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!

173. Chapter 173

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 173:

I'm getting so careless.

First I told Momo things that were supposed to have stories behind them. Whatever I could pull out of there, I gave to her. And now six of them know. Midoriya won't be able to hide it. He's too earnest.

Is my time running out? Zach sat back at the fire that had twelve people sitting around it other than him. It was later in the night, and the original structure of the fire had broken down so it was now less a bonfire. The students who remained this late had brought over some more wood to toss on and keep the fire going, and some of them had dragged their sitting logs closer to the smaller fire too so as to still feel the heat. Zach was looking to his right and listening to a darker story that Dendo was telling about an internship he had been to a little over a year ago along with a classmate Zach had never met, Ireni.

He listened as Dendo mentioned how the internship was coming to an end, how they had defeated the villains they were after, and how the agency and the cops had all let down their guards. "…That's when they appeared. All in those black cloaks, besides for the one in red," Dendo turned his head and looked towards a teen with spiky blond hair who glanced over into Dendo's eyes. Dendo did not say anything to Bakugo, but the single look in his direction was all everyone there needed to know, as Bakugo was most famous for taking down that very villain. "Faith himself didn't get Ireni, but Himazuri and I took down the bastard who did a month later when we were interning together. She heard him thinking about it, right at her." Dendo shifted his gaze away again towards the tents where Himazuri had already gone to sleep, and he thought about what she told him when they were facing that villain together. How the villain had known Himazuri's Quirk, and how he thought Ireni's screams into Himazuri's head, screams that only Dendo and Himazuri had heard of all their classmates.

"The Stain Cult's gone now," Reika said, leaning forward on her log with her hands out in front of her closer to the flames. On her side was a large tank of water they had near the fire for her to use to put it out with once they were done. The girl with long blonde hair added with a dangerous smirk, "But Intanzo's still out there. And he's mine."

Others looked to Reika, and she started talking about a favorite heroine of hers she had had since she was younger. They all recognized the name of the hero, as one of those who had fallen in the world famous Nara Raid, one of the most devastating blows for heroes over the past years. It was soon after the fall of the Stain Cult too, reminding all of Japan that one villain gang's destruction did not peace make. Bakugo's eyes finally shifted over to Zach though once the others were looking away from him. He avoided doing it just by them bringing up Faith, but he glared across the fire pit towards his old classmate who watched Reika with a straight expression and flat lips.

Intanzo. Shigaraki. Kaminari. Eziano. All For One. Mysti. Dabi. So many villains. I rid the world of so many, and I left Japan up to the others. I had, told myself it was because I trusted them. That I knew they could do it without me. There are only a couple outside of Japan I had left though, and so many I was leaving here. Midoriya, Bakugo, the rest, they would have stopped them, given enough time. Zach lowered his gaze from Reika as she talked about the Nara Raid now, where her idol had fallen with a cluster of other heroes against Japan's most wanted villain. I moved so fast though. That's the difference. Speed mattered more than anything. And now, now I'm just sitting here. I could have taken down Intanzo by now… I say, with no evidence of that. He's in hiding. They're all, in hiding. Only the Jazz have made even a little noise since I returned, other than the Subspace Devils. And the Jazz have even fallen silent since I stopped Overlord. When villains go into hiding though. When you can't find them. That doesn't mean they've disappeared forever. If it's anything like, the Battle of 6 Armies, they're just organizing. I wonder if they'll all unite? Would it be under Intanzo… no, of course not. I don't know him, but I know Shigaraki. And I know Kaminari. Whatever plan they have, I have to be ready for it. I have to focus on them, survive Eziano's continued attacks, and graduate to get a hero license. Finally…

Look at him. Pretending he's not avoiding my gaze. You know that I know about Faith already. Don't you? I know what you did to him. Bakugo's eyes narrowed more on Zach as his old classmate would not turn his direction to look him back in the eyes. I didn't see what you could do today. I wanted to. It's all I wanted, and you didn't give it to me. I lost, in every sense of the word. Bakugo thought it angrily, but the right corner of his lips did lift up a small amount. You didn't get to see what I could do either. I'm stronger than I was at the last Sports Festival. I'd beat you. Is that why you didn't fight me? No, you wanted to face me. I saw that you did- but you wanted me to come down there! You told me you wanted me to… Shit, but I wanted to too. You wanted to because it fit with your plan though. Would things have been different? If I had defeated you there. I blamed Deku but, if I had attacked, he would have attacked with me instead of heading back on his own. The two of us against the four of you, we would have won. And if you were out of play, your class had no chance. Damn it. I should have attacked. Because I can beat you. I will, when it comes down to it.

Surprised Bakugo didn't make his own fire. Thought for sure he and Todoroki would. Todoroki just went back to his own tent though, and I think Iida went straight there too when he got back. He'll probably be the next one to find me out. Midoriya and Iida aren't good at hiding it, so with someone actively trying to find me out, I'm out of luck. As long as there's no proof though, I don't think any of them will do anything. Not that it's fear of how they would convict me that stops them. It's our friendship. The lingering remains of it, at least. For Todoroki, that might not even exist anymore. I thought I needed for sure to talk to Jirou today, and I did, but Todoroki too- there're too many people I've fucked over here. Too much to do. But, at least I got some stuff done. It's not as simple as fighting a villain and putting them away. It's not something I can just punch or kill. This is, it's harder in the sense that it's something I'm not really used to. I can do it though. I have to. I've gotten a grip on myself, I'm on good terms with my Shiketsu class and around half of Class A… maybe not half, maybe a quarter. Zach looked back into the flames as a couple others mentioned how they would be looking for Intanzo too after the semester ended. The U.A. students did not join in, and the Shiketsus noticed but quieted down instead of asking why they were not focused on catching Intanzo too.

"The League's been real quiet lately, hasn't it?" Dendo brought up.

The U.A. students around the fire looked his direction. Mineta and Tsuyu looked over from the same side of the fire where they were sitting next to each other. Yaoyorozu and Shoji and Sato all lifted their heads too to look at the teen with bright green hair who looked around at them.

Bakugo shifted his eyes over from his own seat, before looking back through the flames towards Zach again. Zach looked back at him this time too, and he said, "You're the last ones to come in contact with them, right?" Others around the fire looked to Zach as he started speaking, but they turned to Bakugo after to see the blond frowning darkly at the question but not snapping about it or anything. "When Phinx and Lee went after Midoriya's mom, you fought-"

"You knew the guys the League sent after…" Dendo began in surprise.

Everyone around the fire looked Zach's direction, Bakugo with the darkest look of all after his eyes had widened there for a split second. Mineta and Yaoyorozu both stared at Zach with wider eyes than most though, as they had heard Phinx's name before. Yaoyorozu calmed herself down quickly though, as she recalled Midoriya had already heard that Zach knew them before Zach revealed everything else to them. It's not something he keeps a secret.

Mineta's heart was pounding though much harder, "But even Eziano's assassins not a part of his organization like Phinx, were insanely powerful and capable of anything. Phinx killed my men there, then he was there when we attacked the Syndicate in the Dragon's Den to stop the Christmas nuke. He was there when Eziano attacked my headquarters-" Why is Zach bringing these guys up? Why risk this?! "I found a child with the power of a nuclear bomb who villains were using to try and- They were going to nuke Paris. Throw the boy into the city and make him explode, to cause so much widespread chaos in the long-term that the League planned on, and that they and Fergus hired mercenaries to make sure it happened. And that boy died in my arms, and the kid tried so hard to the moment he died not to let any radiation out, trying not to kill me despite it being my fault he got shot. A seven year old- or eight year old boy, holding back his glowing light because it was melting through my arms, after he had pushed me out of the way and taken Phinx's Spike to the chest…"

Asui Tsuyu looked to her side and her already large eyes grew wider still at the unnerved look on Mineta's face. Mineta-chan? Do you know, what it is-

"Yeah, I met them overseas and failed to stop them," Zach replied in a low voice with a look towards Dendo. "I heard they were the ones who went after Midoriya's mom. I don't know if they were working on getting the other names on that kill list," his gaze shifted back to Bakugo. "But I thought maybe you'd know something more?"

We don't have that kill list. We fucking- I fucking lost it. I lost my cool and let it get destroyed, and we didn't get any information out of those villains. Bakugo ground his teeth as he thought all of this without saying any of it aloud. He knew he should mention some of it to the other heroes-in-training, but his anger directed inwards at himself, which he then redirected outwards with a dark glare at Zach. "You seem to know everything about it already."

