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!

165. Chapter 165

A/N Hey guys. Sorry for the long wait. My Mom just got married and I had to visit with family for the past week, but I've got a couple chapters going strong right now so I'll hopefully get up another tomorrow or day after too! Hope you enjoy this big one and look forward to those coming soon!

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

---

Chapter 165:

In U.A. on Monday morning, Hagakure could hardly sit still through the first class of the day. She saw so many eyes on her, and All Might even mentioned something during homeroom about the good work she had done over the weekend specifically early on Sunday morning which all of her friends had woken up on to see her on the news.

She had been busy most of the day before, and when she got back to campus she fell asleep almost immediately after being awake for the whole night before. Now that she was surrounded by her classmates though, and there should be no need for confidentiality about her hero activities since the press conference already happened, she knew the questions were coming and found herself shaking in anticipation. Oh no. I don't think I can do this! The excitement and anxiety Hagakure had felt through the weekend from the nightclub to the fight at the suppliers' production lab for Drug X, also known by the street name Flyer, all the way through the last talk with the press on her way back to campus, returned greater than ever while faced with the aspect of talking to her classmates.

I haven't even talked to Mashirao yet! If he asks me- I can't lie to him! I want to tell him too!

As soon as the first period was done, Hagakure's classmates rushed around her seat. "Great job this weekend Toru!" Uraraka said as she leaned over the left side of her friend's seat.

"I had no idea that's what you've been working on…"

"You looked great at that press conference!" Ashido called out.

Ojiro walked up next to his girlfriend's desk. He had been in occasional contact with her over the weekend but knew she was working and tried not to distract her. When she came back too, he told her to get some rest when she said tiredly that she wanted to tell him all about it. He had hoped to talk to her that morning for a bit, but Hagakure overslept and was the last one into class too which prevented everyone from talking to her before homeroom.

"So how'd you do it?" Mineta asked, leaning over the front of Hagakure's desk. "Incognito said at the press conference that your agency headed this thing right?"

"Yeah, we did," Hagakure started to reply.

"What kind of tactics did you all use?" Midoriya wondered from next to the invisible girl's seat, a notebook ready down at his side with a pen in his other hand. Incognito's a great hero but I never hear much about her fighting style or how she handles villains. Hagakure can finally give me a more detailed description for my notes!

"Well I uh, used my Super Move during the start of the raid," Hagakure began, and half of her classmates surrounding her seat leaned in with big eyes at her recounting of the story. Hagakure felt a strange churning in her gut though and her expression matched that uneasy feeling. "But we didn't even know the location where the drugs were being made at the start of the weekend. First we had to find it, and so we had to go to a nightclub to look for dealers…"

Ojiro looked at his girlfriend in a confused way at the tone she was retelling this in. Others were not as observant though, and Ashido leaned forward even more excitedly, "You went clubbing?! Without me?!"

"That's amazing, Toru," Uraraka told the girl in front of her. Uraraka really did look amazed, and she added when the invisible girl looked her way, "You found the villains responsible for the drug and took them down all in one night."

"It was Zach who-" Hagakure paused with her mouth open, while her classmates surrounding her desk and the others sitting around the room all stared towards her frozen in the sudden silence too. "I mean…" Hagakure continued, but she did not have anything to finish that sentence which started with 'I mean' like there was an excuse for why she just started it like that.

"What are you talking about?" Iida asked, standing up from his seat and stepping towards Hagakure who saw him over all the other students between him and her.

"What about Zach?" Sero wondered.

"Toru?" Ojiro asked, sensing his girlfriend was on the edge of her seat but also trying to hold back so much. "What happened?"

"Zach was at the nightclub," Hagakure said, revealing it while leaning forward in her seat. She spoke in an excited whisper and let out a gasp after it finally pushed out of her lungs. For the past day, everyone had been giving her so much credit at press conferences and on the news and even during homeroom and right now. Hagakure let out a long breath finally feeling some weight lift off her shoulders from the guilt of not telling anyone the truth, though a different guilt kind of took its place as she thought about how Incognito said they would keep Zach's involvement a secret. No one knows how amazing he is though! It's not fair!

"What was he doing there?" Mineta asked in confusion. "Wait. How did he even get in… did he bribe the bouncer?" Mineta remembered Zach telling him about doing something like that back in America at a party he went to on Halloween.

"Uhh, I don't know. I didn't have time to ask. We were kind of busy," Hagakure explained in a way so no one would get upset with her for not being more interrogative at the time. "But he was there for the same reason we were! He was after the drug- Not like he 'wanted it' wanted it! But like he wanted to stop it like we did."

"Was he there with a hero?" Midoriya asked. I doubt it, but it's a possibility that a hero took him under his wing so that Zach could-

"No," Hagakure replied with a slow shake of her head. "He did it all on his own. It was amazing. He infiltrated the dealers and found the suppliers right in front of us!" The others around Hagakure stared at the invisible girl who was not speaking like this was some secret or messy issue that she should be speaking with more care about. A couple of them wanted to even mention how she should probably calm down a little about talking so freely about it, while others also wanted to keep their mouths shut instead of interrupting in case she was going to reveal anything else.

Yaoyorozu looked at the back of Hagakure's head from farther back in the room where she stood, but her eyes shifted to various students in the room with her. She scanned right past Bakugo who just looked annoyed more than anything with very little care for what was going on. She saw Kirishima who was pretending not to pay attention while back at his seat with his eyes pointed the opposite direction and his lips curled into a deep frown. Tokoyami and Shoji each started talking to each other in low voices, and Aoyama had an awkward look on his face as he glanced around like Yaoyorozu was at his classmates' various expressions. Yaoyorozu avoided looking back at Todoroki whose harsh glare she could already feel just past her peripheral vision.

"But, he wasn't supposed to be out there that night-" Mineta began to the girl right in front of him, backing up Midoriya as Hagakure just rebuked what he tried to counter with.

Hagakure pouted at Mineta's response and she crossed her arms over her chest. "He did half of our job for us and then went home. Nobody got hurt, and we stopped the drug quicker with his help. I don't see any problem do you?" She asked it and leaned her head closer to Mineta who pulled back and then shook it with a smile growing as that did sound like a good thing. Hagakure smiled at that reaction, glad someone understood it like she already did.

"Shouldn't, people have recognized him?" Sato wondered from next to Hagakure's seat on her right side where he was looking at her with a small frown.

"Zach totally looked different in his disguise," Hagakure said in a quick whisper as she needed to get more in before their next class started. "He must have had on so much makeup to cover his scars like…" Ashido's eyes bulged and her mouth opened wide in shock for a second before lifting into a giant smile. "…and he looked so cool in disguise-" Hagakure paused, and she looked to Ojiro as she cut herself off. Hagakure rose up her hands and waved them apologetically, though Ojiro just shook his head without a trace of jealousy on it. Hagakure added anyway for his sake though, "He was also pretty scary sometimes too, but really…" Hagakure paused as a couple of her friends got various levels of dark or judging looks on their faces at what she just said.

Hagakure got a stronger look on her invisible face that came through in the tone she spoke with, "He was just amazing to do what we wanted to faster than we could, with less resources, less information, and a worse disguise on a more recognizable face." I shouldn't have doubted him so much back in the club. The second I knew it was him, I knew that he was there to go after drug dealers. But the idea that he had actually taken that drug himself?! I shouldn't have believed it for a second. Zach's too cool for that.

"Why didn't you mention him at the press conference?" Ashido asked her friend who seemed like she wanted to give Zach so much credit now. "I don't think anyone would've gotten mad about him helping out-"

Don't speak for everyone, Jirou thought with a look over at Ashido from where she stood on the opposite side of Hagakure's seat. If you had mentioned it then it was just him doing it to make himself seem… why didn't he then? What is his goal here if he's not going to accept positive media attention like that?!

Hagakure shook her head at Ashido that got her to stop asking midway. "I think he just wanted to do something, to help," Hagakure said. Her voice came out a little more serious for a moment as she turned straight to Ojiro who she had often talked to about what they thought of Zach since he returned. "He said he didn't like feeling like he wasn't doing anything, and I believe him. He just wanted to help and go home, and, and I think he has enough press to deal with every day that he doesn't need this kind of extra attention. Right?"

That has to be why, right? Hagakure second guessed it herself after wondering it to the others. Or does he just not want the credit? Does he want us to get it all? Me? Or was it really because he could get in trouble for helping even without hurting anyone? He gave Incognito an excuse that she said made sense and made it so what he did wasn't illegal. Is it just to avoid scandal? I don't know. All I know, is that Zach's a great person!

Midoriya frowned deeply at Hagakure's idea of why Zach did it. He turned his head though as the door was opening up, and Iida called out in a yell-whisper for everyone to return to their seats. They all rushed back though Present Mic still pointed a finger forward and yelled out "GOTCHA" at the people who weren't in their seats already. He put his hands on his hips and started laughing about it as it never happened with Class A, and he poked fun at their status as the infallible Class A to have made such a sloppy mistake. His loud teases at the most famous class in the country annoyed a few of the class, but most were focused on something other than Present Mic.

Even after all we talked about, you still keep doing these things! Lemillion caught you and you don't even care! Midoriya curled his hands into fists below his desk. One of these times someone's going to catch you slipping up, or interrupt you before you get the end results that will make what you're doing right! I have to stop you before that happens! I'll do whatever I can, Zach, to prevent us from fighting… But you're making it so difficult!

---

"…But it isn't your place to just make decisions like that!" Midoriya scolded his former classmate he met up with on Monday after school. He told Zach he would come to Yutapu this time in their texts, so Zach spent a couple hours after school at the hospital in his own city first. He did homework in the ER waiting room, since he was not going to Musutafu General as he would have if Midoriya did not send him that specific message to prevent him from doing something like bringing back the dead solely so they could have a talk.

He decided not to mention the two people he brought back that afternoon to Midoriya anyway when they met up at the train station. Zach already knew what Midoriya was going to talk about, as he had seen Hagakure's face during the press conference she had been to and subsequent talks with the media. She had been holding back a lot to prevent from saying it to everyone, and he knew she was not going to be able to hold out very long with their own classmates. Zach still gave Midoriya a somewhat harsh look at how loud Midoriya just got with that when there were a couple other people on the street in Yutapu with them.

Midoriya took in a deep breath to quiet down, but he was frustrated at the calm and uncaring ways in which Zach was responding to his very serious accusations he had been planning out all day and finalizing on the train ride to Yutapu. "Sure you don't want to grab some food and hang at my place?" Zach asked again, the same thing he offered when they were first leaving the train station. "Could talk more freely there."

"We can talk freely here too," Midoriya countered with a deeper frown. "There shouldn't be anything to hide if what you did was totally fine?" Midoriya rose his eyebrows to see if Zach understood the fault in his logic of getting off the streets while at the same time saying that he was not doing anything wrong.

"Fair point," Zach replied with a tilt of his head to one side. "But despite what I did Saturday night, you're just using that as 'another' example of the bigger picture here, isn't that right too?" Zach countered the idea that Midoriya just wanted to talk about the single incident of this weekend, which Midoriya opened his mouth to argue but hesitated over for a moment. "If what I'm doing is completely legal for a pro hero to do, then why not one with a provisional license?" Zach asked. "I'm more capable than most heroes, so why shouldn't I be doing my part to help?"

"'More capable?'" Midoriya repeated. He said it like he was checking if Zach really just said that, giving him a surprised look as Zach never bragged or talked himself up compared to others.

"Yes," Zach replied with a laugh that Midoriya would be surprised by that. "While acting within the law, as a student at a high-school who only has a provisional license, I still get more done than more than most pro heroes do-"

"Except you're not acting within the law," Midoriya countered back in annoyance, and his face got more frustrated that that was the point he was countering out of all Zach just said. It made him get flustered for a moment as Zach gave him an expectant look for him to realize what he just admitted by only countering that point. "Zach," Midoriya started seriously. "Even if you do get work done, and you do, no one's ever doubted that. You've always managed to get things done, and yet you've always gone too far. Every time." Midoriya said it sternly and gave Zach a more intense look that had Zach staring back at him seriously too despite where they were in public.

"I won't this time," Zach began.

"How can I believe that?" Deku questioned back. "You spent a whole year as Death, leading an army of killers."

"I'm not Death, and that's not all they are," Zach countered back strongly. He gave Midoriya an intense look of his own at Midoriya's frustrated look, "Heroes have killed villains too. But in the end, we say it's justified because that's their job and they were within their right to do so. And we know that because we have the oversight committees and people to judge them-"

"Which the Army of Death doesn't have," Midoriya snapped. "And that's an important difference! You can't just say that they're the same when they lack the oversight to ensure that they do act within the law-"

"I never said they act within the law," Zach retorted. "But that doesn't mean they're all to just be branded killers. To say that they had no reason when they went too far, just because we don't know for sure that they did? Now that's the biggest jump I've heard."

"Well what reason would we have to believe they did have a good reason? They don't even try to defend themselves," Midoriya countered loudly.

"Because they saved an entire country," Zach replied softer. He turned forward and kept walking, deciding not to argue about it loudly there anymore when too many people were looking over and he spotted a couple of cameras coming out.

Midoriya stepped quickly after Zach though and got in front of him on his side, almost preventing him from continuing though Midoriya did side-step with Zach. "You can't use that as a blanket excuse for everything they've ever-"

Zach and Midoriya's eyes shot up at the shadow they caught moving on the sidewalk up ahead of them. Midoriya saw it out the corner of his eyes while walking sideways, while Zach's eyes darted to the spot and then his head snapped back as he saw something flying towards them through suddenly red-tinted vision. Midoriya turned his body forward, and his eyes started to grow wide in shock as Zach's lost their red tint though also filled with surprise.

