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!

147. Chapter 147

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 147:

On Monday morning in the first full week of January, the students of Class 3-A were up early. They had woken up as early as they would have if they had school that day, even though they did not. Most schools still had off for a couple more days since the New Year was just behind them, but a whole extra week was not needed so classes would be starting on Wednesday. The hero-course students were not going to wait those extra two days of vacation before getting back to work though.

"I'm just glad Lunch-Rush was prepared to cook for a whole cafeteria. Seems we're not the only ones getting an early start," Sero said, while leaning back against the wall of the common room and stretching his arms up over his head. "All those first and second years really came out in force."

"I didn't know any other classes were doing this," Ojiro admitted from the armchair of the couch where he was sitting, already in his blue gym uniform as were most of his classmates who got ready before going to get breakfast. They had gone in much earlier for the breakfast than they needed to be ready though, as Iida told them there was a chance of other classes being there and causing some wait time. Though it was true, it wound up not creating much delay so they had some time before they needed to leave again.

Sero glanced to his left over to the front door from the wall he was leaning on, to see Shoji and Tokoyami coming back into the dorm together. They were still back at the cafeteria when Sero left, but seeing them return made him lower his arms back to his sides and push off the wall. "Better get to it then," he muttered, and he let out a long yawn at the idea of the day ahead.

Sero started forward off the wall towards the front door, going to get a head-start so that he could walk as slowly as possible towards the locker room. He turned towards the stairs though when he heard footsteps coming down hard and quickly, and he saw Tokoyami and Shoji move to the sides for the pink girl running in between them. "Excuse me," Ashido spun her body sideways and slipped between the boys without slowing down. Shoji and Tokoyami did not just keep walking, but they each turned and looked at Ashido's back curiously considering her choice of clothes.

"What're you up to?" Sero asked, as the pink-skinned girl ran up to him right near the door. Ashido grinned sheepishly and she bent down to grab her shoes. She was wearing a black and white crop-top hoodie with a purple shirt beneath it, and the word 'PINKY' in pink bubble letters over the sweatshirt where her breasts were pushing out. The hoodie stopped halfway down her stomach revealing the purple shirt below, then she had on a pair of purple-and-black-striped tight pants. "You know we have that training in a few," Sero reminded the girl sitting in front of him sliding her shoes on.

"Yeaaahh… about that," Ashido looked up and she stuck her tongue out when Sero lifted his eyebrows at her.

"You're not going?" He asked her in surprise. Ojiro looked over too from the couch he was still sitting on with his phone out in one hand texting his girlfriend upstairs. Tokoyami and Shoji decided to go upstairs back to their own rooms in the time they had, though Shoji glanced over his shoulder once as he headed off to look back at the pink girl.

"It is optional," Ashido said, while grabbing her other shoe to get on now.

"Yeah, but we all agreed to go to it before the break even started. All Might's going to expect us all to be there-"

"Yeah but that was before I knew I was going to have to make up that test yesterday!" Ashido exclaimed back up at her ex-boyfriend. She frowned and pointed a finger up at him, pausing putting on her shoes for a second to give him an accusatory look, "And you guys went to go see Zach without me." She moved her pointing finger past Sero and leaned to the side to look around him at Ojiro who just turned away and then back down at his phone, deciding not to take part in this.

Sero frowned at Ashido's answer though, even if he had to scratch the back of his head at what she was saying. "You know, we told him why you didn't come with us yesterday." Ashido looked at him in surprise, and even more of an accusatory look started to form on her face until he continued, "He asked." Sero paused for a second with a sweatdrop and a grimace as he knew that was only going to make her want to go more, and so he added, "But if you miss this training too, for him, just like you missed out on studying last semester for finals, you really think he's going to be happy when you fail?"

"Pssh," Ashido waved Sero off, smiling more now despite his attempts at warning her. "Do you really think I'm going to learn more here than with Zach? I bet he can teach me lots of things that I wouldn't be learning here." Sero felt like Ashido was trying to make him jealous or something by the way she emphasized that 'lots,' but he sighed and just shrugged her off as she stood up in front of him. "Tell All Might I'm sorry, would you?" Ashido asked with a spin as she neared the front door. She winked at Sero as he opened his mouth to complain about that, then she spun and got out of the building quickly.

Ojiro got up from the armrest and walked over towards Sero's back. He pocketed his cellphone since Hagakure said she would still be a couple of minutes and told him to go ahead without her. "You know," Ojiro started, making Sero turn to him still frowning like he was at the front door. Ojiro was smiling though, and he patted Sero on the back and said, "I'll never understand how you manage to mess things up with all these girls. You always wind up still being friends with them."

"I'm on good terms with Pony and Ashido," Sero retorted. He stepped for the door and Ojiro walked with him, slipping on his shoes just as Sero was doing without needing to sit as Ashido had to. The two boys in their blue uniforms headed out, and Sero added with a hesitant grin, "But I swear, it doesn't always work out like that man…"

Back inside the dorm building, most of the others were still getting ready for the "optional" training that most of them considered mandatory the way they had been talking about it recently. Todoroki finished getting his gym uniform on and started down the stairs on his own. He was frowning, thinking about a conversation he heard between Sero and Sato out in the hallway of their floor the night before. Sero almost convinced Sato to give Zach a chance. I thought Sato was one of the ones I had to be careful of, considering how he had gone out to fight to get Zach released. I don't know what happened, but he found some sense.

Todoroki reached the second floor of the building and turned the corner to look down the steps, and he stopped when he saw the two walking ahead of him. He paused for a moment at the sight of the shortest boy in the class and the invisible girl next to him who had bumped into each other just a moment ago. They were both, Todoroki started to himself, and he began down the stairs at a quickened pace though he kept his footsteps soft.

"…Yeah, I think it was. I can't believe we barely heard anything about that Queen of Arcasia girl though. It's like, so much happened," Hagakure shook her head while trying to explain it, and Mineta nodded in agreement with her.

"We spent all that time talking about the time he was actually here, but that other stuff sounded so cool," Mineta said in a hushed voice. "It sucks though, I feel like the whole day was just… I don't know. The moment you-"

"Uggh, don't say it," Hagakure complained at the boy next to her who frowned half-apologetically at what he started to say. "That was so stupid of me. His friend died and I was smiling like an idiot when I said it. I should have translated it first but I was just- and he was so-" Hagakure rose her hands up to the sides of her head, then she lowered them and nodded in agreement with what Mineta was saying. "After that, it definitely felt like everything he was saying was trying to push the conversation away from him-"

"Hey," the two in front of Todoroki looked back to see their classmate with red and white hair walking up behind them. He was taller than them and looking down at his classmates who lifted their gazes in surprise at his approach. "What are you talking about? Who is this person?"

Mineta frowned at Todoroki for listening in on them. Hagakure just assumed he had overheard though coming too close behind them, and she started, "He was Zach's friend. We heard he died-"

"How do you know?" Todoroki asked.

"A letter," Mineta said, though he eased back as Todoroki turned and looked him in the eyes. "It was sent to him, with the package that had a hero costume in it for Zach."

"Did you report it to anyone?" Todoroki asked. Hagakure started frowning now too, not that either of the others saw her do so.

Mineta frowned deeper though at his classmate, his eyes narrowing and an unafraid look in his eyes as he stared down one of his strongest classmates. "Not everyone's as suspicious of Zach as you are," Mineta remarked at his classmate. Todoroki frowned deeper, but as he opened his mouth, Mineta continued before he could counter, "And when we finally had to leave his place yesterday, Zach left at the same time to go get his new hero costume registered. He said he couldn't try it on until he made sure it was legal. So what do you want me to report?" Mineta asked at the end, turning his head to the side and raising his eyes at the taller boy behind him still giving him an accusing look.

Hagakure added as she saw the other two frowning harshly at each other, "Zach walked with us all the way back to the station pretty much." She looked up into Todoorki's eyes as he turned to the empty space of her head, "I think it's because he knew he wouldn't see us for a while, and the getting his costume registered thing was just his excuse to come out with us, not that he didn't do that right afterwards! I'm sure he did."

Mineta looked away and he lowered his gaze down to the floor again as he let out a deep breath. It was too early to get upset about this kind of stuff, but he shook his head thinking about what he and Hagakure had been saying before Todoroki jumped in. "I felt bad about leaving Zach, after hearing how close he was with Mark. I wish he was living here with the rest of us…"

Todoroki frowned and watched as the two started away from him, Hagakure looking over her shoulder for another second before walking forward more with Mineta. The stronger teen behind them narrowed his eyes at their backs, ignoring most of what they just said. Mark.

"You want a whole day pass? On a Monday?" Midnight asked the girl in front of her who put her hands together in a begging position. "And the reason?"

"I'm going to visit Zach!" Ashido said, lifting her lips into the biggest smile and then holding her hands together harder and shaking them in front of her chest to show Midnight just how much she wanted to go.

The teacher and pro hero who Ashido had interned with for a while a year ago hummed, though the smile was already cracking on her lips that made Ashido's grow wider herself. "Permission granted," Midnight said, and she signed her name down on a slip of paper that Ashido had brought already filled out for her.

Ashido snagged the paper and practically jumped for joy at the permission. "Thanks Midnght… sensei!" Ashido added on as she was heading away from the office, spinning around in a three-sixty to call it over as she remembered she forgot.

Midnight rolled her eyes at the younger woman, but she smiled widely once Ashido was gone at the pink girl's enthusiasm. The older woman with darker hair thought back to when she had her short internship with Ashido after the Sports Festival, when the two of them were out on patrol and talking about the first time they had each seen Zach. The day of the entrance exam, and the sight of Zach saving Ashido came back to Midnight's mind. No matter what he's done since then, I'm glad you're still trying to be his friend. Maybe that will even make the difference. Midnight knew about All Might's training he had prepared for Class A today, but she still smiled in the direction Ashido ran off in for a while after the girl was gone. Her lips lowered down flat and her eyes shifted down to her desk, There isn't much I can do for Sazaki from here. But letting you go to him, I know will help with something. The way he looked and fought back at the licensing exam, he was so serious that whole time even as he seemed to be taking things not seriously. It felt like it was all planned out for him. So I hope that maybe, you can get him to relax for at least a little while. I know you can do it, Pinky.

---

Zach sat at his kitchen table in the center of his kitchen. He had dragged it across the floor to get it out of a direct view of the window even with the window covered by blinds, and now he had the fridge to his back and the counter across the table from him that he could see over all the way to the front door. Only the one folding chair he needed was around the table while the other was still sitting in the middle of his living room making an incomplete circle with his other few pieces of furniture. There was an empty cup of ramen on the counter, and some plastic cups and wrappers laying about, as Zach had come to discover he did not have a trash can in his house, not even a small one in his bathroom. He had the grocery bags from when he bought his food though, so he figured he would just use those once he decided to take the trash out.

On the table in front of Zach was a black laptop thick both on the bottom half with the keyboard and the half behind the screen. His eyes were red as he faced the screen, darting back and forth faster than he was scrolling down the tabs of articles, which he was doing without pause. He had a document opened up next to the internet tabs, and he pressed a keyboard shortcut to avoid having to move his hands from the keyboard which would waste part of a second that he did not need to use in order to flip over to seeing the document. Then his fingers kept typing and he pasted some information using another shortcut before typing some thoughts down below it. Zach flipped back to the tabs and he moved his thumb down to the mousepad to click it and drag to the side over towards the document that he released it in before flipping right back to the internet.

Looks like Dr. Olsen never returned to Norway. He and his family are still missing, though some of the others' families we evacuated to Life have appeared alive. Suppose Gen- Death feels it's safe for them now. Eziano isn't the type to go after families or associates to drag us out. He's more direct. Still missing reports out for a lot of the vigilantes we recruited, some heroes… Sooner or later people will realize that they're dead. Most of them are, at least. Jetflame's still alive. He's been missing for over a year now, but I'm not surprised they haven't given up hope. He is strong. Britain's doing very well right now too. Lower villain rates than when I went to prison. Looks like they rose in the month after, not by much, but that dropped back down lower fast. They probably visited- though heroes having less work to do could have cracked down seeing villains trying to rise back up.

They caught the Oilers? Must have been a new villain group. Had divisions in France too, so let's check out France's rates… Zach had two very different tabs opened up on different halves of his wide computer screen. One was a normal internet browser tab with the hero website he had access to thanks to his provisional license, and he was looking at past hero reports that there were much more of than last time he was in Japan. It was not just that a lot more villain incidents had occurred over the past year and a half to be added to the website, but also that the website had become more international with information about crimes across the globe located online for him to search through. There was a rough translation from French into Japanese that Zach felt like was not very great on the report he was looking at from five months ago, though he wondered if anyone in Japan had looked at these crimes and noticed the bad translation before. He switched it back to French for a moment but frowned as he found it harder to understand than the rough Japanese translation. I need to study my French more. Tonight I should spend a few hours more on the reading and listening, put those together since I feel like I speak better…

Zach flipped to the darker tab on the other side of the screen and he searched deeper in the dark web he had opened on a separate program and hidden browser. The sites he was searching through would not mark him as ever being there, nor would the record of it be left on his computer, and Zach's fingers moved quickly on his keyboard to the point that dark wisps started coming out the backs of them. Zach did not have a black glove on his right hand, and he typed softer with his left even with the darkness seeping around his hands, just using his Quirk to type as fast as his eyes were scanning and his mind was reading. No message boards for French villains either. Not the old ones at least. Either the villains all somehow moved to a different form of dark internet, but that wouldn't work anyway as it would be discovered as soon as it started spreading. The AoD shut them down then. No more tracking down the ones dealing and searching for hitmen on here, taking down the market itself and just wiping the communication off the map. The dark web's emptying out, and they're probably feeling it's safer not to use it and to use the regular browser if the AoD could find them on the dark web. Then heroes will be able to track them though, and there's nowhere safe for them to go. Some will still take the risk and try it, and some will get away with it, but if they don't then no one will. How long until… until they find new methods? Why? Why not just think that it could be the end of crime like that…

That's far in the future if it really is possible. There's still crime all over the world. Lots of villains, and villain rates that aren't all lower than when I went to jail. What's up with Brazil recently? Lots of villains caught this past week there, so the Army's probably there, right? It's only heroes, Zach started grinning and he relaxed a bit in his chair. A satisfied expression came to his face, I'm glad. It's a good thing that I can't figure it out which incidents my comrades had a part in. Other than a few, where the "villains" had fought each other and left many unconscious for the heroes by the time they arrived, but the others "villains" escaped. Looks like they've been working with heroes more often than not to get that kind of report showing up so sparsely- Zach held down the Control button and pressed W on his keyboard four times in rapid succession. Then he did the same but clicking S instead of W to save his work on the document before tapping the W again and closing his document just as he had closed all the internet browsers.