Bakugo's voice was accusatory, as Zach had been free when that incident happened. Zach responded without hesitation though, "I've talked to Midoriya about it." Bakugo grimaced harder as that made sense too, more sense even than whatever he was suggesting. "But he ran off to save his mom, while you fought the League. You and Lemillion, were the last ones to find one of their bases. And now it's been what, eight months with no sign of them?" His question was dark and made the fire pit eerily dark, with every person staring at Zach in at least a little surprise at how serious his tone and expression were.

"The list was destroyed," Bakugo said, snapping it in a low voice but at least answering this time.

"But you got a look at it," Zach said. "The other names-"

"I don't remember them," Bakugo retorted. Was only focused on that one name. "Lemillion did though. The list is a secret though, and the people we know are on it have protection details." Bakugo paused for a moment, then he growled as everyone was still looking at him, "That's it. They're still being protected, and there hasn't been an attempt on any of them since."

Zach frowned deeper and he leaned back on his seat with a thoughtful look. Was the kill list a ruse then? Did they know Midoriya was coming, so they brought the kill list up to show him- no, it doesn't make sense to give up those strong assassins for just a ruse… Except for Kaminari, doing something unpredictable like that might just make sense in his long-term play. Or maybe the lack of attacks since was because of what happened to the last team of assassins, so new ones aren't lining up for hit jobs. Or maybe Eziano called back all the hitmen and assassins to await my release from prison. Send them all after me, and so the League of Villains aren't getting the same outsourcing they used to. Damn it. Kaminari's too smart. I don't see any plan of his getting carried out without excessive casualties. Hopefully part of his plan revolves around killing me at least. It's all I can hope for.

"Isn't it, a good thing they haven't made any noise?" Imino offered up. "Maybe they're just, going…" he trailed off and did not finish with the way the Class A students all looked.

Reika grunted and looked away with a pissed-off expression. The League aren't as big a deal as they were before. I, can't say that to them though. And what if they know that's not true? The way their classmate betrayed them. Damn, if one of ours had done that after years of- I can't even fucking imagine. "I don't think so," Tsuyu replied to Imino as no one else was responding to him. "It means that Raijin's plan this time, is even longer in the making than his previous one. Years of planning, for something, something I can't imagine-"

Tsuyu turned her head to the left in surprise, as her left hand on the log at her side was just covered by another hand. Her big frog eyes rose up from their hands into Mineta's eyes, and the short boy who was an inch taller than her now just gave her a comforting and reassuring look after he had put his hand there. There was no perverted look on his face or feel that he was using the moment as a chance to make a move, it was just a comforting gesture from a friend. For the Shiketsus who did not know that Asui had died, they felt even more like there was stuff about the League of Villains and Raijin in particular that they didn't know.

Reika looked to Zach still frowning herself, and she said in a low voice, "As much as you all hate their guts, we do too." The others looked to the blonde-haired girl who made Zach lift his head and face her as well. "If you U.A.'s are holding anything back about those bastards, and we go after them unprepared-"

"We're not-" Mineta began, lifting up his hands defensively as the Shiketsu girl was looking pissed all of a sudden with that accusation.

"Really?" Reika asked, her voice still accusatory as she looked towards the shorter boy who had reacted there like he agreed with Asui and knew something huge was coming.

Mineta did not pull back at her angry look directed straight at him this time. He lowered his hands down while looking darkly at her too, and Reika said to the short kid, "Because oddly enough, we don't know jack shit about that Raijin, even though you lot spent over a year with him." The other U.A.'s were all glaring towards Reika now too, and some of her own classmates had uneasy looks about the things she was saying, not that they necessarily disagreed with where she was coming from. "Yet you're so sure he has a plan," she mentioned, lifting her tone wondering how they could know that but not know anything else. "And that he didn't just give you the slip? You're sure, he's not just, gone?"

"He's not," Mineta replied. He glanced towards Zach to see if he would respond, but Zach was just frowning and looking back in the fire after something Reika had said a minute ago. Mineta looked back at the blonde girl himself then if Zach was not going to say anything to her. "He wants to destroy everything our society holds close. Everything people believe in, the things that will always win. People, who will always bounce back," he mentioned that softer and Zach lifted his head, looking over at Mineta in surprise to see the short boy looking straight into his eyes too. Mineta continued quietly, "He said he did it just to beat All Might, but on his way to completing that goal he added a lot of things, like beating U.A., and Class A, and heroes, all of it."

"He told you all of this?" Reika asked, her voice less accusatory though still angry and confused at how the U.A. student could know it all.

"Yeah, he told us," Sato said, making Reika look his way before seeing the same looks on the other U.A.s' faces. "He told us everything he had done, when he…" Sato trailed off and did not want to bring that day up. He could see both Tsuyu and Zach in the corner of his eyes, and he just stared across the flames towards Mineta who he was surprised had been speaking about it in a steady voice. "He's the worst of them," Sato growled at the end. "That's who he is, and he's not just 'gone.' He hasn't just disappeared, and everyone's being stupid for underestimating him."

"Hey-" Imino started with his lips lowering as that sounded directed at him.

"He was my best friend," Mineta said. He cut off Imino who turned and looked at the shorter boy in surprise. Imino's eyes shifted to Zach for a second and then back to the shorter boy who added softer, "Too." His head turned a little and he looked at Zach for a moment before looking back Imino's way, "And I didn't suspect a thing for over a year. No one did. Raijin was that good, at being evil."

There was a lot of anger in Mineta's voice as he said what he just said, and it was Asui's turn to look to her left side with a soft look at Mineta's upset one. Zach watched Mineta, and his gaze shifted so he saw Bakugo looking angry and like he might get up and leave in a second. Reika was still pissed, but she was looking more like she was accepting and considering the threat Raijin posed to their world. "Kaminari," Zach started, breaking that silence that had everyone from both classes looking so dark. "Was the only person I," Zach paused and he closed his mouth for a second like it was hard to get out, but instead of an expression that showed him struggling emotionally to say it, his appearance was more like he was struggling only to pick the right words.

The other twelve people at the fire looked towards Zach and watched as he rose his head back up and looked straight at Reika. "If not for him, I wouldn't have recovered after my torture at the hands of the League. I don't know if I ever would have trusted anyone again. And, well, he got past me because of those things." Zach paused for a second, but he kept going despite those looks aimed at him from all sides, "And when he betrayed me, he killed a lot people I cared about. He'd, manipulated my life, put me in all those situations I thought I had come across by pure chance, or fate. Kaminari tortured my family to death, killed people I loved, and he almost broke me." Zach shook his head after saying all of this in a steady, calm voice.

The Shiketsu students still at the fire had not heard any of this. They all knew that Zach had been friends with Raijin back when he was Kaminari Denki, but to this extent was insane and Zach stared into Reika's shaking huge eyes as she heard him admit all this to her. Dendo glanced around him and though he saw some pained or pitying looks on the U.A.s' faces too, none of them looked surprised by what they were hearing. That is, until Zach continued in that same tone, "But I don't hate him."

"As much as you all hate their guts, we do too." Reika's wide eyes bulged and her speeding heart rate shot up even faster as Zach's whole small speech right there seemed to be in direct response to something she said a minute ago. And the moment Zach said it while looking right at Reika, everyone could see all that he just said was about that single sentence she mentioned. "Wh-What are you…" Reika started, cursing in her head for that stutter but unable to focus much on it as his expression was serious about what he just said.

"You're kidding-" Sato began too, but Zach looked his way and right into his eyes that got him seeing how serious Zach was about that too. His look made Shoji and Yaoyorozu both stare his way in shock too, Yaoyorozu's breath sucking in sharply at the intense and strong appearance on his face.

He's still, lying… Bakugo leaned forward on his log, such a confused look on his face.

Mineta was frustrated and curled his lips in confusion too. How does this work into his lies? Does not hating Kaminari have to do with his stories?

"I mean it," Zach said, looking back to Reika again. He said straight to that girl who had spoken so hatefully towards Intanzo and then again when she was asking about Raijin. "We shouldn't hate anyone as heroes. It's not-"

"You're telling me you don't want revenge for what he did to you?" Reika accused Zach in a highly skeptical voice.

