see All Might, but it's not like I have reason to see the others. Everyone's busy, even during this break. They're all talking to heroes they've worked with before about internships and plans for after graduation. They're working with heroes right now, and once school starts they'll be stuck on campus most of the-

Zach felt a buzzing in his right pocket and he pulled out a smartphone that he tapped the screen of to answer the incoming call. The phone he had bought the other day right after getting his Aunt Maye's debit card attached to his college fund showed a name at the top who Zach was not expecting a call from. "Detective Haga," Zach greeted, as he continued to walk away from the school behind him and in no direction in particular. The officer he was speaking to was a cop Zach knew well who had made detective while Zach was away. The green-skinned man had been nice to him after the USJ incident, Zach had brought him back to life right as he started being Lifebringer with the League, and he had been one of the few people who was allowed to meet and protect Zach after he had escaped from the villains before returning to U.A.

The other day when he had been forced to return to the hospital, there were a few things he had been told by the police that he was not too happy about but did not argue too strongly. Zach decided against arguing about their rule that wherever he did decide to stay, he needed to inform the authorities of his new address. If he argued about it he knew it would just make him seem so much more suspicious, and he figured they would come looking for him and just observe him in "secret," which he knew he would still discover but would just annoy him more. When Detective Haga had shown up though to let him know that he would be the intermediary between Zach and the government, he actually felt better about the situation as it really felt like they were trying to accommodate him instead of put restrictions on him.

"How's the school search coming?"

"I'm going to Shiketsu," Zach replied.

"Oh," Haga said, sounding surprised that Zach had already decided but also a bit excited for some reason. "That's great. I know that was your top choice, and I just got word of something passed over to me."

"What's up?" Zach asked. He stopped where he was on the sidewalk and kept looking interested in the conversation, even as his eyes darted to scan the rooftops across the street from him. Zach continued nodding at what the officer on the phone was saying, and he made a few affirmative hums and noises too. "I'll look into it," Zach said. "Yeah, yeah it'll be fine on my own. I'll be careful. Yes. Yeah I know, I'll let you know if that's where I decide. It sounds pretty close to here. Thanks for this, Detective."

Riku Norita stuck the key into the doorknob of the apartment three to the end on the second floor of his complex. He twisted it around and jiggled the knob a couple times, looked back over his shoulder and mentioned, "It's been a while since anyone rented this room."

"Why not?" Zach asked the man. The guy in front of him was a foot shorter than the six foot one teenager. He was more than a little chubby, round-faced too with pink cheeks that seemed to stay that way despite his light skin tone. He had been smiling since he first saw Zach too, and Zach almost wished the man would stop since it seemed so genuine and yet he felt not many people were that happy all the time. Norita also had a brown mustache bushy over his top lip that looked similar to how bushy the hair over his head was.

The landlord of the two-story apartment complex looked back after finally getting the lock to click and he responded, "The old owner was killed in the SFI a couple years back. Even though he didn't die in the apartment, some people still feel weird about that sort of thing. His family removed all his belongings so the place is empty. Hope you don't mind though."

"I don't," Zach assured him. This is almost the perfect distance away after all. A little closer than I was hoping, but that's not so bad. If everyone in the world denied places just because the former owners were killed during the Age of Villains, there'd be hundreds of thousands of empty houses out there. Not that there aren't, considering the amount of damage in Africa after the CHAF were wiped out. Whole towns and cities had to be evacuated in those few weeks of chaos- "Norita-san, the officer I spoke to didn't mention how much you're offering this place for," Zach began as he was being led into an apartment that looked much bigger than he had expected in a city of this size.

There was a wide walk-in and living room area just inside the doorway to Zach's left. On his right was a folding door with slits on it that was opened out right now to show a washing machine and dryer on the other side. On his left in the living room was actually some furniture below the light on the ceiling that Norita turned on. There was a couch that looked rough and had some of the inside soft parts sticking through the outer material, as there was no cover on it. The red recliner looked nicer, though there was a stain on the armrest, and there was a tv stand in front of those sitting pieces but without a tv on it. "The old tenant's family didn't want all the furniture," Norita explained as he saw Zach looking around the place after stepping in. "And I didn't bother throwing it away. I felt like I could sell the place furnished instead, but you can do what you want with this stuff."