Zach grabbed the top of his laptop and shut it, slowing at the last second and making barely a sound as he closed it. He got out of his seat and moved around his counter cautiously, his eyes darting to the blinds for a moment that he looked at in red tinted vision. Then he moved around over to his couch area and sat on an armrest, slipping his right hand into its glove he pulled out of his pocket. He grabbed the nearly empty box on his couch and looked inside it at the few new belongings he had that he did not have to go leave at an office to get registered. He pretended to be looking into the box examining what was inside, but he was listening to footsteps outside his door while keeping even his own breathing silent. The footsteps approached quickly, and he heard the tone of the breathing that was loud enough to tell him the person coming towards him was panting.

Zach relaxed and his eyes shifted back to their normal color. He let out a longer breath, though his eyes darted to either of the windows in his apartment as soon as he pretended to let down his guard. Nothing? Alright. That's good. Zach stood up from the couch and he turned to the door, with a big smile forming on his face this time. He composed himself with his lips lowering down into only being somewhat curved up at the corners, and he started walking towards the door where his visitor had stopped on the other side of. It could have as easily been her as Kaminari. Two spies was never impossible. Zach grinned a little more at that thought, as he did not believe it himself. He was only that good because of his electricity. Ashido's not. I know she's not. Trust. Show trust at least. Zach would trust his old friends after everything he went through in those other worlds. Wouldn't he?

Ashido knocked on Zach's door with the number 13 next to it, and she stopped with a surprised look on her face when the doorknob started turning right away. Zach opened up the door, and he smiled at the girl on the other side who looked at him in surprise as it seemed like he was already expecting her. Zach looked Ashido up and down, checking out her sweatshirt that had 'PINKY' on the front, along with the rest of the way she was dressed. Ashido had her hood down, and Zach saw her hair looked like it was done nicely that morning which he figured was the reason why she did not put her hood up even though it was pretty chilly out. After opening the door he felt the cool breeze come in at him, but he also noticed it did not feel as cold as the day before actually, which he did not know since he had been inside all morning.

I didn't notice it before, Zach thought as he looked at the girl just outside of his apartment. Ashido's really sexy. She likes showing it off too. She's not as tall as Seraphim, but- Zach blanked out his mind and said, "Hey."

"How's your, shoulder?" Ashido asked. She hesitated on 'shoulder' because she had been right there and seen it was below what she would usually consider a shoulder. She looked at that spot high up on the right side of his chest and then up in his surprised eyes, "Is it healed?"

Zach moved around his right arm to show that it was. "All bet-"

Ashido dove forward before Zach could finish. Zach's eyes opened wide and he started leaning back, but he forced himself to stop and just stay in that position as Ashido's arms wrapped around him in a huge hug that she was unable to give him yet. Ashido closed her eyes once her arms actually wrapped around Zach and her hands touched each other on his other side. The most relieved smile formed on her face as she held her arms back behind Zach's neck and moved her head over his left shoulder. She had to stand on her tip-toes, and she pressed her face into his shirt on his left shoulder and sighed into it. Her hands disconnected from each other and slid down his back and apart since his shoulders were too wide, but she curled her hands into the back of his shirt as she pulled her head back a little. "You have no idea, how much I missed you," Ashido said, looking back up at Zach's face from close up with half the relieved look and half a pout that she could not make seem genuine considering her teary-eyed smile.

He had been shot in front of her before she was able to hug him before, and the way he looked in the hospital had her too afraid to run up and hug him then knowing it might open up that wound that she had tried to stop the bleeding of herself. Ashido looked around his face to search for any signs of feeling pain in case he had just been pretending that he was alright, now that she thought again about how bad that wound was. "I'm sorry-" Zach started to the girl who had not let go of him, as if making sure he was definitely real by holding on as long as possible.

Ashido curled her hands harder into Zach as he started to apologize though. "No," she said, leaning away and shaking her head at him fast. Ashido let go and took a step back from him, and she said with a shake of her head, "I don't want to hear any apologies today." Zach stared at her in some surprise, but he started nodding his head. Ashido was still standing in his doorway, but she reached out and closed it before stepping around Zach's left side. As she did, she looked back at him and said with a look at his shirt that she had gotten a deep whiff of when she pressed her face into it, "Your shirt is smelly."

Zach snapped his head down to look at the black long-sleeved shirt he was wearing, then he turned to the side at the washing machine just through the open closet doors. "I should try out my new laundry machine…" Zach started to mutter, though he looked down at his clothes and thought about the other set he should also wash though could probably do a separate load for. His eyes shifted towards Ashido as he thought that, since he knew he could not just do a single load with all his clothes right now as long as she was there.

Ashido was no longer looking at Zach though, but around his apartment with a frown on her face that got deeper every second. She ran a hand over the top of her couch as she was walking past, and she shook her head in disapproval that Zach noticed and got a bead of sweat on the side of his face at the sight of. Ashido peered over the top of his counter and looked down on the other side where his finished food wrappers were laying about, and she made a disgusted look that had Zach feeling a bit regretful that he did not shove all that stuff into a grocery bag earlier. She glanced towards his table in the middle of the kitchen in such an odd place, then back over at the other folding chair in the middle of his living room floor, right over a stain on the carpet that had some crumbs around it now too from the sandwiches they ate in there the day before. There was no living room table between the circle of sitting furniture, nor a tv on the tv stand, but worst of all were those horrible palish-yellow walls that made Ashido gag as she looked around at them.

"What?" Zach asked, as he felt the reaction was purposely over-the-top for no reason.

"Look at this place!" Ashido exclaimed back at him, a shocked look on her face that he even needed to ask. "I don't know how you can live here. The state of it, your carpet and the furniture, and those walls? Uck," she stuck her tongue out in disgust, then she shook her head around disapprovingly. Zach glanced around, confused as he didn't see anything wrong with them. Ashido's lips were still curled down in a frown and she said to him like she was explaining something simple to him, "You need to decorate your place."

Zach hummed and he glanced back over the living room himself. The couch could use a cover, and I really could have used a coffee table in there yesterday, and just for when people are over in general. A small garbage bin maybe. "I guess, I've thought about getting a few things," Zach admitted. He looked over at the box next to Ashido where she was standing now at the edge of his couch, and Zach added, "I have some money now so I could."

Ashido had heard about the money already from Hagakure, though she spun to the box he looked at and stared into it in surprise that the cash was just sitting there at the bottom in a smaller open box. Her surprised look re-steadied and she kept her lips flat as Zach added, "I need to get all new clothes and school supplies anyway…"

Zach slowed as Ashido was nodding and nodding at him, trying to hide her excitement behind a straight face at first. "How much money did you get?" Ashido asked.

"About four million yen," Zach replied.

Ashido just kept nodding for a few more seconds, but she gulped as much of a steady expression as she tried to keep on her face. "Well then," Ashido said, and she reached down into the box and pulled out two of the four stacks of apparently a million yen each. She lifted them up and hummed as she examined the stacks of bills, trying so hard to keep her straight face like she was thinking about something serious.

Zach could see she was hiding something and the excited look was just making him more confused, and he asked, "Do you need money for something?"

Ashido nodded at him and she slid one of the stacks down into the front pocket of her crop-top sweatshirt with her name on it. Zach thought she might have also been trying to figure out how he got the cash, but he stared at her in surprise that she pocketed it like that. Then she tossed him the second stack and ran up to him when he reached his hands up to catch it. A thousand images flashed through Zach's mind of him tossing something at an enemy or up like that to draw their eyes away for a single second before he rushed them, but as much as he had a counter for it, he was not expecting to suddenly need that counter right now. He also yelled at himself in his head not to as much as he was almost reacting to it in a violent way, and he caught the stack instead before Ashido smacked her hands down on his shoulders. "Why wait?"

"Huh?"

Ashido smirked at him, a face full of excitement that made a bead of sweat slide down Zach's face.

Thirty minutes later, Zach and Ashido walked into the closest mall. "First is clothes shopping," Ashido said, grabbing Zach's left arm with both of hers. She pulled him forward with a head-nod up towards the second floor where she saw a clothing chain store that she recognized.

"You're not going to pick out anything too, well-"

"I know I know! You've got an image to maintain," Ashido assured him, waving a hand to the side like saying he didn't need to worry about that. Zach nodded, cracking a smile that she was thinking about that while also having just an anxious feeling he needed to smile over so she would not notice it.

If I didn't draw attention enough already, having Ashido with me is just about the worst thing I could do. A famous, hot, super popular hero from the Class A, and Lifebringer. People are already recording us. "What are you looking for?" Ashido whispered up to the side of Zach's head when she noticed him glancing around the interior of the mall. "You think the villains after you would attack you here?"

Zach had not been thinking about that, not that his focus was not completely split with a part of his concentration always on the possibility of assassins being nearby. He looked down at his left side and the girl walking with him very closely, and he replied in a calm voice, "Maybe. You never know."

Ashido rose her eyebrows in surprise at the response, but then she smiled and leaned up closer to him again. Her breasts pushed into his left arm as she did so, and she whispered to her darker-haired friend, "Well don't worry. If they attack, we'll fight them off together."

Zach smiled gratefully at her for saying so, then he looked to his right and up to some glass skylights that did not have anyone peeking over them. Ashido frowned and leaned back from his arm. After a moment she started to grin softly though, the failure to get any reaction out of him like she intended making her happier than upset that her allure did nothing.

Hope she isn't too worried about people attacking us now that I've made it out like it could totally happen. "It was pretty dumb of me getting shot like that on the bridge," Zach began. He looked back at Ashido and cracked a small smile even as she lost hers in surprise at what he said. "I'm used to being hunted. The whole time I was in Arcasia the Queen had her forces searching for me. First, just because I had escaped the ambush she set up for me, and then because me and my ragtag group of… well, I don't know what I would have called us back then, closest thing would probably be bandits."

"You were a bandit?" Ashido asked, pursing her lips as she almost laughed at the sound of it.

"Before we went and teamed up with the allied forces, joining an actual army," Zach defended. "We were in Arcasia territory, and we didn't have the strength to hold any of the towns or lands we were fighting for, even if we did take out all the enemy forces there at the time." Ashido nodded along with him, and he continued as she listened closely to him, "But all those times they came after me, I managed to see them coming or fight them off once they did ambush us. When I actually came to be an officer and then a general, the attacks became even more frequent. Our forces were larger too so it was harder to hide, but the assassins and ninjas were just as good-"

"Ninjas?!" Ashido exclaimed, a shocked look flashing over her face before she smirked at him and leaned in with a look of disbelief on her face. "You're messing with me-"

"I swear," Zach said, shaking his head back at her and making Ashido's eyes widen again. Zach laughed at her surprised look, and he said, "It was a medieval society, so why wouldn't there be? It was very similar to our own medieval times except everyone had Quirks, but the parallels were crazy how similar that world was to our own. And just like there were special forces in old regimes who specialized in stealth and infiltration, those same kind of forces existed in that world. Though they were called nightcrawlers in Terra."

"Did you fight any of them?" Ashido asked. The two of them had walked over to an escalator and were standing on the same step facing each other as they spoke. "I mean you had to, if they were sent after you, right?"

"I did," Zach replied. "But not all the nightcrawlers liked their current arrangement with the Queen of Arcasia. Her military forces had completely surrounded their homeland at one point, and they were forced to swear allegiance to her, but there were some who were willing to switch sides and join me instead."

"How did you know you could trust them?" Ashido wondered in a soft whisper.

"I didn't," Zach replied. "But I never knew someone's true intentions until they were fighting by my side. Often I wouldn't trust someone up until the moment they died, but when I brought them back I'd… usually trust them fully." He hesitated there and cut back on what he was going to say, though he bit down after saying it with a frustrated look covering his face. Ashido stared at him with her eyes huge, the look of emotion that flashed over Zach's face for just a moment seeming far too real for what he was saying to be just a story.

She gulped at the idea of it, even though she had not been doubting him already. It was just that she felt in so much disbelief of all he was saying that it felt so strange seeing genuine emotions and hearing so much feeling in his words. Zach returned a smile to his face right away, but Ashido saw the reason why as they neared the top of the escalator. Some people on the second floor who had seen them coming up had run around and there were cameras out and people looking excitedly at the two of them.

Zach and Ashido slowly made their way over to the clothing store she wanted to bring him to. They had to talk to a lot of people on their way over, and Ashido took some pictures as selfies with herself leaning forward, Zach standing straight up in the back with the other people who took more silly pictures being with Pinky than Zach was used to. He wondered if he seemed like too serious a person, or if it was just Ashido's bouncy reactions when people asked for pictures that made it so people just seemed looser around him than usual.

"Glad you're back, Lifebringer." A mother of three teenage girls said after getting her camera back from Ashido who insisted on checking the photos first before someone got away with pics of her while she was blinking or not posing amazingly. Zach smiled back at the middle-aged woman and thanked her, then Ashido exclaimed at him that they had to get into the store before it closed, which was an exaggeration but certainly felt like it might come to pass if they got stopped any more times.

The owner of the store was already out talking to his employees who had heard the talk of the mall and were hoping to see Pinky and Lifebringer come into their store. The owner came over and excitedly told them before they entered about the hero discount they had, which Ashido had known about beforehand and kept Zach from walking straight into the store because of. Zach was curious as to why she stopped him outside the store and then looked at it as if pondering whether she should go in or not, but then she enthusiastically cheered when the owner told them about the deal that Zach wondered if he would have mentioned anyway even if they had gone straight in like it was their destination all along. Clever, Zach thought with a look over at Ashido and an internal grin that he kept hidden just like Ashido's hidden smirk.

The two of them went to the back of the store where the changing rooms were, with Zach barely slowing down at all on a beeline to it. He knew already before he got there, that Ashido was not making it across the whole store without already having three outfits picked out that she thrust at him upon them reaching the changing rooms. Zach chuckled as he caught the shirts and pants he was ready for, and Ashido grinned more that he did not need her to say anything but was ready for what she was going to tell him.

It's better this way, Zach thought after stepping into the changing room. He continued his conversation with Ashido while inside, going back to talk about Arcasia when she asked about his 'ninja friends' and their techniques. Going out clothes shopping on my own would make anyone following me suspicious of all I'm purchasing. Plus, the fact that she's picking them out for me clearly just because she wants to shows that they aren't intended for disguises. Except Ashido doesn't realize, Zach lifted up the black v-neck long-sleeved shirt that she had said was perfect for him when she picked it off a hangar they were walking past. I'm going to use it all. Might have to explain it in a little though, when I ask her to buy makeup for me. I'll talk about the stealth gear I got in the package, tell her about how my costume's all about stealth and infiltration, and subtly motion at my own scars and why I'll need the makeup.

"…I could show you what I mean."

"Really?" Ashido asked in shock, after just questioning him about the confusing technique he was describing that all the nightcrawlers knew.

"It really was as amazing as I said, so I wanted to know how to do it myself. I learned a lot of new techniques there outside of ones I need Death for. Whole new forms of combat," Zach slid a pair of pants on but the waistline was too tight, and he pulled them back off and tossed them over the wooden door of the changing room. "Probably need 2 sizes up from that before I can even see how I look in them."

"Hey!" Ashido exclaimed at the doorway, making Zach pause and look back at it still in his black boxers and the v-neck he had tried on. "Each time you put on an outfit, you need to come out so I can get a look at it too! You've been checking them out without me!"

