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!

172. Chapter 172

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 172:

"Oi," Bakugo dropped a pair of moaning Americans on the floor at his sides. He sported a bruise on his right cheek and a very, very pissed off look on his face only just holding back as he heard that last dinging noise. Roger Whitewood and Jaime Crowley each parted their eyelids just a bit and then closed them and pretended to be out when they saw Bakugo's face with his crazed and twitching smile. "Someone just caught one of theirs, right?" His voice asked it in a tone daring someone to tell him he was wrong about that. "Right, Deku?!"

Deku had just hit the floor on the inside of the cell most of his classmates were in. Five of them had just been tossed in a few seconds earlier, and Kirishima's angry shouting out at Zach cut off. Zach had been ignoring him and shouting around at his other classmates and making plans, and Kirishima had been angrily yelling out at him about the way Zach just caught him. Koda was even trying to hold him back as it seemed like Kirishima might ignore the rules and run out of there to go fight Zach "for real" like he had been yelling about. Kirishima was not yelling now though. He did the math in his head because of the way his classmates were looking, and he realized it even with the ice mountain above them making it impossible for them to see the closer of the scoreboards.

What the students in that jail could see though, was out the front of their jail and across the entire dome to the score displayed over their own ice fortress base. Their base stood tall while their enemies' one was in ruins. Most of them in that cage did not look much worse for the wear other than Deku, though several of them were still unconscious like Ojiro, Sero, Uraraka, and Mineta. Shoji and Tokoyami had woken up and were staring at Midoriya in shock as he pushed himself up on his hands and knees but was frozen staring down at the ground below his face.

Todoroki cursed after staring in shock towards Midoriya's expression there for a couple seconds. He turned his head and looked out of the cage out to their three enemies and then to three others who came running back from the forest ahead of them looking amazed and happy, and beat up. Inasa and Zach were the only ones who looked undamaged. Todoroki glanced around the inside of their cell where all his classmates were gathered, most of them with only superficial injuries. He himself only felt a lingering pain on his side where he was first caught unawares by Zach's rocket fist, as he had even prepared himself for that follow-up kick in the instant before it happened. Todoroki Shoto stared out at Zach and looked his former classmate in the eyes for a few seconds as the Death had all faded and left Zach staring back their way.

Zach clicked a button on the side of his helmet and rose his visor back up over his hair. He stared into Todoroki's heterochromatic eyes with his own hazel ones, and after a second Zach smiled at him. He offered up a friendly smile at his former classmate who was looking so intensely out at him while thinking angrily, We lost. They had only seen each other twice since Zach had gotten back, and they had only spoken once before this. This was the third time, and Zach smiled at Todoroki without looking menacing or like he was taunting him for that loss. It was just a, 'the training is over, I'm glad to see you' smile.

Hagakure saw that look too and she let out a sigh. The sigh was in disappointment for their loss, but also a bit of relief after the way she saw Zach look earlier once they got off the buses. He looked more like one of them earlier, but he was just getting into the training! Zach's still one of us.

"The score is 25-17," Hazano Worrod's voice echoed throughout the dome. The teacher known professionally as Hachiman finished while leaning back in his seat, "The winners, are Class 1."

"We won?" Bibi Reina wondered in shock. She was standing inside U.A.'s jail, expecting more and more of her classmates to be dragged there after she had been so quickly and violently. She still felt bruises on her arms where Deku had gripped her before sprinting them through the dome. "Hey Imino! You hear that?" She called it over to a boy who had been sitting down since they all got caught, more injured than the rest of them but holding off on getting a Recovery Girl call until it was over.

"Hey Recovery Girl," Porrolo waved at the closest hidden camera he saw in the corner of their cell. "Could we get some help down here?"

"Guess we can just leave now," Bibi wondered, stepping close to the cage exit and looking both ways from behind her long gray bangs that covered her eyes. Midoriya had left the cage open the last few times he rushed back to save some time each trip.

Bibi stepped out and glanced around, and then a boy called over to her, "Hey Bibi." She turned her head and looked in surprise over at a guy in her class who Midoriya had released after dragging him all the way back there. Once their score had hit 24 Midoriya rushed back to the other side, and Elinari Shuu had been worried that by not stopping Midoriya he was about to get his whole team screwed. He was shocked when not ten seconds later the ding went off and gave them victory. The teen moving towards U.A.'s jail had a hand over his stomach, and his other arm was more limp down at his side when his captured classmates saw him.

"Why were you heading this way?" Porrolo wondered while stepping forward to the cell gate and looking towards him.

Bibi started running towards Shuu already, and she caught him as he stumbled and almost fell. The idea that the training was over made it hard for him to keep standing like this. "Figured, the last place they'd look for us, is behind their own jail," Elinari admitted. After Midoriya released him he thought the best place to hide would be behind the jail as close to the edge of the dome as possible. He was glad he did not have to make it all the way over there though. Bibi took his limp arm and put it around her shoulders, and he said in a low but grateful tone to the girl, "Thanks."

"Injured remain where you are. Ms. Anastasia and Recovery Girl are on their ways down to provide first aid… Now, All Might would like to say something."

Everyone looked up to the west as Hazano's voice left replaced with All Might's coming over the dome's speakers. "You all fought wonderfully. I am proud of the improvement each and every one of you have made since last year." Not just the U.A. students but the Shiketsus all appreciated All Might's words, the Shiketsus more than their counterparts actually for most of them. "Today went to the Shiketsu students. Remember though, that if things had gone even a little differently, the end result may have changed. I say this not to disparage the victors but only to remind you all to take what you have seen and learned today with you, as your graduation approaches. Someday soon each of you will be out in the world fighting villains as professional heroes. If this fight were to happen again, how would each of you change how you acted and fought today? All I wish, is that you think on that, to prepare yourselves for the long road ahead."

"… Now!" After All Might paused to give all his students a moment for self-reflection, he called out in a louder and more upbeat tone than the wise and serious one he just had. The students knew to think on it more themselves but at a different time, and they all started moving as All Might continued, "Your Principal is here so we will all gather for further instruction on the west side of the dome. At the ruins of what was the Shiketsu team's base. Once the injured have been recovered and everyone is together, we will start. So do not worry about rushing there if you are hurt, you will not miss anything…"

---

"Congratulations, Class 1," Principal Memuria said to the half of the students gathered more on her right. All of the two classes were gathered in front of her with the exception of one person who was laying nearby, as Sero was still unconscious from being pierced by a line of Death earlier. The woman with a far receding hairline of light purple hair only thick on the sides of her head gave her students a nod and a rare smile that they all appreciated and felt proud to receive. The administrator who spoke in the voice of someone much younger despite her wrinkled appearance wore a black suit just like Norasaki who had come with her and stood on her side facing all the students as well.

In between the two classes stood Zach and Ojiro, with Hagakure close-by next to Ashido who had a small gap between her and most of the rest of U.A. On Zach's other side much closer and more compact were the Shiketsu students who did not stand off from Zach at all and had been talking to him as everyone gathered over there. The administrators had come specifically up in front of Zach, mainly because the group around him had been the biggest with a few of his U.A. friends and almost all of the Shiketsus gathered together. The U.A.'s had been more scattered about, some of them by themselves and others talking to each other about what had happened in the fight but in lower and more regretful tones than the Shiketsus were talking.

"We arrived by the end of the training, and we saw how you all handled yourselves out there," Norasaki mentioned.

"But the joint training is not over yet," Memuria added, as Norasaki mentioned the 'end' of it. She looked around at the students and then continued after a second of them wondering what else was in store, "All of you are on the same side."

The way Memuria started confused some of the students in front of her. Both of the joint trainings had been very divisive with the classes going against each other and fighting each other in hard-fought battles. Others understood what she was talking about though, but Memuria continued anyway, "U.A. and Shiketsu, a rivalry as old as I am, a tradition almost." She paused and then continued in the same bland tone, "It means nothing. Not really." Her eyes locked immediately on the students in both her class and U.A.'s who frowned or looked annoyed by that statement, making their looks change immediately.

"Every year, the third-year hero courses of both U.A. and Shiketsu need to relieve the tensions created by the school rivalry. In order to ease into a better working relationship between the graduates of the top hero schools, the upperclassmen receive this night training. You will be allowed to take part in races and a contest of strength set up by your teachers…" The students in front of Memuria looked past her with confused looks forming on most of their faces. They looked to All Might and the other teachers from both U.A. and Shiketsu who despite their own competitive attitudes earlier had returned to more professional attitudes as well. What Memuria was saying though, was sounding less like a continuation of their training, as it was sounding like… fun.

"These events will take place under your own supervision however," Memuria continued, increasing the feeling that many of them were already having as they heard it. "You will determine when to have them. You will be responsible for setting them up. And we expect you to carry out these activities, as well as make yourselves dinner with the food left for you in the exact center of this dome, where your things are waiting as well." A few of the students turned their heads and looked behind them wondering when someone came in there and dropped off food and their bags. "You will all be heroes and comrades together fighting your common enemies," Memuria said to the students who all looked back into the principal's sucked-in eyes. What she was saying made sense to all of them, and the students feeling the most malice or anger at their opponents glanced back across the small gap to the other class and the ones they were most angry at.

The same side? Deku wondered, his eyes shifting down instead of over to the other class for a moment. Others from Shiketsu had looked towards him before accepting that they would rather be friends and comrades with Deku than his enemy, while even more of the Shiketsus looked at Bakugo after what Memuria just said. Bakugo stood in the back of the U.A. group though and was still grinding his teeth as he continued to hold back his anger over losing earlier.

"This training could go well into the night," Memuria continued after another few seconds' pause. "So with the food provided in the woods, there is also a stack of tents that you are free to use."

"The bus'll leave around eight tomorrow morning," Midnight called over to her students who spun to her in surprise only to see their teacher smiling back their way.

Zach felt an uneasy sensation in his stomach. It's on a hero school campus. It's set up by teachers and technically training. So was the summer camp. Yeah, it's more like the summer camp than… But the last time, they went camping like this. Zach finally dared the look to his right side where he saw several of the U.A. students looking his direction.

He doesn't, have a plan for this camping trip… Does he?

Camping with Zach again?

Yeah, this should be, fun. Nothing's going to happen.

It's just a feeling.

"As long as everyone is okay with the procedure for tonight's continued training," Memuria continued. "Then we will get started immediately. Your teachers will go over the joint training they have already witnessed to prepare grades and individual performance reviews for each of you in the meantime." She glanced behind her at the teachers who all nodded at the older woman who nodded sternly back and then glanced next to her at Norasaki who had watched the students closely for a moment. Norasaki looked back and Memuria and nodded, and the two of them turned and headed away from the students.

What was he looking for? Kotsumura wondered in confusion as Norasaki had been watching the U.A.'s carefully there for a second.

She asked if we were okay with the training? Zach wondered while watching Memuria walk away. Guess she was offering anyone from Class A to say that they didn't want me here. Or that they didn't feel safe. Anything really.

Their principal is right! Whatever else is happening, this is very important! Iida Tenya turned his head and looked into the group of Shiketsu students where he locked his eyes with Muoko Kimi's. The tallest girl in Shiketsu looked at the tallest guy from U.A. and nodded her head at what they were both thinking. Then the two of them made moves for Yaoyorozu and Tomoki to get their two vice-reps to help them out.

"Everyone!" Iida called out once he had given the look to Yaoyorozu and received one back. His class and the Shiketsus all looked to the new Ingenium who continued strongly, "Let us hear what the activities planned for tonight are from our teachers and then get to work on establishing camp for the night. As this is an activity to relieve tensions between our classes, I believe it best that the teams we split up into for starting a fire, making dinner, and setting up our tents should be made up of both Class 1 and Class A students."

"If we work fast to build camp," Muoko continued without pause, surprising her classmates who were still getting used to the idea of what they were moving onto now. Everyone spun her way realizing that she and Iida were already on the same wavelength. "Then we can continue our activities without worrying about doing the work later once it is dark. Anyone who does not take part in the night training events can work on dinner during them and once we have worked up an appetite, we can gather for dinner."

"You will be allowed to take part in races and…" Kirishima thought about how the principal worded her instructions, and he realized Muoko of the other class already noticed it and knew that some people would rather just hold off. He frowned and shifted his gaze towards Zach who hummed to himself and cracked a smile while looking Muoko's way after what she just said. Yeah, I fucking knew it. Why race us or have a strength competition when you think you'd win? You're looking down on everyone! Fucking- God damn it! He picked me up and tossed me straight into the fucking jail! MOTHER- Kirishima clenched his teeth and shook his head around, realizing he was thinking way too much like Bakugo. It was hard not to be angry about how he just lost though.

The teachers came forward after hearing what Iida said, and they explained the activities they expected the students to carry out through the night. They added that they could check in on them from the cameras still all over the place, but they reminded the students that it was up to them to supervise and set up the activities on their own. Iida and Muoko were quick to respond and say that they would make sure each task was carried out, so the rest of their classes knew those tasks were going to be carried out exactly as instructed. Even those not too into it at first felt more interested after Kimona and Ectoplasm talked about the running races and the strength competition which turned out to be no more than an arm wrestling competition.

As the students all headed back towards the center of the dome in one giant group, the class reps and vice-reps were talking to all their fellow students. "…And although the strength tournament will be one-on-one matches, we will make that fair and an unbiased split between U.A.'s and Shiketsus as well," Iida continued to all his classmates and fellow young heroes. "We will draw lots to determine the tournament bracket out of those who decide to take part. Quirks, allowed?" Iida wondered. He was about to mention how he was taking part, but he decided to ask this question first and he glanced backwards which told everyone behind him that he was directing it at them.

"Definitely," Kirisihima started.

"Hold on," Dendo began in a pissed-off voice.

"We can have a vote on that matter before the tournament begins," Yaoyorozu suggested.

"That's a great idea," Tomoki added to his fellow vice rep. Then he glanced to his side at his girlfriend and gained a hesitant look for a moment behind his own glasses, though she nodded at him in acceptance rather than jealousy that he agreed with the very attractive and popular girl from Class A.

Muoko then added for herself though, "For the relay race however, each participating team will be split between two U.A.'s and two Shiketsus to further create a relationship between-"

"-Our classes, yeah yeah," Mineta finished quickly, while already on the other side of the group as the majority of U.A.'s still walking on one half. The others in Shiketsu glanced at the short boy already in their ranks who no longer sported any bruises or cuts and who instead looked fresh and excited unlike most who were kissed by Recovery Girl or basked in Ms. Anastasia's Painless light. Her Quirk, Painless, made even the injuries that were not healed instantly by Recovery Girl feel like they had to all the students who had received them earlier. Mineta came right up to Himazuri and Bibi, and he opened his mouth-

Himazuri smacked him on the side of the face.

Everyone else in U.A. and Shiketsu looked over at the mind reader whose face was bright red, then nearly fifty sets of eyes locked on Mineta with harsher expressions than he deserved. Himazuri glanced back at the stunned short boy who actually had not been thinking anything really perverted, and Mineta dropped his jaw as no one was looking at Himazuri anymore to see her blushing and embarrassed expression turn to a smirk back at him. "Oh that's so not fair!" Mineta shouted at the girl who started laughing after a second as she figured he deserved to be let off the hook.

Zach was already smiling at Himazuri before she laughed, as he did not expect she had actually read Mineta's mind after she told him she wouldn't earlier that day. Others looked at Himazuri and realized what she did, while a few still had hesitant expressions as they wondered if she was just trying to ease tensions by making it seem like a joke afterwards. Tsuyu's tongue that was hanging out of her mouth did pull back in though instead of reaching over and smacking Mineta herself for what he just thought, and she hummed as she wondered what Mineta was actually thinking while over there. She did not realize that Himazuri had not been reading Mineta's mind when she smacked him, but if it was a joke then she did not understand why Mineta had gone over there in the first place if not to hit on those girls in a pervy way. Is he just keeping up appearances?

I just wanted hot girl partners for the relay race, Mineta thought frustratedly as he saw those few looks at him still semi-suspicious about his thoughts there.

"How's the shell doing?" Porrolo wondered to Kameko as they continued through the forest. "Thought maybe Recovery Girl would've made it grow back faster."

There was a large hole on Kameko's shell sticking out of his shirt that a few others looked to when Porrolo brought it up. Midoriya and a couple other U.A. students near him looked over too, and the green-haired boy felt slightly bad for what he did as it was apparently an injury that did not recover easily.

Kameko looked over his shoulder, but then he turned back to Porrolo and lifted his lips into a small smile. In a positive voice he said, "Ms. Anastasia made it so it doesn't hurt. And, it got harder after last time when Zach broke it, so this will be better for me anyway."

Iida looked over and his eyebrows lifted up. That is similar to my own way of how I got so much faster. Removing the mufflers allowed me to extend the length of time for Reciproburst, however I can still only control it at my new fastest for a limited time. However, it still wasn't fast enough to catch Zach after he came out of nowhere and took Kirishima. Iida thought about stopping in the woods and looking up, seeing the scoreboard hit 25 for Shiketsu. He remembered staring up at it as a few Shiketsu students who had chased him ran past and back to their own jail to celebrate with the few others still there. So few of them were still able to fight. There were only six at the jail when I arrived there, and that was just about their entire remaining team. Manzo was still conscious after my kick. She glared at me when we met back up, was it because I held back? Why did I hold back? Was the fact that she was a girl make me treat her as less? I must apologize. Especially if that was something bothering her last year, enough that she never let us find out that she was a girl.

"Hey," Zach started to two guys he walked up to on his right side. Inasa and Dendo both looked at Zach and wondered what he had to talk about. He was not being very quiet either, so a lot of others looked over to him. Anytime Zach spoke that happened, so even though he was just talking to two people most of the people there were listening to him. "You guys want to get firewood for the fire later? I can kill the trees since dead wood burns better, Dendo slices it up into firewood, and Inasa you can carry it all back."

"Sounds good," Dendo said, as it made enough sense to him.

"Yes! Should we get any U.A. help?" Inasa wondered, as they were supposed to be making friends with the other class right now. He figured Zach did not need to as much since he already knew them all well, but he looked over hoping to see someone who was good for it. "How about you, Uravity?"

"Uh… yeah, okay," Uraraka hesitated for a moment, but she nodded at Inasa's large smile and started walking across the group to go towards him. She knew why she could help them out, and Zach grinned too as he figured they could get even more in a single trip now to the point they would easily be set for the whole night.

"You should take trees from the middle area around where the supplies are kept," Muoko said over to Zach while a lot of the U.A.'s were still frowning over at him for his casual suggestion there. The others looked back to Shiketsu's representative who did not treat it as strange at all. Zach nodded at her at the idea, as he was first thinking of going far off to get the trees. Muoko explained it anyway even though she saw that Zach understood, "If we are keeping all the tents there, then we must clear a space considering how dense the trees are in the center of the dome. All-Terrain will be re-establishing this training facility before the next class comes here, so we do not need to worry about any damage done to the environment."

"Since the central area is not cleared yet," Tomoki added, realizing it as they were still heading towards that middle section. "We should hold the evening events on one of the lawns."

"Theirs is pretty empty," Hisashi mentioned to the vice rep walking next to him. He grinned past Tomoki for a second towards Todoroki and Midoriya, "We really cleared out a lot of the trees around there in the first wave-"

"Your whole base is destroyed!" Mineta exclaimed back, as they had been close to Shiketsu's destroyed base a minute ago. "We can go over there and have the whole lawn and where your base used to be…"

"We'd have to move all the rubble…"

"We're still in the west side anyway so it's less of a walk…"

As U.A.'s and Shiketsus started arguing about which side of the dome to have their evening training, Zach motioned to his right at the two guys next to him who saw his look. Zach then narrowed his eyes over towards Uraraka who spun after a second and looked back at Zach whose expression was back to normal and who made the same motion of his head away. Three Shiketsu boys broke off the group as everyone else was still moving mainly together, though they had started spreading out a bit as some people moved faster or slower than others across the facility.

Uraraka gained a couple of looks as she passed in front of others to head to the right, but she was more focused on the spiky-haired teenager ahead of her who stood between Inasa and Dendo and was talking to them as they headed farther south in the forest. Is Zach not taking part in the activities? Why did he suggest something like this?

"What's up? Don't want to hang out with them?" Dendo wondered at the guy on his left side who shook his head to show that was not it.

"I have all night for that," Zach replied. "But they're all still pretty upset about what just happened. I need to let them cool off a bit before talking about the training and what just happened." Zach glanced to his right and added in a lower voice, "They really don't like losing."

"No one does," Dendo replied.

"You think they're mad at you for winning?" Inasa wondered in confusion. He looked over his shoulder back towards the U.A.'s wondering if that was right. He flashed a smile at the girl jogging towards his back who slowed down while still a few meters behind them.

"Not really that we won," Zach answered. "Just how I did it. A few of them I bet might actually try to fight me if I talked to them right now. Definitely need to let things cool off," Zach said it without keeping his voice too low, and he looked over his shoulder at the girl staring at his back with wide eyes right behind him. He glanced down after looking at her face, and he asked the short brunette girl, "You feeling alright? Sorry about knocking you out, Uraraka."

"N-No, it's fine," Uraraka shook her head quickly at Zach. The fact that he was apologizing along with what she just heard him say about how he thought they were all pissed at him, it made her feel like she knew the answer now as to why Zach had split off from the main group. "No one's…" she added, but she stopped herself from finishing as she thought about the way a few of the others were glaring after Zach when she jogged their way.

"It's alright," Zach said while she was looking for a way to finish that sentence. He stopped and the others did around him, and they looked back the way he looked towards the rest of their classes who were out of sight now. "We can still take part in those events too. We'll be done with this in a couple minutes after all."

"Think we can get enough wood for a bonfire that will last the night?" Dendo asked.

"Should we get enough, for multiple fires?" Uraraka added, chiming in quickly so Zach would not think she was still being awkward about their last conversation. What's going on? I'm just, talking to him so normally. That's not… if I could do this, then why didn't I ever go with the others to his apartment? He's, he's still my friend, isn't he? Uraraka looked at Zach with a hesitant look in her eyes that did not match her question about fires.

Zach looked her back in the eyes and shook his head though he smiled at the way she was looking at him. "I don't think so. We're supposed to be uniting our classes kind of. Making multiple fires will wind up just getting everyone to split up between class lines."

"No matter how much we get though, it's probably still going to happen," Dendo muttered.

Zach shrugged his right shoulder and tilted his head accepting that was probably true. Yaoyorozu, Bakugo, and Todoroki all have the power for starting a fire. Assuming Yaoyorozu helps with the main one, there're probably still going to be two more fires later tonight. "Let's get to work though," Zach said, deciding to leave questions about how the fires were set up for after they had the firewood.

He still had on his costume like most of the students in the training dome, though a few had gone into their bags at the center area they found to get dressed in plain clothes first before afternoon activities. Zach knew this was happening, because he had reached up and put his visor over his eyes to check the area ahead of him. He saw thermal readings through the forest with a tap of a button on the side of his visor, and he saw several camera angles on the sides of his visor. There were four rectangular boxes on the right side of his screen and three on the left with one blacked out from where Midoriya had unknowingly smashed through one of his cameras.

"What are you doing?" Uraraka wondered. Neither of the Shiketsu students asked, but they were both wondering too.

"The clearing wasn't that far ahead of us when we broke off. We're just a bit to the south of the pile, and there's no one on line with me," Zach stepped forward and he pushed his hands out in front of him while pointed up a bit. "Rolling Death." Out of Zach's hands pushed a Death that flew forward through three trees in front of him, then through four more past them and three others in more of a staggered line after that. The Death continued pouring out of his hands for a couple of seconds, but then Zach curled his fists and the Death stopped coming out. The force of Death he had already released continued moving deeper into the forest ahead of him though. Zach forced it farther and farther, pushing through the trees at a level above everyone's heads just in case Hagakure happened to be ahead of him or he was missing someone, somehow.

Hagakure was slipping into her clothes around the central area of the dome, hiding behind a tree as she did it so no one would be watching her change. She turned her head though and her shirt slipped out of her fingers as she watched the first wisps of Death push through the tops of the trees not fifteen meters from her. Then the mass of Death rolled in and pushed over itself, rolling over like a wave that just crashed and continued to push into other trees around where she was looking. Hagakure quickly picked back up her shirt and slipped it on, then she lifted her head up and watched with wide eyes as some of the Death even pulled away in small lines towards trees closer to her. They pierced into trees, and immediately the bark started to look more black than brown. All of the green leaves turned black and shriveled, and they fell off the stems but also mostly fell apart so the pieces of leaves fell off the trees like ash.

A few thinner branches broke off, and then Hagakure let out a yelp and she spun and ran off. One thick branch up in a tree was too heavy to stay on after dying like that, and it broke off with a loud crack that spooked Hagakure and made a few of the others who could see what was happening take steps back.

Back where Zach lowered his arms, Uraraka had dropped her bottom lip and was staring with huge eyes past Zach into the dead forest ahead of him. She took a hesitant step forward, then Zach rose up his right palm to the side in a motion for her to stop. Uraraka paused, and then her eyes widened again as the Death that he had pushed out did not just fade after a while. It could have, but the small amounts of boosts he was getting from killing the trees kept the Rolling Death moving at its same strength practically the entire time Zach controlled it. After his Death reached the point he had decided to stop it before first expelling it, Zach pulled his Death back and he rose his left hand up as the Death came at him much faster than it had pushed out. It swept back through the trees avoiding touching them as Zach did not want to keep them surrounded for too long lest what happened to much of the leaves start to happen to the wood.

