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!

156. Chapter 156

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 156:

"Open the gate!"

A four-legged man on top of a wall called down behind him, and two others ran to the gate and started unlocking and opening it. The guard at the top of the compound's wall looked back forward and down on the dirt road where the truck was waiting to be allowed in. The eighteen wheeler had a pickup truck in front of it, and two more inconspicuous small Japanese-made cars behind it. The person sitting in the bed of the pickup had stood up and given Crable the signal, and the man on top of the gate whose hard legs bent upwards before pointing down at his knees allowed the convoy into their compound hidden deep in the forest on the island of Kyushu.

The compound had several cement buildings, but the main one was a four-story tall structure that used stone which camouflaged better with the forest after the second story where it could possibly be seen over the gate. As the four vehicles were allowed in, dozens of men and women were walking around the compound, sitting near the outer fences, up on the walls and watchtowers scattered around the compound, and packed together in groups near other vehicles or at tables where some of them were eating or drinking. On the fourth floor of the central building of the compound, Kousen stepped out onto the balcony and looked down towards the open area of the compound where their comrades just rolled in.

A brown-haired man hopped off the back of the pickup that came in, and he jogged around the side of the huge truck that entered behind his vehicle. "Help unload this rig!" The guy shouted, while the back of the truck slid up fast thanks to the short man on the inside of it. The younger-looking man just inside the back of the truck had on a pair of goggles with tinted orange lenses, and he had a sniper rifle strapped to his back with the barrel sticking up over his curly red hair. In the front of the truck, a blue-furred beast of a man parked the vehicle and then stomped outside and yelled louder at a group over near the fence who had ignored the first calls to unload.

Kousen watched as Blion stomped towards the group who ignored him for a moment, his claws extended out of his pads and the lion-like man baring sharp teeth at the group who finally got moving. Blion had a pair of gray horns sticking out of the red trucker's hat he was wearing, he had on a plaid button-down, and jeans with the knees frayed so his blue fur stuck out of them. He glared at the group who came towards him, and he snapped at two who were giving him daring looks.

"I said help us unload this thing!" The brown-haired guy leaned out the back of the truck and shouted around, as there were still dozens of villains around just glancing over or giving the convoy disdainful looks. "Overlord's orders," he added, a smirk on his face as he glanced around to see if any of them would stay still after that. A lot of them started giving the man harsh glares, but no one who was free stayed where they were. Even if their comrade was just using that as an excuse to get them going, if Overlord heard they heard it was his order and they still didn't move…

Kousen's eyes narrowed down on the men working on unloading a truck that really did not have much in it in the first place. Getting the whole base on it. Poole's trying to make it seem like he's got more than he did. And the guys all know it. No one wants to do any fucking work. A bunch of losers and weaklings really. Kousen grimaced deeper at the two voices he heard behind him through the glass doors he left open when he stepped onto the balcony.

"They confiscated all our shipments, and we can't even get our money back since the guys we bought from are all gone!" Sulu yelled at the taller man in front of him.

Girder glared down into Sulu's eyes, but Sulu snarled right back at him. The taller, dark-skinned man with a mohawk of every color of the rainbow starting with a purple spike in front growled in a low voice, "We'll make money a different way. We don't need the port."

"It was every port," Sulu snapped again, his voice louder as he cocked his head to the side and looked at Girder like he was an idiot. He shoved his face forward up in Girder's and hissed, "You think any dock workers are gonna take bribes now when they see those shmucks get prosecuted? You think anyone's gonna ship jack SHIT into this country, knowing that we fucked it up for the whole community?"

Sulu's voice sounded unhinged and crazy, but Kousen ground his teeth at how he made sense and was well-spoken despite it. Girder just growled harder at the crazy yellow-haired man in front of him looking like he was about to bounce off the walls. "We still have our buyers. We just need to start producing-"

"Where?!" Sulu yelled, throwing his hands up and then leaning back as Girder's expression got seriously dark at another interruption.

"Right here," Girder snarled, and his voice dared Sulu to counter him on that.

"You idiot," Kousen growled, looking back over his shoulder. Girder turned and saw Kousen looking back at him while still leaning forward with his hands on the railing of the balcony. "You see how cramped it is in this place already?" Sulu had kept his mouth shut for a moment after Girder stated where they would do it, but he looked back at Girder like the larger man was an idiot again for these exact reasons. Kousen continued to the bigger man who did not seem to realize why they were looking at him like that, "It's like this here, because any bigger and we know we'll get caught. As it is we're barely keeping off the radar. The instant we start running any shit out of this place, and it's not just a hideout anymore, we're going to get overrun."

"Well then," Girder started, but he ground his teeth and got a frustrated look as he could not come up with anything to counter with. "Then what are we going to do?!"

Kousen looked back forward and down to the clearing in the compound where a lot of the guys were getting more and more frustrated with each other. They had unloaded the truck fast after Poole got them all working on it, and now they were talking about similar things down there as they realized just how little they had been able to get. Money supply's cut off. We won't be able to keep up business as usual. And if we get more risky because of it, we'll wind up like all those other idiots. Kousen glared harder down towards his subordinate gang members, and he rose up his right hand and pointed it off the balcony.

His hand glowed orange, like his straight hair that flipped up at his bangs into a curl above his forehead. Then from his hand fired a beam of orange light that hit the ground in an instant after firing. The ground got a hole opened through it three inches in diameter, right between two men who had been starting up their Quirks against each other. Everyone down on the ground looked up to see Kousen glaring at them, and a large number of them split up and moved back around the compound to where they had been before. Everyone's on edge. No one knows what's going on anymore. Sulu barely escaped the port with the others thanks to Potaru, but if the heroes had actually been after them it would have been a different story. Rancor's gang's gone, Spade's out, Tyreke's back in jail, no contact with any of the ones not reported to have been caught, so they must've gone even deeper into hiding than us since we're at least trying to keep it going. Or maybe they just isolated us for being in this hellhole of a country.

"If we can't get more money," Girder started after glaring at Kousen's back and trying to think for a minute. "Then everyone's gonna bail. We won't be able to keep bringing in food and living like this, not unless we can run something!"

"And if we run a business out of here," Sulu grumbled at the big man he had walked away from to lean against a wall instead. "Then we're all going to get caught. I'm sure Overlord's got a plan. Just have patience, you fucking mook," Sulu whispered the last part with a wide smirk at the man who could not hear him but got angry just by the way Sulu smirked showing what he said was not a compliment.

Girder took a step towards Sulu, then he spun to the left. Sulu turned right, and Kousen heard the whoosh and turned around to look across the top floor of their hideout. In the middle of the fourth floor's wall opposite the balcony, a wide blue circle glowed out of nowhere with swirling green lights inside and a smooth, water-like interior that looked like you could just touch it and push right through.

The Subspace Devils were not the largest gang in Japan. They were not the strongest either. But they had risen to be known as the second most powerful gang in the country, the same way the League of Villains had managed to gain so much power in such a short time. Five figures stepped through the swirling bright portal into the hideout, and Potaru's portal closed behind him when he came out last after the others.

The high school kid who stepped out of his portal last leaned back against the wall opposite of Kousen once it returned to its normal form. He had a lollipop in his mouth and piercings in both ears, and he reached up and yanked off the blond wig he had on covering up his short black hair. Potaru tossed his wig to the side and then used the same hand to unbutton the top few buttons of his collared shirt too, an annoyed look on his face while he did it. Stupid thing, the seventeen year old thought, but he kept quiet about it with a glance at Overlord who had told him to wear it.

"How'd it look?" Kousen asked.

Sulu and Girder glanced back at the other executive of the gang who seemed like he actually knew more about what was going on than he had let on to them. They turned back to their leader though who in turn faced the other three he had brought with him. "Well?"

"Kris got spotted by a hero," one of the three mentioned, nodding at a villain in a baseball cap who had faint pink skin and lots of freckles on his face. The other two did not have hats on, but they also had more inconspicuous body types than the skinny pink man who spun to his comrade with his eyes wide.

"Yeah, definitely got seen," the other in the group of three agreed with a nod.

"You guys said-" Kris started, but then he pursed his lips fast in anger and betrayal. He spun to Overlord also with some fear on his face though, and Overlord's expression just made Kris more frantic. "I'm sorry boss. He didn't know- I spotted one of the heroes who's supposed to be guarding it, but I must have looked too long because he turned to me. I looked away casually like I hadn't been staring or anything-"

Kousen rubbed his forehead with a pissed-off expression forming over his face. Why would you look away from a hero like that? A pro would be able to tell, that that's exactly what someone trying to hide their intentions would do.

Sulu's eyes narrowed in at their comrade too, his teeth baring. Overlord got an angrier look himself for a moment, and then he started walking forward towards their comrade who got a terrified look on his face. "I'm sorry. It- It was really nothing! There's no way Unlock even-"

"Shh," Overlord shook his head, and he got Kris to quiet down while everyone else watched. Sulu smirked, a couple of the others got nervous looks on their faces, including Potaru though he just looked away pretending not to care. Overlord reached his right hand out and put it on his subordinate's cheek, making the pink guy flinch but not pull away as he was afraid of what would happen if he did that. "I'm not pissed that you got spotted. It couldn't be helped with a pro…"

We only have a few guys left the pros don't know, Kousen thought while watching Overlord pat Kris on the cheek in a calm way. So many warrants out, and because we've had successes in escaping before while on camera, they've got just about everyone. These three aren't any use if the heroes start looking out for them.

"But it sounds like you asked the others not to say anything to me," Overlord said, and he started shaking his head while pressing his hand back on the side of Kris' face. He had patted it a few times which started to make that thinner man feel some relief, only for Kris' body to tense up a moment before Overlord pinched his cheek. "You wanted to hide something like that, from me? I might have put you on the heist team, without knowing that it would get you all caught and ruin everything. You get that? You get why that's bad?" Overlord started shaking his right hand around that he was pinching Kris' cheek with.

"I get it- I'm sorry! Ow- AH! PLEASE!"

Overlord kept shaking his hand, faster and faster, and Kris' face started to stretch and pull apart. He was screaming only for a second after yelling 'please,' as his head looked like silly putty in Overlord's hand that he stretched out and then let go of. Kris dropped to the floor with his head stretched out and blood pouring out of his ears, nose, and eye sockets that his eyes had rolled out of. Overlord wiped his hand down the front of his white shirt that said 'ALL MIGHT' across the front of it. Five finger-smears of blood crossed down over the 'ALL MIGHT' that was already red, and Overlord smirked and let out a laugh as he glanced down at it.

"Who would ever think the mighty Overlord would be walking around Desusuta wearing an All Might t-shirt?" Overlord asked, grinning around at his comrades. His eyes narrowed when he looked to the two subordinates of his who smiled like the others thinking they were in on it too. "Didn't I ask you a question? Or are you two too afraid because one of you got seen as well-"

"No way."

"We were hidden the whole time. No one noticed either of us."

"Then talk!" Sulu yelled at the man closer to him who jumped and leaned away when he saw the yellow-haired man leaning his head in.

"The gem's there. A four hero protection detail. It's going to be on display for only 14 hours, and it's only going to be in the building for 24."

"We sure it's the real thing?"

"Wait, what gem?"

Overlord looked over towards Girder and cracked a grin again. "I figured it out," Overlord said. He chuckled and stepped towards his comrade who looked confused but interested in the change in strategy. "Business is never going to recover. Black markets aren't going to rise back up. Only get worse," Overlord smirked bigger with the corners of his lips pulling up his cheeks, and he threw his hands out to the sides. "But some things are priceless, and timeless- as in they'll only be worth more no matter the age."

"Wouldn't say priceless either," Potaru mentioned from the back wall, a smirk spreading over his face again. He held up three fingers when Overlord glanced back at him, and the leader of the gang's smirk stretched up so much at the corners.

"Three? Three what?" Girder muttered, annoyed someone wouldn't just say it aloud.

"Billion," Potaru said over with a nod up of his head.

Sulu and Girder's eyes both shot open huge. "It's going to be-" one of the others who had gone in to surveil the location began, only for Overlord to turn and glare at the man darkly and shut him up.

"Get out of here," Overlord motioned for the door, and the other two who he did not want in there scurried away quickly.

Kousen walked up to Overlord once the peons were gone, and he looked his comrade in the eyes from up close. It was something not many dared to do, with Sulu and Girder rarely getting that close themselves. "We really doing this? Setting up takes longer, but the risk-"

"Months' worth in a single day," Overlord said, and the words tasted good coming off his tongue. "And that's just from the Escario Jewel. The rest on display I'm snaggin' at the same time is going to set us up for good." Kousen continued to look at Overlord still with a questioning look, and Overlord nodded his head with his smile lowering down a bit. "I got word back from Intanzo. He gave his permission."

Sulu grimaced hard behind Kousen, and he glanced down at the bloody floor when Overlord looked his way but did raise his eyes back up after a second. "I don't like it. Asking, for permission."

"He's the current Kingpin," Overlord said, his voice much calmer than usual if he was speaking about such a thing. His lips twisted back up and he started laughing which confused a couple of his guys who had pissed or annoyed expressions about that response. "But after this haul, we'll have all the money we need to take over. And this whole fucking country's going to be mine!"

---

I'm so dumb, Zach sat in class at Shiketsu High with his chin on his left hand. His elbow was resting on his desk and he looked focused on Hazano sensei, at least enough that his somewhat lazy posture could be overlooked by the teacher who saw Zach taking notes despite looking tired. Zach did not feel tired though, not as much as he felt stupid while sitting there thinking about the previous weekend. Two weeks. Not even two weeks and I- oh my God, I'm so dumb.

Zach slid his hand up from his chin while leaning back in his seat. He ruffled his own hair under the hat of his school uniform, and he rose his eyes to the ceiling for a moment in regret. Everything. In hindsight I was being too rash. Too, just stupid! Talking to Momo about all of that was idiotic! I have different stories to describe those things. I'm not supposed to know about all that- but I'm also not here to lie and I don't want to lie to her, and that felt like the truth at the time. What happened elsewhere was true too though. The stories are all true. Why couldn't I just tell her, something else? Zach sighed internally and got to writing something else Hazano just mentioned which he heard in a piece of his mind.

And Lemillion? God! I practically told him I was Death. Even when I was telling him I wasn't, I know it's all he could think! Every time I talk about something I wasn't supposed to be doing, it confirms their beliefs I was Death. Can't you just understand that I could know all that stuff just because I was a vigilante? I don't deny that! I tell you I was being a vigilante, and you treat it like I just admitted I was Death- you're all so… And even Mina. I shouldn't have said anything to her either, because the timelines don't match up now. Telling her I would have come to save her when I wasn't even here on this world. If she ever looks back on it less emotionally and wants to ask, I wouldn't have an answer for her! I'd have to go back on it, and say that I just said that so she would feel better thinking I would've saved her. And that's true. I, might not have been able to get there in time…

3 months I need. I haven't lasted 2 weeks. How am I supposed to do this? It's supposed to be easy. Compared to all of that, it should be easy.

Except, I got used to all of that. I became someone who could deal with all that, and that made me think I could deal with anything. But I knew it back in Tartaros. I knew I couldn't face them yet. I wasn't ready. How to lie to their faces constantly, and confidently. How to completely become Kaminari and even mess with my own mind to fool them. I don't want to be just like him. I don't want to do it, maliciously. It's malicious in itself though. The act of what I'm doing, my acting at all times, it's all so fucked up. And what's the end goal? Is it enough, that these means that are so fucked are worth it? Could I confidently say if they called me out, that what I'm doing this for is really worth all of this?

I, I don't know…

Himazuri gazed over to the left side of the room at a row closer to the windows. She looked at the side of Zach's face from a seat behind him and across the room, and she got nervous at the conflicted expression she saw for a moment on his face before he refocused on Hazano and wrote something down. Her eyes focused above his eyes and on the top of his head, but she quickly looked away and shook her head as she wrote notes of her own. Don't risk it.

What's that bastard doing? Flugeru frowned at the back of Zach's head from more directly behind him, so he did not even see Zach's somewhat suspicious expression. Did he really spend the weekend doing nothing? Dendo says they didn't meet up outside of school or anything, but there must have been some kind of event. Flugeru looked to his side towards Dendo who himself glanced at Zach for a moment before just focusing on his classwork like the others.

I don't understand any of this, Kotsumura lifted a hand and rubbed it through his blond hair in frustration. In the corner of his eyes he saw Reika writing fast, a look of bored understanding on her face that made his eyes widen for a second. He snapped his eyes back to his paper and then rubbed his head harder as he really was not getting this. He turned to his side where Zach was sitting, and he leaned over a bit to see if Zach got it all down on his page. As Kotsumura looked, Zach's phone buzzed and he looked down at his left pocket. He continued to write with his right hand, while he looked down to where his phone was and then back at Hazano who turned to face the class.