That was the second pair of pants I tried on, Zach thought. "I liked the first-"

"This is a democracy," Ashido countered before Zach could finish. "I maintain the right to veto if the outfits I picked out don't look as great on you as I imagined they would in my head."

"Fine fine," Zach said. "But I can veto too, if you pick anything too outlandish."

Ashido humphed on the other side of the door loudly enough for Zach to hear, but she smirked and said in a mock reluctant tone, "Alright."

It was pretty clear with the 'democracy' comment that you wanted me to mention having a veto of my own. Drawing me into the trap to accept that you have that power by accepting that I have it too, instead of just trying to take it all… This is clothes shopping, I didn't realize so much thought went into it. Zach looked in the mirror at how he looked, and he grinned for a moment before turning and stepping back out of the changing room. He kept a stoic look on his face as he stepped out, his eyes strong and his expression stoney. His jaw was defined and his toned muscles pushing into the v-neck so that the line between his pecs could be seen at the middle of his collar. Zach had his hands down in the pockets of his dark-blue jeans, and Ashido was staring at him with wide eyes for several seconds before realizing what she was doing. Zach started to grin as she finally lost that look, but instead of calling him out on trying to look all cool or something, as Zach expected she would, the pink girl let out a whistle instead. She waved a hand at herself and then said with a nod back into the changing room, "Very nice. Next."

Zach almost looked embarrassed for a moment, but he decided not to and just smirked at Ashido's response proudly instead. Once he turned around and closed the door to the changing room again though, his smile dropped and he let out a breath. I feel like this should be more… I don't know. I'm not feeling any shame or embarrassment at all. She's a girl, a beautiful girl, checking me out like I'm hot. Even with Darling I felt embarrassed and got turned on… for a while. When was the last time? How long back, did I stop feeling that way? What does it matter? Is that it? Compared to so much, something like this is so insignificant. That I'd have any emotions about it at all, except happiness. I'm happy right now, right? Would Zach be? To just hang out with Ashido again, would make him happy. I am happy then, because I am Zach. I'm back. He would probably be more embarrassed though. After that whistle would have been a good- no, the Zach who came back is clearly different. He wouldn't be pretending so much with someone like Ashido either. He wouldn't want to, with someone as close to him as her. He doesn't. I don't. I don't want to pretend like I'm flustered around her. I know she's not actually flirting for any certain end. I know I don't want to do anything with her. I shouldn't act like it's a possibility, nor should I act like I don't understand her intentions either.

"You get the next one on yet?" Ashido asked, looking at the door hesitantly as Zach was not saying anything. "Or are they too small too? I'll bring back the pants together, but don't go anywhere-"

Zach opened up the door again in a new outfit, but he was hesitant and frowning as he made his way out. Ashido agreed with a similar look that was on his face, shaking her head which made Zach shake his head in agreement. The pants were not too small, but upon the second inspection they did not pass Ashido's test as Zach was pretty sure they wouldn't when he checked them in the mirror himself. He stepped back in and tossed them over the door quick which Ashido was ready for on the other side already holding his other pair that she was going to bring back. "Give me a sec," she called in to him as she ran off.

Going to be a long day, Zach thought. All alone in the changing room, he leaned back against one of the walls, and a smile tugged at his face.

After a long stop at the clothing store, (which was even longer than Zach expected it to be), Ashido dragged him over to a different department store to get more "variety" in his clothing. Zach felt he had just gotten a lot of new clothes already, and some were designer brands which he did not know at first when he was trying them on, but that he learned when he reached the register. She's going to run me dry. I'm glad we only took half of the money L sent me, or at least Ashido thinks we only have half on us right now. I've got to stop over at an ATM to deposit all this cash.

Zach mentioned his plans for disguising himself and asked Ashido if she could get him some makeup, hesitantly scratching the back of his neck while looking over towards that section of the department store. He did not think he could see her more excited, but he was wrong and thought she might explode at how much she started shaking in pure ecstasy before yell-whispering at him that she'd show him how to put it on too later. Zach said in a sarcastic tone, 'Can't wait,' and then he said he'd meet back up with her over at the men's clothing section in a little. She had some of his cash on her still, and Zach added that he didn't need all that much, just enough to cover the scars. He still thought as he headed off though, I really hope she doesn't spend it all on makeup. Knowing her, she could definitely buy like a dozen things and say I needed all of them.

He left the department store and headed over to the closest ATM, which was inside of a bank in the mall. He stepped in and over to an ATM machine that he stood in front of in a way to properly block what he was doing without making it out too much like he was trying to hide it. Zach pulled out his phone in his other hand and checked his bank account while he deposited the money, and he refreshed it a couple of times to make sure the cash was going through. Alright, Zach thought and backed off from the ATM once his transaction was finished. Two million yen to invest. Darling, I hope I learned enough. Zach opened up the Arkitock app on his phone that he had connected to his bank account already and put most of his college fund into to invest with. Seems almost like I have insider trading information, though it has been six months, so it's not as unfair as it would be otherwise.

Zach looked at companies that he knew had plans for big maneuvers, ones that had made large-scale investments recently while he was in prison but that he knew would go farther, and ones that he was careful not to invest in as well. He frowned at a few names on the list he was scrolling through as he left the bank, but his frown lifted up at the right corner into just an unsatisfied one and not really upset at all. New leadership kept under close watch is a better solution than taking away thousands of jobs and collapsing the market. "Too big to fail," is sometimes true. If it could happen once though, why not again? Carvean Pharmaceuticals? I want to invest there, knowing the business practices and what they're trying to cure, but a pharmaceutical business that cares is always going to be less profitable than the fuckers in it for the money. The ones who would buy from unknown sources, indirectly funding human experimentation laboratories with their promises of…

Zach shifted his gaze over towards the front of the department store he was walking back over to. Ashido crossed her arms and frowned at him as he approached, and Zach almost grimaced but instead smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head, only because there were a few people watching him and he could not make it out like he got caught doing something wrong. "Sorry," Zach said as he approached Ashido, his tone getting better across how he was feeling than his facial expression. She did not have any makeup bags in her hands, and Zach felt like she must have been watching him and followed him out when she saw him leaving.

"Why not just tell me you were going to the bank?" Ashido asked, still frowning at him though pouting a bit at his nonchalant attitude as he walked past her and back into the store. "I wouldn't have said anything-"

"If I don't start saving, you'll have me spending everything in one day," Zach said. He lifted up a smaller but more genuine smile once they were inside and it was just them talking now with less people watching. "Here," Zach lifted his phone and opened it up, then he unlocked the specific stock-trading app that he was just on. Ashido leaned closer and got a confused look on her face at what she was seeing. "They're stocks I just bought. I used the rest of the money you thought we left back at my place."

"You took it with you?" Ashido asked in surprise, wondering when he had the time to do that and where he had hid the money that whole time.

Zach nodded his head at her, and he added with a more playful smirk, "But I knew if I said anything, you'd try to help me decide which stocks to pick. And it's not that I don't trust you, but…"

"Hey!" Ashido exclaimed at him with a shocked look on her face, smacking him on the arm at what he was implying.

"What? Do you know anything about stocks?"

"I know lots of great companies! Like, you didn't even know that Prucci shirts were so expensive, but you bought two anyway. You know why? Because they're that good! You should get Prucci stock!" Zach started nodding his head at Ashido while holding his lips down like he was trying to hide a smirk. She opened her mouth to ask what that was for, before realizing that she just did exactly the thing he said he expected she would. "Shut up!" She called at him and he held up a hand defensively as he was not saying anything, though he did turn away with a grin on his face.

"Just you watch," Ashido said in more of a grumble. "I bet Prucci stocks rise super fast and you'll wish you took my advice."

Maybe, maybe I should just buy a couple since I know you'll be happy. I'll do it subtly and then let you see all the ones I got later when I explain it, if it does come back up. You'll see the Prucci stocks on the list and I can look away and pretend like I had them the whole time… because that's what Zach would do. Or is it that Zach would react that way to try and make you happier, because he liked to see you happy? Who doesn't like to see their friends happy? Well, I made her upset now.

"When did you get into stocks? You never talked about it before, but you seem so used to them," Ashido mentioned, turning to the boy she was walking through the department store with in the direction of the men's clothing section.

"Darling was really good with them," Zach replied. Ashido looked at him in surprise at that response, but Zach shrugged as it was the truth and he looked happy to be able to tell her it. "By the way, don't I still need makeup-"

Ashido slid a hand into her front pocket and pulled out two different cosmetic items that Zach stared at in surprise. "Wow," Zach said. "I didn't think-"

"There wasn't much to think about for what you need," Ashido replied while turning away like there was no reason for him to be surprised. She said it like it was so simple that anyone could understand, and Zach got a bead of sweat on the side of his face and a nervous smile as he felt like she was comparing buying makeup to getting stocks, and in this regard Zach had no idea what he was doing. Zach decided against mentioning that he noticed it, and that if this really was a parallel then Ashido was admitting she had no idea about stocks. Instead he just kept that thought to himself and told Ashido that he was glad she was there, because he never would have known what to get, to which she humphed with a larger smirk spreading over her face.

The two of them shopped around some more, but they could only go to so many stores before they both got hungry. There were many places to eat across the mall, and the two of them wound up stopping at a pizza place that Zach felt had more of an American than an Italian feel to it. The pizzas they ordered tasted more American-style too, which Zach mentioned to the girl across from him who he was sharing with. They had gotten two pies that they had between them and were taking slices one at a time for their own plates. "You had Italian pizza too?" Ashido asked when Zach made the distinction. Then she pointed a hand over the table, still holding her pizza, and she pointed the half-eaten slice at him saying 'aha' in a way that almost made food fall out of her mouth.

Zach chuckled as Ashido got a pink(er) face and quickly chewed and swallowed the food in her mouth. She was still excited though and she said, "I knew you were in Italy! After I heard those rumors about you in Germany, there were rumors that you were popping up all over but I knew it was Italy!"

It might've been all those other places too, Zach thought, but he nodded at Ashido like she was right. Guess the mob guys and their wives couldn't keep it to themselves. It was something cool, I guess, and Metallore probably went and told some other heroes what had happened too. A journalist somewhere had a source who caught wind, but luckily it was just that I was there and not what I was doing. Don't think the government here would be too happy if they knew I joined the mob… even if it was just for a few days. "I prefer pizza in Sicily the most," Zach said as he took another bite of the pepperoni slice in his left hand. "But this is good."

Ashido nodded and made an affirmative hum, already with another bite in her mouth so she could not agree with words. As she finished chewing and opened her mouth to say something else though, she heard a commotion behind her and over at the door of the pizza restaurant. Zach had already seen them, but he pretended not to notice until Ashido heard the commotion. He leaned to the side and looked past her, then he pulled back into the booth and took a big gulp out of his soda. He sloshed it around in his mouth, and Ashido looked back at him in confusion before opening her eyes wide and quickly doing the same. She lifted a napkin too and wiped the corners of her mouth, frowning for a moment but wiping crumbs off her face before the guy with a fancy camera who had been stopped near the door got up next to their table.

"Lifebringer! Can you tell me where you were all the time you were gone?" The paparazzi shouted, and he held a recorder out in front of Zach while keeping his camera at the ready to snap the teen when he was looking his least presentable.

"I could," Zach replied. "But I believe you were asked to leave this establishment, and I have a hero license," Zach continued calmly. Their waitress and the manager who she had gone to get were coming up behind the man to complain again that they were going to call the police if he did not leave. They stared over at Zach in surprise though, as did the other customers sitting around the restaurant who all stared towards Lifebringer with their bottom lips lowering. "Would you like me to escort this man out of this restaurant?" Zach asked, looking over at the manager who darted his gaze back to the paparazzi who leaned back far at that question.

"Are you threatening-" the guy with the camera started with his voice getting louder.

Ashido opened her mouth with an annoyed look starting to form on her face, but the manager spoke up first, "He is being very disruptive to business, so if you could." The paparazzi spun to the manager, then he started turning his head back to the side as Zach wiped his hands on a napkin calmly and then lowered it down to the table in front of him.

"I'm leaving!" The guy shouted, throwing his camera arm and the recorder arm up at the same time. He backed off, then darted for the door of the restaurant. Zach had a hand pushing down on the seat next to him, but he cracked a slightly bigger grin as the paparazzi ran off.

"So sorry about that, Lifebringer," the manager started while walking over to Zach's table. "Your meal will be-"

"It's fine," Zach said, quickly cutting off the man before he could offer him something for free as far too many people had been recently. "Sorry if my presence is being disruptive for business."

"No no, of course not," the manager replied, shaking his head at the younger man.

"If you do want to repay him though," Ashido began, smiling up at the older man who turned to Pinky this time. Zach started to frown and gave Ashido a look telling her to drop it, but Ashido just continued, "Then you could get us some free refills." She shook around her nearly empty soda from when she drank a bunch to slosh around her mouth and wash down any sauce or pizza pieces.

"Refills are already…" the manager began, but then he just sighed and nodded with an accepting look at the young students. "Very well. Once again, my apologies," he finished, glancing back at Zach who shook his head while picking up another slice to show it did not faze him.

"That guy was so rude though," Ashido whispered, leaning forward over the table when the manager started away. "Just shouting in our faces like that while we're eating."

"It's his job to try and get us off our guard," Zach said, shrugging and then nodding to the side at the manager who walked back with two full sodas for them. He looked back at Ashido after taking a sip of his cola, and he added, "If he had gotten a good picture of me looking upset, maybe put a quote out of context over the photo that they print in an unflattering filter, it could have been on the cover of some magazine tomorrow morning. Or the news, and he could go on as a special guest to talk all about how he got his scoop, going farther than any other reporter dared to go." Zach changed his tone like he was speaking as the man on the press conference, building himself up as some sort of master journalist which made Ashido start laughing as she thought about the guy's nervous retreat from the restaurant.

Zach paused for a second after Ashido laughed, then he scratched below the left corner of his lip and added, "He'll probably still get a nice payment, for whatever pictures he took of me and you eating together. And considering how I shut him down so fast, I wouldn't be surprised if some rumors started spreading before tonight."

"Really?" Ashido asked with wide eyes, and then she grinned slyly at the idea of it.

Their waitress stepped back over to the table as Ashido was grinning, and she hesitated for a second which made the pink girl turn and bring her smile back to a normal one. The woman only a few years older than Ashido suppressed a grin herself and asked, "How is everything?"

"Great," Ashido replied. "Thanks."

Zach nodded in agreement, but he did not respond yet and kept looking at the woman, waiting for her to ask. The brunette glanced towards Zach, then back at Ashido who she started to, "I just wanted to say…" Ashido tilted her head to the side wondering what the older girl was hesitating about, then the waitress kept going with a glance in Zach's direction, "You really made me want to go out and vote for Nikko." She looked back at Ashido while saying it, and the pink girl's black eyes opened wide. "That rally a week before the election, well," the waitress glanced back at Zach again. "I'm really happy you got let out early, Lifebringer."