Two thick whips of darkness pulling back through the trees combined into one stream and then flew straight at Zach's lifted left palm that had lost most of the skin on it. His lower left arm was missing most of its skin along with his costume, the only noticeable damage Zach had taken during the fight from what anyone else could see. He yanked all the darkness back and then curled his palms into fists that he lowered at his sides without so much as a heavier exhale of breath.

"Alright," Zach said, turning to face the others who looked at him oddly as his tone with that one word made it sound like he was finished. "I have to go collect my equipment from around the dome. See you in a bit," he nodded at the others after checking to see affirmative looks back at him that they were fine on their own.

Uraraka had just stared at him in more surprise as he was suddenly leaving after killing a chunk of the forest, but she saw Dendo and Inasa give him those looks and she turned to those boys in surprise too. She spun back when Zach turned in the corner of her vision, and her left hand twitched at her side lifting up a small amount, before her right hand moved over and held her wrist back down before she could say a word. I don't, know him. He's so different. Just the feeling of him alone- I haven't gone to see him at all since the hospital. I don't know, if something's really wrong…

Dendo lowered his frown deeper even as he stepped towards the darkened trees with an aura covering his hands. "Seven people," Dendo muttered in a pissed-off voice, his anger directed towards himself as he Sliced forward and cut down the trees Zach had killed.

Inasa was thinking it too and Uraraka saw that on his face as she spun to Dendo in surprise at what she heard him mutter. The cracking trees and thuds in the woods came after, but Uraraka just heard that mutter repeat in an echo in her head. She turned back slowly in the direction Zach had just run off. Is he…

Zach's lips were curled down far at the corners as he ran. His eyes were darkened under the shadows of his black bangs pushed down by the visor on his forehead. How did I let that happen? I shouldn't have left Imino to fight them alone. It didn't matter that it was Kirishima and Iida. I knew where everyone else was, or I had an idea at least. An approximation. I could have taken the two of them, probably fast enough that- If I had drawn more attention to Imino by going there, more U.A.'s would have come anyway. Iida would have reported, and if they lost contact because I cut the comms then others would have shown up! If the fight lasted much longer too, I can't be sure that not getting the flag wouldn't have gotten more people killed! DAMN IT!

Even if I had just lost Imino, I should have known Midoriya would go to the last resort play at that moment! And after he took Hisashi, what was with those orders? I just accepted I was going to lose more classmates?! I should have gone straight to their jail and blocked Midoriya from getting anyone else! Except, any Death I surrounded myself in around Midoriya could likely get blown off into other people. It's my responsibility to protect people from my Death, and I couldn't rely on him not to go all out. Not when he was taking it so seriously… This was training, after all. I would have been putting the people at that prison in danger going and standing in front of the gate all covered in Death. They weren't really dead. If getting tossed in there meant they really were dying, I would have rushed back in that moment Midoriya got Hisashi. I would have saved him! I never saw if Midoriya could beat me. And with Bakugo and Todoroki supporting him, with people I'm protecting nearby so I can't drop Limiter 1- it was too dangerous! But it will always be that dangerous to use more Death! You can't rely on that! Can't rely on 'I would have's when you didn't do it! FUCK! Bibi, Kaan, Imino, I lost 7 fucking comrades in a fight against inexperienced… alright, not inexperienced but- fuck. Class A is, they're just too good. But so are Eziano's assassins. So are the League of Villains. I don't want to accept any casualties. And against Shigaraki, who kills without leaving a body, who I've brought back with Death already- or Kaminari, who's sure to use all the hostages around and kill as many civilians as possible while we fight. He'll use everything to his advantage. I'm not ready to beat them without losing a single person yet. I'm going to let everyone down. I'm going to get people killed by being this weak. I fucked this training up so badly. How could I let so many die? When I've already, I've already done that, so many…

"I can't believe he took us all out without even using Death," Hagakure whispered, her voice indicating the frown over her invisible face matching most of her classmates' expressions. It sounded less like she was impressed and more aggravated over the fact that he took them down so easily.

"Not all of us," Ojiro corrected, though Hagakure turned to see him looking similarly to her. Even though Imino distracted him, it was the same for everyone else caught in that smoke field. Ojiro lifted his frown a slight bit while mentioning, "He had to use it on Sero. Hope he wakes up soon," he added afterwards, lowering his frown again but then with a more thoughtful look on his face. I can't be upset Zach didn't use Death on me and also upset that he knocked Sero out for this long by using it. He said it wouldn't be days but hours, though he couldn't say how many. Why not? I figure he's had the experience to be able to tell how long his attack would last with the amount of Death he used. It must depend then on the person he uses it on. Sero's strong, a hero, it'll probably be... less, than Zach's expectations. I think...

"We can set up the relay race around U.A.'s ice fortress here, unless, Todoroki would you like to melt this first? It does not look especially structurally sound…" Muoko was calling out near the front of the main pack of students, though the group had split up a lot to have more U.A.'s and Shiketsus spread apart around the forest's eastern edge. A few of them had split off on their own and were still simmering after their loss, with Kirishima sitting on the base of a broken tree trunk and glaring back into the forest to wait for Zach to get up there.

Yaoyorozu glanced over to see the back of Kirishima's head as he focused into the woods towards Zach. She rose her gaze up over his spiky red hair for a second too and wondered while staring out there, Why didn't he attack me as well? He took Uraraka and Mineta and ran. Why leave me behind? Did he know what I had planned to use against him? Or does he just consider me a threat and did not want to risk an attack when he already had two? Or, did he just not want to face me? Why not? I need to talk to you. None of us really have since… It hasn't been enough time to really process everything. But, I think you really will keep to the truth now. At least to the six of us who know. You have to. I promised myself I wouldn't give up on you again, not after coming so close at the fair, but it's like it's not even on your mind. Everything we talked about, everything happening right now, you can't just push it all away. But, you do, don't you?

"Come now!" Iida yelled out louder at everyone after Muoko had finished explaining only to a very small reaction from the other students. "The teachers are watching, and they expect us to complete these activities under our own supervision! Split up into teams of four with two Shiketsu students and two from U.A. I will accept no less than 8 teams in order to have a proper bracket!"

No less than 8? Midoriya thought, hearing that even as he stood off by himself with a frustrated look covering his face. He glanced back in the direction of the classes who started talking more as they needed to split up into groups together. 8 teams meant that 16 U.A. students had to take part, and with Uraraka still off in the forest and Sero unconscious and out with the school nurses, all of them except for one person was going to be taking part in the activity. Midoriya started back towards the rest of the students and he returned a more friendly and calm look to his face, but it was impossible for him to focus much with so many thoughts rushing through his head.

I need to learn from what I did wrong here. Midoriya thought back not 30 minutes to the end of the fight that he had failed his teammates in. Zach showed me he had that voice changer, when he pretended to be me earlier and interfered with our communications. He had just captured several of my comrades, meaning that of course he was going to have one of the earpieces from the new set! I didn't even think about it. It didn't cross my mind, because he made such a convincing Jirou. He got me to move my absolute fastest by making it seem like he was about to throw her in jail, and then it was me who became the final target.

"Midoriya!"

"Wait no I want Midoriya-"

"Are we allowed to use our Quirks for this one too?"

"Definitely."

"I think we're all in agreement for that, right?"

"It's a relay race, so as long as Midoriya's paired up with short stuff there I'm not too worried-"

"Hey!"

I was overconfident. I thought that none of them could stop me, Todoroki, or Bakugo unless it was Zach. I even got past Inasa just like I thought I would. As strong as he was, he couldn't stop me on his own, and yet he was the one who threw me in jail! It was the force he pushed on my back that sent me flying into that jail cell. Zach and Dendo together assisted, but Zach didn't face me one-on-one. He didn't want to. He didn't want to show off his real moves for when the time comes that we have to fight! Will that time really come though? Midoriya's teammates for the relay race noticed that he barely seemed to be paying them any attention. None of them mentioned anything though to their green-haired teammate whose head nods did not fool anyone into thinking he was focused on this activity in the least.

Zach was willing to let us arrest him the other day. He would have let it happen. Sure, he might have fought against the accusations, in order to keep what he believes as Death to remain that way… Why is it so important to me that I am able to beat him? Why is it, that I feel like I can't be a symbol of anything as long as Zach's, as long as he's… Midoriya could not place it, how he wanted to end that line in his head. He was at a loss for an explanation as to how he was feeling right then, but it was not a pleasant feeling that swirled in his gut and made him shift a glance back towards the thicker part of the forest.

Dendo, Inasa, and Uraraka came back out of the forest while Midoriya was glancing that way. Others looked over too, and Yaoyorozu called over the shorter girl who just saved the activity as neither Bakugo nor Kirishima were being very cooperative at the moment. Uraraka jogged past Kirishima who stood and frowned at Dendo coming his way. "Where's Zach?" Kirishima asked, his voice low as he darted a look past a rival of his from a different hero school.

Dendo replied casually though without the same aggressiveness in his voice, "Gathering his equipment from around the dome. He left a lot of cameras and jammers laying around."

Kirishima darted an angry look back at Dendo, then to the forest, then he spun when Dendo seemed to be about to walk right past him. "And what was with our fight earlier?" Kirishima growled. Dendo turned to face him from a couple of feet away, and Dendo frowned himself as he had been the one to lose that fight. Kirishima saw Dendo give him that look of his own frustration at his loss, which only pissed Kirishima off more, "If you really wanted to beat me then you should have come yourself. You really think your soul split, whatever fraction of your strength you attacked with would be enough?!"

I had thought so, Dendo thought, frowning more though as Kirishima was right and he knew he had to go all out to beat strong people like Kirishima. "I'd have been happy to fight you, but it wasn't in the plan."

"Zach's plan?" Kirishima corrected. Rather than it being 'the' plan, Kirishima wanted to hear Dendo say exactly who had come up with it. "And you were happy letting him decide how you'd beat us? That was fine with all of you-"

"He's a Shiketsu student," Dendo retorted to Kirishima's face. "Why wouldn't it be fine?" Kirishima hesitated, his body tensing up more in frustration at the answer that actually sounded mature when he was looking for something more emotional as a response there. "He made the best plan. We thought we could win if we followed his lead." Dendo smirked at Kirishima and then turned to head off to watch the relay race even if he was not going to be a part of it. "And we were right. You lost. Get over it."

Kirishima spun his head and his teeth clenched down so hard as it sounded like Dendo was calling him a sore loser. It's not about losing to you! It's about- he's not a Shiketsu- He's Zach! He's, supposed to be our…

Over at the starting line for the race, Mineta stood with his two Shiketsu teammates as they argued over what their order was going to be. They were leaving Midoriya as their team's anchor, obviously, but they needed to decide who would go first, second, and third for the run around Class A's entire lawn area near their damaged but standing base. Reika and Kotsumura both frowned down at the short boy who just gave his argument for why he should go first, which they had said would mean the person second fastest on their team. "Your Pop Offs are going to get stuck on the floor on the run around though," Kotsumura said to the short boy with a small frown at him as he tried to come up with a reason not to accept Mineta was faster than him.

"Sure," Mineta said, but he replied in a lower voice and then cupped his hands to his mouth too. "But I'll wait to start throwing any until after I round the first turn. The others will have pulled ahead already, and they won't see where I toss them down over there. You guys be on the lookout for them. No way!" Mineta suddenly rose his voice and put his hands up to his head which made the Shiketsu pair stare at him in confusion. "I threw too many during the fight! If I rip anymore off my eyes are going to bleed!"

Kotsumura held back a grin as he realized what the shorter boy was doing by raising his voice like that. "Whatever, let's just keep the order and run as fast as we can."

"No one ever said anything about messing with the other teams," Reika admitted, and she looked over towards U.A.'s base that was dripping water all over. The ground was soaked around the building, and the right corner of Reika's lips curled up into a hidden smirk.

Imino stared over towards two of his classmates and the bad influence of a U.A. student talking to them. Himazuri looked that direction too when she heard Mineta's voice raise, and she read Kotsumura's thoughts to figure out what they were really doing. Two more teams were let in on their team's plans, and new plans were made between the relay racers.

Almost all of the U.A. students were focused on the relay race as it was getting started, and even Kirishima had gone over to where the Shiketsu students not taking part were standing. He was still frowning but hated the idea of being considered a sore loser by just sitting on a tree stump and pouting through their afternoon events. He glanced around though as he looked for one of his own classmates he could stand with and talk to, but his good friend who also was not taking part in the race was nowhere around them anymore. Kirishima turned his head and glanced back towards the forest, Bakugo?

The teachers of U.A. and Shiketsu were back up in the spectators' booth with the exception of the two nurses who had left with Sero. Zach told them there was not much they could do for him, but they had to bring him to the infirmary anyway to give him a bed to rest on until he woke up. "Looks like someone's looking for trouble," Kimona mentioned while watching Bakugo heading into the woods with his eyes darting about.

"I say good luck on finding it," Midnight replied with a small chuckle. They had lost sight of Sazaki themselves up in the booth, and it was clear that he had located a blind spot in their cameras intentionally this time. Midnight's chuckle did not last and she lowered her lips down as she saw Sazaki's thoughtful and frustrated expression even when they were still watching. As soon as the others could not see him, he dropped the act. And yet if he is hiding from us too, then was there another act still up? A mask of calm, perhaps. What is he doing down there?

Where is he? Bakugo's eyes were dark as he marched through the woods. That bastard. He knew what he was doing from the start. He had us doing fucking circles around him! That's not how this ends. That's not how I lose here!

The students of U.A. and Shiketsu were lining up for their relay race. The mood had not risen from the end of the battle though, and despite splitting the teams with Shiketsus and U.A.'s, it did not really relieve the tension between them much at all. Kotsumura and Reika noticed even Mineta stopped talking to them after their initial plan, instead talking to the closest team at their side and his two U.A. friends in it. All three of them were frowning as they discussed their dashed hopes for how the training should have went.

Kotsumura Keiji wondered why Midoriya was not taking part in their conversation too, but the blond just got an anxious look on his face as he turned a bit and caught the extremely serious and frustrated expression on Deku's face. His eyes scanned from that serious teen back around, and Reika said in a low but not that quiet voice, "No one's cooling off. They're all so frustrated. Not that I'm not," she muttered at the end, and she glared around but did not see Bakugo anywhere. It was child's play for him.

"What do you expect?" Sato wondered, glancing to the blonde girl on Mineta's team who frowned right back at him. Sato ground his teeth more at her frown and then just said in a low, dark voice, "There're no more of these, so it's just ending like that? That's the final one?" Sato said it sounding even more frustrated at the idea that they would never have the chance to go back and try again.

Kotsumura rolled his eyes partially at Sato while turning away towards Muoko and Iida calling out about the rules. "What?" Sato grumbled at the blond boy who just gave him that look. Kotsumura tensed as he did not think he made it that obvious that he wasn't really taking Sato seriously.

Subara glanced at Kotsumura who turned back with a low frown at Sato, then glanced over towards the forest behind them. Subara and Hanodo saw Kotsumura's gaze and they each frowned themselves next to Sato and Shoji. "Well, as hard as you all look to be taking this," Subara started, looking towards the woods herself where Kotsumura was looking. "Zach's probably taking it worse after being the one to suggest that whole 'we get caught, we die' idea."

"I liked the plan," Hanodo admitted. "And I think it worked out, the best it really could have. Stopping Deku from picking us off would have been impossible."

"Sure he sees it that way," Reika retorted sarcastically with a scoff at the bulky but short guy in her class.

Midoriya turned his head and stared at the Shiketsus with his eyes big and darting back towards the woods himself. They think, Zach's, taking this hard? He was smiling- After the fight, was everything since the fight ended- everything until he split off from everyone! Was he just holding it back… "the one to suggest that whole 'we get caught, we die' idea." Then, was he really taking this seriously after all? Was that the best he had- why did I immediately assume he went easy on us? Why do I always think he's so much better- than I am?

Mineta had his eyes locked back on the woods where he imagined Zach punching trees or something in frustration. "At first I did not believe in myself very much. Yet people followed me. They saw the things I was doing, and they followed me and everything I did. Whether I killed villains or let them live and had them arrested, they followed. I didn't trust easily, so the people who followed me into war, who obeyed my orders and rushed into fights to the death, I was amazed by how much they trusted me." Mineta's eyes shifted back to the four Shiketsus closest to him. He looked at the people who Zach had led into this fight, who had come up with both their mentality going into it and their battle strategy. They accepted the idea that getting caught meant dying, and they were still fine with Zach being the one to lead them? They've only known him for a month, month and a half barely!

The shortest boy in U.A. was shocked by it, and he had to spin around quickly and start running as his teammates yelled at him to get moving. Mineta sprinted forward and reached up for his head before flinching as he remembered he had come up with a plan beforehand. He winced intentionally and lowered his hands like he remembered his Pop-Offs hurt too much at the moment to pull any more off. His mind tried to focus on the activity at hand, but all he could think of was Zach's voice as he explained to them on Inazuma Island how he had gained his confidence as a leader. "They died for me. For what I thought was right. And I believed in them, because they were the best people in the world. And I've been to every country, but those people who followed me were the best anywhere."

That's crazy! There was so much thrust at us that night that I didn't really think about that, but he's, he's a leader! A general of an army! An army! "They really were all, so amazing. I believed in all of them, and they believed in me. So I started believing in myself more. I trusted my own judgement more. As heroes joined me and fought by my sides, as more and more amazing people entered into my ranks to fight solely for what I thought was right, I became more assured of myself. I gained confidence in my decisions as a leader, even when I failed and people died, because others continued to follow me despite my failures. They accepted our losses, and they learned from them with me. Yet they still believed in me as the leader. No matter how many of them died, or how much we lost, or even when I broke my own rules and went too far when I shouldn't have… They believed in my decisions."

Even after they lost Imino, Mineta started throwing his Pop-Offs after rounding a corner where no one could see him anymore. He had to catch up to the others ahead of him as he was in the back of the pack, and he jumped up to bounce off his stepping balls while throwing more. Even though by following him they lost a comrade and friend for such a long time, and they imagined we had just killed him! If they had really thought that, and they still followed more of his orders afterwards?! If I was Zach I wouldn't have been able to keep giving out orders if I had just gotten someone killed- could I have? Could I have to, as a hero? Man, that's way too much pressure… Oh shit.

They didn't actually die! Zach stood in a blind spot of the cameras with his forehead pressed against a tree in front of him, his eyes clenched furiously and his hands gripping the sides of the tree so hard they dug through the bark. No one died! I didn't lose anyone today! It wasn't real- but it could have been! If it was real then I just- BUT IT WASN'T! BUT IT COULD HAVE BEEN! Zach's hands pushed farther into the tree he was gripping, splinters breaking off between his fingers and his hands getting closer together. His eyes shut harder as he groaned from the back of his throat. It has to be real though! If it's not real- IT IS! I'm preparing for fights against villains who will kill them! I could definitely be leading these same people against the League of Villains! It's going to be war! A REAL WAR AGAIN! That's what this is in preparation for. It was real. Then I just lost- but they're not really- If they didn't really die then this isn't a real preparation which means that what I'm doing here in Japan doesn't really matter. It means that I know that this isn't really a war going on here, but a few remaining villains that I'm just pretending are as big a threat- Kaminari is though! Shigaraki is a monster and will destroy the world if he has the chance! Just like All For One- WHO MIGHT NOT EVEN BE IN JAPAN!

Zach's hands curled into fists that turned splintered bark into shreds, his eyes clenching harder and his head pushing farther into the tree in front of him. "Rrrgggggggrrr," his growl of frustration and pain turned into a snarl of anger at the thought of the man who destroyed Camino Ward. He's out there right now looking for a World Destroyer to steal, and I'm worrying about the results of a fucking training session with heroes?! None of them are going to go to an actual war. They'll fight life and death battles for sure, but I don't need to be this worried that letting them die here means they'll die for real in the war- because they won't be going to war! BUT I'LL LOSE THEM ANYWAY! JUST LIKE I LOST EVERYBODY ELS- STOP! Zach cut his thoughts and he pulled his hands back from the tree a bit only to slam them back forward towards each other, gripping into the wood and twisting his forehead into the trunk. The feeling of losing comrades is bringing back the memory of losing comrades. The feeling associated with those memories is all I can feel right now. That I know what that feeling is associated with, is the feeling of losing everybody. All my comrades in Terra- Stop that. No one's listening. No one's watching. Ha, don't pretend. You know it, as much as Zach does, it's not for them…

"Oi."

Zach lifted his head and opened his eyes. He turned his head to the side while lowering his arms from the tree. "Hey," Zach replied, looking over at Bakugo who said that from a distance off but close enough that Zach scolded himself internally for not noticing him first.

"You're the one who beat us," Bakugo growled. He growled it angrily because of how he saw Zach looking as he just stepped out. "So what the fuck are you doing?"

"It wasn't how I wanted to win," Zach replied, his voice low and the truth coming out of his mouth. "I'm sure it wasn't how you wanted to lose either. Not that you ever want to lose-"

"Shut it," Bakugo snapped. He ground his teeth after Zach did shut his mouth, then he grumbled frustratedly, "How did you- I knew you were-"

"The trap?" Zach wondered. He continued without waiting for Bakugo to confirm it. "I knew you wouldn't just follow flashes or sounds, so I really was there. So you could follow the wisps of darkness after me too." Bakugo wanted to growl something at him about telling Zach to shut up for assuming to know what he wanted to know, but Zach was right in his assumption and so the spiky-haired blond kept his mouth shut for the moment. "I did have it in part set up beforehand too though. The voice recordings, where I placed them and the equipment for making flashes and noises around me in the woods to distract you from my exact position. And killing the woods closest to the cave-"

"They were still dying when I got there," Bakugo growled back.

"A few of them," Zach answered as Bakugo was partially calling him out but also asking how Zach managed that if it was true. "The ones closest to the cave were already dead, but the ones between the dead ones and the rest of the forest were just killed as you chased behind me. It seemed like I had just killed them all the way up to the cave's mouth because of the wind the two of us caused by rushing over there. Those dead trees with leaves barely hanging on and twigs about to be cracked, just us moving around quickly below them made them creak and crack, which gave off the impression that they had just been killed and that was a natural effect of them getting hit by my Quirk. As would be clear, because the ones that were just killed and that you saw darkening were making those same noises, but also because of our movements around them and not actually because of them dying."

Bakugo ground his teeth at the logic in what Zach was saying. The misdirection so thought-out that Zach had planned it before even drawing Bakugo in, before placing any of the cameras or killing any of the trees. And I walked right into it. "And when did you leave?" Bakugo questioned, still angry but more just wondering this time when he had missed Zach's movement away from him.

"I was on the other side of a dead tree when you shot towards the cave and up it. You were so focused on the idea that I was going to attack you at that moment that you didn't catch me slipping away." Zach finished and then added, "Admittedly, not the way I wanted to fight you either. But I needed to get you out of the way for a little, and I was hoping the trap would make you sloppier than it did."

"Sloppy as in attacking you when you were with those other three?" Bakugo asked, as he remembered Zach's daring look that was a double bluff trying to draw him in. "That wouldn't have been-"

"But it was what I wanted," Zach replied, as Bakugo was going to say how even if he had attacked at that moment it would not have gone as Zach thought. Deku was even there with him, and as he thought about it he frowned deeper, If we had attacked at that moment, we would have gotten all four of them! "Maybe you could have taken all four of us. It would have been a good fight, at least. We'll never know now though," Zach finished, shrugging a shoulder at Bakugo who grunted and looked away with a pissed look at that truth.

Bakugo's eyes then shifted around the area, scanning for any cameras only to stop when he saw Zach give him a look and a tiny shake of his head. "How about it then?" Bakugo started, the right corner of his lip starting to curve up.

He can't be serious. Even if we are in a blind spot, the two of us fighting would definitely expand out of this one spot. He's serious. Bakugo's a lot like Rappa- Snoggro. His name was Snoggro, and he died in the Battle of the 6 Armies. Bakugo doesn't know a thing. What am I thinking about? He just challenged me. I- I really want to say yes. "I want to," Zach replied, but he shook his head at Bakugo with a look denying what Bakugo just said. Bakugo humphed and turned around, as he was second guessing it himself already but had been unable to hold it back.

"Sure you do," Bakugo said as Zach had walked towards him and then at his side as Bakugo started walking back too, a pissed look on his face but not necessarily all aimed at Zach.

Zach shifted his eyes to the side and then back forward, and the left corner of his lips farther from Bakugo rose up a small bit. I thought he was more against me. I think, it's one of two things. Either he's doing this to help with the investigation with Lemillion, which seems unlikely. Or I've misread more than I thought. Bakugo's the kind of guy who would hate the fact that I got back all I sacrificed in the forest. But, I think as long as I don't get let back into U.A. he doesn't really have much of a problem. He definitely wasn't going to let me back. Even if Principal Nezu and the others would have, which they wouldn't. Whatever. This is the best it'd get with Bakugo anyway. "I do," Zach finally replied to Bakugo after a few seconds of thinking there. "I love fighting. Strong opponents more than anything."

