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!

169. Chapter 169

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 169:

"3. 2. 1. Start."

Midoriya sprinted forward into the training floor of Gym Omega on U.A.'s campus where he was alone except for Power Loader watching from a control room above on the side of the gym. He sat at the controls for his shift at the gym that he had in the afternoons some days when the gyms were open for free training for the upperclassmen. With Midoriya Izuku, Power Loader did not feel he had to watch very closely, though he was hesitant about believing that as he wondered about a few times earlier in the student's time at U.A. Midoriya had not hurt himself training in a long time though, and Power Loader figured the immensely powerful boy and winner of the last Sports Festival could train without his concern.

Maijima Higari typed away at his controls to get different camera angles up on the glass windows in front of him. They were translucent so he could see through and down to the gymnasium's floor too, but the angles gave him closer views from the robots down on the ground with Midoriya. Power Loader cracked a grin under his big yellow helmet, as he typed away into a dialogue box in front of him.

"Face it, puny hero." All five of the robots on Midoriya's sides spoke in unison while speeding towards him. Two had jets propelling them forwards through the air, two others were rolling faster towards him, while one large one ran towards him with rough movements on its legs but still more fluid ones than the robots from Midoriya's entrance exam. He actually recognized all the robots, though the day he remembered them from, he was just running so as to get through the first round of the Sports Festival as fast as possible. They were the faux villains that took up the path for the students who wanted to go through the quickest, and most difficult route to the finish line.

Even the gymnasium was set up with as many obstacles and sharp turns as had been put on that path ten months before, so Midoriya heard two of the robotic voices before he even saw those robots coming around one of the corners. "You cannot win-" The robotic voice cut off from the flying robot closest to Midoriya that he hit on the back of its head right in a red circular target he spotted the edge of and knew was the location he was meant to hit. Each of the robots had a "weak point" on them, which Power Loader had coded into their programming to turn off after being touched by something with around a human's body temperature, thus keeping them going even if they bumped into walls or each other too.

Nice pick, Maijima thought with a chuckle, though two holes popped up from the top of the wall directly below where Midoriya was still soaring having picked that direction first. Midoriya's direction he was moving changed though as the holes were opening, as he flicked upwards with a finger on each hand and slammed down in between the two holes. Did he know-

Power Loader made that one come closer to me to try and get me going this way. He wouldn't make it easier on purpose. Midoriya tapped down on the marks on those two new robots before they were ready to start attacking him, though then he did have to flip backwards as Power Loader moved one hand across his control board and caused the wall Midoriya was on to start crumbling towards the others approaching him. The rolling robots spun to the sides to go around the obstacles Midoriya was flipping over, their engines soft so they were hard to hear from behind the walls where they vanished from his sight. The flying one rose over the debris, and the larger one ten feet tall showed its better movements by running straight up the falling rocks and leaping towards Midoriya's back-flipping body.

The kid's already better than me, Power Loader admitted with a small chuckle as he sent in another half dozen of the practice robots to fight with the school's top student. Far better, he added with less of a laugh, as he saw Deku's head snap different directions towards where he was sending in all the robots, even the ones he intended to keep hidden and had their motors on silent to mask their approaches. Power Loader lifted the left corner of his lip again though, and he glanced down at his left arm and the metallic claws at the tips of his fingers that looked identical to the ones on his right hand. Though, I'm stronger now than before too. I wanted to see what kind of tech he had, but I didn't think it'd be that much better than the one I made myself. Hachiman said he's got some crazy equipment too other than that arm… Man, I wish I was going with them. Can't have the whole faculty gone though, Power Loader thought disappointedly while typing away even faster into his control computer.

As fast as Power Loader typed though, his machines could not keep up with the speed increase Midoriya put on with his enemies doubling in number. Stay at forty percent, and lower instantly for the touches. Midoriya shot through the air, but his legs bent against a wall lighter than he had been flying at it so that cracks did not form in the building's structure. He shot down at one of the robots spinning up to fire at him with the training bullets (that still hurt like hell if they hit), but he dodged three shots with a midair spin and then tapped a hand backwards, lowering the speed of his arm at the last second and only pushing the robot a little instead of smashing his hand straight through it. Control. His feet hit down and he felt it was a little hard because he focused too much on lowering his Full Cowling in his arm there instead, but a dart of his eyes down showed no damage to the ground, so he was able to shoot back off of it using more power to dodge the other attacks coming at him.

He rose into the air and did a flip by kicking his legs, and he shot across the air by flicking his fingers behind him inside the special gloves Hatsume Mei made for him. In his head flashed a bunch of broken windows in an Italian city, and he saw himself on the plane away from that country having been kicked out by the Italian government for his collateral damage. He heard Hawks firing him, and imagined the video footage of those three dark soldiers walking straight into a police station… "You shouldn't speak ill of the dead." Midoriya yanked his right arm away, and a round-tipped bullet whizzed underneath with Power Loader snapping two metal fingers as he thought he almost got the kid there.

Midoriya shot twice as fast towards the robot that just missed him, then he kicked in front of him before reaching it. The wind from his kicks knocked the robot's arms up before it fired next, instead shooting the flying robot going over its head to try and hit Midoriya when he went for the one below it. As that one above was hit and dented a few times, Midoriya slammed down into the ground on his palms that he put below his body, then he flipped the rest of his body over his head while still gripping the ground, his fingers actually digging in more to give him grip. His feet flipped over his body and wrapped around the body of the tall robot behind him punching its arm forward, and while it was still mid-punch, Midoriya flung the huge robot up into the air and two more robots diving down at his body while he was moving like that.

All the robots but one were now crashing into each other or recovering, and Midoriya dodged the attacks of that final robot as he shot towards it. He darted from left foot to right foot moving centimeters away from being hit by bullets, and he did not even touch the robot this time but just flicked a strong enough wind into the target on it that it turned off and got sent rolling across the gym several dozen meters. "Watch the damage," Power Loader announced as he saw blinking red marks on the robot's body on a window in front of him. "You just broke a femur and two ribs right there," he warned, and Midoriya frowned deeper but nodded his head before leaping backwards to get distance from all his enemies.

This kid's got as much power as All Might did, Power Loader thought with an amazed shake of his head. Wonder if that's why he's always had his eye on Midoriya? Did he know we were going to reach this point, three years ago? I can't wait to see what all these kids do out there, but Midoriya's got something more besides that power. The fact that he's going so hard to control this massive strength… I always wondered how it was all those villains survived punches from All Might. Guess it was guys like me who are responsible for that, Power Loader laughed to himself and then got more serious with the training again, if what he just thought really was the case.

Fifteen minutes later, as Midoriya listened to some results from Power Loader who told him the measures of force, the average timing it took him to take down each "villain," and other stats of the kind, the main gym's doors opened up and another student headed inside. Sero instantly turned his head towards the windows at the top of the room to his right, as he heard Power Loader up there talking to someone. From the announcement of the time it took to stop each villain alone, Sero thought to himself, Either Midoriya or Bakugo- he saw Midoriya a second later though and just nodded that he knew it already.

Sero walked up to Midoriya once Power Loader had finished talking to him about results. Midoriya rubbed his right shoulder where one of the training bullets had hit him during another moment of distraction he had not been so fast to react to. "You got hit?" Sero wondered as he saw Midoriya rub his shoulder like that.

Midoriya turned to the black-haired teen he had seen approaching him. He opened his mouth to respond, but he hesitated as he looked at one of the few other people who knew why it was he had gotten distracted enough to be hit like that. What is Sero thinking? He's always been Zach's biggest supporter. If I ever turn him in, he'll hate me for the rest of his life. Won't he? That can't determine my course of action though. But I already determined my course of action! I'm here, aren't I? Training at Gym Omega instead of going to Lemillion with all I've learned.

"Yeah, must be pretty distracted," Sero said. "I've been up all night. Finally figured I should start training," Sero added at the end. He looked around the gym that looked pretty messy from Midoriya's long training session in there but that some of the robots were setting back up around them.

"Sero," Midoriya started softly. He darted his eyes up to the windows where Power Loader was watching from above. Then he looked back at his classmate and started in a low voice, "You thought you should train?" He asked, his voice hesitant as he did not know what he was asking for. The tone in Sero's voice made it seem like it was obvious though, but to Midoriya that made little sense considering what he was just thinking about Sero.

Is he here, to train against Zach? Sero wondered as he figured out why Midoriya would question his own training. The thought did not upset Sero. Makes sense, he thought, though he did frown a little while shrugging his shoulders. "Hey Midoriya," Sero began. He looked around the gym, then back at his classmate slightly shorter than he was. "Was that assassin really at the Sports Festival? The year of the Invasion?"

Midoriya's eyes widened for a moment, but then he nodded his head as he had confirmed it already in the forest. "When I went to save All Might, and Power Loader sensei," he added softer as he thought about how Power Loader was there too at the time, covered in his own blood. "But, he wasn't there to kill All Might like the other villains I fought there." Sero looked at Midoriya in more surprise, as he had not heard anything about this as he had been elsewhere during the Sports Festival Invasion. So much had happened that day, and with Snipe and Aizawa senseis' deaths, as well as Nirengeki Shoda's in Class B, the close calls did not get much attention from everyone else.

"Why was he there?" Sero wondered.

Midoriya felt himself get unnerved as he thought back on it. So often he had talked about it with Zach back after the Sports Festival, how they would do things differently if they saw him again. How they would capture him… but he thought about that man whose voice was so cold-blooded. He imagined how the man had appeared there, holding the barrel of a pistol to All Might's skull, and how he had taken it off without looking like it mattered much to him at all. Like the decision not to kill All Might was on a whim. "Hmm… I suppose I will take my children and go." Midoriya remembered how that man had looked so closely at him, before looking back down at All Might and saying, "It's not enough yet. It's not enough, and it won't be fast enough."

What did he mean by that? Not fast enough? Was that because it was all going to happen while I was still training? That the world was going to go through a massive change while I was in school with a half-finished power?! I, I got scared by what he said there. I knew that he knew my secret, and it felt like he was talking down to not even say that to me! But- but I haven't mastered it. I'm close, so close now, but the world went through a huge spike in villain activity and then went back down. As much as I helped do that, fighting many villains in the past years, what if it really wasn't enough? Was what Zach did what really brought the world back to this peaceful state? And if so, does that mean our peace is based on a lie? That our entire world is built on lies?

"Midoriya?" Sero asked.

Midoriya blinked a few times, then his eyes widened as he remembered he was just asked a question. "Oh- well, he said that he was just in it for Inhuman." Sero looked at Midoriya in surprise, and Midoriya continued in a slightly darker voice, "That Shigaraki was under-utilizing Inhuman and did not know how strong he was. I think, he wanted to recruit Inhuman himself."