Zach's left hand moved for his phone, and he pulled it out and looked down at it once Hazano turned back to the board. How does he do that? Kotsumura thought, grinning but holding back a laugh as Zach continued to write while appearing like he was not paying attention at all. Keiji had sat back straight up when Hazano turned their way, but he leaned over a little again and checked Zach's work only to realize with his eyes growing wide, that Zach was writing absolute nonsense down on his page near where his pencil point was down. Kotsumura leaned back into his own seat and frowned, Either he's not actually paying attention at all and just tricked me, or he's not getting this any more than I am.

Hazano continued talking to his students about certain hero duties that they would be expected to do during their first years out in the hero workforce. He explained the math of the competition that would likely arise again now that the villain rates were at new lows for the last few years. They were not yet back up at the surplus of heroes they once had, but Hazano warned them about the skills that heroes who survived Japan's spike in villain activity would have and that they all have lots of experience that will make them look down on newer heroes who never experienced those hard times.

"We were all out there interning last year," Reika muttered towards Hazano, who turned back to her at her comment. Reika sat up straighter but did not back down despite speaking at first not in as respectful a tone as she should have. "We 'experienced' those kinds of villains too."

"In part," Hazano accepted with a nod. "But you'll see over the first few years that you are heroes, as more and more younger pros emerge and move into the limelight, older heroes will look down on all you younger heroes for the mistakes of a few inexperienced ones. 'It's those new age heroes again. The heroes who didn't have to deal with the League of Villains.' If the rates stay low, and competition rises, then there is more than likely going to be a split between heroes of that old age and ones who emerge after all of you. Which may make your year the hardest, being right in the middle associating both with your senpais and juniors. Or more than likely, neither of them, isolating you from everyone."

Well that's encouraging, Kerushi thought with a low frown. The student who listened to that small speech unenthusiastically looked at his teacher in a bit of confusion, as Hazano's expression looked strange while he faced one part of the room.

Hazano had noticed one of his student's expression while he was speaking, and he tried to keep going in his teaching tone to finish what he wanted to tell his class. He could not help himself from staring over though, at the expression on Zach Sazaki's face that had his heart racing faster and faster every second he watched it. Is Sazaki- Hazano got nervous, as he saw his student's shaking eyes and panicked expression while he gripped at the edge of his desk right in front of him.

Zach's lips had parted a little. They were not spread apart enough that it drew attention from anyone else, but the perceptive hero at the front of the room facing his students could not avoid seeing it. Zach's breathing had picked up pace, his fingers curled into the edge of his desk, and his eyes were huge with shaking irises. "DEATH! Help me!" "PLEASE!" "AHHHHHHHH!" "Zach- please save me- Ah AHH!" "MOM!" "KILL ME!" "He's killing me! Please…"

Zach stood up out of his seat. He looked at Hazano with his expression suddenly flat when the rest of the class looked towards him. "May I use the restroom?" Zach asked, his expression steady when he said it but his voice speaking in an odd tone that made most of his classmates give him strange looks too.

Hazano had seen his expression before hearing that odd tone though, and despite not usually allowing it in the middle of his teaching, he nodded at Sazaki and allowed the boy to walk out of the classroom. Hazano Worrod turned back to the board behind him and spoke in the same tone to his students to get them all to focus on him. What was that look? What was he thinking about? For a second there, it looked like he had completely lost it!

Hazano's speech had gotten a bit less enthusiastic, and he realized that his students might have noticed it too. Luckily, his phone buzzed and he reached down and pulled it out, stopping his lecture for a moment. That moment turned longer though as he read what he just got sent, and then he put down the marker he was still holding in one hand and walked to his desk. "What is it Hazano sensei?" Muoko asked, getting a sense from her teacher that something was wrong.

"Breaking news," Hazano replied. He pressed a button next to his computer that started dropping a screen in front of the board the class was staring at, and the computer Hazano was typing into using four hands popped up multiple browsers on the screen all at once. Hazano searched across the web, and then he pulled up a news source that had a 'LIVE' icon in the preview of the link. "There's an incident in Desusuta right now-"

Hanodo jumped out of his seat. "I'm from Desusuta!"

"It's not bad yet," Hazano said to his student, using a scolding tone to get the boy to calm down which worked and had Hanodo lowering back down to his seat in the middle of the classroom. Hanodo was still leaning forward on the edge of his seat though, a lump in his throat gulping up and down at the way Hazano just worded that. "Yet," echoed in most of the students' minds, and they could see why Hachiman included it. Their homeroom teacher looked at the screen with a dark look in his eyes, while most of the students in the room had more shocked or panicked expressions on their faces.

"This is unreal," Reika whispered, the shock fading a little from her face only for her eyes to dart around to her sides to see if anyone else felt the same.

Kotsumura leaned back in his chair. "No way man," he said, his voice coming out as a breath. On the screen, a cameraman and reporter were getting told to back up away from the edge of a city that had a very strange cut off. Usually buildings got gradually fewer the farther from the city one got, but in Desusuta on the east side of the city there was a line called the 'City Limits.' It was part of a restoration effort to make the environment even close to the city look greener, and the city development board had gone with a nice grassy plain that people would often go out on for picnics. It was still early in the day, but a young elementary school class were running back towards the city with their teacher, some heroes running with them and evacuating them towards the city and away from the massive force far out in that field.

The City Limits had overlooks for people to get good views and pictures from the edge of the city over the grassy fields that stretched to the horizon, or at least to where trees started on the horizon line. On those overlooks were police and some heroes who were still arriving and yelling at everyone to move away as they prepared the city's defenses. More heroes were running out straight over the line of the City Limits and onto the grass from where the street suddenly ended just past the reporters who could not leave the city with the others. Far ahead of all of them, out in the middle of the picnic fields, pickup trucks and eighteen wheelers and military humvees and black SUVs shredded towards the city tearing up the grass and making a huge entrance.

Riding on top of the vehicles were more villains in costumes and masks, some of them with weapons in hand and all of them looking ready for a fight. The vehicles were spread out wide, and there were multiple lines of them going back despite already being spread far across the field. And above all the ground vehicles, was the cherry on the cake as a single helicopter flew with the nose pointed down a bit at the front so the spinning rotor spun just above the cockpit window like a man with his eyebrows pointed down in towards his nose. The helicopter looked angry and ready to fight, while smirking because of the paint job of a huge sharp-toothed mouth just below the cockpit's glass window.

The fuck is going on?! Dendo curled his hands into fists over his desk and bit down hard.

Why are they doing this? Who is it?! Muoko's eyes darted back and forth over the screen in examination.

Kotsumura watched with a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of his face despite his intense expression. In the left corner of his vision though, Kotsumura saw an empty seat that he slowly turned to. Kotsumura looked at the seat and then behind it, at the person who sat behind Zach, Subara. He looked at the pale-skinned white-haired girl who did not notice or seem to think the same thing he just had a crazy thought of. As he was about to turn back forward though, Kotsumura saw Inasa a few seats back shift his head over a bit after Kotsumura had done it. Kotsumura turned farther back and he met Inasa's eyes for a second, and then he turned more and looked at Himazuri who gave him a wide-eyed look at what she heard him just think.

Kotsumura cracked a nervous smile. He was turned around so a few more of his classmates saw him smile, making them frown his way as this did not seem like a situation to be smiling in. "Zach sure, has been in the bathroom, for a while," Kotsumura hesitated a couple times while saying it, and his smile grew more like what he said was completely, definitely, a joke. It was almost laughable.

"No he hasn't," Reika muttered without glancing back at Kotsumura who she heard make that joke. Her eyes barely shifted to the door upon hearing it, and it annoyed her that she even did that much.

It's only been a minute or two, Hazano told himself too, calming down despite Kotsumura just freaking him out there.

On the screen, the villains' vehicles slowed down in the line away from the city. Villains piled out of the vehicles, and some of the fastest ones started running forward, others flew up in the air. A truck that was in the back of the huge convoy opened up, and a half-dozen off-road motorcycles whipped down a ramp and sped around to the outsides of the force. Two of the humvees popped the tops open, guys sticking up out of them while the drivers were all staying in their vehicles and moving forward slower now.

"You have to get back from here!" Kaleido yelled at the press, and this time the media were going to listen. They backed up faster as the enemies showed their true force. The villains emerged from their vehicles or dropped down from on top, and they all definitely looked ready to fight. They were moving in towards Desusuta after appearing out of nowhere just outside of the city in full force. And now that they had exited their vehicles, the camera had picked up exactly who these people were.

"It's the Subspace Devils," Kameko said, his voice dark but also somewhat confused. What was the purpose of the Sports Festival Invasion? It was seemingly about destroying faith in heroes and Lifebringer, but in reality it was the Tartaros escape. What purpose does this attack have?! We didn't know the League's purpose until after the SFI was over. That can't happen again!

More heroes showed up at the City Limits, but there were not nearly enough of them. Only fourteen had shown up so far, and the villains were still approaching fast even if they had slowed a bit. The heroes were frantic too, and Sky Smasher tried grouping them up in a way that would benefit them in stalling the villains while also showing the other heroes around him that he was willing to take charge and be the leader here. We just need to hold off long enough for reinforcements to arrive. How long will that be though?! They'll be on us in two minutes, three maybe if they slow down again, but it'll be at least fifteen to twenty for even heroes from the closest city to get here!

Another three heroes came running to the edge of the city from a detail they had on the opposite side. Three more than fourteen was still not enough to even get close to closing the gap between the two forces. Sky Smasher glanced back in the corners of his eyes and spotted some more police officers lining up vehicles directly on the city's edge instead of out on the start of the field with him and the other heroes. Do I break protocol? Police aren't allowed to use Quirks, Sky Smasher's eyes shifted straight ahead of him again, narrowed on certain figures he saw at the front of the crowd of enemies. But the Subspace Devils aren't just a ragtag group of thugs. It's not just the executives we have to worry about, and the small-time guys they have with them are going to be used as distractions to let the more powerful take us unawares.

What are they doing here?

Why are they attacking us?!

We need more help!

We'll just have to hold them off as long as we can.

Unlock marched forward into the ranks of other heroes directly in the path of the villains. "We only need to hold them off for fifteen minutes, twenty max before Endeavor or Hawks arrive."

Vital Indicator glanced to his right at Unlock and then back straight ahead towards his enemies. If only Endeavor were in the country right now. Not many know, but those of us in the ADTF do. And who knows if Hawks is that close either. Closest city to us with a reinforcing hero team to help would be Tuusuta, but unless Silva can take half of them on his own…

One of the heroes who had arrived with Unlock hesitated near the edge of the city. She glanced over her shoulder towards the press who were backed up by the police but were still so close that if they got overrun those people would be hit first. We need to evacuate this whole section of the city, Cyn-Thia turned forward and stepped farther past the City Limits. Or we have to rush out there and meet them before they hit the city. They're coming in fast though, and we need all the time we can to organize.

"Cyn-Thia," Sky Smasher called out, having thought up a better plan after seeing the woman who arrived behind him and working her Quirk into his ideas. "We hold the line here." Sky Smasher's voice was dark, and the heroes around him on all sides looked in. Some had intense and accepting looks, nodding at the hero in a yellow cape whose expression gave away what he meant by that. Other heroes got nervous looks on their faces, and one or two looked like they wanted to run, but none of them did.

I put a wall up behind us, we won't get any help from the police or citizens who could… Cyn-Thia ground her teeth but stepped backwards and then pointed her palms back at her sides. She aimed behind her instead of in front, creating the wall at her back to trap her between it and the enemy force rapidly approaching. "Evacuate away from the City Limits!" Cyn-Thia shouted behind her, turning her head to look at a chief in the Police Force whose three eyes widened as he watched Cyn-Thia put up an almost invisible wall behind her.

The Cyn wall created with her Quirk spread wider to the sides. The cameraman televising what was happening outside of the City Limits panned his camera to the side as he caught the edge of the Cyn glass. They would not be able to tell the difference once it spread far enough, as it was like a giant thick pane of glass being put up, but as it spread there were clear edges to it. At U.A. High School, Class A watched closely the reactions of the heroes of Desusuta who quickly organized a defense. Even those heroes who had complaints or other ideas did not argue and create any unnecessary actions after Sky Smasher had given out commands. The pros were quick to react and follow one set of orders, and the students watching had to imagine the kind of pressure those seventeen heroes felt on their shoulders having all of Desusuta behind them.

"There was no warning?" Hagakure whispered in shock as she stared at the huge group approaching in the shaky camera angle. The cops were all rushing about, and citizens were flooding out of buildings around them to get away from the City Limits. The reporter shouting about the heroes' efforts and the enemy's forces argued with one of the officers that she needed to stay there and had the right to be. The officer was trying to argue back, but the conversation alone was giving them a longer time close to the City Limits while most other people were running from the Cyn wall by this point.

"Because of Potaru," Shoji mentioned quietly from behind his mask next to her. He glanced to his side at the nervous invisible girl and added, "His Quirk, Portals, allows him to connect and keep open several portals at the same time. We don't even know if this is their whole force or if they're going to make more appear on the sides and flank the heroes."

"I'm sure they're thinking of that," All Might assured, though he did not look away from the screen either as he stood in front of his class. The scrawny man with pushed back light-blond hair had a dark look in his eyes, and regret filled them too as his fists clenched. Unable to do a thing.

Midoriya was leaning forward on the edge of his seat, and his eyes darted towards the windows again anxiously.

"All Might! I could get there-" Uraraka looked to her left over at the boy with curly green hair who had such a frustrated and conflicted look covering his face. Deku's so fast. But All Might can't let him go. Those other heroes can handle it! Uraraka pumped herself up in her head, though her expression got nervous again as she looked back at the screen and the heroes moving farther from the edge of the city while the villains rushed at them from less than a mile away now.

Yaoyorozu's expression was steady, but her mind was working fast. Out of all the cities within a hundred mile radius of Desusuta, there still are not as many heroes as there are villains in that group. Subspace Devils. Yet I don't see Overlord or Potaru in the attack force. The force is still strong enough though to get the full attention of-

Bakugo's eyes shifted to the windows just to his left again, but he ground his teeth and shifted his eyes back to the screen at the front of the room. This is fu-

On the screen in their classroom, the camera aimed out towards the Cyn wall caught something fall from above the angle straight down into the heroes. The cameraman's legs had already extended while he was retreating, but he stopped moving just as everyone in front of him looking that way froze completely too. His camera was zoomed in through the Cyn that they could not even see anymore, focused on the heroes with the villains in the background past them picking up dirt and dust with their charge. The villains' charge was closer than a mile, and many of the villains out there were close enough that even without being zoomed in on they were visible and in focus.

Those villains slowed down. The heroes who all spun in opened their eyes even wider than just from the form dropping between them, as most of them had just assumed it was a villain coming to attack them or maybe their hero reinforcements. All of the cops behind the Cyn, and the cameraman and reporter who just saw this, and the heroes, and the villains, and the students of Class 1 and Class A, stared in a sudden silence at the figure with spiky black hair who just landed outside of Desusuta.

Kotsumura's jaw dropped farther and farther until his jaw muscles hurt. I was… kidding.

Hazano's eyes shot back to the door of his classroom, then to the screen, then behind him at the windows of the classroom again. HOW?!

He wore a black hoodie, his school uniform either missing or hidden under it. He stood there over six feet tall at the front of the seventeen heroes who had gathered to fight the Subspace Devils about the enter their city. Zach stared from where he landed straight out towards the villains, his face hidden from the camera behind him and partially masked from the heroes he was not looking at. Zach landed, and the villains he looked at came to a stop.

The other heroes behind Zach darted their gazes past the person in front of them to the force of villains many expected was about to kill them as they stalled. Sky Smasher wanted to say something to Lifebringer who he recognized instantly, and yet he found himself speechless and at a loss for breath as he looked to the Subspace Devils.

The cameraman zoomed farther out too, as the reaction of the villains was unusual. All the vehicles stopped. The helicopter pulled its nose up after Zach landed, and now it just hovered over some of the vehicles, if anything backing up so it was no longer at the front. The men and women who had gotten out of the vehicles and started running all stood still. The motorcycles were humming but unmoving, and the drivers of all the land vehicles just stared towards Sazaki without a move. The expressions on their faces as they all looked closer, were caught on the camera and televised out across the country.

Inasa had jumped out of his seat when he saw the blur drop down on the screen, and the boy standing in his classroom lifted a hand up to his head and ran it through his hair with a worried look covering his face. Zach!

"Is he stupid?!" Dendo shouted, only to freeze and stare closer at the expressions of the villains who had all stopped charging at Desusuta. The reporter stopped talking for a second after shouting for a few that Lifebringer had just shown up on the scene. They all just stared out at the villains who were supposed to be coming full-speed at them, and who had all lost the crazy smiles and excited looks that covered their faces before.