Bakugo gave Zach a strange look at what he was saying. He frowned after a second more though as he thought back, imagining Zach in the first Sports Festival up against Hitoshi Shinso. The look on his face after he took that brainwasher out with a single great blow appeared in Bakugo's head. And again in the next Sports Festival, before the attack had started, he remembered that second stage in a moment when he had looked the direction of several of his opposing teams. He thought about the grin over Zach's face as he used only his weapons and fought against several of their classmates at once, and the look he had as he defeated Shoji too. Bakugo humphed after a moment of thinking about it, accepting that maybe Zach was telling the truth there. "The last time I really had a good fight was a few weeks ago, when I fought the Subspace Devils," Zach continued with Bakugo looking at him in surprise at what he was saying. "Man I enjoyed that," Zach admitted.

"What are you talking about?" Bakugo grumbled, a look like he was telling Zach to shut up about it and yet a tone in his voice actually wondering where he was getting with this.

"I didn't expect to like it so much," Zach replied. "But I was able to let loose and really fight again. After so long at war, fighting battles much bigger than that one, against thousands of enemies and… it was exciting."

Bakugo rolled his eyes and looked forward in a more annoyed way again. "Yeah, war," he muttered in annoyance.

Zach glanced to his side at his former classmate. He wondered if Bakugo even knew why he had come out in the forest in the first place if he was so quick to accept Zach's denial to fight him. He probably only asked me because he wondered why he had come out there in the first place if not to do just that. I'm glad you did though. "I'm serious," Zach said, making Bakugo shift his annoyed eyes to the side again only to see Zach giving him a serious look back like he wanted Bakugo to stop doubting what he was saying. "My whole life moved so fast, and so much happened because of that. In a single week I crossed an entire world and took down forces that were so powerful and influential, and I left an impact I could see months later in retrospect that I established the foundation of when I was there."

Is he talking about the Army of Death? Does he think I'd assume that and is telling me anyway? The fuck does he think he's doing? Bakugo gave Zach a semi-confused look, but he also could not tell him to shut up as this was something he was supposed to be finding out about. The idea of that made him get more frustrated though, Does he know I can't tell him to shut up because I'm working with Lemillion? Smug asshole-

"Those giant battles with massive consequences, they became the norm for me. Life and death fights, became the only fights I was in, and now all other fights where I know my enemies cannot beat me just become more training exercises-"

"You knew we couldn't beat you-"

"I didn't say that," Zach countered right back as Bakugo just got real pissed there. "And that's why I made this feel like a life or death fight too. It was weird, to have a fight that would actually be good but not have any real consequences. That's why I treated it like losing any of my classmates in this fight was like I was letting them get killed. Because it was more than just training for me this time," he finished, giving Bakugo a look that told the boy staring at him that Zach had actually taken the fight way more seriously than Bakugo had thought he had. "I really did go all out here today-"

"Now that's some bullshit," Bakugo snapped.

"I don't mean I used as much Death as possible," Zach snapped right back, surprising Bakugo at the tone that matched his own. "I mean," he calmed his voice and said in a slower tone, "I fought as hard as I could as a hero out there. It was still training after all, as serious as it was for me. We all needed to beat each other."

"You didn't beat me-" Bakugo cut himself off and he turned away with a 'ch' he made between his teeth. "Shut up," he growled afterwards as he expected Zach to mention how he technically had or something. That's why I want to fight you right now.

"I don't feel like I did either," Zach admitted after a couple of seconds. He paused and turned his head as he heard a couple of cheers. They were quiet, and the classes did not sound too excited but there were some people cheering as the first team of four finished the relay race. He just turned back to Bakugo after glancing away though, and he said, "It would have been more fun if we actually had fought. Using everything we had, like that battle against the Subspace Devils that made me feel something like that again. The same feeling I had at war, a strange feeling, that I don't really know what it is."

Bakugo looked to his side at Zach and wondered, Is he bullshitting me? Why's he talking about this right now? Why's he even talking to me? Why am I talking to him, when all of this is probably just… It doesn't feel like it. But he's that good at lying. He already tricked me once today, am I going to fall for his shit twice in one day? What would be the fucking point of telling me any of this though? I'm sure, whatever the point is it's something only he knows.

I just want to talk to you, Bakugo. If I bring it up though you'll just doubt everything I say even more. It's fucking impossible to talk to you guys. Everyone doubts me so much. Trust is such an easy thing to destroy forever. It's hard to earn in the first place, but once you've lost it you can never get it back. Damn it. I want to try though. I have to. It's, it's why I'm here isn't it? Zach glanced back at Bakugo, and Bakugo's eyes opened just a bit wider at the look of hesitation and confusion on Zach's face that he felt probably matched his own right there.

"The thrill of an intense fight?" Zach wondered at his old classmate. "The fear that I could die leaving behind so much unfinished business? Or something else?" Zach turned his head back forward and said in a low voice, "Terra changed me. As much as I enjoyed fighting before, I liked fighting a lot more in controlled settings with friends than against my enemies. But, the people in Terra were warriors." The way Zach said the word 'warriors' sounded so strange to Bakugo who felt like he knew Zach was making all this up.

"Warriors?" Bakugo muttered as he felt like Zach had a tone of respect in his voice for the word.

"From childhood they were trained in combat. They used their Quirks as weapons, and they were savage and cruel towards each other. They killed each other by the thousand in wars that ravaged the world, and yet despite how dark that might seem to us, in that world people lived happy lives too." Zach shook his head and continued with a half-smile, "Those wars going on were the normal for them, and they all lived their lives to the fullest despite that darkness surrounding them. Despite towns and cities getting raided and burned, mass rape and murder and enslavement of other races… it was horrible." Zach's smile was gone, but he continued while frowning now, "I tried to bring the light from our world, a world run by heroes, into that other darker world."

"You know, I don't believe any of this?" Bakugo started to Zach. He said it in a wondering tone as to why Zach would keep saying all this to him despite having to know that Bakugo knew the truth already. "I'm not like the rest of them. I knew from the fucking start you were Death, and that you got the next Death to tell people they were getting brought back so no one would think it was you anymore."

Zach shrugged his shoulders, and Bakugo's eyes opened wide with them shaking at Zach's uncaring shrug. "Doesn't really matter what you think, long as you don't have any proof," Zach said it and gave Bakugo a look that made Bakugo's heart race. The right corner of Zach's lips was lifted, as if daring Bakugo to find that proof, because then the two of them really could have that fight that he and Bakugo both wanted anyway.

It took a second, but then Bakugo's eyes narrowed and his lips twisted up into an insane smirk right back at him. You're a crazy fucker. "Guess you're right. I don't have any proof. So go ahead, make up your bullshit all you want."

"Thank you," Zach replied just as sarcastically back at his old classmate. "I succeeded, in bringing the light to that world. I brought a better way of dealing with enemies than just killing them all." Zach chuckled and lowered his smirk into more of an ironic smile, "I showed people a better way, which surprised me because I was the last person who I thought would be able to do something like that." Bakugo grunted in agreement with that, as bringing a 'light' into any other world did not seem like something Zach would be able to do. "The kind of person I was though," Zach continued. "From our better world but hardened despite it, allowed me to survive Terra when I don't think anyone else would have been able to." Zach shifted his eyes to the side and hesitated for a moment, Though if a single person from here could have, if anyone could have, it would have been you.

Bakugo darted his eyes to the side in a pissed off way, only to freeze and for his steps to stop too as he caught the way Zach was looking at him that gave away his thoughts. Zach continued walking and Bakugo moved too though he was still stuck thinking on the way Zach just gave him that look. "I was tricky enough to face the most ruthless and clever Generals, powerful enough to take on their strongest warriors, and I could adapt. I adapted to fighting like them, because I couldn't always do things the way heroes should. A lot of the time I fought like them, and as much as I brought Earth's ways to that world, I probably came back with some of their values too. Because those people only knew war. They were raised on the morals of war, and many of them loved fighting. It was what they were good at. Killing too." Zach admitted that almost like he was tacking it on, and Bakugo gave him a much more confused look that he would admit even something like that. He frowned deeper at Zach too, but despite knowing that Zach saw it, the black haired boy did not stop himself, "Some of my comrades were just natural killers, but they were willing to stop killing as much and to only fight for the side of good. Yet, those warriors who were so good at fighting got that good because they loved it."

Zach gave a look back at Bakugo knowing he knew what he was talking about. "Because they spent all their time training and working out and using their skills to become the best of the best. They all wanted to be the strongest. And, I thought about how when I was younger I trained nonstop in martial arts. I trained with Dabi using weapons, my grappling gun and knives, and I taught myself to use Death to get even stronger."

"That's what everyone does," Bakugo growled, getting pissed by the way Zach was speaking like he had such a unique fucking story.

"No, a lot of people are fine not being the best," Zach countered right back, denying Bakugo and suggesting that Bakugo was one of the few who actually felt that way. The way Zach said it made it out like he was reminding Bakugo that he just happened to always be surrounded by people who also felt like that, other top heroes and hero recruits going for the top. Bakugo grumbled under his breath as he reminded himself that he purposely surrounded himself by those people in the first place. Zach continued after Bakugo did not try to counter that a second time, "I trained hard to master the powers I discovered, and to incorporate my weapon use into my fighting style. All those weapons I use, I use them because I knew from before I had good control over Death how I could fight strong people even without my Quirk, and when my Quirk runs out I can still fight because of all that tech. I learned how to fight in a hundred fighting styles because I needed to. And it was challenging. And sometimes I would lose, showing me the faults in my styles that almost got me killed, or that got my comrades killed like I did today, and I would correct my mistakes."

Like you did today? Fuck. You definitely didn't see me beforehand. That expression, what you were doing out there, it wasn't for me. How much is deception and how much is just you struggling? I can't fucking tell. I knew what you said out on that trail was real. Some of it at least. Pissed me off that it was really you coming back. Still pisses me the fuck off that you think you can come talk to me after all that. If you give me something I can use to get our fight I'll use it though. You know that, don't you? If not, then say something that will… Yeah, say something. Give it away. Like he would, Bakugo thought sarcastically at himself. He's got lying mastered, and he knows how to find the loopholes to say all this shit while- damn it, his fucking story was the only way he could admit all this shit and still somehow not be admitting anything. I hate the way you do it, but it's fucking smart.

"…I made myself more and more powerful, and I learned more and more techniques, and I could fight against an army of warriors by myself and still not despair because I believed myself to be the best." Zach turned and stared straight into Bakugo's eyes with an intense look and his face not looking like it did as Zach's anymore. "I became a warrior." He said it and for a second Bakugo felt like he was staring at a completely different person. "A soldier. A commander." The two of them stopped, not far from the area their other classmates were in now, but far enough that Zach knew he was still out of Imino's range at least. "I learned the tactics and strategies of war, and I implement them into my every day life because life is kind of like a war. We're all struggling against our own problems, and we come up to life and death fights often, and that was what the fight with the Subspace Devils was like."

"The reason I think I enjoyed that fight so much," Zach started, saying it seriously while facing Bakugo with the two of them just standing there in the forest together. "It's because I'm still that person too. As much as when I talked to you, Midoriya, and Todoroki in that national park, I told you that I was still Zach and that was difficult for me, that doesn't mean that when I realized it that I stopped being the other person either. I am everyone I've ever been." Zach said that intensely and locked his eyes on Bakugo's red ones that stared straight back and searched Zach's eyes for any sign that he was fucking with him here. Bakugo did not see it though, and he felt an odd clenching feeling in his stomach at the way Zach was looking at him like he wanted to much for Bakugo to just believe what he was saying here as truth. "All those experiences bundled into one. And I know that at different points in my life I had totally different mindsets and goals, but even if my aspirations change I'm still myself. And the one who bonded with his fellow soldiers who explained to him why the battle was fun, why they enjoyed it, and the one who tried to enjoy it like them and became one of them, is the same as the person I am now."

Zach shook his head and then said while locking his eyes back on Bakugo's. "Sometimes when you go undercover you have to go in deep, so deep that it's a shock when you get out because you still feel like the person you were undercover. But for me it's the opposite. I wanted to make my cover perfect, so it went beyond acting. I didn't just act like the person I infiltrated as, I convinced myself that I was that person and became that person."

"You-" Bakugo started, but he stopped himself and grimaced harder as he was about to respond to what Zach was saying like it was all truth.

Zach continued fast as Bakugo cut himself off. "I became an Italian mobster for a few days," Zach said it quickly and did not stop while Bakugo looked at him in sudden confusion and surprise. Zach said it so casually that Bakugo was wondering what he was even talking about, only for Zach to continued, "I wanted to stop the crime lords in Italy from hurting anyone else, but if I removed them altogether then I would have just made even bigger problems in the long run. But in order to get them to understand me and to be able to change them from inside, I needed to understand them first. So I decided to care about the things they care about and think like they think, and I turned the mob legitimate in a way that the families respected because I did it as an Italian mobster." Bakugo's eyes were wide and just staring at Zach in complete confusion as he admitted all of this without stopping like he did not care what he was saying.

It doesn't matter. Midoriya figured out even more already, before he even figured out the truth on Inazuma. It's not enough proof, and Bakugo would find out himself anyway- if Midoriya said anything about it. Zach convinced himself it was fine in a sudden nervous pause at the look on Bakugo's face, but then he just continued strongly, "I went in heavy-handed, but I made sure they knew it was their choice. I laid the choices out before them, and I let them change themselves with me just there as a friendly moderator for it all." His voice lowered and he said in a darker voice, "I couldn't trust them keeping to their word once I was gone, so I got in touch with a hero and had him take my place." Zach paused again, and then he finished in a low voice, "I wanted to leave things better than I found them, and I'm sure I succeeded. But when I was there with the mobs, the ones I didn't have to shut down at least, I wanted to be their friend. To get them to see I was right, by relating with them and getting in close to the Dons, and then not just threaten them but to change things up from the position of power I put myself into."

"How did you do this?" Bakugo asked, trying to make it a growl but sounding more surprised and confused than anything. "And in a couple days-" Bakugo continued, before grinding his teeth as he believed that bit Zach said about being a mobster 'for a few days' at the start.

Zach just continued along the line he was going in instead of changing to answer those questions. "When I was there I knew I was undercover. I knew every word I said, every action I made, I was making to seem like an Italian gangster. And yet when I left, I didn't feel much different. I didn't keep speaking Italian or using gangster mannerisms, but the relationships I made while acting the part still felt real." Zach cracked a small smile and shook his head while saying, "I could probably go back to Italy right now and go join any of the mob families I helped change. Get a job involved in insurance, or loans, or a protection service." He chuckled as he listed off the legitimate businesses he had turned the Dons to focus on. "But," he started again while looking Bakugo intensely in the eyes. "There's no reason to head to Italy though, as Italy has the third lowest villain rates of any country in the world. I think the mob's doing a good job of keeping other villains from arising into a space they already fill. That was why it was better using them for that than getting rid of them altogether."

Zach finished and he panted for a few seconds while staring into Bakugo's eyes. He didn't say anything else, and he just watched his former classmate watch him back. Bakugo's mouth opened, and the teen his height staring him back in the eyes questioned in a dark voice, "Why would you tell me all of that?"

"Because," Zach replied without hesitating. "I think you would understand it. I don't know why, but the idea that I'm still a warrior from that world is the same as feeling like an Italian mafioso still. And, I just wanted to tell you something that's true. Something you could check on and see is true. Something I did as the vigilante Zach Sazaki. Something real. And it was real, Bakugo. Everything I just said."

He thinks we all just think of him as a liar now. Every face he makes. Every word out of his mouth. I doubt every fucking thing he says at least. I don't know about everyone else. Bakugo's eyes narrowed at Zach, then he turned away and headed back towards their classes. "Whatever," he muttered, annoyed at the response he received from his question, and annoyed that he had asked a question like that in the first place. I could check it. It's all going to be as he said though, if that's what he told me. He could just be saying that to get me to trust him again. And he knows that that's probably how I'd think, and that's why he's looking at me like that right now. Fuck you though. It should be frustrating. You really think it would be easy?

I can't tell if he believes even a single word of it, Zach watched Bakugo until he was out of sight, then Zach turned and he headed off a different direction instead of going to join all the others. Still have equipment left I should have been gathering up.

Kirishima turned his head and looked at Bakugo when his classmate came out of the woods. He frowned himself at the look on Bakugo's face, and he asked while walking over to him, "You didn't find Zach?" He figured Bakugo was going in there to look for Zach, and Bakugo looked over his shoulder in a way that made Kirishima look over it too to look for Zach. Bakugo's eyes widened for a second, then he grit his teeth in a pissed off way as Zach had vanished without him noticing.

Bakugo looked back forward and after a second muttered, "Nope. Didn't see him." He walked forward past the redhead who frowned at him at what he thought was a lie.

Zach wound up missing all of the afternoon training sessions. He missed all the fun activities, which by the time of the arm wrestling tournament actually started being fun for the students who got into cheering for their friends. He arrived back with the classes right at the end of the arm wrestling "strength" tournament, over thirty minutes after he left Inasa, Dendo, and Uraraka. Everyone was focused on the finals so no one noticed him come over, and everyone was shouting for either Shoji or Hisashi though Zach kept from cheering for either one of them when he arrived.

Mineta nearly jumped out of his shoes when he glanced to the side and saw Zach standing a foot away from him. "Whoa!" Mineta made others around him look over and also get surprised looks on their faces at the sight of Zach there with them.

"Go for it!" Zach called out, his cheer less specific than the others' around him who mostly called out a name with their encouragements.

Is he even on my side? Hisashi wondered, while grinding his sharp teeth and pushing his hairy arm harder into Shoji's very muscular and large one.

Don't lose focus! Shoji pushed harder and his eyes narrowed over his mask as he pushed all his strength into it, his arm pushing Hisashi's back even while the hairy beast of a Shiketsu student pushed harder against him.

Guess it's not the team competition anymore, Porrolo thought while glancing Zach's direction. "Come on Hisashi!" He yelled out, figuring his classmate needed more encouragement the way things were looking. He was still sore from his shitty first round matchup against Shoji too, and he yelled, "Kick his butt!"

"They're arm wrestling," Bibi mumbled next to the spiky-white-haired teen.

"Go Shoji!" Mineta yelled, spinning back and calling it out at the large boy who pushed forward and slammed Hisashi's arm down which caused his opponent to yell out in pain. "HAHAA! Another victory for U.A.!" Mineta called out, pumping a fist in the air in victory.

"Well, you needed a win today," Kotsumura countered over to the shorter boy who frowned back with an 'ehhh?'

"You were gone for quite a while," Ashido mentioned, and Zach looked behind him to his right at the pink girl who came up to his side. She hesitated when he looked at her, but a second later she smiled lightly and her eyes told him that things were alright. Zach was worried about it after not having spoken to her much at all since Inazuma Island. "What took you so long?" She wondered softer, as he had come back looking okay but she wondered about if that was really true.

"There was no rush to grab all my equipment," Zach replied. "I had set it up around the whole dome as soon as our training started much quicker, but I was able to walk around to gather it all up this time."

Bakugo frowned over at Zach who he saw and heard talking under the voices of others talking about going back and setting up camp now. There were a lot of people looking Zach's way besides him, but the mention of Zach's equipment again made him grind his teeth at what had happened in that cave. Despite all Zach had just talked to him about, the thing that still mattered to him more than any of it was the lost fight against his old classmate who was beating himself over his victory. Bakugo knew exactly how that felt though. Even winning the Sports Festival the first year, he had felt the same way in that it did not feel like much of a victory for him. We all went as hard as we could though. He's not pissed at any one of us for fucking it up for him. He's just pissed that he lost. Upset, more like. Damn it, what the fuck was all that shit he said? None of it makes any sense. If he was trying that hard to tell me something "real" then why start off with all that bull about warriors and Terra if you were going to mention the Italian mob too? Is he fucking crazy? Actually crazy?

This time, Bakugo did not think it at Zach with a smile on his face at how crazy and daring Zach was. It wasn't a fun thought that made him smirk afterwards about going after someone crazy strong and crazy smart like that. It just made him frown deeper as he looked at Zach in between several of his Class A classmates talking so casually. The sight of that made him get a darker look on his face again though, He gave up everything? Yeah right. Look at that asshole. Like nothing ever fucking happened. Bakugo's eyes darkened with a more pissed off look over his face. Don't try making things better with me, Zach. You burned that bridge, and if no one else will, I'm going to make sure that the you who did that still gave up something. FUCK! Even if you are all those 'yous' from every- shit, SHIT! Does he know?! Oh that mother fucker!

"…You scared the crap out of me," Mineta admitted to Zach while walking on his other side as Ashido back towards the middle of the dome. "I thought I actually had you for a second."

"It wold have worked on anyone else," Zach replied to Mineta, an impressed look on his face that surprised the shorter boy next to him when Zach gave him it.

Ashido also looked to the right in surprise at what Zach just said, "What'd you do?"

Zach continued after Ashido's question, "Your Grape Rush made it so I couldn't dodge in any direction when those two Pop-Offs came at me."

"But you just let them hit you anyway- and you beat me because they hit you!" Mineta exclaimed as it was the fact that he bounced off his own Pop-Offs that Zach was able to send him flying so easily.

"No, I just adapted to the fact that I was going to have to be hit by those Pop-Offs one way or another," Zach replied. "So I figured I'd let them hit my fists so I could send you flying with your own attacks. It would work better at making you panic than if they just hit other parts of my body like I was accepting being hit. Instead, I made it seem like I wanted to get hit." Mineta's eyes grew huge at Zach's explanation, as he had thought the whole time that Zach knew he was going to get hit like that from the start and wanted it to happen, wanted Mineta to make those moves, and that had been making him doubt his whole strategy.

"That's why I'm saying it would have worked on pretty much anyone," Zach continued again. "Maybe not Inasa, or Dendo could have possibly Sliced both of the ones coming at him too. Anyone else though and it would have worked."

Mineta grinned and let out a sigh of disappointment even while still smiling. "Yeah, well I didn't really expect to last against you anyway. I was kind of hoping you'd at least have to use Death though."

"No you don't," Ashido started. Mineta looked over at her and Zach glanced left too, and a couple of others right behind them looked to her too wondering what she meant by that. Uraraka shivered though and one of the Shiketsus next to her glanced at the short brunette before opening their eyes wide at the nervous expression Uraraka got on her face. Ashido continued after a second when Zach gave her a look, "I mean, you took Sero out like- like it was already pretty hard just facing you without it, but it was like if you decided to use your Quirk then it was over in an instant! It was crazy unnerving… No offense."

"You only used it on Sero though?" Mineta asked, making sure of something that surprised him about this while also trying not to get Zach feeling bad either about seeming so scary to them. Zach looked back and gave Mineta a smile that made him pause like Zach just read his thoughts, but he continued anyway with what he actually was surprised about, "You didn't need it for Tokoyami?"

Zach reached down and he pulled a small gold piece from his belt that he rose up. A silver blade popped out of the bottom of it looking like it was your average knife, but Zach turned the blade and pointed at a button with his thumb of his right hand. "It's a flash grenade. I'd already taken down Hagakure but no one knew that, so from inside the smoke I made them think I was Hagakure trying to call for help, while I was actually weakening Dark Shadow for an instant long enough for me to knock out Tokoyami."

Tokoyami was looking over out the corners of his eyes and he frowned himself as he had not even known what happened in the smoke back there until just now. Any enemy who knows Dark Shadow's weakness, which is everyone because of the Sports Festivals, means they could all use the same tactic. I need to get stronger at close range fighting without Dark Shadow's help, so Zach can't just take an "instant" to beat me when my power's lower. Same with anyone else…

"So," a voice started behind Zach that made him turn his head to the side and see Kirishima walking behind him. The redhead walked along with a lot of others who acted like they were not just listening to him talk right there though kept watching as Kirishima started to Zach in a harsh tone. "Why didn't you come back for the arm wrestling competition?" Kirishima wondered. "You don't want to show off your full strength or something?" He interrogated in that same harsh tone.

"Haha, that's not it," Kameko was the one responding and Kirishima looked to his side in surprise. He did not expect the teen who had a cracked shell to speak up right there, but Kameko eased everyone up by mentioning, "Zach wouldn't even show us his 'full' strength on our Ranking Day. And he still ranked first in the class while holding back on all of us."

Zach looked away, not seeming to like boasting but also not denying what Kameko just said aloud. "What's Ranking Day?" Hagakure wondered, confused by what Kameko was talking about at all. Kameko looked at her in somewhat surprise, but then he nodded his head as it made sense that she did not know. Since last year the Shiketsus did not get too close to the U.A.'s to discuss their school's inner workings like that. "And what are you ranked?" Hagakure wondered while stepping closer to the boy with the cracked shell who nodded like he was going to tell her.

"Ranking Day's the first day of the semester or one of the first days, where we fight it out to decide our rankings in the class. In the final rankings, Zach got first, Inasa second, then Dendo, Hisashi, then me in fifth."

"And who was sixth?" Hagakure asked, making a bead of sweat roll down Kameko's face as he realized he was going to have to go through their entire class's rankings here.

Midoriya looked back for a second over his shoulder before turning back forward as he almost met Zach's eyes. He frowned at how fast he turned away at the idea of locking eyes with Zach right there, but he hummed to himself as he listened to more of the rankings being listen behind him. The order isn't surprising- not really. I figured Manzo would probably higher though.