"Damn," Sero muttered. He thought about the video Mother Russia showed them their first day back of the full fight against Inhuman that he had missed that day. "I hope all the guys in his organization aren't as strong as that."

"Eziano himself is the-"

"Hey hey," Sero shook his head at Midoriya who stared at him in confusion as to why Sero just cut him off. "You should call him EM, at school at least."

Midoriya's eyes widened in surprise, then he got a steadier look to his face and said, "There's no reason to-"

"Just to be safe," Sero cut Midoriya off before he could say something naively reassuring. Sero frowned more at what he thought Midoriya was going to try and tell him, and he said in an assured voice himself, "I don't want assassins coming after me 'cause someone heard you and me talking about this guy."

"He wouldn't be able to…" Midoriya trailed off. Sero gave him a questioning look as if waiting for Midoriya to finish that sentence. He wanted to see if Midoriya really thought Eziano Mozcaccio couldn't find out, after what Zach had told them about him. As powerful as Zach is, Midoriya thought, a deeper sense of uncertainty filling him as all he had been thinking about that morning was Zach. I asked him why he didn't catch Eziano because I thought he must have figured out something that All Might knew. After all he said, I thought he had become the most powerful person in the world. With the strongest organization. And yet, Eziano was always there before him. He was influencing things… long before him. And he might be long after we're gone if we can't catch him! "I couldn't catch him…"

Eziano might be the worst villain out there, but he also thinks Zach is his biggest threat to be sending all these killers after him. Zach fought him. He fought him for months, and he knows he has a huge target on his back but came out here in the open anyway? Why? He could have disappeared, if his goal was really to just get away from Airi. If he really never wanted to see her again, then he could have vanished and never let her see where he went. Which means that there's a bigger plan here! … Could it just be to become a hero, like he said? What kind of hero? The way he said it to me, I know he meant one that I would consider as a hero. I heard in his voice that he means to do the right thing this time! Not his version of right, that so many people accepted! That so many heroes accepted! That people followed and fought and killed for!

Well, he's clearly having a hard time, Sero thought. "Anyway, I have to start training," Sero said, and he started farther into the gym to get away from Midoriya to do his own independent training. His face got more serious while he walked away from his classmate who only glanced after him for a moment before getting back deep into his thoughts. I had no idea the kinds of monsters live in this world. But now I do. Now I know what's out there, and I'm nowhere near ready for it. If I want to fight with him after graduation. If I want to fight against monsters like this Eziano- then I need to be much stronger.

Up in the control room, Power Loader sat with his eyes wide as he stared at the black screen in front of him that had a white line in the middle that flickered up and down with sounds. The robot directly under the surface a few feet from where those two boys had been standing had picked up on their whole conversation. As much as it seemed like there was something else up with them, Power Loader was just stuck on the topic of the conversation that he had heard himself, though he was in a dizzy state of blood-loss at the time having just lost his arm. "Holy fuck," Power Loader muttered under his breath, after letting out a long exhale as he had been thinking about that man's appearance as well once the boys started talking about him. What brought on the talk about that guy in the first place? All Might knew him, I know that much. He was incredible, and he's got an organization full of guys as strong as Inhuman? The same guy that ripped apart out ANTs like they were nothing and nearly took out all of Class A's strongest?

If they're talking about him now, it's probably because they talked to Sazaki who knew something about him. I heard that he was in Italy for a bit last year, and Eziano definitely sounds like an Italian name. Geez, these kids are dealing with a lot. Power Loader put his arms in front of him and he cracked his knuckles (only actually cracking on his right hand though his left did make the movement). Time to help them out, he smiled again, getting ready to assist two students now with their training at the same time.

---

"You can't sleep?" Sero asked, yawning himself as he leaned back on his wall next to his bed. His room was styled very traditional Japanese-like, and Ashido paced back and forth on his tatami mat in slippers in the early evening that would be a strange time for a girl to be alone in a boy's room at their dorm. Especially since it was winter so it was already dark outside, and Sero only had the dim lighting of his own lights on in the room and not the dorm room's light itself on.

"Can you?" Ashido asked, turning to him with her eyebrows raised and eyes big.

"I was just trying to," Sero admitted. "And I didn't at all last night, so…"

"I didn't either, but still!" Ashido threw her hands up in the air then paced back the other way. Sero glanced to his wall separating his room from Todoroki's, then he looked back at the girl who pursed her lips and stopped pacing for a moment. "I can't stop thinking about it. Everything we heard was so crazy- even crazier than it was when he was just in alternate worlds fighting armies. Right?"

"Right," Sero said, though his voice was lower. His eyes shifted down to his bed and the floor below it, a more thoughtful look on his face at what Ashido was saying, even in her whisper-yell voice that was not loud at all.

"Everything with that Darling- Airi girl," Ashido shook her head fast. "And I should have known! I should have…" she whispered it softer and shook her head, Sero looking up at her wondering what she meant by that. She rose her head a little though and said softer, "He told me, the first day we met up when we went shopping and…" Ashido's eyes looked like they were starting to water, and Sero opened his wider at how emotional she was getting suddenly. "He told me that he knew about Grater, the villain in the Stain Cult who almost killed me. And, and I got too emotional about it, so I guess I didn't think too hard about it when he told me…" Ashido's lips pursed and shook like that. "'I would have been back in a heartbeat, if I heard you were dying.' He told me that! Even though the fight against the Stain Cult happened-"

"Mina," Sero started, holding up his palms to the girl in front of him to get her to stop. He said in a lower voice, "I'm glad to talk about this, but not here."

Ashido's eyes widened, then they darted down to the floor and back up at Sero in shock. She cupped her hands to her mouth, "Do you think Kyoka's listening?"

"No," Sero replied with a small shake of his head. "But it's better safe than sorry," he added. I'm not going to be responsible. And if Jirou heard any of this right now, I don't think she'd hesitate to rat him out. "The park we first sparred in?"

Ashido stared at him in surprise for a second, then she smiled and nodded her head with a laugh. "Alright. Sounds like a date." She smirked at Sero who rolled his eyes at his ex who enjoyed teasing him too much. "I wonder how long it'll be before the playboy gets another girlfriend. Will be tough to get away with leaving school with me once you-"

"No more girlfriends," Sero said while leaning back on his wall again. He shook his head while saying it, Any more and I'll be stuck with the reputation forever. I have to let it simmer a little first. Maybe I don't need to have girlfriends to have some fun though- geez, maybe they're all right. Things just never work out though! It's better to just stay single, but that doesn't mean I have to go cold-turkey on girls.

"Yeah, definitely a playboy," Ashido whispered with a stoic nod of her head as Sero looked too thoughtful about his response.

"Oi."

---

"All Might," Midoriya began, as he stood in his teacher and mentor's room at U.A.'s faculty halls.

"What is it, Young Midoriya?" All Might questioned.

Don't talk about Zach. Don't talk about Zach. Don't talk about Zach. "I want to talk to you, about- Eziano Mozcaccio." Midoriya held in the breath of relief, as he had been nervous about coming and changing his mind at the last second to seek advice from his mentor on what to do about the sticky situation he had found himself in.

All Might tensed up and he hummed from the desk seat he was sitting in while his protege stood just inside his closed door. He turned the seat fully to Midoriya and nodded at the young man to continue whatever it was he had questions about. "All Might, I-" Midoriya paused. He appeared frustrated, and All Might could understand why as they had talked about this before. He knew where his pupil stood on the issue, and how it was one of the few things Midoriya had ever disagreed with him about. "I need to know now, why it was you did not capture him. Why, you let him go." Midoriya looked seriously into All Might's eyes, and All Might could see that he did not want the vague answer this time or just the idea of what the threat Eziano being arrested posed. "What really happened the day you caught him?"

All Might looked into his pupil's eyes, and he saw an intensity in them he rarely saw from Young Midoriya outside of fighting with villains. Is he considering going after Eziano? Did he hear something from Sazaki about him? All those killers coming after Sazaki must have ties with Eziano, and for them to be going after his life so often, he must have made Eziano very mad. "Hmmm," All Might hummed and he stared at his student who stood over six feet tall, broad at the shoulders, muscular and not hiding those muscles beneath his clothes that pushed out at points where his body bulged.

"I did not want to tell you earlier, but it is up to you now," All Might began. "I can see, that you look ready to take this responsibility on yourself." Midoriya nodded intensely back at All Might, as that was the appearance he was going for to make sure his teacher would take him seriously and tell him the whole truth this time. All the times prior, he had not been too serious about it and gave idealistic answers for why he would have arrested Eziano himself. And yet, there was so much time before he would have the opportunity, if he ever would get it in the first place.

Whatever has spurred this on, you have a different look in your eyes Midoriya Shonen. "I was much younger when I fought him," All Might began. "It was early in my career, several decades ago. Before then, the only villain I believed was strong enough to handle One For All's might was All For One. I was inexperienced, young, and rash." All Might said these things at the start, as a warning to his also young, and often rash successor. Midoriya nodded showing he understood why it was All Might was telling him this at the start, and All Might nodded back glad to see the understanding.

"Several times during our altercation I was almost killed, but finally I managed to capture and restrain Eziano Mozcaccio. Then the man told me who he really was… as I was the first to ever catch him. He said it was part of my reward," All Might paused. A darker look came across his face, shadowy lines coming over the top half of it as he bowed his head and looked up through those shadows at Midoriya. "He told me what capturing him would mean. How all the assassins in the world, far more than I imagined could really exist, would lose the rules restraining them from causing collateral damage. How hundreds of killers would immediately kill hundreds of civilians, in order to force his release." Midoriya's eyes grew wider at that part, then All Might said with a short nod, "I did not believe it. I told him that all he said was impossible. And he responded that he was all that held back the assassins and trained killers of the world from running wild, but should he be arrested there is a contingency in place."

"What contingency?" Midoriya asked, feeling more nervous about this now as it was not something All Might had told him about before.

All Might grit his teeth, a frustrated look flashing over his face and a darker look in his eyes now. He thought back to how he had gotten angry when Eziano mentioned that "contingency," how it had caused him to hesitate from calling in others to aid him in arresting that man. "Eziano warned me that several thousand innocent people would be killed before I could even react. I refused to believe it-" All Might clenched his teeth harder for a second in an anger that made Midoriya start sweating. Even as an older man with graying yellow hair, and a wrinkled and shriveled form compared to his once impressive form, All Might's face could make for quite an intimidating one when he got angry.