It was a sight to see: over a hundred people crashing into the new reality. Their lips curved down, their eyes that had gotten wide narrowing or getting shaky, their hands clenching tighter around weapons with hilts that were getting covered in sweat. Wheels and bike handles got wet with sweat, and the drivers were tensed while gripping as hard as they could with sweaty palms. A couple of them looked up, as if searching for whatever plane Lifebringer just jumped out of. There was nothing above them though. Nothing in the sky to indicate where this person just came from. A few took nervous steps back, though they stopped themselves and got angrier looks that they did that in the first place, only for their anxiety to show through the anger.

Ashido's jaw that had dropped snapped closed and she spun to her right. She opened her mouth to shout something at Ojiro, only to shake her head and spin back. She threw her arm at the screen like she had to show him it. Ojiro nodded his head absently, seeing her out the corner of his eyes but unable to tear his gaze off the image he was slack-jawed gawking at.

Zach, Yaoyorozu's heart pounded but she felt a strange sensation inside too as she looked at the back of the boy's head on their screen. Can you handle this? You can, right? If you die- I… You won't die.

"All Might," Midoriya jumped out of his seat. All Might spun and looked towards his student, then over to Bakugo and to Todoroki who both got up right after Midoriya. Midoriya continued though, "We have to go there-"

"No," All Might said. He spoke firmly and gave his successor a harsh look as Midoriya tried this again. All Might pitied his students, but he continued with a look over at Bakugo and Todoroki too, "What Sazaki does, does not impact the rules we have here." Sazaki. I knew you were not going to take the law seriously, but, All Might looked back to the screen. "This decision he has made is his alone, and you will not follow in his path."

Mineta looked at All Might's back with his eyes opening huge again. Whoa, All Might's so… He's not smiling. That's so weird! Zach! Why are you doing this?!

Zach stared out towards the Subspace Devils, most of whom he recognized. His eyes narrowed in on a few members in particular, but he continued to scan down the line of his enemies who had all stopped to stare back at him. "Lifebringer," Vital Indicator started, the redhead shaking off the shock of who just landed before her. She took a step towards Sazaki's back and said in a lower voice, "What are you doing here?"

"I saw this going on, and I was close by so I thought I should come and help," Zach responded loudly. He smiled while looking out at the villains, but he turned his head to the side. He turned away from the villains while smiling like everything was okay, a smile that was seen by the camera back behind him as well as the stunned older heroes at his back. "Since I have a provisional license, I can help out can't I?"

Sky Smasher stared at Sazaki in shock for a second after hearing that, then his eyes narrowed and immediately snapped behind him towards the villains again. Zach looked back forward himself which got the villains getting enraged that he would turn away into freezing in the middle of yelling at the others around them. They felt like Zach just stared straight at them, and seeing their reactions a second time Sky Smasher's plans had the ability to change. As he started thinking about using the effect Sazaki had on these villains to stall them longer though, Zach started speaking to him and the others behind him, "I'll take care of the decoy force."

"Decoy Force?" Cyn-Thia asked quickly, nervous and confused about what Lifebringer was talking about. "Where is-"

"In front of us," Zach replied. "It's why they appeared so far out of the city, instead of just teleporting inside. They wanted all of you to leave the city and come to this side of it. Whatever Overlord's real plan is," Zach had not finished yet, but most of the heroes behind him already spun around and looked back into the city Zach was speaking of in a low voice so only they would hear him. "It's going to happen behind us."

The first thing Sazaki said echoed back into Sky Smasher's head, and the hero spun back forward to stare at the kid's back in utter shock. "Wait a…" "I'll take care of the decoy force." He couldn't mean… "You can't do this alone."

"Look at them," Zach said softly, while cracking a larger smirk on his face for the villains ahead of him who were talking to each other and trying to get re-organized. "You know what they're thinking right now? Every single one of them is thinking…"

Across a field that felt much too small to both parties on either side of Lifebringer, the villains who had frozen at Lifebringer's arrival were trying to figure out what to do now. Kousen had not looked as afraid as his comrades when Zach met his gaze from across the field. He looked into Sazaki's eyes with his thin orange ones, and although his expression got deadly serious and his mind was racing with regret for the first few seconds about how they should not have done this, his focus had narrowed and he was yelling at the men around him to continue on with the mission.

Kousen's Quirk, Steal, worked in a very simple way. Kousen discovered his Quirk at the young age of nine: that he would obtain the Quirk of any person he killed. The twenty-eight year old standing in the center of the Subspace Devils' forces currently had three Quirks from the last three people he had killed. His Quirk used to erase the last Quirk he had stolen once he took a new one, but after years he had brought the limit of his Quirk up to allow him to keep three at the same time. Due to this fact, Kousen's Quirk was unknown to the public who had believed him to have various different Quirks over his criminal history.

Kousen did not get cocky over the fact that Sazaki did not know his three Quirks though. Instead, his intense focus on his enemy was wary and his orders to his comrades had hidden purposes in them to get many of his own men to fight Lifebringer first while he got a good read on his opponent's power. I want that Quirk! DEATH! Kousen's lips stayed flat, but he fought the urge to twist the corners of his lips into the deranged way in which he was thinking. GIVE IT GIVE IT GIVE IT!

Sulu's eyes shifted to his left towards the man who started yelling louder at everyone about who they were, how many of them there were, and what they had done to this country. Kousen was doing a good job at calming everyone down and rallying the forces into a return to their state before Lifebringer dropped, but Sulu saw the look in Kousen's eyes he rarely saw. Sulu was usually the craziest of the executives, but he was also much smarter than he let on and he had been one of the ones to take a step back after the shock of seeing Sazaki.

I didn't think, he'd be here, Sulu thought even as he twisted a smirk and yelled at the others around him too that this was their chance. "We kill him now, we rule this fucking world! No one will dare…" Overlord, do it fast. As soon as we collide we've got to make it look like we're winning. Sazaki will have those other heroes to use on us though so we can't just focus solely on him- dammit! This is shit! I- I AM SULU! I don't get this… Sulu had to curl his fists tighter even as he shouted to his men words convincing them to be less afraid than he was. He clenched his fists that tight because if he didn't then he knew his open hands would be shaking at his sides.

Four Months Ago

At a port in Kobe, Sulu and a group of twenty guys were unloading a ship and packing up a line of trucks late in the middle of the night. The docks were empty except for their group and the fifty who came on the ship and were assisting them. The dock workers supposed to be watching the place for the night knew not to even get close during this time period, and Sulu felt confident to call out to his men in a loud cocky voice without anyone hearing him who wasn't supposed to.

One of the villains who just arrived on the ship was not as okay with it as Sulu was though. "YOU! Shut it!" The man stormed to the edge of the ship and yelled down at the blond Japanese man on the ramp who had just called out a joke in a loud voice before cackling into the night sky. Sulu turned his head and glared up at the edge of the ship, at a man who was vice-captain of the villains they were trading with and who did not back down from the murderous smile on Sulu's face. The Somalian man stood at seven feet tall and three wide at the shoulders, with six muscular arms that stuck out of his sides all crossed in front of his chest.

Sulu leapt up in the air and he landed on the railing of the ship just ten feet from the African villain glaring at him. Drago's bottom two arms uncrossed and lowered to his sides with clenched fists, though he kept the other four crossed suggesting he was still ready to just keep standing there, as much as he was ready to fight if it came. Sulu cocked his head to the side while grabbing the railing on the insides of where his feet rested on the smooth curved edge. "What are you so afraid of?" Sulu asked, looking into the other man's eyes while still grinning madly at him.

Drago's eyes shifted over Sulu for a moment and around the port behind him. The other workers on his ship continued moving around with Sulu's own guys, though there were some moving closer to the two readying their weapons. It was the more high-tier guys moving to their comrades, telling the peons to keep up the work while they dealt with any potential outbreaks of violence between their leaders. Sulu spotted Drago's captain standing on the ledge of the ship's bridge fifty feet up and more towards the middle of the ship. The woman at the bridge was not looking his way though, but more like Drago was scanning the docks and the surrounding area.

Sulu's smile lowered a little. There were insults he wanted to say and taunts he thought he could throw at the other villains, but their profits had taken a slip recently. "Don't tell me you're going to back out too," Sulu began, and he smirked more as Drago looked back. "Like all those other cowards."

"We're here, aren't we?" Drago asked back, his eyes darkening at the word 'other' which made it sound like Sulu was almost calling him a coward to his face. Drago's expression got darker and his voice lower as he added in defense of his actions, "But you're the fool, for not being more careful."

"Heroes haven't shown up here in-"

"I'm not talking about heroes," Drago said. He interrupted Sulu and narrowed his eyes at the blond man's angry reaction. His eyes shifted towards Sulu's gang members as well, the ones who looked ready to attack his own crew should Sulu start fighting. "You wouldn't dare alienate us now, when as you've just said," Drago looked straight back at Sulu and into his angry eyes. "No one else wants to come here, with Zach Sazaki back in this country. It's why no one is coming close to this place."

"Lifebringer's in prison," Sulu growled back at Drago, though his smile was gone as well as his dangerous look. The talk of their business and the loss of it upset him but reminded him of how important this relationship was to keep. Overlord would not be happy if he lost it due to his own rash actions here, and he knew fighting Drago would be a quick way to lose Felisha's business. Sulu lifted the right corner of his lip and added, "And he's going to be there for a very, very long time."

"If you think he's going to spend the full six years in that hole," Drago started, his voice not losing its low tone. Sulu's smile vanished, and Drago continued to the shorter man who did not seem to hear what he was saying yet. "Then you're delusional. And the moment he gets out of there, you'll be hard-pressed to find a single soul willing to come to this fucking country." Drago spat to the side off the edge of his ship, but when he did so he had a nervous look on his face for a moment that he shook off before turning back to his partners.

The other six Subspace Devils who had gathered around Sulu glanced at Drago's men too after seeing Drago's look there, and pits formed in each of their chests at those looks alone. "If he really is Death," Sulu said, raising an eyebrow and cracking a smirk again.

"It's not an 'if,'" Drago spat out, though it was not at Sulu as much as it was at the boy he was talking about and the ones in public who still called it an 'if' scenario. "Everyone knows it. The entire underworld has known for a long time, with certainty," Drago said it with an annoyed look at the Japanese villains who were supposedly some of the best in the whole country yet still did not know these common things. He countered his own annoyance though and muttered in a more pissed-off voice, "You were all lucky, Death, did not return to his home during his reign."

"'Reign?'" Poole asked. The brown-haired man looked ready to laugh, and he had snorted before saying that in a skeptical tone, but the international villains they were trading with just got darker looks. Two of them tssked or bit down, and they started away with unnerved looks just from the start of the conversation alone. It did not seem like Sulu was going to start a fight anymore, so they just went back to yell at the others (more quietly now) to keep unloading. Poole's smile did not drop though, a snarky look forming on his face instead at the fear their allies were showing while showing some shame at being so afraid.

Felisha's no joke, Sulu thought with a glance back towards the captain watching over everything from above. Her crew shouldn't be either. Not inexperienced. Not afraid, of just a name. A name in a conversation about a person trapped in the strongest prison in the world! "Even if he really is Death," Sulu started. His expression looked creepy, and the most menacing he could without looking like he was threatening the people directly in front of him. Most of them got unnerved by the crazy man's look, the look of a true murderer, and Sulu continued, "He doesn't have his army anymore. He gets out, he's still just Zach Sazaki. And I'm not afraid of any hero."

Drago ground his teeth and looked away for a moment. Despite Sulu's most convincing evil look like he was ready to keep on as usual with Sazaki there, Drago did not feel any better at all. "You say that because you don't know him. You don't know the things he's done." Drago shifted his eyes back and looked straight into Sulu's scary eyes, "He's a monster, and he's going to get out of that prison soon. You've seen how this country loves him. The whole world thinks he's this fucking savior, while to us he's been…" Drago trailed off, but he looked at the Subspace guys who did not look all that afraid or were just giving him less respectful looks now because of the way he was talking.

"You know why we're all so fucking confident all the time? Why we're not afraid, and we act like we're the biggest thugs in the world?" Drago asked. A couple of his own guys looked in at him, surprised looks on their faces at what he was saying here. Drago stepped towards Sulu though and his voice deepened as he growled at the blond man, "It's because we know nothing's going to happen to us. Even if we get caught, even if the worst case scenario comes up and heroes bust in here, they'll throw us in a prison with a bunch of our own kind and life will go on. Sure, our freedom will be gone, and it will suck," Drago leaned his head forward and snarled, "but we know that's what would come if heroes came for us. Don't act like you know things will be fine with Death out of jail, when you've never experienced the world with him roaming free in it. With Death or his soldiers waiting at every deal, picking off every one of our allies and rivals and every villain we've ever fucking heard of like it was sport."

It got quiet on the deck around Drago. Some of the others close to them but not in the small group were staring over, and the other Subspace guys saw their allies looking around nervously as it seemed like Drago was talking about Death. Why was he talking about Death? Was Death there? Sulu saw the looks of the men who did not know what was going on, who heard what Drago said and were freaking out because they were in the same country as that man. "You don't know what Death will do to you, so don't tell me you don't fear him. The things he's done to the villains of this world… we're lucky to be alive having roamed at the same time he was out there."

"And what kind of things would those be?" Sulu asked. His tone was dark and accusing, like Drago was still just being a pussy even though he just used that tone for his own sake this time.

"Torture, murder," Drago said. His voice was flat and his eyes cold. "Death is what his name implies. He was a fucking ghost, leaving a trail of dead bodies across the world. Slaughtering hundreds of us like it was nothing to him."

"And you saw this?" Bilon growled. The blue-furred man had a bead of sweat rolling down his face, but he kept a disbelieving expression for a moment longer. "You saw Sazaki do this?"

"If I saw it, I wouldn't be here," Drago snarled back. "But enough have. Rumors turn to fact when you've heard enough of them. The survivors, the witnesses, they all say the same things about him. But even when you don't hear anything about him at all, you know when he's been somewhere." Drago paused for a moment and tilted his head back, "Because all of a sudden those guys who were there aren't there anymore. They're not in any prison, and they're not laying low, they're just gone. They fucking disappear without a trace, leaving the heroes as stupefied as everyone else! And if he can do that as Death without getting caught or seen or anything, what makes you think-"

"Get back to work!" Felisha shouted down, as her crew and Sulu's were lagging around and all looking towards Drago.

Her vice captain snapped his head up and then spun and yelled at everyone to get back to it too, marching away as he realized they were wasting precious time. "Double time it!" Drago yelled at his men, and they did not hesitate to do so as they had renewed incentive to get out of this country faster.

Sulu watched as Drago walked away from him. He did not start smiling and joking about their paranoid partners and their ghost stories like his comrades did behind him. He stared at the man who he had been sizing up at first because they might have started fighting had the conversation gone a different way. He watched a powerful villain who had survived out in the world when most of what Sulu had heard about outside of Japan was how villains couldn't survive out there anymore, let alone ones that worked internationally. It's a rational fear. And it's smart to be afraid, because without that fear they likely wouldn't have made it this long. Sulu turned and looked out over the water past the other side of the ship, Though I'm sure there were some who were already terrified when Death showed up for them. How much of the rumors are just exaggerated though? How much is truth? Whatever it was, Sazaki can't be Death now that he's back. He can't do things like he did before. And he won't even be out for…

Present

How is he here? He's not, supposed to be here! Sulu heard all the other stories, all the rumors he had asked their international contacts about in order to prepare himself. None of it worked to quell the immense fear swelling inside him at the sight of the person staring towards them while talking to the people behind him.

"Look at them," Zach said in a quiet voice while still smirking out at his scared enemies. "You know what they're thinking right now? Every single one of them is thinking, that I am Death." The heroes behind Zach Sazaki stared at his back with their eyes growing huge again. "So I'll use that," Zach suggested. "It will keep them from rushing at the city and give us enough time for help to come and stop their main attack."

Kousen yelled at the others on his sides, "Charge at the city! Push on with the attack! Whoever kills Sazaki gets a spot as an executive, and a hundred million bonus!"

"Kill him and you'll be the most famous villain in the world!" Girder roared down from the helicopter that started flying forward again.

A surge of villains moved forward, making the rest of them start up again too. Zach continued to grin in a cocky way towards them, and he spoke in a calm and confident voice to the heroes behind him who started shouting questions about what was going on. "No. You all need to stay here or go back and guard the rest of the defenseless city behind us. My Quirk spreads too wide of an area and I can't use it to its full power around allies. I'll be fine," Zach promised, smiling calmly with one last look back. "Protect Desusuta from the main attack."