Imino's 13th? Kirishima thought in some surprise. "He should be higher," he muttered under his breath.

"Oh wow," Zach said suddenly, looking past Midoriya who rose his head up too and looked to the center area where all their supplies were. Just to the left of that area was a huge cleared out section of the forest, and not far from their bags and costume boxes, and the food and tents for the night, there was a massive stack of wood piled up in a triangular tower. "You guys manage all that in one trip?" Zach wondered back at Uraraka who hesitated while looking at him, wondering if that amazement was real or not.

"Yeah," she replied after a few seconds. "Inasa said he could carry most, so I didn't need to take the weight off that many though…"

"Nonsense!" Inasa called out loudly while stepping forward right next to the short girl who jumped at his booming voice. She turned to the powerful teen with a happy and wide-smiling expression who said, "We couldn't have done it in one trip without you, Uravity!"

"Uh, thank you," Uraraka was kind of put off by his overly excited demeanor, but she smiled after a moment as that was just the kind of guy he was.

"Hmm, mmm, yes yes," Iida looked through the food the teachers had left for them and nodded his head in an approving way at the nutritional value he was seeing. Then he turned and looked into the wide clearing area just past a couple of trees too close to the central area that Zach's Death wind had not spread there. He looked left and right along that area, seeing many tree stumps but a good amount of space on the dirt between them where tents could be pitched. He also looked at the huge pile of logs stacked up nicely along with the smaller piles next to them that he could only see now that he was closer. There were small piles of twigs and kindling Dendo chopped up smaller for easier fire-starters, not that Iida thought they would need them with Todoroki and Bakugo both able to ignite fires anyway.

Muoko came over to Iida and spoke in a low voice, and Tomoki and Yaoyorozu came over to speak as well. What followed was a short argument about how the rest of the night would go, but they came to agreement and then called everyone together for an announcement. "I am sure many of us want to get out of our hero uniforms and into more casual clothes to wear around for the rest of the night. So we'll set up our tents now to give everyone some privacy," Tomoki began.

"As the tents each fit four people comfortably, and there are forty-nine of us here, we will set up twelve tents and one tent will have a fifth person in it," Yaoyorozu continued. "We have decided not to force there to be a Shiketsu to U.A. ratio in the tents, so you can pick your own tent-mates."

"However! We will be doing one large bonfire," Muoko said. "That way we all can sit together and ease the tensions our previous encounters have caused. We must be able to talk with one another, to work with one another, to stop villains together once we have graduated."

"So," Iida started at the end, figuring it would be good for him to speak up too since all the other reps had and they were nearing the end of what they had decided together. "We will now split up into three groups. The first team working on digging a fire pit, building a structure with the wood for a safe fire but also one that will last a long time, and starting said bonfire. The second team will work on setting up the kitchenware we were provided, and cooking the food to make a dinner for the rest of the classes. And the third team will be responsible for pitching the tents far enough from the fire that we do not have to worry about noise from those sitting at it late into the night, as well as close enough as to not be a problem to walk back and forth to-"

"Umm," Hagakure began, throwing her hand up that had a glove on it for everyone to see it. She had already gotten changed too back into clothes, but there was another concern she had. "What about, um, do we have a… I mean-"

"Bathrooms," Muoko muttered, realizing it herself and then realizing that she also needed to relieve herself soon.

"We could build a latrine," Zach suggested. Others looked over to their classmate or former classmate who curled his lip and shrugged a shoulder at the look he received from many of them. "It's not hard. Should take as long as any of those other jobs."

"You've built one before?" Midoriya wondered, glancing towards Zach confusedly at the suggestion.

Zach nodded in response. "It's either that or we walk all the way to the exit and go to an actual bathroom every time. And, I don't know if we're allowed to do that-"

"Then get to building one," Jirou muttered, though her voice came out louder than she expected since no one else had spoken over her and Zach actually stopped instantly as the words started coming from her mouth. She just got more annoyed by that and looked away, not even making eye contact with Zach after what he had done earlier. She just pushed him from her mind when the afternoon activities started, which had been easy since he had gone off somewhere to do whatever. Just go away again, Jirou thought in frustration as she could see him looking her way out the corners of her eyes.

Zach closed his mouth and then looked around and nodded his head, "Sure thing. I could use some help though," he looked to Yaoyorozu who nodded as she understood how she could help him. Then he glanced to Hanodo, "Hanodo, Inasa, and Tokoyami could you help too?" Zach looked over towards the dark boy whose eyes opened a bit in surprise that Zach would ask him. Then he nodded though back at his former classmate without saying anything, while Hanodo and Inasa both agreed too.

"Do it far from camp," Iida began. "Not too far that it is a hassle to reach, but enough that if there becomes a smell from-"

"Yes Iida, we understand," Yaoyorozu said to the taller boy before he could say something disgusting when they were going to eat dinner soon.

Zach looked to Yaoyorozu gratefully for a moment, only to look away as she turned back to him and her eyes shifted the way they looked when they locked with his own. "Alright let's do it. With this team we should get it done quickly."

"Thank you," Hagakure whispered as Zach was walking past her, and he flashed a quick smile to the girl next to him who was really needing that bathroom right now.

"So," Hanodo ran up next to Zach and walked with him as they headed into the clearing and straight across for where it seemed like Zach was heading to build the latrine. "When did you make latrines before? Back when you were in the war in Terra?"

"Yeah, when I was on the run here there was never any need. I could just use whatever forest I was hiding in, buy some toilet paper nearby-" Zach saw Hanodo's eyes suddenly grow wide, but Zach glanced behind him and said, "No need to worry." Hanodo looked back, and he stared at Yaoyorozu who had been overhearing their conversation and nodded her head with a small smile at the Shiketsu boy.

Oh yeah, she could create a bunch of toilet paper to leave in there. "By the way, Momo," Zach started to the girl behind him. Hanodo gave him a strange look and Inasa shifted his gaze to the corner of his eyes though Tokoyami was not surprised to hear Zach say her first name. "Could you start making a few shovels for us?"

So that was your plan? Yaoyorozu wondered, somewhat confused at how Zach came up with this. There were better ways… Oh. "Sure thing, Zach," Yaoyorozu replied with a nod back at him. She looked away and her chest started to glow, and she reached in to grab the handle of the first shovel she was making. Kyoka could easily break apart the ground. After what she said back there though, do you think you cannot ask her for help? Or, do you not want to? I know she went to see you once already. She didn't say she did, but I know that's what she was doing that day when she left so soon after you came back. Yet neither of you mentioned it to me. I wish, you would. Whatever you said though, it did not make her forgive you at all. She is still so, so angry about what you did. You did that to her. And, you know that. I know you know that. So why haven't you done anything about it? I know you can't come to U.A., and- and this might be the first time since… you're going to talk to her tonight then, aren't you?

Yaoyorozu wondered it at Zach's back, but he was talking to Hanodo, Inasa, and Tokoyami now about how they were going to go about building the latrines, plural, once Yaoyorozu had given them their shovels. "Usually we had people with specific Quirks great for building these, though they got pissed they were being put on the same shitty job each time." Zach cracked the joke and bounced his eyebrows to the right at his Shiketsu friends who laughed, though Tokoyami just gave Zach a strange look at the joke as he wondered if it had any truth to it. "It was the same thing with cooking or washing dishes or cleaning the camp, there were always people with specific Quirks that could help out with it, but I'd never force anyone to do the same job over and over if they didn't like it. It wasn't fair and it would lead to my soldiers treating each other differently. They needed to know I was the one deciding jobs so if they had any problems it was all directed at me."

"It was better if they were mad at you than at each other?" Hanodo wondered.

"Definitely," Zach replied. "Because they all trusted me more than anyone else. I was their leader, and I was also the hard-ass who would scold them if they fucked up and the person who would tell them to do better even when they were doing great. I didn't sleep in the same tents as them when they'd sleep in huge ones with dozens of people in them, I had my own private one. I had to separate myself from the rest of them. Well, my lower commanders thought it would be better if I did, and I kind of just accepted that."

"What, you wanted to be part of the group?" Hanodo asked with a crack of a smile as it sounded pretty childish when Zach was talking all this army stuff right here.

"Kind of," Zach admitted. "I was actually disappointed when they gave me a single tent at first. But, I realized the benefits of having it. The benefits of being on my own outweighed how I wouldn't be treated as just another one of 'the guys.' I had to be more than that. I was their leader at that point, which meant that they had to see me as separated from them so that they wouldn't think of me as much as a friend and as more of a general."

Tokoyami stared at Zach with his eyes growing wider and wider at the conversation. Is everything he says related to the Army of Death? Does this all correlate to reality, or is it reality?! I haven't talked to him enough to understand what he's saying. It could all just be part of the lie he's telling. It probably is. If this was how the AoD was actually run then he wouldn't tell people about it, or if it came out how the AoD ran then he would have given it away that he was Death all along! Right?

"Anyway, Tokoyami I don't think you really need a shovel. Momo could make you an umbrella or large reflective tarp to put overhead to make it dark right now, and you could dig out holes quicker than Hanodo and I could…" Zach continued talking to his classmates and old friends, and he stopped to show them that he thought they were at a good place to set up the latrine. They were not as far as some thought Iida wanted them, but Zach told them how the place they were going to set up would not smell bad and the ventilation would point the other way. Not many of them understood it, but none of them were experienced in digging latrines when they all suspected Zach was.

Even Yaoyorozu just listened to what Zach was saying while watching him carefully. While he was on the run I am sure he had to spend many nights hiding in the woods. And while he gained followers but before he had any moving headquarters that I believe he had, he must have camped often. When using motels was too risky, when you were with a group of around twenty just hiding in forests, you probably had nights like these often where you all stayed in tents or cabins and made your own food, built your own latrines- even if it was not the ten thousand man armies you talk about so often, I could translate those stories into reality just fine.

I need to go talk to Jirou. We have to finish all the set up before I can, and I have to get her away from the camp before I do. I doubt she'll actually come to talk with me. I really need to do this though. More than talking to anyone else, I need to fix things with her. I want to.

The Shiketsu and U.A. students worked hard to complete each of their tasks. Tents were pitched all over a cleared area of trees. Some of the largest logs brought over by the group who made the clearing in the first place were placed between tree stumps that made almost a perfect circle-ish area in the clearing. Those logs made what looked like benches between the tree stumps, and the fire group were busy digging a shallow pit in the middle and bringing over wood for the pyre they were building for the bonfire tonight. The latrine group finished their job quicker than anyone else, and Zach left on his own to join the cooking group who were still setting up their kitchen area and had not started cooking yet.

"Oh, and I bet you're a master chef too?" Ashido joked at the boy next to her who just came up at the counter they had set up next to the stove they had Todoroki light. "When did you master that?"

"I lived in the wild for months," Zach replied. "Mostly on my own, or almost by myself," he added while looking the pink girl in the eyes. Ashido looked back at him with an expression showing she was listening, and Zach kept his description vague but also realistic as he talked to the girl he knew also knew the truth. "While I was island hopping across the Pacific I had to clean and cook fish all the time. I spent a lot of time in American forests too early on after I left, and I cooked a good amount of food just like this in a camping environment."

Todoroki frowned over before looking back at the prep table he and one of the Shiketsu students were at getting the food ready. That doesn't sound necessarily like a lie. More likely a truth he throws in somewhere to make the lies seem less false. Show that he has told the truth before- but then stuff like this is unrealistic!

"…once I had that many people, I needed to establish positions for who would cook, who would clean, and I pretty much stopped cooking my own food. I had my own cooks practically until the day I came back, and then in prison again I never had to make my own food-"

"Love how you can bring that up so casually in a conversation," Kotsumura mentioned from down on Zach's right side where he was cutting up vegetables with Porrolo and Koda who both glanced over less assuredly as Kotsumura. "I mean, you were in frickin' Tartaros for God's sake. Treat it like less of a 'oh yeah I was in jail for a while' kind of thing. That's super-max. Worst of the worst."

"Guess that means I'm worst of the worst," Zach said, his eyes lowering down and his expression darkening. Kotsumura's eyes opened wide and the three closest to him all darted looks at the blond. While they all darted him those looks, he was still looking towards Zach, and he saw Zach's eyes lift up along with the corners of his lips for a split second only to drop back down before anyone else frowning at Kotsumura could see him.

Kotsumura's jaw dropped farther at what he just saw Zach do, then he spun back and forth to the people judging him and shook his head. "He's joking! He's totally just messing around."

Ashido turned and looked at Zach wondering if that was true, and Zach lifted his eyes with a sad look that could not hold as Ashido rose an eyebrow at him. He chuckled and she lowered her bottom lip this time as she was the one being tricked here, and Kotsumura called at the back of her head, "See?!"

"Not funny-" Ashido lifted a hand to smack Zach on the shoulder, but she hesitated and her expression lost the carefree look in it as she flinched instead. Zach lost his smile at the way she was suddenly looking at him, and he could imagine what she was hearing in her head right now. There were a dozen things she could have just thought of from the night on Inazuma Island, but whatever it was made Ashido lower her hand down and then turn back to the food she was taking out of boxes that had been left for them.

"I'm going, to go clean these off," Ashido said, picking up more of the vegetables from the box and then turning to head over to their water tank that was back with everyone's things.

Kotsumura opened his mouth while looking back at Zach, a small grin on his face as he considered making a joke about a 'lover's quarrel.' He hesitated himself though as he saw Zach looking down at their station and frowning over what just happened in a darker way. Thought they were really good friends? That was, pretty awkward.

Did something happen? Todoroki's eyes shifted away without his head moving to let Zach know he found what just happened suspicious. Something else happened that night they went to the fair. They, learned something. They must have figured him out. Or did he admit something to them? The look on her face for a moment there. What was it?

"How many times?!" I don't get it. How is he just standing there and talking to us? How is he so alright? Ashido closed her eyes tighter and then opened them to try and focus on what she said she was going over here to do. "How many times was I the sole survivor? How many times did I go in with four others and walk out alone? How many times?" How many people did you have to kill in that Pit? If that were me, I, I never would have gotten over it. I never would have been able to get past- but, does that mean you're just more okay with it to be able to still be like this? Or, or am I even talking to the real Zach? Is it all just more… more what? Bologna? Nonsense?

"Hey Mina," Zach started, and the pink girl bent down in front of the water tank turned her head in surprise as he snuck up on her. "How're, you doing?" Zach wondered when she spun to him like that.

Ashido froze and stared at Zach with her eyes stuck in a wide and shaky position. How am I dealing with everything, you mean? Am I okay after everything we heard or- or are we okay? Like, how are me and you? Ashido smiled and lost her surprised and semi-anxious look. "Mina." She hummed at Zach and started shaking her head, laughing at herself quietly under her breath for a second and then shaking her head faster and lifting a hand she quickly wiped over her eyes with.

Hearing him say her name right there reminded her of the first time he and her had hung out just the two of them since he came back. "I would have been back in a heartbeat, if I heard you were dying," It didn't make sense if you were in some alternate world, but I didn't care then. Because I knew it was the truth when you were saying it. "I never stopped caring about all of you. The 'goodbye' was so you wouldn't come looking, not because I really meant it. We'll always be friends. 'Til the end, okay?" You still are the real Zach. Asking me how I'm doing after all I just heard you went through? You're such a- "I'm doing just fine," Ashido said, and she humphed at Zach who lifted his eyebrows back at the smiling girl who seemed mildly upset or at least like she was pretending to be upset about something.

"What?"

"And how are you doing?" Ashido asked. Zach pulled his head back and stared at Ashido in surprise, and then a laugh slipped out of his lips as the reason Ashido was acting mad was because he asked her first when she should have clearly asked him first. It made her seem like not as good a friend, and Zach smiled brighter at the girl who just by asking it in that way made his response that bit brighter.

"I'm doing…" Zach stopped himself. He lowered his smile a little, and he glanced over his shoulder for a moment before stepping closer to Ashido with a somewhat serious look coming to his face. Ashido gave him a narrowed look as for some reason she thought this was also going to be a joke like what he just did to Kotsumura before. Zach did have something a bit more serious he wanted to say though, and he said in a low voice, "I actually, need your help with something. It's a big favor, and I know you're already-"

"What is it?" Ashido asked, not caring to hear the rest of that sentence.

Zach smiled again at how quickly she was willing to help him out with this. "Thanks. Alright, here's what I need you to do…"

---

In the evening on the night of the joint training, darkness had already fallen over the winter sky outside the dome which meant it was dark inside it too. There was a good chunk of the forest illuminated though from the raging bonfire in the middle of a wide clearing, as well as because of the lights Yaoyorozu had put up in a path to the latrine, as well as around the cooking area and where all the supplies had been earlier. Everyone had already brought their own bags to their tents which were mostly split between U.A. and Shiketsu students, except for three tents. Two of the girls' tents were mixed between schools, and Zach's tent had him, Kotsumura, Porrolo, Mineta, and Sero (who had been brought over by Ectoplasm and left in the tent where they hoped he would wake up in before the night was over).

Zach had mentioned loudly that he was sure he did not hit Sero with enough to take him out for an entire day, but he had needed to attack fast so that Sero could not escape to Midoriya and warn him what was happening, so he had been unable to hold back any more than that. As he was talking about that part of the training in a carefree voice though and like he was talking up Sero's ability to force him into using Death on him, he was internally cursing himself for messing up there too. Sero's mobility had been one of the factors he had taken into account, but he still left Sero for one of the last ones to go after which he now doubted whether it would not have been better to leave Tokoyami or Ojiro for later on.

The sun had set and most of the students were around the fire, though the cooking group was still working hard on making dinner for everyone. Yaoyorozu and a couple of others were setting up tables in the clearing between the first tents and the fire, but some of the students had talked about just eating at their seats closer to the fire anyway. The tents had been picked so the students had been able to get changed out of their hero costumes with some privacy, and everyone was walking around in casual clothing now for the night. The cooks had started up their prep work before the tents were set up, so afterwards they waited for their tent mates to change before heading over one or two at a time to get changed themselves. Jaime looked around though as it had gotten dark and Yaoyorozu was over near them creating more lights for them to keep working with.

"Anyone know where Zach went?" The exchange student wondered, looking over at the boys in her class to see if he told them something.

"Thought he was just changing his uniform," Porrolo replied, though he looked up from the chicken meat he was pulling apart (using latex gloves provided for them) to put into the stew they were having. "Though it has been a bit," Porrolo added.

Yaoyorozu glanced back but then continued with her Creating which was exhausting at this point, though it just made her look forward to the upcoming meal more. She heard Kotsumura behind her though, "I bet he's still upset about earlier. Probably checking out the rest of the dome to see what he could have done better."

"Yeah, that's definitely it," Ashido agreed with Kotsumura with a nod back at the blond who grinned that he was right about that.

Yaoyorozu frowned though and turned her head towards the pink girl whose response sounded off to her. The fact that one of his Shiketsu friends knows him well enough to expect that would not make you respond in a cheerful way, but a frustrated one, if you responded at all. Even if it was what you were thinking, your tone would have been different. You replied like you knew where he was already. Like he told you, maybe? Except, I don't believe you. Maybe he did tell you something though. Yaoyorozu hummed to herself and her eyes shifted from the chefs working around her, over to the fire pit and all the dozens of students near it. Her eyes widened and her head turned the other way, looking back into the thicker forest before shifting her eyes back to Ashido who had a bright and cheerful smile on her face. Upon closer inspection though, Yaoyorozu caught Ashido's eyes shift towards the dense forest too with a hint of anxiety in her eyes as to what was going on in there.

Ashido looked back in front of her and took in a deep breath. Everything will be fine. I'm amazing though. Just, the best friend. And a great distractor!

A few minutes earlier, Ashido had asked Midoriya to help her look for some make-up she had "accidentally" dropped over near the latrine. She said the lights over there were too dim and she could not find it, but ultimately they did find it rather quickly after going over. In a brief moment though between when Midoriya headed off to the latrines ahead of Ashido to help her out, and when Ashido ran after him to look for her cosmetics, the pink girl had stopped next to one of her friends who was walking back alone from her tent after getting changed herself. A quick whisper to her dark-haired friend about how Midoriya had something important he needed to talk to her about before heading off into the forest to the west made Jirou inconspicuously head off after him, while unknowingly moving the opposite direction that Deku was going.

I'm going to kill you Mina. Jirou ground her teeth, and she thought in frustration as she glared at the person standing in front of her isolated from the rest of their classmates, I should have known. Why would Midoriya go to Ashido first to ask me? Just because I was changing at the time so he could have missed me- damn it. "I'm going back," Jirou said, frowning at the boy who had not changed yet and was still standing in his hero uniform. It was pretty dark around them, though the light from the fire far back still reached deep enough into the forest that along with a clear night sky and their eyes adapting to the darkness, they could each make the other out easily.

"Wait, please," Zach started.

Jirou had her body half-turned already, but she found herself hesitating and her teeth clenching hard again. Damn it. What's wrong with him? Getting me out here alone- I don't want to talk! I made that clear last time. And he, he looks like- Jirou turned her body fully to him and she kept frowning but her eyes did scan up and down his body from up close for the first time. He was twenty feet ahead of her, but she could make out all the bright colors of his costume that felt so unlike him. "Changed up your costume," Jirou said. It was awkward, and she felt more awkward at what she just said that had Zach glancing down at his own clothes. His blue costume had green highlights on the shoulders and his waist, a bright red pattern near the top of the costume, and a golden belt splitting the green waistline with green and black pieces on it along with other attachments clipped on like his visor. "It's…" Jirou tried to come up with something to say about it, but she did not have any comment to make and just closed her mouth after a second in a way that showed she was not going to finish.

"Jirou," Zach started, and Jirou's teeth clenched angrily at the sound of him saying her name. "I needed to tell you something, the last time we talked. You left too quickly though, but I had to tell you that what you told me-"

"Why are you bringing this up?" Jirou snapped. She was pissed, and she felt uncomfortable as what she had said back then had been all she needed to say. I wanted to say that to- no I needed to tell him that!

"That thing you told me before I left, when you came to my room-" Zach tried to start.

"I told you I took back what I said that day," Jirou snapped. She glared at Zach for bringing it up even though she had took it back already. He winced and looked away though, and Jirou flinched at the reaction. A second later though, her eyes narrowed darker and in a more furious way. "You're a liar. What makes Zach Zach is that he's a liar, and I know you're still lying!"

"I know, and I'm sorry," Zach began. "But this-"

"No!" Jirou yelled at him. Zach's eyes twitched but kept his eyes locked on her instead of looking past back towards their classes who he was sure were being loud enough that none of them heard that. His eyes stayed locked on Jirou's as she growled after her snap, "Every movement you make and word you say. You don't get to choose what's a lie and what isn't." She shook her head at him like he was an idiot for not getting that. "After you lost my trust, there is no way that I will ever believe anything you say again."

"Being the kindest, best person I know," Zach realized he was speaking to a brick wall. Trying to actually hold a conversation was going to be impossible, so he just said it aloud despite it not fitting in with what she was saying or countering it either. He just continued himself from what he began with before. She opened her mouth at him to snap something in an even louder and more pissed voice, but Zach continued quicker, "Every day!" He said it loudly and cut Jirou off so she hesitated, while also confused at what he was saying here that made her angrier too as it was most likely just more lies…

"The entire time I was gone, every single day, those words echoed in my mind." Zach told Jirou while keeping their eye contact, "You don't have to believe me, but there were decisions I made, really hard decisions that- that I thought of your words that day and they were the deciding factor." Jirou was frozen and staring at Zach still confusedly and with angry eyes, though that anger was suppressing the shock at what he was telling her with such emotional eyes and a soft tone of voice. "The path I went on was dark and full of horror, but there were moments when I could have fallen into a much deeper, darker pit. Where I could have done things that really would have," he paused and his eyes lowered from hers, breaking off eye contact as he finished, "made me lost."

While his eyes were still off of hers he added, "And there were times when I forgot your words and did…" Zach paused and he grit his teeth for a moment. Then he continued strongly while raising his eyes back to see Jirou's had finally grown and were staring back at him with more surprise than anger now at what he was admitting. "But I'd always regret those times." As much as I could regret, without thinking too hard about any of it. "Because wherever I was and whatever I was doing," Zach continued, taking a step forward and looking at the girl in front of him in an even more serious way. "I wanted to make sure I was still being kind, and a good person, but not because you told me to!"

Zach had to get louder and he called that out at Jirou when she opened her mouth to yell at him. He knew she was going to yell asking how he could say that after what he had done to them, what he had done in the forest, or something along those lines. I don't have any excuse for any of that. Not for you. "I want to," Zach began again after cutting her off early, his voice lower again and his eyes focused firmly on Jirou's angry ones that he saw were doubly pissed at him for cutting her off again. "I want to be that person, because you knew me better than anyone, and if you thought that me losing those things was Kaminari winning, then I had to make sure I never lost them."

Jirou's heart raced and her body shook at the reasoning right there. So, so what? You want to be a good person, so that he doesn't win? That's a stupid fucking- I told you that as an aside, not to let him win because- because fuck him! Not to base everything you do-

"I had to make sure Kaminari didn't win. That he didn't succeed in changing me." Zach smiled at Jirou and his expression softened again, "So thank you, Jirou. It's what I wanted to say. Thank you for telling me that. Without it," Zach paused and then said softer, "I would have been lost a long time ago."