Zach nodded his head, but then he looked back at the landlord who had yet to answer his question from when he walked in. "So do you like the place? Here, let me show you around the whole apartment. This way's the kitchen," Norita led Zach down the right side of the living room that could also kind of act like a hallway not that there was a wall on the left side. There was a hall at the end though where they could go right in a narrow pass to where there were two doorways, or they could go left and around the counter of the kitchen. The counter had open space above it but then a wall above that as there were cabinets above the gap over the counter. From the living room edge though they could see into the kitchen and around it, and Norita said as Zach stopped at the counter instead of walking around, "All the cabinets and everything are empty, I checked. Fridge too, and the freezer's got an ice tray in it but that's all."

"Bedroom and bathroom over there?" Zach asked, motioning with his head down the hall and using a tone that said he did not need to walk over.

"Yes! Shower's small, no bath- but the bed is a queen-size and…"

Zach toned out after hearing the size of his bed. Whoa, that's new. Feels like that'll be too much space. I guess I'll test it out first before deciding that. I do roll around sometimes, and the edges of the bed always constrict me when I'm- "So the price," Zach brought up again, as he was already thinking ahead but needed to make sure of something first. The college fund didn't have much. Guess I would've had three more years, and she probably would have stopped putting anything in when I got into U.A.'s hero course. Did she really think I'd be able to become a hero, so I didn't need the fund? Or did she stop caring enough, and I just want to remember her better because she's gone? Because I got her killed.

"Actually, there's a reason I called around the police and tried to make sure you heard about this place," Norita began, and Zach looked down into the fatter man's eyes to see a bigger smile spread over Norita's face again. "Once I saw your interview the other day after you got out of the hospital I thought to myself, 'If he's not going to U.A., where would the next best school be?' Since I figured you'd only pick the best of the best, so I finally got through and sure enough, you're deciding to go to Shiketsu! Well if that wasn't fate then I don't know what is."

Fate, huh? Zach yanked his mind off the thought almost distracting him from what he still needed to ask. "So what are you saying?"

"You brought me back to life," Norita replied to the boy who looked at him closer and ground his teeth behind his lips without the man noticing. I can't remember… "I want to repay the favor by giving you a place to live close to your school for free."

"I couldn't possibly-" Zach began.

"And I don't expect to get anything for free either," Norita cut Zach off quickly. He shook his head and his smile lowered down a bit, "I need to give you something to make us even. When my tenants don't pay their rent and I've got to chase them down, I hate that sort of thing. Because I don't see how they can do it. I hate to be in debt, so I've got no debts left unpaid right now, 'cept for this one."

"Heroes don't expect anything in return," Zach argued. He shook his head but then lifted the small frown he had as Norita's lips were curling down more, "But if you need to give me a free room, then who am I to argue?" Zach shrugged his shoulders and the short landlord looked surprised for a moment before grinning big back at the young man. It would just frustrate him more if he was never able to pay me back. Some people are just the prideful types. Even with heroes. Must be worse considering I was just a kid, at the time… whenever that time was. Did I really revive him? How long ago? Think back. Think! Was it Zach's first run as Lifebringer, or the second- Sports Festival time period maybe? He mentioned the previous tenant getting killed during the SFI though, and I feel like he would have brought it up if I had saved him then. Could it have been more recently? Was he traveling around the world or something?

"Great! Then let me show you the rest of it!" Norita started over down the cramped hall and Zach sighed but followed the enthusiastic man to go see what else he wanted to show off.