Zach closed his mouth as she interrupted him, and then after a couple seconds he just shook his head once with a slight frown on his face at the question itself. Everyone there stared at him in shock though at how real that head shake seemed, how much Zach actually seemed to be telling them the truth. It almost felt like he was admitting something wrong to them, just by telling them that he did not hate Kaminari. "Life's… too short to look for revenge."

He said it and then looked a little to the right of Reika towards Mineta and Asui. "How could you not hate him?" Mineta asked, his own voice getting angry as Zach was looking serious about this.

"There's enough hate in the world," Zach replied. "I don't need to add to it." The second part came out softer, and Zach lowered his voice while shifting his eyes around the fire a little more to the people farther across from him. "Besides, revenge doesn't," he paused. Zach stopped himself, and then he continued without much restraining thoughts, "It doesn't make you feel better." His tone spoke so knowingly, that it was clear he had experience in the area, making an unnaturally eerie silence in the campsite as even the fire stopped crackling for a moment. "You think you need it, for closure, or, because it's all you can think about, but when you get it you're just left with this empty feeling. And when people look for revenge it's because they hate those people who did terrible things-"

"So what? You're just going to let him get away with it?" Sato asked, his voice raising angrier at all Zach was saying in too calm of a voice. The large boy's fists were clenched furiously over his legs, and Shoji and Yaoyorozu both looked in towards him to see a conflicted look of anger directed straight at Zach instead. I knew it! I knew, all this time. You changed too much.

"No," Zach replied to Sato, though the large boy's anger did not look to subside. He frowned at Sato's accusing look right there, but Zach looked to Momo as he continued, "And I don't forgive them either, but stopping Shigaraki and Dabi and Raijin is about helping people. The people they'd hurt if we don't stop them. And for justice for the people they've already hurt," he added at the end too, and he felt relieved as he saw Yaoyorozu nod at him and all he just said.

You're absolutely right. We don't need to add any more hate into this world. Yaoyorozu Momo looked away from Zach after a moment and looked into the fire. But do I believe, that you believe that? I told myself that you wouldn't lie anymore but that's just to the six of us. Why would you say all of this just for a lie though? Except, that's what everyone else would think. There'd be no reason for you to lie there. There was though. Everyone was feeling down, and angry, and hateful, but you started off by telling us all the horrible things he did to you. And if you can keep fighting him without doing it out of hate, then any of us can, and we all know we should. Even if it is a lie, that you don't hate, I understand your reasons for saying it. The problem is, that I can't tell anymore. It could just as easily be the truth as another lie. We can both justify them all we want, but we might be past the point of having a, even a friendship where we can trust each other.

Bakugo rolled his shoulders and stood from his seat. Without a word he turned and headed over for his, Kirishima, Shoji, and Tokoyami's tent. Shoji watched him go for a second and thought about how he was the last one of his tent mates still out there. Reika saw what he was thinking, and she yawned too as it was real late in the night. Others were watching Bakugo go, but Reika just waved her hand at the tank on her right side that started scooting forward towards the edge of the fire pit. "I'm hittin' the hay," Reika said, standing up and not asking anyone else what they thought. "And since it's up to me to put it out."

"Go for it, I'm tired too-" Imino started.

"Wasn't asking," Reika said, and Imino rolled his eyes while standing and turning away. He was saying it so she would not feel bad about ending it all on her own decision anyway. Imino stretched his arms up while the others started getting out of their seats, and Reika tipped the tank of water into the fire slowly, pulling back after pushing it enough so that her own Quirk and gravity were working against each other in the best way. She poured the water over the fire and stepped to the side to make the huge steel bucket shift another way too, and the loud hiss of steam filled the air along with all that steam and smoke itself as the water put out the flames.

"Night," Zach said as Dendo was walking past him, and he was walking a different direction towards his own tent.

A few of the U.A.'s just watched as Zach headed away, as they had stayed near the fire while Reika put it out. The blonde girl glanced at them but did not care much about what they were doing, so she turned herself and headed off with another girl towards their tent. Yaoyorozu, Sato, and Shoji walked around the fire to where Mineta and Tsuyu were looking after Zach as he headed away. "No way what he just said was true," Sato said, his voice low and getting the other four to look back at him.

"You don't think so?" Mineta asked, his voice quiet and still wondering that himself. He's been through so much. Seen so many people die… It feels like he's on a whole other level. I, I could see him really being, beyond that? Beyond hate? No way. He doesn't even hate, Kaminari? He called him Kaminari again and not Raijin. I've never heard him call him Raijin, actually.

Asui looked at the floor for a few moments as Yaoyorozu started mentioning how she believed he could be telling the truth. The frog girl was breathing heavily and her eyes were sad as she thought about the way Zach looked back as he was saying those things in such an assured tone. "…And it would be more heroic to fight for justice, than for revenge. He is certainly right."

"I'm," Tsuyu started, and her four taller friends all looked to the short girl with her arms curled out in front of her body. Her voice was soft, and she said while glancing back in the direction of the tent Zach headed towards, "Done being mad at Zach for the camping trip." The others looked at the short girl with dark green hair in surprise. Most of them knew how she felt about what Zach had done, and the ones who had gone to see him knew that Tsuyu never had.

"You are?" Shoji asked, surprised by what she said and wondering if it was just from what Zach just told them that changed her mind.

Tsuyu looked back up at the taller boy and replied, "For anyone else who did the things Zach did I wouldn't be, but he isn't anyone else."

"It shouldn't matter that he was our classmate," Sato said, his voice getting angry and making the other three besides Tsuyu look to him in somewhat confusion. Sato had seemed like someone who had been on Zach's side, up until about a month and a half ago.

It's not because of that, Sato-chan. I don't think badly of Zach, Asui thought about the look in Zach's eyes again. I believe what he said, about him not having hate in his heart towards them… because he still left Zach Sazaki behind in that forest. Asui held her tongue instead of saying any of that to her friends talking softly to Sato now and figuring out why it was he had been distant to Zach since he returned. The frog girl also partially listening to Sato felt a pain in her heart though, I knew something was off at the hospital, but only with what he just said do I realize what it is. The friend we knew back then, he really is, gone for good.

---

Zach lay on his back on the grass near the U.A. team's base. The grass had dried out from when Todoroki melted all the ice, and he was laying far enough from the edge of the building that even the damp spots remaining did not reach him. He had his hands behind his head, his left steel one underneath the right still inside his black glove that more softly cupped the back of his head. The dome had no artificial lights in it other than the small ones Yaoyorozu had made back at the campsite, but Zach was far enough from them that the area around him could have been pitch black. His eyes had adjusted though, and there was enough light coming in from above that it did not take long.

The dome must be right in the middle of campus for me to be able to see all this, Zach thought while watching more stars become visible to him the longer he stared at the sky. The moon was a little over half full, and at the angle he was laying he could see it over the tops of the trees past his feet. Zach heard footsteps but stayed staring straight at the top of the dome, though he closed his eyes after a few seconds as he could not place whose footsteps they were. Not too heavy, not too light. No hesitation though. Oh, it's been enough time. "Hey Sero," Zach greeted.

Sero Hanta stopped walking towards Zach for a second, and he chuckled before continuing as he had just been thinking about how Zach did not notice him coming. "It's pitch black out here," Sero said, having his phone out in front of him to give at least some light.

"If you turn off your phone, your eyes'll adjust better," Zach countered. "It's nice actually," he added.

"Huh?" Sero slid his phone into his pocket, and he walked right up next to Zach who finally sat up a little. He looked at the sitting boy's face next to him and Zach looked back to see a disappointed look mixed with exhaustion. Sero mentioned after a second, "Death really packs a punch."

"You forced me to use it," Zach said, and Sero smirked back. Sero knew it was an attempt to make him feel better, but he did actually feel good about knowing that. He sat down next to Zach and asked who else he needed to use it on, and Zach listed, "I fought with it against Todoroki, Uraraka, Midoriya, and Bakugo. Kirishima too, kind of. But you were the only one I used it on," he finished at the end with a nod at him like Sero was the one who beat him the most.

Sero was sitting next to Zach, and he rose his eyes up to the sky after Zach did when he finished his list. "Was really hoping we'd beat you," Sero said softly. Not that I thought we would.

"What can I say? I don't lose," Zach replied, his voice slightly cocky but the joking tone also sounding serious too.

"What about all those times you mentioned losing?" Sero remarked back. "Since you say you learned so much more when you lose."

