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!

157. Chapter 157

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 157:

Zach did not head to his classroom the day after his fight outside of Desusuta. He entered Shiketsu and went straight to the principal's office, as he had contacted the school the night before and already knew what was coming for him. Zach stood before Principal Memuria's desk, while Mr. Norasaki stood on the left side and Hazano on the right of it all facing him. Memuria sat at her seat behind her desk, staring at the boy who had come forward and stood there with his hands overlapping behind his waist and his elbows pointed out at the sides. He did not have a sling on his right arm as she expected him to have, and he looked perfectly fine so she did not ask if he was alright.

Zach's wounds were hidden underneath the bandages below his clothes, though he felt some lingering pain with the way he had his right arm bent to stand in a respectful way before the principal and staff. "Sazaki," Memuria began. The woman with receding grayish purple hair paused, then continued in an inquisitive tone, "Do you have any explanation for your actions?"

Hazano stared at his student who had arrived early so that he could take part in this review as well before homeroom started. What will be the verdict? Hazano wondered while keeping the principal in his peripheral vision. Cutting school like that, and lying to everyone about skipping school. Shiketsu has not given an official statement as to what Sazaki said yet, but it will come.

Zach glanced to Norasaki, then back to the principal with a hesitant look on his face. The bald lie-detector watching Zach gave him a stern look at the way Zach turned to him almost in disdain that he could not lie his way out of this situation. "I, admit I lied," Zach began. "And I'm sorry for leaving school like that so suddenly, without telling anyone."

"Is that all you really have to say?" Memuria asked. Her voice was harsh, shrill, and her eyes narrowed in at the boy who was not doing a good job of convincing her he should be allowed to stay. "I warned you that I was hesitant to accept your application because of the same reason Mr. Principal did not. The law forgave you for your crimes so I gave you a second chance, but if you cannot follow the rules then this school is not the place for you."

"I wasn't trying," Zach paused and he stopped himself, closing his mouth and looking like he did not want to make excuses.

Memuria wanted to hear his excuse though, and she asked, "You weren't trying to what? Answer this. Did you or did you not deliberately lie to your teacher in order to sneak out of school and fight the Subspace Devils?"

"I did not," Zach replied.

Norasaki's eyes shot open huge. What?

Memuria and Hazano both looked confusedly at Zach first at his reply, but their confusion turned into more surprise as they looked at Norasaki to see him looking baffled. "Are you lying?" Norasaki asked, stepping towards Zach and giving him a stern and angry look. How is he getting around it?

"No," Zach answered. Norasaki's Quirk did not signal to him that Zach was lying, and his eyebrows rose but he lost his accusatory look.

"Wait, wait," Hazano shook his head and frowned at Zach as he turned back to his homeroom teacher. "What are you saying then? That doesn't make sense." Hazano tried to think of some other explanation but did not see anything else making sense at all.

"Why did you leave your class?" Memuria asked the student in front of her desk. Her expression was not as harsh anymore, but she continued to look at him impartially and ready to expel him depending on his response. "Were you really going to the bathroom?"

"No, I…" Zach stopped himself and pursed his lips for a moment. Then he stood up straighter and took in a deep breath through his nose. He shifted his eyes to Hazano's for a moment and said, "I needed to, get out," Zach paused, while Hazano's confused eyes started to widen more. He thought about the look on Sazaki's face while he was still in the middle of teaching his class. His heart started racing, skyrocketing in a matter of a couple of seconds at the hesitant look on his student's face.

"Why?" Hazano questioned.

Memuria looked to her side at the younger man there who was staring in disbelief at his student but also like he was starting to realize something else. She turned back to Sazaki herself and said, "Even if it is hard to say, I need you to say it or I'll have no other choice. If there was no extenuating circumstance that demanded you leave campus without signing out using proper procedure, then I must punish you accordingly."

"I was having a hard time," Zach replied. He looked at his principal and his expression was steady for a moment, but his eyes shifted aside at the way she looked at him demanding more. "I was, thinking about things that I, I usually don't think about. Things I can push back, most of the time," Zach's voice got quieter, while the staff in front of him stared at the student whose eyes shifted down and whose teeth clenched for a moment before he steadied again. "I don't like to, bother other people with this kind of thing. I can deal with it on my own, and so I said I needed to go to the bathroom because I- I didn't think I could keep the things I was thinking about from showing…"

Hazano's breath picked up faster, his hands shaking for a moment at his sides and then curling tightly into fists. Impossible. At the same time?! And he what? Left and then saw?! But Norasaki!

Zach rose his eyes back up to his principal who continued to give him a stern look despite what he was saying. "When I was gone, I fought in a war on a different world that took everything I had. I saw things and, I did things," Zach paused at the look on his principal's face that followed with her turning to Norasaki only to spin back to the child in front of her with huge eyes. Zach's eyes were just sad and pained though when she looked back into them, and he turned away again with a look towards Hazano and then at the wall on his right side. "I was having a flashback… it's PTSD, and I just didn't want everyone to see me start losing it so I bailed. I made an excuse and left the class, and then I flew up as high in the sky as I could so no one could see me… or hear me."

The thought of the kid in front of them flying up high and screaming at the top of his lungs appeared in the three faculty members' heads. The way he looked right now, it did not seem all that far-fetched to them. Zach turned back and his expression steadied back out though, his mind going off of what they were talking about as he continued, "But once I was up real high, I got a notification about what was happening. It, it actually pulled me out of the past. It reminded me of what I came back to do." Zach paused for a second, and then he spoke in a lower voice, "And when I skipped out on school, I saw what was going on and decided I was close enough to help."

His wording came remarkably close to how he worded his explanation during the press conference. What had seemed to them like a blatant lie, was apparently just a small omission of the "out on" after he said he "skipped" during that conference. He made it sound like he had never been to school in the first place that day, but the way Zach just worded it to them told his teachers that even if the truth came out the boy would be able to spin it as he had been telling the truth the whole time. Or at least Zach seemed to think he would be able to…

"I'm sorry to hear about this," Memuria started. Zach got a grimmer look on her face as to what she was referring to, cementing further the idea that he had not mentioned it before and lied just because he did not want them to be bothered by it or think less of him for it. The principal felt the need to continue though, "However, Sazaki, if you do believe you are having problems with PTSD, then I need to know if they will cause further problems here."

"I'm fine, ninety-nine point nine percent of the time," Zach replied with a shake of his head. "It was a lapse, and not even that long of one."

"But could it happen again?" Memuria asked, her voice sterner as she did not want him avoiding the question.

Zach hesitated, then he nodded his head. "Yes, I suppose it could. It might."

There was a silence that filled the room for a few seconds. Then Principal Memuria nodded her head, "Alright. Then I am not making a suggestion, but a demand that you get help for that." Zach looked into her eyes, and Memuria told him straight out, "You will get yourself a therapist. You have hero health insurance, and I am going to notify through the proper channels-"

"I can do it myself-"

"But I will still do what I must as well," Memuria cut back in just as Zach tried cutting her off. He was frowning at the idea of it, but Memuria said firmly, "You may think that hiding your problems is best for everyone, that you don't need saving," Zach looked at her with his own eyes widening a little this time. "But you need to deal with these problems so that the point-one percent of the time it comes out, it's in the proper setting." Zach nodded at his principal in understanding and with the decision not to argue with her anymore.

Memuria gazed to her right at Norasaki, then back at Hazano for a moment who she felt she needed to talk to for longer at the way he was still looking. She turned back to Sazaki and said, "Then this time, and this time alone, I am going to let you off with a warning." Zach's eyes widened more this time than when she said her wise quote a moment ago. The male teachers looked in with surprise too at the usually strict principal's lenient decision here. "In part," Memuria continued, with a small smile forming on her face, "because of the good work you did yesterday. You did a good thing going out there, and winning."

Her expression immediately returned to normal and she motioned for the door with her head, "You may go."

"Thank you, Principal Memuria," Zach replied with a bow to his teacher he was grateful to. He went for the door and left without looking back.