"I was going to ignore him. Deny it and try to fight against, whatever it was he said… but I learned that it was not something I could fight against. As Eziano said calmly 5 words that would forever change my life." Midoriya gulped and stared closer at his mentor who lifted his head and stared deep into his eyes. "'Kill the president of Esquomalador.'" All Might recited it, and Midoriya's heart leapt in his chest at how dark his teacher's face was. "We were alone. It was just the two of us there, and yet I immediately called other heroes and shouted at them the threat on the President Nuñez's life. A minute later however, I learned that the president was just shot and killed."

Midoriya's body shook and his eyes trembled at All Might's dark, and regretful statement. All Might closed his eyes for a second, and he thought about how he had heard that and then slowly turned back to the captured villain who was now standing before him. The binds on his legs were ripped, and Eziano lowered his hands from behind his back no longer cuffed or tied up either. All Might spoke in the present with his eyes still closed, "He told me that President Nuñez was not a target. None of the innocents around the world currently in his crosshairs are." All Might's eyes opened and he sadly and regretfully looked into Midoriya's. Midoriya breathed in an even heavier breath as he imagined this, and he could not tell what the regret on All Might's face was for.

Is it because he let that man die? Or because he gave in and let Eziano go? I- I can't tell!

"I hold a cork in certain fields of the villain world, but I have the power to remove it. Yet I never do. I hold it in place to allow you to live in peace, as I have done for centuries. You may call me a villain… But do you have what it takes? What will taking me out of the picture really do? Are you sure that it will save lives rather than end them?"

All Might lowered his eyes from his successor. "It was, a difficult decision presented before me." "Will you be able to live with it, Yagi Toshinori? If thousands are killed and you never know if you could have just saved them by letting me go?" All Might paused as Eziano's words echoed in his head again. "And then, he offered a period of 10 years with no assassinations at the end to soften the deal." All Might hesitated as he shook his head while still looking down at the floor. "No longer bound. With seemingly the entire world hostage in his hands. The power to end lives just by saying the words. I had no idea how he caused it. How he could kill someone across the world in an instant like that. It was power unlike All For One's. Power, on a scale unbeknownst to me."

Midoriya sucked in a deep breath. "…He and his assassins were always there. In every major conflict their organization had a hand in it. I'd see them popping up on all corners of the world as much as my friends and I were. And I was fighting on every continent, in every country in the world, but wherever we went, they were already there." Eziano has men everywhere. Centuries? He's been alive for as long as All For One, but he never had his All Might to destroy his organization and stop him. "Did you ever," Midoriya began. "Did you look, for ways to stop his organization afterwards-"

"His organization?" All Might questioned.

Midoriya froze and his body tensed up. All Might's eyes widened more at that reaction that showed Midoriya was not just assuming there was an organization of the assassins. "It's not just, Eziano making rules for all of them?" All Might asked, sitting up more and questioning his successor this time.

"That is, most of it, I think," Midoriya said, his voice hesitant as he responded. "But Zach said there's an actual organization of them too. Not all of them but, but a good number."

"Oh," All Might replied. He nodded in understanding, though he stared at Midoriya questioningly at his student's hesitant answer to his question. Does he know something else? Something, he feels the need to keep from me? You are not good at lying, especially to me, but if this is something you feel must be kept from me, relating to Sazaki… Then I will not force you to lie any further. "It was my inexperience that caused me to question my decisions that day," All Might continued, and Midoriya rose his eyes back to meet All Might's. "Had it been later in my career, I would have arrested him nonetheless. And I would have chased down all those 'assassins' who made themselves known after his arrest to try and get us to free him. There is no room for negotiating with villains. No matter how strong, we believe they may be."

Midoriya started nodding, agreement covering his face as this was what he felt too. Even if people started to die afterwards… If I accept letting him go because of that, then all villains will use that precedent and start putting civilian lives in imminent danger if they are arrested. They'll follow Eziano's example to stay out of prison, if they knew something like this had happened in the past! Midoriya's fists clenched. Even if people are killed after I capture him, I cannot doubt that decision. Because Eziano would kill others. He would have his organization kill more people. A ten year grace period is not enough, for a man who can live as long as he can. "All Might," Midoriya began softly.

"Yes?"

"When you saw him again, at the Sports Festival," Midoriya continued. He hesitated, then he looked at his mentor and asked in a soft voice, "Did he appear any older-"

"No." All Might's response was brief, but it told Midoriya all he needed to know. "I wish I knew exactly how long he has been around for. What I learned from my own predecessor afterwards, the knowledge that both she and her own mentor had known of him, it was unnerving to say the least. The fact that we almost never heard anything about him though. The fact that his existence was a greater myth than All For One's, to the point that he was practically unknown to the entire world, it made me believe at that age that he truly was a force of nature rather than a villain. The 'cork' that he called himself, holding back villains like him all over the world. I could not tell if he was truly evil, or what his true motives were… In truth, I know so little about him that I am not the source you should go to for information about him."

The way All Might worded his final sentence made Midoriya's eyes shoot open wide even as he lowered them to the floor. He closed them for a second tightly, and All Might just said in a lower voice, "I can no longer help you in your fight with him, as I know you still plan to go after him yourself. But you do have a friend who you told me long ago would help you in this fight. One, I am sure is your reason for bringing this back up today."

"All Might," Midoriya started softly.

"For whatever reason," All Might started, and Midoriya froze again. "Go to him. Work with him. And stay close to him." Midoriya's head rose and he stared with shaking eyes into All Might's. "Whatever you choose to do moving forward, you need to stay close to your friend. Sazaki can help you. I did not know how Eziano ordered that kill from our isolated area, nor whether he was right about what would happen, but it had felt to a younger me more like I was talking to a force of nature than a man. If your renewed interest has to do with the men after Sazaki, then you should help him, and he in turn can help you."

Midoriya hummed and nodded back at his teacher. All Might's advice always helped him, and what he just said made Midoriya start thinking deeper on it. As much as I have to focus on Zach and making sure he doesn't… do something. As long as he's here, we can work on this together. As long as I'm not turning him over… I could use his help. I think… unless he's just deceiving me.

"What is it, Young Midoriya?" All Might questioned at his successor's thoughtful and frustrated and confused look.

"It's… nothing," Midoriya replied after a few seconds, looking into All Might's eyes apologetically for worrying him. All Might looked at the boy more thoughtfully himself again, but he nodded to accept Midoriya's decision to deal with whatever it was he was dealing with, by himself this time. "Thank you, All Might. Whatever happens when I see Eziano again, I know what you told me will help."

"I'm glad. Good luck, Deku."

---

"Kyoka isn't listening to us," Momo said to the pink girl in her room who just cupped her hands to her mouth to say something super quietly to her. "She doesn't use her Quirk in the dorm anymore." Not since she caught Mineta… Yaoyorozu shivered and shook her head at the gross thought of what Jirou admitted to her the year before.

"Alright," Ashido said, though she was still hesitant about it after she and Sero had gone through the trouble of leaving campus just to speak freely with each other earlier. Ashido smiled after accepting it, and she ran over to Yaoyorozu's huge bed and dove onto it. She always liked hanging in Yaoyorozu's room, because on top of the bed being so big it took up most of the room's space, it also felt like her bed was made out of a mixture of clouds and marshmallows. "Ahh, rich people beds," Ashido said jealously. "First thing I'm buying when I'm a famous hero," she said, looking up at the ceiling with a big smile.

Yaoyorozu chuckled tentatively, as she did not know if it was okay for her to laugh about something like that when she had always had a bed so nice that it did not feel like something big. Mina sat up on Yaoyorozu's bed after a few seconds, and she bounced on the edge of it a couple times before noticing Yaoyorozu staring at a spot next to her. A glint appeared in Ashido's eyes and she hummed in a high-pitched way that got Momo looking back at her, and then sweatdropping with a nervous smile and her eyes closed as she expected what was about to come. "Was it here? Right here?" Ashido bounced a couple more times on the edge of the bed, though she leaned to one side and then the other while Yaoyorozu continued giving her that uncomfortable smile.

Ashido was not one to back down just from embarrassing her friends though, as Uraraka knew well from when she used to be pestered every other day about her crush on Midoriya. Though, Ashido had let up on that over the past year as it did not seem like the crush she had known about back then was ever going to lead to anything, or if it even still existed between the two who were close friends anyway. "You know I heard Tsu-chan said that she always saw Zach sneaking in here-"

"That is not true," Yaoyorozu said. And that also does not sound like something Tsuyu would say…

"But the two of you did get it on in here didn't you?"

"That is very inappropriate, Ashido," Yaoyorozu said. Using her friend's last name made Ashido gulp and lean back, as it showed her friend was more serious this time.

"Kidding kidding," Ashido pulled her hands up in defense, though she smirked afterwards and bounced her eyebrows a few times at Momo anyway. "I bet you were happy to hear it the other night though," Ashido began. Yaoyorozu gave her friend a slightly confused look, and Ashido continued softer, "You know, that he never touched her." Yaoyorozu's eyes opened wide and she quickly turned away, and Ashido continued quickly before her taller friend could deny it. "I thought for sure the two of them must have been dating, or that they were together in some secret affair. 'Oh Darling,'" Ashido put the back of her hand to her forehead and swooned backwards in a joking way that made it so Yaoyorozu could not manage to keep a semi-serious look about her.

Is everything a joke to you? Yaoyorozu thought, though she sighed and was not as upset as she tried to make herself out to be. Her eyes quickly lowered again though, as she thought about how shocked she was to hear all he had told Airi on Inazuma Island. In her head she saw as Zach smiled and pulled the shorter girl's head into his chest, crying as he told her he couldn't have asked for a better friend.

"You must have been so happy to hear all that," Ashido mentioned, looking towards her thoughtful friend and bouncing her right eyebrow up at her.

"Mina, I have told you before," Yaoyorozu began while shaking her head. "What happened between Zach and I was very long ago. I got over him while he was gone-"

"Ohh? Did you now?" Ashido asked, her voice doubtful and sounding like she knew something that Yaoyorozu did not. "And so not going to the prom with Nagiso-senpai had nothing to do with Zach?"

Yaoyorozu shook her head, but Ashido noticed that the head shake seemed a bit too fast for just a calm denial. "And not going out with anyone last year? No boyfriends at all-"

"I have been very focused on my studies, as you should have been," Yaoyorozu said, her tone turning scolding to her friend who she had to tutor many times.