A foot slammed into Midoriya's face. It was a foot in a yellow boot that planted in Midoriya's face and squished it in while Midoriya flung his arms up at his sides still in complete shock but also some pain now. Zach just turned to the side with his eyebrows raised and an amused look coming to his face after a moment. The man who just slammed a foot into Midoriya's face dropped down and landed on the sidewalk in front of the eighteen year old boys who stared forward at him.

Deku's eyes that slammed shut when the foot planted in his nose squinted back open. He then shot them open wide again while staring straight ahead into the eyes of a man the same height as him. The tall, muscular man wore a black mask over his eyes, and he looked like a hero considering he was wearing a white costume with the yellow boots, a yellow belt, and a yellow cape that bunched up around his collar and made him look pretty cool.

"Whoa! Who's that?!"

"Is that another hero? I've never seen him before!"

"Why'd he just kick Deku?"

"Is that Lifebringer too?!"

Deku stared in front of him in absolute shock at the young man with wavy white hair who looked like a teenager just like him and Zach. He had no hair on his chin or wrinkles on his face, and he was a couple feet taller than the person who Deku felt he resembled far too closely. "G-G-G-Gran Torino?!" Midoriya exclaimed at the teenager standing in front of him with a pissed off look on his face.

Gran Torino's face scrunched up more and he looked more like an old man there for a second as his eyes turned pure white and he got several tick marks all over his forehead. "Don't 'G-G-Gran Torino' me! What did you do Deku?! You've been reckless before, but you did something very stuPID this time!" Gran Torino's voice cracked with a high-pitched tone, and a look of rage plastered over his face as he restrained himself from strangling the teenager right in front of him.

Zach's bottom lip lowered, and he turned to Deku for a moment before turning back to the older hero again. Deku was still floored by what was going on, but there was no denying who this costume and that voice belonged to, even if the voice did crack like a boy in his teenage years. Gran Torino noticed a lot of people looking over from all over the place, then he looked next to him on his left at the scar-covered teen in a jacket who had been walking with Midoriya. "Nice to see you again, Gran Torino," Zach said. He spoke in a respectful voice and hid the smile from reappearing on his face. Instead he just looked at the man as if he was still looking at the short but much older and venerable version of the hero.

"Sazaki," Gran Torino said with a half-nod at the teen he did not have time for right now. He spun back to Deku and glared at the teenager who was still trying to piece together what was happening. "You told Eri she could use her Quirk, didn't you?" Gran Torino snapped it and glared even harder at the boy whose eyes bulged and whose jaw dropped even farther at what he finally realized happened.

Zach turned and looked skeptically back at Midoriya. Deku froze even more and his eyes darted to the side for a second at Zach, who he was just arguing to about the rules. Zach shook his head at Midoriya and then turned and started away. "You've got a mess to clean up," Zach just said while heading off. Geez, Zach thought once he passed Gran Torino's back. He's going to live to like two hundred now easily. Eri could probably turn back her own age once she's mastered her Quirk too. Man, immortality is just such an easy concept nowadays. I hope no one else realizes it. She has to stay hidden. That sucks, but more than me she's got the ability to become a… Don't think about that.

Midoriya looked past Gran Torino for a moment at Zach's back, frustrated as he had come all the way to Yutapu with so much planned only to get interrupted by the worst thing possible. There were bigger things to focus on at the moment though, and he looked back straight into Gran Torino's pissed eyes. "Gran Torino, I-"

"What would have happened if she messed up?" Gran Torino asked. He did not want to hear what the guilty-looking boy in front of him had to say. His voice was somewhat deeper than it had just been, almost like he was compensating for the voice crack a minute ago. "What if she had sent me before I was born?! She was only trying to give me my Quirk back, and take off 'a couple years' she added when she started crying after I woke up. But look at me!" Gran Torino looked down at his muscular body much taller and younger and stronger than he had been for the past several years. Midoriya looked at his body and started to feel hesitant about what Gran Torino was trying to say, but Gran Torino bit down even angrier at that expression like Midoriya thought for a second 'it doesn't look that bad.'

Gran Torino reached forward and grabbed Midoriya by the jacket. "I'm a teenager again!" Gran Torino yelled at his former intern and pupil. He shook around Midoriya by the jacket, "Do you know what it's like to go through puberty a second time when you're over 70?! Of course you don't!"

"Is, Eri okay?" Midoriya asked.

Gran Torino's hand gripped into Midoriya's jacket tighter, then his grip loosened and he dropped it from the boy's jacket. He brought his hand up to his head and pinched the bridge of his nose, and the "old" man let out a sigh as he told himself to calm down a little. "She's fine," Sorahiko finally said in a steadier voice. He turned and started walking, and Midoriya stepped after him but stayed at his back instead of moving up to his side like he had been walking with Zach. Gran Torino continued while facing away from the boy he was walking with, "Just shaken up. I had to warn her what could have happened to me, make sure she never tries something like that again."

"I'm sorry," Midoriya began. Gran Torino frowned deeply as he already knew it was Deku's fault, since Eri tried to defend herself by saying it worked with Wonderlass- before cutting herself off and looking even more guilty that she had given that away. "When I did, what I did," Midoriya said quietly. "I thought I could- if I was watching her and helped her control it-"

"She's a child," Gran Torino grumbled. His voice was harsh, and Midoriya stopped giving his own excuses at the man's scolding tone. Just like you were, but you're held to a higher level of responsibility! Gran Torino just sighed again, feeling much older than his body looked. "You can't show a kind girl like Eri something like that and expect her not to try it again. I should have seen it coming," Gran Torino got more self-reprimanding which had Deku looking at him guiltier that Gran Torino thought this was somehow his fault for not watching the girl closer. "Recently I had been having coughing fits, and I could see that she was looking at me in a way not just worried. I didn't want to believe that she was considering using her Rewind Quirk on me."

"Your Quirk though," Midoriya began. "You have it back-"

"That is not the point," Gran Torino snapped, turning his head quickly and glaring back at the boy who was the successor to One For All. Midoriya bowed his head in a more guilty way, and Gran Torino snapped again, "Head up! Think about where you are."

Midoriya rose his head, and he forced out a smile though his eyes were not convincing with it. What right do I have to… Just because I did wrong, doesn't make what Zach did any more right. And someone still needs to have that talk with him! I'm, I'm just not… Midoriya felt his stomach clench up at the dirty feeling he had swirling inside him. If she had hurt Gran Torino, it wouldn't just be him. How scared must Eri be that she almost sent him back that far? I- I never should have involved… But if Wonderlass wasn't there, would Mom still be alive? All Might? I- I don't know.

"Come with me," Gran Torino said. "We're going to go train for a little." Midoriya rose his head in surprise, staring at Gran Torino's back confusedly as this had not happened before. Gran Torino continued though while marching forward, "It seems you need more discipline, so we'll switch to the training your predecessor did…" Midoriya froze where he stood, his body covering in sweat as the old/young man marched forward ahead of him. He thought of All Might's terrified expression and what he had heard of Gran Torino's training. Gran Torino's face got a small grin on it while his eyes were still angry, and he said in a low voice with no room for argument in it, "Practical training."

---

In a residential area on the opposite side of Musutafu as where Zach used to live, he walked on the right of two people who had wanted to meet with him on Tuesday. The invisible girl on his left and her boyfriend walking on her other side were talking to their friend they had texted the night before about speaking to in person "about this past weekend."

"It's alright," Zach told the girl who finally brought back up what Zach had done over the weekend. She had been so hesitant at first, instead asking about Shiketsu and talking about what they had done recently at U.A. for the first twenty minutes they had been hanging out while walking around. "I know you told everyone," Zach told the girl who had just finally started mentioning it, seeming so hesitant because Ojiro did not know so she had to let him know that he already did. He explained to the girl who stared at him in surprise, "I hung out with Midoriya for a bit yesterday. You didn't know?"

Hagakure shook her head, and Zach hummed to himself while checking with a glance at Ojiro too. Seems like he didn't see either. Guess it's not that big of news. Saw a few pictures of me and Midoriya looking real serious with each other circulating around. We're still teens though, and there's some drama between all of Class A and me, so it shouldn't be big news. Still, the speculation they made about what we were discussing wasn't good…

"That's actually, not what I wanted to talk about though," Hagakure started up again. "I mean, I am sorry I talked about it when Incognito- when we agreed not to mention you."

"You didn't promise me anything like that," Zach countered with a small laugh at the girl for trying to put this on herself. Hagakure still seemed hesitant, but Zach flashed her a smile and added, "Plus, you only told the others in Class A, right? I don't mind that at all."

Hagakure breathed out a breath of relief, but then she returned to a more serious gaze as there was something else she wanted to talk about. "Zach," Ojiro began from Hagakure's other side. "It's not about how she told us, but about something that happened yesterday afternoon."

Zach looked to Ojiro as he spoke, then he refaced Hagakure who took in a deep breath as they walked through an uncrowded area of Musutafu. There were few people about, fewer cars driving by, and the street was only a one-way narrow block anyway. Zach knew the area though despite it being so far from his childhood home, and he was leading the way walking a bit ahead of the two on his left farther in from the road. Not surprising, Zach thought as he imagined the girl's facial expression based on the body language he could see from her clothing. From that smack alone, he should have woken up within 12 hours.

"It's about, what the villain who gave you that information said, when Incognito questioned him yesterday," Hagakure said. She looked at Zach to see if he would start appearing guilty or something after it, but he just nodded at her to continue what she was going to say. Hagakure lowered her eyes for a second, then she spoke in a lower voice, "I only told Ojiro." Zach nodded, as it seemed to him like she wanted to talk about this in private, and yet it also seemed like she talked about everything with him. "When Incognito questioned Arclaw, he didn't say anything about you, but she did something to make him talk. Incognito told him that she would reveal that it was Lifebringer who caught him if the man didn't tell her, which she said she knew would work."

Good on her for figuring that out. Maybe she thinks I'm Death, maybe she just realizes why it was he wouldn't want me to get in trouble for it. Or want other villains to know I had caught him.

"He was very specific, that you didn't torture him," Hagakure said. She gulped while watching Zach nod his head almost like he suspected that. "Incognito said, it was because he didn't want you thrown back in prison where he was now going. All those dealers are heading to Tartaros, for selling drugs and resisting arrest, and since they're being held responsible for murder of various degrees based on their involvement with the drug."

"Good," Zach said simply. They killed the people they sold that drug to. It only makes sense…

"But Incognito said, that she made him tell her exactly what you said to him. In order to get him to talk…" Hagakure trailed off while Zach's lips curled down a bit. He slowed on the sidewalk and looked back to his side at the two watching him who already knew what Hagakure was going to say. She spoke anyway, "You told him something after knocking the other three unconscious. When you confronted them and grabbed that guy by the shirt," Hagakure paused. She wanted Zach to say something about how this was not how it happened, but he was looking at her like she was not wrong so far. She spoke in a softer voice, "He said that your eyes glowed red, and you 'snarled this in the most horrifying voice' after that guy told you he couldn't tell you anything." Hagakure quoted him there for a second, but Zach still just nodded at her to finish what she needed to say.

Hagakure hesitated, then she looked Zach straight in the eyes and repeated softly but in a steady voice intending to be scary and intimidating, "'I've killed men worth twenty of you without batting an eye. You think I'll give a fuck about wiping your shit-stain of a life off this planet?' Then, he said that you asked after what had suddenly become the most terrifying moment of his life, 'Where is your supplier?' He answered you, and the next second the doors flew open and me and Incognito came running out."

"I just said that to get the villain to tell me quickly," Zach said. He did not smile while saying it, but he nodded his head seriously at the two on his left side. "I mean it. I just said that to him, so he would tell me where his supplier was before someone could interrupt."

"Really?" Hagakure asked excitedly.

"So it's not true?" Ojiro asked instead.

Zach looked to the blond who was more specific with that question. "Yeah," Zach replied, nodding while looking him right in the eyes. "No human life is worth 'more' than any other," Zach said plainly. "So it couldn't have been true," he stated that as an obvious example. Then he paused and got lower, "And without batting an eye? I, am not that cold, that it doesn't affect me-"

"I don't think you are," Ojiro said. He said it strongly and made Zach lift his head back up fast at that assurance. "Sorry. I just, wanted to know what he meant."

"I'm not surprised he memorized exactly what I told him," Zach said, emphasizing what Hagakure had emphasized too to remind her why it had happened like that. "I meant for him to remember it. To really scare him, because if I didn't then he wouldn't tell me."

"If you didn't scare him like that though," Hagakure started. She stopped, wondering if she was right to counter Zach here when he knew so much about stopping villains. He had so much experience, but she curled her hands tighter at her sides and decided not to hold it back. "Then we could have followed him back to his base and caught him and all the others there anyway."

"It would have taken longer too though, and he could have possibly spotted his tail and slipped it, or just looped you around and around while-"

"But that would have been the right way-"

"Incognito's way," Zach corrected Hagakure for saying 'right' way there. He shook his head and was not going to back down from this while the other two watched him. He kept a serious look on his face and did not get guilty, or show any sign of regret. He just said while facing them, "I did things in a different way, which had the same result, and caught them faster. Speed is one of the most important factors often overlooked in hero duties to make room for safety, or the 'best' way."

"If there were better ways though-" Ojiro began.

"And what if in the time it took to get one of those better ways done, someone else died from the drug?" Zach interrupted. He frowned at Ojiro who stared at Zach in surprise at the sudden passionate response. Zach eased back and his look returned calm and more detached like he knew it was correct anyway as he usually appeared to be. "Speed, is vital," Zach said. "We don't know if anyone else would have died had I not done what I did, but that's fine with me. I'd rather not know. All I know is that there was the chance that doing things my way, the fastest way, would save a single innocent life."