"I lost today sometimes too," Zach admitted. Sero looked at him confusedly, and Zach lay back on the grass with his hands behind his head again. "When we lost Imino," Zach started quietly. "And each of my classmates I lost, who I felt like were dying under my command." Sero's eyes widened as he stared down at Zach, as he had not heard anything about this.

He had been passed out until recently when he woke up in a tent with Mineta and two of the Shiketsu students. He woke up a groggy Mineta who told him what was happening, and Sero went out to get a look around, and when he did not see Zach around the empty dark campsite, he figured he could multi-task. He wanted to see what happened to their base after Mineta drowsily mentioned their loss but how the Shiketsu's base was completely destroyed, and he was glad to spot Zach laying not far from it. Sero opened his mouth to mention something, but Zach continued after a second's pause, "When I had to use Death on you, in order to prevent you from notifying the others as to your situation early, they were all failures on my part. Each time I failed to predict my opponents' counters, those were mistakes that could have cost my classmates their lives."

"I get it," Sero said, his legs crossed and his eyes looking down at Zach's face. Zach's eyes shifted over to the right corners and he looked up at Sero who nodded like he really did. "You didn't expect my counters though?"

"I didn't think you'd leave Mina and Sato behind. I predicted that you would fight together and hope to last long enough that one of the others would come back you up. Running off, knowing that she was going to fall while you did-"

"If I was thinking about it like she would have died-" Sero started defending himself.

"No, you made the right call," Zach said, shaking his head to show Sero had no reason to be defensive there. "I knew how you were all thinking of it, but you overestimated me- or you estimated me, correctly."

"Don't really know what that means," Sero said. Then he cracked his lips up into his naturally big smile, "But thanks, I think." Sero yawned while thinking to himself, I got a lot out of this training too. If you're going to take all those "losses" to heart, I've got to consider why it was you were able to wipe us out so quickly. Mineta says it was like a 'Zach show' out there earlier. Sero had some questions about the joint training, but his eyes were drooping and he yawned again in a long way.

His eyes shifted back down to Zach's face and his eyes that were locked up on the sky above. "Aren't you going to get some sleep?" Sero wondered. The tent had been full already when he woke up, so he had assumed Zach just decided to come out to sleep under the stars. The way he looked though was like he was not tired at all.

Zach stayed silent for a couple seconds then replied simply, "I wasn't planning on it tonight."

Sero rose an eyebrow, but then he stretched his arms up and lay back on the grass only a couple feet from Zach who lifted the left corner of his mouth farther from Sero up a smidge. "Thing is, I don't really need to sleep much," Zach admitted. "Weird, right?"

"Yeah," Sero replied. "Why don't you?" He asked.

Zach's lips that lifted that small amount fell back to flat and he took in a breath and let it out slowly through his nose. "I was, fighting at all times. Every day, and night." Sero turned his head to the side and looked at Zach confusedly, his eyes darting around afterwards at the nearby trees as he wondered what Zach was saying out in the open. "For weeks, months, I was fighting villains nonstop," Zach continued, and Sero looked back to the side of Zach's face to see a steady expression and his lips lifting into a small smile at what he was saying aloud here. "Because there was never a shortage of villains. I always knew where more were, because villains were quick to rat on each other."

He waited a moment and glanced to his side at Sero before back up as he saw his friend was listening closely to him. "They all had such strong resolves at first, because some of them assumed my army were like a force of heroes." Zach's voice had gotten softer and now he was whispering with just the two of them there to hear his voice, "But rumors spread through the villains. Things the AoD had done, things that I blew out of proportion myself when spreading the rumors on my own." He made a low noise from his throat that Sero thought might have been him chuckling, and Zach said, "I had a field day on the internet just making up lies about what we had been doing. Me and my comrades wrote all that terrible stuff we did to villains after catching them all across the dark web."

"This one time," Zach continued with another chuckle. "I had been hearing things about copycats out there. I didn't want that. I didn't want anyone changing up our message, or incriminating us, or pretending to be us and taking credit where it wasn't due." Zach kept his small smile even as Sero stared at him in more surprise. How Zach just said 'where it wasn't due' did not make Sero think they were "stealing" the credit from anyone, but that Zach considered even if they had stopped villains the credit still would not have been theirs to take if they did it while acting as AoD. Zach continued and Sero's eyes bulged at the story Zach was actually saying, "So to stop those copycats, a few of my comrades decided to put out rumors that fake AoD members were executed on the spot by any real ones who saw them. That way they could prevent fakes and copycats from appearing who wouldn't do things my way."

Zach shook his head and he said in a soft voice, "I remember walking into that room when a comrade told me what was going on. Gabriel and Pincer had tied A.P. to a chair, and all of a sudden their loud, fake interrogation was over. All three were dressed in our uniforms, but A.P.'s helmet was off and he had some fake blood on his face that was already aged-up and disguised so no one he ever knew beforehand would have recognized him. All three looked to me and got nervous, but I walked straight towards A.P. with my body covering in Death that had my comrade get even more nervous, and then fake getting really afraid after that. I'm glad he played the part well, because if they didn't do it on that first try I probably would have scolded them for just doing something like this without asking me. A.P. apologized for going too far while faking- but then I put my hand on his head covered in Death and I surrounded him with a flame of raging Death while yelling all this stuff about how non-AoD pretending to be one of us would all face the same, etcetera."

"He had already died once?" Sero asked, making sure though he was pretty sure of it already.

"Yeah, but he acted like I'd just killed him again. Even held back from flinching when I pushed his chair back and he fell to the ground motionless. We didn't make the video go viral, but we gave it out to some underworld contacts we had who sent it around to other people they knew."

Make it go viral? Could you do stuff like that on a whim? Did you? Sero let out a low breath that he had to breathe out for a couple seconds as he had held it while thinking those things somewhat anxiously. "You spread other stuff, like that?" He wondered.

"All the time," Zach replied. "It's the biggest way I changed things so they started ratting each other out faster. No villain has a strong resolve when they've heard the things I spread across the world that I was doing to them. Villains assumed they were going to be tortured in ways I wouldn't actually have done to them, and they spilled the beans on all their comrades. Villains are cowards. They prey on the weak and innocent, and run from heroes. I would threaten them with all sorts of scary things, and they wouldn't be able to see my own or any of my soldiers' faces so it kept an air of inhumanity about us. I made the villains feel like there was no way to reason with me. And because of this, and because I wouldn't let my people go into fights without me, I fought nonstop."

Sero's eyes widened again and he turned his head to just stare up at the sky instead. You didn't let anyone fight without you? What does that mean?!

"I didn't want them going into anything dangerous if I wasn't around to save them. So I'd travel across the world, sleeping on the way, get briefed on new information while I was there and fight. I'd fight some more if the next base we located was close, or I'd plan some stuff out and then travel back to a different country while telling the others to gather more intel before we make moves on the next villains there." Zach paused and took in a deep breath, then continued, "I was in the middle of hunting down 10 different villain groups all with intricate hierarchies, mission plans, drugs, all sorts of different variables. It was so much that at one point I actually started shouting in Arabic at a guy to tell me where the Effectless labs were, only for my comrades to remind me as the villain cried in confusion and panic about how he didn't know, that we were actually searching for a weapons' cache."

Zach's dark laugh afterwards made Sero uneasy but at the same time he just nodded his head once and kept staring up at the sky. Zach's smile lowered but he continued as he saw that nod in the corner of his vision, "I overworked myself, because I didn't want anyone to die. I wanted to be there at all times, which meant that when people did die, I brought them back. It meant that everyone in my army pretty much had two lives." He paused for a few seconds and then said even softer, "And so many of them laid down their lives twice for me."

Zach's face stayed steady as he spoke this time. It wasn't A.P., but Access. His lips twisted down and his teeth ground in frustration for a second. I'm editing it though, a new story- talking to Sero? He understands that there are cameras and microphones close enough, that I could still be keeping some things back just to be safe. He knows. "So many of them died twice under my command. A few left after the first death, the knowledge of what death is like scaring them from staying and continuing any longer. So many kept following me though. They followed me, and they died again for my crusade. But as many of them fought and died alongside me," Zach continued quickly without leaving a pause after those things he just said that had Sero staring with huge eyes up into the sky. "No one fought in as many battles, as often as I did."

"That's what you and, Airi, were talking about," Sero reminded.

Zach nodded but then explained in more detail, "Whenever I was traveling if I wasn't catching up on rest, I was learning new languages. Studying new information about governments we were investigating corruption in, new intel we had confirmed after recent interrogations, as we did not go straight from interrogating into battle unless time was pressed."