Ashido sweatdropped thinking about the extra classes she had over the winter for failing tests in the previous term. She frowned though and said, "I was busy with other things too." Yaoyorozu's eyes widened a little as normally her pink friend would stick out her tongue or laugh about her bad grades. They all knew why Ashido had been distracted the previous term though; what her real focus had been on. "And I don't regret it, you know? Even now that I know the truth," she added in a softer voice while Yaoyorozu stared at her in surprise. "Although he does scare me, a little, you heard him out there. You heard how hard he was fighting-"

"I don't know," Yaoyorozu cut in. She looked away, and again she saw as Zach held Airi close and cried with her. He left it all because of her. Because he wanted to save one more person. She means that much to him… and he meant everything to her. Zach, maybe you should have just… you could have saved her, even if you were together. You could have been happier. With that life you told her to have, that you said you wanted- In her head, she saw how his head turned to her for a second after he mentioned it, and her breath sucked in hard again causing Ashido to look at her in confusion. He was making eye contact with everyone there. He just wanted me to know it was the truth! He looked at Midoriya while he was saying it too, and he doesn't want that life with- He could! I mean, he could totally…

Ashido cracked a grin at the look on her friend's face that gave away more than Yaoyorozu wanted it to. Instead of mentioning it this time though, Ashido just smiled softer and she leaned back on the bed with a hopeful look on her face. "You know, I really, really never thought we'd have this again." Yaoyorozu looked at her and had more confused eyes at how softly and happily her friend spoke. "A chance to talk to Zach. To be with him and talk and laugh with him. I know, that sounds immature. And maybe there are some serious things we need to… But, but his letter sounded so final. I never thought I'd see him again. That 'goodbye' was just, so final. But he told me he only said it so we wouldn't try chasing him. So we would never look for him. He told me, that we'd be friends no matter what. Until the end," Ashido whispered the last part with such a soft look on her face, her eyes closing and her back falling onto the bed again while Yaoyorozu stared at her with huge eyes.

"He told you that?" Yaoyorozu whispered. Letters again. He only didn't give one to Bakugo. If I ask about them though- Yaoyorozu cut off her thoughts as Ashido sat up and looked her in the eyes.

"Not in my letter," Ashido replied with a shake of her head. "A month ago. He told me it, and I know he meant it. He'll always care about us. Just like, you told me you'll always care about him."

"I did tell you that," Yaoyorozu agreed, but she shook her head at her friend's hopeful expression. "But I also told you before, that it's not like that anymore. I will always care about him, we all will, but Zach and I will not be together like we were before. So if that is what is holding you back-"

"Whoa whoa-" Ashido shook her head fast and swung her arms out defensively in front of her again. "No way. Don't get jealous over there! I'm not going for him at all!" Ashido's tone was purposely overly-defensive, and Yaoyorozu just sighed again at how hard Ashido was defending herself despite how she just said it did not matter to her. Ashido grinned at the end anyway though, even if Yaoyorozu did look like it did not bother her in the first place. I know you might think you were just joking back, or that you didn't care if I was serious about him… But I know! You two were so cute together!

Yaoyorozu sweatdropped at her friend's mischievous look. Her eyes lowered back down to the floor though as she thought about something she just said. "We all will…" Is that really true? Two faces of Yaoyorozu's close friends in the class appeared in her mind. The two who did not even come to the hospital after Zach was shot on his way out of Tartaros. He let himself get shot anyway. He knew he wouldn't die, and I was so worried… But if he had really let that shot go through him, would we have caught Darling that day? I don't know. And I don't know if that makes it alright. But, none of us knew that he would survive it, so the fact that they did not come shows that maybe it is not true after all.

---

Zach stepped out of his shower and dried off in his small apartment bathroom. He dried his hair last, going back and forth through the short black hair that stuck up when he was done with it and that he left sticking up like that as was his style lately. He looked in the mirror and styled it a bit more though did not add any product to keep it that way. He was going to be in for the rest of the day so he saw no reason to go to that extra trouble, unlike he did before he went out on the two hour run he just returned from.

He stared in the mirror for a few more seconds in the circle he had made on the fogged-up glass. It was fogging back up again, but Zach still saw his frown and he shook his head around at the sight of it. He bowed his head down to the sink and splashed some water up in his scarred face, and he did that a few more times while shaking his face around in the cold water. "Alright," he said, smiling and standing back up fully. He turned from the mirror he could not see himself in anyway and walked out of his bathroom with his towel loosely wrapped around him. His bedroom was only across the hall so there was no need for the towel really, but he wore it into his room anyway then dropped it to get dressed in casual wear for the night at home.

The run didn't let out nearly any of this stress, Zach thought, as he was choosing between two different shirts. He finally tossed the one he planned to wear later aside, and he put on a long-sleeved workout shirt that pulled tighter to his body than the clothes he wore out on his run before. I feel light, he thought, smiling again as he put on some sweatpants and then headed out of his room. He walked into his living room and jumped up, and he pressed two hooks with suction cups on the bottom into the ceiling before releasing and leaving them stuck there. He jumped back up and grabbed onto the hooks, but the suction was tight enough that they did not drop despite his full weight holding onto them. Nice. Let's see. Zach dropped off the hooks, and he walked over to his kitchen counter that he reached over and under the other side of it.

Zach pulled out a long steel bar that he turned with and jumped to hang across the two steel hooks. Then he jumped up into a backflip that he only did halfway, and he slid his feet that had no shoes or socks on between the bar and the ceiling. He hung himself upside-down by the feet, then he started doing vertical sit-ups while alone in his apartment. I feel light right now. My whole life should feel light… should. Because it doesn't. I don't know why. He did his upside-down crunches over and over until he started to feel it in his abs, and then he continued going at the same pace though he did breathe a bit heavier than before.

This is a massive weight off my chest. I saved her. I really believe that she's going to try now. She's going to go have a great life, and she deserves that! So why, do I, still feel so heavy? Zach slowed down on his crunches and just hung upside-down for a few seconds with his legs holding onto the bar solely by the top of his feet. His legs were not even locked around the bar, only his feet balancing on the top of the bar with the steel starting to hurt more as his weight felt heavier each time he curled his whole body up to his toes. He curled up again and then stayed in that curled position with his head in front of his feet that he stared at with a scrunched-up face. I know what it is. As much as I don't want to.

Zach reached his hands forward and popped his feet out of the bar, and since he was curled up like that, he was able to swing his legs down faster and land on them in a crouched position. Then he fell forward and stuck out his right hand to land on alone. His threw his legs back and his feet landed just before hitting a stool of his kitchen counter, then he started one-armed push-ups that he continued for several minutes. He bounced his body up at the end of each push-up too, putting the extra weight coming back down on his arm after each pop where he pushed his palm off the ground and just held himself up by his fingertips. I can't let that feeling get to me, he told himself over again in his head. That Darling was right, and I did do so much more when I was out there, fighting every day. I can't let that feeling stop me from continuing my plan here. What I'm doing here is important!

Zach was sweating, and he continued his push-ups harder with a small grin that the strain of working out was able to keep him from focusing on these problems. His muscles tensed and unclenched, and he pushed through the pain as continued his one-handed push-ups until he was at the point beyond being sore. Luckily, the joint training is a great way to distract myself. I mean, it's a great place to keep up my plans. I have to get to work on other aspects that I've been neglecting. And I need to come up with new strategies to continue now that 6 people know the truth. Or at least as much of the truth as I felt I had to tell them.

Zach pushed down much harder on his next push up, and he threw himself right up to his feet. He jumped up and grabbed the bar with his left hand, and he started doing pull ups with just it. Even though his left arm was steel, the pull ups worked more for his back muscles which did still exist on his left side. I have to figure out how to handle all of them. All the angles. Everyone coming at me, and all those who might in the future. The secrets they could tell. The web that expands with every mistake I make. Darling let herself get spotted, the same reason she acted so rashly when I got out of Tartaros. I ignored her so much I didn't even consider that she'd drop her own guard due to jealousy. Especially while Midoriya, and Iida, were in the area. It was my own fault these things are out now, but ultimately it was better we had the confrontation. If not, she'd still be following me now. She'd be living solely for my sake, and I wouldn't even be able to think of how grateful I was for all of it.

Zach sighed, then he grit his teeth and did more pull ups, though his body was not getting very tired as he did them. All the pressure's going straight to my arm. I'm going to have to do a few hundred of these to get the workout I want in. I can't let the muscles connected to this arm get weak though. If my arm can lift a thousand pounds, but my left shoulder and back can't handle it, then I'm not lifting a thousand pounds. Lift with your legs they say. Well, I don't have metal legs. I can wrap them in darkness though… And then where's the limit-

There's other stuff I need to do besides dealing with those six. I'll have my chance at the joint training. Jirou, Todoroki, the others I haven't seen again since the hospital. I should try harder to reconcile with them too. I'll have two days to fix as much as I can! One person. Get just one person there to be on my side afterwards. Get just one of them, to forgive me. Forgiveness? I want to make up with them, but what is the end goal here? I want to be their friend again. If I can't be, then what is it I need to say to them? If I've already tried but they don't want to be friends? Maybe…

But I haven't tried hard enough yet. I can't give up after this much. Joint training is a great opportunity. This is where I'll make things right. Or, at least where I'll try to…

---

On the first floor of Class A's dorm, a group of students looked over from the couch as one of their class reps walked to the front door and put his shoes on. Hagakure opened her mouth to ask where Iida was going, but upon second glance of his face she had second thoughts. Iida had on warm clothes and had a backpack on as he left the building, suggesting he was going somewhere for a while, although it was snowing out and his classmates wondered where he would be going to in this weather.

Most of them just figured Iida was going somewhere on campus, but his expression made some think otherwise, not that they asked before Iida stepped out into the cold. "Well, that was awkward," Sato muttered. He leaned back on the far couch from the door where he sat. Because of that couch's location, he had been facing straight towards the stairs and the front door the entire time as Iida went over to it, so the fact that none of them said anything made him feel even weirder about it now. "Not that it hasn't been like that for a few days now," he added, looking back towards Uraraka and Hagakure on the middle couch together.

Uraraka nodded with an interested hum while looking next to her too. Tokoyami and Aoyama looked over from the couch opposite Sato's, and Tsuyu walked over from the tables behind the middle couch as she had noticed the same. "Did something happen at the fair, Toru-chan?" Tsuyu asked.

"I don't know," Hagakure said in an exhausted voice, throwing her head back and looking over the top of the couch to her big-eyed friend behind her. "But you guys are totally right. It's been weird, hasn't it?"

"For everybody who went to the fair that night," Tokoyami mentioned. The others looked towards the dark boy who had noticed several of his classmates acting strangely, and all of them had something in common. He looked at Hagakure closely after mentioning it to see if she would respond, but she just groaned at the look he gave her.