"Okay…" Hagakure started, as this all made sense to her but she still wanted to counter it somehow. "But, even if we had done it a little slower and someone else died, couldn't you have brought…"

Zach bit down hard in his mouth. His jaw locked and Hagakure stopped speaking without even seeing it, as she got an uneasy feeling about saying something like this. Zach responded though, "And what about the infinite trips? Those, who have gone insane from the drug and don't look to be getting any better? What could I do to help them?" He looked to his side at Hagakure who was expecting him to say something about those people still dying anyway, only for him to have a second reason just as good that made her point moot.

"You're right," Ojiro said. Hagakure turned to him, but then she spun back to Zach and nodded herself a bunch of times. "You might have saved people the other night. And since no one else will say it, since you won't tell anyone it was you," Ojiro paused and a brighter smile formed over his face. "Good job."

"Yeah!" Hagakure exclaimed, before getting much quieter at how loudly she called that out for him. "You were so good at it!" She yell-whispered at him with a hand cupped to her mouth that the others couldn't see. "And not just with getting in with the dealers, but slipping away from me too!" Hagakure leaned forward and put her hands on her hips as she said that only half in an impressed way, while also sounding half-accusing at him trying to get away from her.

"Hey, I did spend a lot of time avoiding heroes," Zach said. He laughed even as the other two got more awkward looks on their faces. "I'm very good at slipping away without being seen."

"Ha, haha…" Hagakure laughed a bit after a couple seconds. Then she turned to her other side at Ojiro who appeared more awkward, and she elbowed him in a way that made him 'oof' and then let out a single unenthusiastic laugh of his own. Hagakure shook her head around after that though and she smiled brightly as she was glad this conversation went the way it did. "So how did you get into the club the other night? And how did you cover up all your scars?!"

Zach walked with his former classmates down a narrow block that did not even have sidewalks due to how small it got the longer they walked on it. He knew there were cut-offs up ahead for them to get back to bigger roads in the residential area, but this one was just between houses on either side of the road that all looked alike and were squished together so the outer walls were connecting to make the buildings look more like apartments than homes. In a condensed city like Musutafu though, no one could have a lot of acres for any of their properties, and homes touching each other was more the norm than anything like it was in most big Japanese cities.

He told them about how he had gone to the club after doing his own research about the drug and going through their hero database to find everything he could to help him. "It was like your own investigation," Ojiro mentioned. "And, as much as that's impressive, you know you need to wait-"

"I know," Zach replied. "I'm just really bad at that part," he added with a glance away guiltily. "But, it worked out in the end this time. And with not much time left 'til graduation," he continued while refacing his friends. "I'm sure, I won't have to, worry about…" Zach lifted his head up and looked over a nearby fence while trailing off. The direction they were walking down the road had them going past a lot of houses that had very small driveways that were just horizontal strips in front of their houses, though a couple had narrow paths going alongside the buildings too either in alleys or the small gaps between buildings that existed occasionally.

Over a fence dividing two buildings because of a small alleyway between them, Zach saw an older couple who he wanted to lower his voice because of, at first. The more he looked at them though the more it appeared to him like they were in distress. The two both looked flustered, and like they were getting angrier with each other as they argued about something in front of a car. Ojiro and Hagakure turned as they saw Zach was staring at something, and the two of them slowed and stopped at the bottom of the driveway as Zach did to just look up at this elderly couple each over ninety years old by the looks of it.

The hood of their car was popped open, and Zach saw the two arguing right in front of it with them each speaking in louder voices than they looked to have based on their ages. The two were short, but the elderly man was still taller than Hagakure even if the teenage boys were bigger than him. The man was saying in a frustrated tone as the students reached the bottom of the driveway, "…don't need a mechanic! I told you I can handle this! I repaired cars all the time back in the day-"

"But my appointment!" The woman exclaimed back in a more shrill voice. "The cars you fixed were much different. We need to go already and we're going to be late. Let's call an actual repairman!" That term 'actual repairman' only made the man more upset, and the woman scolded in a condescending voice at his pissed expression, "This is exactly like the time-"

"Could you two use any help?"

Hagakure and Ojiro spun to the side and looked at Zach in surprise as he was walking past them and up the driveway already. The couple turned their heads ready to each respond, the woman with 'yes' and the man with 'no!' The two of them completely froze though as they saw who it was who asked the question, which allowed Zach to walk up right to them and then look down into the hood of the car and the engine the couple were looking at. "What seems to be the problem?" Zach asked, looking back to his side at the man and then to the woman who he figured wanted him to help more anyway.

"Ah! Lifebringer!" The woman finally called his name out as she got over the surprise of seeing this well-known, yet still intimidating, hero. The scars on his face and neck seemed so much more unsettling up close, but she got over them quicker than her husband and reached to her side and grabbed the boy by his jacket sleeve. "Right here. I think it has something to do with the starter. Do you see if there's anything wrong?"

"He's just a lad," the man suddenly chimed back in, leaning forward and getting upset as Lifebringer looked at his car like he knew what he was doing as if the older man didn't.

"Ahh," Zach nodded his head while letting out that noise like he saw what was wrong. Both of the older people spun to him in surprise, and Zach nodded his head, "I see what's wrong here."

"You do?" The two asked, the same time as the other two behind Zach who were his own age did.

Zach stood back up fully after leaning in, and he glanced behind him with a small smile as he gave Hagakure and Ojiro a nod. Then he turned to the man on his side and said, "It's something only the new models have. Don't know why they changed it," he said it and shook his head like it was stupid, which the man agreed with wholeheartedly and decided to let Lifebringer take charge here if he knew what that stupid change in the car engine was.

Don't know if that's true at all, Zach thought while looking back into the engine. He reached in though and down to a piece he saw loose inside the car that was actually pretty old, at least in comparison to the vehicle he was thinking of as he started screwing a disconnected piece back in. "Could you step aside for a moment?' Zach asked, as the two were leaning in too close to him. "I think I know the problem, but it'll take me a minute."

"Fine," the man with short white hair replied in a gruff, but interested tone as he stepped back and continued to look in at what Lifebringer was doing.

"Thank you, hero," the old woman added. "It's so great that you're back in Musutafu. I thought you were going to Shiketsu these days though, Lifebringer?"

"Oh, I am," Zach replied. "But always nice to come home once in a while."

"Hey Zach," Hagakure started while stepping up right behind her friend. "Do you know what you're doing?"

She asked it quietly, but the older couple also heard what she said and glanced to Zach to see how he would respond. He seemed confident enough that the older couple wanted to believe in him here, but they all also wondered how it is he would know how to fix this as none of them could. Zach just leaned into the hood though and tilted his head to get a look under some of the system installed in the car. Yeah, Hagakure. I've got this…

---

16 Months Ago

Qarlaf, Gorran

Zach stood on a stone floor partially covered in sand that he and his friends had tracked into the garage they were using. The garage was already sandy beforehand anyway though so the owner told them not to worry about it. It was impossible not to get sand everywhere though, when outside was a desert that the village of Qarlaf was smack in the middle of. The village was small and obscure, a place no one would think to look for a newly created army.

The sixteen year old leading this new Army of Death was standing near the front of a beige sand-colored jeep. The jeep was propped up higher than usual with a jack stand, and there was a thin platform rolled under that had a large man laying on his back on it. The man who rolled under the car had two large pincers sticking out from under the other side of it, but his head was right in the center of the vehicle that he was looking under with a grimace on his face. "What do you see?" Zach asked as the man underneath let out a disgruntled grunt and then a groan while reaching up and touching something.

Grabble slid back out from under the car and sat up on the wheeled platform, otherwise known as a creeper, to face his two comrades in front of him. Zach stood closer to the jeep, while Blackstar was sitting the hood of a black humvee that also needed repair behind their leader and to Zach's left more towards the back of the jeep. "I have no idea how this thing managed to run as long as it did," Grabble said with a smack back on the car door behind him. It had a couple bullet dents in the side that did not make it through the exterior, luckily for those who had been inside at the time. Grabble motioned down where he had just rolled under, "There's a whole rifle gnarled up in the undercarriage."

"A rifle?" Blackstar asked in amusement, while snacking on a bowl of stew the locals had made a ton of for them.

As Grabble described how the car must have ran it over and got it all mashed up with the actual car parts underneath, in another area of the temporary base they set up, a local helping the group finally got a water hose hooked up to a wall faucet outside of the garage. The men and women in black clothing thanked the Arab woman who brought it over with grateful looks and words of thanks she did not understand well. "We got the hose!" Aces called out victoriously while running back towards the open garage doors and holding the end of it up in his hands.

"Make sure to wash the vehicles with it too," Zach called out over to the entrance.

Cee was heading towards Aces and spun her head in towards the younger boy who leaned back at her harsh look. "We take priority over the vehicles," the teenage girl slightly older than Zach yelled at him, while in the middle stripping down out of her black armor she'd been wearing for too long in the Middle East desert heat. The others gathered around outside were not far behind her in stripping down when they saw her doing it, and Aces sprayed the water up and let it come down in a shower for everyone getting close to him.

Blackstar looked over from the hood of the car and then leaned back with a grin towards the girls who all agreed with Cee that it was time for showers. "Oh I sure hope Zach doesn't look towards me while I'm taking off all my clothes!" A voice called back into the garage in English, the Army's primary language, and Zach ignored it while Darling stripped in the corners of his eyes. He focused instead on the most-badly-damaged vehicle of their arsenal in front of him that Grabble described like it was pretty messed up.

"Once we get the gun out from there," Zach started while refacing Grabble who focused on the task at hand again. The bald man was sweaty and wiped his brow, liking the idea of a shower right now, but the person who brought him to life earlier that week had other things for him to do first. Zach continued to the older man with pincers that added more than a foot to his height over his skull, "Will we be able to get the jeep moving again?"

Grabble shook his head while standing up from the creeper. "It's not just the undercarriage," Grabble explained while walking towards the hood of the armored vehicle Zach stepped back from. Grabble popped the hood and Zach stepped back in and looked inside, only to see a bunch of stuff inside that he was completely lost as to what he was looking at. What he did see with the hood popped though, was that some of those black bullet marks on the hood were actually bullet holes, as he could see through them on the popped hood better than he could when he just walked over. The windshield had some (a lot) of marks on it too, making it hard to see through though not impossible since the glass was bulletproof and kept from cracking despite all the hits it took.

"Although the axels aren't messed up badly down there, so that should be fine, the hood got shot up in Hatto and I'm stunned that after taking so much damage we still managed to get it out of the country," Grabble explained. "Any one of the bullets that flew in here could have irreparably fucked the engine, but instead just a couple of easily replaceable parts got hit, so if we can get those replacements quickly, I can fix this baby before we have to move out from the village."

Zach hummed to himself. How long can we stay here? We'll draw too much attention if it's more than another day. Farid says the locals are fine with it, though I wish he didn't mention Muhammed to his family. It's a good thing he knew about this place and that we could come here, but if people track our paths they could find the others' families they left behind. Use them as leverage. Make the others- my army members? Make them betray us. The local heroes might be fine with us now too, after how we just saved Saudi Arabia, and since we're here to stop Shakad and SISIS. Internationally this group is going to get spun as evil soon though, and heroes will come for us too which could put the people of villages like this in danger just for helping us. I need a better strategy for how to handle necessities and living on the go. Staying on the go is imperative.

As Zach was looking so thoughtful about their situation, Blackstar asked, "Didn't Rebel say we've got some new sponsors lined up other than L? Shouldn't getting those parts be easy? Or better yet, whole new vehicles?" Blackstar grinned more excitedly on that one, but Zach shook his head while still thinking about something on a bigger scale that Blackstar's questions helped him along with.

"I want to start saving up some money," Zach responded, but then he lowered his gaze and met Blackstar's. "But buying parts is a necessity," he added. Zach turned to Grabble who leaned back from the hood, and he told the man, "Make a list of whatever you need, and let Rebel know. We'll get everything shipped to us as fast as possible before we roll out. Hopefully, Akhmed locates Shakad by then," Zach added. Thinking about it made him lower his lips into more of a frown, but he rose a hand and scratched at the bandage on his neck for a moment, and then he rubbed his chest around where his bruised ribs were that Hank told him to take it easy on.

Zach turned his head and looked out the garage which made him smile a bit more. He heard the laughter in that direction and saw some buckets had been filled, initially so everyone could use their own water at their own paces instead of needing the hose, but somehow it had turned into a water fight in the last few seconds that had all of the nearly naked vigilantes splashing and spraying each other. We need to get moving fast though, Zach thought as his reasoning for why he wanted Akhmed to finish up quickly, though he had relaxed a bit himself as Grabble and Blackstar laughed too, wondering 'how did that happen?' Rebel's found more information in Russia as well as new recruits all over to the north of us. That Ling girl found us on her own, but I need to actively recruit. Plus I want to get farther from Saudi Arabia after that big announcement.

I can save that for later though, Zach thought with a laugh of his own as the hose was turned on Cee who had been calmly bathing despite the boisterous roughhousing of her comrades around her. Her Quirk was used immediately on the sprayer that got him pointing it the other way at someone he had been teamed with, which made that guy tackle his buddy for the sudden betrayal his friend didn't even know he did. The hose flailed around as it came out of Skater's hand, and Cluster grabbed it and pointed it at someone else who was just washing without messing around like Cee had been.

The water sprayed out towards the man, then it curved up in the air and looped back to spray Cluster right on the face much harder than it had been coming out of the hose. The spray knocked Cluster off his feet and backwards, and it made him drop the hose that waved around for a moment before raising up in a slow and calm way on its own. The hose flew over right into Mark's hand, and then he calmly lifted it over his head and hosed himself off of the soap he had washed with on his own. Then he dropped the hose and walked off, and the others had calmed enough in that time that they were no longer in the mood to play around like that. They wondered what came over them in the first place, and they got moving as Mark firmly reminded them about maintenance of the vehicles.