I don't know how I'll feel about sleeping in a dead man's bed, Zach thought after looking into his bedroom. At least they took all the covers and pillows away, though I guess I could use the couch pillows for tonight and some clothes as a blanket. The window's in a shit place, but I can slide the bed across the floor to keep out of view. Windows on that wall and the kitchen wall, and there are tenants in either room on my sides. Putting people in danger by living here. I'd put people in danger no matter where I live though. Becoming Zach Sazaki comes with that inherent risk. Going to school. Being a hero. Making amends with my friends. Everything I do as Zach Sazaki puts everyone around me in danger. My friends are heroes though, Shiketsu High is filled with heroes, people accept the risks that come with being a hero and whether or not those risks rise because I'm here they should still be ready to accept them. But these people, are just civilians. They've accepted nothing. I have to be ready to stop all attacks.

"Norita-san," Zach started once it felt like they did not have anything else to go over. They were back in his living room, and Norita had motioned at the table in Zach's kitchen with a couple chairs around it that they could sit at while Zach signed a few forms. Zach smiled at the man who looked really happy by his decision, and he said, "I'm very grateful for all this-"

"Nonsense. I've just begun to pay you back," Norita replied. Zach lowered his smile as he had hoped the man would consider this a good trade and that the debt was no longer owed. Norita clapped an arm on Zach's though as he walked past for the kitchen table. "Now let's get these filled out and I'll be on my way."

Zach turned with the man and he shook his head with a small chuckle though his eyes were darker than the noise he let the man hear. It's a small, homey place, but to get it at no cost. That's more than just a haircut on the house. At this rate people are going to feel like I'm taking advantage of my name. Norita doesn't seem like the type to go around bragging about what he's doing for me though. I'll have to ask him to keep it secret here too, just as an aside while we go over the papers…

Zach walked down a sidewalk of Yutapu with bags in either hand with some essentials he went out to buy after finishing up renting his new apartment. The sun was setting and the sky orange with its glow, and the sidewalks had less people on them than they did earlier in the day. Zach had bought a bed sheet and blanket that he had in the bag on his right arm, and there was some food in the bag on his left. He was walking down the road back in the direction of his apartment which despite being in the middle of a cluster of cities, was in an area of apartments and smaller shops without any skyscrapers near it.

The police, my U.A. friends, the school now that I've told Hazano where to send my uniform. Norita and anyone he tells, along with my neighbors though if I'm careful I can likely slip out and away from the apartment without anyone seeing me. There aren't likely any spies among the people close to where I'm living, but anyone who moves in after this moment is a potential spy. Someone to follow my schedule and look for a moment I'm at my least guarded. I'm sure not everyone in the police force knows where I live, but if a villain does want to find me easily they know the easiest place to check. I never dealt with Japanese corruption like with most other places. Well, Enshio Goro, and they dealt with him very firmly for the minor corruption charges they did get him with. No one knows what he really did- what he tried to do. Hopefully that was enough to fend off corruption here. The heroes here are stronger and there are more of them than in most places around the world. Watch the rooftops. Windows. There could be heroes following me, could be villains, but don't lead them to-

Zach's thoughts jolted, but he stayed on guard this time even as he stared down the sidewalk at a figure who stepped around a corner. She turned to face him, and her eyes widened for a second before returning to normal just as his did. Zach had stopped on the sidewalk and he stood staring to the corner and the girl with dark purple hair falling straight around the sides of her head and back behind her head in a ponytail. She was a foot shorter than him and her earlobes drooped down below her ears as earphone jacks. Kyoka Jirou stayed where she was, and Zach started walking forward again towards the girl looking straight at him.

Jirou had not come to the hospital, so it was the first time Zach had seen her in years. She had seen enough of him on tv that she was not surprised by his appearance, but Zach was surprised by hers. Her body had filled out a bit even if she did not get much taller, and her hair and hair style were different too. Her bangs were cut up higher instead of dropping down to her eyebrows, her straight hair falling equal length around the sides of her head and behind it between her head and the ponytail of the hair she had pulled together and tied back. Her eyes were the same though, and they were flat at the top as they were half-closed with her expression looking dark the way she stared back at the taller boy walking towards her.