He said it, and then he was the one to turn away this time. Zach turned and walked away in a different direction as back to the campsite, as that was the way Jirou was going to have to go. She still doesn't trust me. It's easy to see, that she doesn't want to talk to me at all. Anything else I said here too, it would just make her angrier. I don't even know if what I just said will help any. I hope she knows though, that that was the truth.

Fucking asshole. Call me out here and the don't even let me get a word out?! He was just trying to get me to stop thinking of him as a liar. But I just told you! You don't get to decide what's real and what's going to be a lie! Idiot. That's not going to change anything. I don't care if it kept you on the right path! I didn't say it back then so that you as a terrorist could make only partially shitty decisions instead of really shitty ones! You really think I care?! I don't! Jirou opened her mouth, wanting so badly to shout it after him. She clenched her jaw again though and just spun on her heels to march back towards camp. Fucking Mina setting me up and- this whole stupid trip in the first place- I don't need to be on better terms with anyone! I'm fine with all the Shiketsus except for one! I don't give a fuck about this rivalry thing! You were a terrorist that whole time you left. The Death! Until you can tell me that without- NO! Even if you could, you're still a liar. It's all lies or none of it is- and it's already all lies. Because you've decided that. I can't fucking stand this!

Zach and Jirou returned to the campsite at different times. Enough people were wandering around or working on something that practically no one noticed how they came from relatively in the same direction. Two Class A students did though. Yaoyorozu watched as Jirou glared Zach down after he came back from a different part of the woods somewhat nearby where she exited, which Yaoyorozu had marked down in her head a few minutes earlier. The second person who saw Zach came back not long after Jirou already knew the two had talked out in the woods though. His head stayed pretty bowed and he was ready to avoid eye contact if Zach looked towards him, but Zach went straight for his tent to finally get changed without looking to the large boy with a boulder-shaped head.

I was wrong, Koda thought after Zach zipped up his tent. He turned away from the tent his sad eyes locked on, and he faked an interested expression as he looked over to some Shiketsu students talking to his friends on one side of the fire about their fight earlier. A bug flew away from Koda as the heat and smoke made it go away, but that bug had just landed right on Koda's right ear to report what it had heard after Koda sent it into the forest after his classmates. I was worried about Jirou, but that was, that's so… sad. Koda looked to one of his closest friends in Class A who sat on a log around the fire with her eyes occasionally glaring up and towards the cooking station where another girl was actively avoiding making eye contact.

She's so angry! What did Zach say to her?! Ashido had sweat coming down her face for another reason besides the flames heating the pot in front of her. I thought you were going to make things better. I was so excited that you asked, so why, Mina's eyes shifted from Zach's tent where she saw him go back over, to where Jirou was sitting and barely masking her angry expression. Or is this your fault? Why can't you just let him back in?

I've been suspicious for too long, Koda thought dejectedly, looking into the raging fire before him with an upset look. His eyes had locked back on Jirou for a few seconds there before he turned away, and he grimaced as the look on her face was not one he didn't recognize. He's not just here being undercover for the AoD. Maybe he has been lying, but, but I was too suspicious. And that suspicion has kept me from really trying to get Jirou to make up with Zach, even though I could see how much she needed it.

Koda's eyes shifted back towards that girl with her long dark purple hair tied into a ponytail who was staring into the flames herself now with a darker look on her face than just angry. I've seen it for over a year and a half now, how much losing Zach did to her. I don't know if rekindling the two of their friendship will correct things and help her, but he's willing to try even when she hates him so much. He's willing to go that extra effort, and I know! I know he wouldn't try so hard to fix things if he was going to betray her again. I know that for a fact, that Zach wouldn't do that to us. He wouldn't do that to you. And that's how I know you're wrong.

"Well that looks more like Zach," Hagakure brought up, and Koda turned his head as the invisible girl close to him said that while looking behind her towards the tents.

Zach just came back out of his tent in a pair of black sweatpants with a black hoodie on over his shirt. Others watched him in surprise and some confusedly at what he was wearing. "Hey," Kotsumura started, as Zach got back to the cooking area and the blond saw how he was dressed. "How did you-" Kotsumura looked down and he frowned while raising his eyes to Zach who wore very comfortable-looking clothes unlike the rest of them who were mainly wearing either their school uniforms or whatever they had had on underneath them that day.

"I guessed how the day would go," Zach replied to the blond who gawked at him for a second.

Then, Kotsumura closed his mouth and replied, "Well you could have let us all in on it. Would have brought my toothbrush to school."

"What? Can't handle roughing it for one night?" Zach retorted as he headed over to a station to help finish up their dinner. "Oh no, my teeth," Zach joked as he walked behind Kotsumura's back, making Porrolo and Jaime laugh even though they had agreed when Kotsumura mentioned it a few minutes ago that they wished the teachers would have told them earlier for the same reason.

"Yeah, well I bet you went weeks- months even without a toothbrush!" Kotsumura chided back with a grin of his own. "Or did that 'medieval' world have toothbrushes when you got there?"

"It didn't," Zach replied. Kotsumura smirked more at him as Zach was admitting he was right and that he didn't brush his teeth for months. Zach then turned his head back to the blond though and added, "So I invented them on that world." Kotsumura's bottom lip fell again as did the others all in the cooking area, though Todoroki just frowned over at him and then put some more flames under one of the stew pots that was almost ready. Zach continued while working which reminded the others to get back to it too, "Life expectancy wasn't all that long over there, so most people weren't very concerned with dental health even when I brought up some stuff they could do to help with it. I made my comrades brush their teeth though, for the same reason I tried to get a lot of them to stop smoking rayal, a plant kind of like tobacco I guess," Zach added as a quick explanation.

"Why?" Porrolo wondered.

Ashido was also wondering it, though her stomach was in knots as she kept her back to Zach and tried to keep her expression from dipping. How he was speaking though, so calmly and like everything he was saying was real, it unsettled her and turned her stomach over especially as he finished. "Because I wanted them all to know I expected them to survive it. Ignoring their long-term health because of the intense fights we were in all the time, it was like telling me that they expected me to let them die out there. They saw I expected them to live a long time after the war, and I think that made a lot of them think they were going to too so it kept everyone staying healthier in their daily practices."

And did those people live a long time? Jaime wondered, though she did not dare ask it aloud. I hope so. Not the kind of thing to ask someone though.

"Hey, you guys," the cooking crew turned to a girl with gray hair and long bangs partially covering up her eyes. Bibi paused for a moment while everyone looked at her, then she motioned behind her with a nod of her head, "Does anyone have a snack for Yaoyorozu? She's slowing down and I think she's really getting tired."

The others looked past Bibi towards the sitting area for their dinner that Yaoyorozu had lit up now too. The tables were all set up up, having been built using power-tools she Created along with screws and bolts. Yaoyorozu was finishing putting the tablecloths she made onto the tables too, and Bibi mentioned after glancing back, "She's already made a whole lot, but we still need plates and plasticware and napkins that we didn't find with the cooking supplies the teachers left."

"We could carve out fifty bowls using a tree around here," Zach suggested instead of making Momo Create anything else. He reached into his sweatshirt pocket while suggesting it anyway, and he pulled out a protein bar that he tossed to Bibi who rose her hands up with fast reflexes to catch it. She flinched when he tossed something at her and his look shifted down a little sadder for a brief moment before he returned to normal, trying not to let that be seen by the girl who caught the protein bar and looked at him with her heart racing.

I'm, not scared of you, anymore, Bibi thought. She hesitated even in her own thoughts but more in surprise than anything else. He's doing worse at hiding his face, right? Or did he just open up to us more? I was so terrified that first day of school. And I thought that because I had all the others around me that I would be safe, but then you showed you could take us all no problem. You, you terrified me. But I'm not scared of you right now. I just flinched because of the food. I promise. What you said worked. I get now that it's why you told me in the first place.

"…It was a weak moment for me. I was, horrified. And sometimes, when I come up to decisions like I made that day in Terra, I sometimes still get that way…"

What Zach had told her a week and a half ago when they found themselves alone together for a training session, it echoed in Bibi's mind as she looked into Zach's eyes in a way that made his lips lift in a soft but appreciative way. I had been thinking about how everyone else in Class 1 were so okay with you way too quickly, and I thought it was because they weren't afraid. I thought that made me less of a hero because I was so scared- that's what I thought! But then the strongest of our class, Zach Sazaki, you told me how you were afraid. Your fears of inadequacy and losing your friends? I have those same… "Thank you," Bibi said, and after a second she lifted the protein bar in a motion like it was what she was talking about. Then she turned and jogged off to go give it to Yaoyorozu, with no knowledge that what she was stealing was what Zach had brought the protein bar out there for in the first place.

Then again, Zach stared after Bibi and got a hesitant look on his face as he watched the girl with silver hair falling equal length around her head almost to the front of her face where it fell very long. She got up to Yaoyorozu and started talking to her and offered the protein bar, and then Zach looked back at the food he was prepping when Yaoyorozu started turning her head their way. Haven't seen it much myself, but Reika called her a "rug-muncher" the other day in not-so-quiet a voice. She looks totally into Momo too. Focus on cooking, idiot. Zach shook his head around and chuckled under his breath.

The cooking crew finished up the dinner they had been working on for over an hour now, and the rest of their classes who were exhausted and starving were quick to jump up to get their food. Yaoyorozu and her team called for the others to detour themselves around the tables first as they had to grab their plates and bowls first. Then they went over to the cooking station and got food piled up on their plates, stew in their bowls, and a couple of students took the vegetarian option their classmates made for them.

Zach stayed back and refilled the smaller pots his classmates were serving from over at the flames Todoroki had let simmer down a bit. He glanced towards the line of their classmates a couple of times while people were being served, but he shifted his gaze back to the large stew pot in front of him and ladled some more out when he spotted Jirou again. She's not accepting any of that. I think she really thinks everything I say is a lie, or an attempt to make her believe something else, and she won't let any of it sink in. Or maybe, she just doesn't care. I destroyed that relationship. I can try all I want to help you, but, I'm never going to fix things between us.

The dinner line moved quickly, and everyone went back to sit around the fire or at the tables as they ate. The cooking crew served themselves last, and Iida and Muoko made an announcement about a cleaning team of both Shiketsu and U.A. students that they themselves were going to be a part of. Once they started listing off who was on that crew and listed themselves first, no one else was able to complain to the class reps. Iida told the others once they were finished with the list that they could wait twenty minutes so as to ensure everyone had time to eat, and then he nodded at Muoko and walked away over to a table of his own classmates where he sat between Midoriya and Uraraka.

Zach went to the fire instead with his food. He sat on a log that was empty because all of the people who had been sitting on it earlier had picked a table to eat at. It took a few seconds, then Kotsumura got up from the table he had sat at with some of his friends for the past three years. A couple asked him what he was doing, and he looked back and motioned towards the fire and Zach who was over sitting by himself. He started over with his food and then stopped, as a pair of girls dropped down on either side of Zach in that moment he had turned around.

"Look what we took from the supplies before anyone saw them," Ashido whispered next to her, Hagakure giggling quieter on Zach's other side. Ashido pulled out two family-sized bags of marshmallows, and Zach cracked a laugh.

"Haha, hahaha," Zach laughed and he laughed harder as he had seen Kotsumura heading his way, and he saw the blond stare at those two girls next to him with his eyes opening huge.

"We have marshmallows?!"

Ashido swept her hands back behind her back, but the commotion could not be held back. Kotsumura ran towards the girls which resulted in Iida jumping up from his seat and yelling towards him that there would be no running near the fire. Muoko and Tomoki looked up from their dinners they were eating together on their own at a table the two had picked because it was empty. The couple in Class 1 just chuckled to themselves though and got back to their conversation, as Kotsumura was making a loop around the outside of the sitting circle so there was no real danger anyway of him accidentally falling into the pyre.

Tomoki said as they were laughing, "Besides, even if he fell in," he motioned with his head towards who Kotsumura was running towards.

Muoko frowned and gave him a look telling him that wasn't funny, but Tomoki smiled at his girlfriend who rolled her eyes after a second and gave him a smile that said 'alright, it was a little funny.'

"We need some sticks," Kotsumura said, once the group that immediately gathered around the girls with the marshmallows had gotten them to admit to what they had done. "Long ones, 'cause that fire is hot." The flame was meant for a bonfire and not a marshmallow-roasting fire, partly because the ones who made it did not know they were going to have any marshmallows to roast over it.

"Got a couple," Zach said, and he brought his left hand in front of him holding a dozen long sticks that made the eight people around him stare at them with huge eyes.

"Don't tell me, you guessed we had taken them too?" Ashido asked.

"Or did you see us?" Hagakure wondered, though she also wondered how that would be possible since Zach had stopped early before reaching the center area earlier, and he disappeared for a while right after that.

"No, I just grabbed them," Zach replied.

Most of the others looked at him in confusion, but Sato was staring still with huge eyes across the fire pit and a little to Zach's right. He stared at his former classmate who had had a black appendage sticking out of his lower back and reaching back towards the forest behind him when everyone was arguing. He had only noticed because he had been focused on Zach in the first place while everyone else talked in front of him, and he saw that black arm that reached up into the trees at his back meet up with his left arm that reached back to grab the sticks from it. Zach had not even turned around, and Sato gulped before looking back into the flames himself as he thought Zach was about to glance his way.

Sato got back to eating his dinner on the log, but his frown deepened after what he just saw. He's so, scary. I wanted to get you out of prison because I remembered the person you were and the friend I had, but when it came to election day… And when you got out of there, I couldn't- I couldn't bring myself to go out and see you. Using that Quirk so casually for something like grabbing sticks for roasting marshmallows? You slaughtered those people that night. The closer I got to seeing you, the more those faces reappeared. They were villains, and yet I saw that guy, when he made eye contact with me through the pink barrier. He looked at me with a look begging for a hero to save him. Sato grit his teeth and glared down at the bread on his plate so angrily. I know what they did to you was horrible, but I can't forget about that guy. One second he was alive and then… Then he was dead, and you were stronger.

More people started heading back to the fire pit when they saw marshmallows were being roasted. The heat of the fire actually made it better for cooking them, because no one was able to just get so close they could stick their stick into the flames. Zach got pretty long ones, but they still only reached out enough that after a minute they were a nice golden-brown. Zach finished up his own dinner first before cooking a marshmallow himself, and he closed his eyes and hummed as it tasted delicious in his mouth.

Then he opened his eyes. Zach stared in front of him at the fire. He saw the girls on his sides, and the friends sitting close to them on their other sides too but also still close to him. He saw the people in the sitting area as it curved farther away from him, and he saw people walking over and sitting down on the long log to his left, while Mineta took a seat on a tree stump that had a divot in it that kind of made it look more like a chair. He glanced around at the eighteen year olds all around him, a couple seventeen year olds in the mix too. They were talking and eating and laughing, sitting around in school uniforms or slightly more comfortable clothes, and enjoying a nice night together with their friends.

I was this young once- I am. It was all in my head, which means I'm technically still as old as I am. Just an 18 year old, who turned 18 in prison. Some of the people here are still kids. No. We're all heroes. They're all heroes, at least. Zach corrected himself and he tossed the stick he had roasted his marshmallow with into the fire. He used his left hand to roast the marshmallow so he could hold his hand closer to the flames without feeling the heat as much. His eyes shifted down to his left arm from his elbow down where it was mostly just steel showing with his fake skin gone. He had a black hoodie on but had rolled the sleeves up as it was not very windy in the dome, and it was hotter inside than it was out there. Rolling up his left sleeve was more of just a habit, though he had told himself it was because his sweatshirt could still get damaged by the flames even if his arm could not… once he noticed that he had done it.

More of the students came over to the fire, but because of the width of gaps on the logs, U.A. students and Shiketsu students were sitting next to each other more and more. Leaving dinner tables where they had just sat with long-time friends, a lot of them wound up right next to someone they had never spoken to before. It was awkward, for a few. Even those uncomfortable and shy students got over it quickly though as they saw their classmates interacting with and even specifically talking to teens from the other class. They all knew the teachers had a point giving them this night to better acquaint themselves as friends and colleagues than as enemies, and the conversations changed from talking about the joint training of today and the previous year.

Instead, they talked about their internships, and their fights with villains past. As many of the Shiketsu students wanted to ask their Class A counterparts about all the famous incidents that had happened at U.A. or to their Class A, they all refrained for the same reason they avoided those topics with their own classmate who had experienced those things himself.

"I was definitely rooting for you, Deku," Taiyuro told the boy sitting two seats down from him on his right. "My family was up cheering when you beat Bakugo."

"Uh, thanks," Midoriya said, though he nervously glanced behind him only to feel relief that Bakugo was ignoring that and somehow also looking to ignore the conversation between Uraraka and Himazuri that went on with him in the middle of them.

Dendo glanced past Himazuri where he saw Bakugo on her other side, wondering if the girl was going to be alright when he saw the look on Bakugo's face. Bakugo shifted his eyes towards Dendo though, and Dendo hesitated for a second before asking, "That April Fool's Villain…"

Himazuri and Uraraka stopped talking for a second, while Bakugo also rose his eyebrows as he did not expect Dendo to talk to him or bring that up. "From what I saw during that fight, he had multiple Quirks, didn't he?"

Himazuri looked at Dendo in more surprise, then she spun to Bakugo who grunted in an affirmative way. "Just like the Nomus," Dendo added, frowning more as he mentioned them.

"Did you hear the rumors about the Nomus resurfacing?" Uraraka wondered over to Dendo. He glanced at the brunette with shorter hair and nodded his head, making Uraraka frown more too as it seemed like the accounts were happening more frequently.

"It's still just rumors," Bakugo said, his voice low but not necessarily pissed at the conversation. "Deku didn't get shit out of the Nomus' creator though," he added while looking towards his classmate whose eyes opened wide as he had been looking over and heard what Bakugo just said.

"You went to see him, in Tartaros?" Uraraka wondered while looking back towards Deku herself.

What she asked came out a bit louder than what they had been talking about, and Kotsumura looked over at her in surprise and then to Midoriya whose eyes shifted towards Zach with his expression looking hesitant for a moment. Kotsumura turned back to Zach close to him and his heart was racing as he saw Zach sitting there quietly with a small smile on his face as some people talking around him. Did, none of them go to see you except for Deku? Uraraka sounded surprised that he actually went! Kotsumura hesitated as he opened his mouth to say something to the U.A. students on his right, Wait! That doesn't make any sense! Ashido was all over the news and at those protests trying to get Zach out of prison. Why wouldn't she have gone to see him? Maybe, it's just surprising that Midoriya did? Even though the two of them… didn't I see them together?

"And I send him flying into a tornado where I made him spin around and around until he was so dizzy, he passed out! HAHAHA!" Inasa bellowed his laughter, while Sato and Tokoyami were looking at him more in surprise as the villain he was talking about facing sounded like a very strong one. The way Inasa claimed to knock him off-balance first to be able to send him flying easier, it sounded like an oddly ingenious plan to be said in such a boisterous tone.

"Hey Kotsumura," Zach began, having slid down the log towards his blond friend with one of the girls next to him switching spots. Hagakure thought nothing of it and just kept talking as Zach started to talk to his Shiketsu friend, and she did not hear what Zach said behind her in no quiet voice but one so calm and regular that no one besides Kotsumura heard him. "I'm going to go take a piss. Distract the girls on my right if they look like they're going to ask about where I went."

"Wai- what? Why?" Zach frowned at the question, but Kotsumura frowned back as that sounded really weird to him. "You always just got to be so mysterious, don't you?"

"It's not that," Zach replied in the same tone as before, though he checked once more if anyone was watching him which at the moment it seemed like no one was. "But the last time we were sitting at a fire like this and I told them I had to take a piss, was the last time…"

Kotsumura's bottom lip lowered only for Zach to stop and give him a look deeper in his eyes that made Kotsumura close that lip back up. He doesn't want them to think about it? That's what you're saying. Kotsumura nodded as he understood, and he made sure not to let that surprise or any of the emotions that just hit him come to his face even as Zach got up and inconspicuously stepped away. He could have been going to his tent, but they could see the tents from the fire and Zach was not heading towards his own. Kotsumura looked back to his left instead of focusing on the girls past where Zach had been, and he joined in on a conversation with a few of his other classmates.

Distract them? They know you too well, they'll know you said something like that to me and they might even get more nervous! You're not trying anything this time, right? Geez, what the hell do you mean? That night, were you all just sitting at a fire like this? And then, then you what? You said you had to pee and then went and attacked- or you were attacked by the villains, and they put up that barrier we all heard about that kept you from the rest of your class- did you expect that?! You knew they would bring that villain, so you had to- and this was you at sixteen?

"I'm hoping that when my shell heals this time it can survive even Deku's strongest hits. No way Zach breaks through it next time," Kameko looked over but did not see Zach where he was last sitting.

As Kameko started to look around for where he moved to though, Ojiro mentioned to the boy with a cracked shell on his back, "I'm, surprised." Kameko looked to the blond who paused before mentioning, "I thought you were a lot more, soft-spoken? I don't know, but last year when I tried to break in your shell you sounded," Ojiro could not put his finger on it, but the personality of the guy he had been talking to seemed so different from when he met him the year before.

"Yeah, I never heard you speak before," Mineta agreed from Kameko's other side. "I had no idea you were ranked fifth in your class! You should be bragging about something like that!"

I've always had a defensive personality. Imino explained what he thinks Zach was doing though. I saw how he fought against the others, and the change is night and day with Dendo and Manzo. Even Imino too, so I guess I don't see his as much because we're closer and it feels like he hasn't changed, which is probably the same with myself. "I came out of my shell," Kameko said after a few seconds, smiling as he made the joke that got a laugh out of the others sitting around him. The boy literally inside a shell meant what he said though, and he again shifted his eyes around looking for Zach to give a grateful look at.

"Where were you?" Ashido wondered as Zach came back from the restroom to sit at the fire again.

Zach sat down next to her and replied like it was nothing, "Latrine." Ashido stared at him with her eyes opening wide, and he wondered if Hagakure did the same closer to him between them. Kotsumura looked over from Zach's other side and his eyes widened too at the way Ashido looked.

"Hey! Anyone got a scary story?" Kotsumura looked around after calling it out, bouncing his eyebrows and looking like he hoped someone would have one.

Reika Tiona looked down the log and around the corner stump to where Kotsumura was sitting. Fucking what? I'd expect Satoshi to call out something like that. We were all in the middle of talking, so why-

"Oh yeah!" Satoshi called out loudly. He narrowed his eyes and the vertical slits got thinner, his tongue sticking out as he hissed. His hiss got softer at the end and a breeze flew around the campfire making the flames lick Satoshi's face and a lot of them to shiver.

"Oi, Inasa?" Dendo snapped down towards the person who had to be doing this, as there was no wind inside the dome.

The wind stopped and Inasa lowered his smile a little. "What?" he wondered, while a lot of people frowned his direction. "It seemed like the right thing to do at that moment."

The flames rose back up higher after the gust of wind died down, and those shivering teens who leaned closer to the flames felt themselves get hotter and some even sweaty. After Inasa's response and a couple of laughs, it was oddly quiet around the fire now as all of the conversations had cut off.

Well, he did do it for my sake, Zach thought while glancing towards Kotsumura who was going to feel even more embarrassed the more time passed without anyone speaking up. Some people were glancing around at each other like they thought one of them might actually say a story now, as Inasa and Satoshi had seemed to be into it and the idea was just sitting out there. More of them started looking to the same side of the fire though, as Zach rose his hands up to his black hood and put it up over his head.

Kotsumura turned his head slowly to the right. Others past him on his left were already looking towards Zach, and he turned with his eyes opening wider as Zach put the hood up over his head. The hood cast a shadow over his face that the flames illuminated only the bottom half of. Then, on the top half of Zach's face shrouded in darkness, his right eye flashed red and stayed glowing like that in the darkness. He had taken his phone out when he lowered his hands from his hood, and Zach turned on a strobe up at his face while leaning his head back, "I've got one-"

"Dude," Kotsumura said from right next to Zach where he just leaned away. "You just terrified me."

The strobe turned off and Zach lost the red glow in the one eye while most everyone else was still gawking his way with stunned expressions. Todoroki and Jirou had their bottom lips dropped, while Midoriya and Iida's hands were down at their sides gripping the logs they were sitting on. Zach turned to Kotsumura and replied with a grin on his face, "Well that wasn't exactly the story, but if you can't even handle me getting in the mood for it then-"

"Oh we can handle it!" Reika shouted, pissed at Kotsumura now and also at herself as she had felt chills down her spine at the scary display Zach put on right there.

"That was you, 'getting in the mood?'" Hagakure asked in shock. "Wait- so does that mean you do have one-"

"Well," Zach started, seeming against the idea now as he glanced around. More of the people he looked at started frowning, and yet, many more of them were for the idea of listening to a scary story now. Only a few still thought the idea was a stupid one that nobody was going to get into, as instead they thought about showing Zach his scary story was not going to scare them, or they wondered what Zach was doing by offering to be the one to scare them.