Zach frowned as he watched Mark away for another moment until he was out of sight around the corner of the building. His frown was not upset that he had lost the smile at the fun they were having, nor that Mark's attitude got them all getting more serious to clean off faster to get to work. He was glad Mark said it so he wouldn't have to do so himself, but he looked after Mark in a more worried way. He's been quiet since he killed those two Demons.

He was not the only one looking after Mark in that way, as both Blackstar behind him on his left and Skater outside bathing with the others looked after their friend. The other two had been there when Mark did it, and they knew they were part of the reason Mark had killed those two: in order to protect them. The two had pretty bad injuries after the fight too, like many in their group had which was why they were all in the team staying at this village while Akhmed took point on hunting Shakad's SISIS.

Zach's head turned a bit as he saw a pair walking around outside not in their black costumes but in more normal clothing for the area that they had been given from someone living there he assumed. He had not seen Gentle or Hummingbird in a while, but he sighed as he saw them talking while wearing the local garb. Always cares about his fashion, Zach thought, though he did not linger on it while looking Gentle's way. I promised I wouldn't get in his way though. He wants to stand out, and I'm glad to have him hiding even his face. The leader of the Army of Death watched as Gentle got a call which made him head off from Hummingbird. She came towards the garage to wash off before the others could get to cleaning their remaining land and air vehicles, while Gentle answered a call from La Brava who was with Akhmed and the others of their split organization of 40 people.

Mark will be fine, Zach told himself. They all will be. He shook his head around and looked back at the task in front of him, something he could do even while the others were out fighting. She's not calling about a dead comrade. I'm fine. Focus on vehicle maintenance. Even though he reassured himself, he still checked one more dart of his eyes over to feel some real relief at Gentle's bigger smile as he spoke to the short woman on the phone with him.

With the bit of relief Zach felt, he loosened up and watched closely instead at how Grabble was examining the inside of the vehicle. He had a phone out and was listing out parts he needed in his notes, and Zach asked the older man in his twenties despite Zach having guessed older initially (due to his baldness), "How do you know all this stuff about cars anyway?"

Grabble was reaching deeper into the hood as he was being asked, and he pulled out a small piece of metal that was crooked in one part and had a chip in it where there clearly wasn't supposed to be one. "Well this is broken," he muttered.

He tossed it aside to a snort of laughter from Blackstar who then mentioned, "Grabble was our old squad's resident mechanic." Grabble turned and gave a nod like 'that's right' to Zach who looked at him in surprise.

"I thought you were the leader?" Zach said.

Grabble tilted his head to the side with a half-shrug. "We didn't really have much manpower; it was a very small special forces."

"Practically everyone had two jobs," Blackstar chimed in which had Zach turn back to the darker-skinned man behind him. "I myself was the field medic," he said with a grin.

Zach was more surprised by that bit of information than by Grabble being a mechanic. "Why didn't you say anything about that experience then when Hank was-"

"Whoa whoa whoa," Blackstar cut off Zach with a laugh, a laugh that made him wince as his body was still badly messed up from his fight against Madame Worldbreaker and Dooku. "Who said anything about experience?" He asked sarcastically and chuckled at Zach's somewhat confused expression. "They just gave me the title because it looked better and more like an actual military outpost if we had a medic on station." Blackstar motioned a thumb at Grabble and said, "I had the same first-aid training the rest of the team have."

"And we never focused much on it during basic," Grabble finished. Grabble scratched the back of his head after saying it, then he grumbled in even more frustration. He had been looking confusedly into the hood of the car, but he had not realized he had gotten oil on his hand and now there was a smudge of black on the back of his smooth scalp. Grabble lowered his hand in front of his face and grumbled at the sight of it, but he could already feel the oily feeling on the back of his head that had him angry in the first place.

"What's the problem?" Zach asked while stepping forward towards his comrade again. He looked into the hood to see if he noticed any changes but couldn't tell the difference.

Grabble glanced to the side then back in himself, "I'm trying to assess the damage without damaging it any further, but I can't get out all the broken parts without completely removing the engine it seems."

"Then why don't we remove the engine?" Zach asked. Blackstar lifted a finger while chewing on another bite, like he was pointing out that Zach had the answer right there.

Grabble shook his head though. "First of all it's very heavy," he started. "Plus taking the whole thing out only to put it back in, we'd practically be reassembling the whole vehicle. That along with fixing the undercarriage, making sure we don't fuck that up too," Grabble shook his head that he scratched the back of with an exhausted look just talking about this. "It's going to be a whole ordeal."

Zach turned and faced his comrade he was standing next to who looked him back in the eyes. "We've got time," Zach said. He gave his older friend a small encouraging smile and then added, "Let's start working on it now, so that by the time those replacement parts come in we're ready to install them and get on the road."

It was not a long motivational speech, but Grabble did not feel as tired anymore. He sighed, but then he grinned and said, "Whatever you say, Death."

The youngest boy there rolled his eyes, while Blackstar let out another laugh behind them. Zach lowered his head for a moment and muttered under his breath, "Don't call me that…"

---

Present

Zach waved back up the driveway at the couple who were smiling down it towards him. The man with a humming car behind him gave Lifebringer a nod, while his wife was waving and called out thanks again. "It was nice to see you too Invisible Girl! Great work with that raid this past weekend!" The older woman smiled more as the invisible girl spun around excitedly about that to say she was just 'doing her duty.' "And it was nice seeing you Tailman," the old woman added, apparently knowing all of their names which was not uncommon for Japanese people. "You better take care of Invisible Girl now."

Ojiro grimaced for a moment while facing away from the old woman still. Is it really that common knowledge?! He thought, before turning with an awkward look to the woman whose husband finally started telling her to get in their car that had the engine running and was wasting fuel. Ojiro gave an awkward wave as she did not even wait for him to respond or anything, then he turned back away and headed off with the others who were ahead of him now.

"Great work with that," Hagakure mentioned as Ojiro caught up behind them. She was looking at Zach, and she said in a happy tone, "That was really nice of you to do."

"Where did you learn to do that?" Ojiro asked too. He had seen what Zach did in the hood, but he had no idea what he was looking at in there and was surprised Zach knew his way around the inner workings of a car so well.

Zach looked ahead of him down the block, and a face appeared in his mind. The face in his imagination stayed blurry, but the silhouette was clear enough with the pincers over it. It took him a couple seconds, then Zach just replied plainly, "A friend of mine taught me."

---

I wish we talked more often. I could invite her over- to my apartment? That's not… really something you do, with your ex.

Zach walked with Yaoyorozu around Yutapu. His mind was not focused much on their conversation though as he could feel the girl next to him looking at him in a way doubtful of every word despite how closely she was listening to him. She hangs onto my every word. This is, this is exactly what all the training was for. For moments like these. With people who will remember everything else I've told them, as well as what I've told other people who they heard from, looking for that single hole in my story. I need to keep it up! I need to… tell her what really happened, in Arcasia.

"…and, at one point during that fight against General Rorsho, I saw Indola use a move I had taught her." Zach's tone about how crazy the fight had been, about the different races and various Quirks of the fighters both on his side and those of his enemies, shifted softer without him turning to look at the girl next to him to acknowledge it. She glanced at him though and saw that softer look that almost appeared nostalgic, and yet it was so distant as if he was thinking much faster than he was speaking right now. "She used a hold that got countered, but I had shown her a counter to that exact counter only a day before. I swear she looked proud in that moment after she dropped her opponent, and she looked towards me, and I gave her a nod but had to keep serious and look forward to get her to keep moving too. No time to linger on it. Not a moment to even mention, that I had seen her do it. She knew though… I think she knew."

"You taught her how to do it?" Yaoyorozu wondered after Zach finished.

Zach looked at the girl at his side in surprise that that was what she had to say about the whole conversation so far. Am I talking too much? What should I ask her? No, she looks like she wants to hear about this. Finally. "I trained a lot of people," Zach replied at the dark-haired girl's question. He turned to her while saying it, but he spotted people behind him back a bit on the sidewalk watching him closely and holding phones up like they were recording him. He turned back forward and spoke softly, "I used to gather up my soldiers and teach them new techniques. I would spar with someone and show the others moves I knew, basic moves and the more complex ones."

He paused for a second while seeing the girl next to him giving him a look out the corners of her eyes. He could not tell what it was she was looking at him like. Doubt? Belief? Trust? Denial? He continued quieter though while just staring straight forward and trying to distract himself from that strange look. "We had a mission back in Terra. And when I took charge, I knew that the only way we could win was by moving faster. I had to move faster and faster, but I wanted to keep everyone alive, wanted to protect them, needed to train them and train myself and prepare for battles." Zach's gaze shifted up while looking out, and he rose it to the sky above that was blue but had some dark gray clouds in the distance. "Then I started moving too fast that I could no longer train my men. I could no longer take the time out to help them prepare for battle, or, anything."

This part is true? Is it? I can't even tell anymore. Momo nodded her head for the boy next to her to continue, but his eyes were barely focused on her at all anymore. Did he even train anyone-

"I didn't have the time," Zach whispered. "So, I learned how to train them easier. I learned how to identify my enemies' weaknesses immediately, learned how to spot people's weaknesses and figure out the most immediate way how to beat them, and how to beat them in the most intimidating way possible." His eyes darkened and he said even lower, "How to beat them in scary ways, beat them showing my dominance, or other times while holding back so my enemies think they can win and decide to stay. I kept them from trying to run away which gave me more time to beat them all. I became able to just spot people's weaknesses at first glance: in their personalities, their fighting styles, their words and how their words would equate to their fighting styles and strategies, and I changed my strategies based on who I was facing and what those weaknesses were. And I became a teacher who never needed to teach, never needed anyone to know that I was teaching… I became a leader."

Yaoyorozu stared next to her with wider eyes at the boy who said that without sounding humble or like he was bragging. He just said it and continued on with barely a pause, "Men watched what I did, and they saw the flaws in what they were doing, because I meant for them to see it and I made them believe they were seeing it for themselves. I made them discover their own weaknesses without being told what they were. I taught them in sparring sessions, fighting in a way that would make their weakness so obvious so they had to see it. I taught them on the battlefield, leading by example. Sometimes I had to humiliate a man to get him to be less cocky so he wouldn't get himself killed like my cocky friends had gotten themselves killed before. Sometimes I had to build up someone's self-esteem, or sometimes show them that their greatest strength is something I could still break through with ease…"

Zach trailed off while thinking of a few people who made him hesitate about what he was actually talking about. His teeth clenched for a moment, and then he whispered, "What it was like to become a teacher, it came so easily… and I can't turn it off." He looked to his side with a hesitant look, and he stated, "Being a leader just became something that came naturally to me. Before I knew it, I was trying to teach the other students of Shiketsu. All of my classmates around me every day I just can't help but try and teach the things that make me strong. And! Even before that, at the licensing exam," Zach gulped and turned back forward with clenched teeth for a second. "I went around that room and tried teaching all those new heroes their weaknesses, dragging out their faults and showing them how weak they are compared to some. I did it- I broke them down and built them up as my soldiers- as better heroes and better warriors who will better protect themselves, better protect the innocent, better defeat their enemies with the least collateral damage."

"At the licensing exam, I tried to reach as many as I could in the first round. Those who were discouraged and failed, I didn't need to train them. The ones who I thought were worth teaching, the ones who proved themselves, I allowed to pass the exam." Zach said it in a low voice, and then he lowered his eyes down to the floor for a moment. What was I thinking that day? I just did it because I felt like it, didn't I? There was no purpose to it other than teaching them. Other than, making them stronger. To make them all more prepared to be heroes, to save themselves and the people they'll be protecting. I just, did what I could to make people into better heroes. So that they can help more innocents and stop villains with fewer deaths. Fewer people I'll have to bring back? No, no that's not why. Though, it is a positive.

You "allowed" them to pass? I heard, from Uraraka, that you were amazing at the hero exam. She did not say much about it, and Midoriya and Todoroki were very quiet about it. You tried to teach the other participants? I don't understand any of that. However, I can believe that at least this much, should likely be true. Yaoyorozu opened her mouth to say something to Zach, but she froze as her pocket started buzzing and making a ringing noise.

Zach turned as Yaoyorozu pulled out her phone and looked at the timer she had set for herself. She turned it off and pocketed the phone, then she said to Zach with a nod and a very small smile, "I must be going. Zach-sensei," Yaoyorozu lifted the corners of her lips a bit more for a moment after she said it. She had to reference all he just said instead of just ending it there, and Zach smiled in relief at her joke.

"Let me walk you back to the train station-"

"I'll be fine," Yaoyorozu assured with a shake of her head like it was no problem.

"Oh, uh, alright," Zach said. "Then, I'll see you soon?"

Yaoyorozu nodded back at him and then turned away from the boy she had come to Yutapu to meet. This is why I should have gone to Musutafu, Zach thought while watching the girl who just turned from him. We could have talked for longer. She has a long trip back, so there's nothing I could say. But for only this much time, she wasted a whole trip out here just for me to ramble like I did for the past hour! Ugh what am I doing ?

As Zach turned the other way and started off with a frustrated look on his face, Yaoyorozu's lips had lowered into a frown too. It was darker in the sky above her, and chillier too so she put her hands down into her jacket's pockets as she continued towards the train station. Why? She thought. Her lips pursed and she turned and flashed a smile at a group of men walking by who all seemed to recognize Creati. She kept going though without slowing down to talk to them, and she walked down the sidewalk with a sad and frustrated look in her eyes. I know you're Death. I knew it from the first, but I also gave myself the small doubt when it happened. I told myself and the others that I would wait until we heard that people were being brought back to life where the Army of Death went before making my judgement- and then you did! You brought them back and I couldn't even deny it in the least.