Hazano watched Zach leave, the nervous look back on his face as he stared at his student's back. It's impossible. But what's more impossible? Could he have thought it all through from the very first second? Yet he's slipping past Norasaki's lie-detecting? It doesn't make sense. Yet it's too much of a coincidence for this to be the truth!

"Hazano," Memuria started. Her voice was low and scolding which made the younger man next to her snap his head up in surprise. "You should not show your student such a suspicious and unnerved expression. Even if what he says and does are very contradicting things."

Norasaki looked at the other two in a bit of confusion himself, and the older bald man began, "Everything he said was the truth."

"I wonder," Memuria said. She glanced back to Norasaki who grimaced himself, as she was calling him out on doubting his own Quirk with that look like she knew he had been doing so already.

"He was…" Hazano started. The other two looked to him, and Hazano stared at the floor with his expression back to the way it was since he could listen to the principal and still not show Sazaki this look right now. "Yesterday in class, Sazaki suddenly started looking, strange. He was struggling to keep a straight face," Hazano shook his head, biting down hard at how much of a coincidence this all was. Hazano's voice spoke up softer, "He looked like he was really having a PTSD attack. It sounds like exactly what I had seen, but what I had just ignored at the time and allowed him to go to the restroom because it seemed like… Maybe because it seemed like he was thinking about something bad, and he wanted to go," Hazano frowned deeper as he trailed off again.

"Then what is your concern?" Memuria asked.

Hazano shook his head. It's even more of a conspiracy than the coincidence of him flying off… isn't it? "The coincidence is just, mind-boggling," Hazano admitted, shaking his head stronger and then letting out a long sigh. "I should start getting ready for class," he said with a look back at the other two.

Memuria hummed but dismissed her teacher who she watched closely on his way out of her office. Hachiman left the office and closed the door behind him, then he grimaced and lowered his eyes to the floor as he started walking. It's an option though. It makes sense, as much as I wouldn't even say it because it would be crazy. Sazaki, could have planned from the moment he heard the attack was happening- maybe before I even got my notification, when my back was turned or something! He got that notification, and in that exact moment, he thought fifty steps ahead to a couple minutes ago when he would come to that review at Shiketsu once the battle was won and he had given his press conference. If he really thought that by talking about PTSD he would get off, and he did! He did get away without any punishment… so if he thought this was coming, and just acted surprised- and the fact that he had this attack right when Overlord made his move is too close! It's impossible. So as crazy as this sounds, did he really do it?

He looked like he was having a PTSD attack, which allowed him to get backed up here by a legitimate reason, which means he thought about the review the moment he saw something going on. Maybe it wasn't about thinking fifty steps ahead. Maybe he just thought about the first and fiftieth step first. When thinking of how he could leave the school, he just planned for the future too. He found a way he could get out and still ensure he could come back. That's not, unbelievable? But could he have faked those looks? He seriously looked, like he was seeing terrible things and barely holding it in. Right? I'm overthinking this. If Norasaki didn't call him out, then it was the truth. Even if he thought from the first move to how he could get back into school, he needed to do that anyway just to get to the bathroom and to his final goal of flying into the sky… to scream. Because he needed to get to a place no one could hear him lose it. Where no one could see Lifebringer, who so many people look to as this strong beacon of someone who has it all together. Hazano rose a hand up to his forehead and rubbed it as he walked down the hall, losing his dark look and instead just getting a pitying one on his face instead. It's way too much pressure to put on a boy his age. No matter who he is, all that plus the kind of past he's had; there's no wonder he needs therapy.

---

Zach sat in on class the day after defeating the Subspace Devils, and he was surprised that his classmates managed to hold off from spending the first half of the day grilling him about it. He had entered right before Hazano though, slipping into the class from where he was hiding out just before his teacher arrived so the people who all got up to run to him had to rush back to their seats as the day was starting. Most of them wondered how Zach was getting away with this as they knew nothing about his review that morning, though there were others who were not surprised Zach had managed to avoid getting punished for what he did. His uniform had a couple of marks in it so it was not up to standards, but no one mentioned that either. They all spent their whole mornings thinking about him and keeping their theories to themselves.

Lunch was different though. At lunch, Zach had to deal with every single person in his class coming up and crowding his table to ask him everyone from how he took on the Subspace Devils to how he got out of school, to how he got from school to Desusuta so fast, to how he managed to stay enrolled, etc. As Zach gave some vague response for one of the questions though, he noticed Kotsumura on his right side give him a strange look and questioning gaze when Zach looked fully at him. "What?" Zach asked.

Kotsumura shook his head, saying 'nothing' and getting to his food. Fuck, Zach thought, while turning back and answering another question from an excited classmate of his asking if he was serious about how he really did just happen to bail on school first. Others called him out on it as BS, but Zach stuck by it and said it wasn't until after he left the class that he got notified, and since he was gone already…

Lunch finished, and Zach walked with Kotsumura back towards class. "Are you serious about all that?" Keiji asked his new friend, giving him a somewhat serious look and also joking like he did not expect Zach to try and stick to his story now that it was just the two of them talking. Zach looked at him like he was wondering what part Kotsumura was asking about, and the blond boy continued, "That you really didn't know until after you left?"

"It's true," Zach replied. Why? "There was a different reason for leaving."

"Which was?" Kotsumura asked.

"I was," Zach paused, and he started to frown a little, in a way that Kotsumura recognized.

"Hey hey," Kotsumura shook his head at his classmate. "Don't," he said, and Zach's lips lowering into a frown flattened out instead of shifting in a confused way.

He definitely saw.

"I saw you look at your phone. I was trying to check your notes and, I barely noticed but you checked it before you started looking all…" Kotsumura trailed off and his eyes darted around the hallway. His voice got quieter into a hiss as he and Zach both stopped. "Is that how you got away with it? That's what you told Hazano sensei-"

"It's true-" I can't do it! I won't get away with it just by sticking to my guns! Zach's expression stayed calm but he was caught in a lie and not doing a great job at adjusting. "Kotsumura," Zach began, his voice serious and his expression showing that he was about to tell the truth. "I'm not lying. I really was, having a panic attack when I asked to go to the bathroom."

Kotsumura looked closely at Zach's face, and for a moment he hesitated, Is he lying? I, don't think so. But then- "Why would you do that?"

FUCK!

"Because you saw your phone first," Kotsumura whispered, shaking his head confusedly. "You did," he repeated when Zach tried to shake his head.

I panicked first, then I saw my phone after I left. That's the story and what it has to stay as! Kotsumura can't know the false reality-

"It's fine," Kotsumura shook his head and turned away. "Let's just get back to class."

"Kotsumura, wait-"

"Let's talk after school," Kotsumura said. He looked to Zach who paused and then nodded after a second. I need to think about this for a little myself, Kotsumura thought while looking back away from his new friend.

The two of them went back to class and sat through the second half of classes for the day. Their practical training for the day was in the classroom instead of one of the gyms, and it wound up being a very study-oriented day leaving Kotsumura a lot of time to think throughout the afternoon, and Zach to watch him nervously from the seat next to his.

He's never been slow. I didn't usually peg him as one of the quickest in the class, but he's closer to me than any of the others have gotten yet and was the first to catch me in a lie. I don't have a way to fix this easily. Unless I just straight lie to his face about what I saw on my phone, which only would have worked if I had used it earlier when he brought it up. I could pretend like what was on my phone was super private, so I was just accepting that he believed it was the notification. That could work, because something super private could have set off the PTSD. Except I don't want to ruin this relationship, and that lie is sure to when he's got me already on the truth. He knows it. How'd he figure it out so easily? Maybe it's because, it wasn't meant to be thought of at half-level by someone like him, because he could take that next jump without thinking of how crazy it would be!

He saw his phone first. Kotsumura watched as Tarangla sensei discussed the various kinds of fighting techniques villains would use most often and the rarer types as well. His mind was churning around what he had seen Zach tell the others in such a casual way and like he was telling the truth, the same way he had told them most of his stories recently. He's nervous about me knowing this. He seems like it at least, Kotsumura looked to his side at Zach who turned back to him thinking he had something to say, and Keiji just turned back forward after a moment. This is weird. If he saw the phone first, and he's not lying about the panic attack thing- which he totally seemed to have too at the time! I remember that seeming weird, and the way he asked was too, not like he was asking to be let out so he could sneak away but that there was something wrong I just didn't get. But even if he wasn't lying about that stuff, that doesn't make a difference about him checking his phone before that.