"Thank you," Zach told the older girl.

"Yeah!" Ashido agreed excitedly. "Thanks for helping," she smiled bigger at the waitress with a grateful look herself.

Wish it was okay to tip service employees here, Zach thought. Since it is American-style pizza… no, they wouldn't be okay with it. Well, she seemed to appreciate our gratitude enough-

"So," the waitress continued, leaning her head down closer to the two so she could speak in a lower voice and avoid eavesdroppers from listening in. "Are the two of you, dating?" The brunette's eyes darted back and forth at the two, looking at their faces for their reactions.

Ashido spun her head more to the waitress in a surprised way, then back to Zach who she looked at in shock while he cracked a small grin at her. What he had just mentioned about rumors spreading had seemed realistic to Ashido, but now it felt more inevitable considering that question sounded more like she was calling them out on it. After seeing his 'I told you' look, Ashido turned back to the waitress and shook her head with a roll of her eyes. "We're just friends."

Their waitress nodded, then she turned to Lifebringer and hummed in skepticism at the way he was looking at his "friend." Zach had smiled a bit brighter though when Ashido called him that, and he turned to the waitress and nodded with what Ashido said. "Alright," the waitress accepted, standing back up straight and looking over at another table she had to serve. "Enjoy your meals," she added, heading back away from the "friends."

"You called it," Ashido admitted while looking back at the boy she was eating with. "Didn't think this shopping trip would get so much attention. Especially on a Monday."

"Can't go anywhere in secret anymore," Zach said with a sigh. It sounded like he was lamenting the loss of his privacy, but there was also a hidden meaning only those who had been close to him would understand. Ashido's eyes bulged at what he said, but he just kept eating and did not even raise his gaze and smile at her like it was a joke. Does he, want to go places in secret? Does he want to go back to being an anti-hero while- "You should be extra careful for now on too, when you're outside of school. People coming after me might target you once the pictures get out of us together," Zach mentioned while continuing to bite away at a slice of pizza.

Ashido kept staring at Zach and he finally lifted his eyes back to her face to see her gawking at him. He chewed and swallowed, then he added, "You're a hero though, so I know you can handle it. Right?" He asked 'right' at the end with an eyebrow raising to see if she was going to counter him, but Ashido grinned proudly and scoffed at even the idea of not being able to handle it. Good, Zach thought when she started responding to him without fear in her voice. I didn't think I needed to explain that to her, but she really wasn't even thinking about it when she suggested this trip. I assumed she knew what she was doing. She does too, even if she didn't think hard enough about it. Don't worry about her. Just, trust her. Worrying about them always led to lying to them more, not less. They're all heroes now. Great heroes. I knew that when I was gone. No, He was keeping tabs. I was- or was I the one keeping tabs because he didn't know, or care… except I-he cared about all heroes around the world, but not really Japan- yes Japan. I came once. Not as Life- Present and future! Focus! What is important right now? Making sure that Ashido trusts you. Make her believe that you really are Zach Sazaki, and do what he would do.

"Speaking of places you went in secret," Ashido began, changing back up the conversation from potential villains targeting her which was always a possibility as a hero. "Can you tell me about the anti-hero life you had, now that you're not doing it anymore?" She ended in the tone of a question, which made sense since she was asking him something. However it sounded like she was asking both if he could tell her about it, and if he was still going to be having a secret anti-hero life.

"Yeah, I can tell you," Zach replied. "Only the fun parts about it though," Zach added, lifting up a finger as he said it to let her know that he was going to be holding some back. Ashido nodded quickly in agreement at him though, smiling wide at that clause which would keep the conversation more fun than depressing as she knew it could have gotten. "Well the first thing, is that I didn't just decide one day that I wanted my own motorcycle. I said it was Bikergang who inspired me to get one, but really it was Webb."

"The guy, who saved you from the villains, right?" Ashido asked.

Zach paused and he furled his lip for a moment. Ashido curled her own and gave him an expectant look, as she heard enough in the forest to know that much and just wanted to double check it there. "He did save me, but from the Hunter," Zach explained when she gave him that look. "I wasn't lying back then about how I escaped the villains. It was on my own." Ashido looked at him in surprise as she had been convinced differently for a year and a half now. She did not look to doubt him though, and Zach added softer and with a smile returning to his face, "But after a week on the run, when the villains almost took me back, that's when Webb saved me."

"Why didn't you go to the cops?" Ashido asked in confusion.

"I was paranoid," Zach replied. He took another bite of pizza and continued, "I knew the League had a lot of sources and a spy at U.A. at least, so why not in whatever police station I went to? And I figured I would get arrested, put somewhere I couldn't run from, and then Kurogiri would figure out where I was and poof." Zach snapped his fingers of his left hand, and Ashido flinched at the image she just pictured of a younger Zach curling back into the corner of a room of a police station, a black portal emerging in front of him. "But even if that was just being overly paranoid," Zach continued. "I'm glad I didn't do it. Then I never would have met Webb, and I never would have known all the things I came to learn about the world thanks to him."

"Things like what?" Ashido asked.

"Like the role that anti-heroes play in fighting crime. The secret role that they've always had from a long time ago. It became a lot less as time went on, but when people thought it went away, it was really just the anti-heroes going into hiding and doing all their work in the shadows."

"If they ever fought villains though," Ashido started, shaking her head in confusion. "Wouldn't it be difficult for heroes to arrest them afterwards? Since vigilante justice is outlawed."

"Sure, but remember Diamondfist?" Zach asked. Ashido nodded her head, thinking about the villain she only gained so much interest in because he was taken down on a weekend when Zach just happened to skip out on school and go on a trip to Kyoto. "You remember what the news and heroes reported was what happened to them?"

"The heroes captured them," Ashido began slowly, thinking back on what she had seen about that just about two years ago. "But some villains were shouting there was a single man who came in and attacked them. Was that you?!" Ashido exclaimed that too loudly, and Zach darted his eyes around only to notice that there really were a lot of people looking towards him.

Zach gave Ashido a look that made her give him a sheepish and apologetic one. Then he shook his head anyway though, and he said, "But whether it was an anti-hero like Webb, or a random vigilante, or actually another villain, what did it matter in the long run for that case?" Zach asked and then shook his head again as Ashido hesitated with a look showing she did not know. "It didn't," he replied to his own question. "Since vigilantism is a crime, it's technically just villains fighting each other, and heroes are allowed to go and arrest all of the parties involved when that arises. So even if they had proof that it was an anti-hero who did it, they still wouldn't really let off villains that easily. It's only if the anti-hero is the one who gathered up the proof, doing a hero's job for them and acting as the law, handing in villains straight to police stations or stuff like that. But if villains are left in their hideouts with all their illegal weapons and substances, and an anonymous tip comes in from some 'concerned citizen' that they heard loud sounds of fighting between villains or saw something in a building they were walking past, then heroes can rush in and arrest them all without the anti-heroes getting the blame, or the credit."

Ashido was nodding along with what Zach was saying for a little, but she slowed and stopped at how specific he was getting in his response. It still sounded just like a hypothetical, but she pursed her lips and examined his face closely near the end at what he was saying. "And did you use this little technique yourself?"

"All the time," Zach replied. Ashido opened her eyes wide in surprise at that quick response, but Zach just chuckled at that look and added, "I learned from the best. The way he did it with Diamondfist worked out so well, thanks to me calling in the tip and staying vague enough about just hearing gunfire." Zach added the last part with a more smug smirk at Ashido, but she was still staring at him in surprise as he admitted it straight out after staying more vague before and not even admitting that it was Webb who did it. She almost frowned, as she realized there was no reason for him to be worried about Webb getting in trouble for it, but instead Ashido smiled along with his smirk and shook her head at him for that smug expression.

"You know when anonymous tips became this huge thing all over the world, I had no idea," Ashido started to joke. Zach smiled along and laughed with her as she finished, "That it was really just you the whole time!"

You have no fucking idea. Zach stopped laughing and nodded his head at her, "Yeah, it totally was."

The two of them finished up their lunch with Zach talking a little more about what he had done with the anti-heroes. He explained to her how he got his costume, leaving out a few details but telling only the truth as there was not much reason to protect Ganji anymore either. After they got the check and Zach left some money in it, the two of them continued to sit in the booth for a little as they were talking and felt no rush to leave. "…we heard about this guy when we fought the Stain Cult. Did you hear about that?" Ashido asked with a short pause. Zach nodded at the girl across from him while also still looking interested in who she mentioned that she heard about among the anti-heroes. "The leader of the cult, they called him Faith, was a Tartaros prisoner who got captured the first time by this guy named Lavamander."

Zach nodded his head, and Ashido examined his face to see if he recognized the name. "I knew him," Zach said.

"Really?" Ashido asked in amazement. "Wrangler said that he was the strongest man he had ever met."

Zach nodded again in agreement with that sentiment. "He was," Zach began, "very strong."

The brief hesitation in what Zach said, and the use of the word 'was,' made Ashido lose her smile. "Was it," she started softly. Zach looked into her eyes and saw an understanding look in them. She stared with her yellow irises into his hazel ones and finished in a low voice, "Because of you?"

Zach paused and he lowered his eyes down to the table. "It's impossible. Maybe in another time, but the City of Villains is too… A plan? You're a fool if you think you can take Killmanjaro with those amateurs you call soldiers. You have a zero percent chance of victory… If I do show up though, I suppose it could be possible." Was it my fault? She's asking if Kaminari killed him in his purge. That's not what she technically asked though. "Yes," Zach responded after a few seconds. "Because of me."

"I'm sorry," Ashido whispered. She wanted to know about him, as hearing about Lavamander was the most information she had gotten about Zach's secret anti-hero life since he had left. She felt bad about bringing it up now though and asking what had happened in what felt like such a mean way in hindsight. "Hey! So where do you want to go next?" Ashido asked, clapping her hands in front of her and looking ready to get moving.

Zach lifted his mood just as fast and he sweatdropped at the girl in front of him before glancing to his side at the pile on his seat as tall as he was. "I don't know how much more we'll be able to carry," he said, looking at the boxes and bags piled up on his side. "I probably have enough clothes too-"

"Then we should head back to your place," Ashido said, pressing her hands down on the table this time. "We still have a lot of work to do, if we plan on finishing the paint-job before I have to return to U.A."

Zach rose his eyebrows and asked, "Paint job?" His gaze shifted over to a mystery bag next to Ashido that she had been carrying after they split up a while back. Zach had his own mystery bags hidden inside of larger ones from earlier stores so she had not noticed that he was hiding something from her, while she had been more forward about it and just pulled the bags away before when Zach had started leaning forward to check what was in them.

Ashido grinned at that hidden detail of what they were shopping for, the most important thing actually after she had seen those disgusting pale-yellow walls of his apartment. Zach started laughing after a second at that sly grin on her face, and he shrugged his shoulders like he didn't see why not.

---

"Farther in the crowd…" ~ bum ts bum bu-bum ~ "Open up your eyes!" Wommm bu-dum du-dum "Approach the stage! Faster…" bum bum bum bum bum "Faster!" bum-bum-bum-bum-bum "FASTER!" bumbumbumbumbum Sssshhh-

Zach and Ashido froze, and Ashido spun to the speaker sitting on a folding chair behind them that suddenly got silent with that hissing noise when things were getting so upbeat. She opened her mouth to say something, and then the beat dropped. The bass blasted out of the speaker making the chair shake for a second while the singer yelled 'faster' again and a crazy tune in treble started playing over everything and the beat returned in the background. Ashido started swinging her head back and forth and making her pink hair wave around for a few seconds before spinning to Zach a few meters away from her down the wall. "What's this song called?!"

"Faster!" Zach called back, which made Ashido laugh as the guy singing just yelled it too and she almost thought Zach was just singing along for a second.

"Hope we're not upsetting your neighbors," Ashido mentioned, though she did not look to care as she shoved the paintbrush down in the bucket she had next to her and then swiped across Zach's wall along with the beat of the song. She had to start swiping back and forth faster, and she shook her head and wiped an arm across her brow as she was starting to sweat. Zach had the heat on in his apartment since they had gotten cold on the walk back to his place, especially since they had to walk slower while balancing all the things they had shopped for. Ashido accidentally wiped a bit of light blue paint on her on forehead, but Zach did not mention it as he turned back to his wall and continued painting in a calmer way than the girl hearing this great song for the first time.

"They're all still at work probably," Zach said. "And Norita-san told me the walls here are thick so I shouldn't worry about it."

"That's great!" Ashido called out louder now, not feeling she needed to keep it down at all. "Let's hope your downstairs neighbors feel the same," Ashido added with a laugh as she jumped up and ran back and forth along the wall, painting and dancing at the same time which Zach noticed was getting a couple drops of paint on his carpet. The carpet was blue already, but a very dark navy blue, so the bright blue Ashido had picked out as she felt it 'matched him' contrasted strongly with it. She was already making comments about ripping up the carpeting though and getting a new one for the place though, so Zach wondered if she was actually trying to make it more pertinent with her 'mistakes.'

Ashido was really just enjoying the music though, as it was the fourth song in a row that Zach put on that she was loving. Each of the songs were in completely different genres, and the guy singing this one was singing in English but she didn't care whether it was English, Japanese, Italian, or Spanish. All four of the songs so far had been fire to paint to. Behind the pink girl shaking her butt back and forth in a tight pair of black pants, there was an opened cardboard box laying on the floor with some parts left in it, and a half-built wooden coffee table lay upside-down with the legs up just next to his sofa. On top of the tv stand was the box with the tv still in it too, as Ashido had complained that Zach could set all that stuff up later as she needed to cover up the current paint job before anything else.

"And where did you first hear this song?" Ashido asked as the beat started to settle down on one section. She spun to Zach and kept aimlessly painting with her left hand over the same spot which Zach rolled his eyes at after turning to her.

"Sweden. There was this crazy rave…" Zach trailed off and pursed a grin as Ashido was staring at him with wide and almost disbelieving eyes.

She opened her mouth to call him out on lying about it or messing with her, but then she hummed and narrowed her eyes with a suspicious look. "Were you, looking for drugs at this rave?"

"Nice guess," Zach remarked back. Then he turned to the wall again and did another couple brush strokes before leaning down to get more paint on his brush. He wiped the brush on the edges of the inside of the bucket so it would not drip, and he gave Ashido a look while doing it like he was showing her what she should be doing before she got to waving around that paintbrush.

"Pssh," Ashido waved a hand at him and then noticed some paint on the side of it. She looked at it closely, the gears turning in her head as it was wet but smeared. Then she remembered rubbing it against her forehead, I thought that was more than sweat! The first time she wiped it, she still felt sweaty there afterwards but figured there was no getting around it.

"If we want to get this all done today, we're going to have to move a bit faster," Zach said, though he was putting his paintbrush down and pulling out a sleek black phone from his pocket.

Ashido glanced towards him while getting back to painting, (after making sure she got the paint off her face this time). "Maybe if someone wasn't messing with the aux every ten seconds."