But you stand there and tell me straight to my face about your adventures in Terra. Your elven soldiers, and your life as a soldier fighting General Rorsho and the Arcasians like it's so real. Yaoyorozu lifted a hand up to her forehead and rubbed it, then she let out a sigh and lifted her eyes from the floor just in front of her. Her expression got less frustrated and more just upset, but also without much emotion in it and more of a look of reluctant acceptance. You never used to do that. Not to me. You can lie straight to my face now, and you never could before. We, don't have the same relationship we had back then though.

Yaoyorozu felt a retching feeling in her gut, and her heart ached a bit, but she shook her head and kept a steady face. She ignored the hurt and just walked forward strongly, That doesn't mean we can't still be friends, and of course I still care about him, but not like- She clenched her own teeth and not from the cold around her, though her fists did clench in her jacket's pockets. Not if you're going to lie to my face. Just lie to me like you do to everyone else. I care Zach… but I can't stand it when you lie to me. Maybe it's because you never did before, or maybe it's because now you feel you have to.

---

Two men walked into a Boraton Hotel on the eastern part of central Yutapu. The hotel was one of the tallest four buildings in the city, and the men had a reservation for a room very near to the top of the building. The first to walk in looked like a native Japanese. He wore a black suit, sunglasses, and a pair of tight white gloves over his hands. He took his sunglasses off after stepping inside and slid them into his coat pocket as he continued forward calmly and discreetly through the lobby without drawing any attention to himself.

There was a foreigner with the man though, who kept his sunglasses on longer and took the more expensive lenses off with more of a motion with his arm before shaking his head once. The blond hair on the sides of his head flushed out a bit and fell around his ears after being pushed down by the glasses' temples. His hair was longer than the other man's short black hair, falling behind his head and to the sides around his neck or below where it curled up a bit in the back. He did not have gloves on, and his hands were out of his pockets and rose at his sides as he lifted his arms up in a stretch and then looked around the lobby at the other Japanese people who looked his way. He flashed a smile of white teeth at the people who looked away, and the Canadian man shrugged and looked back forward at his partner who he stepped quicker up to.

The man who walked in first reached the desk right before his partner, and he spoke to the woman behind it who looked to him first, "Reservations for room 5401."

"One second, sir," the woman replied quickly. She wore a uniform for the hotel and quickly looked down to her computer as she typed quickly, hoping to get this intimidating man's business done quickly.

"How's our room?" The other man behind the counter asked. He leaned his right elbow on the counter and moved his head closer to the woman who looked up in surprise at the smiling Canadian guy who acted quite the opposite from the man she did not even think was with him due to their different demeanors.

The Japanese man continued to stare straight at her with an unwavering gaze that made her snap her head back down, but she shifted a look back up at the foreigner with a small smile. "It is a very nice room. One of our finest here at Boraton."

"That's great to hear!" He replied emphatically. His Japanese was good, though he laughed louder than most Japanese would with mannerisms only befitting a westerner. The woman behind the counter felt more relaxed by his laughs though than annoyed considering the unease she felt initially with the first man who came to speak to her.

"Ah yes, Mr. Yamada. Your reservation for 2 is all set. Here are your keys," the receptionist pulled out two keys that she held over the counter with both hands while bowing her head a bit. "Please enjoy your stay here at the-"

Yamada took the key cards and then turned without a word to the woman who gulped and stopped short with her greeting. The man behind his partner leaned back over the counter though for a second and rolled his eyes, then winked at the receptionist whose eyes widened at how contrasting these two were. The Canadian stepped after his partner over towards the elevators after giving that woman a wink, and he shoved his hands down into his pockets with a relaxed look over his face. "No need to be so moody," Edward said with a chuckle as he got right up to his partner's side. Although he had on a suit too, his jacket was unbuttoned revealing a striped yellow button-down underneath instead of plain white like Yamada's. "Someone might think something's up if you act so uncool."

"Keep your opinions to yourself," Yamada said. He held a briefcase in his right hand and had pressed the elevator button with his left, while Edward had a backpack on over his suit as the only luggage the two of them had on them.

The elevator doors opened and the two men stepped inside. Yamada swiped his key card which turned on the elevator and illuminated the button for their floor, then he glared out the doors for anyone who was considering following them to double-back on that and give them the elevator to themselves. Edward leaned against the opposite wall while holding a finger on the doors' close button, and as soon as they were shut he said, "So what's with you? You never smile before? It's not actually that hard."

No response from the other man in the elevator. "Mr. Yamada" stared ahead at the doors without making a sound, though his thoughts shifted to the man at his side without him looking Edward's way. Edward McMillan. Ex-Special Forces from the experimental CEDF. The Canadian Emergency Defense Force failed in its initial foundation though. If it had not, there was no way a man such as this would have been released. The Canadian division could not replicate the US Special Forces that many suspect must be why the US' crime rate never rose as high as the rest of the world. Canada and Mexico's rose faster on either side, so his nation attempted to make up for it by following their neighbor's policies.

"…J-1 will meet you at the airport. Follow his instructions once you arrive. Initial payment will be deposited this Friday, and payment for completion of the job will be…" blah blah bah. This guy's got no personality at all. I thought J-1 was just a codename, but it's more like he's an actual drone or something! Edward looked at his "partner" closely, Could be actually. Though it feels like he's sizing me up. Even if he pretends he's not.

…The CEDF never received much support inside of Canada, J-1 stepped forward as soon as the doors opened on their floor. The rooms this high up were as wide as the floors themselves, and the two stepped out into the entry-room of a large loft with a huge living room, multiple bedrooms, a kitchen and bar area, and windows almost all around the room. J-1 walked straight towards the bar to put his briefcase down, And once crime rates started dropping again the program was shut down. And now men like Edward have all the skills and no work for them.

Good thing there's still someone hiring, Edward dropped onto the couch while swinging his backpack off his back and around in front of his body. He unzipped the bag while J-1 typed in the code on his briefcase's keypad. The case clicked and he opened it up, while Edward pulled out a black cloth wrapped around one long hard piece in his bag. "I was real glad to hear from you guys," Edward started, while he started to put together the sniper rifle he pulled out in pieces in his backpack. At the top of his eyes as he put it together, he saw his partner ignore him but that encouraged him more as it confirmed something. So he is with him.

Edward leaned back and continued putting his gun together but while staring straight at J-1 as he did it. "So, what is it with our employer?" Edward asked. J-1 was facing to the side and down at the counter as he put together his own rifle that had been hidden under a false bottom of the briefcase. He stopped moving for a moment as Edward continued, "It's the first time I heard about Eziano Mozcaccio, but is there anything I should know about him?" Edward watched as his partner turned towards him with the first look of genuine emotion on his face since they met at the airport earlier that day. His own eyes got more dangerous as he sat there brandishing his already put together rifle, but he held it in that intimidating way because of the intent he felt from J-1 at the mention of that name.

Wasn't hard to figure out what those initials were. Just asked around with some contacts, until finally someone told me what it was they really didn't want to tell me about. And seeing as he gave you a codename I'd bet you're one of his. The top assassin in the world hires random guys like me? No way. Not exclusively at least. I knew, there had to be guys like you out here. "Come on, J-1, your boss really all-"

"For one thing," J-1 started. He interrupted Edward which was a first despite the Canadian man speaking constantly almost hoping he would get interrupted one of those times. Edward shut up at J-1's dark voice, and the Asian man glaring at him finished, "Never mention that name again or I'll be forced to kill you."

Edward wanted to test it, but the job would be ruined. He wanted to make a joke, but he also wanted J-1 to tell him what was 'for two.' J-1 was not finished with his threat though as he saw Edward's focus more on what other information he could get and not on that warning a moment ago. "You are correct, and there is an organization that I am a part of. You do not attempt to join us. You will be contacted if he sees it fit."

"And would you be okay with that?" Edward asked. "If your boss lets me in?"

"Yes." J-1 replied, and he turned back to his weapon. "I am a member of his organization. I have no fingerprints. I have no record of ever existing, as my face has long changed and there was never a record of my DNA." Edward lowered the corners of his lips into more of a frown as he watched the other assassin, an actual professional assassin very unlike himself. "I go by J-1, though I have no true name." He clicked in the final piece of his rifle and then turned his head to Edward once more, glaring into his blue eyes with darker brown ones. "There are very few things I care about in this world. I follow our employer's orders exactly. I believe in our Lord and follow his will. And I obey the rules of our organization that carry down to all professional killers on Earth. Rules that you will learn and obey, or you will die."

"Hey hey, I've been a soldier," Edward said defensively, holding up a hand without looking threatening at all anymore. "I can follow rules." Sounds like I'm entering a whole new world here. Sounds fun actually! I'll be starting off ahead of the curve though, with the best rep someone could get in this game. Edward turned his head towards the windows on the west side of their floor. His determined and hardcore look only lasted for a moment though before a more curious one appeared again, This guy religious or something?

And one other thing I believe in, J-1 started loading a magazine and checking all of his rounds to make sure he was ready. The only way to make up for the Painter's death which I wanted to cause myself, the only way to prove myself the best sniper in the world… J-1 snapped the magazine back into his rifle and his eyes darkened furiously as he glared over the bar at the wall across from him. Is to kill the one who killed the Painter, as I know Sazaki did.

"So how much do you know about me, by the way?" Edward asked while stepping off the couch. J-1 turned back with the same emotionless look as before, and Edward sighed and held up his free hand as he was lugging his sniper around with him. The rifle was almost as long as he was tall, and the muscular former soldier grinned at his partner who turned while also holding his rifle with one arm. "You think I could beat you in a snipe-off?" He asked it and bounced his eyebrows at the other man a couple of times. Then he turned his head to the right where J-1 just turned left, and he spun back, "Oh come on. We've got time before school's out. Tell me, you think you have what it takes to match up with me?"

"This is not a contest. It is a mission." But yes, I am better than you-

"So you do think you're better than me," Edward called his partner out at the way he responded. "But you know, if your boss was really confident that you could do this he wouldn't have called me in." J-1's face did not have a reaction, and Edward could not tell if what he just said actually got to the guy this time. He walked around J-1's side to the edge of the bar and around the other side where he got a good look at the drinks the hotel stocked their bar with. He smirked at the sight of them but rose his eyes back up to the Asian man scanning his eyes around the room locked on him, "I had a 'natural affinity' for sniping, the instructors said, which put me at the top of my class. But added with my Triple Zoom Quirk," he leaned forward over the opposite side of the counter and smirked wider. "I'm a monster with my rifle."

Triple Zoom has it's flaws, J-1 thought while keeping eye contact with the Canadian. He does have the advantage with it, however only at 3 pre-locked distances that he can zoom his eyes at. He must determine them an hour in advance however for it to work. "And what use is that Quirk if you wait until his school is out to set your distances-"

"I memorized the schematics for this city, this hotel, and all the streets and buildings around us," Edward countered with a cocky look at his partner. "You think I don't have the three most likely routes he's going to be heading down already locked in here?" He tapped on his right temple only a couple centimeters from his eye, and he chuckled as he left J-1 quiet for a second. "If anything, it might be the opposite way around. Your boss probably could have just called me here to do this on my own."

"I have far more experience in this field," J-1 said. His voice was calm, and he calmly turned away and started for the west side of the building. "And I can hit from farther-"

"Bullshit! I could hit an apple off a tree at two thousand yards like it was nothing!" He called it out and marched around the counter after J-1 who kept walking without pause like he was unimpressed by that stat.

"Good," J-1 replied though when Edward was getting close to him. J-1 knelt down in front of the window he chose, and he pulled out a small round device he pressed up near the bottom of it. He twisted his wrist and finished, "Then focus and hit the target. If you fail on the first shot, know there will not be a second." J-1 pulled his hand back from the glass and took a small circle of glass with it wide enough in diameter for his sniper's barrel to fit through.

"Toss," Edward said after picking his spot and kneeling down at it himself. He caught the glass-cutter and got to it himself, but he asked while going, "Why not? From this distance, there's no way he figures out where we are from one shot-"

"Do not underestimate Death," J-1 said firmly. He twisted knobs on the sides of his scope while down on one knee. He leaned his head up a bit while tilting his barrel down more to check that he had an angle on another roof that might be used as a point to jump up to. Predicting his movements is impossible. So I need to have every location locked down.

"And you're sure he's Death?" Edward asked. He continued messing with his own sniper, though he looked to his left while working on it and towards his partner. "I've heard Death's still out there. It could be-"

"The man currently holding the position of Death is Danjuro Tobita, a man formerly known as the Gentle Criminal here in Japan. An associate and former subordinate of our target, Zach Sazaki." J-1 paused for a moment, then he added in a lower voice, "However at any time, Sazaki could return to his former position. He could return as Death and bring an end to all of us. Surrounded by his powerful comrades, with more resources than any organization in the world, and we would never again have as great an opportunity as we do now. Alone. Unprotected. Out in the open because he made it so he has to be." J-1's hands tightened on his weapon and his eyes focused on the roof of a school building in the distance blocked by too many buildings around it for him to see the windows.

We're hunting Death! I already knew, it was a possibility that he was once… I didn't really think that's what this was. Edward shifted his gaze to his side at the man who had spoken so strongly about this a second ago. We're not hunting him because of what he did to the League of Villains. Nor because of Sazaki's underworld bounty I heard about but didn't consider until this super paycheck got offered. That Eziano- EM guy, and Sazaki- Death! They've got a fucking war going on under the surface! And despite going against that guy whose name we can't even say, and all his super assassins- he's just walking around out in the open like there's nothing fucking wrong?! Jesus Christ! This kid- if I kill him it won't just be setting me for life or making me the most famous killer… we could be deciding entire wars and the- the fate of the whole fucking world?! Edward's grin could not get any bigger as his slight anxiety was replaced by the complete, utter hype at how big what he was about to do was.