Kotsumura lowered his gaze down to his desk. If he wasn't lying about any of that though, then did checking his phone just make him instantly have that attack, because a piece of him knew it would be a quick way to get out there and stop those villains? How quickly does his mind work to be able to come up with something like that?! And, wouldn't that hurt? Having to- he looked like he was thinking about… It was something bad. I knew that much. I looked away when I saw it at first, but what if it was just faked so he could get out? And then he just lied to my face after lunch? No. That wouldn't work! Because of Mr. Norasaki! Holy crap- if Zach knew that too, that he couldn't just lie and fake it- then it's definitely that! The order was all messed up? He's lying about the order, to everyone, or at least everyone who knows. He was super vague at lunch about why he really left, he never really said it was just to use the bathroom.

I'll need to keep him quiet. Zach looked at Tarangla sensei closer and got to his notes in a more focused way. So I'll have to tell him some more. Like I decided to let him in on it all, instead of me just confirming some of what he's figuring out over the period of this afternoon. Kotsumura, I really hope you're not fucking spying on me.

---

"…but even though I was right about that, and the heroes staying back probably stopped Overlord from starting his plan, it wasn't my main reason for having them stay behind. I didn't want any of those heroes to get hurt."

"Unlike you," Kotsumura said. The two of them were walking down the sidewalk in Yutapu past the usual train station Kotsumura took to get home. His apartment was not too far from Shiketsu though, only a couple stops down the line, so the two of them were walking to it together. "It's totally fine if you get hurt, yeah?" Kotsumura was accusing Zach of it even as he smiled and said it in a joking tone.

"That's not…" Zach shifted his eyes away as Kotsumura looked at the side of his head waiting for a response. "I wasn't going to get hurt, so there was no need to bring everyone into the fight where the only difference would be some of them might have gotten killed before I could win."

"Man," Kotsumura said, leaning his head back and looking up in the sky with a bigger smile that made Zach turn back to him. "I wish I had that kind of confidence. You just knew you were going to win from the start? That's crazy." Keiji glanced back at the guy next to him and added, "But what if you were wrong? What if they were stronger than you thought?"

"They were," Zach replied. Kotsumura's eyebrows rose up, and he slowed down with a confused look forming on his face at the frown on Zach's. Zach looked forward down the sidewalk and he said in a lower tone, "Overlord rallied his forces as soon as I took out Potaru. That was supposed to be the biggest deterrent and really get them afraid, but Overlord saw what I was doing and reacted quickly. Kousen was strong, and Girder's Quirk meant that no matter who I was fighting I had to be careful of the attacks falling from the sky too. Once he used Riot, and the girders were dropping all around me with shots coming in from all directions, Overlord out of reach and with powerful comrades around him like he wanted to draw me in which kept me back, and the truck he had tossed behind me blocking me in, it was too much to handle. I had to drop Limiter 1 and show my real strength-"

"Whoa what?" Kotsumura had thought for a second there that Zach was bragging. The fact that he was talking about how hard all that was and the situation which to Keiji seemed impossible to beat, yet Kotsumura knew he had beat it, made the blond boy think Zach was just being overly dramatic. But what he just heard shook him from that feeling, his eyes opening wide while Zach turned back to him and gave him a serious nod. "You dropped a limiter- Limiter 1?"

"Yeah," Zach replied.

"You looked so strong out there," Kotsumura started softly, his eyes still wide as they walked, but his head turning back forward as he pieced it together. "But for a while there I was getting worried you were getting weaker, and then it just-" Kotsumura thought about what Zach was just saying too, about the truck behind him and the girders falling out of the air. The moment he was cornered! He really was- He was! "You couldn't beat them without going all out?" Kotsumura asked, looking back and seeing Zach shake his head at him. "But, Limiter 1? How high do your limiters go?"

"Just 1," Zach replied. He grinned and scratched the back of his head at Kotsumura's sweatdrop, and he explained defensively, "I figured I'd gotten so much stronger in such a short time, that if I already needed it I'd probably have to put on more later."

"That's still crazy though," Kotsumura said, though he did relax a bit. The idea that Zach had several of these limiters came to mind first and had him flustered at the thought of Zach being several times stronger than even what he saw the day before. Backtracking to only 1 made him feel a little better and less stunned by all of this. "So, you didn't need your limiter down to even beat Inasa?" Kotsumura asked, checking if Zach dropped it in that fight and he just didn't know.

Zach shook his head though, and Kotsumura sighed at the gap in power that seemed so much wider now between him and his classmate. "I doubt Deplete would even lower your Quirk's power enough to make a difference if we fought."

"Probably not," Zach agreed with a stoic nod, making Kotsumura drop his bottom lip and then snap 'hey' at his friend who laughed. This is good, Zach thought, as the two of them continued to walk but rounded a corner as Kotsumura mentioned his house was down the street to their left. Kotsumura was just worried about me when we started talking, even though I'm pretty sure he figured out what I did to get out of class. I didn't expect him to put it together so quickly, but he even suspects that I'm not just lying about it. That could be bad in the future with him realizing I can get around Norasaki, but right now it probably helps the case that he thinks it has to be true because of Norasaki. It doesn't though, Kotsumura. I just have to believe it's true when I say it. If I'm not lying, they can't catch me in a lie. And I can convince myself to believe anything.

Kotsumura looked back to his slightly taller friend walking on his left. "Hey, you want to come over to my place? We're getting close already."

Zach looked down the road and got a hesitant look on his face. "I know you said having people over your place isn't good, because of the whole 'there are people coming for me' thing." Zach turned to Kotsumura with a curled lip and one risen eyebrow, his expression asking if Kotsumura was seriously calling that paranoia here. Kotsumura just continued on though, "But you're allowed over at mine. Come on, I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind having you over for dinner. And Anima, well, she might annoy you, but it'd still be fun."

Zach shook his head. Sorry Kotsumura. His classmate's optimistic look fell but he just sighed instead of actually looking disappointed, as if he suspected Zach would decline anyway and was only asking because Zach had gotten so close. They haven't accepted the risks of knowing me like you have, just by you being a hero. I shouldn't put them at risk, Zach slowed down and he stopped, and he looked to his right across the street past Kotsumura at a place he might stop for dinner. "I'm going to head out," Zach said.

"Huh? Oh," Kotsumura glanced back down the road, and his place was still pretty far off. "Alright. Sure you don't want to come over?" He seemed surprised by Zach's decision to suddenly leave after Zach had been the one to suggest they walk together home after school.

"Yeah, I just have a couple things to do today," Zach replied, and he stretched an arm in front of him in his heavy winter jacket. He lowered his arms in their green sleeves back down to his sides, and he got a more serious look on his face as he looked at Kotsumura. He figured it out but just wanted to see if I was fine, Zach thought as he looked into his friend's eyes. I like you for that, but I'm doing this for safe measure. "You can't tell anyone about any of that stuff," Zach said, speaking as if reminding Kotsumura of something he had already told him. Kotsumura nodded quickly in understanding like he was not even thinking about telling other people, not realizing that he did not actually think he was supposed to keep it a secret until that moment. "Because my limiters and my weaknesses could all be used by villains trying to kill me…"

I don't like this. Tricking him. I could just ask him not to say what I did in the classroom, but I can't bring that up. He never did either, and I have to stick with my story or it's no longer the truth. If I was the only one and I changed my truth, then the real truth would have changed. That's- that's not how… That's not- Kotsumura agreed with Zach and told him he wouldn't talk about that kind of stuff, and Zach thanked his new friend before turning away. He turned because he hoped Kotsumura would not notice the look forming on his face, but it had already formed and Kotsumura watched in semi-confusion as Zach started walking away.

I'm losing control over it all. Even a single slip feels so big. Like it will all catch up to me at once. All the little details I notice, and the ones I'm sure I've missed and let slip, it's all compiling and getting ready to tear me down. I have to get it back. I have to, make it believable.