Zach looked forward, and he started walking. His steps sped up so he was in a light jog, his arms swinging at his sides and then swinging faster as he leaned forward and started taking longer strides. Zach's jog turned into a run, into a sprint, and his lips twisted up higher at the corners while the villains moving forward all stopped again. Nervous looks covered all their faces again. Kousen's grin as he had gotten some cocky men to move forward just in front of him, dropped into a shocked look as he thought Zach was just bolstering the defenses. He's running straight at us?! Why would he leave the other heroes? He could have used them to…

He's coming, alone?!

He doesn't look afraid!

Zach ran forward at his enemies a little over a half mile away from him. Wish I had some entrance music. I could put in a headphone right now, blast something epic to get me going. Wouldn't be very professional though, as much as it would make them think I see them as a joke.

He's so calm!

He doesn't even think of us as a threat!

It's Death!

Death's coming for us!

The heroes aren't doing anything! They just let Death…

I'll- I'll kill him and take all the bounties!

I'll be rich!

I just need one good hit!

He's going to kill me!

HIS EYES!

Zach's eyes changed color and started glowing. The soles of his feet covered in black, wisps coming off of his shoes and then off the backs of his knees and upper thighs as well. Zach's speed increased more, but not all of his enemies were completely shocked by his sudden charge on his own towards them. "Attack!" Girder yelled from up at the edge of the helicopter.

"Flank him from the sides!" Kousen yelled out.

"Everyone fucking KILL HIM!" Sulu roared, pulling out a pair of pistols from his sides and firing without a second's hesitation.

A turret-man on top of one of the military grade humvees they bought loaded and locked his weapon. He turned it, while others in between vehicles ran forward instead of back and got down on their knees to either side of the humvee with rifles in hand. The turret started up its up, and the barrel began spinning with the man on top cracking his smile again before he started to unload across the field.

"Cyn-Thia!" Sky Smasher yelled at his fellow hero. "Put up a smaller wall between us and Lifebringer's back, everyone else build up defenses and work on the evacuation away from this side of the city."

"I know what Overlord might be after," Unlock shouted, after getting off his comms with the fourth member of his team who stayed behind and did not rush to the edge of the city with the others. Just hold on for a few minutes Fern Girl.

"Still no sign of Fern Girl?" Overlord growled into his own communicator.

"No. If anything, the heroes seem to be up to something now behind Sazaki," Ego-God replied from the pilot's seat of the helicopter where he felt safer than most of their comrades.

Inside Desusuta, the press managed to set up away from the cops, and the cameraman whose body could stretch his legs up high was zoomed out of the city. His partner shouted at the top of her lungs about what she was seeing on the screen in front of her depicting what the camera was catching. "…Zach Sazaki appeared out of nowhere and is running at the villains on his own! I don't know what the other heroes are doing, but they're letting Lifebringer go after the villains by himself! And they're- The villains are shooting at him!"

Zach kept running straight ahead for a second or two after the bullets started flying. He curled his right hand, the watch on his wrist spreading down his hand and covering it in a glowing blue glove. He leaned his body to the right, dodging a bullet on his left side, and then ducking his head and pulling back to the right in the next moment while in the same step. As his right foot was coming down he brought it farther to the right of where he was initially coming down. He darted to his right side, his legs flaring with more black that left a trail of it behind him as he suddenly darted away at twice the speed he was already moving in a line across the field.

The ground covered in dust rising up from bullets slamming behind Zach. Zach lifted his left hand up towards the enemies on his left side now as he sprinted, then he came to a sudden stop and a sniper rifle round flew in front of his face only inches away. He was twisting his body while stopping like that, using his momentum and continuing to step by lifting off his back foot while turning one hundred and eighty degrees. His left hand that had raised was glowing blue already with a similar glove to his right on it, and as he finished his spin now with his enemies on his right, his left arm was crossed in front of his body aimed back at the Subspace Devils. The blue blast fired from his hand and hit the bottom right side of the vehicle with the turret on it, flipping that one on its side and throwing the turret-man out of it.

A young villain opened his eyes huge behind his orange goggles, falling backwards on his butt as his round missed Sazaki on what he thought was a perfect shot. Zach sprinted back to his left, moving even faster and diving forward at one point dodging a bullet at his leg level and one at his neck at the same time. He rolled on landing and then cut straight forward as a man ran forward once Zach got into the range of his Flamethrower Breath. The white hot flames burst out from the villains mouth and ignited a portion of the field on fire towards Zach. Vehicles raced ahead again, only on the sides where Zach was not running forward, and a couple of those vehicles curved in to start towards him while others looked ready to go straight towards the city.

Some are ignoring the orders to go at me first. They'd rather fight seventeen other heroes. I can't let them get past me, Zach lifted up his right hand, and darkness swirled above his glowing blue glove. His whole hand shrouded in black, and a mass of it formed above his hand as he slowed into a stop before all the villains. He lifted up his hand and stomped his left foot down, still over a quarter mile in front of all his enemies and on the right side of a line of white flames he had easily dodged.

Hanta Sero leaned forward over his desk with a giant but nervous smile spread over his face. "He's dodging bullets out there." Sero said it with a glance to his right at Iida who did not turn away from the screen, and Sero shrugged as he figured to Iida that might not be all that amazing of a thing. He's doing it easily though, Sero thought with a grin. He can do this!

"He's going to get himself killed out there," Todoroki muttered, then he grimaced at a look he received from the girl next to him with a spiky ponytail.

Yaoyorozu turned back to the screen where she saw Zach's back in an angle that was changing as the reporter told her cameraman to move with her to a better location. Zach had his hand lifted and the black mass over his palm was shifting around while the villains stared at it nervously or tried attacking him some more. He was directly in front of the middle of their pack again, but he no longer seemed to be dodging any bullets. He had stopped a couple of them with his first attack, but there were still villains shooting at him and others without weapons looked to be getting ready with longer-ranged Quirks now that he was closer.

Above Zach's palm formed a long, thin weapon that condensed more until there were no wisps coming out of it. "Death Spear," Zach growled, his voice loud and his lips moving in a clear way as to what he was saying for the villains who could not hear him over the gunfire. The weapon he was holding made it clearer what it was he just said though, as his black hand gripped around the center of his spear that was twice as long as he was tall. Zach lifted his head up, yanked it to the side and dodged a bullet the sniper tried again to hit him with, then he ran three steps forward and threw up towards the helicopter.

"Girder!" Kousen shouted up.

"He's aiming at the helicopter first?!"

"PULL UP!" Girder shouted to the front of the vehicle.

The helicopter's pilot was no longer calm, and Ego-God twisted the sticks in panic that jolted the helicopter so hard to the side they almost turned sideways. The back swung out from behind them and Girder grabbed onto the inside of the opened doorway as his legs flew out and he was almost thrown from the vehicle.

The spear flew just below the tail of the helicopter. Most of the villains down below who looked up got relieved expressions at their bird's dodge, but Kousen and Sulu did not feel the same kind of optimism that Sazaki "missed."

The arc, Kousen thought, his breath hitching and his eyes growing wide.

The Death Spear curved at first like it had just missed its target, and then it became a sharper descent into a straight shot. It dropped from its current position to a target farther back that the momentum shot it towards along with another burst of speed even faster than Zach's first spear-like throw. The spear pierced through the windshield of a black SUV, straight in between the driver's seat and the passenger side. Overlord slowly turned his head from the passenger seat where he was sitting with his head pointed forward with a shocked and furious expression, which was turning into all-out rage as he turned left and looked into the back seat where that spear was sticking through.

The Death Spear faded away after a moment, and the four people in the vehicle who all pulled away to the sides looked into the middle of the back where Potaru sat slouched and motionless. He slouched too far though, and his head fell down into his own lap and between his legs as there was nothing holding him up anymore.

All the vehicles stopped completely. Every villain in the Subspace Devils looked back towards the vehicle in the most protected point in their formation. They stared at the windshield of the vehicle in the third line that had a hole in the center of it which had cracked to every edge. Zach smirked and lowered his arm back down to his side, then he uncurled his right and left fists and created more darkness inside his curled fingers.

"Get control of this thing!" Girder yelled to the front with his back against the inside of the helicopter's middle section.

"Did he just do, what I think he did?" Poole asked, stepping up to Kousen's back and speaking in a nervous voice.

Why? Kousen's eyes shook as he stared at the teenager he had been excited to kill when he first saw him. It doesn't make sense! His goal should be stopping our attack… That should be his main goal!

"He took out Potaru?!"

"Is Potaru down?!"

"What's happening?"

"What do we do?!"

Overlord threw the door of his vehicle open. Chaos was starting to break out on his side. He saw it coming the second the spear pierced the window and caught him unawares. I wouldn't have been able to dodge in time, Overlord thought, while as the rest of the heist team poured out of the vehicle around him. You picked the wrong target if you wanted to end this before it started, you stupid, fucking, KID!

"Overlord! Is Potaru-" the man shouting towards Overlord stopped and turned to one of their other comrades who had gotten out of the car and was carrying Potaru over his shoulders.

"There is no running away!" Overlord bellowed at the top of his lungs. He was smirking while marching forward past the vehicle he was leaving behind. "Turn around and you'll never make it. Potaru's got the secondary escape route open already near the heist's location. It's the only way we get out. Moving, FORWARD!" Overlord roared it and he glared around at the others who had looked so ready to panic and flee a moment ago. "You want to survive?! The plan's fucked, but we don't need it anymore! We have everything we need to become number one right in front of us," Overlord glared past all his comrades and straight at Zach Sazaki. "And there's no other choice but to go straight through him anyway!"

The Subspace Devils listened to their leader and turned back towards Sazaki. Their boss's voice echoed through the air as he got even louder, "Kill him and we become known as the baddest mother fuckers in this world! Try to run and I'll kill you myself! But come with me, kill this fucker and show the world who we are, and you will be GODS! I'm the only one who knows where Potaru's portal is," Overlord jumped up and landed on top of a truck in the middle of his forces. He landed down hard and yelled out for all his subordinates to hear, "KILL LIFEBRINGER!"

"It's our only way forward!"

"Our only way to survive!"

"There's no other escape!"

"Kill him or be killed!"

"RAAAA!"

VRRROOOM

Engines revved and villains roared. They were thrown into a frenzy in seconds, for different reasons but all with a new single urge. They needed to kill the person in front of them. Whether it was for their own survival, for the fame and glory, because of their fear of Overlord or their desire to move up among the Subspace Devils, they all needed to push through the person in front of them. Zach snapped his arms out to the sides as those vehicles that revved started racing forward though. The ones that were farthest forward out to his sides already could not be allowed to go any farther, and Zach cracked long whips of darkness down at his sides a few times, blackening the field around him.

The villains ran forward anyway despite Zach's weapons. Some set up better with their weapons or Quirks now, telling drivers below them to get closer but keep a distance so they could fire accurately without putting themselves in too much danger. The ones better at close-range combat ran in with Sulu near the front, Kousen around the middle of the group, and Overlord coming up in the back with a horde of other villains moving forward with him as they did not want to be left behind to get caught.

Zach jumped up in the air and dodged a couple of well-aimed shots. As he rose up, he cracked his whips again out to his sides in a way that looked like he was just waving them away from him. As he cracked them though, the ends of his whips extended out farther and curved down towards the ground. Zach dropped back down faster, dodging attacks meant for above him that went through a black veil that was left behind by Zach's sudden drop. Dropping that fast made the rest of his whips slam down into the floor too even though the black continued snaking out farther and farther away from him. The black lines of his whips seemed to have turned flat into the floor like snakes in the withering grass. Out from those snakes emerged black flames though as Zach stood up from his crouched landing position, his hands free no longer holding the whips.

Those whips were now creating black walls of flames out from either side of Zach's body in the center of the gap. Zach stepped forward, and darkness came out of his heels and filled up the gap behind him to create the point in the wide 'V' of black flames that pointed to his right and left, but also a bit in front of him. He stood in a corner of his own making, with his 'V' keeping villains diagonal from him on his sides from getting any farther towards Desusuta or in a better position to flank him. His black flames did something else though. They put up a barrier between him and the city behind him where people were watching him from.

And the idea of the people behind Zach not being able to see what he was about to do, the thought that Zach Sazaki had done this on purpose solely to prevent anyone from seeing what he was about to do to them, the fear that Death was about to do monstrous things to them, broke the resolves of some of those in the frenzy charging at Zach. It did not stop many of them, or even slow that many, but even in the most hardened of his opponents Zach knew he had stirred anxiety and doubt that had to exist if they knew even something about his time abroad. Zach's enemies were close now, and he was running forward again, this time with black lines carving in from the sides of his face making what looked like veins from the corners of his eyes down his cheeks over his scars and down his neck into his sweatshirt.

Zach's lips vanished in the darkness allowing his mouth to twist up more with more of his jaw exposing in a twisted smile, and he swung his right arm in front of him creating a wave of Death he threw at his enemies.

"Block it!"

"Poole! Break the floor in front of me." Kousen ordered.

"Blow it back!"

"Reflect it!"

Don't recognize some of them. Some Quirks were unknown. Zach darted to his right after his attack, his Death strongest on that side to shroud him more until he suddenly popped up running at the weaker right flank of his enemies who had hesitated more upon each of his terrifying actions. His speed shot up three-fold as his legs turned completely black and wispy, and his body lifted off the ground as a black blur that shot into the men who dodged away or got slammed for a few of them.

Zach dropped his legs back down and pushed off the floor hard. He rose up and smashed his hands down on a cube of field that came flying at him, front-flipping over it and then kicking another larger piece into pieces that shattered in just a way to nail two nearby enemies in their faces. Kousen. One of his Quirks. Don't know what his composite is like, or if he just has a new set each time. Mystery box but with all of the possibilities trained. Copy Quirk allowing for multiple steals at once. Lots of possibilities, but he's fighting smart and testing me. Didn't lose it once, though he looked to come close once or twice.

Zach came out of his flip and waved his left hand in front of him. He swung his arm and Death flew off like a visible wind down into the ground that it rolled across like a wave into three enemies too slow to realize that the miss did not mean it would not get them. Zach's red eyes darted around to all sides as his feet came close to the floor. His face got blacker and his bones and teeth showed through less, and he created a huge amount of Death down on the soles of his feet right as he was getting close to hitting the floor.

"Back up!"

The darkness did not explode out in all directions of where Zach landed like Sulu thought when he shouted it at the other close-range fighters with him. Instead it all blasted out behind him and made the wall of Death rise higher to Zach's back, while also propelling him forward in an instant so quickly that most villains he was fighting did not notice him reinforce the wall behind him. Zach shot towards Kousen between a dozen enemies who turned in and dodged away without yet realizing Zach had not attacked any of them.

Zach pulled his right fist back with a lot of Death swirling around it. Better not to know what those other Quirks- Zach stopped short and dove to his left. A huge steel beam impaled the ground where Zach was about to sprint into. It had come down so fast that Zach nearly got hit even moving very quickly at Kousen, and as he did his roll Zach followed the angle that the beam had come in from into the sky where Girder stood at the edge of the helicopter.

Two more huge steel girders formed in front of Girder while he held his palms out in front of him. The beams were thirty feet long and in the shape of capital 'I's, and Girder shot them down to the point Zach finished his dodge. They moved as fast as the first one Girder threw, but Zach saw them from the moment they were thrown this time and had more time to both dodge and do so in a way so he was moving at an enemy. In the moment he had dodged though, other villains had seen him fail for the first time to do what it was he looked like he was trying to do.

Kousen lifted his arms up quickly and he curled all his fingers at Zach before twisting his arms so one was above the other and an orange circle formed in the air in front of him with strange patterns all over it. El Diablo was lifted up in the air by Dread Hawk, and a fiery white breath started firing down at Zach in a line that was also going to hit two men unconscious down on the ground at the angle he was at. Sulu was looking closely at Zach for whatever direction he was going to dodge, and Zach could see Kousen was doing the same as the first attacks started.

Zach darted to his right for a man covered in blue fur whose cap had fallen off his gray horns and who lay unconscious. Zach kicked Bilon into a man running at him on his right side who had not expected Lifebringer to choose him as the one to suddenly turn to as he was not even one of the five closest people to Sazaki. Zach leaned down and snagged one hand into the other villain's shirt while still running, and he jumped up to dodge an orange flash of light that flew at him from Kousen that he did not know what it would do. He brought up the other villain he had grabbed while spinning in midair, and he threw at the man who was breathing fire and his partner.

El Diablo and Dread Hawk got smashed back through the air by their comrade and fell to the ground. Zach watched their angle of descent closely while moving for the vehicles. He sped straight past the front line and jumped up into the man running past the back of the vehicle trying to get the drop on him. Zach's right knee kept only a small bit of Death on it, while he mainly just used the force of his sprint and his knee to take the man off the ground and send him flying into the hood of the vehicle behind him. Zach jumped at that truck and punched a hand down through the roof, but before he could flood the inside where he still saw two guys preparing something inside of, he spotted an enemy that he knew of running his way with glowing purple hands.