"And why is it, that he came back in the middle of all this?" Edward asked while knelt and aiming down his scope. "What's he doing back here if he's really the true Death?"

…

J-1 did not reply to Edward. He did not answer, and Edward started frowning again as he wondered what made his partner answer those other questions if he was going to ignore this one. "I do not know," J-1 said after a minute. He said it and Edward looked at him in surprise and then even wider eyes as it looked like J-1 had spent the last minute thinking of reasons. "But as many men as I have killed, our target has killed more. Far more. Many powerful villains have fallen to his hands. The Shadow Bosses, Mr. Fergus, Keibald, Umbuju, the Capos of Wampajawa. His plans will mean the end for all of us," J-1 looked to his right and into Edward's eyes that got much more serious this time instead of excited. "Kill him. Or he will kill you."

"Yeah, I got it," Edward said. He looked back forward and focused on the roads in case anyone was being let out of school early. "The files I received showed projected routes where he could go after school, but are we sure-"

"The third member of our team has been tracking Sazaki's movements subtly for weeks…" Edward's eyebrows raised up and he chuckled, as he had no idea there was a third member of their 'team' until now. "We believe with a high level of certainty that he will pass down one of the three routes on this side of Shiketsu that you have established angles at along with your zoom. Each of those routes at some point move along streets in view of our hotel room today. At his home he is sure to be most alert, and at school he is too protected. In the streets he must stay relaxed and smiling. We've determined he is desperately trying to make everyone believe that he is just Zach Sazaki, a normal eighteen year old hero prospect trying to live a normal life."

"Surprising so many people believe it," Edward retorted under his breath.

J-1 did not make a response to that, though he did think skeptically, You did not believe he was Death until a minute ago. Yet you say… It is unimportant. It is unlikely we will work together again. I must succeed in this mission. I have to kill Death once and for all. It will be me.

The snipers waited patiently. It was a necessary trait for someone in their position. They established their shots and readied themselves for their target to get out of school.

Zach Sazaki got out of class and left with the rest of his classmates as usual. He had plans for the afternoon or so he said, so he denied Kotsumura Keiji's invite to hang out at his place after school. Then he headed to the east of his school, though not on the street he took most frequently. Zach went down a different route more to the north, and the snipers first spotted him crossing an intersection going northeast. The two of them both turned at the same time and then scanned their snipers to the corner of the next building down on the intersection. Zach walked past the corner and was out of sight again.

"Contact."

"The next intersection is blocked. Plot out possible routes."

"Do you have his end destination?" Edward wondered while moving his barrel around and adjusting the sights at different intersections or roads where Sazaki could once again return to his sights.

"… Where he is going at this moment is unknown."

"I think he's cutting back in towards us."

Of course you do. His most used routes are all in this direction. Even a misdirection to the north would have to cut this way if his intentions take place… Here we go. J-1 fixed his sights and moved his gun to track Sazaki's position just over two miles away. "Hold," J-1 said.

"Too far for you?" Edward asked, though he was also carefully adjusting his scope and checking the wind and air pressure ahead of him.

"He is moving closer. We will only have one shot..."

"Distance at 3,400 meters... 33-90... 33-80. Look at him," Edward cracked a slightly bigger smile at the sight of the kid in his scope who he was looking at even closer up. His eyes focused on the kid's scarred face, but his tone was referencing his smile and carefree expression as he waved at some people down the sidewalk ahead of him coming his direction. He stood where he was for a minute and took a picture with a couple of girls at a different high school who gathered around him and held up two fingers in a 'V' which had Zach doing the same with his right hand in its glove.

Zach continued down the road, and the two snipers moved their weapons to follow him on a route diagonal to their building. He was on the sidewalk closer to their building, so they could not see his whole body, but from such a high vantage point they had a good view down over the roofs of the buildings between them. He shouldn't be able to see the shot, J-1 thought as he stared down at the top of the boy's head. If he can see it, he could dodge it or block it in some way. The shot taken on him upon his release almost hit the heart, and no one ever caught the shooter. He's not invincible. One, good, shot. J-1's right index finger rested on the trigger gently.

He just looks like, a normal kid. Edward watched the teenager closely as he walked down the sidewalk in a completely casual way. He had his hands down in his pockets for a few seconds, then he pulled them out again and returned a more friendly smile to his face as he looked right and across the street. But this is a job, and even if my employer's wrong, I'm not getting this guy pissed by backing down now. Sorry kid, this is how I get into the big leagues. Edward chose a similar time to take in a heavy inhale as his partner. There was another intersection that Sazaki was nearing and that neither assassin wanted to risk their target taking a wrong turn on to get even farther from them.

It was a difficult shot. It was longer than most people would say was a possible shot to take. Neither of the snipers thought about that as they judged the distance, the wind, and all the other variables coming into play that could mess with their shots. Edward looked through his scope and his eyes were more focused on the detailed person he could see through it. He saw all of Zach's facial features on the left side of his face from an upwards angle, while the boy turned his head to the right and rose a hand to wave at some other teenagers across the road who recognized him and called out his name. Zach's hand half-rose, and then his head blurred to the left. It spun left with his eyes red and dragging a glowing blur with him so those red eyes snapped up and over the top of the building next to him, over the one past that which was only three stories tall, to a massive hotel with a vantage point on him where he glared towards the highest floors of the building.

Black wings ripped out of Zach's back and slammed down hard, causing the other people on the road with him to scream.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Edward tried to yank his gun up but the circle it was pushed through was too small.

J-1 had taken his first shot when Sazaki's head moved faster than it should have in his direction. His shot missed, and he pulled his rifle back out of the hole and jumped backwards, then jumped back again onto the bar near the middle of the room. He aimed out the window more on-level with his own room, and he fired again with a shot that put a hole in the window and made five long cracks spread from that hole towards the window's edges.

The figure that flew up high in the sky swerved to the right and pulled its left wing up, but a hole still tore through the black wing only to get filled in with more darkness in an instant. That floor, Zach flapped his wings behind him and shot like a rocket towards the room. He smashed through the window already cracked, sending glass flying inside and cracking the windows around that one that could not handle the force of Zach flying through so fast. Darkness dragged behind Zach's body as he ignored keeping it all close to himself, discarding that for the purpose of speed.

Zach flew into the room and straight at the man on the counter who tossed his sniper forward while doing a backflip and pulling a sidearm out from his side. Zach's eyes darted to his left though as he saw another man rolling from his stomach onto his back and pointing up his rifle that was loaded and ready to fire. Zach's body lost all darkness around it and he ducked down, and a bullet whizzed over his head. He hit the ground and darted towards the blond man who tried to pull his barrel down to fire off another shot.

J-1 aimed in front of Zach and fired to get the boy he was leading with his pistol. The teen was running so fast that his momentum should take him right into the bullet, and J-1 still felt confident until the moment he was pulling the trigger, when his gun jolted backwards. His finger was still pressing down, but his eyes snapped back from Sazaki to the end of his pistol barrel, where there was a knife blade sticking out of- the gun exploded in J-1's left hand and he yelled out in pain while falling backwards, his left hand shredded by the shrapnel of his exploded gun.

Zach grabbed Edward by the face with his left hand and yanked the man up so hard that Edward dropped his sniper before ever getting off that second shot. He brought the man up and then slammed down into the ground taking all the wind out of the sniper who gasped in pain. Zach turned his head and glared at J-1, who rose up his head slowly while standing and glared at Sazaki right in those glowing red eyes. "This is not over," J-1 said. Then he disappeared. Zach's eyes darted around the floor near where the man had been standing and dripping blood from his left hand, but no more red drops were falling nor were the small pieces of shrapnel on the floor being kicked around or stepped on by some invisible person.

Teleportation.

Zach lifted Edward again and then slammed him down before letting go of his face so the man could breathe better out his mouth. His nose was broken by Zach's steel hand when he smashed it hard into the man's face, and blood poured down from his nostrils over his chin. Zach lowered his hand after releasing Edward's face, and that moment of relief the sniper felt when he was able to suck in a huge deep of breath, turned into panic as Zach clenched his metal hand around his neck and hoisted him off the ground again.

Edward looked down and was out of jokes. He stared down into glowing red eyes of a monster who had looked like a normal kid thirty seconds ago. Zach's steel hand tightened its grip, making it so Edward could no longer breath as his windpipes were being squeezed. He really needed to breathe in that moment too, as Zach Sazaki's face flashed as a skull and black lines ripped across his skull as it strobed from skin to see-through. Then he pulled Edward's face in towards his own with for the scariest moment of Edward's life. "Tell me… everything."

"Wh- I can't, speak-" Edward was gasping out breaths that made out words just barely. His heart pounded and his eyes were getting bloodshot as his face reddened and then purpled. "Eziano-"

Zach's hand finally loosened a bit. He kept a strong grip ready to clench again at any moment, and his body flared with darkness that crawled down his left arm towards where he was holding his enemy. Dark wisps moved like snakes inching up his arm towards his terrified captive. "If you tell me everything you know about your comrades, I won't turn you in. But you speak now or you lose this mercy." Zach's fingers started clenching in again.

A minute later, Zach knocked out the sniper he was still gripping by the throat through all the man just told him. You're a fool for believing me, Zach thought, as Edward's last sentence to him was asking if that meant he could go free now. He dropped the unconscious man to the floor and turned back to the broken window, but then he stopped and turned back. He leaned down and picked up the foreigner he almost left in the empty hotel room he suspected was about to get swarmed. That J-1, Yamada guy could come back here for his partner if I leave him. Zach's body erupted in darkness other than his left hand that he kept the black flames away from even as wings ripped out of his back.

Third member. Must be somewhere to keep an eye on me if he knew the paths I took most frequently. Stays subtly behind me usually. I've noticed the ones tracking me usually, but hopefully I've shaken him each time before I got home. I never noticed him on me back at the apartment. Now that there was this attack though, I've got just cause to search and make a mess to find them. J-1 got off that shot as soon as I turned. A single glare on some store window glass and I knew, but he couldn't hit from that far. Not many people could. I had luck on my side though…

Yeah, luck. Or else I would've been dead. Again. Probably. Just have to find this third member now. If J-1 couldn't teleport straight to him and get him out of there, then most likely he continued what he normally does and followed me around. He could have gotten in contact if they never saw me, or he could have done something to try and get me to go a certain direction- he might have done it already! What made me decide to go this way? What things did I see after school that could have influenced the decision! Search everywhere!

80 seconds later, Zach landed back at the base of the hotel where lots of police cars had rolled up and some new heroes just arrived as the secondary force. The first two heroes who arrived were already heading up towards where people heard the loud commotion and saw fighting going on from other floors looking down or up, but others who just got there were down at the base of the building with a group of forty cops. Zach dropped two unconscious men at the feet of the police officers speaking to the heroes who all spun and lifted their heads to the figure whose wings vanished and dropped him to the ground. "I caught these two villains on attempted murder-"

"Sazaki," one of the officers began. It was a voice he recognized, and he turned to the higher pitched tone to see officer Riumi stepping towards him. The woman with short gray hair under her blue police hat had picked him up the day he left the hospital early and went to get a haircut. Unfortunately, the hero who caught Zach that day and was much more unpleasant to him about his running off was also there, and FlyGuy marched up towards Zach after looking at the two unconscious men Sazaki dropped there. "Are you-"

FlyGuy interrupted the officer, "What are you doing here? This is not your job yet-"

"They shot at me," Zach snapped at the older man who leaned back fast at Sazaki's dark look straight in his eyes. Zach's face relaxed an instant later as there was a bit of a crowd around the bottom of the hotel. "One of the shooters escaped. A teleportation Quirk. This one was one of the snipers, a Canadian named Edward McMillan. The other was a spotter, but both are villains involved in the incident." Zach motioned down at the men he had dropped on the floor. In a couple of seconds, he not only explained the situation but also defused it and explained how there were no villains to fight anymore. No one knew what was going on here, and Riumi nodded at Lifebringer after a moment and started relaying that information around to get everyone on the same page.

Zach put his hands behind his head and let out a stretched-out yawn. "Anyway, let's get them processed. I'll give my statement to whoever wants it," Zach added while looking around to see who would finish up this incident with him. He ignored FlyGuy completely and looked mainly at the police to see who wanted to talk to him. Zach turned to FlyGuy who looked like he was about to start speaking, "You should let the hotel know they don't need to evacuate." He could see behind the pro who spun around himself as there were a large number of people evacuating from the huge building. "It's unnecessary."

"What if they did something to sabotage the-"

"It's unnecessary," Zach just repeated. "McMillan's plane came in around noon, they arrived at the hotel only an hour and a half ago. If you check the record for his key card it should show he only traveled from the lobby to his floor where there is no danger. They didn't do anything except prepare for their attack since they arrived." Zach looked around at everyone facing him, then he motioned towards some press vehicles behind the police line. "But I think the rest of what I have to say, I should wait until I'm at the station…"

---

"And you're totally up for going to the carnival on Friday? I'd understand if you don't want to-"

"I told you Mina," Zach said on the video call with his friend who called him from U.A. He let out a low sigh that turned into a chuckle as he repeated, "I'm fine. They're making a bigger deal out of it on the news than it is. I just hope it doesn't turn into some big international incident with people trying to push blame around."

"Mmm," Ashido hummed over the line at the boy she had called worriedly a few minutes ago. She looked towards her laptop where she was streaming some news. The news was currently muted but had subtitles on the bottom, and she frowned deeper at the pictures of the two men on it. The Caucasian man was the one Zach was referring to when talking about the incident becoming bigger, but Ashido's focus was more on the mysterious person whose identity was still unknown. Her eyes shifted to the subtitles too, "One assailant still at large." That means Zach didn't catch one of them. I want to ask about it, but if he's not worried the guy will come back then I should just accept that! "Ok! Then Friday, do you want to meet up beforehand or should we all just try and meet at the ferry?"