"All this," Sero started. He paused as he did not know if he should interrupt, but then he turned his head and went on to the boy next to him, "You say you went for weeks, months even, so at some point you must have took a break-"

"It was over," Zach countered quietly. Sero stared confusedly and then in shock at the response. "The end of the trails," he said. "We destroyed the labs and took down the scientists producing drugs or disfiguring people and experimenting on them. Revealed the corporations and governments funding them or allowing these things to happen. Weeded out the corrupt government leaders and made sure the next ones knew not to get in bed with villains. We destroyed terrorist organizations, and strengthened democracies, and funneled the money we stole from villains into schools in poor neighborhoods where villains come out of often because they don't have other options."

Sero gulped and then his lips curled up high at the corners with a gasped chuckle leaving his lips. You did what?!

"I hit the point where there weren't enough villains that I had to keep fighting every day. The villains who were left after the Battle of 6 Armies went back deeper into hiding, terrified of me."

"Do you, really think the state of the world right now, is because of you?" Sero asked. He had to clarify and he made his voice accusatory even while looking to his side, checking to see if that was what Zach was really telling him here.

Zach did not know how to respond. He opened his mouth but hesitated, and then he replied slowly, "It's in big part due to the efforts of heroes…" He paused and then continued while turning back to Sero himself to make eye contact with him, "But thousands of villains around the world were publicly captured by heroes, yet were handed to them in shady deals kept from the media and public, once the AoD had taken them down." Zach lifted his head and stared up into the night sky and all those stars again, and he whispered, "Tens of thousands."

Wow, Sero looked back up himself with that smile reappearing over his face. Quantity and quality. Great mix.

"Without heroes, the world wouldn't be so peaceful," Zach continued as he was frowning at what he just said instead of smiling. "People wouldn't feel so free to, be free." He hesitated for a second and then nodded his head while going on, "I'm glad that people think it's all because of heroes, or mainly because of heroes, and that the AoD really wasn't doing much. It's what I wanted. I tried so hard, to keep us from making it into the news after our first appearance in Saudi Arabia. News of us was only to travel through the darkness."

"The whole world's built on a lie then, huh?" Sero muttered, as he thought about this for a few seconds now and was losing his happy feeling about it all. "People don't know it was you-"

"What's so bad about that?" Zach wondered back, still staring right up at the sky like Sero was. "The world was already built on lies. Improvements in technology and knowledge about Quirks, medicine, they were all results of human testing." Sero darted his eyes to the side but Zach just went on in the same tone, "Human tests were recreated on animals so that the data accumulation could be revealed to the public, but the human tests were easier and more reliable so they did them in secret. The worst things in the world were approved by governments. Democratically elected officials watched over teams of scientists who experimented on the innocent with no hint of remorse. Eziano's assassins shaped history for centuries without anyone ever knowing that they were there, in the shadows. The League of Shadows organized what the world thought were the strongest villain groups but were still down a rung from the top of the ladder. Even All For One has had a massive impact in Japanese history without any of us ever hearing about him before Camino Ward."

"He has?"

"He has," Zach repeated at Sero's question. "But after a couple generations, if stuff isn't recorded in a certain way, it will never be remembered by the world or the people who come after. All those who know either die or are alive but keeping their secrets to their graves. So many secrets," Zach whispered after, his voice even quieter.

Sero half-nodded as much as he could on his hands that he held behind his head. So much of what Zach just told him turned his world on its head, and yet he believed every word coming out of Zach's mouth. And he knew these things he was hearing, he was going to keep his his grave too. They're your secrets. They're not mine to tell. Not mine to repeat to anyone. I want to tell you to stop talking now, just because I'm worried you're getting too risky here. Someone's going to find you out. "So what does that have to do with you not sleeping?" Sero wondered. "Too hard to with all that jumbled around up there?"

"No," Zach replied with a shake of his head. Luckily, none of that really messes with me. Everything I just said was vague. Don't need to think about those experiments to just mention how I know those things happened. In lots of places. "Because what's really being lied about? The heroes did bring in the villains. I just helped. I just knocked them out. And sometimes I killed them," his voice got softer there and more regretful, and yet he did not see Sero's expression change at it which Zach found himself frowning over more even as he felt more free to just keep talking. "I fought for so long, that when I realized there was nothing to do, there was no battle to go to after over 50 days straight of fighting… I didn't know what to do with myself. So I just focused on after-effects, organizing my army, micromanaging things I had previously designated to my comrades. I oversaw my army, as the Commander. I did rounds, to different countries to check on the situations in them. I caught up with my soldiers who I had not talked to in a while. It wasn't bad."

He paused for a moment and then whispered in a more uplifted voice, "The world was, better. In a few days I looked around and saw what the world was, compared to what it had been two months earlier. I had not even noticed because I was so rushed, so absorbed in my constant fights, so focused on keeping everyone alive and making sure we were doing as much good as possible, that I forgot to check to see if what we were doing was having an effect. And it did. I know it did. As much as I continued my fight and went on more undercover assignments, the peak of the war was over."

""War?'" Sero asked quietly.

Zach lowered his smile a little, his eyes shifting to the side in a hesitant way. He nodded his head, and Sero started to him, "Just because you created an army doesn't mean it was-"

"It was war," Zach said, no longer questioning it at all after what he talked to Iida about earlier. "The idea that there had never been a war since Quirks became a thing, never been real Quirk warfare, it's wrong," Zach said it in an assured and knowing voice that made Sero listen closely while taking it all to heart. "I understand Quirk warfare well, Sero. And what I was doing, the fights I was in, they weren't just fights against villains I was going to every day. They were battles in an ongoing war to bring peace to the world."

Sero's eyes stayed focused on the side of his friend's face, and his own look was serious but holding back his amazement and shock. Zach's, usually really humble. He's not even talking about this in a proud way though. What's that look on his face? He's just, thinking back on it again- no, it doesn't look like it did, back at his apartment…

"Eziano was the last," Zach whispered.

"What do you mean?" Sero asked, needing something to converse with and finding it.

"When I came back," Zach replied. "The one thing that made me hesitate about leaving was the idea that I never beat Eziano. I had lost friends to Eziano, and I lost Mark after I left," Zach added, his voice raising in tone a bit and Sero nodding his head as he remembered Hagakure reading that letter aloud in front of them. Zach shook his head in an upset way and went on, "Eziano killed him while my friends tried taking him on without me. And I could have stopped him. I should have."

"You said you would have if you could have," Sero countered. "You weren't lying to Midoriya, right?"

"No, he really did evade me all that time," Zach answered. "But, I was strong. Stronger than him, I believe." Zach's hands curled into the back of his head more and his eyes glared darker up through the roof of the dome. "His assassins carry so much power though. As much as I obtained, as much as my organization supporting peace was a counter to his sewing chaos, I still have no idea how much power he has left. The assassins fear me, like all the rest, but they don't fear me more than they do him. They know how many centuries Eziano has been twisting the world on the palm of his hand."

"It can't be that much-" Sero started. He grit his teeth at the look Zach shifted his way. "If they wanted chaos so much, and he had so much power, then why was the world at peace for so long? Why weren't there more wars if they could start them so easily?"

Zach did not reply to Sero for a while. He looked deep into the sky and said in a lower voice, "I think, it's probably because, humanity is even better than I always knew it was." Sero's eyes shot open wide at the answer as much as it confused him. He stared at Zach in shock, and he listened as Zach said, "Maybe Eziano has been trying to push conflict with all that power he has. Agents all over the world who should be able to carry out so much evil… and yet as much as they try to turn people against each other, as much as they want us to go to war with ourselves, we all just want peace. Too many people, just want to do what's good and right, compared to the powerful but few of them who wish to do wrong."

"You still believe all that?" Sero wondered in a voice that cracked for a second though he tried to bring the tone back by the end of his question.

Zach replied in a way that astounded his friend though, "I believe it even more now. Knowing there's a guy like that out there."