Zach reached to the side of the truck he was on, and he swung himself off the edge right before a spinning horn pierced through where the villains below thought he was. Zach swung himself off the side of the truck and through a window, kicking one of the men in the face with both of his feet. He grabbed the two of them and dove through the door on the other side that he came in from, and he threw the two of them into the opening door of the next vehicle over that slammed shut and knocked the man inside across the inside of his vehicle. Then as Zach landed outside of the vehicle he just cleared, he kicked his left foot behind him with a huge amount of Death bursting from his knee at the last moment when he extended it.

Blast-Burst slammed his glowing hands together to blow up the vehicle in front of him that Sazaki was still close to. Right as he fired though, the truck started skidding over the field towards him, making the explosion hit close enough that it threw the man who made it off the ground himself and back into his comrade just behind him.

Overlord glared back into the area full of his vehicles that had not fully unloaded when he told his men to charge. He's taking them out fast back there. He ran past the strongest first, taking out the more scattered and weaker ones when he saw he couldn't handle everyone at once. Overlord turned his head back to the side so he could glare at the wall of black on his right between him and Desusuta. The edges of his wall are already gone, and only the extra burst is keeping it alive though shrinking every second. He'll come to reinforce it, but we can't move forward anyway. The goal needs to stay as fighting Lifebringer. The second we change it to moving into the city, he'll block us off again. He wants me to change up my goals and lose their faith.

"He's going to come back here," Kousen said, jogging over to Overlord and keeping his voice loud as he announced Zach's plans. "What do we do when he does?"

"Set up position and get-"

A motorcycle flew past the side of one of the SUVs in front of Overlord and Kousen, smashing into the top of the pickup truck past it and then bouncing up into the air. Another motorcyle flew up towards the helicopter a second later, flipping around in midair so fast it was like a blur. The helicopter pulled up, and Girder's next beam missed by a much wider margin as the man stumbled backwards while firing. Girder yelled up at Ego-God to control it, only for the man at the front of the helicopter to scream and curl up in his seat which made the helicopter start spinning. Girder leaned back towards the door, then he turned and sprinted to the other side and dove out of the helicopter. "Dread Hawk!"

Zach's wings broke apart behind him as he smashed into the ceiling of the inside of the helicopter moving so fast that he dented into it and broke the rotor above. The rotors stopped spinning as fast, which was good anyway as Ego-God was trying to scramble away from his seat and to attack the person behind him covered in dark flames. Zach grabbed a man next to him who had been in the main cabin with Girder, and he tossed him backwards out of the helicopter before reaching up front with his right arm that extended out and gripped a black hand around the villain's face. His hand was completely solid without any wisps coming out of it, other dark areas of his body getting thinner so his bones were showing through as he condensed his right arm so solid that barely any was absorbing into his opponent's skin.

Zach's arm retracted and he used less Death as his real arm reformed beneath, then all the Death disappeared so he was just gripping the man using his glove. He ran to the edge of the helicopter that Girder had dove out of, and he threw the pilot down falling unconscious into his enemies. Zach flew out of the side of the helicopter and around the back of it, and he grabbed the tail and spun, throwing towards where Overlord and the others were near his disappearing Death Wall. As soon as he released it, Zach dodged a lot of aimed long-range attacks flying up towards him. His Death all transferred to the huge wings sticking out of his back again, and he flapped again in a powerful way to send him down to the ground much faster than gravity would take him. He landed, then he bounced from that spot to where an unconscious man was falling so he could catch and "drop the man hard" into a villain he swung the guy at using his left hand.

I still can't feel it. Zach darted towards three men planning out a coordinated attack farther from the main group of powerful enemies. In the corner of his eye as he was running that way though, he spotted a pair of eyes in the shadows under a truck watching those three already. Zach sidestepped to his left, ducking down and allowing the girder to fly inches over his shoulder and through the back of an empty jeep behind him. the jeep got impaled down into the ground, but the sparks of the girder shredding through the gas tank ignited the gas inside and made an explosion that blasted Zach farther to the right and into the floor that he bounced off of and gave himself an extra push as he was finishing his roll to send him springing back up on his own terms. The three who thought they had their moment when Zach was blasted off course tried to pull back and dodge, but only one of them avoided a thin black line that shot out like a bullet from Zach's right hand.

The other two black lines pierced the sides of Zach's enemies, while at the same time his black wings ripped back out of his back to keep him from dropping to the spot the person hiding under a vehicle was darting to in order to get him on his landing. Paralysis Touch, Zach shot himself farther from The Nerve Thief who had gotten within ten feet, much closer than Zach planned to let that particular villain get to him during this fight. They're fighting hard! Zach flapped his wings behind him, and he felt the blood rushing in what parts of his body were still physical inside his dark form.

He was slower to make the wings this time.

He's using more Death around the rest of his body.

There is a limit!

The helicopter exploded on the simmering remnants of the center of Zach's Death Wall. A fiery explosion blew smoke up into the sky, but through that smoke a truck came flying into the air and dropped on the side of the broken helicopter so close that it seemed intentionally thrown in that position. A flash of white light came from past the wrecks, and then a pillar of darkness blew up into the air around the same area.

The ground below Zach lost all stability. Not my mind, Zach thought, seeing a tire down on the ground near him rolling down to the right where he felt himself start leaning. Even though four villains rushing at him in the middle of using their Quirks all seemed to feel it too, Zach knew there was the chance another villain was using a mental ability on a wide area as long as it meant that they could hit him. FUCK! Zach shot forward and slammed his right fist into a villain ahead of him who was charging full-sprint forward, as Zach was backpeddaling after using a big attack that made many of his enemies try to take advantage of the recovery time they thought they noticed. Zach pounded the man in the face with his punch, and he curved his arm down as he followed through. Zach slammed the villain into the ground while the guy was falling unconscious and his raising arms dropped limp. Then he tried to pull away just as fast as he had suddenly charged, but the bullet the redhead in goggles fired at him still grazed through his right shoulder.

Blood splashed out of Zach's arm. He made no noise as his upper right arm got ripped like that just below his shoulder but above his bicep. His arm had been very solid inside the veil as he was not using enough focus to make it completely Death, and he could not have so much that it was one level below that or it might be too much in the punch. There was enough to knock his opponent out for sure, but not enough that he was protected by the shield. The three who had come at Zach with their comrade he smashed into the floor were all considering backing off after he had changed directions and taken one of them so quickly, but the splash of blood that came off Zach's body was something every villain around him watched in shock.

"He can bleed," Sulu said. His breathing calmed down and his knees bent. "HE CAN BLEED!" He shouted much louder this time, and he started cackling at the top of his lungs. "Which means he can die!"

"Kill him!"

"HE'S JUST A HERO!"

"He's getting slower!"

"You five, flank him on the right!"

"Yes sir!"

Zach's head turned left and right. His eyes darted on all sides of him with a full three-sixty view of his surroundings. The movement through the flames and smoke, through cracked windows and shadows cast below sides of vehicles his enemies were crouch-sprinting behind, he saw it all. Only nineteen down. The fear is decreasing. Zach turned his head and his red eyes focused on a single figure. He leapt up in the air and the wings still on his back flapped him forward even faster than he had attacked the man he left unconscious on the tilted floor back behind him. The man he punched in the face was going to have the back of his skull pierced through by that sniper round in order to catch Zach unawares so he would not to be able to dodge, and Zach roared at the villain he flew at from a distance, "WHO AM I?!"

The guy Zach was rushing at tried using a jetpack on his own back to fly backwards off the roof of a truck while aiming his rifle at the same time. Zach did not dodge though when the man with shaky hands fired, the bullet whizzing past the side of his head still close for a guy so scared, but not on-target with his opponent. An arm of darkness broke off of Zach's back and formed a giant fist that punched behind him, slamming into the SUV thrown up towards him and slowing it in midair though it was moving fast enough that it broke through the fist before falling behind him.

Overlord grit his teeth in annoyance that Sazaki slowed that attack without even turning around. "After him," Overlord ordered. Some of the faster members of his organization who had chased Zach initially when he rushed past their main group had gotten taken down individually. "Fight as the pack. Overwhelm him with our numbers. And kill him quickly. We're running out of time!"

A few of Overlord's comrades who wanted to keep watching for a weakness, for Zach to give them an opening, heard Overlord's voice and reminded themselves that other heroes would be showing up if they took too much longer. The thought of Endeavor or Best Jeanist arriving in the middle of this madness while they still had Sazaki to deal with had the ones who already came up with half-baked plans finalizing them and putting their plans of attack in motion.

Zach broke a sniper rifle in half after smashing in its original user's nose with the butt of it, then he spun and threw one half at the closest man to him. He left some Death on it while running at the guy, making him dodge instead of knock it away in fear of what it would do. He threw it in a way to make the guy dodge to the right, and Zach threw the other piece before the guy even finished dodging so the man had to dodge faster or get hit in the face by a blackened butt of a guy. He ducked down, and Zach rose up his knee into the bottom of the man's chin which snapped his whole body into the air. He reached up and grabbed the man by the ankle as he was rising, and he swung to the left while still sprinting forward.

The woman Zach threw the fatter villain at slid below him with the ground below her turning slippery and the grass looking shiny at her back. Zach pushed his left hand back to his left after almost pulling it forward while he continued running straight, and he fired a blast of Death out of his palm near where the woman was coming out of her slide. She leapt up into the air and swung shuriken with blinking red dots on the centers of them towards Zach. The slimy grass died below her, and Zach leapt up in the air towards where she was rising. He allowed the shurikens she threw at him to pass below him and explode on the ground still several meters from the other closest enemies straight ahead that he had been attempting to ignore her to go against. Those explosions slowed the other enemies from coming right after him, giving him the moment he needed to knock the woman out with a blackened fist in her gut, and also to push her forward so the girder glowing red from being heated up would pass her.

From the angle the news camera had moved to, it caught Zach jumping up in the air to hit that villain who just threw something down at him. Explosions happened below them, a girder came flying towards them, and Zach pushed the woman one way which pushed him the other and allowed the girder to pass just between them without hitting either. He flipped around in midair and kicked down at a man rising towards him who continued to rise thinking Zach's foot was going to pass too early, only for the Death on his leg to swing off of it down into him and knock him out in the middle of his rise. Zach flapped wings behind him and shot towards the man giving him a lot of trouble with all these girders, but when he flew off he passed behind a pillar of rising smoke and left the camera's view.

"What the hell is he doing?" Kirishima growled. "He's going to get killed out there," Kirishima's voice was low, but most of the class was quiet letting the reporter's voice alone fill the room.

Sero glanced to his side and saw behind Kirishima's angry look there was actually some worry in his eyes. He'll be fine, Kirishima. Sero did not say it aloud, but he looked back at the screen himself and replied in a low voice to the redhead at his side, "What he always does." Kirishima glanced back at the black-haired teen to his left, and Sero finished lower, "Whatever the hell he wants."

What he wants? Tokoyami looked at the back of Sero's head and his eyes widened at that response. He looked past and to the screen and the carnage going on out there, outside of the city, confined to a field with no one else on it but the people involved in the fight. Is that what Zach wants? Is that why he went out there, because he just wants to stop this? He saw it and decided that he could do something, and screw the consequences he was going to do it.

He can't do this alone, Midoriya watched with his hands clenched so tight at his sides. He looked to All Might again, but his teacher who looked frustrated too was just watching the screen closely which had Midoriya turn back to it as well. Someone has to show up and help him. They need to! He knows he can't do this alone, but he couldn't let them get to the city!

Is it because of the camera? Why did he put up that wall before, and why is creating that new one now? Todoroki's eyes were narrowed at the screen and the boy he kept catching glimpses of but nothing for long. He doesn't want everyone to see how he fights? His moves, his tactics, he's afraid someone will recognize they're similar to Death's. Or he doesn't want us to be ready to fight him when the time comes, or other villains as well. Zach's planning something right now with this. When he stops this on his own, he'll have far too much support. Dad, if you were here right now you could get there quick enough.

It does not seem Endeavor will get there, Yaoyorozu looked back towards the screen from her glance at Todoroki's expression. Yet why does Todoroki seem so confident you will be alright? This is so dangerous. I was just talking to you yesterday, so I know. I know you think this is easier than your war but Zach, did you forget-

A barrier flew up in front of Zach as he was smashing his fist through a huge dirt wall that was not fragile but was not thick enough to stop his fist at high power. He did not expect the other wall behind it, and he put enough strength into his fist to smash apart a wall while also trying to hit the person behind it who had created it. The two wall-creators smirked at him through the translucent reflective wall, right before all of Zach's force was transferred back into him and made his left shoulder ache as he was thrown up in the air and backwards about forty feet.

The ground below where Zach was landing started breaking apart, and in all the cracks below him water flooded into all of a sudden. The tendrils of water shot up from the cracks, but Zach pushed off a cube of the floor upon his crash down on it before he could get wrapped up. He bounced backwards farther, dodging the explosion that blew apart that whole area a moment later anyway. He bounced himself right back into the smoke of the vehicle he threw next to the helicopter that was flaming too now. He landed closer to the city and skid backwards, leaving two lines of blackened grass in front of him like tire treads.

A man with four white wings sticking off of his long slender orange back shot down through the smoke, and three others dove down at the ground where Zach just stopped skidding. One of the ones diving at him multiplied into ten, and then twenty enemies right before he was about to crash down. Another who hit the ground passed straight through it and then dove up near where Zach was coming down after jumping away in the perfect direction they had planned for with the locations the clones had attacked in. Zach knew the man was going to rise from the ground there though and let himself fall right into their trap, and he had darkness shoot out of his right foot towards his enemy who tried slashing it away with a sword he was already about to swing up. He slashed through the darkness but just split it to the sides of his sword so it still hit him in the face in the same instant. A moment later all twenty of the cloned man pulled back into the same collapsed figure whose twenty bodies had been unable to protect themselves all from some of Zach's darkness that he left behind when doing his initial dodge, then called back to his body as he was about to land.

Dread Hawk emerged high above the smoking carcasses of their vehicles, still holding Girder up under his shoulders as the executive ordered him to do so despite Girder's heavy weight. "Girder!" Overlord shouted up, and the dark-skinned man with a rainbow-colored mohawk glanced down and then nodded after a second of making eye contact with his boss who was running forward with many of the others. He saw what several of those others were doing, and Girder reached down to his waist and a pouch he had there.

One positive about not having too many buyers anymore, Sulu thought as he leapt up in the air, six sharp blades sticking out of his upper arms, three on each side emerging while he dropped an empty needle behind him. Got a whole lot of, product, surplus! Sulu's lips twisted higher and his eyes started to get bloodshot.

Riot's lost favor around here, Overlord thought while running forward, his men shooting up around him on promises that as soon as Sazaki was dead they would be escaping there. But a bunch of Rioted guys thrown into Desusuta is the type of chaos I need to make my escape. As long as I've got Potaru nothing's over. Overlord could see one of the heist guys still carrying Potaru not far behind him, but he put all his focus back on Sazaki who had destroyed all his plans with the first move in this fight. And once we've killed Sazaki, Intanzo will have to bow down with the surge of business and men I get. He'll lick my boots and beg forgiveness for the way he spoke to me before, and he'll receive none. Overlord's smile twisted up as high as his guys injecting with Riot.

Looks like the effects of Riot, Zach thought as he fended off enemies getting more confident and powerful every second. Thought I destroyed most those labs. Fuck- Zach backflipped three times into the air with darkness swinging from his spinning body. His enemies cornering in on him were not getting hit though, and Zach's red eyes flared as he came out of his spin still in midair just starting his downwards arc to the floor. Darkness swirled around him and Zach strained to use all he could as he surrounded his body and created wings and Death Grenades at the same time. I don't need any more! This is enough. Three ready to attack by the time I hit the ground. Another two prepared on my right, Overlord getting the strength types to do something behind the wrecks. Even if I use the Death Grenade at the front and push through, at least eight will dodge it and come after me. Use to my right and dodge around, Overlord could attack the city just to prevent me from doing something like that again and to draw in other heroes probably getting nervous about me being pushed back. I'm covering up the blood but they may have seen the shot graze me. One second until I hit. What is Overlord saying? Girder's injecting with it too, he's already such a problem but Dread Hawk's too evasive. I had two shots I could have taken Dread Hawk down already and I let them keep air superiority. The serpent-type disappeared again, probably getting more to attack me from above after the last plan failed. Sulu coming in straight. Riot's made him too cocky, he was better cautious.

Zach's right foot touched down on the ground and he pushed back on it, stepping his left foot forward and bending down his knee on landing. He went farther down than just landing, going down into a full crouch and dodging a trident of ice that flew at his chest level moving a hundred miles per hour. Already starting to dodge, but not fast enough, Zach shot forward and he dragged his right foot on the ground as he sprinted for one of his steps, kicking up dirt as well as a slash of Death Wind that whipped in an arc to his right at a few villains in the middle of attacking him. Their attacks went through his own, but his kept going and hit them while theirs that kept going he flew up in the air over. He threw a Death Grenade to his left and behind him, and he clenched his fist exploding it still in midair so the Death rained down on his enemies.