Kotsumura continued to stare at Zach though with a somewhat confused look on his face as others started telling him they could handle whatever story he thought was too much for them. I interrupted with this in the first place because of the way those two looked at you. Why- he's trying to help me, I guess. But, he could also be helping those two who he made nervous as he made them think about that night in the Enudora Forest. It looks like that's far from their minds now.

"Alright," Zach said, still with his hood up. "I've got a good one. It's twice as scary, because it's a true story-"

Jirou snorted and rolled her eyes, no intention to hide that she did. She frowned after when she received a few looks from classmates or the Shiketsus, and she thought, He's going to spout off all sorts of bullshit again. He seriously thinks he can say 'true story?' What a joke.

"I was in Terra, and it was still pretty early on after I got there so I didn't know that much about that world."

"Wait," Ashido interrupted. Zach glanced next to him at the girl who spoke up and made a lot of people groan or get annoyed as no story was happening and they were only a few seconds in before the next interruption.

If every sentence goes like this.

Just let him speak.

I'd rather he not scare the crap out of me. That look on his face at the start, it seriously freaked me out.

"On second thought, I'm not too sure about a 'scary' story," she said, specifying the 'scary' part which made several people around the pit feel hopeful though they did not let it show.

"The fact that we're out in the woods, kind of," Bibi added in agreement, going to speak up before someone could counter Ashido about her just being a coward or something. "And it's dark, and I don't think-"

"Oh come on, you girls don't think you can take it?"

"We're just speaking up, for everyone who might not want to have trouble sleeping-"

"Booo."

"Ah come on, then tell us another story about Terra!" Satoshi called over at Zach. "Doesn't need to be a scary one!"

Tokoyami looked to his side in somewhat confusion at Satoshi's big grin as he suggested that. Others from Shiketsu voiced agreement with that, and Ashido turned to Zach and nodded too that she would prefer that. Satoshi looked to his side when he noticed Tokoyami's look, and he mentioned to the dark boy with a beak, "Zach's great at telling stories."

Mineta was also confused by the way the Shiketsu students were reacting near him, and Trabo said to the shorter boy next to him, "He tells us all about his time in that other world. His stories are insane."

But that's all they are, stories, Mineta thought, turning his head and looking back towards Zach who held his hands up defensively after jokingly countering something to Ashido about her being scared.

Aoyama and Asui looked to their right as Reika retorted at Shuu how she had already heard the story about the vampire nest under General Asgarth that Zach had to fight. Then they looked the other way as Subara called across the fire at Zach to tell them about the Siege of Razmatan. "Oh yeah!" Satoshi agreed, suddenly liking the change of pace off the tune of scary stories. "You've never told us about that one."

"I've mentioned it-" Zach started.

"Same with the Battle of the 6 Armies, right?" Tomoki added, and Iida looked to his side in a questioning way at the boy in glasses who did not seem like the type to get as into this. Battles and sieges? Vampires? How did you get so many people to believe you? Iida shifted his eyes darkly back towards Zach who took all the shouting towards him in stride.

He's so different, but what is it? Uraraka stared towards Zach in confusion from her seat next to Iida. Zach held up a hand to get Kotsumura to lean back after agreeing with the Battle of the 6 Armies suggestion, and he laughed at something Reika called at him before turning and responding to Hagakure on his right side. Is it because he's always in the spotlight, he's just learned how to deal with it? But that's not right. He always avoids cameras. And he was in hiding for a year, whenever he was still on Earth at least, if these stories really are real. He went to jail- Zach's not good in the spotlight at all! But he's handling this really well. Everyone's looking towards him, but he doesn't look nervous about it. And he was the one who took charge with their class's strategy. He's, he's popular. Whoa, Uraraka realized it and the surprise hit her like a ton of bricks.

All his classmates talking to him and asking him to tell stories about his crazy time gone, and Zach was treating it like it was normal to the point that Ochaco realized it was. They know so much about those stories. They're all talking about the year he spent away, and, and I don't know anything about it! I haven't asked him but- Uraraka's eyes shifted around at the greater number of Shiketsu students around the fire than her own classmates. Do they know him, even better than we do now?

I've never even heard of that one, Ojiro thought while looking to his side at something one of the Shiketsus just said. And I talk to Zach often, but they see him nearly every day.

"…You always say there's not enough time," Kotsumura continued, holding up a palm like showing that he had a point here.

"Same with the Siege of Razmatan," Hagakure added quickly, not wanting to be outdone by the Shiketsu students here. She looked next to her at Ashido to see if she felt the same way and Ashido nodded at her, trying to show some real enthusiasm even as she felt a pit in her chest as she nodded at Toru in a lie like that. "Any time you get started," Hagakure said while looking back at Zach, "you stop and say that it's too long a story and there isn't enough time."

"There wasn't enough time for it," Zach argued back, as she was making it out like he was intentionally not talking about it.

"Well there is now," Reika said, and she looked at Zach expectantly as he turned her way. Her look said that they had caught him if he would not say it here, and Zach sighed after a few seconds in a defeated way. Reika's eyebrows lifted up and then she smirked just like more than half of the others around the fire at that look on Zach's face. He's really going for it?

I don't know if Zach told them the truth. But they know so much more about him and still don't know this story, so that means we'll be on the same level hearing this with them!

"Alright," Zach said. "Then I'll go with the Battle of the 6 Armies. Out of the two of those stories, the Siege was an attack I planned out, while in the Battle, I was ambushed. So it'll stay along a scary theme anyway," he added it like it was a compromise even though the ones who had been going for a scary story at first were now just excited to hear this story he had referenced many times. "A bit of background for where I was at the time: it was after the Siege of Razmatan during the peak of the war. The Siege saw heavy losses for both sides, but we also proved in Razmatan that the Arcasians did not have a complete hold on that world like most people still believed they did before it…"

"When you say, the 'peak' of the war," Tokoyami started, though he stopped himself after seeing some looks from his U.A. classmates directed his way. His eyes specifically shifted towards Midoriya who looked at him in surprise as he thought Tokoyami still thought Zach was for sure Death.

"I mean," Zach replied to Tokoyami even though he had not finished the question. "After the Siege of Razmatan the enemy forces realized that my force was the biggest threat to Arcasia and started coming at me harder than ever. At the same time, I moved faster than I ever had before in order to counter their countermeasures. And every day there was fighting." He paused for a second and his lips flattened out, a more serious look on his face that he continued with. "I never stayed in one place for long. My tactics had always been hit and run, and I did not want to put the people nearby in danger which they would be in if they were thought to be helping me. So I was always quick to change my location, quicker than my enemies were able to lock on to, and because we cloaked and made ourselves invisible using Quirks, our forward base was undetectable to the Arcasians."

Bakugo's eyes narrowed across the flames towards Zach. His expression stayed steady and his disbelief towards every word Zach spoke remained, and yet he felt uneasy at how Zach's voice sounded to be speaking from real experience here. Is this how the Army of Death operates? Is he explaining it, right to our faces? That smug bastard. He thinks he can get away with- he knows he can.

"At least, I thought we were undetectable," Zach continued. He shifted his eyes to the right at the people sitting on that side of him, "At the time of the ambush, we were lucky. All of our forces were gathered and we still had a huge number to defend our base with. Even the single reconnaissance team that was still out was getting back, but that's what started the whole thing. We lowered the cloaking when they arrived back at base, and then…" Zach paused for a few seconds. His eyebrows lowered down a little more, his lip twitching on the right side as his gaze shifted back into the flames. "The surveillance team was hit before they could get back in the walls. They were down before we even saw the enemy, and then the enemy were everywhere. On all sides of us, in the sky and on the ground, tens of thousands in every direction-"

"Tens of thousands?" Sato asked loudly, disbelief in his voice.

"It was the biggest battle of the war," Zach replied with a nod towards his old friend with spiky brown hair. Sato frowned at the response that sounded serious, and yet also sounded so unbelievable to him still. "My force had around 10,000 at the time, just a little over actually. Despite the heavy losses at the Siege of Razmatan, and over the few weeks after during the war's peak, we still had a massive and powerful force that got replenished over that time by the Allied Forces. The Allied Forces had seen what we could do when 5 of the Queen's 18 Generals fell in Razmatan, when we took down that stronghold made up of their strongest warriors and defenses, and so they sent us help on the front lines with fresh men and some supplies. As for our enemies on the day of the Battle of 6 Armies though, their numbers had almost 100,000 in total."

"10 to 1 odds?" Reika asked, bumping her eyebrows up in an impressed way and also grinning as it sounded like the story was going to be intense with such a disadvantage.

"Yeah," Zach replied after a moment. Her smile lowered a little at the tone in which Zach said it, and Zach added, "But what was worse than the number disadvantage was how we were caught off guard. In Razmatan we were outnumbered too, badly, but we had planned that attack out for weeks and went in knowing we could win. It was scarier like this. Suddenly facing such an overwhelming force. They were made up of all the strongest enemies who we had missed over the previous weeks. Ones who had abandoned their forts and lands when we came for them, leading us to waste time raiding empty bases while our enemies had been organizing together. Those Generals who almost never worked together had teamed up, and 300 kilometers north of Bordham we got ambushed by the biggest army the Arcasians could put together. I was terrified of all those enemies. Those warriors bred from birth to kill or die in battle. Giants and trolls, orcs and elves, and humans. They attacked us with weapons that world hadn't seen in millennia. They revived the ancient weapons from the time of the Silver Reign, more advanced than the weapons I had helped them create to better match our world's. With Quirk Amplifying Fields stretching across the landscape, hundreds of zone Quirks activated with tens of thousands of warriors from all races flying and sprinting towards each other. Riding on chariots and horses and-"

Zach stopped for a second. He stopped himself and shifted his eyes down instead of to the right side at some people he just reminded himself about. Can't say bears. Then they'll know- they'll know that it's- Dover wasn't even there! They'll think he was though! They'll realize that it's- He had to cut himself off before he said 'bears,' as it had initially been part of the story he devised but could create problems now.

"How did you win a battle like that with a fraction of the numbers?" Kotsumura wondered, his voice softer than when he had been asking for Zach to tell him the story in the first place.

"I outmaneuvered them," Zach replied, his mood raising back and a more confident almost smug look formed on his face. "I had Excilian take two teams straight out our main gates. Ungard and Iranda both took teams in other directions to our flanks too, while I had most everyone else go underground. I attacked with a few people aboveground; that way when our base was hit by the onslaught of Quirks fired from a distance at us, there were only a few teams remaining inside the walls to fire back at them."

"Why would you do that?" Hagakure asked.

"I had to make them think that they had almost beaten us," Zach replied. "They needed to see me too, so I left Fraisha in charge of going underground with the others. They created tunnels and muted the sounds of making them, then the sensory types down below reported where the enemies were above. Another of our comrades, Oncloa, who could change up our appearances made us look like our enemies, dressed up my soldiers in the clothes of the gangs and villain groups and enemy soldiers-"

"Gangs and villains?" Kirishima asked, his eyes darker as he glared towards Zach for an answer about that.

"The Arcasians didn't stop crime going on in their lands. The soldiers were as horrible to their people as the villains and bandits and pirates that roamed that world were. And I went after all of them," Zach said it with a frown back at Kirishima who ground his teeth more at the response that made sense that Zach would do that. "My enemies had organized better than they ever had before, to have those small time gangs and pirates following the real Generals and powerhouses of the Arcasian army. It was a who's who of all the most powerful evil-doers in that world, even the most powerful of the Queen's Generals, Amsalja, was there with an army of nightcrawlers."

"The ninjas?!" Ashido started in surprise.

"Ninjas?" Uraraka wondered in confusion, glancing Ashido's way and then back to Zach wondering what story he had told her about those "nightcrawlers" that had Mina looking at him with such wide eyes.

Is, she playing along with him? Midoriya wondered while looking at the pink girl who looked to question that herself after Zach nodded at her.

"Yeah, they were there," Zach replied in a serious voice back at Mina who stared at him with wider eyes as he had looked her straight in the eyes while saying it. "All the strongest forces of all the biggest monsters in that world. All the most powerful villains, using tactics and weapons that I had used against them but they had finally adapted to use against me."

"Oh, because you were so much better at it than they were?" Jirou retorted across the circle towards Zach. He's humble bragging so hard and he knows it!

"I had been," Zach replied. "But they caught up," he continued while looking to his left at more of the people watching him closely. "They had hundreds ride in on dragons to keep aerial cover, and they blocked our communications' Quirks with their jamming ones. As I charged at the five armies though-"

"Why five?" Kameko wondered. Zach looked his way, and the boy with a cracked shell held up a palm, "You say it's the Battle of the 6 Armies, but it sounds like it was just your forces against the Arcasians.'"

Iida hated that he was focused on the story enough that that had also been bothering him. He nodded to himself though at Kameko's question and looked back Zach's direction wondering what kind of fantasy answer he had for this one.

"Because the enemies weren't really a single army, not like my own," Zach replied. His voice changed tones slightly, even though his expression stayed the same so it appeared like Zach did not notice it himself. "My own forces were smaller, but we were a combination of people from all different races and backgrounds. We fought for a single purpose and they all followed my command. Our enemies, while they were able to organize and work together for the goal of stopping us, they weren't a single united force. Many of those bandit groups had been at odds with Arcasian forces before, some of the pirates had been fighting and battling each other long before I came into play, but they all knew that if they did not stop me that they would be taken out individually. It's why I had to convince them that they were winning, and that they had almost won…"

Others staring at Zach found themselves doubting the story less and staring at him in more shock and awe as he described his battle plans. Zach continued without looking around at their expressions, just staring into the flames as he went on, "Ungard and Iranda's squads took heavy casualties, while I myself fought the most powerful in all those armies and was losing, really losing, to him. Excilian had gone straight down the middle and he and the last of his squads Amped-up to keep the attention on them, but the enemies had Amplifier too, kind of like our Trigger," Zach added while looking towards some U.A.'s giving him questioning looks. The look away only lasted for a second though, before Zach returned his gaze to the flames and said, "But we were clearly losing. We had under five hundred troops out there fighting, and with our strongest cornered by their forces, our enemies started to think that they had really won. They were already overconfident, which I knew because I never expected to be attacked in such a way."

Zach leaned back on his log a little and continued in a lower voice, "Although I knew an attack was coming, I didn't expect how they would do it. All those empty forts couldn't have meant that all my enemies had just scattered into the wind. They were planning something, but my counters were for an ambush after I had attacked an enemy base. I thought they would get me once I had moved in with some of my forces, surround me when I had only a weaker group- but they felt they could take on my whole army. And I made them believe that they had done it. I made them think that after only a few more of us were defeated, they would win. There were a few Quirks popping off from our destroyed base, but they were moving in on it too and about to take us all out… And that's when my forces struck."

"You had them sneak attack from underground?" Porrolo wondered.

"Wait, but you mentioned Oncloa gave them disguises?" Hagakure added, confused at what the point of that was.

"Because even a surprise attack on them, with the smaller number of forces I had, it wouldn't have been enough to beat them," Zach explained to Hagakure and then looked at Porrolo too. "So it wasn't as much a sneak attack, as a sneak infiltration. I had my forces enter into their ranks based on what the sensory types below ground heard going on above. I sent my humans into human ranks, dwarves with the dwarves, and even though our communications were down, I had planned for that much at least and knew how to relay my orders to everyone before we had broken off. I had all my troops go into villain groups dressed like those villains… dressed like the Arcasian forces, and I had them go into groups based on which languages they spoke best." Zach's eyes lowered to the floor and his expression got darker instead of the calm way he had just been explaining that. "And then, they sewed the seeds of betrayal, and whispered rumors of dissent."

Inasa felt like making a cold breeze fly through at what Zach just said, but he was too busy staring straight at his classmate with huge eyes. "I, don't get it," Dendo began towards Zach. "What are you talking about? How did that-"

"Why would that have done anything?" Hisashi added in confusion.

"Wouldn't they notice that the people in their ranks weren't their comrades?"

"No," Zach replied while looking to Ojiro. "You see, each of those 'armies' I mentioned was vastly different from the other four. Five enemy armies and my own, and none of those armies trusted the people in the other armies with them. Most had never met each other before. They had come there for the single goal of stopping my army. They came, to destroy us. They put aside their differences solely, to beat me." Zach paused for a second and grit his teeth, then he admitted, "And I decided to abuse that fact. It was the only way we were going to survive the day." Others around the circle stared at him as Zach rose his gaze and looked around the group all staring at him in confusion or awe. The ones who did not believe much of what he said, found themselves so confused at how much detail and emotion was going into this. And the few who knew more than everyone else, found themselves most confused of all at what Zach was telling them.

"My soldiers knew the relationships between each of those groups," Zach said. "They knew which bandits had been killed by which group of blood elves. They knew that the Ravaging Angels, a huge human gang from the northern region, had had a feud with the Arcasian troops in the region recently over dead comrades found dead in what were made to look like 'accidents,' or so they were reported by those soldiers. The Arcasian dwarves hated the night elves, even ones in their own forces. It didn't matter if it was pitting one of those armies against another, or pitting our enemies from within the armies on one another. My soldiers whispered in the ears of some, that the people to their right were going to betray them as soon as the Dark One was dead. They told the lower gangs that the larger ones were going to betray them and expand into their territories, and those villains who were already worried about something like that happening found their confirmation in the words of my soldiers. And then, a pot-shot into an enemy group, and a shout that it was 'THEM' who did it. Some of the enemies fire at another group, and that other group also looking for who took the shot suddenly see the people firing at them and fire back. They attack, and in seconds a war has started between different enemy groups. It took a few minutes, and all of a sudden tens of thousands of enemies had turned on each other and started the most brutal battle of the entire war. When we usually fought, I at least had my troops try to fight less brutally and take prisoners, but when we turned those evil men and women against each other, there was no safe place for a hundred miles in any direction."

Did he just refer to himself as the Dark One? He skimmed right past that!

Holy shit.

He turned thousands of enemies against each other just by spreading rumors? They were allies and he just, he broke their bond. Not just by what he had his soldiers do, but by his own actions and the others he set up as distractions to make the enemies think that they had almost been defeated.

Did he, send people to die? As part of those diversions… He knew they would die, and sent them out anyway to show the villains that… Zach would do something like that?

"What happened after?" Shoji wondered towards Zach as he had stopped for a few seconds.

Zach looked towards the teen with silver hair and a mask over the bottom half of his face. He lifted his head a little and smiled from under his hood, his face lighting up more from the flames and seeming less dark suddenly. "More and more of my forces rose aboveground to spread rumors and sew chaos throughout our enemies. The nightcrawlers were trying to just spectate on an isolated plateau, so I dragged them into the chaos by blaming them for all that was happening in a bellowing voice. I roared to my leader, Amsalja, that I had almost rid the world of all the Arcasian forces between him and the Queen. It didn't matter how obvious it was to some that I was tricking them, enough of their soldiers were fools to believe that they had been tricked. Other Generals even wondered if they were wrong about Amsalja, and in dragging them into the fray I forced the nightcrawlers to flee. Then, halfway through the battle, Oncloa returned my troops back to their proper uniforms. The enemies realized that they had been tricked, and that we were nowhere close to being defeated yet. Unfortunately, it didn't just end the battle like I hoped it would when they saw how many of us were in their forces."

"Did they recover?"

"They teamed back up-"

"Few of them were able to," Zach cut back in as the questions started. "The battle had already been going on for a long time. After defeating the most powerful enemy in those armies, I was still faced with the need to take on thousands at a time which was why I needed the rest of my troops to be back in it as fighters and not just rumor-spreaders. By that point, they had already done a great job at breaking apart our enemies' armies so they were no united front anymore. Instead it was every race for themselves. They fought against everyone and anyone, only able to trust the faces of people they knew. Even if they realized that they had been tricked in the first place into fighting each other, that knowledge did not just make them forgive the other villains around them who had just killed friends of theirs or injured them. They were bad people, they weren't as skilled in combat or battle tactics as my men who had been fighting every single day for weeks, months. The battle was hard fought, but Ungard and Iranda Amplified and powered through as they had been from the start. Exodus' Amplify ran out, and most of the troops he had taken down the middle were…"

Exodus?

Who was Exodus?

"Exodus?" Kotsumura mentioned, after looking to his left for a second to make sure he was not the only one who had not heard that name before. Zach turned towards the blond and his expression turned confused at the question. "Who was he?"

"The guy you said led the troops down the middle was Excilian, wasn't it?" Hagakure asked, as that was the name she thought she heard.

"Yeah, Excilian," Zach shook his head and curled his lip for a second like he was wondering where he got that other name. "It was Excilian who led the central forces, but those forces had been wiped out. They were some of our strongest, but we needed those strongest to go right out the middle because if they had been defeated any quicker the enemy would have caught on to my strategy…"

Because they wouldn't expect you to give up your strongest forces like that.

I get it, kind of…

Todoroki was still staring at Zach with his eyes huge and his hands gripping into the wood at his sides tightly. Did he just mess up? Did he- Todoroki shifted his gaze to the side and saw Bakugo leaning forward on his seat, a look of wide-eyed shock over his face. He looked the other way and saw next to an interested and questioning Uraraka, both Midoriya and Iida staring towards Zach in disbelief at what just happened. Everyone who knows, knows what he just did.

But, but that doesn't make sense, Midoriya thought, his chest pounding rapidly and his Adam's apple bouncing up and down as he gulped again. He can't just be changing the details of this story around. That doesn't make- this isn't a, it isn't a realistic story at all! Why would he get the name wrong though?! The name in a story he made up himself, he didn't just forget Excilian's name! He called him by the name, of the real person he's basing this character off of! But- are all his- Midoriya leaned back on his log bench with his heart racing. That's impossible! I've heard your stories and they're all, every last one of them, so far beyond reality that it can't just be little details like those!

Iida's wide eyes narrowed and his breath calmed down. His expression was much darker though as he glared towards Zach. Something's wrong here. To change up a minor detail like that, it's clear that, he believes this story. What he is saying, he's convinced himself of it. I looked into the staff of Shiketsu so I know that Norasaki is a lie-detector, but you were able to stay at Shiketsu despite it. Somehow you are able to convince and deceive people to a level I have never seen, except for Kaminari. Iida's hands curled into tight fists down over his legs, a heat burning in his chest at the thought of the blond teen who had pierced him through the heart with his lightning. You've become just like him, and I don't even know if you realize. What is this reality you're talking about? I thought they were all just lies to tell people so you couldn't get incriminated for anything after you left here. But you've really… I don't know what you're doing. I don't know, but I know that somehow you are taking this story out of your own life, out of what the Army of Death had been doing.

"…and although I wanted them to think they were going to beat me, that didn't mean I could fight any less hard than my absolute strongest."

"Against thousands? I'd hope so!" Satoshi laughed back as the thought of Zach holding back against thousands of warriors sounded impossible.

"How could you survive something like that?"

"Did you win the battle?"

"Of course I did," Zach replied, and he smiled over towards Bibi who asked that in somewhat of a worried tone. "That was the most important battle we'd ever been in. The most important fight of my life thus far, and if we went down then they would have turned the tides of the war back in their favor. If they made us run it would have shown the rest of the remaining Arcasian forces how to defeat us. Not, that any of us would have been left had we lost that battle. As it was we took heavy casualties, but we won." Zach said the last part in an uplifting voice, his smile steady on his face as he went on, "Because we couldn't lose. They fought hard, but we fought harder."

"But you said you were surrounded! How could you get out of that to win that fight let alone the whole battle itself?"

"I flew into the sky and knocked off one of the dragon riders encircling me from above. I tamed the beast, and I rained Death down on their weakest forces from above. Going after the weakest first caused many of them to start running, and then the ones just a bit stronger than the weakest were now watching as their ranks broke and many of them were fleeing. It made it easier to get them to flee too, so that I could focus on the strongest enemies without having to worry about all the aside. It's similar to how I went after the Subspace Devils, as at the start I ran straight past the front line of villains to take on the ones farther back who were more nervous and hiding near their vehicles…"

Questions came up about the Subspace Devils, as most of the U.A. students there had not talked to Zach about it before, and a lot of the Shiketsus did not know that he had based his strategy that day off tactics he had used in a previous battle either. A few people noticed though. They noticed that the majority of the others did not notice how the conversation had suddenly shifted onto the Subspace Devils and off the Battle of the 6 Armies. The transition was smooth, but it became less of a story in an immediate tone shift that those same people noticed. Even though Zach had been talking like what had happened in that battle was real, his tone had shifted slightly as he talked and replied to questions about the fight with the Subspace Devils.

Is it because we all know it's real, so we can take part in more of a conversation about it? Midoriya wondered with his heart uncertain as he stared towards his black-haired friend. Whereas no one can really say that what you saw in that battle is fake. You're the only one who knows what's in that story and there's not a person in the world who was there with you to say differently. It's, not even real. It's literally a story you made up, but even the people who don't know that and believe you still know that you are the one who decides how that story is told, with no one else able to back it up or confirm it. No one's really going to take it to heart. The way everyone's listening now, it's so different, Midoriya's eyes shifted off of Zach and more on the others around the fire who had more serious expressions hearing about villains who they thought they could have gone up against. They figured they might have had to face them, and they knew that the things Zach was saying about fighting them were things they should listen to as he had beaten them with barely a scratch on him.