Sero smiled and he let out a sigh. "That would, be nice." It makes a little sense too. But I think you're overestimating his power. Unless he has some other goal we don't know about. It's so crazy, how big this world has gotten since we found out who you are. Just in the last few minutes alone. Sero yawned but tried to keep his eyes open, though he was feeling wiped even having just woken up from a nice nine hour nap. I'm going to help you though. With whatever you need. I'm glad, you're telling me… I know, those secrets you told Kaminari, were about the anti-heroes. And maybe, those names you mentioned, you probably changed those up too… But just this much is okay. Just this much, and I'll never betray…

Zach watched the moon cross the sky with his own breathing a little quieter than the heavy breathing of the sleeping teen next to him. Still no attack. Night's looking good so far. Zach rolled his neck out a few hours after Sero had dozed off next to him. It's probably around 1000 people who know about today's training. The news never got a hold of it. Or they just don't care, though I feel like some station would have made a big deal about the fated meet-up between U.A. and Shiketsu. U.A.'s plans are kept secret from the rest though, and other than all of us who knew this was coming, and their families, the staff, other students at the school, anyone they told… yeah, probably 1000 people, at least. So you know I'm here. Eziano, would you attack me here? Surrounded by so many heroes, I must have let my guard down so much. I'd never expect you to attack me here, of all places. Look, I'm even going to close my eyes.

His eyes closed and he took in and let out long, heavy breaths. Then his eyes slowly opened back up, No one's watching me. No one's about to kill me. Darling helped me out those other times, but I would have survived the attacks anyway. After that first shot, I was prepared, and I knew most of the time without your help. Even the times I knew though, she gave me more perfect locations. We were a great team. I hope she's eating enough.

Zach yawned and moved his left hand in front of his mouth to pat it a couple of times. As he was doing it, the person approaching on his right and making some noise on the grass spoke up, "Morning." It was still pitch black out, but Zach smiled and looked towards Kotsumura with a look like he had not seen him coming but did not mind to see him. "What's up?" Kotsumura wondered, as Zach had looked tired but was out there for a reason.

Zach motioned his head to his other side then put a finger up in front of his lips, and Kotsumura noticed on Zach's other side as he walked closer another boy laying there. For a second Kotsumura wondered if Zach had carried Sero over there as he looked as passed-out as he had been since during the training, but he came closer and asked in a realizing tone, "He finally woke up?"

"Knew it wouldn't be too long," Zach whispered in response.

Kotsumura lifted his eyebrows tiredly and glanced to Sero again, but the other black-haired teen was really passed out on the grass. "What're you doing out here?"

Zach hummed and then he put both palms down on his sides to sit up with his back still leaning back and his head tilted towards the sky. "I wanted to watch the sunrise."

Zach turned himself to fully face the east, and Kotsumura looked up before smacking himself gently on the cheeks a couple times with both hands. He shook his head around and smiled before stepping forward and sitting down next to Zach. "Sounds nice," he said, though he had initially gotten up so he could take a late-night/ early morning piss.

"It is," Zach whispered in reply. He took in a deep breath and kept staring up, but the glass up above his head was starting to look like different glass. The first Cloak's windshield appeared in Zach's mind, just over and around the sides of the computer he was always staring at. So many nights spent there, and I never fully appreciated it. "When I was in Terra," Zach began in a low voice. "Sometimes we had to travel east, really fast."

"How'd you do that?" Kotsumura wondered.

"It's not about 'how,'" Zach replied, making Kotsumura frown as he wanted to know even if that was not what Zach was intending to get at initially. "But when we had to do it, the night went by so fast. Moving towards the rising sun at those speeds, nights could last a couple of hours. The sun would rise above the horizon and to the middle of the sky all in a few hours. Day and night- I could put up blinds, close the gaps in the tents and, imagine it was night. But most of the time, my sense of what time it was didn't really matter. I was awake every day and every night. Fighting different kinds of battles depending on what time it was."

"And when did you sleep?" Kotsumura asked, raising his eyebrows as it sounded like Zach would overwork himself doing that.

"Whenever I ran low on Death," Zach replied, and Kotsumura got sweat on both sides of his face as he looked to his side where Zach was sitting. "Whenever it had been a few days, and I noticed my reaction time slipping, even a little. If I waited any longer for it to slip to a level of consequence, where someone I was trying to protect was killed, just because I didn't want to sleep? It would have been my fault."

"You sleep at all tonight?" Kotsumura wondered, as he had not seen Zach in their tent but wanted to make sure.

"No," it was a simple response. "I don't sleep all that often. I spend a lot of nights up all night on my computer. And no, not watching porn," Zach continued in the same steady voice, no break between those last two sentences. Kotsumura's lips had started raising and he was formulating the joke in his head to poke fun at Zach, and now he was suddenly confused as he wondered if Zach brought that up on his own knowing how it sounded like, or if Zach had seen the subtle shift in his facial expression that told him what Kotsumura was about to say.

It's like he can see the future. He predicts everyone, all the time. That's spooky, but it's pretty cool that he can do that though. Kotsumura kept a small grin on his face as he watched Zach out the corners of his eyes. I'm real glad you came up to me that first day. This semester's been a lot of fun so far, and you've got a cool way at looking at life. Keiji shifted his eyes back up at the sky and took in a deep breath that he exhaled slowly and in a relaxed way. A sunrise. Never really cared about watching one, but after all the horrible shit you've seen, something like that has to be amazing huh?

It was still pitch black though, even as Kotsumura accepted he might want to watch a sunrise too. He looked at the boy next to him just staring up with a satisfied look, awaiting that sunrise that was still a bit away. "Was good seeing all of them again, right?"

Zach looked to his side and he lifted up the right corner of his lips closer to his closest Shiketsu friend. "Yeah," Zach replied. His voice did not sound very sincere, nor was the reaction a very strong one. Zach lowered that lifted lip as he saw Kotsumura give him a strange look at the unenthusiastic reaction. "I don't know," Zach admitted. "It was, fun. It should have- I mean," Zach paused and he furled his lips as he thought about the past day. "It was intense."

"You got that right," Kotsumura agreed, as the fights he had been in earlier were no picnic. "But, you won it for us though."

"We won it together," Zach countered. Kotsumura smiled more and he hummed in agreement, deciding not to argue about that and just accepting it for what it was. "But, the thing I was most looking forward to today- yesterday, was reconnecting with all of them. The ones, I haven't really talked to since I came back."

"And you, don't think you did?" the blond boy wondered. He kept looking up at the sky and kept his voice in a low whisper, partly because Sero was asleep, and partly because if he was awake then this was not a conversation Zach would want to be having in front of his U.A. friends.

"I had a lot of opportunities," Zach started. "And, I gave them some time to come talk to me too. The ones I really needed to talk to, I tried harder, but," Zach stopped himself and he frowned in a deeper way, his eyes shifting towards Sero again though he saw his friend still clearly knocked out from exhaustion. "But I had other stuff going on too, and we were all hard at work, and, I think I might have missed my opportunity. Later today, they'll be going back to U.A. They'll stay on campus until they graduate, and when they are off of it it's probably not going to be to come see me. And after that…"

Kotsumura's lips curled down too. He thought about all the friends he had made and the experiences he'd shared with his friends in Class 1. It was a sobering thought, that no matter how much they were all looking forward to becoming full-time heroes, they wouldn't be doing it as a class anymore. "Yeah," Kotsumura just whispered, his voice showing he understood in part what Zach was talking about.

"This was my one chance though," Zach said, shaking his head as Kotsumura's agreement did not match up with what he was really talking about here. "You'll all still be friends after graduation. To me, graduation is the end date that I could…" Zach stopped himself and he grit his teeth as he saw Kotsumura look to the side in at him. Zach shook his head for a second, but he stopped himself. His eyes glanced over to Sero and then back at Kotsumura who looked like he wanted to hear what it was Zach was talking about here. "I know, I didn't deserve to go back to U.A. Back to my old class," he whispered. "I didn't deserve it, but it was what I, wanted."

Kotsumura opened his mouth to joke along the lines of asking if Zach was not happy being with them. He closed it though, seeing Zach lower his eyes down from the sky and stare at his knees instead. He also noticed that he could see a little better around them, even if the sky was still mostly dark with no signs of the sun in it. Zach stared between his knees and at the floor, "I gave it up though. I gave up, everything. Everything I had. I was, so-" Zach stopped and he grimaced, but he shifted his eyes to the side once more at the blond next to him. He's the only one I told about limiting my power. He's the only one who knows the former reality about the Subspace Devils, how I really decided to go out there. I trust you, Kotsumura.