"If I'm acting weird, it's only because everyone else was," Hagakure said defensively. "The whole time back to Honshu, and then after we split up with Zach the train ride home, it was just so… weird. I don't know. Nobody really wanted to talk after that incident."

"I'm still surprised none of them could catch the villain," Sato mentioned, to nods from most of his classmates who agreed wholeheartedly with that statement. "Considering that group."

"Yeah, plus Zach's been catching all the guys after him," Hagakure added. "Though this is twice now in a week he's missed someone. They think it might've been the same villain, though Momo said they didn't get a good look at him."

A few of the others just hummed or nodded, most of them frowning. And why is it Zach has all these villains after him? If he spent most of his time gone in some different world? Aoyama just nodded when he thought Hagakure was looking his way, but his thoughts were hesitant and he found it hard to smile even though no one got hurt during the incident.

"Hey Mineta," Sato called out, and Tsuyu looked over her shoulder to see Mineta coming over from past the kitchen.

Mineta turned instead of going towards the stairs, and he headed for the couches only to slow down as everyone looked at him. "What's with the long face?" Uraraka wondered, propping up on her knees on the couch to turn fully to the shorter boy whose expression was less carefree than usual. She would even prefer pervy to the weird look on his face as he was walking around with the last couple of days. "You guys have been acting weird ever since you got back from the fair." Uraraka pointed at him while pointing it out, and Mineta's eyes widened and he leaned back at the accusation.

"Um," he started, and he suddenly found himself on the spot as six of his classmates were staring at him awaiting an answer. "I, don't know," he replied. "We're just disappointed we didn't catch the villain, I think. At least that's why I'm upset," he added at the end, to show he had no idea what they were talking about with the others also being in certain moods.

"Haha," Sato started laughing while leaning forward more on his couch. "Come on. Are you serious?"

"With Midoriya, Momo, Zach, and Iida all failing," Hagakure started in an exhausted tone but also sounding like she wanted to laugh here. "How could you have done anything?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Mineta said softly, looking away and then turning and going for the stairs.

Sato and Hagakure both lowered their smiles as Mineta did not react to their teasing in his usual way. They just felt bad instead as he didn't start yelling or jumping around, instead seeming like he was taking it hard as he walked away. Tsuyu cocked her head to the side and continued to watch after him even as the others in the couch area just got back to talking about it, as Mineta's reaction right there confirmed the weird-ness that was going around. No one noticed as the frog girl behind the couch turned and with her arms up curled out in front of her, started walking towards the stairs. Mineta-chan?

After Iida left his dorm, he had a long journey to make in the snow. It had just started falling, but the forecast had the snow picking up later in the day anyway. It was already February and temperatures were rising lately, and news stations were suggesting that it was going to be the last snowfall of the season, or at least the last one where the snow stuck and accumulated. Iida Tenya left U.A.'s campus with a pass he obtained from the main office, then he crossed Musutafu's streets to the closest train station for a train he arrived at perfectly on time for to not have to wait on the train platform for more than five seconds.

The trip from the train station he arrived at to his final destination was not as tough, as there was a car waiting for him upon his arrival. The snow had been coming down longer anyway, and Iida appreciated being picked up from the station by his mother. He finally arrived home over an hour after leaving his dorm, and he greeted his father before turning towards the hall where he heard someone rolling down. Tenya turned his head and he smiled at the sight of his older brother who was also smiling as he asked how the trip was. Tenya replied that he had no trouble despite the snow, and Tensei and their father both nodded as they were glad to hear that.

"I'll whip us up some dinner. Call you when it's ready?"

"That sounds great mother," Tenya said with a small smile at his mom that looked genuine, though Tensei noticed some apprehension on his little brother's face.

"You said you had something you want to talk to me about?" Tensei brought up, and Tenya looked back to his older brother who he nodded at after a second. "Alright, come on. Let's talk," Tensei spun himself around and pushed down the hall with his hands on the wheels on either side of his wheelchair. Some smoke puffed out of his elbows' exhausts, speeding him down the hall a bit quicker but cutting off as he hit the turn that he spun himself down.

Tenya sped up to keep up with his older brother, while he restrained himself from mentioning anything about him using his Quirk so casually for something like that. Their parents watched after their youngest as he ran after his older brother, and the two of them looked at each other and let out light laughter. "Just like old times," Mrs. Iida said with a sigh of nostalgia watching her two children in the house together once again.

"Hopefully for the last time-"

"Hey!"

Down the hall and around the corner, Tenya followed his brother into Tensei's old bedroom at their family house. Tenya stood before his brother in a large bedroom with the door closed behind him. "So what is it that you had to come talk to me in person about, Tenya? Is everything alright?"

Tenya opened his mouth to reply affirmatively to his brother right away. The younger of the two looked down at his thirty-three year old brother who he hesitated about bothering with his problems, but the fact that he did not just respond with 'yes' when Tensei asked him reaffirmed how much he did need this. The hesitation to respond to the first question alone showed Tensei that struggle Tenya was having too, and Tensei's face turned more serious at his younger brother's strange expression. "No, Tensei nii-san. I have a, problem."

"What kind of problem?" Tensei wondered. A girl? No, doesn't seem like it. Tensei kept his expression intense, deciding against asking in a joking tone about 'a girl' as it seemed Tenya was taking this much too seriously for that.

"There is," Tenya began, stepping forward from the door and speaking in a lower voice. "I know…" Iida furled his lips and he shifted his gaze from his older brother's seated position again. Every time he saw that wheelchair, he saw the face of the villain who put his brother in it, and now he saw the one who took that villain's life flash through his head again. In his mind appeared such a calm look with no regret in it, as Zach told him how he had killed Stain straight to his face. "There's something that I have to do," Tenya began in a low voice, his eyes shadowing over and his teeth clenching after how he started. "Something I feel I should do- I know I should, but at the same time I find it impossible to do."

Tensei watched his brother's conflicted expression with his eyebrows just raising up at how much more conflicted Tenya looked each second. "Something that my mind tells me is important," Tenya continued. Then he hesitated, and he spoke after a moment, "…But my heart tells me otherwise."

"Mmm," Tensei nodded with a hum that had his younger brother lifting his gaze back to meet his. "I always wondered when it would happen."

Tenya's eyes snapped open wide at his brother's response that was nothing like he imagined. Tensei was much calmer though, and he just shook his head at his brother's surprised reaction. Tensei gave Tenya an expectant look and explained, "You were always so strict with the rules Tenya that I knew it would come one day."

"I, don't understand," Tenya Iida started in confusion. He shook his head around as his brother seemed to have been expecting him to have a problem with this, like Tensei knew that someday Tenya would have a problem with carrying out his hero duties. Tenya's face hardened and he said in a firm voice, "The rules exist for a reason. Justice, fairness, good, and even if I have my own personal qualms about a situation, if I know what is expected of me then the choice should be clear."

"But it's not always that simple, is it?" Tensei wondered. He watched his brother's expression as Tenya's eyes shifted down to the floor.

Tenya's expression was steady and his breath came in calmly. His brother's words echoed in his head, but he frowned deeper as it sounded like Tensei was telling him that to make him feel better about having this doubt. His teeth clenched behind his lips, then they unclenched as calmness took over him, along with a sense of dread at the acceptance of the matter. His eyes rose up softly and he asked in a lower voice, "But what if it is that simple?"

Tensei did not let his brother's crazy serious voice stop him from smiling back at his brother with a soft chuckle. "If it was, then you wouldn't be here right now."

Tenya's eyes opened huge. He froze where he stood and his heart rate sped up much more as he had just spoken like he knew what the right answer was, and yet here he stood. If it had been that simple that he could have just said something like that to himself and figured it all out, he wouldn't have been at his family home speaking with his older brother about his problems.

As Tenya hesitated with doubt filling his face again, Tensei looked into his younger brothers's huge eyes that were unblocked by any glasses. I know exactly who it is who could make you feel so conflicted, Tenya. And I also know how big a debt I owe that person for you to be standing here in front of me now. Tensei smiled in a soft way at his brother who relaxed at his brother's gaze and expression like he was telling Tenya to calm down. "Whatever this problem is you're facing, Tenya," Tensei began again in a teaching tone for his younger brother who he was glad still came to him for advice despite his condition. Tenya looked closely back at his older brother too showing he was holding on to every word. "What it ultimately comes down, is whether you believe it is right. That's the biggest difference I think between traditional law enforcement and the heroes of today. We have the choice to pick our own battles, and to decide what it is we believe is right."

"But if I pick wrong," Tenya started countering immediately. "And I picked against what the law explicitly states, and it becomes known-"

"Then you must accept the consequences for your actions," Tensei said, shaking his head as he was not disagreeing with the negatives there. Then he looked steadily into his brother's eyes, "But they will be your decisions. Most of the time it won't be very hard, because what you'll believe is right will be what the rest of the world and our laws agree with. But when it comes to times like these, with whatever choice it is you find yourself conflicted because of, then it comes down to you to decide. As you are now," Tensei added, reminding his younger brother that what he was saying was not a hypothetical but something that was happening at this very moment. Then he continued as Tenya thought about that, "You can always use the excuse that the situation was complicated, or that you were just following the rules, but either way it will sound like an excuse to yourself if you feel you've picked the wrong decision."

"But…" Tenya started and he cut himself off again. He frowned frustratedly, and he asked in a quiet voice, "What if both options feel wrong. What if, I can't decide between them."

"Well that's one thing, you can't do," Tensei replied. His brother's head lifted and he saw a more intense look facing back up at him. "The path of a hero is not an easy one. You know that. Choosing not to make those hard decisions, to only make the ones that you find simple or easy to choose between, that's when you've lost it." Tenya opened his mouth quickly to respond, but Tensei continued faster, "If doing nothing is one of the choices, then you need to consciously make that decision not to act." Tenya froze, and he closed his mouth with a hesitant and wide-eyed look as it felt like his brother knew what it was he had come to ask about even with Tenya being vague all this time. Tensei finished in a firm voice that softened at the end, "But know that you made the decision, because making those tough choices, is what separates the most amazing heroes from the rest."

Tenya stared with much wider eyes at his brother who smiled brighter at how his younger brother looked at him like that. Tensei felt proud that his speech must have sounded inspiring to get that kind of reaction, but Tenya's eyes were wide for a second reason other than the wisdom he took from his brother's teachings. Is that what Zach felt he was doing? Making those hard choices? And how we all think of him now, is the result of him making so many of those tough decisions one after the other?