"I haven't made a good playlist yet," Zach countered back. "But I'll set one now…"

The two of them continued to paint Zach's apartment for over twenty minutes after Zach started his new playlist. It was getting late outside, and Zach had his blinds opened to let a bit of light in actually, though he was also continuously keeping an eye on what was outside. As he painted, and listened to music, and watched out for assassins, Zach was also telling a story that had Ashido painting over the same spot again over and over as she was too unfocused to care about it anymore.

Zach brought both hands back from the wall and stretched his arms apart while describing how big the creature in his story was, but Ashido called out at him with a laugh, "There's no way!"

Zach nodded at her though, "It was an actual dragon. Not a guy with a dragon-type Quirk." Ashido hummed and nodded at him, though she rolled her eyes and looked back at the wall like she was going to focus on painting, as if that could happen. Her eyes shifted over to the corners as Zach continued, "And it was much bigger than Ryukyu. Bigger than the other ones I would see on those adventures."

"Other-" Ashido froze, and she flattened her lips and shook her head. Not going to buy it. Not buying it… Ashido's eyes grew huge as Zach gave her a look showing he was serious. "No way!" Ashido shouted at him. She swung her brush at him as she did to call out some disbelief, but when she swung it, some of the excess blue paint that she had not wiped off on the edge of the tub splashed off of her brush. Swinging her arm like that threw paint over across the gap between them and onto Zach's new white long-sleeved shirt that had his own hero name on the front of it.

Ashido gawked and covered her mouth with both hands at what she did. Zach looked down and saw a line of paint splotched diagonally over the middle of the 'LIFEBRINGER' and even had some blue dripping down from it. He lifted his head back up from it with a flat expression, and he looked to the girl who had her long-sleeves of her new pink shirt rolled up just like Zach's were. Ashido still had her hands over her mouth, partially looking apologetic for it, but also like she was seriously trying hard to hide laughter.

Zach lifted his head up more and he looked from her face back down to her shirt with 'PINKY' italicized in shiny silver letters over her breasts that his eyes lowered down to. Ashido's urge to smile vanished and she started staring with wide eyes at where Zach was looking. What is he- she started thinking, only to squeal as Zach grinned and swung his brush towards her. Ashido covered her face, but then she lowered her arms and looked down at her new shirt that now had a similar blue stain on it, though there was less there since Zach did not have as much excess on his brush. Ashido still stared in shock at the stain though, but as she rose back up her head it was only a crazy smirk that covered her face and not an upset look at all.

The music was blasting, the two of them were laughing, and paint flew as they started a paint fight out of nowhere. Zach grabbed his bucket and dove out of the way, turning the bucket as he rolled to keep it pointed up the whole time with no paint spilling out of it. Paint still did get on the carpet though as the last swing Ashido took at him completely missed. She gawked at the mess she just made on the floor after covering almost her whole brush in dripping paint before that swing, but she only had a second to be surprised before she had to spin and yelp in surprise as Zach popped up behind the armrest of his couch and sniped her with a carefully aimed paint slash. The blue got on her shirt, her arms, and on parts of the wall that she had actually missed before so technically they were still doing work.

Ashido covered her arms in some Acid when she saw Zach's grin at getting her with that paint, and the paint dripped right off as it could not stick to her slimy skin. Then she called out at Zach to move from the couch, since they had just put on a new couch cover that she picked out specifically and did not want to mess up. Zach did as she asked, though he was re-dipping his paintbrush as he did. Meanwhile, a Ray-V song turned on next on Zach's playlist, and the starting beat was one that Zach really liked and made him prefer this song over the rest of the rapper's. As he opened his mouth to call out the first line though, Ashido called out louder than him with the lyrics, and then splashed paint at him when she thought he was off-guard.

Zach could have dodged, but his place was getting over-painted enough as it was. Instead he acted more surprised as he got hit by the attack, and he asked with a laugh, "You listen to Ray-V?"

"I do?!" Ashido exclaimed back at him. "When did you start liking him?!"

"About the same time I went to one of his concerts-"

"You did not!" As Ashido shouted it, she saw too late Zach lifting his brush after catching her off guard. As she was hit by the paint though, all she could think about was whether or not he had just said that to get her with the paint or if he was for real. "Wait! Did you?" Zach just grinned at her, and Ashido shook her head, "Oooh," she put her brush back inside and started dipping in a frenzy. "There's no way!"

"That's what you said about the dragon too," Zach countered. "But both Ray-V and the dragons were definitely real."

"I know he's real!" Ashido countered quickly. "But did you really-"

"Now if I say I did, could you promise to not paint my face-"

"Gah! You did didn't you?!" Ashido knew it from the question alone, and Zach discovered that she would not have promised him that. Ashido was jealous, but only enough for one brush swing before she smiled again and started laughing at it all. He did way too much in a year, she thought, shaking her head as every conversation they had she felt like she was learning something new.

Zach lowered his arms that just got some more paint on them, though he did not block his shirt very well. He looked at Ashido for a few seconds, then he looked at her shirt and a bead of sweat started rolling down his face. He looked down at his own shirt next, his new white shirt that he really liked so he paid for it with it on, that way he could walk out of the store in it. Ashido saw him look down like that, and she looked at her own pink t-shirt that she had just bought earlier too and liked a similar amount. Both the Pinky and Lifebringer hero names were hard to read under the blue paint, not that the context clues of the showing parts of the letters and the people wearing them would make it hard for anyone to guess what they said. There were drops of blue all over Zach's white shirt, under his arms on his sides and even a few lines on his back and smears from when he bumped into the wall (which he now wondered if they had enough paint left to finish painting it).

Zach glanced down at the paint bucket on the floor next to him. Then he rose his gaze up to parts of a yellow wall, then shifted it over at Ashido who was looking around at quite the mess they made. The two of them looked into each other's eyes, still able to see how much paint they had gotten on the other's clothes. Music was still playing, but it felt quiet in there for a couple seconds before the two of them started laughing. Paint got everywhere, Zach thought, looking to his side for a second and seeing some on the underside of his half-built coffee table. Glad I didn't take the tv out of the box now. Zach stopped laughing as he saw Ashido settling down, and the two of them were panting and still half-chuckling while just smiling at each other.

"Well," Zach began. He looked around and at all the paint they got on his floor, "We've got some new work to do… and we didn't buy any cleaning supplies while we were at the mall."

"And we have to finish painting the walls!" Ashido reminded. She looked to the couch cover and frowned at the sight of some paint splotches on it too.

"We can flip it over," Zach said. "I think it works either way," Zach stepped to the couch, but then he paused and looked at his blue hands. His black glove was covered in as much paint as the skin of his left hand, but Zach was glad it was waterproof so he could just go wash his hands normally. "And I have a kitchen rag I can use for the floor," he mentioned when he looked over towards his kitchen sink.

Ashido wiped the wet paint on her right hand on her shirt and then pulled her phone out of her pocket. She checked the time real quick while Zach was facing away from her, then she looked around the room and hummed to herself with a thoughtful look over her face. Three hours, plus another two if I give Midnight a call… I bet. I'll have to sound really sorry that I stayed too long. Super sorry, the sarcastic voice in Ashido's head made her smile towards Zach's back, then she jogged over to the kitchen herself to wash her hands too.

Ashido grabbed a bath towel Zach had bought while out, saying they could toss it in the wash after they finished cleaning. Zach had grabbed the kitchen cloth and Ashido did not want to make him clean on his own. They flipped the couch cover, rubbed most of the paint into the carpet that they couldn't dab up, and they cleaned off the handles of the paint brushes as they were ready to not have to wash any more paint off their skin. Ashido had washed her hands instead of just making the paint slide off the second time because she realized that she was just going to make more work for them in a minute if she had.

As they were cleaning up the last areas where they had gotten too much paint on the ground, Zach glanced over at the girl helping him clean his floor down on her knees a few feet from him. The way she was kneeling like that with her head closest to him made her shirt dip down a bit and it was not a very tight shirt already. A lot of Ashido's cleavage was showing under the collar of her shirt, but Zach's eyes were lower than that and on the shirt itself as he stared at her. "Hey," Zach started, and Ashido rose her head, losing the frustrated frown as she scrubbed back and forth with a bath towel way too big for this job. "Sorry about your shirt," Zach said, nodding down to the nice shirt she had gotten and not let him pay for earlier. "I hope it doesn't stain," Zach added as she looked down at her pink, and blue, shirt herself.

There were blue paint marks all over the shirt that were still wet but starting to dry. Ashido smiled softly though while looking down, and she said, "I wouldn't mind if it did."

"Yeah, me neither," Zach agreed. Ashido snapped her head back up to him, but Zach was turned partially away and looking down at the carpet he was rubbing again and almost finished with.

Ashido had only thought about it for a second when she said she wouldn't mind if it stained, so she did not know what she expected Zach to say after it. She thought now though that she would have been less surprised if he had asked her why, or if he had offered to pay for it again, or something. The pink girl with Acid powers pursed her lips while looking at the side of Zach's head, her heart pounding in her chest as she thought about why he agreed without even needing to ask her why she didn't mind. Zach doesn't mind if his shirt stains either, because he, wants to remember this too. I want to remember this day. That moment. Ashido turned away again, lifting her left arm near her face and rubbing her eyes quick while making sure she wasn't facing Zach.

"We might run out of paint if we do that again though," Zach started. He leaned back and sat on his butt with a glance up at the wall in front of him. "And I'm thinking, half-blue and half-peach isn't a very good look for my place."

"Ugh," Ashido agreed, the idea of that coming off even worse to her than if they had left it in its gross palish state in the first place. Ashido found herself only glancing at the wall for a moment though, staring over at the side of Zach's head for much longer after her groan. Her heart rate slowed down again, and she shook her head with a small smile coming to her face as she watched him. "Hey, you want to hear something crazy?" Zach turned to his left and looked at the pink girl with longer wavy hair than she used to have, covering up more of her horns now and curling farther down below her chin on the sides. He nodded at Ashido who leaned in towards him and said in a whisper like she was gossiping, "At the end of last year, Momo got asked to U.A.'s prom by, one of the seniors."

Zach perked up in surprise and looked at Ashido in an interested way, and then he stood up and looked back at his wall. "Huh," he said. "Well, of course she did. She's beautiful and smart, and there are less girls than guys who go to U.A. statistically so second years going isn't very rare." Zach dipped his paintbrush in the almost empty bucket and reached up to get the top of his wall with at least one coating of paint before they were finished.

Ashido was getting excited though, more from the first interested expression on Zach's face than the follow up explanation. "She didn't go though," Ashido added. Zach turned to her and Ashido continued while turning back to the wall herself to paint the final area they had missed. "Momo told him no. I wound up going with him instead, and Momo just stayed home." With that last part, Ashido was also mentioning that it was not just the guy Yaoyorozu said no to but that she had not gone at all. Ashido pretended to be fully focused on the wall and like what she was saying was just some gossip she thought to tell him. Although that was not very convincing, Zach appeared not to care about what she was doing as he looked back at the wall and hummed in a thoughtful way. "Wonder why she said no?" Ashido said in a tone as if it were a complete mystery to her.

"Yeah," Zach said. "Was it fun?" He asked, looking back at the pink-haired girl who frowned for a moment that he was not going to fall for her bait and say something incriminating to her. She changed her expression though after a second and nodded, before excitedly telling him all about what the prom was like. She made sure to mention how students from other high schools had shown up there, though Zach showed less of a reaction this time as she said it which made her hum at him for hiding the excited feeling she knew he felt.

Zach cut off his music, since it was actually getting pretty late and he had seen a couple of people walking by the front windows of his apartment over to their door a little while ago. They finished up painting as quickly as they could, talking all the while about their lives over the past year and a half that the other did not know enough about yet. Zach leaned back on the top of his couch and looked around the main room of his apartment they just painted. There was no paint left over to go paint his bedroom that was the same color that the living room used to be, but it was enough for now. "You were right," Zach said as he and Ashido leaned back on the couch back together. "Blue is much better… though admittedly, anything would have been better than that-"

"I knew you noticed!" Ashido exclaimed at the boy who had acted like there was no problem with it when she first got there earlier.

Zach shrugged and laughed while turning away and towards his kitchen. "Want to eat dinner here?" He asked, glancing over his shoulder at his friend who looked his way in surprise at the question.

She thought about the state of his counter when he got there, and she asked with a wily look, "A cup of ramen isn't exactly…" Ashido stared at Zach in confusion, as when he was rounding the corner around his counter he gained a smirk at what she was saying to him. Ashido pushed off the couch and stepped towards the kitchen but stopped and gawked at him at what he started pulling out. "No way- did you have… wait a second- wait a-" Zach pulled out a plastic bag, with the name of a store she recognized from the mall they went to earlier. "When?! How?!"

Zach put a finger to his lips after she exclaimed that loudly while he was pretty sure his neighbors were all home. "While you were getting the paint, I suppose," Zach said with a shrug. "Anyway, it'll only take me twenty minutes or so to cook up a meal. It's a really good one-"

"Of course I'll stay!" Ashido called over, running up to the counter and leaning over it excitedly. "I didn't know you knew how to cook."

"Well I didn't cook often while I was gone," Zach began. He unloaded some meat and vegetables, then pried apart some plastic that he had new silverware inside of including a knife for cutting vegetables. Using his fingernails on the plastic was tough when one hand was covered in a glove, so Zach put his left hand down into his waistband for a second and pulled out a different knife he already had on him. The thin black switchblade popped the knife part out and Zach quickly slid it along the edge of the plastic to get his utensils out easier. He pressed a button on the knife hilt that pulled the blade right back in, then he tucked it back into his waistband and in a special pouch just inside that kept it from falling. Zach continued after making that quick movement, "I knew it was a good skill to learn though, and this was definitely the recipe to remember if I needed to know one. I got it from the mystical land of Doitslandia."

"Really?" Ashido asked. She hummed at Zach and rose her eyebrows up, and Zach lifted his gaze and met hers.

He looked her in the eyes for a few moments and then rose his eyes up to the ceiling. "Well… maybe it was Germany. One of the two." Ashido's bottom lip dropped as he went back on it like that so easily, though then she sweatdropped as she thought about the name of that fake kingdom and realized it sounded a lot like Germany (doitsu in Japanese).

The pink girl shook her head at the boy cooking for her, then she asked while putting her arms folded down on the counter and leaning forward over them, "What were you doing there?"

"Same thing I did everywhere else," Zach replied. He turned and walked over to his stove for a second, continuing to cook the meal he had not described to Ashido yet but that she was watching him make almost as closely as she was listening to him. "Vigilantism." He pushed some chopped veggies into a pot of boiling water using the knife he chopped them with, then dragged the knife along the edge of the cutting board to get off the last bits sticking to it. "I know you heard I was in Germany at one point, but I actually went a couple of times. The time I went for cooking classes though was by far the hardest…" Zach started describing a story about the journey he went on to learn about this amazing recipe, which was a cool story that had Ashido laughing and clutching at her stomach at parts of it.