---

"Wow," Zach stared out over a massive forest stretching as far as he could see. It was beautiful, even without sunlight casting down on it as the sky was full of gray clouds signaling it might snow soon. Zach sat on the edge of a boulder low to the ground but at the edge of a cliff so the soles of his feet were pointed off of it. His legs were extended out in front of him and barely bent at all in his sitting position close to the peak of the mountain he hiked. "This is beautiful," he whispered. His eyes shifted to the right and the left, but there was no one else up there on the popular viewpoint of the trail. Thought maybe some kids' clubs would be here, on a camping trip or something. Haven't seen anyone all day though. An national park all to myself.

Zach lifted up the water bottle he brought with him and took a long sip. Then he screwed back on the cap and stood up, stretched his arms over his head, and he turned and started a jog again back onto the trail and then continuing the way he was going. He picked the hardest trail, and as he started his run again he quickly hit a point where the trail got steep and most people would slow down on it, grabbing roots and using their hands to steady themselves on rocks as they went down. Zach picked up his speed though, and his eyes darted around without turning red as he looked for the best footholds while still staring mostly straight forward. He stepped off the dirt and pushed his other foot against the bottom of a tree trunk just over where the root started. He got a good angle in to get some extra force over to a large rock that he landed on, rolled over the top of, and dropped down eight feet to a flat surface he sprinted right off from.

This is something Zach would do, right? Just go on a trip? Zach was distracted even as he tried distracting himself from those thoughts by running. See a beautiful part of the country he's never been to before. And it's not like I'm not training too. This counts as training. Zach frowned and just picked up the speed a bit more, but the ground was leveling out and it was not hard to maintain his speed and footing anymore. This doesn't feel like something he'd do. If U.A. wasn't a boarding school, I could totally see it though! On weekends, just coming out to enjoy a park. Zach went on vacations. Like Kyoto.

Except Kyoto wasn't a vacation. He was working. Kyoto was just a cover-up for Diamondfist, what is this for? Thinking about Diamondfist made another face appear in Zach's mind, and he grimaced harder as he continued to run. Zach Sazaki loved this world and would like to see all the beautiful parts of Japan he never had before. He would enjoy those things. He'd have, a good time… Webb, Zach slowed down and he let out a breath, deciding to stop trying to force that face from forming in his mind. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

Zach let out another breath, then he focused his thoughts with an intense look on his face. I was wrong, back when we met. Not about burying everything deep inside to keep sane. That part was definitely the smartest thing I said that day. About leaving and how it would have made me a coward if I didn't try going back… Though then I came back this time, because I was just afraid before too- no that's just what I said! But it is true, partly, that I was afraid to face them. Just like I was afraid to face everyone when Webb saved me, when I had left on my own to become a villain, and when I had just done so much already. But now that I look back, I think I was being a coward. Because much harder than going back and facing them, would have been giving it all up. I was willing to come with you, Webb, but once you put that other option out on the table, I suddenly had all those things again. They were just within my reach. A normal life, friends, school, my own name, it was all there right in front of me. I had the choice and I said I picked the harder one. I decided that I wasn't going to "give up," yet I did that because I was afraid of what would happen if I continued to go around the rules after going around the rules had gotten the Akers killed.

Webb gave me two choices. I chose one because I thought tossing aside Zach Sazaki, faking my death there, was cowardly. Giving up. I came to realize though, after Kaminari's betrayal, that I was foolish to believe everything that happened to me was my fault for leaving their society. With a Quirk like Death public, there was no way I was ever going to live a peaceful life. Not in this world. Not in what it was. There was no way the Akers were ever going to survive being that close to me. Or maybe there was, and I did mess up, but I didn't mess up by throwing it away this last time. Giving up Zach Sazaki was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. It was the opposite of "giving up" like I once thought it to be.

That was the starting point. Doing that meant I had to do more than ever, work harder, make decisions that had millions of lives relying on them, decisions I knew would haunt me but I had to do anyway because someone had to… Except, no one had to. Zach bit down hard and he started speeding up his run through the park's forest. People wouldn't have made those decisions, they would have just dealt with the aftermaths and handled things in different ways. I created the decisions that had only bad options to pick from. I was always so upset when there were only two horrible choices to pick from, like how unfair it was that night I fought Hunter that my only two options were dying or getting brought back to Shigaraki. I had thought it was so unfair, but I was the one who put myself in that situation!

I didn't trust the police or heroes enough at the time to go to them for help, or to my classmates. I convinced myself they would be in too much danger if I even said hi to them when I saw them on the street that day, prepping for their New Year's party. Instead I tried to fight Hunter, made bad decisions during the fight that allowed Hunter to get my hand into a sack, and I didn't call for help. I made countless stupid decisions that I look back on and hate myself for. But, so many of those horrible decisions I made back then, I had to make one of two bad choices that would create a better result than not making any choice at all. Even though doing nothing was a third option I could have picked, the same option everyone else chose to pretend like there was no choice at all. I wish I could just pretend like there was no choice sometimes. Sit in class and see something happening, and not immediately think it's my decision to go fight them or to do nothing. No one else thinks like that! Except, I'm not everyone else. I'm Lifebringer. I need to show up at times like that especially when I have the power to.

Zach sped down the trail and he started going uphill again in an area with a more narrow path. It still looked more frequently traveled than the rest of the forest, but whoever made the trail mainly just marked trees with the white diamond symbols to make sure hikers stayed on the path. He had his hood down behind his neck, and the cool wind blew through his spikes of black hair he had styled up in case anyone saw him out there. He had headphones in while he ran, but his music was currently paused as he lost himself deep in thought. …Webb thought so too. Lifebringer needed to be a symbol. Not the symbol of peace or a symbol for all heroes, but I did stand for something back then and if I had faked my death then I would have left that legacy. People thought I would go do good no matter the cost or the rules. Was that my symbol? That I'd save them even though the country labeled me as a threat and a villain? That I could save them and do good despite the horrors of my life and my scary Quirk? Whatever it was, I'm molding a new reputation for Lifebringer.

Zach took longer strides and focused more on his footing as he hit an area that some people would need to slow and take careful steps up on small rocks and tiny ledges at a natural staircase in the woods. He stepped back and forth on the sides of the path and made his way up it without breaking pace, and he reached up and grabbed a low-hanging branch he swung himself up onto. He leapt off from the branch to the top of the hard-to-climb section of the path and then kept running upon his landing. …And thanks to Overlord, Lifebringer has the best reputation he's ever had now. Could have been better, but I'm glad the media's laid off it.

The news isn't anywhere near as massive as it could have been. I made it out like it wasn't huge. Like even the second strongest villain group in the country weren't all that much of a threat in the first place. The fact that one hero alone was able to handle them? It'll make people feel like there really isn't anything they need to be afraid of anymore. Make villains feel like even the strongest among them can fall easily. And the villains who got afraid when I came back but continued going, thinking that because I was public meant I couldn't come for them… well, I didn't kill anyone so that might not actually do much. They will still be discouraged though. That didn't happen much with Kurogiri though, but after I left- Well when I came back! It did. It slowed villain activity from all I've heard. My presence alone is a deterrent. My- The Army of Death's presence out in the world, might be a similar presence that scares villains. Just like heroes are. Any force who fights villains!

I've made some mistakes since I came back. Already, I've talked too much to too many people. Too many can contradict what I'd say in public. I make mistakes though. That's very Zach-like of me. I always made mistakes before I left too. All those things I did before the Lifebringer Incident…

Zach slowed down his run. His eyes darted to the right. Wind is weird over there. Someone's here. I don't see anyone watching me. Zach continued up his jog, and he rose an arm and rubbed his forehead like he was just wiping off some sweat in a casual, non-suspicious way. Feels chilly. Could just be a cold front. The wind a side-effect. Weather patterns don't change without reason though. Hope it's not Maelstrom. Something's definitely happening. Zach's red irises focused on what looked like a broken twig from a branch that was resting on another branch near it up ahead and to his right thirty feet. The wind was not that strong right now, but that twig was resting in a position that it would most definitely fall from there if it was there for long. It fell after he focused on it for a second too, confirming his suspicion even more that it had only recently been broken off.