Every choice I make, I always look to the rules first. I follow our laws above everything, because I came close before! Because I went past being close, I went after Stain out of revenge! That was… And yet Zach did too- even after making the mistakes so many times! Except, Tenya's eyes returned to normal but then shifted down to the floor in a frustrated but more thoughtful way. Except he didn't do it out of revenge. Not Zach. If the reason he went after Kurogiri was really, to bring peace to our world, when Kurogiri had tortured him and helped kill the Akers… Then he killed Stain because he really believed giving him the publicity would spur on villains like it did before? If he was going to turn Stain over somewhere where he would be executed anyway, then all Zach did was- I can't think like that! I can't accept decisions that- that I wouldn't make myself? Or is it because he didn't have the right to- "…plunged my sword through his heart…"

Tenya's eyes closed, but he took in a deep breath and then rose up his head with a grateful look on it as much as he was hiding how deep he was still thinking about this. "Thank you, Tensei nii-san. I will think more on what it is I believe I should do, and act accordingly to what I determine is right."

"That's great," Tensei said with a big smile. And debt… somewhat repaid! Tensei looked closely at his younger brother and sighed after a moment as he saw Tenya zone out, clearly still thinking hard about whatever his huge problem was. "So Tenya, I've got some news to tell you." The taller of the two brothers looked down at his elder brother who rolled over to his desk and tapped on a touchpad to get his idle computer screen glowing. "Take a look at this," Tensei said while his brother came over with an interested look on his face.

Iida leaned over his brother's left shoulder and looked at the logo in the center of the screen. "Virtucorp?" Tenya spoke aloud the word that wrapped around the bottom of the circular logo. "I've never heard of it," he said, turning and looking to his brother who chuckled and nodded himself.

"It's a fairly new and unheard of company. A little-known entrepreneur by the name of Entilla Oarn founded it just last year," Tensei explained, as he clicked on an About button at the top right of the screen. The website switched to the about page where it had Entilla Oarn's photo near the center-top along with a couple of paragraphs about her below. Tensei scrolled to the bottom of her biography and past the mission statement a little quicker, then scrolled down past some more faces of doctors that got Tenya glancing to his side at his brother again and then back to the screen quickly. "I received an offer from this doctor," Tensei said, stopping on a picture of a Doctor Adriana Khatri, an Indian woman with four arms sticking out of her shoulders each in a different white sleeve coming off of her lab coat.

"What kind of offer?" Tenya asked while reading the shorter biography below the woman's picture describing where she went to school and her medical experience in the field of neurology. She also had a PhD in the field of neuroscience and had recently won an award in her field for her work in the previous year. Tenya's eyes were wide as he read about what her PhD was for, and Tensei turned his wheelchair to give his brother the same bright smile he had had for a while now.

"I was surprised by the call," Tensei began. "But I spoke on the phone with Dr. Khatri for a couple minutes which quickly turned into an hour then two. She sent me some emails and she convinced me more and more about the new treatment and surgeries their company offers." Tensei looked straight into Tenya's wide eyes and said in a hopeful tone, "She offered me a surgery on my spine that could give me full movement again. I could stand," Tensei finished, a glint in his eyes that made Tenya's heart pound in his chest as he felt he had not seen it in a couple of years.

"Nii-san," Tenya whispered. His eyes lowered down from his brother's face to the chair, and then to the lower parts in the front of the chair that he gulped while looking at. "And, your legs?" Tenya asked in a shaky voice. He did not want to do anything to make his brother lose that hopeful look in his eyes, but he was so nervous himself as he looked up with his shaky eyes back into Tensei's.

"They have a solution for that too," Tensei replied with a nod like it was no problem. Tenya gulped again as they had already thought of it, and Tensei chuckled while patting his hands down on his knees that he could not feel his palms smacking into. His legs that were already badly damaged had gone through severe muscle atrophy in the past two and a half years, but Tensei's assured and hopeful look rose the hope inside Tenya too. Tensei sat up fully and said in a confident voice, "I'm going to America for the surgery, but I'll keep in touch and let Ingenium know how-"

Tenya's eyes bulged huge and he asked rapidly, "What do you mean?"

Tensei held up his right palm. "Even if the surgery works," he began. "I won't be able to go back to hero work," he said, his voice less hopeful than before but still a smile on his face as he showed it was not the thing to focus on here. "I've accepted that for a long time now, and I know you have too," Tensei added to his brother whose dejected look faded as he nodded in a more serious way. Tensei continued once Tenya was facing him seriously again, "But don't get your hopes up. You've taken the mantle of Ingenium. It's yours now, Tenya. Do that name proud," Tensei chuckled as Tenya stood up even straighter and nodded in the most serious way he could.

"Boys!"

Tensei and Tenya turned towards the door to Tensei's room, and the older brother said, "Go on ahead. I need to shut a few things down," he turned back fully to his computer as Tenya accepted and headed away. "And don't worry about telling Mom and Dad! They already know-"

"Aw, you told him? I was looking forward to seeing his face…"

Tensei chuckled while refacing his computer as he heard his parents and little brother talking out in the dining room. He closed out a couple of windows on his computer he had opened up earlier in order to show Tenya when he arrived. He hesitated before closing the one that emerged as some of the other windows had closed though. Tensei looked at the diagram in front of him displayed on an email attachment, and when he closed off the attachment he saw the email below from Doctor Khatri. "…Not only would a successful surgery grant you full movement of your legs, but the bio-mechanical attachments will make your legs even stronger than they were before. If you so wished, you could return-" Tensei closed out the window and closed his eyes too.

The former Ingenium shook his head around and lifted back up the corners of his lips that had dropped for a moment. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up… but if it's true? Tensei opened his eyes and stared ahead at his desktop cleared of all windows. He reached forward and turned the monitor off, then he spun his chair and started wheeling for the dining room as his mom called to him again. We'll cross that bridge if it comes to it.

---

"Deku? Deku?"

"Huh?" Izuku lifted his head and then stared in surprise at Togata who was frowning at him.

Lemillion rose his eyebrows and questioned again, "Anything to report?"

Bakugo was the only other person in the room, and he frowned too while looking to the side at his childhood friend who shook his head after a second. "No, nothing new-"

"Really?" Lemillion wondered.

A confused look formed over Midoriya's face and a bead of sweat rolled down it. "And the fair? Weren't you there when another villain went for Sazaki this time?"

"Oh!" Midoriya said. "Oh," he repeated, less surprised this time and more like he was saying 'oh that.' His eyes lowered down, and then he rose them and shook his head while looking at his pro hero, "I mean, I didn't learn much from it. I gave chase when I thought I saw someone taking aim towards Zach, but they shook me off in the forest on the island-"

"They 'shook you off?'" Bakugo asked, his voice skeptical but his eyes more discerning as he scanned Deku up and down.

"And Iida, and Zach too," Midoriya added. "He was- well, we think it might be the same guy who escaped from him before. Teleporting away," Midoriya added at the end, frowning more and looking away frustratedly.

The way he looked away like that seemed like how he would react to losing the villain in that way. Lemillion hummed and nodded, then he shook his head and said, "Well, did he say anything in your last few talks together that would make you think he's-"

Midoriya frowned deeper and he felt his stomach turning upside-down in his gut. "Lemillion," he started. "I don't…" Midoriya paused for a moment and his look turned more apologetic before he even started what he wanted to say. "I don't think I can, do, this," Midoriya got it out hesitantly. His eyes were locked on Togata's for a few seconds, but he had to shift them aside again with a confused and uncertain expression. It feels like I'm in a back and forth with everyone. And if I- if I decide for even a few seconds that I'm against him and say something here, then it's all over. It has to be my decision! That's what I decided in the woods when I made it! But, but I can't just stand here and lie either. I'd be getting in the way of the investigation. Obstructing justice. Because that's what it would be to arrest Zach-

"I think I should step down from this investigation," Midoriya said, his voice getting slightly more firm as he lifted his gaze to meet Lemillion's once more. "I need to," he said in a more certain wording this time before Lemillion could try and convince him otherwise. "If I could stay on, I want to," Midoriya assured the pro two years his senior. "But only for our other investigations and patrols. Not for… He knows I'm working with you and, and I can't do this anymore."

"Deku," Lemillion started. He spoke in a firm voice and he stepped closer to the boy a couple inches taller than him though they still had similar body types. Bakugo glanced back towards the older hero who he thought would just accept Deku's decision right there. Mirio Togata looked Midoriya in his eyes closely though and asked in a serious voice, "Did you discover something? Did he tell you, the truth?"

Midoriya closed his eyes and shook his head. "It's not that," he said, though it was mainly under his breath. I can't do this. My enemy has never been my, friend- "I just feel like I'm betraying his friendship as long as I continue to spy on him. As long as I keep, reporting the things we talk about."

Lemillion sighed and he nodded his head at Deku's final response. I was afraid this was happening. Sometimes he'd come in gung-ho and report exactly what Sazaki said in full detail. Other times I needed to ask him a hundred questions or he'd leave it all out. Lately, they've been talking more about ideologies though, and I knew that he would get to him sooner or later. I thought that because it was Deku that maybe it wouldn't happen, but there's one last thing that I can use to see if he'll stay. "That's fine then," Lemillion said, though his voice was relenting. "But, I do have new information about Sazaki that you should know about, the both of you should."

Bakugo and Midoriya looked towards their pro hero who stepped back and picked a file up off a table in the office they were standing around. It was late so it was dark outside of Lemillion's agency, but there were lights on in the agency for the boys to see the papers Lemillion held out before them. The pro had walked between the two and opened up a folder for the two to stare down into, and he spoke while looking down at the pages himself, "Hawks gathered this information on a trip to Nigeria he recently returned from. Whatever story Sazaki is telling about going through a portal for seven months of that year, it doesn't match up with…"

As Lemillion spoke about how Zach was lying, as Bakugo stared into the folder with wide eyes at the pictures right at the top of it, Midoriya's heart pounded rapidly in his chest with his eyes shaking and desperately trying not to dart to Lemillion to see if he could read his expression. That's, Midoriya thought with the biggest gulp as he stared down at pictures of blood-stained walls, crumbled and burnt rubble, and a sky-view down at the destroyed stadium in the desert. The Pit!

"…And they called this horrible place, The Pit. The people captured by villains and forced to fight another wore collars that…"

Bakugo darted his eyes up and past the folder towards Midoriya. He stared at his classmate knowing that he would have caught that too, and Midoriya realized a second later that Bakugo would know that he would realize that so he snapped his eyes up towards his classmate on the folder's other side. Then Midoriya froze, because Bakugo's eyes did not look like they were asking him if he caught how Lemillion had just mentioned the "collars" anymore. Bakugo's eyes shifted back down to the folder without lingering on Deku's face though, and Midoriya lowered his eyes back to the papers inside that Lemillion moved around to show more of the full report Hawks had brought to him and that he had poured through a hundred times on his own already.