"What are you even- ah haha, what are you talking about?" Ashido asked through her laughter at one point. She shook her head but Zach gave her a look like he was being completely serious which just made her laugh harder. He lifted his lips into a small smile too after a few seconds of her just laughing at him. "Maybe it was the magical land of Doitslandia after all, because there's no way you went on a 'quest for the key ingredient' while the whole world was looking for you!"

Zach nodded with a tilt of his head to the side. His smile lowered back down though, and he looked away to the other side of the kitchen to do something about the meal while facing away from Ashido. I need to think more about what I'm going to tell her in advance. Zach would freely talk to her without worrying about lying unless it was about something important, or something she might tell people. She might tell anyone anything though, unless I ask her not to go spreading rumors. I've already said so much though that I did want her to spread around, or that I made sure would be better if she did tell the others. I could make it clear she shouldn't go around talking about things I say. Zach wouldn't have just come out and told her either. The person she knew, is the one she still thinks she knows. That's who I am now though. Truth can help then, more than lying could.

"Thing is," Zach started, while checking on the stew he was making with a plastic spoon he just bought. He blew on it a couple times and sipped to see how it tasted, then he grabbed the salt shaker next to his stove and shook a little more into the pot. "It would've been hard for me to do that 'quest' here while everyone was looking for me, but more people were actually looking for me in Terra." Ashido lowered her lips down a little, a somewhat confused look on her face as she did not know whether or not it really was Germany he got the recipe from. What he said distracted her more though, and she tensed up at the look on the side of his face as he stirred the pot.

Zach turned off the stove and he got to work finishing up his meal. "Oh! I'll set the table," Ashido said, running around the counter to get in the kitchen and closer to Zach. "Never had a boy make me a home-cooked meal before," Ashido joked with a playful elbow into Zach's side as she came up near the stove.

She reached for the tasting spoon Zach had used before, but he grabbed it first and shook his head. "I'll make you a bowl," Zach said, giving her a small grin when she pouted at not being able to taste it sooner.

Ashido sighed though and told him she was expecting greatness now after he had hyped it up so much. She got some of the new silverware Zach had out on the counter and brought it over to the kitchen table, and when she turned around she stared in surprise as Zach was already walking over with two bowls full of the stew-like dish. "That was-" she began, but she was too confused and looked back over at the pot and then the bowls again that Zach filled up so quickly while she was turned around.

The wavy-haired girl frowned and she moved for her seat, giving Zach a suspicious eye at how quickly he filled their dishes. She was also wondering about where the recipe was from, but out of all they were just talking about there was one thing tugging at her the most that she wanted to ask about. "How were more people looking for you in Terra?" Ashido asked. She sat down and turned her head to the side to look at him suspiciously, "The whole world was on the lookout for Lifebringer here."

"Yeah, and that world probably didn't have the population this one does," Zach admitted with a nod of agreement. "But I guess what I meant to say was, they were looking harder for me." He sat down but did not touch his spoon to start eating yet. In his peripheral vision he could see his front and back windows, around all the wet walls of his apartment, and down the narrow hall to his bathroom and bedroom. His eyes were locked on Ashido's black ones though and he continued at her confused look, "My enemies, always hunting me. It was safer in this world than in that one."

"But, even here," Ashido started.

"Maybe now," Zach replied to what she was starting to say. "But before I left, before all the villains in the world were terrorized by Death, and before everyone started saying that I was him, it was safer for me to be here. And still actually," Zach added, his voice getting softer. "That world was just… it's always safer in this world than that one."

I believe you. "Was that world, really so bad?" Ashido asked. Zach started to smile again and shake his head, but Ashido did not want to hear a fun story about dragons this time. Nor did she want to hear a quest for the ingredients for a great recipe, which neither her nor Zach had started eating yet. "You said there were always wars going on in that world, right?" Zach lowered the smile he was raising and closed his mouth, and Ashido pursed her lips at the dark look that flashed over his face at the question. I believe you, but you don't tell me- you never tell me the hard things. We talked all day about, about anti-heroes and your time in that world and this one but… but I saw your body. I saw… "Did you kill anyone else?"

Zach froze where he sat. His eyes had shifted down to his bowl at the mention of 'wars,' and he was waiting for Ashido to ask a more serious question. His heart pounded in his chest though, as it was not the question he was expecting and threw off the plans he had been making in his head. Keep staring at it like this and she'll know the answer! You have to answer fast if you want to be convincing! Zach's irises turned red as he stared at his bowl, as his mind suddenly needed to race with way more thoughts than he had time for when hesitating would mean one answer that he did not know if he wanted to go with. Say no! Quickly! The truth doesn't start with that and get easier, it'll only get worse and you have to build to it! If you ever say it, it has to be- Zach's eyes lost their red glow, his teeth unclenching behind his lips.

Ashido stared at the top of Zach's head and his forehead, then down into his eyes that became less shadowed over as he lifted them to her. Unshadowed or not, they were dark. His expression was not cold or angry or upset though, he just stared at her in a dark way and with sadness in his those hazel eyes. "I went to war," Zach replied, not the 'yes' or 'no' Ashido was expecting to hear when she asked. "But I…" Not "never," because there were times. "…fought most battles, without…" Saying "killing" here implies I did kill in those other ones. "…hurting anyone. Our goal wasn't to hurt the enemy's soldiers, because it was impossible to tell all of their stories. And some, I assumed, didn't choose to fight for the Arcasians of their own free will. Some weren't as bad as the worst soldiers in the Arcasian army. They weren't the types to go around slaughtering villages, raping the women and enslaving the young. Some were honorable. My enemies."

He never answered the question, Ashido thought, her own eyes darkening and lowering to her dinner for a second. "In a war, both sides are usually at fault," Ashido began. "War isn't the way to…" she trailed off, as she did not know enough about the situation to continue what she was saying. "On Earth at least," she continued, raising her eyes to Zach's and giving him a more stern look. "There isn't any reason why things can't be handled with diplomacy, or by heroes. I wish that world, could've fixed their problems without going to war."

"This world hasn't had a war in a long time," Zach said. "But there were times in our past too when war was inevitable. When one side was the clear aggressor."

"Yeah but," Ashido started. She frowned again but lowered her gaze as she tried to counter him on something she really did not know much about. She shook her head though and rose her eyes back up after that second, "Even the sides who thought they were right, even looking back now and saying they were probably in the right, both sides suffer in every war. Even the winning sides in our history who were so 'right' for fighting back, for going to war against the 'aggressors,' they never won without, becoming-"

"What their enemies were?" Zach asked. Ashido pursed her lips as he finished with what she did not want to say in such a harsh way. They could each think about their own history with that though. To Zach, it was something he held very close to heart. Something he had thought about a long time ago, when he put a picture of Hiroshima in 1945 on a wall in front of his closest comrades. Mark, Akhmed, Cee, Grabble, Access, Hank… So many who were in that room are dead. "You're right," Zach said, his voice low and his expression darker now. "But I knew that. I-" Zach bit down hard with his eyes unfocused down at the table. "And I was in charge," Zach continued, saying it in one breath and biting down again while Ashido stared at him with wider eyes.

"I knew the history of our world, so even fighting a war in a world like that. Even fighting a war against warriors, and soldiers, in a world where people knew combat and warfare differently than the way I wanted to do things… I knew that we might go too far. I knew that once we won, if we won, people would praise us for the way we did it. And for hundreds of years, people would look to the way we won and say 'It was worth it for the victory they obtained.' And I knew," Zach paused and grit his teeth so hard. He thought about being in the bottom of the Dragon's Den that day, a black sword in hand as his captured enemies were clustered in front of him. And he pictured himself stabbing that sword into the floor instead of the one who killed Cee, his friend who had just died in his arms. "I didn't want us to win like that," Zach finally said after the pause. "It was war, but I fought it trying to stay as heroic as I could-"

"That's amazing," Ashido said. Zach froze and his eyes widened for a moment, his teeth clenching that she interrupted him there. She did not notice that shift on his face though as he had looked down again, and it was a subtle flinch he made while Ashido was smiling too much and feeling too amazed to care. "I'm sure it must have been hard to fight like that. But it was the right thing to do."

"Yeah, it was…" Zach's voice was low and it made the girl's smile slowly lower too. "But there were times," Zach paused and he lifted his gaze to meet Ashido's again. "There were times when my soldiers' lives were on the line, or the lives of innocents… or my own life. I couldn't risk them, just to play by the-" Zach shook his head, and he looked away to the wall on his right side just next to his fridge. His answers were vague, and he knew it but couldn't think of a better way to answer her question. He stared at the wall because it was easier than looking at Ashido's face, so much hope in her eyes that he would not give her reasons to doubt him. He didn't want to watch that face too closely and just kept it in the corners of his eyes instead, so he wouldn't be focused on it with his whole heart if it did lose that hope. He spoke in a far-off voice though, as his main focus pushed from Ashido to what he was going to tell her about. "Quirk warfare, has never existed in this world. We were too advanced already by the time Quirks spread around the world, and even in that chaotic time afterwards, we never had real wars."

Ashido opened her mouth to mention how fighting villains was itself like war, as she thought back on a few of the fights she had had over the past years. She specifically thought about a fight she had had in Musutafu the previous January when villain attacks were at near an all-time high. The chaos of the battle against the Stain Cult filled her mind, as much of it as she could remember at least before she had been hit. Grater, her right side ached, and she frowned more instead of speaking. I was so convinced I would be alright. That day, even if I had died… but you were, you were out killing more people? If you were leading then I thought, maybe, it wasn't what I knew war meant-

"But you can't imagine what it's like, fighting tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands…" Zach shook his head, and images flashed in front of his eyes as he continued staring away to his right. Everything got blurry and his voice got colder, darker, "In cities and on fields…" In front of Zach's eyes flashed a field, in the middle of Tibet. In front of him stood thousands, behind him was the flaming wreckage of The Cloak, and below him was a pile of bodies. The sky was dark and bending, mountains were rising and breaking apart, cracks splitting through the earth around him. And as he pictured those things his mouth started moving, "The entire landscape ripping apart and burning. People dropping like flies and their bodies lying everywhere."

Ashido's breath caught in her throat and she was stuck not breathing with her eyes shaking as she stared at the scar-covered boy across the table from her. "And no matter how many wounds we sustained, no matter how many thousands of enemies ambushed us, we couldn't run away. I wouldn't let us," Zach bit down furiously at that last sentence. His eyes shook and he heard screams in his ears. When the communications finally came back up after the EMP, Zach could hear his comrades all over that battlefield they had turned into pure chaos. "My men fought for me. They were willing to die for me, for my cause, for the chance to make that world a better place and defeat the Queen." Zach's jaw clenched up and he said in a voice full of regret, and pain, "How could I go so easy on my enemies, while my comrades were being killed around me?"

"Because you're a good person," Ashido cut in, before Zach could scold himself any more for what she thought was the right thing. She leaned forward when he rose his gaze to hers again, and Ashido panted for another second as before she said that to him she had been holding her breath for too long. "And, I know, you did what was right. What you thought was right!"

That's not true though, Zach thought, his eyes looking painfully back at Ashido. I did the opposite, so often. What I thought was wrong. I did what I knew was wrong, as long as it could make for a better future. She wouldn't understand that. Don't try to explain it. She's already trying, so hard. "But being the right person was hard, in a war like that," Zach continued. He kept his eyes on Ashido this time, as he continued, "I decided that we couldn't run even in the most hopeless situations, and I also decided that we needed to fight more like the 'good guys.'" As often as possible. "But if I was going to be so greedy, demand so much from all my comrades, then I had to be able to protect them. So I became a master of Quirk warfare."

Ashido almost smiled at the sound of that. She leaned back and her lips almost lifted up at the corners, but Zach was not bragging to her in a joking way like she thought he was. The shift in tone was not to a jokingly serious one instead of a dark one, it was just serious. He sounded serious, more serious than he had sounded all day. "Strategy, maneuvers, flanking patterns and decoys, relationships between our enemies, knowing who could be used against who… And in the actual fighting itself, there were so many weapons I needed to be prepared to fight against. So many ways our enemies could fight, that I needed to be ready for. Spear and shield, sword and bow, ax and mace, fire Quirks and ice Quirks, control over lightning and wind, sludge and lava… blood and dreams… bending time, and space… and reality… dimensions." Zach's right hand was on the edge of the table, clenching down hard on it the whole time he was speaking. As he mentioned the word 'dimensions' though, his index and middle fingers lifted up and tapped down, then lifted up again and tapped.

Zach did not notice his fingers started tapping. He barely noticed that voice in the back of his head either, the one that started counting softly behind the rest of his thoughts. Ashido saw him tapping though, his face losing all focus and his concentration shattering. Then Zach's eyes looked down at his fingers though, because he heard the counting and felt his fingers moving. He froze with them lifted up off the table, his eyes huge staring down at them with his heart beating so calmly despite what he realized he was doing.

"What's the coolest Quirk you saw?" Ashido asked. Zach lifted his head back up and looked at the girl who he just listed off so many different powers to, some that definitely required more explaining. His right hand lowered off the table and he hummed, his expression completely changing as he tried to think of it. Ashido's expression had changed before she asked, but her heart was still pounding in her chest and she could only hide the pained look he never saw on her face. I just needed to dislodge him, Ashido thought, which immediately confused her as to her own phrasing of 'dislodge.' Her heart just thumped in her chest harder though, at the genuine look on his face a few seconds ago of being completely lost. From what was he just dislodged?

"I haven't told you about Docy, have I?" Zach asked, lifting the right corner of his lips in a knowing look that he had not told her already. He reached for his spoon as he smirked like that, and he started talking all about the leprechaun he met in Terra which dislodged Ashido's own conflicted thoughts as she got dumbstruck instead. Then she was distracted further as she finally ate some of Zach's dinner and shouted that it was great, eating more quicker while still focusing on the story of the leprechaun. Zach decided to leave out some of the parts about the horrible history of leprechauns that he had told his prison guards though, instead staying vague with Docy's past and instead going much more in depth on the amazing dimension that Docy dragged him and Fraisha into once.

"You mentioned Fraisha earlier too," Ashido cut in when Zach was talking to some crazy thing that happened to his comrade in Docy's pocket dimension. "You seem to have spent a lot of time with her, hmm?"

"Yeah, I did," Zach replied, shrugging like it was no big deal even though he saw what Ashido was hinting at. He sighed and shook his head at her expectant look, and he said, "She was into me, but we had a war to fight. She understood that, and we never did anything."

Ashido frowned like Zach's story was boring then, but internally she smiled at the idea of it even if he did not give the reasoning that she would have liked better. "But she was a girl you were close with, right? There must have been some feelings there," Ashido hinted at it harder again, bouncing her eyebrows and taking another bite of his food while grinning at him.