Wind could have been strong enough to break it off. Tree above isn't dead though. Natural causes? Birds, rodents, wind shifts. Unlikely. Someone being careful not to leave tracks on the ground? More likely. Someone coming after me and lurking somewhere in the vicinity? Zach reached down into his pocket and he pulled out his phone and a pair of headphones. He slowed into more of a speed-walk that looked like he might pick back up speed at any second into a steadier jog. Just picking a song. I don't notice you yet. After that long sprint I'm tired.

"He knows we're here."

"Wait- are you sure?"

"I agree."

Zach stopped walking. He stood where he was on the path, staring ahead at the two figures who just dropped out of hiding on either side of the trail he was hiking. On the right was a boy with spiky bleached blond hair, standing just under six feet tall at five eleven. Bakugo had on a black and red jacket, his hands uncovered by gloves despite the cold that had Zach wearing gloves on both of his. The other boy ahead of Zach on the left was not wearing gloves either, though Zach supposed Todoroki could handle the cold well. Todoroki stood at six foot three, his white and red hair split down the middle as always. Although his hair was longer than when Zach had last gone to school with Shoto Todoroki, his bangs were not as long anymore revealing more of the burn scar on the left side of his face around his bright green eye.

There was a space between Bakugo and Todoroki that Zach looked into, before raising his eyes up towards the trees at the hesitating figure he assumed was up there. Another teen dropped down, standing six two closest to Zach's height, his hair shorter than it had once been but still showing off how it naturally curled. Midoriya Izuku walked forward until he was in between Todoroki and Bakugo on a wider section of the path up ahead. Doubt they've been following me. Such a sloppy mistake. And I only just noticed those winds and the chill factor. They were probably looking for me but intended on staying hidden. I'm surprised one of them noticed I noticed them. They probably saw the twig fall and knew I would've reacted to it if I wasn't pretending not to notice. Should have given it a direct look.

Zach jogged down the path towards the three staring towards him. "Hey," Zach called out. Bakugo and Todoroki were glaring at him. Their looks were harsh, confrontational, and telling Zach not to keep running at them. Zach just jogged closer though, focusing instead on Midoriya in the middle of the three who seemed most uncertain. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Don't give us that bullshit," Bakugo snapped.

Zach stopped where he was. He stared across the twenty meter gap still splitting those three from him, and he got a confused look on his face at what he was just told. Instead of telling Bakugo off though, Midoriya's expression steadied himself when he saw Zach's confused expression about what he was just asked. Todoroki stepped forward on Midoriya's right side, to Zach the person farthest on the left of the three confronting him.

"What are we doing here?" Todoroki repeated, his voice cold and accusatory. "What are you doing out here?"

How did they find me? Zach wondered while looking at Todoroki. His confused look remained, though he rose up his right eyebrow like he was asking his old classmate to be more specific. He figured he already knew what they were asking him, but he wanted them to drag this out for a little as he got a hold over the situation. I didn't fly. Probably a mistake. Getting caught doing that though would be the stupidest thing to get caught for. Almost used that as an excuse at the press conference "Oh I was just out on a flight," try and push the agenda that way. "But he saved so many people because he was using his Quirk in that way-" would help, but it's certainly the opposite of doing things the right way. Probably would have caused a confrontation like this earlier in the week. Haven't talked to any one of these guys since Tuesday. This is probably related to the Subspace attack in some way.

"Just, out on a run," Zach replied after a pause like he was trying to think of what they were asking, which in actuality he was.

Out in the middle of nowhere? Bakugo thought, his eyes darkening more at Zach's response. His teeth clenched and he glared harder at the boy not far ahead of him, What is he trying to do all the way out here? No one around for miles. The fuck is he doing out here? Was it just to make us show up? This fucker isn't even that surprised. His look is crap.

Are they behind him? Todoroki's eyes were solely focused on Zach, but his vision scanned the woods behind his old classmate too. He met with them out here in the woods. This talk is just to stall us long enough for someone to escape. If they're still reporting to him, then he's still acting as Death even within Japan. They could be moving around us, but more likely he sent them away. There's no chance of getting them by going past Zach. He doesn't need to stall us and doesn't look like he'd try. What other reason could he have had to come out here? He could have left something in the forest behind him. A designated spot even if there's no one out there right now, they'll come and pick up his message. Or he might still have it on his person. He could be carrying something right now under that jacket.

"Just running?" Todoroki repeated, his voice cold and skeptical as if asking if Zach really thought he'd believe that.

Zach got an exasperated look on his face and rolled his eyes. He looked to his left at the end of his eye roll, This is fucking ridiculous. Reading Bakugo and Todoroki's faces alone, he could see what they were so suspicious about and he was getting tired of it. This is my day off. Is that really what this was? Damn it, this is- Zach looked forward and to Midoriya to try and get some help here from this ridiculous situation, but Midoriya's expression had hardened and his eyes narrowed into Zach's when they made eye contact.

The way Zach gave them an exasperated sigh and look made Midoriya lose the anxiety he had about this whole thing. He wants us to think he's just tired of going through this. That our suspicion is unfounded because he's just acting normally. But we can all see through that, Zach!

Zach's surprised look at the way Midoriya started looking at him relaxed. His expression returned to normal, his lips flattening and his eyes staring coldly ahead at his former classmates who all glared back at his expression shift. Now that all of them had the same kinds of expressions, Todoroki continued while glaring at his classmate he had not spoken to before this since Zach returned. "Tell us," Todoroki paused and then said in a darker voice, "what it is you're planning."

Zach shook his head once. It was not a head shake saying that he would not say, but just an annoyed shake of his head saying that they did not know what they were talking about. Midoriya stepped forward this time though back to just on Todoroki's side, "You're manipulating everyone." Zach looked into Midoriya's eyes and kept his expression flat despite what was just said to him. Midoriya continued to his old friend who did not even react to that statement to deny it, "Manipulating the media, the others, everything," Midoriya paused and then he continued with a shake of his head and a desperate but still harsh look at Zach, "you're trying to get everyone on your side so they'll do what you want and accept what you do. But, what is it you're trying to get them to do? They already let you get away with so much, and no one's even talking about what you did earlier this week like it's… you weren't allowed to do that and-"

"Deku," Bakugo growled. He stepped forward and glared at Zach while Midoriya looked to his left side at his childhood friend. Bakugo got annoyed by Midoriya's tone that was sounding like he still wanted Zach to give an explanation for all this, to see what Midoriya was saying meant that he was on the wrong side. He glared at Zach coldly and did not expect anything else but the cold look that came back his way. "He's not going to listen to you. Whatever happened to him, that's not Zach."

"That?" Zach wondered. Not even going to say "he's not Zach?" Dick move. I suppose you're looking for a sign that I might be Zach, because of the recognition of what All For One said that night. Has it bothered you since then? In the back of your mind, wondering if maybe he had a point? Fuck you. Fuck all of this…

"Yes it is," Todoroki muttered, his voice still loud enough for Zach to hear. "That's always been who he is," Todoroki said. He glared into Zach's eyes and Zach grimaced at the look his old classmate gave him of anger. The look of regret Zach started to show made Todoroki bite down harder and then say darkly, "A lying, deceptive, villain. A terrorist hiding in plain sight. Where's your army, Death?" Midoriya and Bakugo each glanced to the side at Todoroki who looked around the forest before turning his head back to Zach. "Are they coming to meet you out here? Are you leaving something for them? Or did it already happen, and you think they're getting away behind you while we do this?"

"That's not why I'm here-"

"Then why are you here?" Bakugo growled.

"I told you-"

"Zach," Midoriya started, his voice firmer.

"Stop, lying!" Todoroki ordered.

Zach's lips twisted and he ground his teeth to hold back. "I'm not- I really did just come to think, and to clear my head-"

"That's bullshit," Bakugo said. He shook his head and looked down his nose at the teen not even trying to be convincing, "Try again."

"WHAT FOR?!" Zach roared.