Lemillion did not notice his interns' expressions, because his eyes were locked on what he was looking at in his hands. No matter how many times he read it though, it was hard to accept the words on the pages in front of him. I wondered what could turn Sazaki dark enough for him to do what he did to Faith. The "Champion of the Pit." Instead of killing him they threw him in a place like that and forced him to do unspeakable things, and they paid for it. But they also set something loose on the rest of us that they created in that arena. Sazaki held back as we invaded the League of Shadows' headquarters. He refrained from killing and his vigilantes did the same, but what happened in the Pit was not- Maybe it was just because they had us heroes with them during the HQ raid that they held back. Or maybe, something changed later down the line. Or maybe, it was the Pit itself that changed them. That changed him.

Lemillion paused for a moment as he said something very dark to his interns. It sounded like he was pausing for dramatic effect, but Lemillion's own eyes softened instead of darkened as he looked at the quotes from a captured Pit Crew villain on the top page in his open folder. "We should have never brought him there. We should have never brought that thing in our walls." "He was a seventeen year old kid." "He was. But, but after the first Royale he fought in, when his tears dried, and he rose his… I can't- I can't! STOP!" Lemillion read the line of the failed interrogation of the villain who Hawks was unable to get any more information out of.

Given everything he's been through, it's amazing that he's still alive. Let alone acting like a hero and fighting villains in a heroic way. If I could trust that that was really all you were doing here… No. No, even if I knew that was true, it doesn't change anything. Your crimes are still crimes. Your past is still something you must face. It is not something you get to push aside. It is not something, you can escape from.

---

"Ubiraysya otsyuda," Zach muttered under his breath. He had in a pair of wireless headphones and his head bowed close to his computer screen that had several tabs up at once. "Убирайся отсюда." I know how to say things like 'Get out of here' so easily, but I don't recognize the letters at all. I thought Arabic was the hardest so that was what I focused most on, but Russian's more like Korean than Romani. Zach typed on his keyboard and tilted his head at the sight of how difficult the next sentence looked despite him picking an easier one. "Gde zdes' vannaya komnata? That's how they spell that? I just want to find the bathroom, though, I guess there's no reason to need to spell that so… moving on."

Zach scrolled to the next page and clicked on an audio clip that allowed him to flip back to a different tab and continue to practice his Russian, though with less reading than before. He was supposed to be multi-tasking anyway though, so he just continued to whisper under his breath while he popped back up several windows of research he was doing. Then, his eyes darted around real quick before he popped up another dozen tabs on his screen as he sat in Shiketsu's library with some others in his class at tables not far from him. What he was really supposed to be doing was not multi-tasking a dozen things at once, but instead focusing on research for a term paper he had to do for his class that he and most of his classmates had put off for a month.

Kimona sensei knew his students were falling behind on it though, and he gave them his whole class period for Class 1 to spend doing independent research on their topics. He received a lot of gratitude from his students for that generosity, though Zach wondered if maybe Kimona just didn't have anything planned for a lesson today and figured this would be the best use of their time. Either way, he was going to spend his independent time his own way, and he just had to keep a lookout in case anyone got close and could see his lack of focus on the supposed task at hand.

Dover was wrong. My Russian's still spot-on. Draconian is definitely rough though. Same with elvish and dwarvish. I spent months mastering those. Creating those, actually. I haven't had anyone to speak to who knew those languages though for so long though. And even with the other languages, they had textbooks in Tartaros and I have translators on my computer. Unless I take the time out to write down all those languages, they may well be forgotten to time. Or, well, forgotten to the Void. Not that they won't still speak them in scattered places of Terra, Zach smiled and let out a soft chuckle while opening a new tab breaking off of a news story he was looking at.

Zach scrolled down the article with his hazel eyes darting back and forth over his computer screen. He read quickly even without using Death so that he was constantly scrolling down the page at a steady pace before stopping near the bottom of the piece written for an international online news source out of Germany. The article was in German as Zach read it, but he was still able to read fast enough that in under a minute he had finished the piece in full. Nice, Zach thought as he read the optimistic ending line showing the author's view was that what he had just read about was going to continue and become more frequent. Oarn's setting things in motion quickly. If the article didn't just leave them out, Dr. Khatri's only had successes in the initial trials, completing multiple spinal surgeries that would have been considered impossible only a few years ago.

Zach decided to double check on that, and several new tabs popped up on his internet browser. It took him a few seconds to figure out the names of the patients in those successful surgeries, then he checked the public files for hospitals Khatri would have been working at based on the success stories that got a lot of attention. A couple deaths with her as the lead surgeon on… but none look related. Oarn's tech should make this an immediate shift, but it won't be accepted unless things go this slowly. Have to get it through the initial phases to show the work was done to make sure it's safe.

Zero failures though? Zach rose the right corner of his lips up. His expression was soft and tired, but he looked happy as he rose up his lips like that. Soon. The technology to reattach nearly perfect limbs and allow the crippled to stand again is not too far away, but currently it's only for the very rich. Which is why this business plan works so well. Zach got back on Virtucorp's website and looked through their donor section, still grinning though in a more sly way as he searched for information. Already a big surplus in the money coming in compared to how much it costs. It sucks for now, doing something like that in the medical industry. But she'll get name recognition first by offering free treatment to heroes, and showing that the surgeries that would have once been called experimental work out perfectly. Some heroes are willing to take the risk to get back out there in the fight, and more will be willing too once they see it work on others.

He looked to the bottom of the donor page of the website where there were several new names and faces of millionaires and large corporations investing in Virtucorp. Then the rich will come. The ones who still have cozy lives despite being disabled, but who decide it's worth the risk too. However, because other surgeries have occurred already for free and the tech is still crazy rare and patented, Virtucorp has the ability to charge through-the-roof prices to the first non-hero takers for the surgery. At first they'll be called unfair because the treatment is only serving the rich, but the surgery really doesn't cost as much as the insane amount they'll be charging at the start. They charge it that high long enough that they can then offer it at much lower prices after a few months.

Although it still is unfair, Zach lowered the corners of his lips for a moment, but he hummed to himself and tilted his head to the side in an accepting way. The ones who get served first will always be the rich. This just makes it work better though in the long-run to be able to give it to everyone else cheaper once there's the massive surplus in money. Everyone else gets to pay less for waiting than if they just charged everyone the same amount from the start. Then it would have cost nearly nothing for those who are willing to pay more to get it quickest, while it still would have been more pricey than most regular people could afford. By charging ten, twenty, even a hundred times the amount the surgery should cost for the first few weeks and months, the organization can make that huge surplus of cash. Other organizations and doctors would keep charging that high to keep their surplus and get massive bonuses, but that's the beautiful thing about Virtucorp. The end goal is not for its employees to get rich but for as many people as possible to be helped.

Zach started x-ing out tabs and he went to a different news story he had up from a minute ago. As he was shifting his mind off Virtucorp, his thought continued, The world is run by money though, and the only way to get those fake limbs and spine adjustments to common people for affordable amounts is to charge ridiculously high first. As long as no one in there decides to keep it high- I don't want anyone to corrupt Virtucorp. I hope no one tries to, seeing how much money they could make from it… Zach closed his eyes and shook his head around. I have to wait longer before even starting to get suspicious. Give them the chance first. Oarn and Khatri aren't the types to get greedy and turn on their own ideals.

Speaking of greed though, Zach thought, and he let out a sigh while taking out his phone and opening up Arkitock. The last article he was reading had just come out, and an investing website was talking about the huge upturn in one of his stocks that Zach checked on and then removed ninety percent of his stocks from. It's about to reach a peak and drop down. I'll throw most back in tomorrow, once it's dropped five points after the surge. A quick ¥120,000, if things go as I think they will.

I wonder if Darling's doing alright- Airi. Her name is Airi. You looked that up years ago, and she'll never go by Darling again. Airi Kobayashi. She'll use her real name, now that I said it. That way I'll be able to see how she is whenever I want, which I know she'll think about as she starts up her life. Zach looked back at the articles he had up on his computer screen before him. His thick laptop had a low whirring noise coming out of it, and Zach started closing a lot of the different windows and applications he had up at the same time. He x-ed out the article about stocks and then hit the Back button from the section of a news' site where he had gone for the financial articles. She was always the best at this. When L put too much money in to financing us and almost lost her father's company, Darling- Airi found the solution. Now that she's an adult, maybe she can go to her stepmother. Get the cash from her dad's will. There must have been some left to her, some that her stepmom kept after his death and said was her own. As a minor she couldn't argue that with her guardian, but if she comes back now and demands it, she won't even have to start from scratch. Not that she couldn't. She could go anywhere. Do anything. Be anyone. I don't need to be worried about her.

She's gone now. I have to focus on my own life. Starting with what to do about the others who know too much. Zach looked through several windows he had opened on different corners of his screen with small clips of the Army of Death in action around the world. Most angles had shaky cameras, none were too focused, but a lot of them focused on the collateral damage and dead bodies left behind afterwards. Zach frowned deeply while looking at the carnage he paused each of the videos on that had either been taken by amateurs or were released/leaked at some point by governments who had the footage. Two of the clips had 'CONFIDENTIAL' written in faint letters diagonally across the clips, transparent so one could see through it to what was happening, but big enough that it was clear someone did not want them to see those videos.

All the clips just have them fighting villains or escaping from heroes. There's a lack of antipathy towards them due to this, but as long as Kazania and Bogota stay pinned on them too there won't be a surge of support either. It's the perfect level of notoriety in the real world. I told the others that Kazania wasn't me, so that opens up the whole idea that everything bad they know about the AoD is false. And that's true. They only heard about me rarely, not because I was being inactive the rest of the time, but because I pushed to never be seen or reported. How do I explain that? That when I would take action, when I would send information to heroes, I stayed in the shadows. That way the Queen's forces never knew where I was. There were too many leaks in the Allied Forces too that my own forces did not have, likely due to my personal connection with each of my warriors. I didn't discriminate either, towards dwarves or fairies, former vigilantes or villains like Blackjack and Rappa. As long as they could help me achieve my goals, I was willing to accept anyone's help.