The other Death Grenade Zach threw forward while coming down, creating a black explosion in front of him that exploded outwards. He sprinted through his explosion of darkness that some villains were dodging just fast enough away from so that they could be close to Zach and be able to attack in a moment. He rushed out of his expanding explosion moving twice as fast as the Death Grenade's blast, and he grabbed two men by their faces and threw them forward as he extended his bent elbows out. He stepped to the left and dodged a three-shot from a rifle fired from behind smoke that did not seem to hinder the shooter's aim, then he pointed his right hand that way while swinging his left out to the side. He fired a black line from his index finger into the smoke in an attempt to hit the man behind it, while a wave of Death came off his left side including his wing that broke off his back for part of the attack much bigger than enemies approaching on that side were expecting.

Zach's wing knocked out all three, as they had kept rushing forward while dodging the wave that they had already deciphered the size of and predicted would be coming at them while Zach was distracted and only had one hand to use as an aside. All three were powerful villains who Zach felt lucky all fell for the trap. With all three of them down, Sulu did not have the distraction he thought he was about to have with Zach being swarmed by close range fighters all at once, which would allow him as the best one of them to get the killing blow.

Zach brought up his left arm with a black knife in hand that shrouded in darkness to become wider and look like a sharp flaming black dagger. Zach blocked Sulu's sword slashing up at him, then he swung his right fist forward and broke off part of his wing while leaning forward. The extra Death from his wing flooded the front of his body, but his legs were spread because of a sidestep he just made without completing as a bullet soared past the back of his head. Sulu slid down between Zach's leg while dragging a sharp blade his body just created down Zach's black knife and towards his left leg. The darkness attempting to shoot down Sulu's blade before he could make the next move did not move fast enough to get the small man on Riot. Eight blades shot out of Sulu's arms as he was sliding under Zach, but Zach jumped up so the blades did not pierce through his lower legs. Zach swung his right hand down the center of his body after missing the punch Sulu slid below, hitting Sulu's hands he was slashing up at Zach while his arm blades missed. Sulu tried pulling his hands out of the darkness and to roll away, but he was losing strength and finding it hard to keep moving at all, or even hold open his eyelids.

As Zach landed he swung his left hand up to his side and fired a blast of blue light towards the serpent-like figure who came out of nowhere with a crew of five villains looking ready to attack him from close range. The blue light fired faster than his Death, and though it still missed, the speed of his attack made his opponent slow and try to come in from a better angle where Zach would not see him from. Zach's legs moved forward, his eyes darting back in front of him as a piece of helicopter rubble came flying his way. He reached his hands up and slammed his fists into the huge steel plate, and he grimaced as he heard breaking sounds from his gloves. Fucking again?! "Shi-" the steel he slammed his fists into was incredibly hot and getting hotter, and it started to melt. Before it could melt though, the huge black ball was going to hit him as it pushed through the scalding hot wall and almost collided straight with his chest.

Zach jumped backwards, and he took the Death away from his left leg which was not too hard considering how little was on it. He kicked away Sulu's body harshly and strong enough that he felt a rib crack on the unconscious man's body, but it was better than getting caught in the explosion he would have been caught in when that black ball hit the floor and blew shrapnel everywhere past its actual explosion that Zach was still too close to. In that instant he forced so much Death covering his body that shrapnel slammed into his chest and his stomach, his legs and arms, even into his neck and face, and all that shrapnel passed out the other side of him like passing through a cloud of black smoke.

His legs recreated stronger first, and he sprinted forward while panting out a breath of black steam. I can feel it! Can't I?! This is IT! Zach darted to the left side of the melted steel wall that had stuck in the ground that was now flaming around it. He did a cartwheel without using his hands over a line of white flames that shot at him from a low level, and he stuck his left hand out in front of him as he did his spin in midair. "What the fuck?" The man who fired above the flames at Zach lowered his gun, while Zach landed and opened his left hand, dropping the bullet he just caught that crunched in after hitting his palm made of a stronger steel.

The man snapped his gun back up though after Zach dropped the bullet, and he unloaded the rest of his clip while enemies moved in from in front of Zach on all sides, and while girders rained down from above. In the top of Zach's vision, he could see Girder much higher than he was before. Dread Hawk had risen him up so they were out of range after seeing that blue blast Zach almost hit Silent Snake with. Silent Snake flapped his wings to send him back and the guys running at Zach slowed down on his right side too. They backed away from the huge metal bars that were even bigger than they were earlier that were slamming down into the ground and piercing several feet before stopping. Metal bars rose up around Zach, diagonally pointing into the sky around him while he was stepping around with fancy footwork to dodge as they impaled the floor near his feet. Bullets dinked off of metal bars and passed by him as he danced around the bullets and girders at the same time, then he jumped up and kicked off one of the bars as an orange beam hit the spot he was about to dodge to.

Kousen clapped his hands together when Zach rose into the air, right where he expected the boy to dodge one of his Quirk's attack. Zach's sense of hearing shattered. His ears were ringing and in pain, and he suspected they were bleeding under the darkness. He could not hear a thing anymore, but he did not flinch and just punched his left fist forward to break apart the huge chunk of broken vehicle Kousen tried kicking up at him. The rubble from it blocked the next orange beam coming up at him, then Zach kicked off the top of one of the girders he had risen to, dodging another about to hit him that bounced off the first one and made a huge ringing sound while flipping back up into the air. Zach dodged two bullets as he spun back in the air, and he rose his left arm and blocked two more with his forearm and elbow. He landed just outside of the girder field, only to be trapped between it and an eighteen wheeler that dropped out of the air over his head and hit the ground behind him.

Overlord marched forward with a fourteen foot tall beast of a man dragging another of their vehicles forward at his side. "You're not the only one who can corner his enemies!" Overlord yelled towards the teen. Zach had the bottom of a truck behind him, and he half-expected there was someone actually inside the back part of it waiting to jump through the side if he tried jumping over it. He already told himself he could not go any farther back though, and being on this side of all those girders alone was too much. More girders dropped down on his left side, closer together this time and in a row that fell seemingly all at once. On his right side were the five guys who came with Silent Serpent and blocked off one of his escapes. Others were just on the other side of the girders, a couple of them reloading weapons while Overlord moved forward with Keibutorol dragging a pickup with a crunched hood with him.

Taking down Sulu didn't slow them at all. Zach's red eyes darted about, black breath panting from his visible jaw. Riot does that to people. More of them injected than I first thought. I didn't expect Japanese villains to be carrying on them for personal use, not top villains like these guys. It's a street drug… which they must be peddling slower these days with crime so low. This was a big planned attack, and they didn't know what the day might bring them during their heist. The League of Villains brought Trigger to attack Musutafu, so they followed suit even if this was just a distraction…

"I want the finishing blow," Kousen said, glaring out the corner of his eye at two men next to him he just heard talking about stepping in and getting the final hit to become the most famous. "You two help me get it for sure, and using Death, I will conquer this world," Kousen growled it with a crazed look in his eyes, and his comrades who first got nervous at what he said started to grin instead at the idea of helping Kousen do that and be his number 2 guys considering how he was telling them this right now.

Overlord shifted his eyes over towards Kousen who was closer to Sazaki than he was. If you kill the brat, you know I'll have to kill you. "Keibu, throw it. Try hitting on his left side- to our right."

Kousen was on Overlord's right near the edge of the new barrier of girders where Sazaki might dodge if he did not want to get any closer to the city and thought there was one empty side to dodge to. Overlord would rather have him charge at the five on Sazaki's right, where much more of his forces were ready to attack as they suspected those five would lose; or even before they lost the other attacks might come. Sixty-eight villains all moved closer, with fourteen on Riot and two on Trigger, and two of them carrying unconscious comrades forward as they still intended to follow Overlord into the city after this and escape through a backup portal their boss promised them existed.

I can't stop them like this, Zach thought. The chances there was someone hiding behind him in the truck were just under fifty percent he figured, but he could not go back anyway as any closer to the city and he knew the other heroes would start rushing to help him. The last time he looked back there it seemed like Sky Smasher was getting ready anyway, so there was not much time as long as he looked cornered like this or like he was retreating. Kousen was to his left, and his ears were now pounding with what sounded like deafening drums which was only slightly better than the ringing that had pierced his eardrums and made it impossible to hear. Moving forward into the girder field would put him back in the situation where he could be shot at from all sides and barely have time to react to the bullets or judge the ricochets, while more girders would be falling with less space to dodge in. He did not need to look up to know that Girder was amassing a huge amount of girders below him that were all hovering in place as he formed more and more out of thin air, with over twenty already gathered and casting a shadow over them as he prepared to attack. Overlord was watching and just ordered his brute to throw the pickup that was being lifted off the ground, and Zach's right side was full of villains who he knew would get killed as soon as he ran that way by their trigger-happy comrades.

"You think you got me?" The villains continued to stare towards their opponent, but they got unnerved by his voice. His tone was low and scratchy, but it sounded like he was speaking in his normal voice and not faking it at all. It also sounded like he was smiling at them and feeling confident, which annoyed and formed doubt in some of their minds as it looked to them like they had him cornered. The bulky thirty year old woman laying in wait just inside the truck behind Zach opened her eyes wide as she heard his voice through the floor of the vehicle that was now the wall in front of her the way the truck lay on its side. Zach was smiling, and he stopped panting while looking through the bars straight ahead of him. He looked between two crossing bars that gave him a perfect angle to look into Overlord's eyes, "You're fucking fools," Zach continued, his voice darker and darkness swirling on his body.

Girder wanted to wait. He wanted to hold on and attack in a way he would be more confident that Sazaki could not dodge. This is Death! was the only thing Girder could think though as he stared down at this sole figure who did not sound afraid at all despite having blood visible on his right shoulder where the darkness was not thick at all anymore.

He's planning something, Kousen thought, narrowing his eyes towards Sazaki through the bars and raising up his arms in preparation for what was about to happen. What's about to happen?!

Overlord lifted out his left hand as a palm to his side, stopping Keibutorol from throwing the pickup for a second. "You came at us on your own," Overlord announced. "And now you're cornered. Trapped. I'm going to kill you and become the kingpin, and this world will-"

"Remove Limiter Number 1."

Zach's voice topped over Overlord. It was booming, deep, and the words he said could not have been anymore ominous. While I'm on camera. Against a group that's not even the League. Giving them all a good look before it comes. Zach got attacked, but it did not matter. The attacks went straight through him.

A huge arm of darkness that ripped out of his right side around his right arm reached forward and yanked a steel girder out of the floor, and he spun it back and slammed the huge truck on its side far away from him in a single blow. Then he spun it up and threw it into the air where it hit another girder coming down towards him, the only one on target as Girder sent them all flying at once. Zach stood still as dozens of girders pierced into the ground around him, leaving a single space of a hole where he was standing that the one he knocked away would no longer fall. All the others attacks coming at him were blocked by Girder's, with a pickup that was on its way to flying at him getting pierced by five huge steel beams and impaled into the floor before exploding.

Out of the explosion rose Zach with a thirty foot wide wingspan as he shot a hundred feet up in the air in an instant. Girder tried forming more girders but after so many, he was drained and just yelled at Dread Hawk to get them out of there. Dread Hawk dove before Zach reached him, wanting to be closer to the ground in case he was knocked out so he would not fall to his Death. Zach moved slower and attacked those below him with lines of Death that shot out of him ten at a time and made sharp corners through the air below to chase after his dodging opponents. He waited until Dread Hawk was at a height he suspected both the flying villain and executive would survive falling from, then he turned around and flapped his wings behind him towards where those two were, blowing a black wind from the tips of his wings that engulfed the two for a moment and dropped them from the air.

Zach fell straight to the floor and his wings broke apart and slid back on the grass, spreading out far to either side and blocking off the city again with a wall that instantly rose much higher than his one earlier. It stopped any heroes that were considering going to help him from doing so. Can't let them get hurt because I was holding back. I won't do it, as much as this complicates things. Zach moved faster than his fastest opponents who tried to keep up. More of them injected with Quirk-improving drugs as Overlord shouted at all of them to do so, but when Overlord was suddenly hit by a black line that went through the right side of his neck and out the left, morale immediately took the biggest hit imaginable.

"Kousen! Do you know where the other portal is?!" Poole screamed towards the last executive standing.

"YES! Everyone follow me!" Kousen made for the black wall, and he swung his arms in front of him and twisted his hands in a way to create a large orange circle in front of his body. He fired at the floor of the Death Wall, and he created an opening with the city in sight behind it. They were closer than before, and he pressed his feet down hard on the ground below him and pushed off. The ground cracked where he had been, and he shot forward into the Death Wall and through the gap before Zach closed it in on him.

Zach could not hear well. Kousen had made sure of that. The attack had been invisible, or at least invisible to his eyes, but he knew Kousen had to target it and did not think his foe could do that attack with something between them based off the way it was used the first time. A solid thirteen of them are following Kousen now. Quick transition, but most either don't believe he knows where the portal is or are still too scared to do anything seeing Girder and Overlord go down one after the other.

Zach flared his wall while jumping through the middle of it, creating a Zach-shaped hole in it for a moment before the Death rose like flames back in that spot and refilled it. His enemy spun and had his hands close to his chest with the orange circle already formed there, even bigger this time than it just was to destroy part of the wall. "Attack him from behind!" Kousen shouted, while firing off the biggest orange beam he could at Zach.

It's too high to dodge. Could be someone right behind the wall. It makes things disappear. Don't know if it dematerialized the floor or teleported it somewhere else, but it can't hit anyone. Let's try this. Zach pointed his right hand forward and fired a beam of Death out of his palm straight at the orange beam coming at him. Kousen roared at him and stomped his feet harder into the floor, cracking down a crater with his strength that pushed even farther down as his beam was getting pushed back. All he needed was a single blast to dematerialize something, and the continuous beam could have bore a hole a mile down through the surface fired like this. As quickly as his beam was destroying the Death coming at him though, the black beam was firing faster at him and seemed to have no limit- Kousen felt his head get dizzy and his eyelids start closing.

His eyes lowered to his legs, where a thin black line Zach had fired in a wide arc around using his left hand had curved down in Kousen's blindspot and wrapped around his right ankle. "Fuuu…"

Zach stopped firing his beam and jumped up in the air instead. The black beam and orange beam continued firing in towards each other with the backs of the beams getting closer together, with Zach's fired the perfect amount that the last of the orange fired from Kousen's circle hit almost the last of his Death Beam, with just a little extra Death for safety purposes and not too much excess that it would have been a waste. Zach looked back towards his wall where three villains had made it through already, while the fourth who had made a gap backed away instead of going through and allowed the wall to close back up.

"If we get into the city, we can make chaos and some of us could-"

Zach rushed at the first of the three on this side of the wall. He was the one who still had a plan, a smart villain who suspected he knew what Kousen and Overlord were thinking all that time. The other two just turned to flee and opened back up gaps in the shrinking Death Wall to get closer to other comrades Lifebringer could focus on while they ran. Zach moved from the one who wanted to keep moving forward to the one who got through the wall slower than the other. That way there was already one guy through the wall and running away from it when Zach came back to the other side and took down the other. It showed that the one who ran faster was the one Lifebringer would get last, and the man who ran through that wall felt he had made the right choice as he ran past several others who were still trying to think of what they should do with Kousen down, or with Overlord down for those who had not adapted to even that situation yet.

There were still around half of the Subspace Devils left. Many of them tried fighting as they knew there was no escape back the way they came. Zach got many of them to run too though, and their leadership was gone meaning they had no real chance of making it into Desusuta anymore. The rush he had felt for a minute there started to go down, only to rise back up quickly as a truck came barreling his way with someone blasting the horn and cackling like mad from the hood of the vehicle they were controlling it from with their mind. I can hear again, Zach thought as the horn and even that mad villains' laughter reached him. Seeing someone attacking in such a cocky and mad way got the other villains wondering what there was to do but surrender or fight, decide fuck it. Some even turned around and rushed back towards Lifebringer as they had looked farther back for a minute and remembered that they had no reason to be running when there was no escape in this direction.

A couple villains tried running all the way back to get vehicles and drive away from Desusuta with them. One of them was even dragging Potaru with them as they went. They had the slim hope that Potaru would wake up as long as they could run long enough, and they could escape with the teen who was their best chance of getting out of this horrible situation. Zach marked in his head which ones were running and how far he figured they would get, but he had to focus on the ones around him right now first. They knew how much stronger he had gotten yet were fighting him anyway. Cornered animals are a frightening thing. And that's all you are. A bunch of fucking animals. "You can run!" Zach yelled out as the truck barreled closer to him, as dozens of villains charged his way screaming in rage and fear, and as a few ran away. "Or you can face me right here, right now! BRING IT ON!"