"I gave up so much," Zach whispered, his face full of emotion as he looked at Kotsumura right in his eyes and said it. Kotsumura's eyes shot open wide at the look on Zach's face he had never seen there before, as Zach was always this composed and strong and cool person. In front of the Shiketsu students, Zach had rarely ever let his emotions show, and he realized that other than Dendo who he threatened the day they became cool with each other, he hadn't really talked to any of them like this. He paused at the realization, but this was not just another Shiketsu student sitting next to him. "So much," Zach whispered again, accepting it and letting himself go on.

Kotsumura hesitated and did not know how to respond or even converse back at what Zach was saying. He's talking about, what he gave up by- by doing the Lifebringer Incident?! How much he- How much did he give up? Oh man, he was- he still has those things though…

"I left them," Zach whispered in a hurt voice. "I threw aside my morals, and my name, my entire life. I gave up every relationship I'd ever made, I left my friends, I left her- and it was so much." Zach shook his head while Kotsumura was still looking at him with even wider eyes now at Zach's mention of "her." The darker-haired boy grit his teeth though and then seethed through them, "Too much. I never planned on coming back, but I gave up too much then to, to ever really… I gave up more than just my friends. That would have been just leaving them. What I did to them, it ended our friendships. It wasn't like I just walked away, because if it was just that then maybe I could come back. But what I did to them, hurt them. I burned all those bridged by doing all that in front of them."

All that? You, killed a bunch of people and- You're only regretting it because of the relationships you ruined? What about those people you killed, man? Kotsumura looked away and he held back from saying anything. You know you can't get it back, because killing those people is something your old friends can't forgive- or is it, because you killed them in front of them? You forced them to watch you kill those villains? You killed Kurogiri! That was insane! No one ever talks about it, anymore, but you killed one of the leaders of the League of Villains, you fought off Raijin and Dabi, killed another five and took down a Nomu. All because of an attack they planned out on your class, but that you had planned out even before that! You're an interdimensional superhero general warrior! And this is the kind of stuff that can get you like- like this?!

"I know it may not seem that important," Zach whispered. "But I hurt the people I cared the most about."

"'Cared?'" A voice asked on Zach's other side, and he looked over to see the boy who just woke up though was pretending he had been awake for more of this conversation.

"I still do," Zach whispered even softer, even though Sero was awake again and had his eyelids slightly parted. Sero just stared up at the sky instead of looking to Zach though, and the boy on his right scrunched up his face as Sero did not meet his gaze. "Remember the Sports Festival?" Zach whispered. "I'd snuck out of U.A., to go save Kaminari on my own," Zach's breath hitched in and his chest hurt, his voice cracking so much as he started speaking that Sero turned fully and stared at his friend next to him he did not expect to get worked up all of a sudden. Zach grit his teeth but the corners of his lips pulled up, "It's been so long now but, but- haha," Zach rose his right arm up to his face for a second and rubbed it across his eyes, but as much as he was trying to play this off he had to stop with his arm there instead of lowering it right away.

When Zach did lower it, he looked back into Sero's eyes and his face was serious but scrunched up, his lips trying hard to stay flat but shaking nonetheless. "None of you understand how much that meant to me," Zach whispered, shaking his head while staring into Sero's eyes with his own full of so much emotion it had Sero sitting up the same amount Zach was and staring at him in shock. Kotsumura looked at the back of Zach's head in confusion, then his eyes bulged and he slowly shifted them past towards Sero. "They wouldn't let me take part in the Sports Festival as my punishment. And- and you- every one of you, pulled out of the festival until they… Sero I-" Zach shook his head and nearly lost it there as he got too emotional, which had Sero staring at him in complete shock and awe.

I had no idea… Sero could not even finish the thought. The look in Zach's eyes now, he had never realized how big a moment that was for Zach either. I was nervous about pulling out of the Sports Festival, but I was glad I did because it got you allowed back in it. And yet… I had no idea what it meant for you. I thought the face I saw from you that day Aizawa sensei told you in class was about how you were going to be let back in there, but this?

"I had lost everything," Zach whispered, while his head turned forward and he sniffled in once hard. He smiled again in a calm way and just looked into a dim but brightening dawn sky above. "I ran from the League of Villains, and was alone in the world, sleeping in the streets and running for my life, unable to trust anyone. My family was murdered and my body and mind were in pieces. I never thought I'd have anyone ever again." Zach shook his head while still smiling and looking up into the morning sky, "I really didn't want to kill myself, but I did consider going out and living as a hermit in the woods forever. To hide, so I wouldn't be tortured again. The Hunter found me though, and he would have dragged me back, but Webb saved me. And Webb, he was amazing."

"Webb?" Kotsumura wondered. He was trying to follow along and just stay quiet as this was the most Zach had ever opened up to him. He was shocked by the sudden reveal, but he knew nothing about Zach's escape from the League of Villains or how it was he found his way back to U.A. No one knew the truth about it. As much of Zach Sazaki's life was an open book, there were still so many secrets.

"He was an anti-hero. A vigilante who saved my life, and then laid out two paths before me… Paths," Zach whispered, humming and then sighing as he saw some orangish glows coming up into the sky over the tops of the trees to his east. Over the black lower walls of the dome, in the sky beyond the edge of the city around them, the sun was nearing the horizon. "There have been so many paths in my life, and I always went down the set path."

Sero turned his head and gave Zach a look, his eyebrows lifted and his lips pursed. Zach glanced back and they both chuckled over what he just said. Zach then continued, "It's true though." He looked back up and said softly, "And the times I went off the path I made the biggest mistakes of my life."

"Like the Lifebringer Incident?" Kotsumura wondered.

Zach shook his head no confusing the blond though Sero also thought Zach might have been mentioning that. Zach explained to the two of them, "I had choices: to go and live a normal life and never show off my Quirk, or to go try and be a hero, where I still planned on never using my Quirk because a hero wouldn't need to kill someone. That's all I thought my Quirk could do back then," Zach added with a glance to Kotsumura to remind him. "I chose hero," he went on with a look back to the sunrise. "But then I went off the heroic path when I took a life. I didn't wait for the heroes, I killed Shindeki Buda because I- I thought I could save someone with my Quirk, a Quirk that I knew could only kill. And that, that moment I stepped off the path, I got myself called a monster and fell into depression…"

Except it was all Raijin, Sero thought darkly. Don't you remember that? It was his fault. He made you kill that guy, and I remember when we fought in that first Sports Festival. How frustrated he pretended to be with Monoma for "tricking" him. And then he went and lost to me, so as not to stand out- Damn it, Zach. You shouldn't blame yourself. At least, not just yourself.

"And," Zach continued, "and then at the trial I was told I couldn't be a hero and that path ended, but a portal opened up in front of me and a new path was there." Kotsumura's eyes widened but he resisted the urge to turn back to the boy next to him even as Zach went on. "I went down the path provided for me, and even though I was making the decisions, the path was created around me. Kurogiri made the pathways, and Shigaraki told me what I was allowed to do, and even though I liked bringing people back, I went down that path set before me. I became a villain and went down an even darker road, and when I decided to step off that path, even though that was one path you can never get off of, the second I stepped off at VTS I messed up worse than I could have imagined."

Sero's eyes darkened more and his teeth clenched at the regret but also acceptance in Zach's voice at what he was saying. He spoke like these things were so far in the past, and that the way he was saying them was the way he accepted, the truth he knew to be his fault. "I got dragged right back on that path because you're not allowed to leave. And for what? Shooter and Hydro? They both escaped Tartaros anyway. And what did it cost?" Zach asked it and stopped for a moment, then he continued in a lower and sadder voice, "I got myself tortured for weeks. I got my family burned alive. I became forced to stay on that path as they tried to break my mind and walk me down it. And then before me were two new paths, to either lose it and accept that I had had no choice, or to… to run away as soon as I had a chance. And I did that but really was just taking the path in front of me again."

"You were making these decisions," Sero started in a soft voice. "But it's not like- those paths were there, but because they were there doesn't mean- it wasn't your fault." He paused and then added, "But it's not like it was fate's fault either. If you, know what I mean," Sero frowned as he wanted to argue against the 'paths' argument. Arguing against that would mean that it was all Zach's fault all those choices he made though, and Sero cursed internally as he did not know what Zach was saying enough to counter him with something meaningful.