Zach rolled his eyes at Ashido and continued away at his own food, not going to let her bait him into anything here. He brought the mood of their conversation back up though, talking about stories that were clearly more light-hearted and that he would have no problem with her going around and telling other people about. Zach got back to talking about the food, and then the journey he went on in Doitslandia that Ashido asked about in an interested way now that they had darted around the topic so many times. Zach kept the information about his recipe to a minimum, as he had already admitted earlier that it could have been in Germany and he was just mistaken, as much of a joke as that had been. He could tell she was still thinking of it as he talked though, as if checking on his story, and so his tale of Doitslandia stayed a lot more on fighting against one of the Queen's Generals.

"…and when I'm talking a Gigantism Quirk, I'm not talking Mt. Lady size. I didn't know how big he could get, but I kept telling myself it was better if he got even bigger because it would be an easier target to hit with some Death. Apparently I needed a lot more Death to take down something that size though, which I wish I had known beforehand-"

Brring-ding ding doo. Brring-ding ding dee. Brring-ding ding doo. Brring-ding ding dee. Brring-ding d- Ashido pulled out her phone and she grimaced as she turned off her alarm. She looked back at Zach and then shook her head saying, "It's nothing. How'd you beat him if-"

"Do you, have to go back?" Zach asked. Don't want her getting in trouble, or they might not let her come out again. You should think ahead more often, Zach kept that bit to himself but from Ashido's hesitation he knew he was right.

"I can probably stay longer," Ashido began to counter back. "Besides, I want to hear the rest of your story! Even if you beat him, the rest of his army was still guarding that city and the POW camp, right? How'd you do it?"

"I'll tell you," Zach began. He pushed back from his table and stood up. He reached down and grabbed their empty dishes, as they had been finished for a while now which neither of them noticed as they had been to into the conversation. Ashido started to frown as she felt like he was going to finish with 'some other time.' Zach continued though as he headed over to his sink, "On the way to U.A." He glanced over his shoulder as he said it, and he added to the surprised girl staring at his back, "Just because you have to be back at a certain time, doesn't mean I need to be here when that comes."

"Are you sure?" Ashido asked, though she was smiling and did not sound very against it.

Zach nodded again while looking down into his sink, a small smile on his face as he poured water into their dishes. Ashido came over with some of their silverware and their water cups, and she put them in the sink while standing right up on Zach's side. "I'm glad," she said, her voice quiet as she mentioned it. Then she rose a bigger smile and added, "Because now you can finish that story, and tell me what you did once you beat General Yurniko."

"Yuriniko," Zach corrected, still grinning as he continued to wash his dishes. "And I don't know if I'll get that far. Defeating him was no easy task, and the time it took us to recover from it meant his forces had more time to prepare. Enough time, that his lieutenants were able to pick one to lead them and spearhead the defense of their position…"

Zach told Ashido a story. He told her it through their cleaning up after dinner, and he continued as they got on their jackets and gloves and hats. It was already dark out. It was winter so it got dark early, but they had also been hanging out for a long time, longer than it felt to either of them. The two headed outside and down to the street they walked on at a leisurely pace towards the train station. Ashido was already planning on being late, so she was fine with taking her time now that she knew she would probably make it when she was supposed to.

Zach had on a hat that covered his hair still a bit spiky from when he did it that morning. He had on two matching gloves now, so no attention would be drawn to his hands either. His jacket's collar covered up most of his neck, and in the dark it was not so easy for other passerbys to see scars on Zach's face and recognize instantly the biggest celebrity in the nation. There was one group walking past them on the sidewalk to the train station though who recognized Ashido and called out excitedly that they heard she was with Lifebringer earlier that day. Zach then greeted the group who were somehow shocked that the one walking with her actually was Lifebringer even after they just shouted it, though it sounded a bit to the younger two that the group might've pre-gamed and were on the way to a bar.

They continued on to the train station, with Ashido reminding Zach where he was in the story. That interruption was one of the few times she was not happy with people recognizing her outside of school, and she rushed the conversation with that group despite the time she had as she wanted to know what happened next in Zach's epic battle against General Yuriniko's army. "…it was one of the first times I used this strategy that I would utilize again during the Battle of the Six Armies. They didn't know my men were already inside their walls until it was too late, and the sabotage was complete-"

"What's the Battle of the Six Armies?" Ashido asked curiously, tilting her head to the side as she had not heard him mention that name before. The name alone made her feel a bit anxious, but his look after she asked made her gulp at his expression.

"It was," Zach began. He glanced to his side at her, and then he looked back forward and said, "It was the largest battle of the war. All the Queen's strongest remaining forces came at me at once. She still had a lot of armies left, but she knew if I was allowed to keep fighting using my tactics for any longer that I would defeat her for sure. So she sent them on the offensive, and we met in an open field for the most devastating battle of the war. It was almost, the crushing blow. But we held on," Zach continued, his voice strong as he told the story with his eyes shifting to the girl next to him. How will she think of me talking about this? How would she mention it to other people? Zombieman- What is Ashido thinking right now- Slipspa- Focus!

"After that battle though, it was a clear shot at the Queen's capital. We were already on the border of actual Arcasia, the original kingdom that existed before the Doorway girl took over as Queen and started expanding all across Terra…"

Ashido nodded and got back into the story herself, enjoying it more when he talked about them like epic tales than the few moments he would get too serious. They got to the station, and the two of them got tickets for the shinkansen (bullet train) back to Musutafu. It was a little after rush hour, but the train was still plenty packed. Ashido and Zach still found a pair of seats next to each other though, and Ashido gave Zach the window seat since she did not want other people around the train to see him and start talking, which would interrupt the two of them.

Two and a half hours flew by, and the two of them got off the train together at Musutafu's shinkansen station. Ashido ran up to an electronic board after disembarking, and she checked the times of the next trains before turning back to the boy who had come with her all the way from Yutapu. "Next train back's in ten minutes."

"There's another in thirty," Zach countered, and he motioned with a nod towards the exit of the station he knew well. Ashido smiled for a second before opening her mouth to say that he didn't need to walk with her all the way back. Zach spoke up first though and turned to start walking as he did, "What kind of gentleman would I be if I let you walk home alone at the end of our date?"

"This wasn't a date!" Ashido exclaimed as she ran up on Zach's side.

Zach glanced to his left and saw the pout covering Ashido's face, and he knew why she was so against him calling it that. Same reason she brought up the prom earlier. You really, want it to happen. Things won't just go back though. As much as you want them to be the same, Zach shrugged at the girl next to him and kept smiling like he used to when the two of them were together. Not everyone can forgive and forget that easily. I'm sure, even you have things you're holding back right now. "I'm sure that's not how the tabloids are going to see it," Zach countered.

"Uggh," Ashido groaned. Zach feigned a hurt look that she would be so annoyed by that, but Ashido pouted at him and complained, "Now all the cute boys are going to avoid me. Who wants to try anything with Lifebringer's girlfriend? You're going to scare them all away!"

Zach laughed at her reasoning, and Ashido started laughing too after a second as she was just joking with him. As much as it sounded realistic and might actually be true, she laughed because if that happened it wouldn't matter much if that was all the cost of being able to hang out with Zach.

The two of them went out on the street and walked together in the direction of U.A. Zach's feet felt heavier the closer they got to the high school, and when it actually became visible a few blocks down when they turned a corner, he stopped for a second and took a sharp intake of breath. There were still cars on the road, and some people on the sidewalks too, but no one was looking for Lifebringer in the middle of Musutafu when the news had already made it known across the country where he was going to start school in a few days. There it is, Zach thought, at the sight of U.A.'s front gates still so far away but closer than he had ever thought to see them again.

"Brings back some memories, doesn't it?" Ashido asked after Zach paused like that.

He nodded and started walking forward again, but the mood of their conversation had gotten a little heavier since they got off the train. There was a strange feeling they both felt with him being so close to U.A. again. Zach stared towards his old high school and in his head he saw the place from the other side, when the bus snuck out to take their class to the Enudora Forest. That last look over his shoulder had echoed in his mind for a long time, and every time he thought about it… That was the last time. That was, the last time I ever thought I would see this place. I never thought I'd be back here. Even just this close to campus. Within shouting distance. I don't think I should get any closer.

"I had fun today," Zach began quietly.

"Oh just a little further," Ashido said, waving a hand to the side at him that he was saying that too early. The times before she was the one offering up for him to break off earlier, but now that he was so close, she had an optimistic feeling surging in her chest that was wavering now. "You know," she spun around and kept walking backwards on the sidewalk in front of Zach. "I bet we could get you a pass inside for a little. I don't know, thirty minutes?" Zach kept walking slowly, his eyes raising over Ashido's head and to the gates behind her and the school past it. "You said you didn't need to be back at any specific time, and there are circumstances where people outside of U.A. can get passes, and-"

"Not today," Zach said, shaking his head at the girl in front of him who stopped walking backwards and lowered her smile down at his response.

But if not today, Ashido thought, her heart racing faster and her head turning to follow Zach as he walked back up on her side. Then when?

"Zach," Ashido began as he walked past her. She spoke softly, but her tone had Zach staring farther away and not wanting to look back at her. "All day," Ashido continued, then she held her tongue and cursed internally as she looked at the back of Zach's head. It was fun! I had fun… Why can't things just, be like that? It's because, because a relationship like that is just so, fake. "We spent all day together, and I still don't feel like-" Zach turned his head and looked back into her eyes. Ashido shook her head and ground her teeth, her eyes regretful despite the fact that she was going to push on with this. "I don't know anything. You didn't tell me, anything."

"I did," Zach whispered, looking sadly back at the girl who he had been talking to all day. Does she not believe any of it? Was I wrong all day? It felt like she was retaining it and thought I was being real. I got too comfortable around her though. I need her to know. The things she was holding back, she couldn't last. She couldn't just be the one person to not care. "All of it was real," Zach said to the girl who pursed her lips hard at the response.

"You don't need, to pretend that much with me," Ashido countered. Zach just kept frowning sadly like he was upset that she did not believe his truth, and that made Ashido grind her teeth for a second before getting a sadder look herself. "I know, Zach. I'm not as ditzy and dumb and you think-"

"I don't think you are," Zach said firmly, frowning more at her and giving her as serious a look as he could.

Ashido froze for a second with her mouth still open, not expecting him to counter her so forcefully. His expression was serious too, which just made her grumble in even more frustration as she believed the look, and she believed he didn't think of her like that. "Then don't treat me like I am," she whispered. She lowered her gaze for a moment down to his feet, and she said through a strained voice, "I saw you. All of you, that day on the bridge." She rose her eyes back to meet his, and she shook her head at his steady look despite what she was imagining under his clothes. "I saw wounds and scars so horrible, and I believe it when you mentioned at the hospital that you had to wear a collar for a time."

She, isn't asking about-

"And all those stories today," Ashido began. She shook her head and stepped closer to the boy next to her on the empty sidewalk. She looked up at his face from up close and whispered quieter but in a strong voice, "I do believe you. The things you were saying, I believe you were telling me the truth. But it's never the full truth. It's never real." Zach's eyes widened while looking down into Ashido's, and she continued up at him as she saw that change. "When you omit all the bad, when you pretend like those stories were all fun adventures," Ashido scrunched up her face and glared into his eyes. "Do you really think I couldn't handle hearing them?" She asked, then her scrunched up look turned less accusatory, and Zach's eyes widened even more at the water in the bottom of hers. "Were they all really, that bad? That you had to spend all day talking about the good parts, leaving out everything that matters-"

"I didn't know, you realized," Zach whispered. Ashido froze and her eyes shot open wide. She did not even realize before she started speaking what she was going to say, and when it all came pouring out she had not thought much about any of it before. Even when he had told her the stories, she had preferred to just move right past it whenever she noticed. "I should have left in a little more, to make it more believable."

When you got so serious, Ashido thought as she saw Zach's regretful look that he was caught. His eyes shifted to the floor, and she pursed her dried lips again in the cold winter air. And when you talked about the bad things that happened, how it was really "war" and not just fighting villains, I could see it. As many of the details were skewed to make it less dark for me though, you weren't lying.

"The story in Doitslandia, just wasn't as fun a story if it wasn't the crazy, funny adventure I told you about." Zach paused after looking back into Ashido's eyes. He glanced to his right over at U.A. that they were so close to, and his face scrunched up himself with a look like he needed to hold back more.

"Everyone wants to hear about what really happened," Ashido whispered, making Zach spin back to her and his face to just get more held-back at that response. "But," Ashido continued. "For whatever reason you want to keep hiding things, I won't go around telling them what we talked about. I'll keep it to myself."

"General Yuriniko, captured a bunch of my comrades," Zach started. Ashido froze in confusion for a second before lowering her bottom lip as Zach continued, "My enemies never knew much about us, so they tortured my friends for information. My comrades knew I could bring them back if I got there in time, but to give me more time they had to hold out as long as possible. I don't know if that was more incentive not to get killed, or if the idea I was coming made them just want to die quicker, but they were butchered and couldn't hold back the information they knew. Not all of it at least. No matter how brave, no one can withstand torture forever." Zach paused for a second, but then he continued to the girl who wanted to know more about this, "Each time I brought one of them back, I felt all of that torture. Six of my comrades at once, all killed brutally. The General killed others in the meantime, and he was able to avoid us because of the information he had gotten out of them. Before we had his forces cornered in that city, before that fight, he put an entire village to the sword. And I was too late, because he knew our positions… I could have gone after him from the start. When we found those six dead comrades, I knew Yuriniko had just fled. I didn't send anyone after him though. Because I needed to stay back to revive our friends, and I didn't want my comrades to go without me there to protect them or revive them if needed."

Zach paused and he grit his teeth in so much frustration that it was hard for Ashido to look at. She leaned back at that look on his face, as he hissed out through clenched teeth, "We had to walk over those bodies, to get to Yuriniko. Literally walk past them… and I knew each of those innocent people died because I was too slow. I took too much time to get to him. People die when I was too slow. Children," Zach whispered at the end and he pulled his own face back with regret filling his expression. "Not killing Yuriniko was hard," Zach whispered. "But he and his men needed to face trial for their war crimes. I knew that, but he deserved to die. It wasn't up to me to deliver justice to the enemies I defeated though. I left that to others. I left him to others, because I needed to get moving to the next enemy before they killed anyone else. I needed to be faster… but I was never fast enough, and thousands of innocent people died in that war. Tens of thousands died, because I wasn't fast enough in stopping them all."

"It's not your…" Ashido began. Zach stared into her eyes and Ashido's got so much softer though she held back any tears. She just looked sadly up into Zach's eyes, knowing she had failed because her expression gave away how she was feeling. She knew the way she looked now, was the reason Zach had kept his mouth shut about this all day. As much as she wanted to hide it though, she was not very good at masking how she was feeling. "Was everything that year, always this dark?"

Zach's lips rose back up at the corners and he said, "It wasn't." She stared into his eyes in surprise, at the genuine smile and happy look on his face. "Fraisha, Docy, Vucre, Iranda, all my comrades I told you about, the friends I made, they were real too. Even in a world that dark, you need friends to keep pushing forward and to keep pushing you forward. And we did good. I'm sure the good we did, is making it so that so many people are living happily in that world. And if they can be happy because of me, then I'm glad I had to see those bad things if that's what got me there. I don't regret anything that happened before either now. As sorry as I am for some of it, everything I did brought me to the place where I could save the most people."