Everything was moving so fast for a minute straight that no one watching really knew what was going on anymore. Overlord had been taken down behind a wall of metal girders, so that had not been caught on camera. What was caught was Girder dropping dozens of metal bars down into the area where Zach Sazaki was thought to be cornered, only for the truck behind Zach to suddenly get sent skidding across the ground over the field, and then the same metal bar he just used as a baseball bat to be thrown up at Girder and slam into one of the bars coming down at him. It still seemed like Zach was going to get hit, as this was all happening in the same few moments, and all those bars slammed down right on top of him and a truck which was shredded and exploded. Zach flew right up from that mess though and the next minute was too hard to follow with Zach moving fast, re-blocking the camera's sight, then moving in and out of the wall and attacking his enemies with huge attacks over and over. Once he got back on the other side of the Death Wall though, the wall that he did not refill as he moved to the other side of it, everyone could see the truck flooring it straight towards where they suspected Sazaki to be.

Overwhelming Kousen in the beam clash put many of those watching at ease, as they had feared there for a minute that Zach was running out of Death only for him to show them reserves like they never suspected he had. The massive wall of Death that had flared on one side of him while he fired his Death Beam with one hand shocked his friends watching who had never seen him use so much at once before. The reporter stopped speaking slowly, her voice trailing off when Zach was on the other side of the wall. The truck went rolling to one side so fast it passed the edge of Zach's Death Wall before hitting a side it stopped rolling on and instead just skid a bit farther away on. A wave of Death rose up to the right and an explosion blew up on the left of where the truck just went rolling from. Another explosion happened farther back, and then three metal girders rose into the air spinning around like crazy.

The ground broke apart around Zach, and Zach ran over broken cubes of Earth like it was nothing even as they started waving about in a flood of water created by an enemy on Trigger. He kicked Poole in the face and then whipped his right arm out with three black whips snapping off of it and wrapping around three men close to him who were using Quirks at the same time as a combo on him. He swung his right arm to the side and slammed those men into two others, still with the whips wrapped around them, knocking out all five while he was spinning to the other side.

"He's, so strong," Kerushi was out of his seat since all those girders came falling like they were about to crush Zach. Half of the class had shot up at that moment, only for the next two minutes to be so intense that it did not have any of them sitting down.

"Too strong," Flugeru whispered quieter, his eyes huge as he leaned back in his chair watching waves of Death rise up and roll around in the outskirts of Desusuta.

Kotsumura was out of his seat and had stepped forward so he was just on the left side of Reika's seat now. She heard his voice in a low mutter and darted her eyes off the screen for a second, to see Kotsumura smiling despite the nervous look over his face. "…gotta be the strongest guy in the whole country."

Reika looked back at the screen and shook her head in disbelief for a second, only for her eyes to bulge at what just came flying up over darkness and smoke blocking their view.

"Did you see Overlord out there or not?" Cyn-Thia asked, stepping towards a comrade who started shaking their head in a hesitant way.

"I don't know."

"Even if he is," Sky Smasher started. "Has anyone seen Potaru?" He wanted to move forward himself, but he had yet to see the teenager he was most wary of.

Sky Smasher looked behind him and around at the other seven heroes still there with him. Others had spread back out through the city in groups to look for Overlord and the main attack force they suspected Sazaki might be right about. Sky Smasher frowned as none of the others had seen the teenage villain either. "Then we stay here. Overlord may not have started his attack behind us yet because we're still over here when he wants us out there. The second we leave the city unprotected he could have Potaru teleport him and some others behind us. We just need to, trust Lifebringer for a little longer. Just until help arrives…"

In U.A. Class A, Zach's classmates from his first day of high school watched mostly in disbelief as Zach rampaged on their front board that had turned into a television screen. They thought about the quiet kid of their first few days of class who wouldn't tell them about his Quirk. Some thought about even after he came back from the League of Villains, and they remembered the scared kid who looked as if he had seen too much. He was scarred, and he looked terrified as they did the bomb-defusal course. His movements that day had been erratic, but experienced. He made decisions without hesitation, and Uraraka thought about that before going wider eyed as she stared at her old friend on the screen.

No hesitation? Uraraka thought with a stunned expression That's probably what happened today. He saw what was happening and just, decided he should be there. He decided to go stop it and now he is.

In Jirou's mind flashed the face of the terrified boy held by Shindeki Buda. The short kid who was injured, who was so scared and helpless, looking at her for a way to get him out of that situation before he would be forced to use his Quirk that could only kill… A man leapt up into the air still holding an assault rifle and firing blue beams of ice from his eyes as he rose shooting down towards the ground. A black whip shot up and wrapped around his torso faster than the man was rising. The whip swung to one side before whipping back the other way and smashing the guy into his buddy who tried jumping away too but looked more like he was just trying to run. He's not helpless anymore.

Zach was surrounded by enemies on all sides, and he moved from one to the next while taking down three or four at a time. His body bulged with dark bumps, and his red eyes darted every which way allowing him to react faster than any of his opponents even as they all fired at the same time. Flames came in from either side of him and Zach stepped past them, ducked below the bullet, and a wave of Death came off his left leg as he forced it out that way. Death simmered on his right side while he did it, only as a ploy to make the six hesitating from moving in to charge at him before he bulged that side too and got two of them who were not quick enough to back off.

He leaned his body backwards and allowed a spinning circular saw to fly over his bent-back body. The sound of the spinning saw whizzed through his ears, but he heard the yell of the man over it before the saw cleared his vision to allow him to see the one dropping down towards him with both fists raised looking the size of a person each and doubling more. It would have been impossible to walk with hands that big and heavy, but the man did not need to walk with them as he was already in the air. He slammed them down, surprising Zach who did not think someone would try touching him after all that had happened to the others. He rose his own arms to catch the guy instead of dodging into one of the other attacks coming for him, but his knees buckled down and he dropped to them as the floor cracked into a huge crater.

Not his strength alone. Someone made him heavier before they dropped him. These guys have survived this long in Japan, and against me, Zach rose his head up while gripping his left hand into the man's wrist as the guy continued to push down. Heavier, not more durable. The man above him started screaming, then Zach got up off a knee and spun to his right, firing three black spears out from his body that shot up and then cut down with sharp angles that always seemed to terrify his opponents more than curved ones. Two of his opponents were hit by those lines that cut through them like arrows, but the third darted to the side moving much faster than Zach's attacks and rushed at him with a pistol raised in his right hand while smoke came off his heels.

Zach was swinging the man he caught around that side, but the thought he just had about the man not being any more durable kept him from pushing the guy in front of his other close enemy. The heavy man he was swinging with the giant hands was also trying to slam Zach down on top of his head with his right hand that he had freed from Zach, or more precisely had been released as Zach needed to bring his right hand around to aim at the man with the gun. The fist coming down for his head was heavy, and Zach cursed that the guy was still conscious as he had used the same amount of Death he needed to knock out most of the others but it turned out this guy was strong enough to hold on a little longer. Even if the man's strength was down, with the weight of the left hand that Zach was still clenching a hand into and trying to hold above his head with some difficulty, Zach knew the right fist coming down was going to knock him to the floor which was not an option in a situation like this.

He dodged the bullet instead, even from only a few meters away. His enemy got very close before firing, and he did not even aim for the head as he had seen too many times Zach pull his head to one side or the other to dodge with ease. Zach needed to actually move, and he stepped to the left and had to keep side-stepping to dodge as more bullets fired. He dragged his left hand from above his head down in front of his body too as he went, and he opened his right fist into a palm and slammed forward into the guy's elbow that he knew had to be struggling to support the weight of his huge hand. Zach cracked the bone and let go of the guy who failed to hit him while in so much excruciating pain, and while passing out so his eyes were closed by the time his face hit the floor. Zach darted forward to get the man still running closer while firing at his torso, but the smoke popped out of the barrel one more time when he was reaching out for it. He managed to yank his right hand away from the barrel as he saw the gun shaking, but he was still coming down with his last step and could only yank his body so far to one side as the bullet flew at him.

Most of his Death was currently pouring out of his back and sides as the other enemies who tried coming at him during that confrontation needed to back off, and Zach felt the bullet pierce in before he focused his excess Death down there. The slowed bullet passed through the middle right side of Zach's body and out his back, but as he grabbed the gun out of the villain's hand he grit his teeth in the pain of the not-so-shallow bullet wound he just received. He ripped the gun from his enemy's hand and then rose up and to the right, spinning and pistol-whipping him in the side of the face. He kicked the man as he was falling back into a comrade of his who ran around to get a better angle on Zach than the sides where his Death was waving around without much aim and just keeping back his enemies afraid of what was in the middle.

Zach had some Death on his foot when he kicked his falling enemy who had broken teeth coming out of his mouth from the pistol-whip. That Death transferred over to the man he collided into knocking both of them out, then Zach turned his head and sprinted through the dark wall on his left to come out for four people who just attacked that wall to no avail. They started screaming, and the last of the villains' resolve broke when a couple started running. They had gone from still half their forces into less than half of that in a minute, and the bloody unmoving forms of their comrades, some of whom they knew to be stronger than themselves, was too much to keep standing there looking for a gap in the Death.

"We can't win!"

"Run away!"

"FUCK! Help me- AHH!"

"None of you will escape." Zach walked after the villains who were running and who looked back to see that their scared comrades they left behind to fight were quickly overwhelmed. Zach lifted his head back, while darkness from behind him sucked back into his body and made him a pitch black form with only dark red eyes full of black swirls visible near the top of his body. "You know what happened when the League lost Kurogiri. But even with a Kurogiri of your own, you could still only rise to second. You're pathetic. You're weak." Zach started jogging again, and the darkness around the part of his body just below his eyes condensed and twisted up into a horrifying smile for those looking back who all turned and started running faster. Zach ran faster too though, and faster than them as he yelled out, "And I'm going to show you exactly how weak you are!"

Zach chased his enemies down, and when he finished off the ones on foot, he took to the sky and flew after the vehicles that had not escaped very far. I made it here from Shiketsu in a couple of minutes, Zach thought while shooting through the air leaving a black trail behind him with every flap of his wings. You idiots really think you were going to escape me this way? Zach landed down in front of the farthest vehicle, and he rose up his palm telling them to stop.

They didn't stop.

One leaned out the passenger side window of the closest pickup truck to him. The woman with blonde hair only on one side of her head leaving the other half shaved aimed an assault rifle towards him, and Zach swung his arm towards the vehicle that was not going to be able to dodge as easily as a person. The driver yelled at the passenger to get inside and started closing the window, but he swerved the wheel a bit and she started hanging out of the truck falling too much and missing all of her shots. A black wave crashed into the truck, and then the woman falling out of the passenger side got caught by the teen already sprinting forward who skid to a stop while keeping as much Death away from his arms as he could. He dropped her to the floor while the truck rolled to a stop, then he turned to the next vehicle back which was starting to turn a different direction.

"Really?" Zach asked, staring at the vehicle which slowed to a stop after a second as the driver decided against it. Hands stuck out of the window and up in the air. "Good choice."

It did not take Zach long after dropping his limiter. The couple of villains who tried to surrender at the end, Zach still knocked out just for good measure. He finished them off after getting back closer to the initial spot the vehicles had stopped, as there were actually a couple villains in hiding back in those vehicles who did not try driving off yet while Lifebringer was still there but would try making escapes later during a clean-up procedure. He figured they were going to kill whoever came to clean up and try sneaking off in a police uniform or something, and he was glad he had kept a close watch on the vehicles he had seen people watching from since the start as he had expected some of them to be the hardest to fight as they would have seen more of his tactics than anyone.

While Zach finished off those villains, the other heroes near the edge of the city started moving forward. Sky Smasher flew forward faster than the other heroes behind him, but he dropped down to the ground into a jog and then a slow walk as he saw Zach Sazaki coming his way. Zach walked towards Desusuta without any darkness around him. He had his arms down at his sides, his sweatshirt had a couple holes and cuts in it, and there were wet spots around those marks that were more dark red than black. He was walking without a limp though, in a confident and strong way. And he was smiling. He had the smile of victory as he walked away from a battleground covered in dead grass, broken and burning vehicles, and unconscious villains in every direction.

"I found Overlord and Potaru," Zach called to Sky Smasher as he approached the other hero. "They were planning to come in behind you all like I thought, but I took care of them too," he mentioned that in a half-apologetic tone since he knew it would look odd that the other heroes had stayed where they were in hindsight.

It was the right move then? Sky Smasher looked behind Lifebringer when the teen mentioned the two he was looking for by coming out here. Lifebringer telling him that assured him the attack was over though, and the part after Sky Smasher had not even begun thinking about yet but he nodded with what the kid said anyway. I'll stand behind it. The results are what matter most, and moving from that position could have made for… How did he do this? Sky Smasher could not keep thinking on track, as his eyes scanned around for a second time from up close to the battleground Sazaki had taken care of.

Zach's eyes widened and he kicked off the floor. He shot past Sky Smasher, and other heroes behind him all spun the same way as they saw movement in a truck on its side not too far from them. Black wind came off of Zach's legs as he sprinted to the truck, and he jumped up and pointed his right hand forward with his index finger extended like a barrel. So there was someone in here after all, Zach thought, while hitting the woman crawling out of the top side of the truck with a bloody face and a gun in one hand. Almost missed one. Would've sucked if someone else got the final blow. Zach landed and skid for a couple of feet before letting out a relieved sigh and turning back to the heroes behind him who all got ready for a fight again in that moment. "Pretty sure that's the last one," Zach said, cracking his smile again and scratching the back of his head.

---

"…Based on what Lifebringer heard the villains say during the confrontation, we do believe it was the Escario Jewel the Subspace Devils were after," Unlock announced to the press he was speaking to on the stage set up at the outskirts of Desusuta. They were at the edge of the city that had the battlefield behind it full of heroes and cops still cleaning everything up, but some of the heroes were needed for this press conference and had to take a break from the efforts to put out flames and arrest and process all the villains. "Overlord's plan was most likely to draw away the protective detail surrounding the gemstone on display at the Zuna gallery, then once the majority of the Subspace Devils were fighting Desusuta's heroes, Overlord would have Potaru open up a portal inside the Zuna…"

Zach looked at Unlock's back as he was talking, listening to the older hero who spoke to the public in a clear and heroic speaking voice. As much as I kept telling them afterwards that the only reason it wasn't worse was because they didn't come out to help, the two of them were really beating themselves up over these wounds. Tried saying this was nothing, but the EMTs even made me wear this stupid sling. I'm not going to move my right arm. Just wrap the wound and get to helping those villains. Nearly killed a couple of them out there- well, I shouldn't think of it like that. I didn't kill even one person. I didn't even let one person die! Damn impressive if I do think so myself.

Sky Smasher stepped up to the podium to answer questions since he had told them at the start of the conference that he had taken command of the defense. The very first question though was, "Why did you let Lifebringer go out there alone to fight the villains?! Were you too afraid to fight them yourself?" This was met by a lot of the other reporters around the woman who shouted this out to start clamoring in agreement.

"It was not a matter of fear," Sky Smasher countered. He paused for a moment and then continued in a steady and strong voice, "Lifebringer suspected Overlord's plan and requested we stay where we were to prevent a disaster. If we had left that position then we would have left the city defenseless. Getting past us was not an issue for the Subspace Devils, as long as they had Potaru. As soon as we had left to go fight outside of the city, we would have left Desusuta vulnerable to Overlord's scheme."

The clamoring started again, but the reporters were mainly looking around and muttering to each other in some agreement or disagreement with the way things were handled. "Ultimately," Sky Smasher began again unprompted. "The decisions were made in instants, and looking back on them we can say firmly that those decisions were the right ones."

"How can you say that when Lifebringer got hurt because you sent him out there all on his own-"

Zach stepped up to the podium they set up in front of him. He had been told to wait until it was his time to move forward and accept questions, but he looked over at Sky Smasher with a look asking him if he could take this one, which Sky Smasher was glad to let him do. "I'm not hurt," Zach assured after stepping up to the podium. He moved around his right arm which he knew was making a doctor somewhere very angry, but he just smiled at the crowd in front of him instead of reacting to the pain of it or the pain he felt down on his side where he got another wound bandaged up too. "I got a couple of scratches out there, but it was nothing that bad that you could argue it wasn't the right move-"

"Lifebringer!"

"Lifebringer!"

"Over here!"

The former question did not matter to the reporters anymore, or even when Zach was answering it. The fact that he was up to the podium was all that really mattered and they were all ready to ask their most important questions. Zach leaned back a little at the sudden shouting all coming at him at once. Alright, confident but not too heroic. Somewhat nervous to be getting shouted at like this, "Um, yes. You," Zach pointed at one of the reporters in front of him who looked nice and who had a camera with one of the big station's logos on it.