Zach's lips were curled far down at the corners, and he rose his left hand and scratched the side of his head a couple times. Then he just rubbed it with his eyes closing for a second. What is that? He thought in aggravation. The pain in his head faded though and he shook it around again before focusing on his computer. I'm having a tough time of it. That's all. It's like I told Midoriya, Bakugo, and Todoroki. I went around Japan to check out the nature and everything this island has to offer because it was what Zach Sazaki would want to do. Because I want to go explore and see everything- because I did that around the rest of the world, while keeping Japan mainly off limits? No- because I'm saying it's what Zach Sazaki would do! Not what Death would. I couldn't explain that to Midoriya. How I am not 'was' Death, but- that doesn't make sense even but- I was never Death. Because I'm Zach Sazaki. In the forest the other night though, I transitioned back like I was for a little. Not "back!" I just got serious. No, I had become Death for a moment. Which doesn't make sense because Gentle is Death now. I can't just do that. Even if it was my mindset that doesn't mean I was actually…

What is it that holds me back? My biggest flaw right now, when I have so much power? It has to be this. That when I was trying to get back into the mindset of Zach Sazaki, it just made me sad because I was thinking about my own life. And if it was my own life I was reflecting on, then why stop with the Lifebringer Incident where I discarded my name? That's where I keep stopping every time I think about it. I can't, reflect on what happened after. I can tell stories about it, make stuff up and focus on changing details so the stories are more fun and don't hurt as much, as much as I know they will if I properly reflect.

Reflect. If I reflect- just try. Try.

Zach closed his eyes, and then they snapped open and he grit his teeth. Nope. There's no point, He thought it, and yet he had tried just like he just told himself to. And his insides felt like they were tearing apart, his chest clenching way too hard and burning in pain. There's no way I could handle all the stuff that happened in that one year. It was more than most people could do in a hundred lifetimes. I just moved, so fast. I got stronger so fast. Made my organization so fast. Made that organization stronger and richer and more influential so fast. And I never stopped moving to think about it. I just focused on the next task. The next enemies. Next targets, with new plans to coordinate attacks to really stop villains based on the way they bounced back on previous attempts; I adapted so fast. I adapted faster than the Arcasians who couldn't figure out how to deal with my Army as quickly as I figured out how to handle the way they viewed me at different points in time.

I adjusted fast, and traveled across the entire world fast, and stopped villains fastest. Fought battles in five, six, eight, twelve villain fights a day. With a dozen squads sent out the different forts and encampments in the same region, and I'd fly to each one and make a plan and attack with the others and bring comrades who died back to life and send them to a new spot- and then I'd go to a different location myself, do the same cycle eleven more times, and then rush to where the first group had gone to a new location and set up with more recon and information. Only sleeping between rides sometimes, other times going for days straight or until Death had completely drained and I needed to recharge back at The- base. Zach took in a deep breath and his shaking right hand steadied on his touchpad that he aimlessly scrolled down a page for his actual report with.

Go to base and train with others. Or train them myself. And on the Cloak! Training and planning for more attacks, making strategy meetings and working on how to deal with corruption, medial influence, Quirk laws, and the overwhelming power I had at my fingertips! I could topple governments in minutes if I gave the word. Zach closed his eyes and bit down much harder for a moment. His head bowed closer to his screen in case anyone was looking in his direction while he was struggling like this. There was so much more corruption on Terra than here. And powerful people completely controlled what was shown by the media- in the local newspapers! What the town criers would shout about me and my ragtag group of "thugs" they called us. "Bandits." And, sometimes we were. Before we were strong enough to be considered a true army. Even after we were an Army, when we went up against the Queen's strongest forces sometimes an attack really was just a hit and run. But then I obtained power. So much power. All at my fingertips and I never, I never really considered it but I could have turned the world on its head.

I had the support of so many in my Army that even if some started leaving because I had gone too far, a lot would have stayed and done whatever I said because they all trusted me so much. It was dangerous. Another reason to give up that power, before it could corrupt… The kind of power like that should have been terrible. It could have been the most horrible thing the world had ever seen, but it didn't become that. Zach's shoulders slouched and his body relaxed. I kept true to my morals. I handed it off to someone I trust completely, and I trust them to keep going with the purest intentions, and to replace themself at some time with someone else who their army would believe in and follow as long as it meant still helping the world. In the future. That's how much power they have now, and what they'll do in the future. Shit. It's already happened. It already happened and I was there and I saw this! Not this specifically, but I saw- I killed-

Zach ground his teeth and his heart started racing again so soon after he had relaxed. What am I relaxing for? I haven't, haven't even started- Zach's eyes shifted down and he stared at hands over his library table that were soaked in blood. He stared at his red hands, his black glove on his right completely soaked over just like his left hand of fake skin over steel. He lifted his right hand off the touchpad so as not to get blood on it, but there were fingerprints of blood left on the pad that he saw past his hands he was looking down at.

Stain. He felt the warm blood dripping down from his hands to his elbows, his whole forearms getting drenched in red. I don't regret it. His bloody hands clenched over his keyboard and Zach curled them tighter in frustration. In the countries the Army of Death visited, after they had left there was a marked decrease in villain activity, an enthusiasm boost in police and heroic action against them, a sharp drop in corruption and an increase in democracy. It was different from Stain! Even if, crime went down in those cities- he was hunting heroes! That couldn't have been… right. But what I did wasn't right either. Zach clenched his eyes shut, Or I wouldn't be seeing Stain's blood on my hands!

His eyes snapped back open to stare down at his hands free of any blood or feeling of warmth. What I did was different. It wasn't exactly right, but I wasn't killing heroes. I wasn't even purging villains. I did some questionable things, some bad things… but what I did worked. And it worked without people knowing that it worked! That's the biggest difference. That he did what he did publicly, that he became famous for it and people saw that crime went down in those cities he visited. Most people have no idea I was ever in their country. They have no clue that after I left the crime rate plummeted. They just, accredit it to heroes stepping up their games and arresting more villains. No one knows. The impact I had. No one could ever know. It can never be quantified, even by me. No proof left behind. No records to be kept for history. Completely forgotten and lost to time. That's what it was.

That's how it should be.

No matter how much I want those who died to be remembered. All those gladiators. Damn it. I couldn't even imagine them. The ones I killed in the Pit sure, but the ones who joined me? Damn it!

Why am I thinking about this today? I guess, I want to have all my stories down. I want to be fully prepared.

And I don't want to lose it if I have to get serious again while they're here. Zach rose his head and he nodded as Kimona sensei spoke to the class. He reached forward and closed his laptop, then he put it down into his backpack he had brought into the library with him. I need to be calm. To focus and show the my class I'm that focused. I'll lose them if I show this weakness. Zach smiled as he stood up, turning and looking towards some classmates who were walking his way to ask how his research was going.

Zach and his classmates in Class 1 of Shiketsu's third years spent their day as they always did. They had the same classes as usual, ate lunch in the cafeteria, and at the end of the day they all went to the lockers to grab their things like everyone else at the school. The other students in all three years were slow to leave school that day, but as slowly as they were walking away from campus, not many sat around for over thirty minutes after school ended. Some of Class 1 even left campus for a little, going to a nearby coffee shop or heading home real quick, before rushing back to school with things they had forgotten that morning.

Most of the others had just grabbed their things from their lockers and were standing around with their bags and hero costumes ready in boxes. They gathered up with everything they were told to bring to school with them that day, and they watched as a bus arrived at the entrance to Shiketsu ahead of them. Zach had a small drawstring bag thrown over his right shoulder, which besides his backpack and hero box was all he brought that day despite knowing what was happening after school ended. The bus made it through the gates, and Zach looked through the windshield at the dark figure in a tan cloak sitting in the driver's seat. Wonder what other teachers are coming? Zach thought while looking past Ectoplasm to try and see farther through the bus.

Zach stood back straight up and just watched with the others in his class as the bus approached them. Another bus came rolling out from a garage to their right around the school's front road. The road at the front of the school curved around a grassy area with a huge plaque that had the school's name engraved on it, and the students stood on the opposite side of that little section across the road near where the main entrance of the school was. A second bus pulled onto the curved section and came up behind U.A.'s bus, though this one was meant for the Shiketsu students who were all watching the arrival from the front entrance and not from the actual training grounds where they were having their joint training with U.A.

"Here they come."

"We've got this. I'm not losing again."

Zach shifted his gaze to his right, then to his left and looked at all his classmates around him. His face got more serious as he looked at all their expressions and various kinds of looks. Not yet. Wait just a little longer. He turned his head back forward and watched as the bus for U.A. slowed down on its way around the curved road, though it passed the point it could have broken off down to drive farther through campus to their training grounds. It was rolling up to their class first for the welcome, and Zach watched as his former classmates got close enough to him that he could see them through the side windows of the bus.

I wonder if this really is just alternating? Last year they had the training at U.A., but it could just have to do with me not being allowed on U.A. campus… which I don't actually know if that's a rule. If it is though, none of them would know it. I just suspect it's true considering my talk with Principal Nezu after getting out.

"I cannot, and will not allow you back to U.A. after what you did last time…"

But this is good! I've got home field advantage. Everyone, Zach's eyes locked intensely on the bus stopping in front of him. I know how strong you are. I know you're stronger than just about anyone. You won last time, and the number advantage means nothing to you. You'll all crush anyone in your paths. I know each one of you will become an amazing hero. But everyone… I plan on winning.

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A/N Hey guys! Thanks for reading the chapter. I hope you enjoyed it and you're ready for the joint training! So, as for this next chapter... it's going to be a while. I was reading a few older chapters and loved them, and they felt really fresh to me... which is never a great sign in my opinion. I've gotta make sure I'm not leaving plot holes or messing up anywhere, so time for another read-through! I've done this a couple times, but not in the last 50 chapters or so, which makes this a daunting task of re-reading 2 million words before getting to work on the joint training. I really care about the quality of this story though, and I always like to foreshadow a lot which I try to mark down and not forget about, but occasionally I have to shift stuff around because I messed up and posted a chapter leaving out an important point that I've gotta squeeze in somewhere else... (enough with the procedural talks of how I write), but anyway, my grandma died this morning. Finishing this chapter and editing it was a great way to spend the day, nice distraction and all. I've got work through this next week and some more stuff to do because of her passing now (along with re-reading all of Death), plus I'm going out a few nights this week with friends. Joint training's going to be split up into a couple chapters, but they're still probably going to be big ones like these last few, so might not be able to get it up in the next week. I'm going to get to work on it real soon, but just wanted to let y'all know beforehand. Running out of % on my laptop battery, and I'm exhausted, so I'm going to clock out now with no review responses today ;( sorry. But I'll get up the next chapter soon as I can! And until then, see ya!