Jirou was by herself, as she had come to Yutapu by herself, and she had searched for Zach all on her own. Her hands balled into fists at her sides as he stepped up in front of her, stopping ten feet away when they were in range to have a normal conversation. Her clenched fists shook, and Jirou stared into Zach's eyes while hearing the voices of her classmates she had passed so frequently the past few days all talking about the same things. No one's asking the important questions. No one, cares enough that he's lying, even if they think he is. They're just letting it slide. Like idiots!

"Jirou," Zach started. "I'm sorry."

The girl shook her head at him and bit down hard behind her lips that she tried to keep flat and not let him see it. He opened his mouth to continue, but Jirou started first, "I know you're lying." Zach wanted to counter that he wasn't, but he could also tell that she was not talking about the apology he just gave her. Jirou's voice got lower and she added in a quieter voice, "Again."

Zach's eyelids closed in a little and his eyes darkened too. He started shaking his head at her, but Jirou snapped in a low voice, "I know you're Death, and I know you're lying just like you always were."

Jirou had to spit it out at him, and Zach saw her eyes shaking as she glared at him so furiously from only a few feet away. His chest pounded and he felt pain but showed no reaction of feeling it. She's so, Zach ground his teeth and he saw Jirou clenching her shaking fists even harder. I put her through so much, pain. "Not everything was lies," Zach said. He looked into Jirou's eyes and continued, "Not the last thing I told you." Jirou bit down harder and her eyes that almost widened just stayed pissed and glaring even angrier at him. "Not what I told you that night-"

"Stop."

"No," Zach responded. He stared her in her eyes and added after she finally widened her eyes for a moment at his quick answer and denial to give up. "I did mean those things. I meant what I told you-"

"You can't," Jirou snapped, her voice getting louder. She panted a couple of times and then shook her head once and said in a lower growl, "You can't just decide what's a truth and what's a lie. If you're a liar. If you lie about that much, then everything out of your mouth is a lie!"

"Not what I told you," Zach repeated and Jirou ground her teeth so much harder. "Because you really were the coolest girl I knew, beautiful, and strong too-"

"Well I take back what I said that night though," Jirou interrupted. She glared at Zach even after saying it, after he froze with his mouth open at what she said. They each thought back on the night they were referring to, and the girl who had not seen Zach in a year and a half curled her fingernails into her own palms at the memory of it. She glared into his hazel eyes and said, "When you told me not to let Kaminari take those things from me, I said not to let him take away what made you, you either."

Jirou panted a couple of times after spitting it out at him, and Zach stayed staring straight into Jirou's eyes with his own returning to normal and his heart beating faster now as he stared at her. "Being the kindest, best person I know." She doesn't-

"I take that back," Jirou said as the words echoed in Zach's mind. "That's not what makes Zach, Zach."

Zach's eyes widened even more at the way she just worded that. He stared into her eyes with his bigger ones and she continued up at him, her own voice sounding more hurt now as she did, "Being a compulsive liar, lying straight to the faces of his friends, that's what makes you you." Jirou bit down again and she squinted her eyes while shaking her head back and forth. Even his pained look she just felt disgusted by, felt like she was being lied to by the reaction, and the thought that she could feel bad for that lie made her stomach churn. Her eyes rose back up and she glared furiously into Zach's, "And Raijin could never take that away from you. No one ever could." Jirou turned away.

She turned her back on Zach after saying what she needed to say. She said it and walked away from him, leaving Zach frozen in place on the sidewalk with his heart pounding and his head aching. His chest hurt too, the faster his heart was pumping, the more pain he felt. He waited until she was around the corner though before his left hand rose up and curled into his shirt right over his heart. What the fuck?

Zach lowered his head and glared down at the floor. His hands curled around the straps of the bags he was holding, then he snapped his head back up and started forward again, his attention straight in front of him but his focus everywhere. And yet even with his focus guarded and his senses concentrated on everything, his mind was a mess.