He yelled it at Bakugo, and all three of the others ahead of Zach tensed up. All of them stared towards their old classmate whose eyes flared red there for a moment as he let out his scream. Birds in trees nearby lifted off the branches and flew away, and a cold breeze came through the woods after the yell that was followed by a few seconds of silence. Zach took a couple of heavier breaths to stop his panting after he let out his yell, and his vision lost the red tint he noticed in it for a moment. His face lost the stoic, calm and collected expression he had to it before though. He glared towards Bakugo and spoke in a pissed, understanding but still annoyed voice, "I get it. You know? I get, why you can't trust me."

Zach shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned the top of his body forward. He leaned in and said with a pissed look covering his face, "I manipulated and lied to all of you. I lied to the three of you so much, and of course there's no reason to believe anything I say. You have no reason to trust me, but I really am not planning anything!" Zach bit down hard after his shout at the looks of the three who clearly thought every word out of his mouth was to get some emotional response from them. His words were obviously just meant to get them to believe him, when clearly he was lying. Zach shook his head and then continued, speaking at them in a voice that wanted them to listen but also was just annoyed, "I didn't have some elaborate plan when I came back here. I didn't turn myself over planning for- and I know!"

Zach looked to Todoroki and shouted that, a look of more regret flashing over his face and making him clench his eyes shut for a second. He snapped them back open and looked into Todoroki's eyes, "I know I said that last time you confronted me, but this time I really don't." Zach said it and even as the words came out of his mouth, he knew there was no chance of those words carrying any meaning to Todoroki. He could see Todoroki confronting him on his way storming out of school one day after Kaminari betrayed them, and how Todoroki had believed more than anyone else that he had some huge plan in the making. "You don't believe me-"

"Of course I don't," Todoroki said.

He hasn't denied certain things though, Midoriya glanced to Todoroki and then back to his old friend who he actually felt himself feeling bad for, though he was trying to suppress that feeling. But he does have a plan. There's no question about that. I have to be hard on him too!

"No one with half a brain would trust you," Bakugo growled. There's no ignoring him. He's here to fucking stay, and we have to fucking deal with him. Not Lemillion's way though. He won't get Zach like that. The only ones who can stop Zach are us. "And every word out of your mouth right there was a load of crap. You don't have a plan? What kind of-"

"My plan was to get sent to Tartaros!" Zach yelled at the spiky-haired teen he stared at in anger and with wide eyes. He shook his head at Bakugo while looking at him like that, and he looked back to Midoriya too and yelled, "That was the full extent of it! I never thought I'd be out this quickly. I'm improvising!" Midoriya stared at him with slightly wider eyes, and Zach stared desperately into those eyes for a second before stating firmly, "I just wanted to go to Tartaros, to get out of reach."

It sounded to Midoriya and Bakugo like Zach was talking about what he said in the hospital. He was using the same thing he said back then like he was talking about All For One, and secrets that only the three of them had as another show of why maybe they could trust him more than they were thinking. He was being secretive because Todoroki was there, and Midoriya said in a low voice after looking to the white-and-red-haired boy on his side, "Todoroki knows, Zach." Todoroki did not take his eyes off Zach though he did notice the reactions of Midoriya and Bakugo on his sides and just glared harder at the teen whose reason for getting arrested he already heard about. Midoriya continued, "About all of it. One For All too," Midoriya added, specifying so Zach would know he really meant 'it all.'

"And if you really think I'm going to believe that your sole reason for coming back was to go to prison," Todoroki started. He glared at Zach angrily, not even disbelieving since it felt to him like Zach wasn't even trying to make a believable excuse.

Zach sighed again. He looked down at the floor. Stop getting so angry. There's no point. There's no point in any of this. The three ahead of Zach all got ready to say something else, but Zach started first, "Can we stop this?" He looked up and his expression only had one word to describe it: 'tired.' Zach looked at them with tired eyes, and he spoke in a calm, no longer annoyed voice, "I get it, I really do. I get why nothing I say means anything to all of you, but can we just stop this? Nothing I say is going to matter." Zach shook his head once and just looked back and forth into the eyes of his old classmates who were glaring at him and looking annoyed and wanting him to speak already what they wanted to hear.

"I could stand here all day telling you everything, and you wouldn't believe a single word out of my mouth." Zach shook his head and gave the others a pestered look that did not have much feeling in it. "I could confirm everything you think. I could tell you exactly what you each believe, and you'd leave here thinking that I said those things because that was what I thought you wanted to hear or thought you might, and suddenly you might not believe those things anymore." Zach described this in a bored tone, despite talking about how he could manipulate them or at least how they would have thought he had manipulated them after the conversation. The way he said it though, without even caring that he might be giving away his own tactics to them, it diffused the situation quickly.

He's right. I wouldn't believe a fucking word, Bakugo humphed and he got a more annoyed look on his face. This time his annoyance was directed at himself for coming out in the first place if there was no purpose in confronting Zach.

Todoroki just bit down harder though after a second, his face getting angrier and his fists balling at his sides at how quickly he almost just calmed down and decided to leave. That's what he wanted me to do! He just wants to get away with this-

Zach bit down harder at Todoroki's expression he was reading that had his heart racing faster at how much Todoroki thought him to be manipulating. Was I really just doing that to get them to leave? Is this all just another manipulation?! I can't even fucking tell! "I get why you think I'm still manipulating," Zach said aloud, speaking it to Todoroki and his other former classmates who were all accusing him of it at some point in this argument. "Because I do too!" Zach shouted. His face got more distressed, lines forming on his forehead as he scrunched it up for a moment at the way the three started looking at him. Before he could think about what to say based on those expressions though, he thought about thinking about coming up with a way to respond based on them, which made his eyes snap open wide and a huge breath to suck into his mouth.

Zach's heart pounded and he pulled his head back for a second, his hands sliding out of his pockets and shaking at his sides. "I can't-" Zach's lips twisted, and then they dropped to rage-filled at the way all three looked at him for his voice cracking there, like not one of them believed in the way he was speaking to them or that this was actually what he was thinking. "I'm not lying! I really do, feel the same way as you! I can't even have a conversation with Mina without thinking, 'How would Zach Sazaki answer that?' Or, 'what would Zach feel like' if I heard what she said, and then how I could respond to make her feel good so that she thinks it's really me." Zach shook his head and he balled his fists hard at his sides, ignoring the looks on the others' faces now as he spoke these things aloud when he never even thought about them in his head to keep the act going nonstop. Now that he was going though, thinking hard about the way he had those kinds of conversations, he just kept going as he looked inwardly onto them, "I get so angry though, because I'm the only one who thinks I'm manipulating in that conversation. Because it doesn't take me any time at all to come up with those things to say, or how to pretend to feel like Zach Sazaki, because they're the things I want to say or would feel anyway."

Midoriya stared at Zach with his eyes huge and his breath stuck in his throat. The other two next to him were watching in different levels of disbelief and frustration, with some realization or believing in their looks. Midoriya pushed away all his doubt for a moment though, and he found himself standing there without trying to interrogate Zach and just listen to him. And he stared at Zach as Zach ranted without even seeming to care that he was saying this to them, as he barely looked like he was talking to them anymore. Is this really…

"I'm jumping through loops to 'act' like the person I actually am, because I can't just step back into Zach Sazaki's shoes. I can't!" Zach yelled it and snapped his head back up after staring at the ground there for a few seconds. Bakugo's eyes widened at the shaking ones on Zach's face, and especially what he just shouted that was the main point of Bakugo's anger towards his old classmate who looked straight into his eyes after Bakugo reacted. "I'm trying," Zach continued, "but after I abandoned him like that… After all I said in that forest, about throwing it all away, how could I just come back and be myself?" Zach asked it in a pained voice, almost apologetic to Bakugo for even trying. "I have to pretend, because how could I leave like that and still be me? But, I'm only thinking that I'm pretending, because I really do feel happy when talking to Mina, and angry when I can't convince you three that I'm not trying to trick you, not just angry because Zach Sazaki always pretended to get offended when people called him out on his bullshit."