Midoriya's eyes refocused over on Zach with a discerning look on his face as he noticed the change in how they were all listening to him. He's still describing similar battle strategies that he was talking about in the Battle of 6 Armies, but because he's talking about using them in real life, everyone's interested. Everyone's listening. I'm listening. Midoriya realized it even as he was looking deeper into the conversation, I know you're strong, Zach. No one denies that. And there are things I could learn from you. But, but if you wanted to make this into a teaching moment for everyone, why did you start off with the Battle of the 6 Armies in the first place? Was it because starting with this story would have made it sound more like you were trying to teach? And the transition was so smooth! You did that! Was that the reason you started talking in the first place? How did we get to this point?! How do we always, get here?

---

Far from the campsite in the center of the dome on Shiketsu's grounds, Zach walked through the forest a few meters ahead of the boy behind him. Zach had his visor over his eyes, and on top of the night vision his visor also pinged in red all the electronics hidden throughout the forest. Seems like this is a good spot. Far enough Imino can't hear us, and Jirou wouldn't be able to either unless she came a good ways this direction. Zach stopped and took his visor off his head. He turned to face Iida who stopped behind him and continued to frown with a dark look on his face at the teen he had told to come out to the woods to talk with him.

Iida knew Zach could not deny him so he did not make a request. Zach just appreciated that Iida did it when he got up though and walked away from the fire, so they had not drawn a scene from the others still around the fire pit even later into the night so many of their classes had gone to their tents already. "What's up, Iida?" Zach asked. He put his hands down into the front sweatshirt pocket and looked his classmate straight in his eyes.

"Zach," Iida began. His look lost some of the darkness to it, and he took in a deep breath and let it out calmly. "Back there," Iida said, referring to the fire they had just left. "When you were talking about the Battle of the 6 Armies," he paused to see if Zach would react to what he was bringing up in any way.

"What about it?" Zach replied.

"Tell me the truth," Iida said. "Do you believe what you said back there? The story you told…" Iida watched as Zach's calm expression and stoic look changed. His attempt at keeping a straight look broke down and his expression became uncertain at the kinds of questions Iida was asking him. That reaction on Zach's face was the opposite of what Iida wanted to see though, and he clenched his teeth for a moment before quickly calming himself down again. "Zach, you need to know that the stories about that alternate world, they weren't real."

Zach's eyes left Iida and shifted around the forest. This is so dangerous. On school grounds. With everyone else so close-by. It's a huge risk. I never wanted to talk about it with them again. The fact that people know is the worst outcome, but it didn't go straight from one person learning to everyone finding out. This is, this is the worst way it could happen! Because people will defend me! They'll defend my story as the rumors spread farther out from the source. They'll defend me so strongly, and then they'll learn someday, ultimately- unless I stick to the story! ALWAYS STICK TO IT! "They were real," Zach replied. Not to Iida, you idiot. He's clearly doing this because he thinks you think that way-

"Is that what you really think?" Iida asked. His tone was accusatory, but also hesitant as he had watched Zach's face twitch there for a moment like he was thinking about it before responding in such a firm and assured voice. Zach grimaced at the look Iida was giving him, which made Iida frown angrier and say, "Why are you lying? Why say that if you don't mean it?"

"I do," Zach replied quickly. "It was, it was real. That story might not…" Zach stopped himself and his lips twisted in frustration. "Why are you doing this?" He asked in a soft voice.

"Because I need to," Iida replied, his voice still stern and his eyes unwavering especially as Zach asked something like that to him. The expression on Zach's face did not bring Iida comfort. "Because I need to know that you don't really believe these crazy things."

"You already know the truth," Zach whispered with a shake of his head back. "So why does this, why even ask-"

"Because you seem to think it's real. Maybe the names are different, but you messed up and mentioned someone back there who was real. Or who you believe was, and you changed the name back like you could get caught for it." Zach ground his teeth as Iida called him out, and he closed his eyes as Iida continued, "But none of that was real. There was no hundred thousand man battle. There were no armies you fought. I need to hear you say it-"

"You're right," Zach said. He opened his eyes and nodded at Iida. "You're definitely right-"

"You don't believe that," Iida responded darkly. He saw Zach responding in a way like he was accepting that, yet he saw through it. He could see Zach telling him that because it was what he wanted to hear, and it angered him more as much as it frustrated him. "Zach, it wasn't real," Iida stated. His voice was lower and came out in a tone demanding Zach accept it. Has he really lost it? Can he not tell what the difference between reality and fiction is anymore?! Zach! "You weren't fighting massive battles. Whatever the story is you're imagining, that you're replacing," Iida stepped closer to Zach and said louder at his friend whose teeth clenched so hard as Iida was saying all this. "It's not real."

"You're right," Zach whispered again, shaking his head gently and shifting his eyes to the side.

Iida bit down violently as he saw through it again. You're too strong! I can't let- Iida ground his teeth as not all the emotions on Zach's face were faked, and he could see how much Zach was struggling in the moment too as they were deadlocked. His thoughts that cut off as he saw that real expression were forced away though, and Iida glared at his shorter former classmate. I can't let my feelings towards you compromise my judgement. If you have lost it, then I need to act.

"You're right," Zach repeated. His voice was low, and his eyes shifted from the side to the floor. He had seen Iida's face in the corner of his eyes and could read his expression and what he was thinking. Zach stared at the floor and his breaths were shaky as he stopped trying so hard. As he accepted what Iida was saying and told him how he was right, he really had been intentionally thinking of the Battle of the 6 Armies still, and he knew Iida could see through his lie because he was still thinking about it as the true story. And yet as he stared at the floor, his breath ragged, he repeated in a soft voice in a completely different tone than Iida had heard from him all night, "You're right."

Zach lifted his eyes slowly to Iida's, and he shook his head, "There, were never 100,000 enemies attacking me at one time. That's not, it's not true," Zach paused and he shook his head a small amount, more like he was fidgeting than actually shaking it. "There weren't even, twenty thousand. It was closer to 12, 13, maybe 14 thousand of them." Zach stared into Iida's eyes and his own were soft and pained, because Iida's expression was more pained now than before as he heard Zach describing what that "story" really was.

He really does, believe this, Iida's chest ached and he couldn't keep up an angry expression anymore.

Zach waited for Iida to deny anything like it happened, but when he didn't Zach shook his head harder and he clenched his eyes shut. "There were. You weren't there so don't, don't just-" Zach stopped himself and he glared back at Iida as his eyes opened again. "I don't know why you can't- no, I do know-"

"It's not because you made it impossible for me to believe," Iida said, countering what Zach used in the forest on Inazuma Island to defend himself. "It's because if you had fought that many villains, the entire world would know about it."

"They do," Zach whispered. Iida froze, his expression shaken as he stared at Zach in more confusion at that response. "But no one knows, what it really…" Zach lifted his eyes up and he cut himself off sharply before he could finish 'what it really was.' He gasped out after looking up like that, "Thirteen thousand of them, and I- I didn't have ten thousand troops of my own. I didn't even have a hundred at the time-" Zach's eyes watered up and he bit down while shifting his gaze to the other side, before slamming his eyes shut and tilting his head back more in an attempt to hold back the drops about to slide down his face. "HELP ME!" "AHHHHH!" "PLEASE! DEATH!" "Mommy!" "Ah ah no no NOOO- AGH-"

Zach shook his head as the water slipped out the corners of his eyes despite his attempts to hold them back. "There weren't even a hundred of us," Zach whispered, lowering his head and looking at Iida again. "And we really were ambushed. Ambushed by, by the largest force of villains in the entire world."

Iida frowned deeper at what Zach said. His tears and expression made it look so believable, but what he was hearing countered his will to believe his friend. He may not even be lying on purpose. But if you are-

"This is the truth, Iida," Zach whispered in pain as Iida stared at him so doubtfully.

"…It's just another story," Iida replied.

Zach's face flinched and he shook his head hard. "No it's not," he said. "The stories, you know why I came up with them in the first place?" Zach lifted his eyes to Iida and said to his tall friend, "It wasn't to lie to everyone. That's what I told myself, how I convinced myself to make those stories in that single instant… But I don't really know what came first. No, I do. I know, that I used that excuse to make up those stories because I, I really just can't think about them, about how they really happened."

Iida shook his head in confusion at Zach, still frowning as he said, "What are you saying?" Changing it up again. He's just making more lies-

"Please," Zach whispered, his voice pleading with Iida whose thoughts cut off at the sight of that face. "Just believe me, because it's actually the truth that I can't tell anyone- but I, I can't differentiate- I can't recognize what's truth and what's lies after I merged them all together." Zach looked painfully at Iida who had started this because he feared the very same thing. "I've been lying since I was a little kid. It always protected me. And when I stopped lying about my Quirk, all the horrible things I was afraid of happened. The lies were a defense mechanism for myself, and they still are."

Zach spoke in such an understanding tone of his own mental state that Iida got even more confused, as he had felt the opposite way a few seconds ago. "How, so?"

"Because my own memories are so painful," Zach whispered at the tall, broad-shouldered teen before him who tried to keep a discerning look even as Zach's sad eyes stared forward into his. "The amount of people I've brought back to life, the comrades I've lost, the things I've done, the- the… horrors I've seen. It's way too much." Zach closed his eyes for a second and pushed another tear out of his left eye for it to roll down that side of his face. "And I kept moving so fast back when it was happening, because I couldn't let the villains recover, and when they adapted to my speed I sped up even more to counter their adaptations, then I sped up more, and more. It worked because I didn't want to think on those things anyway, but I just let it pile up more and more. I wasn't sleeping for days at a time, just moving nonstop from fight to fight without ever running low on information…"

Iida's eyes had grown larger and he stared at Zach in hesitation as words kept spilling out of Zach's mouth without him pausing for enough time to breath it looked like. "…and I traveled across dozens of countries in a day fighting hundreds, thousands of villains I took down with my own hands. I lost comrades in my arms, or I heard their screams over comms, or I just lost them when I wasn't looking. People I loved and cared about and fought side by side with and ate every meal together and talked about life after the war with and they were just gone. For the second time they died and I couldn't do anything to save them." Zach spoke faster as his face started to scrunch up, his expression steadying back a bit as the words came out more rapidly, "And I never thought about them. I just pushed forward. I was sad, and it hurt, but I had to make sure everyone saw me as confident and strong as ever…"

Something Zach was telling Darling repeated in Iida's head. It was something he had not focused on too clearly at the time, as so much was happening and Stain's name had kept echoing through his mind instead. "But I was in charge, and so I couldn't let anyone see me break down. When things were bad, real bad," Iida stared at Zach with his eyes shaking as his expression looked as real as it did that night when he was talking to that brown-haired girl. "I couldn't let anyone- I couldn't ever…" Iida pictured Zach reaching a hand up to his chest and clenching it so tightly. "I had to stay strong the whole time, because I needed the others to believe in me. I needed them to see me strong so that they wouldn't falter. I did it because if I didn't then they might die, and then I'd have even more that- that I couldn't even react to. But I'm not, I'm not that cold a person that I could see them die and see all those things and be so emotionless… So I didn't think of- I didn't think about any-"

Iida's heart raced as he watched Zach trying to hard to come up with the words. And he remembered what Zach said after all of that only a few nights ago, "...And I still-"

"But when I had all that time in the Void," Zach started, looking at Iida with his teeth sliding back and forth over each other as he paused for a second again. "And that moment came, when who I was and what I had done, and everything, it all came at a single moment… But I couldn't do it. And in the next moment I didn't think about it anymore. Not like that. Not like… this." Zach grit his teeth and looked into Iida's eyes in a more serious way though his eyes were still red from the water. "But I've never thought of it- of that day- not really. I haven't thought about it like this, what really happened, until right here. Right now with you. Because those stories I made, they were close enough to the real thing that I was able to invoke some of my feelings towards them without breaking down because I knew it was just a story. As long as it was just a story, as those were just characters in a- a fairy tale, I'd be able to talk about them. I'd have a story to tell everyone about where I was, and I wouldn't lose it because- because that would be the reality that I had accepted."

"You can't just change the past," Iida responded in a low voice. "It doesn't work that way. And if you really accepted that story as the truth, if somehow you made it so you could truly believe it-"

"I don't believe it," Zach snapped, an angry look flashing over his own face. "Of course I don't- but they are the, the memories I choose."

"That's-"

"Crazy, I know," Zach replied, his face scrunching up in pain even as he said it. "But no one could live remembering all the things I decide not to- No one, Iida. You included. You couldn't do it." Zach glared at his friend who was looking like he felt he had to do something after hearing Zach admit what he just admitted there. "Those people I loved, those things that happened around us, I never thought about them because I had to be strong for everyone else and keep pushing, but I care too much," he whispered the last part with his head tilting back, his eyes so wet and his teeth clenched furiously at what he said. Iida's expression shook and he pulled back, as Zach leaned forward and whispered, "I've always cared so much. I forced myself to learn everyone's named and their pasts, to be the one who was there to recruit them, and to find out who they really were and know what they wanted to do with their lives and why they fought with me, so that I'd be that much more inclined to protect them and keep them all alive," Zach blinked and tears fell, and he gasped in a broken voice at Iida, "And then I lost all of them anyway. That battle Iida, they were terrified. They were, they were all so afraid to die…"

Zach shook his head and then pushed his chin down into his chest while the corners of his lips pulled so far apart. His teeth clenched in agony, and then he forced out, "But when we were ambushed I had to make them believe that we could win. I had to be strong and convince them that we were going to survive. I made them believe that I believed they were all going to live. I can see them, looking at me with hope rising in their eyes as I made my battle plan in that moment. As I pretended like I had had this plan made for weeks in advance, as I acted like I had totally seen it coming-" Zach turned his head to the right while Iida's bottom lip lowered, while he stared at Zach who was saying these things for the first time, to anyone. "But I knew they were going to die. I knew I was sending them to their deaths, because I knew there was no way a hundred people could all survive against a force of thousands. But I watched them lift their helmets and cover up faces that I would never see again, and I just- I just moved forward."

"I never mourned," Zach said, his voice steady all of a sudden and his tone more detached from what he was saying. "Because I just keep moving forward. Even now," he said it and looked into Iida's eyes, and he wiped his own at the shocked and pitying way Iida was looking at him. His serious expression made Iida start to return to one too, though his eyes stayed wide as Zach explained, "I think of how to convince everyone of my stories, instead of thinking about how I'm lying in that moment and how it feels. I think of how the way people reacted to those stories is going to affect me later on and how I can fight villains in the future and what I will do moving on in the public view. And though I need to look back on the past for my mistakes to learn from, if I change up the story a little and am always thinking while I tell the stories of the past about how to convince people in the present and future that they're true, then I'm not fully focused on the past and what really happened. I don't have to imagine it and all the horrors that came with it. It wasn't some fun fairy tale, but some horrible fucking memories that I don't want to talk about. And it's not that I'm repressing the memories, Iida, because they're all still in there," Zach tapped on the side of his head with his left hand.

"But I have to convince everyone that I'm fine," he continued, his tone intense as he lowered his left arm back down to his side and stood firmly before his former classmate. "And when I'm out I need anyone who might be recording me to see a smile and a confident expression. I need to do this so I can convince all the people I hurt when I suddenly left, that I'm back and I've changed and I wasn't as hurt as I led them all to believe leading up to the Lifebringer Incident." Zach stared deep into Iida's stunned eyes, "All those other regrets besides Airi, all those things I need to fix that I left broken, I can't fix anything without doing this. And I want to convince my friends who I left behind and hurt so much that I was out having adventures and had all these crazy fantastic stories, but was acting as a hero even at war. I need to convince myself that certain things happened in the ways I could tell them to other people. I couldn't walk around all day with a smile otherwise, and that's part of the reason I came back... and that's another excuse I created in that moment to build a plan to create those fake memories."

Iida's bottom lip dropped as Zach said that in a thoughtful voice, like he was realizing it himself that it would make sense for him to come up with that reason so he would have another excuse not to think on those horrible things. "The stories you tell though," Iida started. "They're still, a lot of them from what I've heard are-"

"As horrible as some of those new stories are, new ones that I still hide from most people because even those fictions I created are horrible, they're nothing compared to the reality that I hide from myself," Zach replied before Iida could finish. "The Battle of the 6 Armies really was a horrible, massive battle, Iida. And we were outnumbered, but it wasn't 10 to 1, it was 100 to 1, easy. And one of the villains, A Hundred Fold, he was able to multiply himself and so many others a hundred times, so even fourteen thousand might be low-balling. Plus all the bodies we couldn't even count afterwards, the ones not even-" Zach shook his head, but Iida was narrowing his wide eyes with his thoughts racing at something he just heard. "The truth, is that I was caught by surprise. And they were on all sides of me, after they shot our helicopter down as it returned to our flying headquarters, a mobile HQ I made because I really didn't want to put people in danger by being camped in any one place close to them for long. That base was my home, where I made all those memories with so many comrades I had lost, but I set off an EMP to knock out all our systems and everyone else's up there."

Iida listened closely but his expression was narrowed and his eyes reading Zach's face looking for the slightest sign of a lie. The longer he was going without seeing that though, the more anger welled in Iida's chest at the seemingly honest expression Zach had while he poured this out for him. "We all fell twenty thousand feet, towards the ground that was also covered for miles in every direction in villains. I knocked out all their super advanced weapons' systems too though. All the targeting systems and high-tech weapons that relied on electricity. Everything the Pueblos had gone and spent the rest of Bolivar's money on, a secret stash of hard cash they must have had hidden away so even after I bankrupted the villains in the Siege of Raz- Wampajawa, they had enough money to put us on a technologically equal level. And all those villains down there, even the ones outside of the majority of powerful, brutal villains, even those weaker ones were supplied with powerful weapons and Quirk-influencing drugs. And the Triakuza heads had brought their own weapons that didn't get affected by the EMP, their biological ones. Including-"

"The Triakuza?" Iida asked. His voice took a tone to it that had Zach stop completely, his eyes that were lowering moving back up and the thought of one man pushing from his head. "A Hundred Fold? After this 'battle,' were they captured by heroes?"

Zach's expression stayed flat for a moment as he saw Iida's dark one hidden just below his accusing gaze. That look rose to the surface though as Zach replied, "Yes."

"You-" Iida stopped himself and held back hard as he was ready to start shouting there. After all of that! It wasn't even- "You're talking about the Villain Summit?"

"The Villain Summit," Zach repeated. He said it and then nodded his head after a second while he looked into Iida's eyes. "That's what they call it, but-"

"Zach!" Iida snapped it and he cut off the shorter boy before he could say anything else. "What you're describing isn't the Villain Summit. It wasn't an ambush on you and your comrades. It wasn't this at all-"

"You're wrong," Zach said. "The Villain Summit isn't real-"

"There were heroes there," Iida said. He stomped forward towards Zach and searched his eyes desperately for a sign that this really was a lie, but this time he knew. He could see it for sure that Zach was talking from the heart here, and he shook his head in frustration at himself for listening for so long right there. "There are dozens of confirmed reports on what really happened that day." Zach opened his mouth but Iida continued quicker, "I know you were there, but the heroes saw what was happening. They found out what was going on, and it was a gathering of all those villains in order to make an alliance. They wanted to join together and make truces, but the talks broke down and they all started attacking each other. And the Army of Death joined in on that fight, making it even larger-"

"That's not what-"

"Everyone knows it," Iida cut Zach off before he could finish his own interruption. "The Chinese heroes who were there told everyone what had happened. People died in their city so don't tell me they were lying to protect you either." Zach's eyes darkened and his breath calmed down, his expression darkening just as Iida's had a moment before. "What you say happened that day, wasn't what really happened. That was a huge event that everyone saw-"

"Why are you so sure of this?" Zach asked. He stopped Iida again, but when Iida opened his mouth to respond Zach continued first, "I was there, and you weren't, but this isn't just disbelief. You really think I'm crazy rather than accept that maybe you don't know what really happened."

"That's not what really happened though," Iida said, his voice pained which stopped Zach from looking so dark. "Everyone knows what happened that day. It wasn't in the shadows. It's not… it's not something you can just say we didn't see. We all saw it. Heroes saw it and people told…"

Zach's expression lifted back up and he took in a deep breath. He steadied his voice and spoke up while Iida was still speaking in his pained voice. "Iida, when the heroes arrived on the scene, I was the first one to speak to them." Zach looked into Iida's eyes with no hesitation or uncertain look. He did not appear crazy nor did he speak in a shaky voice. Zach told the teen in front of him in no uncertain terms, "And I told them that it was a Villain Summit. I told them what the villains had come to do. How they had come to form up in an alliance of powerful villains, hoping to take the place of the League of Shadows." Zach's voice got lower and he said to the teen in front of him whose face was shifting from disbelief to shock and confusion. "I told them, exactly what they would go on to tell the press. What they would tell other heroes, and what the press would spread to the rest of the world… to become the truth. I don't blame you, for believing in it so strongly. That was… that was the point."

Iida hated the apologetic tone in Zach's voice, but he could not close his mouth as he stared into Zach's eyes. The realization he had had a minute ago about how Zach really was crazy, that he really did believe in that story that Iida knew for a fact was false, was getting overtaken by a different revelation. "I didn't want anyone to know, that the villains had gathered up in such a strong force solely for the purpose of taking me down. The strongest villains remaining, every one of the biggest groups of villains from across the world. Eziano and his assassins, watching from that plateau before I shattered it, throwing a massive rock into the cliff and swinging a huge arm of Death into their paths. Former lieutenants of Shadow Bosses, the Triakuza, the Pueblos, Yusugoro, The Retainer, The Rippermen and the Gravitous…. and all of those strongest villains from every country in the world, had beef with other strongest villains from around the world. We knew the Rippermen and Gravitous hated each other, but they were united under the same leader because they knew they needed to in order to survive, and because they were from the same region. And we knew the Kimchi were always afraid of the Triakuza, so a single whisper that they were going to be wiped out once I was dead was all it took to turn the Asian army against itself."

Zach's head bowed a little but his eyes stayed risen, but the darkness shadowed over his face more in the dome already deep in night. He looked up into Iida's eyes and said, "It was not a long battle like Wampajawa. It was longer than most, but only an hour, hour and a half max for the thickest fighting. And the heroes arrived late. They arrived late into the battle, as most had gone to their city first where the damage had been caused early in the fight. That city was far from the fighting though, and they arrived only after my forces had turned all of the villains against each other. And I created the lie in the moment I needed the heroes to fight with me." Iida's huge eyes stared at Zach in attempted disbelief though he could no longer convince himself of it. "I could have told them anything, but even in that insanely intense battle I was focused on everything, everywhere, all at once. I thought about the future, and I told them something believable and something that would create a lie that I could use to my advantage against my enemies who would not be defeated in one fell swoop that day. And the entire world, believes in this lie."

"You couldn't have, done something like this," Iida started. "The whole world- you couldn't make a lie that…"

"But I did," Zach whispered back. His whisper was so soft like he was not even admitting to it. The whisper itself felt to Iida like something that should never be said. It sounded to him, in the tone Zach said it, like a secret buried underneath the world. Zach's eyes stared intensely into Iida's and he said in a dark voice, "History is written by the victors. It's been the case in every war in history, that in the aftermath it's the winners who were the ones in the right the whole time. It's their enemies who were the ones committing the atrocities. As for my war, a secret war in which it would be hard to write a history about anyway, I controlled how history would be written in other ways. I had the power, and no one will ever know that I had the power. I had the resources, but no one could ever imagine that a group that isn't a country had those sort of resources. And I fought a war in the shadows, in a world where no one will ever be able to accept that there was a war going on in the shadows. And I did this easily. How could people believe in the lie? Because the truth, is less believable. Because the lie seems like what the truth would be. Because villains who hear what they're being accused of, accept those circumstances as the new truth. They accept it because they knew it's the truth I decided on and they were terrified of me. The same reason they never brought up my name, all the hundreds of thousands of villains sent to jail by my forces and me. And sure, some crazy ones, some fanatics, they don't care and they tried to tell heroes and argue the case that they weren't really in China killing innocent people because of a Villain Summit, but because they wanted to kill Death. But when heroes saw what happened, and when thousands of other villains are just sticking to the story they're being accused of, the truth is clear."

Zach stepped towards Iida and said in a quiet whisper, "All I had to do, was tell those heroes that it was a Villain Summit, and that became reality. It's why I've lost my grip on the 'truth' and what my stories really are. I was telling the truth before, all this time, because the truth I told the others are the stories you heard, and that I believe. And if I was the only one left to know the real truth, and I now have changed my truth, then that has become the reality. Because if no one knows the forgotten truth then it's lost and becomes the story."

"That's not how truth works," Iida whispered back, a small shake of his head as he said it like Zach was insane for thinking of it that way.