"I think the ferry should be good," Zach replied. Don't even put meeting up at the fair itself as an option, but allow me to pick one that's closer… if that's what you thought I would suggest myself I mean. Is that what she's-

"I looked up ferry times this morning, and since we'll have to wait until after school, plus the time it takes us to get ready, and the travel time to the ferry first before we can get to Inazuma Island…"

Zach nodded along with the pink girl excitedly making plans and using him as more of an agreeing bystander than someone helping with the decisions. He turned his head in his bedroom and looked at the windows across from the foot of his bed. His gaze lingered out there though he shifted his eyes back for a moment to nod at the time Ashido concluded worked best for everyone. She got to talking about getting transportation from the train station to the ferry or just walking, and Zach listened with a small smile on his face. He appeared like he was paying attention but also looking at something else, and Mina Ashido tilted her head to the side of her phone like she was trying to look around Zach to see what it was.

Zach turned his phone a bit and showed her his window which did not have anything special out of it except some sunlight and more buildings. He turned it back to himself and nodded at her to continue, which Ashido did slowly, but she got a confused look on her face again as Zach's eyes shifted back over to the window anyway. He stared back over there while sitting in his chair, and Ashido tried to keep speaking strongly but she trailed off. He looks so far away again, Ashido thought it and lowered her lips into more of a pursed frown at the idea. Her friend's smile looked distant, and older, more mature and so far from her. "Zach… You've changed."

The boy on the other end of the line kept looking towards the window for a few seconds, then he looked back at the girl whose eyes widened. Ashido pursed her lips after a second though and decided not to cut back on what she just said, instead just staring at Zach closely at the way he turned to her without denying her sudden statement. "Maybe," Zach admitted. He leaned back on his chair and held his phone out in front of him as he looked at the girl on the other side of it. "But sometimes, it's not the people who have changed. It's the mask that fell off."

Ashido's heart raced as she stared at the boy right in front of her but so far away that she couldn't run to him in person when she heard about him getting attacked. "So the you now, was the real you back then?" Ashido wondered quietly.

Zach tilt-nodded in a way like he was saying that was partially true at least. "More-so than when I was here before… I feel like I'm not hiding at all. My past maybe, certain things, but back when I came back from the villains I had all sorts of secrets." Zach's eyes rose up to his ceiling and he lowered the corners of his lips down, "About my plans for working with anti-heroes. My plans for getting Japan to be a society more welcoming of my ideas about people using Quirks."

Things you're so open about right now, Ashido thought while staring at the boy saying this so casually in front of her.

"I don't care to hide those things anymore, not from you guys," Zach said while looking back down into Mina's eyes. She was staring at him with bigger eyes, and Zach said softer, "I don't care that it makes me seem so far either, to be caring about such things."

"Well," Mina began, stopping Zach before he could continue. As much as the things he talked about were huge, beyond her own concerns and normal worries, she shook her head at what he just said. "You've always been that far away, if it really was a mask before," Mina said after realizing it herself. "You wanting people to be able to use Quirks just normally, isn't a very popular viewpoint, but I think if you explained your reasons to people, people would totally listen to you!"

"I just, think it's common sense," Zach said while nodding thanks at his friend for that encouragement right there. "The reason behind that being that I think kids who have cursed Quirks like mine was wouldn't see them that way if they were trained from a young age. If everyone understood their Quirks better, even if it is harder for those cursed kids, it would be better than just giving up on so many." Ashido nodded along with him, though she was more-or-less doing what Zach did while she was making their plans for the weekend. "Before," Zach started after a pause. "I wanted to change things so that in the long run there wouldn't be children like that, like me and like Eri. In order to create a world where they would no longer exist, I was willing to go outside of the law: To find the League of Villains, to fight the people who had tortured me and killed my family, but not anymore."

"You're really going to do everything, lawfully this time?" Ashido said, hesitating after 'everything' because she did not know if she wanted to ask him this question only to be disappointed when he ultimately broke his word in the answer.

"I am," Zach replied. He gave her a steady look during his response, and he said firmly afterwards, "I'm staying in the law not because I think I can find the League of Villains better this way, because that's not true and I could find them easier outside it." Ashido's eyes grew wide again as Zach stated that so plainly like he had ways he could be tracking the League down at that moment if only he could do whatever he wanted. Zach continued though, "But because I've come out as trying to do things right, I can't go and do them some other way or I'll lose the faith of the people. And they don't just believe in me, they look to me for guidance on how to be strong and come back from dark times."

Zach's voice got quieter as he said that, and he looked somewhat awkward while hunching forward in his chair to say it in a softer voice to Mina. The girl he was speaking to stared at him astonished at what Zach was saying though, as Zach went on, "I can't fall again though. If I fall again then they'll feel it's the exact opposite. That no matter how strong someone is, they'll always break. That's not what I want them to believe, which is 'that no matter how weak you are, how many times you fail, you can always get back up and become something great.' I've become famous for doing just that, and people are waiting for me to falter and fail, but I won't give them that excuse. I won't give anyone the excuse that 'even Lifebringer couldn't hold on forever.'" Zach rose up his eyebrows he realized were narrowed down at the girl who was leaning far back on her bed while talking to him.

He paused for a moment and eased up on how passionately he was just speaking too. "Maybe, I have changed," he admitted, while Ashido eased up herself as she felt like Zach was backing off due to her expression.

"What do you mean?" She asked him quickly.

Zach held up his free hand and just shook his head with another small laugh. "Well, to be more forthcoming about what it is I'm doing, at least to my friends." He smiled bigger at the girl on the line with him whose heart raced faster and whose entire face brightened at the sound of that. "How I want to save the world, make it a better place, stop villains and make people have better lives that stops any more villains from appearing. Have people help the insane and mentally ill before they become criminals, and create outlets for people who need them to keep them from going down the wrong path. Be they teenagers whose grades are slipping, or orphans who feel like no one cares about them and that everyone else has so much more, or adults who have lost their jobs and think there's only one direction to turn to." He took a breath and then felt free to continue at the nods Ashido was giving him to go on.

"Stopping villains is the job of a hero," Zach started. "But, I don't really want to be just a hero anymore." He looked at Ashido hesitantly while saying it, as she was still trying to be a hero so he did not know if that would sound alright. She nodded at him though in complete understanding, and Zach added, "I want to do whatever it takes to make the most possible good outcomes. It was my goal for so long… but now I'm continuing that goal from inside the law. I'm doing it publicly, because the means matter a lot in order to obtain certain ends. Only in seeing how hard someone worked for it, in the right way, can some things ever come about."

"That's why you came back here?" Ashido asked. She stared at him closely as his eyes locked into her soft ones that also looked a little sad at her question.

"One of the many reasons," Zach replied. "Making up with all of you was also up there," Zach assured her, and Ashido smiled back at him at that assurance. His own smile dipped down a bit though at the mention of those reasons, and his head turned to the side and he looked away for a moment. "So, do you know how much a ticket-"

"There's a hero discount! And when you come in a group of five or more there's…"

Zach looked back to his former classmate who excitedly got back into their plans, feeling all the brighter because of how much Zach actually talked to her about. All that talk had made her completely forget about the attack on Zach's life, as he seemed so far beyond normal little attacks like that for her to worry about something so trivial. He watched the girl on the line with him though and although he kept smiling and nodding, laughing at the occasional thing she said, his mind shifted to someone he knew was in the same building as his pink-skinned friend. Mina wanted to talk to me, and like everyone else she initiated our talk by calling me. Others make plans to meet with me or come to my place, since I told them they had to because I can't go to U.A. They all initiate meeting with me, whereas Momo only did that once and by surprise. I had to ask her to meet earlier this week when I asked if she wanted to talk, which she accepted!

But why did she accept if she wasn't going to text me herself? I'm sure Sero and the others tell her when they- they have to! What if she only accepted because she felt she had to? Zach's brow furrowed but Ashido did not notice as she was scrolling through her computer next to her at that moment. I should invite her, he thought with a more serious look on his face for a moment, his right hand curling tighter around his phone and his left digging into his left leg much harder. Since I doubt she'll come if I don't.

---

"Satoshi! Hanodo! If you have time to talk you have time to train," Enorma glared at the boys who were slacking off and nodded quickly at their teacher before turning back to some exercise equipment near them. They were taking too long between their sets, and the boys got back to muscle training in the huge state-of-the-art gymnasium that Class 1 was using for independent preparation for their upcoming joint training with U.A. "You think Class A's sitting around smacking their gums? The lot of you want a repeat of last year?"

Enorma's encouragement and taunts had a few of the class getting more into it, while the majority of the students were tuning her out. Her newest taunt got a couple of them getting more frustrated looks on their faces though that did have them moving faster and harder in their workouts. "I'd say it was funny seeing you all get thoroughly embarrassed by your U.A. counterparts, but it just so happens to reflect on my teaching skills when my class with 50 percent more students can hardly put a dent in their Class A's. I heard Class 2 did a much better job against Class B from U.A., not that they won, but I'm sure you've heard all about it from them this past year, several times I'd imagine!"

The teacher calling out to her students shifted her gaze across the room and towards a bench press where one of her students was laying and tuning her out like many of the others, (fewer now after that last remark). He had on a pair of wireless headphones and was wearing a tight long-sleeved white shirt that pressed close to his muscular body unlike his black sweats that were baggier on him. Enorma's eyes shifted down to the arms that were extending up and then bending back down to allow the heavy bar with lots of weight on either side to nearly touch his chest. None of the students have seen his body under that shirt. Not even his arms I'd imagine. We know he has a fake arm, but how much of his body is- "Reika! Just because you've got a single digit doesn't mean you get to slack off and distract Kotsumura!"

"Yeah Tiona, stop distracting, ugh me," Kotsumura said, grunting as he did another rep while trying to keep his head turned and still talking to the girl next to him.

"Fine," she retorted and turned away, making Kotsumura turn his neck more to try and say something only to feel the strain too much on his flexing tri's. He had to spin back with a 'whoa,' and he was the one yelled at by Enorma this time after the loud clanking of weights.

Nice save, Enorma thought after yelling at Kotsumura, since she was pretty sure Sazaki did not see her staring when he had finished his set and sat up all of a sudden.

Zach stood up and he wiped his brow despite not being sweaty at all. He frowned after doing it, glancing around and seeing a couple of people looking his way but not really looking as they pretended to keep up their own workouts.

How does he lift so much? It has nothing to do with his Quirk?!

He doesn't look as big as Rekishi, but he lifts way more.

Zach looked back at the weights he had been lifting, and he rolled his shoulders a couple of times before cracking his neck to either side and taking in a nice long inhale. Muscle training good. No one noticed the use of Death, so despite the strain I kept it inside the skin. Increasing physical attributes with no visible Death use nor risk of Death damage to others other than absorption through skin from within. Skin blocks better than most clothing material however, except for the tevlon. Zach's eyes shifted to the glove on his right hand for a moment that he curled his hand inside of. Won't be long until I don't have to wear it. If I could subconsciously keep Death as my entire hand for a month straight without even thinking about it, I could keep it that way normally- like it is now. But I could have it out too without risking instant death. Then I won't have either hand…

The dark-haired teenager curled both fists at that thought and then shook his head around. Back to it. This isn't going to be easy, Zach turned and he headed towards an empty section of the gym where there was not as much going on. Most of his classmates were utilizing Shiketsu's high-tech training equipment or just using more traditional weights like he had, but Zach moved for an open area and then to the opposite wall as where all the equipment was centered around. He stood in front of a punching bag and took in a deep breath before glaring at it and raising up his fists in front of him in a boxing stance.

His legs spread. He bent his knees. Zach imagined the face of an enemy in front of him, Zolo. Zach's eyes darkened more at the sight of dead heroes and dead Army of Death members scattered around. Zolo's comrades fought his own to his sides and he heard the yelling bouncing off the walls of the cave system around him. The echoes filled his ears, and his hands snapped open from clenched fists into having more curled fingers and a weird-looking stance. He pushed his right hand forward while weaving his head down to the right, then he pushed his left hand across the front of his body and hopped up as the sweep from Zolo's tail came at his legs. He kicked out his right leg and then his left into the punching bag, then he swung his right hand up before chopping down diagonally from the top right into where Zolo's left shoulder would have been.

Zach moved to the left as the bag was swinging back towards him after one of his hard hits. He hit it more from that side, making it come back to swing into him there instead, which had him stepping around again. Zach circled the punching bag, his arms and legs bashing away at it at different points each time. His forearms, his elbows, his wrists, his hands, his ankles, his feet, and his knees all seemed to get equal attention in his moves that switched up effortlessly and like there was some pattern to the madness instead of Zach just beating the bag to get out his frustration.

After a few minutes straight of going at it, Dendo stepped back from his last go at the virtual battle simulator he had been standing in with three of his classmates. He removed the attachments to make the machine work along with the headset and handed them off to a classmate behind him waiting to go in and use it. Dendo then heard the smacking and he turned his head and looked across the room, "Back at it," he muttered.

"He hasn't stopped," Kotsumura said while turning to his left with a bottle of water lifted in hand.

Flugeru and Kerushi looked over at the blond to see if he was serious, then they and Dendo all looked back towards Zach who moved like he never got tired. "He's a damn machine," Kerushi joked, only half-jokingly.

As the boys were looking over that way, and as Enorma was about to call them out for it, they all spotted someone heading in Zach's direction across the gym. The boys lifted their eyebrows and Enorma lost focus on what she had been paying attention to. "Hello Zach!"