Zach's voice got lower and his lips pursed together hard. "I'm so frustrated," Zach whispered, and he winced as he heard another voice say that in his mind that made him draw his right hand up to his head and grab it before rubbing in a softer way so as to look less pained. "Because I've separated myself from Zach Sazaki," he continued softly. "Because I abandoned that name altogether and think I have to step into those shoes that I left when I discarded it. But I'm frustrated, because stepping into those shoes isn't a difficult thing at all. It isn't this huge challenge I have to take part in. It's just coming so naturally to me and it confuses the hell out of me because I don't feel like the same person anymore! But as much as I changed, I'm still Zach." Zach paused, and the tone in his voice didn't sound like he was trying to convince them.

Todoroki stared at Zach less harshly than he had since emerging in front of him. He stared down his former classmate and pondered what he just said as the truth for a minute, because it felt odd to him that Zach would use this as a lie even to get them to feel bad for him or something. If that's real. If what he's saying is really, real. Then maybe, maybe he's not as put together as I thought. The reason he stopped being Death may not have been malicious, initially. But for him to be out here in this forest alone. It's too suspicious. Something else is going on. He has plans, which might be even worse now that I can accept that he might be losing it.

Bakugo turned his head to the side and looked out in the woods. No one's out there, he thought darkly while just staring out at nothing but trees. Maybe, he's just dealing with his own shit right now. It sounds like he's having a fucking, identity crisis? Something normal for someone in his shoes. Too normal, Bakugo ground his teeth for a moment but stopped with just more of an annoyed look on his face.

His old classmates got confused by the admission Zach just snapped at them. The three who expected him to be attempting something huge to top all the other things he'd done so far, looked at the black-haired teen who was just frowning back at them now even as they had skeptical or half-believing looks. They didn't fully believe him. They were questioning what he said and wondering if some of it might be true, but Zach could see on their faces still so much suspicion. "It doesn't matter," Zach muttered. He started walking forward, and he spoke in a calm but somewhat sad voice as he did, "Whatever I say, you can believe it or not, it doesn't matter. I did as much as I could." He looked at his former classmates with no hope of this ending well between them, just a reluctantly accepting expression on his face.

"What do you-" Midoriya started.

"I came back here. I tried apologizing to everyone, and I'm trying to make things right, and I've left it open that if anyone wants to come and talk I'm ready anytime. But I can't do this," Zach shook his head and stopped for a moment only ten meters ahead of his old friends. He looked at them and said in a lower voice, "I'm not going to. Todoroki, I'm sorry." Zach looked at his classmate who had not been at the hospital to greet him and who he never got to say this to. "I should have told you things sooner, and I shouldn't have lied to you, and if you do want to talk about him then I will," Zach paused and grit his teeth as Todoroki started doing the same in such an angry way. "But if you don't trust a word out of my mouth, then what's the fucking point? If you really thought I would tell you the truth then you would have asked me about it already, so whatever, don't, it's fine with me."

Zach looked to Bakugo, and he just scrunched his face for a second at his look before looking to Midoriya and shaking his head too which had his green-haired friend feeling his heart drop. "You might think I'm using the media, Midoriya, but I'm trying to avoid them as much as possible. And when they do see me, and I do say stuff you think I'm saying just to manipulate- that's just how I talk! That's just who I am, and I can't turn that off. So get off my back, and don't follow me again." Zach's eyes darkened and he jogged to his right to go around the group and head down the trail. He did not look to his left at them as he passed, but he said in a lower voice as he did, "Or I might mistake you for the villains after me."

Bakugo did not look back like the other two next to him who spun when they heard Zach finish with that. Todoroki's eyes widened and then narrowed in anger at the veiled threat from the boy running away from him. His fists clenched, but the boy with red and white hair could not chase his old classmate without any reason to do so. Bakugo glared ahead of him where Zach had been confronting them from, It wasn't supposed to be you. Bakugo's fists clenched too, and he made a 'ch' sound through his teeth and the right corner of his lips that pulled apart for a second. But it is him. That fuck! Bakugo got even more pissed off than when he jumped out in the first place, more pissed than he had been in a long time. It wasn't supposed to- he fucking left! The one who left lost all that conviction to stay gone. Damn it. Something happened.

Bakugo turned his head once he was sure Zach was far down the trail and would not see him looking back. His face lost some of the anger in it after only a second of being enraged. He changed. He lost all that conviction, but that doesn't make him a different person from the one back then. He was right about that. He's still the same scarface, but he… Bakugo let out a breath through his nose and he looked away from the trail he just looked down. Fuck it. I don't care. I don't, hate him. But he can't come back to U.A., and that's enough. He accepts that too. No need to even bother with thoughts on him anymore. Bakugo grunted and he jumped up in the air, pointing his hands below him and blasting up before he reached the canopy so his explosion would not catch anything on fire. He rose up through the canopy with the burst of speed and then used more explosions to change directions and blast himself back the way he had come from.

Todoroki stayed where he was staring angrily after Zach, the last things Zach said to him making his teeth grind in fury the more he thought about them. He turned his head a bit as the other boy next to him started walking forward. We're going to need to fight, Midoriya thought. He stopped for a second when he had that thought, his face getting so hesitant as that belief was so strong within him. He believed in it so much that it unnerved him into stopping, because it was not a question that he had but an assurance he felt when he considered running forward. After having that thought though, and unnerving himself with the fear of the certainty of it, he thought back on the look on Zach's face as he admitted how much he was struggling to them. But he's still…

"Midoriya," Todoroki started, but Midoriya had already started forward again. "He's not-"

"Go back ahead of me," Midoriya suggested over his shoulder. "I need to talk to him," he added, and he spun back forward and started sprinting down the path the direction Zach went.

The path led uphill, and the trail got narrower just ahead so it was impossible to see where Zach had gone from back where they were. Don't go too far. Midoriya ran up the path and started spreading some One For All through his body. His steps got quicker, and he strode forward faster but kept from going too fast as the ground was uneven on the hard hiking trail. "Zach!" Midoriya called up ahead when he caught a glimpse of the back of Zach's jacket.

Zach just kept running. He picked up speed and ran faster up the trail. His eyes focused on the path and the path alone, because he sped up to a speed that one misstep and he was going down hard. He stepped to his right off a root coming out of the path, rolled the sole of his shoe over the other side of it, then pushed off and kicked off the tree to his left to bounce over a rock he would have had to go around or climb over. He landed on a ledge and jumped up, and he jumped up again and rose high on the trail that would have went farther forward then cut back and gone behind him before cutting ahead again to rise up the mountain in a more gentle slope. Zach kept any darkness from covering his legs and just rose up the mountain towards a tree he saw marked with the same trail marker. He was skipping a portion of the trail, but it was harder this way and made it more worthwhile.

"Zach, wait-" Midoriya looked down and made sure he landed right as the ground below his feet felt wobbly. He snapped his head back up fast though and put a little more speed in as Zach was about to leave his sight again, and it felt like he might just leave the beaten path and disappear into the woods. "Just- hold on!" Midoriya sprinted uphill in a straight line towards Zach as that would be the most direct way without speeding up anymore to a dangerous speed. There was a reason Zach was not going straight though and instead bouncing off rocks and trees and roots. The ground had leaves on it, most dead, some with a wet layer below, and many of those leaves were covering small divots in the ground or roots that one could not notice until they had stepped on it.

"Wai-Ahh!" Ch-KaCrSHhh Dnnk Zach stopped where he was and turned his head to the side. He looked over his right shoulder and let out a low sigh, then he jumped back the same path he took up.

Zach dropped off a steady rock he had used as a foothold when he reached Midoriya's spot on the floor. Then he leaned on the tree Midoriya finally hit to stop sliding through the leaves, after he had taken a bad step on a root and tripped while moving around thirty miles per hour. "I thought I was pretty clear back there what I was going to do if you guys kept following me," Zach said, though he could not get the same threatening tone out as he looked at Midoriya's disheveled appearance while getting back to his feet. "What are you doing?" Zach asked as Midoriya stood up in front of him.