She doesn't even believe it. What was the point of even, remembering something like that? What's the point in any of it? What the fuck am I doing?! This life, of lies! I've been treating it all like a fucking joke! Zach's hands curled into tighter fists and he felt the need to slam a fist into something. Keep smiling! You're outside! People will see you and anyone could be recording you can't… you can't just- FUCK! Ever since I came back I've been telling those crazy stories in such a serious way. Getting all emotional. And I used elements of real life so that I'd actually get emotional about them. That was the plan wasn't it?! That was why I fucking did this?! So that I would feel absorbed in the stories I was telling and make them sound truthful too.

Yet in the end they're just lies.

More lies.

Lies I tell straight to the faces of my friends.

What kind of person does that? What kind of person expects people to still be his friends, when that's all he can do? Zach smiled as he thought it, and he looked to the right and flashed what felt like the biggest lie of the day at a couple walking on the opposite side of the street who saw him and then pulled out their phones after he smiled their direction. I can't tell the truth though. Not now. Not ever. The truth isn't, important. The world is built on lies but that's okay, because the ends justify the means as long as no one ever knows the means. As long as the means are believed to be something else. That's why! I'm a- I'm no hero. I'm not being a hero by lying to everyone. I did it to protect myself. That's why I'm lying. So I won't be sent to prison forever for being Death. I could even lie to a lie detector because, because I'm not… I'm not Death. I never was.

I went to Terra. I fought the Doorway girl, the Queen of Arcasia, the Empress. She had many names, and a lot of power, but I was there to face her. Zach waited where he was and then posed for the picture with the people who came asking for a selfie with him. He smiled as he did so and laughed with the two before raising up his bags and explaining why he was holding those things. The couple were excited to hear he had moved to their city, and Zach said he had to get going but that it was nice to meet them, and the entire time his smile felt like a big lie he was shouting right in their faces. He walked away though and glanced back to see the couple smiling and talking to each other excitedly, neither having noticed a thing. Lying is the same no matter what it's for. It's still, wrong.

Zach sighed and stopped where he was on a sidewalk in the dimming light of dusk. He brought his left hand up and pressed it into his forehead, his skin feeling cold against his head and his teeth grinding at that cold feeling. He shivered in his jacket as the night fell with a colder air than there was throughout the day. His head bowed with his grinding teeth holding off from chattering in the cold, and from something else that had him lowering his left hand from his forehead over to his right arm and gripping it hard. His fingers dug into his right arm and he clenched his teeth harder, and he groaned out through his teeth holding back a scream deep inside his throat so the noise came from inside him. He tightened his left hand more, and his expression finally started to steady, his breathing calmed down, and the dark wisps he was flattening out as hard as possible just outside of his right arm stopped trying to seep through his sleeve, instead sinking back into his body.

A/N ... Thanks for reading. Zach's heading to Shiketsu, he's got an apartment, and Jirou... well, things aren't all alright. Lots more coming at you soon! Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and leave a review below telling me what you think, comments, predictions, questions, etc!

Naruffoku chapter 144 . Mar 11

I'm happy that Zach's going back to school, but wouldn't that put everyone in danger? He's a pretty targeted person you know?

Oh yeah. Zach knows it too that he's bringing danger where he goes, but at least with going to a hero school he feels they've accepted a certain amount of danger with the decision to be heroes. Same thing he was thinking back during the licensing exam when he knew he was putting some of the other students at more risk there, but out in the world he is facing a lot of paranoia and worry over the people coming for him. He's ready for them though... at least he hopes he is. Thanks for the review!

Guesssst chapter 144 . Mar 11

Awesome Death Cage is awesome. I'm delighted to hear that you'll have more time for the story since you're on spring break. If I have to personally get this story past 1k reviews I am more than happy to do that. You've definitely raised the bar for fan fiction stories that I find enjoyable.

Second spring break chapter coming at you! I'm at the library trying to work on my thesis rn, but this edit/post was a nice procrastination to start it off. Almost at that 1k review mark I've never hit before. I'm looking forward to it and hope to get a lot more reviews from you guys liking the story to tell me what you think is coming next! Thanks for the high praise and I hope you like the new chapter, and thanks for reviewing!