"Lifebringer," the young woman with gray hair in a bob style began. She calmed herself down from the way she was shouting a second ago to get his attention, then she spoke in a more professional voice, "How does it feel having taken down two of Japan's five most wanted, as well as the second most powerful villain group in the country single-handedly?"

Zach's expression turned a bit hesitant. How do I answer that without bragging? She set it up to get me bragging, which I can't do when the next questions are probably going to grill me on why I'm here. "Well, I don't think the Subspace Devils were that strong- I mean," Zach stopped himself, grimaced for a moment and he hesitated again. "What I mean is, well, take the League of Villains for example." He seemed to be side-tracking, though it would be odd to deflect a softball question like that so everyone was listening closely in confusion as to why he was digressing. "They only really got to the place they were because of Kurogiri. Every one of their moves and plays was dependent on Kurogiri, just like the Subspace Devils relied on Potaru to make them as renowned as they were."

Zach paused for a moment as he felt like he did not say that right, and he was regretting bringing up Kurogiri at the way some of the press changed up their expressions like their questions had changed. Don't ask them anything, he thought, and he also needed to continue with more to be able to shift what his next questions would be. "But Potaru was only ranked fifth because of what his Quirk was and what everyone knew he could do with it. I just mentioned the part about him being the center of their plans, because there's still some confusion about what happened out there and why the Subspace Devils didn't try to run or just teleport into the city early. Since I suspected that Potaru was the most important part of whatever their plan was, I looked for him first and took him out of commission before they could enter the city."

Seems like a good place to end it. I suspected that because I knew how integral Kurogiri was. You aren't thinking of Kurogiri now though, you're thinking of how I know the importance of Kurogiri better than anyone. Because I joined the League of Villains. I make bad decisions. Like I did… There. Zach asked for another question, and then he pointed towards a man who he hoped he judged correctly.

"Why was it that you put up that wall using your Quirk?" The man asked, making Zach frown internally while just nodding at the man from behind his podium. Really thought I had that one. "Was it to prevent us from seeing the way you were fighting? And if so, what were you trying to hide?"

"I just didn't want the villains running to the city the old-fashioned way with Potaru down," Zach replied. He looked around for another question after answering, showing that was the only response he was going to give for that question which had been easy to answer like it was a joke because the real reason was so clear. "Yes, you in the red," Zach tried to curve his point back towards another of the reporters. Come on. Ask me quickly. I already turned on my phone. If everyone's watching though- I could send a secret message. How could I tell someone to give me a call without it being super obvious? Maybe just something me and someone have talked about. Mina. No, if I mention it she'll just think I'm making an inside joke and laugh. Momo? No. Midoriya might get it but he wouldn't give me the call to give me my out. Not the way things are right now. I don't know if Lemillion's gotten him anyway…

"Lifebringer, my question for you is mainly, how did you get here? And shouldn't you have been in school- shouldn't you be in school right now?" A couple of other reporters started nodding along, and others looked closely at the eighteen year old who needed to give an explanation for this even though some of them were nervous as to what it would be.

"I wasn't feeling great so I skipped," Zach replied. He shrugged his left shoulder like it could not be helped, while smiling in a more heroic way down towards that reporter. "Then I saw what was going on here and knew I was close enough, and since I have a provisional license that meant I was allowed to help."

"You were 'close' enough?" The man in red questioned Zach's wording. "What do you mean by that? Were you in Desusuta? You should be living in Yutapu if I'm correct, so what were you doing around here?"

"I was," Zach hesitated and then began anew. "I don't think 'close' enough in terms of deciding when to help as a hero means the distance, but the time it takes to get somewhere." Zach's explanation made sense and he said it in a common-sense tone, even though what he was saying was somewhat unfamiliar. "If I can be somewhere in five minutes, then I'm five minutes away from the crime scene. That's how 'close' I was to it." Time can work as distance. Is that why they call it Light Years? Probably not. The Void was time and distance mushed together so- you're in a press conference! Zach answered the reporter's question while also giving a theoretical way to consider looking at how 'close' he was and if that would even matter when reviewing this case.

The question about whether Zach had been close enough to get involved had only two bad answers the reporter who asked it thought of. If Zach was not close enough then he had broken the rules by coming all the way from Yutapu where he had been, when people with provisional licenses were only allowed to take part in crimes going on around them. If he had been closer than all the way in Yutapu, then why was he there? Did he know something was going to happen today and did not tell anyone about it? Was he working with those villains just to get more fame?! That was the farthest extreme, but either way the reporter figured he was going to get a juicy answer there. Instead he was left staring at Sazaki with big eyes, Can he do that?

"Is, is he right?" Present Mic asked, turning to Ectoplasm and then looking back at Principal Nezu who was watching the press conference with them while sipping on a coffee.

Nezu hummed in a high-pitched way while his teachers looked at him. If it were All Might, no one would think twice about that meaning of the word "close." As a student with a provisional license, however, the same rules do not apply. The exact wording of the law is not specific though, and there is precedent of turning a blind eye to something like this. Precedent that Sazaki himself created, finding the loophole in order to stop Killmore. Nezu looked to Present Mic who asked him the question and replied, "Only time will tell."

Ectoplasm frowned and turned back to the tv they were watching together. The kid's got a second chance here. If he had messed this up… he would have died. Failing wouldn't have meant that he lost his right to stay here. And even succeeding but doing so a little differently- but the kid didn't let any of the villains die. In a situation like that it should've been impossible that not even one of the villains sacrificed a comrade to get a better shot on him…

"…This blow wiped out the Subspace Devils. They took everyone I've heard of in their organization with them," Zach continued to reply to the next question that the reporters asked him, and he looked more confident after having answered a couple of questions already. The fact that the question after the one asking about why he was not in school was not on the same topic helped him out too, and he appeared like he was glad not to have to answer any more questions like that for the moment. He was speaking more freely to the reporter who did ask something in a way that was appreciative of what he had done too, and he continued with a smile but a serious look over his face, "It was a risky move they took, and they got caught. They needed the money probably because the traders bringing illegal goods into the country were caught last weekend. The international drug trade was interrupted, and I bet the Riot and Trigger those villains used today was the last they managed to get in thanks to the heroes who shut down those ports and arrested the villains involved…"

Lemillion stood in his agency only five feet from his tv, glaring furiously at the kid staring at the camera so it was like they were looking into each other's eyes. Zach's smile did not look cocky and all in-your-face, but that was all Lemillion saw as the only person who Zach knew also knew about who was really responsible for those ports getting raided and the international drug trade being interrupted. He's taunting me, Lemillion thought, shocked that he was seeing this double meaning while his sidekick behind him started talking to the back of his head about how maybe they were wrong about Sazaki.

"…If their profits were down, they had to try something riskier to keep supporting their organization. It got them caught, and it was because of the actions that arrested the port workers working with the villains, the villains running those docks, and international villains who the world's heroes and Japan's own caught and stopped that big thing that was going on." Zach nodded and continued while looking to a reporter who gave him more of a skeptical look and raised her hand like she was going to call him out on being too modest and trying to push the credit onto other heroes. "Really, the fact that they're happening so close together makes me confident that Overlord only tried something like this because something cut off his business."

Class A was at lunch, though most of the class had their phones out and were streaming the press conference Zach was at. Class B and most other people in the cafeteria were watching it too, with Kirishima being one of the few not watching with just an annoyed look on his face instead as he gazed around to see how many people were doing so. He was surprised Bakugo was watching when he looked to his side at the spiky-blond-haired boy who had his phone sitting next to his tray on the table. Bakugo was eating while distracted, unlike Midoriya across from him who was staring at his phone solely and had barely touched his food. At what Zach was talking about though, both of them stared in different ways than the others around the cafeteria.

Most of the students thought Zach was being overly modest, even if they did think what he was saying sounded convincing and might be right. As Mineta said on Deku's right side that it sounds like Zach's right, Midoriya lifted his head up and looked across the table to his childhood friend. Bakugo glanced up with a dark look in his eyes and a pissed-off expression on his face. He turned off his phone and shoved it in his pocket, getting back to eating which had Kirishima look down at his tray and continue to eat as well, glad someone else around him was not watching anymore.

He's just another one of us, Kirishima thought as he chowed down. There's no reason for everyone to talk about him all the time. Something like this though isn't- damn it. But he's…

As Kirishima dealt with his own frustration, Bakugo and Midoriya were thinking very different things than him or any of their other classmates. Is he bragging at Lemillion? Bakugo wondered while eating his food, seemingly only focused on it. Sounds about right. He's a huge dick sometimes, but he was always acting before when he would be. Is he pretending to still be pissed at Lemillion and is bragging about this now? Or is he just smug because even if Lemillion still wanted to use that evidence for something, now there's even less of a reason he can do it? Maybe it's not even about him.

Why is Zach saying all of that? Deku had an anxious and disappointed look on his face as he watched Zach speak to the crowd and the nation watching him right now. If it ever came out what he did that got Spade caught, and people think that Overlord only came out and got caught because of it, then he'll get more than just the credit for stopping them. It will have all been Zach's- "Sulu, the Subspace exec?" Midoriya almost choked and he wasn't even eating any food, but he coughed a couple of times and then refocused on his phone while ignoring the looks from his classmates who glanced in at him from his sides. He couldn't have. It's impossible! There's no way he expected this. THIS?!

Midoriya took in a deep breath to calm himself down. I'm overthinking that. He just knew who Sulu was, because he was already looking into all the villains in Japan as he should. I would have asked the same thing if I heard that name, just to check. Midoriya brought a hand up to his mouth but kept from muttering as he just thought faster instead. Maybe he's just proud of what he did this weekend? Midoriya offered up to himself. Togata said that the way Zach betrayed them was harsh and it sounded cruel what Zach did to them, but it was effective. It was effective and he couldn't deny it, but to do that and then just keep on about his day was what disturbed Togata so much. What if Zach really was struggling with it? What if he's not saying that to us, to Lemillion, but actually just saying it aloud because he wants other people to talk about it too and confirm that what happened this weekend made this happen. He did this without any damage, stopped the Subspace Devils, took down Overlord, and he thinks it's because of his work this weekend just walking around and trying to find crime? That sounds, like he really was struggling. It could be subconscious. He might even think he's just trying to make people appreciate the work those other heroes did, since he knows they don't know about his involvement and definitely won't now as Togata can't use that now. He won't at least.

Zach, you're thinking too much. Working over the whole country as you do this. Midoriya frowned and his eyes narrowed down at his phone screen in a darker way. I'm probably wrong about everything I just thought. You always catch me off guard, but this time I'll expect anything. There could be way more reasons as to why you're doing this. As to why you even went out there in the first place! I don't know, and whatever you've said so far doesn't give me any explanation either. I need to investigate on my own. I need to- I need to figure out what your plan is!

Zach's phone started ringing. He got cut off in the middle of speaking, and he pulled out his phone. He leaned forward and said into the mic, "Sorry." He had a sheepish smile as he said it like he did not know his phone was on ring, but then when he looked down at the screen for real instead of just to pull it out of his pocket his eyes widened and he lowered his smile a bit. "Um actually, I have to go. Thank you," Zach added, giving a small half-wave at the reporters who all started shouting after him asking him to stay and calling out their questions they never got to ask.

Sky Smasher and Unlock turned and watched as the kid walked away. They both saw the screen had lit up and actually did have a number on it, though they were wondering who would be calling the kid while he was up on stage in a press conference. When he did his half-wave too, he had waved with his phone facing out so some of the screen got seen for a moment enough that a receiving-call screen would be able to be paused on for anyone checking to see if he was really faking it. Even that did not seem really intentional but more like he just couldn't wave with his other arm since it was in that sling so he had to use the same one he was holding his phone with.

Zach answered the phone while dropping off the back of the stage. The number calling him was one he did not recognize, and he did not say anything for a couple of seconds after picking up. He walked on the grass back towards the clean-up on the outskirts of the city that only heroes and police were allowed near right now. He would be allowed past the police line just ahead of him, and he was planning on staying there for the rest of the day as he already said he skipped school on camera not long ago. "Hello?" Zach asked after five seconds of walking without saying anything. "Who is this?"

Zach's steady look started to change. No one responded over the line, but his smile dropped down confusing some of the cops looking towards him who wondered who he was talking to as they neared the police line. The call ended. Zach heard the click telling him the other side had disconnected, and he lowered his phone and put it in his pocket without looking at it again. Well, thanks for getting me out of that. He shook his head around and smiled again to give a cop he was approaching a reassuring look that everything was fine. "Back to it," he said cheerfully, and the cops looked at him more in shock than anything as he was heading back out there to keep working despite all he had done already.

Don't give me those amazed looks. I really just don't want to deal with school right now, Zach thought with a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face. That's a problem for tomorrow.

---

A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the chapter. So... well, no need for a recap of what you just read I guess. XD Leave a review letting me know what you think, comments, questions, predictions, etc!

Shinn of Destiny chapter 155 . May 9

And of course my home state has the experiments. welp Virginia, it's been real.

Oof, rough break. ;) lol thanks for the review.

yasideen1 chapter 155 . May 9

Next chappy is 2,000,000 words. What a journey. Congratulations in advance to you.
Glad to have found this story, as this is my favorite of all the fanfics I've read.

Thanks! We've broken the 2 mil mark... wonder if it's going to reach 3 mil? I don't think so, but hey, ish happens!

orangelarcenist chapter 155 . May 9

Chaos is a ladder? Did GOT also exist in the Death-Universe? Zach really seems to have a weakspot for Momo, telling her so many things... I cant fucking wait for Ezianos Grand Appearance. Thanks for the chapter, cant wait for the next one!

Zach has been watching Game of Thrones lately... I mean I have been watching GOT lately, and Littlefinger's got some great wisdom to share (wisdom for super-villains at least). Glad everyone's super hyped on Eziano... and don't worry, he's- NO spoilers! Lol, thanks for the review though, and hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Ace Amity chapter 155 . 17h ago

Great job as always. I was wondering, since you usually have the next chapter done when posting a chapter, what's your update schedule? I know things can get out of whack with schooling and such but is there an update pattern you have?

Thanks a lot! My schedule always changes up really. There's no pattern to the madness. XD When I started this story I went like 60 chapters in 60 days, (maybe fewer days actually). Life picked back up though and got really busy this semester, and now it's probably going to slow down again so I'll probs be picking up pace again. As to having the next chapter done, sometimes I'd rather write then spend a couple hours editing (this edit took me 4 hours). When I edit, I reread the entire chapter I wrote to try and remove all spelling/grammar errors. The update pattern is really just whenever I feel like taking the time out for it. Currently I only have 2 scenes out of x of the next chapter done, and my college graduation is tomorrow, I have a 15 page paper due tonight I haven't started yet, and have family coming down to visit this weekend... so probably won't get another update out for half a week or more. Anyway, glad I could explain this down here for you and anyone else interested! Thanks for the review!

AMR-MNR chapter 155 . 12h ago

DAMN. it's been a really, really long time since I started reading this non-stop... Three weeks? At any time I had a moment, even staying up to read for hours till just before the sun peeks over the horizon... At chapter 60 or so, I was uncertain of how long it would take. I never would have thought you could keep writing this, so much. But now, now you're still here, pushing the story forward, at a pace I could never hope to achieve...
It's nearing the endgame. In times like this, when all seems to be drawing towards a conclusion, it suddenly shatters. It won't be Lemillion to come out and ruin Zach, it won't be Todoroki, or Deku or Bakugou. It will be something so much more unexpected, so much more daunting, that it will literally hit like a freight train.
All For One, Eziano Mozcaccio, they may be the two big enemies left here. But it won't be their action that tears Zach down. It will be, himself. Be it deliberate or not, his actions will destroy him, but pave the road to a future that Hawks would very much enjoy. A world that he, crafted himself.
I don't know if he will die doing it, or kill himself, but if he doesn't, I'd hope that he lives anew... Watching from the shadows, a force unrecognizable to anyone, but everyone knows about it.
DEATH, is who you answer to, for commiting truly terrible deeds. Not the Army, not the person, but just... Death. He'd become the all encompassing Eziano Mozcaccio, who doesn't just kill people without a trace, but is a literal barrier between Society, and Evil.
This has been my first review, thanks for the weeks of entertainment, and I'm sure to enjoy what is left in the next few Arcs... Whatever that may be, I may be wrong entirely... But, we'll see!
Ciao!

Awesome. This review was great, and I'm really glad you've liked the story so much. Reading this was a great way to wake up, and I hope I can keep up the quality as it moves forward. Know it'll be tough being able to read whenever you want to being all caught up and having to stick with my schedule, but it sounds like you're in this for the long run. The endgame is coming. Nice prediction on your middle part... and I'm glad you're psyched for the coming arcs. We'll see what they have in store indeed! Ciao, and thanks again for reviewing!