Zach turned his head and looked at the most cheerful of his classmates, who was also ranked 2 in the class for the first time in his career at Shiketsu High. Inasa Yoarashi even gave Zach a wave as he stepped right up to his classmate who stopped punching the bag for a moment to see what Inasa wanted. "We should train together!" Inasa suggested in the same cheerful tone, though Zach watched his expression closer this time and saw the look in Inasa's eyes that betrayed his always carefree and positive attitude.

"You want to?" Zach wondered, and he wiped his brow again which made him bite down hard inside his lips. He relaxed his jaw and then nodded, and he asked, "No using Quirks?" Zach started away from the bag towards the middle of the room where there were a couple of mats. They could be used for stretching, or yoga, or practicing wrestling moves or something. Inasa did not even question what they were going to do as Zach gave him that response though.

"Sure!" Inasa replied at the kind of training Zach suggested.

"Keep at it!" Enorma called at her students who got distracted by what they saw coming. She grinned to herself as all the kids got back to their activities, leaving her as the one who got to witness this (not that the others weren't all going to be watching out the corners of their eyes or by stealing the occasional look). Hazano said this was the fight to miss Ranking Day. Would've loved to see that Inasa lose for once, though I really want to see how Lifebringer fights. Rumors have him all over the place!

"How do you want to do this?" Inasa asked, bouncing around on the balls of his feet and looking excited for the coming spar.

"Just until someone hits the floor?" Zach suggested, but he rose his intonation at the end to show he would let Inasa agree to it or suggest something else.

"That sounds fantastic!" Inasa bowed to his partner and punched his hands together. They were wearing normal work-out clothes instead of their costumes, and Inasa had on a tank top and shorts like most of their classmates. His arms and legs were muscular sticking out of his sleeves, and he was bigger than Zach by a bit though the two had similar statures. They faced off against each other with only a few feet in between them to prepare for the fight.

Manzo stopped her own target practice with the knives she was pulling off the target dummy's thighs and upper arms. She put her knives away and got to stretching, making it believable while also giving her the focus she needed over on the boys about to fight each other. The redhead's eyes locked on Zach and she gulped which immediately made her turn away for a moment with a frustrated look on her face. She glared across the room towards a blonde girl also pretending to work out at full pace while in reality checking out Zach and Inasa's fight that was about to start. Manzo frowned more for a second as she saw Reika staring over at Zach, but then she clenched her teeth and darted her eyes away quickly as she remembered why it was she had looked over in the first place.

"You know it's been three years now, and I don't think you've ever looked as 'girly' as you did right there… Hahaha! Don't take it out on me, I know who's got your heart all knotted up. What'd he say to you out there? What drenched your…" Manzo lifted her frown with a light chuckle at the memory of what Reika joked with her about after Ranking Day. It got her mind off of who they had been talking about then too, but only for a second as she saw other people looking over and spun herself as Zach and Inasa started fighting.

"Let's do it," Inasa said, and he stepped forward at Zach.

Zach stepped forward too. They were not far away at the start, and Inasa stepping forward was setting the pace for it where Zach could have backed up, or prepared for his first move. Instead, Zach just made for doing his own first move like he would get it off before Inasa. Inasa did not want to back away, so he got ready to attack anyway without using his Quirk so he could not speed up his swing at all with his wind. Unfortunately, Zach did not need any Death to swing his fist faster than Inasa was swinging.

There, Inasa saw Zach's left hand tightening and his elbow pulling up a little. Zach's right arm was the one swinging fast forward at him, but it was below Zach's tightening left fist that his foot seemed to be lifting up at the toes. That foot was the one already forward, so Zach was not going to be stepping again with it especially with his right foot planted as hard as it was. His body's clearly twisting with the right side pushing forward, but the feint to get his left arm a- Zach's right arm sped up and he smashed his fist into the side of Inasa's face while his opponent was switching moves and going for a block of a kick with one arm raising in back-up to block the left fist if Zach went for it.

Zach's knuckles in his right glove smashed into Inasa's left cheek. He finished twisting the right side of his body and threw his right hand forward to completely follow-through with the punch, taking Inasa off his feet and then kicking his left leg back off the toes of his feet and curving his right arm down. He slammed his fist down towards the floor and smashed Inasa's body into the ground.

"Holy shit-" Satoshi covered up his mouth, but Enorma was not looking towards him.

Inasa opened up his clenched eyes that he slammed shut in the pain. His eyes opened more in shock than anything else as the pain was not that intense, but then his eyes stayed wide as Zach leaned down over him and held his left hand out for Inasa to take. Inasa was slow, but he reached up quickly when he realized what it was and let Zach help him back up to his feet. Zach helped him up and then held his hand after Inasa was still up for another second, and he said from that up-close position, "It's not always going to be some complex move. Most of the time, if it looks like it's coming from the right, it's probably coming from the right." Zach let go and took a step back from his opponent who continued to stare at him in surprise for a few seconds, before smiling and nodding his head as he took a step back himself.

"Let's go again," Zach said with a nod back at his opponent.

I thought it'd be better without him using Death, but Whirlwind is what made our fight even close! He's amazing! Inasa's excitement was replaced more by awe for the rest of his classmates who stared at him or Zach feeling amazed by them. Inasa had just gotten knocked to the floor in one hit, but he was up and smiling again right away despite who just knocked him off of his feet. And Zach… the fact that he took Inasa down in one hit was enough but the fact that he stood there like he was about to test if Inasa could come at him again was what really had most of his peers gawking at him.

Dendo never got as surprised as most of the others. He had already been defeated by Zach without him using his Quirk at all, and Dendo expected the outcome even if he did think it might have lasted a bit longer. Dendo turned back to the narrow hall he was looking down off the main room that had several "hostages" in front of targets at the end he was trying to direct his Quirk, Slice, around. He faced forward and his eyes narrowed as he heard another slam on the ground behind him, Even without using Death, he's just stronger. He's faster than the rest of us.

Kotsumura looked back at his own equipment and he put down his bottle of water. You're already number 1, Kotsumura thought, and he leaned forward and added more weight to the set he was on.

Zach dropped Inasa after a couple more seconds than the first spar took. His opponent hit the ground this time and lost his smile fast, punching down at his right side while he was flat on his back. Then he hopped back up this time and just nodded quickly at Zach before getting back into his stance. Zach frowned as Inasa nodded fast like that, making his opponent who had a very serious look on his face get confused. Inasa looked at Zach wondering what the problem was, but Zach shook his head like it was nothing and rose his arms back up himself.

Pay attention. I get that the second time it confirms it really wasn't a fluke, but you already knew that after the first. I thought at least. I'll drag this one out longer, make it harder on myself to get something more out of it. Show you that I'm doing that like how I showed the others I put the handicap on myself during Ranking Day I couldn't do for you. Your Quirk is so strong that you aren't as good at combat like this as you imagine you are. And no one knows how hard I could really go here, but it'll definitely be lighter than what you saw on Ranking Day getting ready to fight me. Zach fought Inasa again. He fought him longer this time, with his arms being used for blocks and the occasional feint before he would swing a leg up for a kick.

He kicked and kicked, and Zach headbutted Inasa in the face that made him stumble back the perfect distance for a kick in the chest. Zach took Inasa off his feet with a kick of his right foot, and then he relaxed his tensed body and let out a heavy exhale. The last kick was the hardest and knocked the wind out of Inasa who was laying there gasping for a few seconds and grabbing at his chest. "I think that's enough for today," Zach said, during the time while Inasa still couldn't say anything back to him like he wanted to fight some more. Zach had beaten him using only kicks this time, and Inasa couldn't even say anything against it as Zach unilaterally decided to end their short-lived training.

The way Zach finished the whole session so quickly too, made it seem like Zach initially agreed because he thought it would be more difficult and taxing for him. He thought he might be able to gain something, and the fact he ended it so quick meant he was not gaining anything from it. Inasa ground his teeth and clenched his eyes shut as Zach started walking away, but he shook his head around and focused back on breathing and getting back to his feet.

Zach walked straight from where he was fighting with Inasa, over to a strenuous "hostage carrier." The machine forced you to run on what was like a treadmill except the ground below you constantly changed shape and slope so it would be like running through an active crime scene. While doing that tough run, there were also handles above your shoulders you were meant to push up so that you were carrying weight during the run, and Zach turned up the weight setting and got to sprinting while Inasa was still standing up near the middle of the room.

"Geez," Satoshi said while walking by "incidentally" at the start of Zach's training. He made it out like he had just been walking past the machine to something behind Zach, but he stopped when Zach turned to him and added with a laugh, "No need to strain yourself-" Zach pushed the hostage bar up to carry the weight, and Satoshi sweatdropped at Zach going that intensely while still making eye contact like they were going to talk during this. Satoshi lowered his own usual smile for a moment as Zach locked eyes with him looked serious and with a flat lip. The Shiketsu boy with snake-like eyes felt strange from the look in Zach's eyes, almost like he was being judged for not doing what Zach was doing right now and being there talking to him even if Zach did just look like he was waiting to talk.

"Why," Satoshi started. He paused, then he finished anyway, "Why are you going so hard when you're already so strong? You're just going to widen the gap."

"It's not about the gap," Zach said, and he turned back forward while speeding up his run because the machine told him to. "I want to be stronger so I can save more lives." He said it and ran while holding up three imaginary hostages over his shoulders. After his response, the machine called out in a feminine hero's voice how they just found two more hostages 'over here' and needed another hero to evacuate them. Zach felt the jolt of two bodies being added to the weight he was already carrying, as was expected due to the settings he chose when he got on the machine in the first place. Satoshi was staring at Zach in surprise at the answer which seemed so bland and vanilla, but for some reason also sounded so genuine like it really was Zach's true reason for doing this at this exact moment.

Zach spoke through the teeth he clenched for an instant there, "If I failed to lift something when I needed to in order to free someone from getting crushed beneath…" He stepped to his right and dodged a lump in the machine that rose up below the sliding ground as a new obstacle that appeared suddenly instead of earlier when it came around the belt from below. "…Or if I ran to a location a second too late when I could have cut down on that time by being two seconds faster," Zach had to say it louder because there was a shout on his machine that made the scenario seem more realistic and came only from his left side. He spoke louder and others besides Satoshi who were looking over at him heard him talking like that while moving even faster than before as a shout called out from behind him that there were more 'casualties' behind him who were stuck in the middle of the attack full of villains who could grab them to make them hostages at any second.

"Then it was the fault of me right now for not taking this as seriously as I could," Zach said, while feeling the brief relief of loading off all his passengers. He started sprinting super fast again to get back while feeling light on the handles, and he glanced to the side at Satoshi while running. "And as a hero, I will come upon villain incidents all the time, and I suspect there will be close calls." He said that in such an assured way, with a tone of anxiety and fear in his voice too.

At first it had sounded like he was just being overzealous. That slight tone of fear though made them consider the situations Zach was posing to them, and the fear was a very rational one.

Satoshi's eyes grew wide as he stared at his classmate right in front of him who turned his head back forward and sped up more, reaching ahead of him and changing the machine settings to make it even harder on himself to the point the machine beeped to warn him of the danger he was putting himself in. That's a, very real thing to be thinking about right here! Satoshi thought with a nervous look over his face.

What if I came to one of those close calls? Reika thought as she looked down at the bench she was sitting on. Shit. He knows what he's doing. He knows exactly what he just said to us… but he's not wrong. Reika had noticed it before; back on Ranking Day she had seen Hazano and Himazuri looked to be the only other two who really did. She got it though as she glanced back over her shoulder with a humph at Zach's focused expression showing he was not paying attention to what they all did at all. You're right. I'm afraid of that as much as anyone else here. But now if I come to one of those close calls, I wouldn't just be able to tell myself 'if I had gotten the notice a few seconds earlier.'

…I can't think 'if only I had been faster.' Porrolo shook his head around and he got back to running on the treadmill, though he ignored the cramp in his side that had him slowing down for a moment there. Not if I don't do this at full pace. Not if I don't treat it, like actual training!

"I mean, you can't always be there on time," Satoshi started, though his tone was hesitant as he spoke to Zach. "For you maybe- but…"

Zach curled the corner of his lip down more, but he lifted it back flat while darting a look to Satoshi like he was listening to what he had to say. "Nevermind," Satoshi said, and he backed up before heading off somewhere else. He and some of the others had excuses they wanted to say in order to protect themselves from that pain in the future, the pain of blaming themselves when they didn't get somewhere on time, but he could see Zach didn't care about those excuses. He was going to try harder anyway, so that he wouldn't have to worry about coming up with those excuses in the first place. And as Satoshi saw that… and as everyone else in the room saw it, a new surge of motivation moved through them, and they all worked out even harder.

---

A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Logargon chapter 164 . Jun 24

Yeah that brings up another question. Will we ever get to see all the (what I can assume only to be epic beyond belief all out brawls) that are constantly thrown back to?
Also is darling missing?! Am I reading this wrong?! IS SHE IN LIKE SOME SUPER VILLAINS EVIL LAIR?! YOU LOYAL READERS NEEDZ TO KNOW!

I shall never spoil! Mwhaha, but... as for those epic battles, I will say that yes, there are still flashbacks remaining to be seen. Won't say what may show up or be seen or whatnot, but it'll be cool if/when it happens!

Hi chapter 164 . Jul 1

His appearence being brought up reminder me that I've lost track of what he looks like. That story pic is really outdated, but I'm gonna imagine him as looking like that.

Zach's much older now than the last time I got an updated pic for him. If anyone wants to make a new update I'd be happy to switch up the cover photo for Death! But for now, just try and remember that he looks a bit more f**-ed up than that. XD Short on the review responses and end note today (been editing for like 5 hours now), but hope y'all enjoyed the chapter!