Ashido smiled brightly at her taller friend, "I'm really happy." Zach looked into her black and yellow eyes, and Ashido continued in a quiet voice, "After the 'Lifebringer Incident,' I got real sad for a while. I pretended like I was okay with it, that I was happy because you weren't… I don't know. But I was sadder than anyone actually, because I never knew how hard you had taken everything." Zach's eyes got softer as the girl in front of him shook her head to try and hold those tears back.

"I was never able to help you," Ashido said, her voice cracking for a second before she sucked in a deep breath to get ahold of herself. She looked back at him with a soft smile again and added after taking that breath break, "I know Kirishima felt the same way." Zach turned his head to the right again to look over at U.A.'s gates. "You should talk to him," Ashido added.

Zach nodded his head. "I will."

"I wish I had noticed back then," Ashido continued, her voice dipping back down which made Zach turn to her again. "Wish I could have helped you before that day, before you suddenly left us." Ashido sniffled in and lowered her eyes to the floor as she was speaking about the thing she regretted the most in her entire life. "But I didn't see anything wrong- we were close and yet I-"

Zach's right hand pressed down on top of Ashido's head. His glove no longer had a way for his fingers to even slide out of the fingers, and Zach preferred to use his right hand as he put the soft contact on top of her hair. "It's alright," Zach said. Ashido rose her head, bringing her hands up for a second to move his hand away before seeing that it was his right hand which made her eyes open wide. She sniffled after though, an even sadder look over her face and her arms dropping back to her sides. Zach's look softened more and he pushed down on the front of Ashido's hair before saying in a lower voice, "It's no one's fault but my own, what I did. You have nothing to be sorry for." Ashido sniffled again and tried to shake her head, but Zach slid his gloved hand down to the left side of her face which kept it more facing forward.

Ashido looked up between messy waves of her pink hair and into Zach's eyes. She sniffled again and opened her mouth, but froze with it like that as he continued, "I heard all about Pinky while I was abroad. Saving people and being a cool hero, taking down the Verillio crime family from Brazil."

Ashido pulled her head back and stared at Zach in shock for a second, only to see him meeting her eyes with no hesitation in what he just said. He really was… Ashido's lips started to shake. "Not to mention the Riot shipment you and Midnight stopped at that port, keeping that drug out of Japan." Ashido's eyes started watering up more, Checking up on us, the whole time- "I left because I felt I needed to. Nothing you said could have stopped me. So I don't want you to feel like you messed up at all, when you've been an amazing hero all this time. Going to school, and doing things the right way, and fighting villains like… Grater."

Zach said that name after hesitating for a second, but he finished and kept his look steady even as all the breath in Ashido's lungs sucked out. She was frozen and unable to breathe, her eyes shaking at what he said which she understood, and which he could understand her expression over hearing. It wasn't even made public, which of the villains did that to me. She thought back on that fight last January against the Stain Cult, where Ashido had been hurt worse than any of the others heroes who survived. She remembered a blurry moment after getting hit, how unafraid she was even when Yaoyorozu looked at her in terror at what might be coming. I thought it would be fine even if I died, but then we saw that recording of you in some convenience store in America and… and I didn't know why, I was so confident that-

"I would have been back in a heartbeat, if I heard you were dying," Zach replied to the expression on Ashido's face, making her finally gasp in as he said something she had doubted for a year now. Where he was didn't matter, how far didn't matter, she had no idea how he knew that it was the Grater, but he knew too much that he had to have been watching. "I never stopped caring about all of you. The 'goodbye' was so you wouldn't come looking, not because I really meant it. We'll always be friends. 'Til the end, okay?" Zach's voice got softer, while Ashido was sniffling more and had tears running down both sides of her face. She gasped in as the tears dropped, looking up at Zach's face finding it hard to breathe and choking in breath after breath while watching his face with blurry vision. Zach lowered his head down to hers and he put his forehead down on hers, resting them together in a way that made Ashido gasp in again, only to sob as he whispered, "Mina?"

Ashido felt warmth through her body as he called her by her first name, just like he used to. "Mm!" She hummed affirmatively in response, unable to actually make out words as she knew her voice would crack. Tears spilled down her face and right over the smile that spread over it.

Oh no, Zach pulled his forehead back from Mina and he smiled back at the girl who sucked in a deep breath to keep control of herself. She looked happily back at him and even laughed at the water she saw in his own eyes, and Zach rose up his right arm and wiped over those eyes giving her a laugh himself. Shit. I missed you, Zach lowered his arm and laughed a couple more times, before just standing there and staring at the pink girl before him. "Well, I think you need to be heading back. And I've got to get back too," Zach added after when Ashido opened her mouth quickly to respond with something.

She hesitated with pursed lips again, but then the smile re-broke out over her face and she wiped her eyes and face quickly with a sleeve. Ashido nodded at him but leaned forward with a bouncy expression on her face, "Alright. I'm sad you're not back in our class, but I'm going to be coming by a lot." She poked a finger into his chest and then spun around away from him, though she looked over her shoulder and finished, "So you better be ready."

Zach looked back at her in a glad way, and he said to the girl looking back at him, "See you soon then."

Ashido continued towards the gate of U.A., looking back forward with a satisfied smile before letting the glee cover her face. Zach watched her go and kept his expression in a good mood that would keep Ashido's if she looked back again, and he watched her closely as she headed towards his old high school. Almost there. All you fuckers, you mother fuckers watch yourselves- but I'm not going to be here next time. The next time she walks out of this school, I'm not going to be here. In a few seconds, just a few more, Zach lifted a hand and waved when Ashido looked back from the gate, and she laughed and waved him back before heading inside for the main office to sign back in.

Once Ashido was out of sight, Zach's expression dropped. His beanie shadowed over his eyes with bangs being pushed down by it instead of spiking up as usual. Zach's eyes shifted to the left side of the road, then the right, and his teeth clenched in fury. What the fuck was I doing? What was I thinking?! Zach turned and walked calmly towards an alleyway between two buildings. Walking around all day with her?! Everyone saw. And, and holding her right there, I really missed her! I missed her so fucking- AND THEY KNOW! Zach stepped into the shadows of the alley and his body immediately covered in a veil of pitch darkness.

A black aura covered his body, and then a black blur shot up over the tops of the buildings on either side of the alley. Zach flew up high over the buildings before flapping two huge black wings out to his sides. He flapped them down and kept himself up there, flying in the sky over his hometown with a look of rage plastered over his black face. Look at me! Zach's red eyes glared down over the rooftops and all around the area of the city he was just standing. I was stupid. I knew I'd be putting people in danger coming here. I knew, it would put the people closest to me in danger, but they accept that danger because my friends are heroes. But… If you go after Mina I'm going to SLAUGHTER you! No- not slaughter.

Zach's red eyes flared and he snapped his head back and forth. Look at me now. Whether you're heroes or villains. All of you, watching me. Everyone coming after me for whatever reasons. If you go after her… you can't imagine the things I will do to you. If you think I'm who you think I am, then look at me right now and know this. I could imagine horrible things before I left here, worse things than most of you, but I saw things out there beyond my wildest imagination. I will do to you, worse things than the worst things I've seen in this world. Zach's fists clenched at his sides and his red eyes focused over U.A.'s walls, towards a figure heading back towards her dorm on the U.A. campus.

I shouldn't have said anything about Grater. That was stupid. She was too happy though, to even care about the timeline. Why did I tell her though? That was so stupid! I knew though. I knew then, she would think that I was going to bring her back to life. What if she got so hurt in that fight against the Stain Cult, because she knew I was going to bring her back? Or what if… she had just died? Zach's red eyes flared and he kept staring towards the girl in the distance he felt his whole body so tensed in fear over, just like it was a year ago. Rebel hacked the hospital's systems, and I knew the exact situation. I knew you were in critical condition, and I- I wouldn't leave this part of Asia for days. I messed up our plans. I kept fighting during that time, but it would have been more efficient if I could have gone everywhere else. I wouldn't leave though. I knew it was selfish. I was putting your life over the lives of others, and you're a hero so even more I shouldn't have- but I'm just human. I had all that power, and I used it selfishly because I wouldn't have let you die.

I still won't let you die.

All of you watching me. Anyone with their eyes on me right now, or even those of you just thinking about it… Know me. Know that I am who you think I am, and if you try to go through Ashido to get to me, I'll rip you to fucking pieces. The black aura flared around Zach, and he flapped himself higher up into the sky, his wings getting larger and his body transforming into that of a massive flying beast. I am the most powerful thing in this world, and I can do to you worse things than you can think of. If I am who you think I am, you know that I've seen the worst of this world. You know, that I'm a fucking monster. And if it comes to it, and you go after the ones I care about again, this time there will be nothing holding me back… I'll destroy you. I'll kill you. I'll drown you in your own blood. You touch her, or Momo, or any of them, and it's over. I'm the strongest in the world! TRY SOMETHING! Try it and I'll tear you asunder. I am a vengeful Death. I AM DEATH. I AM YOUR END!

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A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and next time Zach finally heads off to his new school. Hope you're looking forward to that! Let me know what you think of this chapter in a review below. I know there wasn't much action, lots of fluff, just a nice day between Zach and Mina. Time to push forward though... Review responses:

QuestingforBitches chapter 146 . Mar 15

Aw no. Mark was so cool. Rip Waterbender bro.

RIP

GDawg4826 chapter 146 . Mar 15

Aww Mark! He and Exodus are my favorite AoD membersRIP Mr. Waterbender
Also I'm sorry but DID ZACH LOSE AN ARM! IS THAT WHAT THAT WAS! THAT SEEMS LIKE SOMETHING THAT SHOULD'VE BEEN MENTIONED EARLIER!

Second RIP. And thanks for the review! As for his arm... XD

Logargon chapter 146 . Mar 15

MARK NOOOOO and wow just how strong is EM I've gotta know more about him he's just insane and has got to either have like centuries Of experience and gun skills or a god tier quirk

Triple RIP. Love all the love for Mark from you guys. As for Eziano Mozcaccio... we've been hearing about him since the Sports Festival Invasion arc. All bad. Final Shadow Boss still out there Zach never managed to catch. Alive for centuries. Leader of the assassins... Though maybe he won't show up in the story again. Who knows? Lol thanks for the review!

Super Power Sensei chapter 146 . Mar 18

Random Thoughts type of review...
:Intriguing chapter. Great to read how Mark met Zach and why they became so close. Now when I go back read them interacting in the AoD, I get even more chills. Especially in the chapter introducing "Lawless Towns"(chapter 115), where Mark said, mostly to Manbat, "Death can do, whatever he sees fit". It's sad to know he's gone but how did he die? Mark can control other people's blood so his killer(s) must have been ridiculously strong.
:What Mineta asked about Zach carrying a knife everywhere it got me thinking...
You know how babies are born, they're all crying and curled up and fragile? Not Zach. He came out the womb with a knife in hand trying to stab the doctors! XD lol!
:ZACH HAS A CYBER ARM?! THAT'S what Momo was referencing back in the hospital(chapter 141)? Damn...this guy sacrifices everything to do right. Does his arm work like the movie "I robot" where he has a spray can of synthetic skin to cover his cybernetic limb in case of surface damage?
:Now that I think about it, please don't have the story present some type of shonen, corny, and incorrect, lesson about how "real heros" save the day without sacrifice no matter what through the power of nakama bullshit. I'd consider it insulting.
:Can Zach use death like the susanoo from Naruto? Especially with people he has already revived?
:Iida's brother could become a hero again using quirk finished products like Zach. Grappler and Roady too!
:Mina's grades suffered from helping Zach get out of prison? She was WORKING for that Zach "D" lol! Again, I'm half serious.
:Last thing, can you give Zach's new helmet an x-ray scanner? He could use it to see if people are injured and stuff.

Glad you liked the new chapter! Zach's been holding that knife since birth lol, he showed he's always packing this chapter too at one point. Cyber Arm! Nice catch on that reference in 141, didn't show many signs before it at all though I think I knew the general time when Zach lost it and might've started subtly referencing... As to how it works and all that stuff, well, more information will always be revealed... in time. Lol this is definitely ending with a shonen ending, you got me. Friends are our true power is the meaning of Death. I can't believe you figured me out. Anyway, lots of stuff going on, lots of stuff I don't really want to spoil, so I'll just say thanks for another review! P.S. you mentioned before about fanart, hit me up in a PM if you do want to send me some and I might make it the new story pic. The old one's a bit outdated now.

Guessst chapter 146 . Mar 16

Love seeing the character development. Chapter 20 zach compared to chapter 146 zack is so seamlessly well done. Question, will we be seeing that dessert battle scene which I'm referring to as "the ultimate power up"? Also, why do I have a feeling Zach was trapped in the void for longer than what he told Gentle?

Thanks for the review! I'm glad you're liking the character development. As for that battle... no spoilers, even for future flashbacks! And nice prediction on the Void thing! We'll see about that.

Guest chapter 1 . Mar 17

Lol can't wait for the next chapter to come up (I check multiple times daily . ) Reading Nexus in the meantime which is pretty awesome too. Sorry I don't review much but I'm usually putting things off to just finish your updates. Just so happened to see that review from the last person who hasn't even read the story and I was like... O.o? Da fuq? Shame they're going to miss out on an amazing story because they're too close minded to even give it a chance. I think they were just overwhelmed by the word count :p Anyways, loving your work and keep it up. Can't wait to see what's in store next. Have a great day and good luck with all your school stuffs.

Think it's awesome you're reading Nexus and liking it! Had a draft of my thesis due today (which I probably should've spent all day doing instead of finishing and editing this ;P), but that's why it took me a week to get this one out, plus it's a pretty long chapter. And thanks, for that thing about that other dude who reviewed. Kind of pissed me off too they didn't even give it a chance but still took the time out to bash it. Glad you're liking Death though, and hope you enjoyed the new chapter!

Guest chapter 146 . Mar 18

I love seeing those picky reader view these as "boring"
Surely they never seen a succesful and true loved fanfic story like this one
I hope they never seen this story again though
I didn't want those a***ole to ruin the review page with their nonsense ever again

Another thanks for bashing on that guy! XD You guys are great with that, and it made me smile y'all getting defensive over this. Thanks for the review too!

GuestP chapter 146 . 1h ago

So I was looking through the reviews and saw the one that Mimhere left and I was like, "What the actual F**k?" because, they got all of that from the f***ing summary? Who the heck do they think they are? A f***ing connoisseur in summaries? Idek why people like that bother to leave a review, why is it that they want people to have bad feeling based off of a f***ing summary. Advice is you ignore the f**k out of them and continue on with the amazing work you're doing.
In other words, you do you my dude, because what you're doing right now is amazing as heck.

And lastly, thanks for bashing on them once more! Lol it a 'fucking connoisseur' is exactly what I thought of as I read that review too. Took that advice, they were just scared of 1.8 million words and didn't think they could read this far. Hope you liked the new chapter too, and thanks for reviewing!