Midoriya looked ahead and up a bit to where Zach was standing. Zach pushed off the tree to stand straight and look into Deku's eyes slightly down in elevation on the hill. "Back there," Midoriya started, and he stepped up and to the right to get on equal footing with Zach. Zach turned his body to keep looking at Midoriya as they got eye-to-eye with one another from only feet away. "You were- I want to believe you, Zach." Zach nodded his head once, but he grimaced at the same time as the way Midoriya worded it made it clear he didn't believe him. Midoriya shook his head, "I'm sorry. Zach," Midoriya looked at Zach in the same way Zach was looking back at him, both holding back and upset, frustrated. "I want to be friends again."

"You do?" Zach asked. He kept the surprise from his face and asked with a straight expression, but he felt confused and only masked that surprise and confusion with his bland look.

"Of course I-" Midoriya paused and he grit his teeth at the feeling that Zach was surprised he actually wanted to be friends with him. Midoriya looked into Zach's eyes that were hiding so much that made it so hard for Izuku to understand, because even what he did see in those eyes he could not figure out. "I hate this- not knowing. Not knowing who you are," Midoriya admitted to the person who used to be one of his closest friends. Zach's expression softened and his eyes did more, looking back at Midoriya in a guilty way, with some hope, and reluctance in them too. "Not knowing if we can be friends, or if I want to fight you, or-" Midoriya pursed his lips, a conflicted look on his face even as he was saying it. I don't even know who I'm talking to!

Zach grimaced back at the pursed lips and frustrated look on Midoriya's face. Zach kept standing there, taking this from him in a way that made Midoriya curl his fists and yell at himself internally. But Zach is trying so hard. This Zach. And, whether or not he's changed in irreversible ways, even if he's like an entirely different person. It's still Zach. Like he said. Midoriya uncurled his fists and started nodding more at the person in front of him. "You're still you," Midoriya said aloud. He looked into Zach's eyes and told his friend who he felt needed to hear that from someone else too. "And even if you didn't just spell that out for me, in a way that could possibly be a trap, I should have felt that way from the start."

Zach's eyes widened at Midoriya's mention of it possibly being a trap. Not because he had not been thinking about it, but because he was wondering if Midoriya would look back on this and question why he brought it up in the first place if not to get this conversation to happen. As he was doubting the longevity of Midoriya's belief though, Midoriya countered him and left Zach staring at him in surprise. Midoriya continued after Zach started looking at him in that way, "Because I'm a hero. I need to support my friends in their hardest times, and if you're having a hard time I want to help you too Zach. And I want to get to know you again, and, be your friend again."

"Even without knowing what my secret plans are?" Zach asked. The sarcasm in his voice was dry. He was not trying too hard to make it sound sarcastic, because that would make it out like he was trying hard to pretend like he didn't have any plans. He just asked it and watched Midoriya's reaction as the question was legitimate as much as it put a tension in the cold air between them.

Midoriya nodded back at Zach though. I've always thought this, Zach. And I don't know why I stopped for so long. I always thought that the biggest thing holding me back from being a hero, was 'how could I be a hero, if I couldn't even save my friend?' It's all I could think about that freshman year when you were gone with the villains, but I didn't feel it after when you left on your own, of your own free will after killing people and turning completely into a villain. Midoriya's expression steadied and he stared seriously into Zach's eyes again in a way that got Zach looking more serious too. I believed you were a villain. But I also have to believe that people can change. You came back saying you knew what you did was wrong and that you want to be here again. That should have been the best outcome!

"Did you change your mind?" Zach asked. "Before you came out here. I just, felt like you weren't this against me that you had to come here and tell me straight out: let's be friends again."

"I know, I'm sorry," Midoriya repeated, shaking his head once as he had been acting the last couple of time he saw Zach like everything was fine. "But I had convinced myself you were a villain. And I think, I've always thought there's this huge gap between heroes and villains. So I forced myself to think of you as a villain for so long, so that I could be ready to catch you at any time if we met again." Zach nodded his head back at Midoriya as his friend told him this, holding back a smile and just giving Midoriya an understanding look instead. "But I'm trying to just see you as you again. As Zach, and not this villain I have to catch, or stop. Can we try just… hanging out again?"

That's all I've wanted since I got back, Midoriya, Zach lifted the corners of his lips up a bit. The anxiety and frustration he'd felt since noticing those presences back on his run faded, a more relieved and calm feeling forming in him than he had had even before the confrontation with his old classmates. "Yeah."

I've taken too long to say this. Maybe because I'm often given the other way out by Lemillion, or Bakugo, or Todoroki, or Iida telling me it's fine to see Zach as a villain still. But we were closer than you were with any of them. And I don't want to. And it's not being negligent of my hero duties to accept you, but the opposite! "The spirit of a hero, of not just killing villains, is because we have to believe in second chances and forgiveness," Midoriya said aloud, even after Zach agreed with him already. Zach stared at him frozen in place, his eyes growing much wider at the reason Midoriya was giving for why he was doing this. As quickly as he mentioned it, he moved on though, "I want us to be friends again, but I have to get to know the Zach who came back. Since we can both agree you've changed a lot."

Zach nodded his head and replied, "Yeah, that's all I want too. It's all I've wanted since I got out."

Zach turned and looked up the mountain he was hiking, then back at Midoriya. His gaze shifted to Deku's elbows and knees he expected to get messed up due to his trip but that his friend had not grabbed in pain or anything yet. Then he brought his gaze back to Midoriya's eyes once he saw that his friend was good to go, "Think you could keep up this time?" Midoriya looked at Zach in surprise this time, then further up the mountain too as he realized why Zach looked around like that. Zach turned and started jogging up, hitting the trail and then running down it and actually staying on it this time. There was no time to hesitate or wonder if he actually did want to go on a run right now. The decision was a split second one to be made, and Midoriya chased after the other teen getting away from him.

---

A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Zach's facing pressure from all sides, but the chapter ends on a lighter note. Let me know what you think of all that happened, questions for the story, predictions, or comments down below!

grimXblade chapter 156 . May 11

HOLY F*CKING SH*T!c(0_0c)
This chapter was just amazing. I've been reading this fanfic since November last year, and you just keep blowing my mind!
BEST FANFIC EVER!

XD Glad you're loving it! Hope you enjoyed the new chapter!

someguy1011 chapter 156 . May 11

Awesome chapter as always! I got 3 things to say:
1- My hero is a story about midoriya becoming the greatest hero but with death? I truly feel this is
zach molding himself into the greatest hero who ever lived, and i gotta give kudos to ya for being
able to pull off this kind of feeling well.
2-I dont know if this was on purpose but there is a nice parallel between darling stalking zach and
lemillion doing it, cause we clearly see how zach changed, at first he's paranoid and thinks
anything is the LOV's making their move compared to being able to identify where the person is
know they are a hero and narrow it down to like 2 possibilities. WHAT A CHARACTER!
3-Things are going to come to a head between UA and zach i can feel it, also for that final showdown
if zach dies imma just play 'may i stand unshaken' in the background cause i feel like that perfectly
describes his life

Really glad Death conveys that kind of feeling to ya, and thanks for this review. Like the parallel to like a hundred chapters ago, definitely a different sense that Zach knows what's going on now compared to back then. This chapter we see it too, he's quick to identify when he's being followed. Anyway, I'm happy you've liked Zach's character growth, hope that keeps on going 'til the "final showdown"... if that truly is what's coming. ;) No spoilers though, but nice guesses!

GuestP chapter 156 . May 11

Damn, he took out all those villians without killing any of them, that's impressive! His real personality came out a lot in this chapter, i honestly missed the badassery that came with being Death of the Aod. Unfortunately he can't be Death again (yet?).
Zach blows everybody's minds with his wicked awesome skills, meanwhile the readers are just like 'Oh wow, he's halfway embracing his true self again, yay Zach!'
lol
I want to know who called Zach, was it Gentle-Death? Was it EM? Was it L? Was it Denki? Or maybe Tomura?
aaaaaaaaahhhhh idek anymore, plz give me answers ;-;
Anyways, awesome chapter, can't wait for the next one!~~

Zach whips out some badassery, while intentionally blocking most of what he did from the people trying to watch him. Just that though, is already building up his rep (as he thinks about this chapter) a lot. Who called Zach? How long can he maintain his cover from everyone when he's finding it harder to keep it up to himself? What about the League of Villains? EM?! Lots of questions... we'll see about those answers soon, on Death!