Zach bit down on his bottom lip that trembled under his teeth. Iida stared at Zach's face that looked seriously hurt in that moment, and Zach said in a hoarse voice, "It has to be. Because," his teeth shook more on his lip that slipped out from beneath it. "Because I've been telling lies to Norasaki who's a lie detector, but I choose to believe my stories which mean they are my truths." Zach's face scrunched for a second, then he continued fast to try and get that pain to leave, "And I was the only one who knew what the actual truth was, so if I'm telling the truth and the others only know that version of the truth then that is now true. It, has to be!" Zach's face scrunched more the second time, as he thought about Kotsumura calling him out for the lie of when he took out his phone to see what was happening with the Subspace Devils. "But…" he started, his voice choked up as he thought about how much Kotsumura calling him out on that had confused and boggled him. Then another face appeared in his mind that made Zach gasp and lean his head back, "But Darling messed all that up. Because she knew the actual reality-"

Zach grimaced. He lowered his leaned back head and said to Iida in a tired voice, "I was never supposed to see people from the past again." He said it like he had failed already, like the plan he had come up with to keep these truths and lies in place to himself, had already fallen apart. I have to keep trying though, Zach reminded himself, and his expression became a bit more serious again and less tired, though he could not erase it all from his expression. "If I never did, then that past would become forgotten to history, and instead she brought it back to life. Darling revealed a past that I had… that I had…"

I was, underestimating it, Iida thought in realization as he stared at Zach. His mental state, was even worse than I thought back when we heard his conversation with Darling. He's stable, but- Iida clenched his teeth behind his lips in sheer frustration all towards himself. All I used to think about, was how Zach was lying and making plans with these careful lies. This whole time I've been thinking too much of him. As amazing and powerful as Zach is, he is struggling.

"So the Villain Summit," Iida started. His state is bad. He seems in control. Today he fought our class without causing severe injury, and he only used Death on Sero but he swears a minuscule amount. Is what he's saying real though? "Not the Battle of the 6 Armies, but the Villain Summit. What really happened there?" Is this for me? I want to know, the real truth. I don't know if I can accept that you could do something like that. That you had the ability to do it, not the will. You could have, if it was possible. You would have…

"It really was, a Battle of 6 Armies," Zach replied. "I mean that, Iida. The Pueblos gathered up the villains of Latin America. They told the other villains to scatter from their bases, flee as I went through my world loop after Wampajawa. I knew where every villain in the world was, but as fast as I moved in those three weeks, it wasn't fast enough to stop them before they packed up. If I had just gone a little faster- but I didn't. I went as fast as I could at the time, but there were still highly capable villains all over the world. And they knew that I knew where everyone was. And they knew that should I complete the world loop and get rid of that many powerful villains, they would never have a chance again at taking me down. I knew that some of them knew this, and I knew that they were planning to organize a counterstrike, an ambush on me somewhere, sometime. They knew that I knew though, and they were smarter than they ever had been. They kept everything quiet and only told people their plans if those people were grouping with them, and they kept those other villains somewhere, in hiding, until the day of the attack. So no one could leak information on it. The Triakuza heads, used money the Pueblos leant them to carry out more horrific experiments, creating monsters out of people, twisting and deforming them to create the most powerful human weapons that they were able to reign in all of Asia, Australia, Oceania with. The African villains, well they were more united out of fear of me than anything, though there were some powerful villains there too who organized their forces. The Europeans and North Americans, they gathered up the most powerful and well-renowned villains from their continents too, under the strongest of King's men who had evaded capture for months after we stopped him. So many huge egos, and they couldn't unite under a single leadership, but five different ones. Five of their armies, and one of mine."

Zach paused for a moment and then said in a dark, deep voice, "You always tell me that it wasn't a war. That we weren't armies, we weren't fighting battles-"

"You weren't," Iida said, countering as Zach was speaking in a 'do you see now' sort of voice.

Zach grit his teeth and lost that expression only for his eyes to get much darker, "That's the reality that you believe, because you can't accept-"

"I don't accept it," Iida retorted instantly. "You were vigilantes, who villains decided to attack because you had been doing too much damage to them. I'll accept that much, but it wasn't a war, Zach. Wars are between nations, armed forces with-"

"These villain groups spanned across nations. They had control over political figures they'd been blackmailing and bribing." Zach shook his head and said in a more pissed-off voice, "Each of us on our own, each of those armies and my own had more money than the GDP of dozens of smaller nations. Far more resources and capital. We were better armed than any nation, because every nation has banned firearms, whereas we weren't just using guns but missiles and grenades and rocket launchers and tanks and weaponized Super Jets. I had an R&D department developing new weapons using technology from all the illegal weapons' facilities all the strongest countries in the world had hidden away from their heroes. Combined with all the technology made by Quirks in research labs and human experimentation facilities, and all the tech that we obtained from the villains we had defeated so far, our technology was so far ahead of the rest of the world's." Zach lifted his left arm and pulled down the sleeve a bit, revealing the metal arm that he turned over, then curled his fingers in on before opening up as a palm for a blue light to glow on it with no glove or anything covering the steel and shredded fake skin.

It's all impossible. Stuff like that is… But it's real. How could it be real? Even if that is, I don't have to accept- "It still wasn't war," Iida said, lifting his eyes from Zach's hand back to his face. "No matter what you say, you weren't fighting some war against an ideology or an enemy. Villains will always exist, and we will always need people to fight them but we fight them as heroes. Defenders of the law, not as criminals ourselves. Not as vigilantes, or terrorists-" Iida stopped himself there, as he reminded himself how Zach pushed for that title which was something he could believe and did after hearing what else Zach could change in how the rest of the world saw things. He stopped with that though, and he said in a determined voice, "But there was no war against villains. You fought them, but-"

"Why do you care so much, that it not be a war?" Zach asked. His voice rose a little as he questioned it with pain in his tone.

Iida countered strongly back to him though, his voice rising too, "Why do you care that it was?"

"Because I-" Zach started shouting, but he cut himself off with the hardest clench down of his teeth as he could. "Because I convinced myself that it wasn't, and the rest of the world believes me, and it's hard to… to convince myself otherwise, but when I'm talking to you like this! When I'm trying to just, tell you the truth," Zach's voice was sad and his eyes full of pain as he gasped it at Iida. "I was there, Iida, so stop telling me that it wasn't real because- because I don't know if I'll be able to hold onto these memories if you-" Zach stopped himself with his lips pursing and his watery eyes looking desperately at the taller teen before him who pulled back in shock at that look, weaker than he had seen Zach in years.

"And yeah, I was the one who created the story of the Villain Summit in the first place, so I made it so all those news channels said what they did about us-" He stopped himself and looked to the right, his face starting to look angry only to revert back an instant later and a ragged breath to slip his mouth. "But when they, talked about how, how the heroes had seen when we left how few of us there were, and they said how that was a good thing. How, how maybe we should just fade away, as we had just gotten in the way- and we had just made the incident bigger to damage that city and kill those people… I couldn't- I couldn't watch that and still not feel…" Zach paused and he tried to pull it back, but he shook his head as he couldn't while talking about the truth like this. "It was my plan to make that be, the story. To make everyone think of us like that. But to see it actually happen. To watch as the world got so much better," tears streamed down Zach's face freely as he let out a few slow and ragged breaths. "While my friends who had made it happen, would never get any recognition. While all those people, half of-" Zach stopped himself again, his lips trembling so his voice had gotten shakier and the words unable to come out clearly.

"A lot of people died, so stop telling me it wasn't real," Zach whispered at Iida, his head lifting and his tearing eyes locking with his friend's stunned, and regretful, ones. Zach's voice growled in a harder tone though, trying to get himself back to speaking instead of just standing there in pain. "Those gladiators I told you guys about. The ones who followed me, every last one of them. Not one of them survived past the Battle of 6 Armies. Some, only had their first death in Wampajawa, but Ansario, and Rivona, Ted and, and Berserker. None of them could survive that battle." Zach's voice was pained but steadier again, and he said while closing his eyes for a moment, "They were the last four who had been with me in the Pit, and they all fell following me. They all gave their lives for my goal, my ambition, the idea that maybe we really could stop them all. All those villains, who my friends joined an army, willing to lay their lives down to stop. And they did lose their lives. Those four fell from a hundred wounds while facing 100 to 1 odds, worse."

"Not many would survive that battle without falling once, barely a quarter of our forces could say they didn't die that day, and yet I couldn't revive those four who had already died before be it in Africa, or Wampajawa, Brazil or Siberia, in the sky and under the ocean, in deserts and frozen wastelands and jungles alike." Zach took a second and then he added, "And Spilaro-"

Zach took in a deep breath, shaking his head around rapidly before hissing in a lower voice, "Spiral. He fought hard for months with me. Through the hardest days of the war." Zach paused and then said softer, "He grew as a fighter, and as a soldier, and as a person. He made comrades and built bonds that would last a lifetime, which for him would only be a few months." Zach's eyes shook but he steadied them right away, taking in a sharp breath and then letting it out as a gasp as he could not hold it in or let it out slowly. "And he was so young," he gasped while out of breath. "So many were… Access was 18 when he joined, and he got hit by an aging Quirk- but he was still 18 on the inside, despite looking 6-12 years older. Raylei was 19 like Spiral, but Spiral was a little older since I remember fighting side by side with him, on his twentieth birthday, a few weeks before he died…"

"Zach, you don't need to-"

"Darling's just a little older than me, sixteen years old when we started. And Cee's just a year older than us, 18 when she died…"

Iida stared at his friend in front of him, and he felt his heart racing faster as he heard that name both he and Darling had gotten broken up over on Inazuma. How close the two of them sounded to her, and now he knew that she was the age he was now when she died. And he pulled his head back more as Zach whispered in a hoarse voice, "She'd been fighting villains for years, with her teacher, an anti-hero who I- who I got killed by telling Kaminari… But she forgave me. And she fought with me, and she- she was a kid. We were kids. We were just kids, and many of the others were in their twenties, lots twenty, twenty-one… and there were those younger, like Cody and Snow- What was I thinking? Having a kid on board? We got attacked, and there weren't a hundred of us who could fight, but there were over a hundred on board. There were, so many injured, and a kid, and doctors-"

Zach reached up his left hand and gripped into his head without caring as it hurt immediately upon him tightening a grip there. "How could so many of them die, and I still be here? I went first into every battle, rushed into the most danger and took all the fire so the others behind me wouldn't… And I'm still alive. I, didn't expect to live that day. I was a diversion, for all the others to go underground and then emerge and attack and create chaos- I! I thought for sure I was going to die, which meant there was nothing holding me back. I had accepted it. I wasn't afraid to die, because if I was scared for my own life, how could I do those things? How could I fly head-first into thousands of enemies who were prepared for me? How could I charge into battlefields putting myself in the line of fire, as the primary target… how could I have protected my comrades if I cared about my own life more than theirs? My soldiers… my subordinates… those who followed me to war."

Zach's face turned extremely dark, and Iida froze with his mouth partially open as he was thinking about asking about the people Zach mentioned who were younger than him. Iida lost all urge to question it, freezing up with a nervous look spreading over his face as the tone shifted in an instant. "And those amazing people died fighting a war against our enemies: the murderers, the rapists, people who sold each other like livestock, like weapons, like toys to be played with and thrown aside… People who experimented on others, tortured them and turned innocents into creatures… and my war ripped the foundations of these established practices apart, as much as I tore apart the ones doing them." Zach's growling voice got darker and his eyes flared red, and Iida heard in what he just said that tearing them apart was not a metaphor, "I've killed so many of them, freeing their slaves and their gladiators, burning their cities to the ground and ravaging their armies!"

"On that battlefield I used Trigger twice in an hour, and I knew my heart couldn't take it but I did it anyway. And I stood three hundred feet tall, being attacked on all sides by thousands of enemies." What Zach had said earlier about fighting thousands on his own echoed in Iida's head, but the tone he had used earlier when telling the story, made everyone who heard it just listen and take it as part of the story itself. It didn't matter how much each person believed Zach, it was the way he told the story that made for the kind of reactions he invoked. And the way he said it this time, Iida could see it in front of him now, what it would really look like if Zach had gone to war against thousands of villains and injected with Trigger while they all attacked him. "None of them were running. Fighting and killing me was what they came for. They sent in the short-range fighters, hundreds of them all at once, moving quickly around my massive body, flying and running around and- and then all the mid-rangers and long-rangers attacked at the same time. It didn't matter that their comrades were all around me, they just launched the largest bombardment of every ones of their Quirks and all their strongest weapons…"

Zach lifted his right hand up in front of his body, and he stared at it with his intense and furious expression shaking for a second. "I can, see that moment," Zach muttered. "As I opened my eyes, and I couldn't breathe. I was drowning in something, and I could barely move a muscle. I tried to spit out the liquids but opening my mouth just- and I, I was surrounded in stuff that was so wet and- hard. I pushed up, to get out of there, and I clawed my way up through those bodies." Iida took in a sharp, nervous breath at that word Zach whispered like he was remembering it, the shock of what he was actually drowning in. "The realization that I was- I pushed it away," Zach retold, as he thought about clawing his way upwards. "It smelled so bad, and I couldn't get a grip on anything. It was so wet, the blood and the sweat and the tears, the mud and the vomit and intestines- shit and piss- and I felt a hand grab me by the ankle, and I kicked it off desperately while gasping in more blood and trying to get to the surface."

He bowed his head with his own eyes as huge as Iida's. Iida could not even doubt what he was hearing with all the graphic detail Zach was saying that had him feeling sick himself. Zach continued while his shaky eyes stared at the floor, "I reached the top and pushed my arm out, and I yanked my head out of the corpses and took in a huge breath of air. I stood on a pile of bodies twenty feet high, and I- I looked, I looked forward and I saw-" Zach's eyes shot open massive, his heart pounding violently to the point he was in physical pain, but it was not slowing down easy with the image he saw in his head. "Invisible platforms all over the sky, covered in people running around and fighting, and the platforms were moving and some people in the middle of a fight got squished to guts by the walls closing in- and above them, seventeen black holes ripped across the sky. Each with dark orange cores that pulled people in and- and an ocean of lava rolled across the land and engulfed hundreds- while mountains rose and broke apart and more rose in their places. Thousands and thousands of villains all drugged up on Quirk enhancers, using weapons the world has never seen before, fighting so savagely across battlefields littered in corpses and bathed in red-"

Zach looked back at Iida and paused. He paused and his face flashed with as much pain as Iida had seen on it the whole time they had been talking. He'll never look at me the same after this. I shouldn't have told him… but I have now, because he wanted to hear it. He wanted to know. Zach's expression lifted a little and the pain went away as he told himself that it was Iida's choice. He looked at that astonished look on Iida's face and went on, "And I really was terrified… no? Wait."

Zach stopped himself and he gained a confused look on his face for a second. He thought about how earlier at the fire he said how it was scary for him at the time, how terrified he was of all those enemies… Zach stared into Iida's eyes and he said, "I think, I wasn't. Now that I think about it, I wasn't terrified of all those enemies. It was horrifying, and I, I was terrified of losing- but I say that now because I feel like I had to be back then. No, when I climbed atop those bodies my thoughts were clear. My mind focused on winning and nothing else, because I had to defeat them. Thousands of villains stared towards me in fear as I climbed up on their dead, and then I rushed them, and the ones I rushed knew that the others around that pile of corpses would fire their Quirks in their direction just for the chance of hurting me, so along with my own terrifying appearance they had other incentives to run. And I made thousands run from me. While I was recovering from Trigger, while I was fucking bluffing, I defeated thousands of the most powerful and dangerous villains on the planet. Because if they escaped me, they would hurt innocent people."

"I think, if I ran, I probably wouldn't have lost many people that day." Zach said it with no regret in his voice, instead just looking into Iida's eyes in a serious way that had his classmate trying to look back at him like that too. "I knew that I could run," Zach continued. "My comrades all shouted at the start how we needed to. My closest advisors believed we should. But, although I knew I would lose the people closest to me, I attacked those villains."

"I knew some of my men might want to flee, so I went in first as a distraction with the highest chance of being killed because I was their main target. And I, knew that, most likely most my soldiers would perish, but those villains who could go into hiding or use their newfound alliance to become more powerful, or both, they had just revealed themselves to me. All those villains I've been looking for. Villains who would massacre thousands if I let them escape. Villains who were the final bastion of an Age of Villains in a world on the brink of recovery. 'If I could just beat them…' It's what I told myself, though afterwards I pushed myself to keep moving on to the next so I wouldn't have to sit around thinking about that day forever. I sacrificed… my friends, sacrificed their lives, because it was either we fight and probably die today on that battlefield, or we run away and allow those villains to kill innocent people tomorrow. I chose, fight. And I convinced the others who followed me, to push aside their fear in favor of confidence, confidence we all needed in order to do what we had to do that day. And those who died, died for all of our ideals including that they don't care to be remembered. As much as I hated myself for making us out as terrorists and villains, recklessly attacking the Villain Summit, I knew what it was they died for. It didn't make it easier for me, or for the other survivors who didn't know why they were left while all their friends had died. An army? A couple dozen traumatized, badly wounded… But we had won."

Zach whispered the final part and then he cracked the smallest of smiles. "The war was over. There was still work to do. People to fight and villains to stop, but, I didn't just pick the time frame for when I was off-world because of when the evidence of me being here was. I picked it because that's, that's really when the war was." Zach gave Iida a reassuring look and said, "You don't need to be worried about the Army of Death. You don't need to be worried that I have any master plans with them or anything. I worked so hard the final few months I was gone, trying to keep that war alive. Acting like it was still going on and fighting as hard as I had during the rest of it, but although there were some strong enemies left out there, I was the, the ruler of the underworld. No villains could stand against me. I was hunting Eziano Mozcaccio and Amaterasu. I was, stronger, than anyone. I had more experience than any villain bar Eziano, maybe. In half a year I had stopped the rise of villains, reversed crime rates, took out the powerful invisible hands controlling villains all over the world for much longer than just that rise, saved millions- billions of lives, captured hundreds of thousands of villains, and I sent in so many tips that I couldn't stop the world from realizing something was up, so we just had them be called 'anonymous' tips and got everyone to stick to that story."

"It's," Iida started but was unable to finish with 'impossible,' as impossible as all of that sounded. "That's… I can't even-" Iida stared at Zach with his throat dry as a younger Zach's voice echoed through his head. "…I'm done trying to fit into these societies. How much good could I do, if I just, cast Zach Sazaki aside? Cast Lifebringer, and Reaper, my past, all of it away?" You weren't an anti-hero. You weren't a hero or, or a villain. I think it's impossible because there is no word for what you were. Because you made your own- just like you said you would. Iida stared at Zach, and despite being over four inches taller at six and a half feet, Zach felt like the biggest person he had ever looked up at from above.

"You wanted to know. You pulled me aside, and you forced the truth out." Zach looked steadily into Iida's eyes as he said these things. "And now you know some more. I could tell you about a thousand things you couldn't believe. I told you about one battle, one battle Iida and you can't even wrap your head around it." Zach paused and his expression got slightly accusatory, "So what makes you think I can handle all of it? I'm trying. I'm really trying hard here."

Zach stopped for a moment but then revealed, "I'll gladly take the opportunity to talk about those stories, when it's so graciously provided for me like back at the fire. Because Airi started to unravel my hold on those memories, that reality that I need everyone else to believe and accept. And yet this was good too, because I see that I can separate it. I can separate the truth from the stories. And although I'm going to continue going on as the guy who believes those things, I know that there are six of you now who know the truth and I think, I think I can handle that. I'm not going to talk about much. I'm not going to get into it often, at all if possible, which knowing you guys it won't be." Zach paused for a second and he smiled without the look on his face that he had had throughout most of their conversation. He looked like he had just reverted back to an earlier version of him who did not just reveal all those things and dredge up all that horrible shit.

"It's up to you to decide when, if ever, you turn me in," Zach told his friend standing in front of him. "But you know that if you do, you'd have to tell the world what I've told you to make you believe that I'm him. You'd have to convince people of what I just told you. You and I both know that's impossible." Zach started forward, and he smirked to his side at Iida, half-taunting and half-joking which showed Iida that as much as Zach was being smug about it now, it really was just incidental. Zach was just mentioning it as an aside, that what he just told Iida had made it very impossible for Iida to consider turning him in anymore. "They'd think you're crazy. And, they'd think I'm crazy too even if I backed you up. You can watch me closely like you said you would," Zach paused after walking past Iida, looking back at the boy still in Class A who had turned and was looking at his back now with a partially angry, but still mainly just a look like he was processing everything. "But I'm going to be a hero now, Iida. I've put my mind to it, and everyone's watching me, full of hope that I can really do it. They all want to see me succeed, just like I know you do. I'm glad you're keeping an eye on me, but I won't let you down. I won't let any of you down." Zach turned back forward and continued for the campsite on his own, leaving Iida to process back there, while an uplifted expression rose on his own face for when he was caught by the cameras again that he knew he would be stepping into view of in a second.

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A/N Hey guys! Thanks for reading! Didn't realize when I started writing this chapter that it was going to be the longest one so far, kind of caught me by surprise when I uploaded it and saw almost 50,000 words. Anyway, hope you got through it and enjoyed the chapter! Zach talks with Bakugo, Jirou, and Iida (little bit of Uraraka too there, some Ashido, it was a long chapter XD). He tells the story of the Battle of 6 Armies at the campfire, though Exodus' name slips in there as he gets a little too into it, leading to a confrontation with Iida dredging up the reality of the Villain Summit that Zach's convinced the world of. Iida struggles with his own beliefs at the end as it's Zach's word against what everyone knows, but while Iida has a tougher time of it, Zach accepts his own struggle with the truth and how to separate it from his stories. So, thanks Iida! Bringing up that past is still tough for Zach though, and he's stuck between wanting to show his old friends a real version of himself, convince them he's not just lying 24/7, and his desire to keep everyone thinking he's back and happy and that all that happened hasn't destroyed him. His goals clash pretty directly, since it's not the truth that he's alright, and Iida realizes that as much as a few others like Midoriya are starting to notice. We never saw the Villain Summit in full detail, but some more of it revealed this chapter, along with how Zach imagines this Battle of 6 Armies. Neither the Terra story he told nor the reality the world knows is what really happened that day, but it's up there in his head, between all those different stories. The truth. Not the truth he believes and can convince himself well enough that Norasaki believes it, nor what history will consider the truth, but what really happened. Man, getting into Zach's mindset to write out these chapters gets tough for me, really, really tough. Fucks with me. Reality is... Lol Anyway! (I'm just kidding guys) Let me know what you thought of the chapter, comments, questions, predictions, and hope to get out the next chapter a bit quicker! Review responses: (btw, editing this chapter alone took me the last 13 hours)

orangelarcenist chapter 171 . Aug 9

I loved the the joint training exercise! All the fight scenes were well written and described in great detail so I was able to picture almost everything perfectly. Great Job on that part!
Don't know if this was intentional, but to me it seemed that UA somehow looked down on the Shiketsu Students?
Also loved the Imino vs Kirishima and IidafFight. It's nice to see how Imino improved!
You have a great way of showing Zach using his Tech to fight. This really makes the fights interesting as there are other fics, where the only things characters use are quirks without mentioning any kind of support gear.
I'm hyped to read the aftermatch chapter, where there hopefully will be a talk between Jirou and Zach.
also, THANK YOU FOR THE CHAPTER!

THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEW! Midoriya realized he had looked down too much on the Shiketsus this chapter as he thinks about how he really thought only Zach could defeat him, Todoroki, and Bakugo, yet it was really Inasa who pushed him into that cage. Imino improves a lot from Ranking Day, and Kameko's changed too to 'come out of his shell' XD. Anyway, I'm glad you liked the chapter and the fights, and I hope you enjoyed the aftermath and the talk between Jirou and Zach!

DarkJokes chapter 171 . Aug 9

Oh no Six of the shiketsu people were captured. Which to them essentially means death. I guess it was inevitable tho as UA isn't weak as well. The way they are now they can take on the league of villains and not all of shiketsu members are super strong well quite a few of their quirks are more of a situational based.

Gonna cut off the rest of the review 'cause it was pretty long (thanks for that though!). Zach does get pissed though about losing seven* of his comrades, even though he admits he was taking it seriously and knew how strong his enemies were. I think Iida realized a bit of what you mentioned at the end of your review, as Zach takes a rare moment to actually brag about what he had done. It was more him just accepting the truth of what happened, but the truth sounds like he's bragging with all he's done for the world. And yeah, the villains definitely fear him more than they did All Might. Zach stood on a pile of corpses drenched in all kinds of bodily fluids, looking around at a warzone with thousands of enemies surrounding him, and those villains feared him, not the other way around. XD Zach's number 1 in my mind too. As for the last part about Death being cold... ehh, it's a bit of a stretch. We haven't really seen anything to believe that that would be the case with Zach's Quirk. Anyway, thanks for the long review and I hope you enjoyed the new chapter!

Momozaki chapter 171 . Aug 10

Phew that was exciting
Thanks for this. Most stories play safe and stay within cannon, but I appreciate how you've just gone beyond that and expanded Death into so much more
Can't wait for the next chapter.

Thanks! Bit tough to stay within canon when I've long passed where the manga's currently at. (The last arc excluded as I was waiting for it to end, and I don't know what/ if anything, I'll do with that now). Sorry for the wait, and hope you enjoyed the new one!

AMR-MNR2 chapter 171 . Aug 23

Author Sama? Are you alright? Going two weeks without an update (from knowing your dedication) is a little scary! Could I ask, you maybe add a little note to your profile description noting the rough 'progress' on you current chapters? Anyhow, have a good day!

I'm alive! I thought maybe I was writing slower than usual, but it turned out the chapter was just way, way long. XD Don't worry though, I'll always be here 3 Seriously, thanks for the worry you guys, and I'll try to get the next one up quicker! 'Til then, hope you all enjoyed, and thanks for reading, faving, following, and reviewing this story!