Zach just kept staring at the sky and did not say anything to Sero trying to make him feel better, or argue against the ideas he was proposing. Zach just continued with what he believed, what he was thinking of a few seconds ago and decided to say aloud for the two he trusted next to him, "When Webb got me, I was given two new paths and I chose both this time. Every time, there were so many pros and cons with picking one choice over the other, so I wondered about picking both. I wanted to go back and not give up on my hard life as Zach Sazaki, but I also wanted to do things the way Webb did outside of the law but still in a good way. And in that time I picked both paths, when I was at my absolute weakest and came back to U.A., I could only get better. I couldn't get worse from there. So I gained, so much. Our class, the teachers, my family who I made up with but distanced myself from in hopes it would protect them, the respect and care of the people of Japan, and on the other path I earned the respect of men I admired more than anyone. Those anti-heroes, who when I called for their help, came with me to save my best friend from the War Boys."

Kotsumura could not stop from turning this time, and he saw in surprise that Sero had looked in at Zach too with wider eyes that he was saying this aloud. Sero's eyes shifted to Kotsumura too, then back to Zach as he went on, "I thought I could do it. I thought, that both paths really was the best way, but what I was really doing was the same thing once again. I messed up again, because I stepped off the anti-hero path. I kept stepping off the hero path just to go to the anti-hero one, but I messed up when I stepped off the anti-hero path to go back to being a hero right in the middle of it. Taking off my helmet-" Zach grit his teeth and he still could not talk about that without the regret that hurt him.

Sero winced and he felt his own breathing speed up as he had heard this story before, heard how Zach had taken his helmet off and… "I was too idealistic to keep on my helmet and not let that scared girl who almost got raped see my smile, see me tell her that everything was going to be alright. Doing that, to save one person, how many thousands did I doom?"

"It was a dangerous game I was playing, doing this again, but I did it and I took my helmet off because I didn't feel like I would really be saving Thompson otherwise. And because of that Kaminari saw my face. Because of that, Kaminari told me that he knew I was holding back about what I was doing out there and who those people were, and he convinced me to tell him who they were…" Kotsumura's heart started pounding harder and harder, his chest tightening up at what Zach just said. The pause after what Zach just said implied what had happened to those people Zach told Kaminari about, and Kotsumura closed his eyes with pain filling him at the thought of it, and the thought of how that must have felt to Zach.

"And once again by stepping off the path," Zach said in a soft, and tired voice. "I had messed up and started losing everything."

"Then how could you do what you did in that forest?" Sero asked. His voice was low, and steady, but he looked at Zach with a more desperate look. He needed to know the answer, especially after all Zach just said about how much had gone wrong all those other times he stepped off the path.

Zach looked into his friend's eyes softly and sadly too, and he whispered back, "I stepped off the path that next time knowing full well what I was doing. I knew exactly what I would lose, because I had lost it so many times already. But at that point, what I had done all those times before, it made it so my own pain didn't matter to me anymore. I didn't deserve it to, or so I thought at the time. And even though I was giving up, more than you know, giving up-"

His tone shifted, into the lowest and most regretful voice as he stared into Sero's eyes, "I gave you all up. Class A mattered more to me than anyone. You meant more to me than anything in the world. What you guys gave me, when you did that for me before the Sports Festival, is something I could never, ever forget. It was something I had not had in years. Something that I never wanted to lose. Losing it would have been far worse than death, but I, I had to." Zach shook his head and he said quieter, "Not to punish myself, but because, my life isn't the worst."

His explanation confused the boys next to him more than explained anything. Kotsumura had been frowning for a few seconds though in a different way than before. He had looked down between his legs, and the awkward and uneasy feeling in his stomach only turned more the more Zach talked about how much Class A meant to him right there. I'm intruding. It's weird to stand up now but- Kotsumura stood up, and the other two glanced to him. Zach looked genuinely surprised, but Kotsumura just lifted the corners of his lips a small amount at Zach and then nodded next to him at Sero for him to keep going, while he was going to head off back to the tent. Kotsumura turned and he looked the direction of the sun for a moment before leaving, Not that I'll be able to get much more sleep- or any sleep at all, after what I just heard.

Zach and Sero watched Kotsumura head off, and Sero whispered in a quiet voice, "You made some good friends here." Zach turned back to Sero and his lips lowered down, his expression shifting a little like he was thinking of how to reply to that instead but was unsure as he had been so serious a moment ago. "Your life isn't the worst?" Sero added, as he did care about that and wanted Zach to continue if he was going to explain to him, finally, what he never explained in that letter he left for him.

"It really isn't," Zach replied in a low whisper. "I thought that unless there really was some higher power, some God putting those things in action around me, destiny even? Then it was all just coincidence. And I knew, that there was no chance that I had the hardest life in the world. I knew that there had to be people who had taken as much as me, but who weren't strong enough to stop it from happening anymore. They were still suffering. I knew there were people currently in horrible situations worse than my own. People who maybe the anti-heroes dying because of me at that very moment could have saved." Sero's eyebrows furrowed down, but the logic made sense and was one of the excuses he had given to Zach himself over the year he was gone.

"It was my responsibility to all those people to try, but I could never stay on the line of one of those other systems. I could never… And I knew! There were people even worse off than I was. People who had taken so much worse, and yet I was sitting there feeling sorry for myself while surrounded by friends, and faculty, in a nice warm home." Zach's voice got darker and he shook his head with a heavy breath slowly breathing out from his mouth. "I knew what having nothing was like. I had had it so many times. But, I always got it back. And yet, I didn't deserve to have it back this time. Not while all those people who done nothing wrong were still being tortured. What if I could save them? What if, I made my own plan knowing full well all I would lose."

Zach shook his head and he repeated in a low voice, "Class A, my home, my relationships with all of you, my name, Momo, I was fine to lose them all. I was even fine to hurt my friends who had been the ones to save me over and over." Zach looked back to his left at Sero who was sitting up now just like he was next to him. Zach's voice had taken a steady tone and he spoke like he was finally explaining himself, and yet also defending his actions too. "Because you guys getting hurt, hurt me more than anything, but if I considered that pain too strongly then I knew I was being selfish, just by caring. If caring about you, knowing it would crush me what I did to you, would stop me from saving a single innocent life then I had to push that away."

"I don't know if that's selfish or selfless," Sero muttered.

"I don't either," Zach whispered admittedly. "Because with Darling I came to decide that it was me being selfish that I had… or maybe, no, it was selfish what I did by coming back and leaving her. Like I said on Inazuma, I had been selfish with her and selfless around her, but I had never been selfish for her." He paused and then continued with a small smile, "But she came to mean enough to me, and I realized how much she meant in the Void, that I came to that selfish decision to save her."

"How, could it be selfish to save someone?" Sero questioned softly.

"Sometimes, it is. Sometimes, you have the power to save two, but you choose to save one because that's the person you love."

Sero grimaced, but he found himself questioning what he would do in that situation if he ever found himself in it. Zach continued even as Sero was finding the moral dilemma in this hypothetical situation trying, "There is no right answer to what to do in that situation. Either way you'll always feel you made the wrong choice. No matter who you're currently trying to save, you know there are other people out there dying because of that choice. The choice to stay and make amends, to fix things and maybe save those who you hurt far in the past, rather than leave and save more lives every day that you know you could."

Zach saw Sero's head lift and his eyes locked on the side of his head. He paused himself for a moment and closed his eyes, and Sero lifted his gaze off Zach's head and into the sky with a heavy look. He's still dealing with this. That question, is something he's at war with himself over even right now. He DOES have the power to go out and save lives every day, and yet he's right here, trying to explain himself to me. Explain himself, to someone he cares more about. Sero sighed with that heavy look transferring out to his voice in the sigh too, None of it is hypothetical to him. It's all far too real.

"I get it," Sero began. "But I'm glad you picked this choice," he added, looking to his side and into Zach's eyes from a couple feet away. "You're still making your path though," Sero continued. "You gave up a lot to come back to us. You knew it wouldn't be easy but you did it anyway, again." Zach's eyes widened a little as the examples he had come up with for this path conversation did not include the most recent choice that Sero was definitely right about now that he thought about it. Then his eyes widened more as Sero continued with a smile, "That's pretty cool, and it's brave of you to do that again even after all the shit you've taken because of those decisions in the past. All the wrong you knew could happen, and yet you did it anyway and came back here, knowing full well you'd be tossed in Tartaros-"

"Thank you, Sero," Zach cut in as he could not hold back his thanks for another second longer and it seemed like Sero might be done there. Zach's smile was brighter and looked that way as beams of the rising sun's glow came through the dome and shone on his face. "I know I hurt our class so badly, but if you weren't like this with me, Mina too, I doubt I'd still believe that I can really fix things with everyone else." Zach looked up in a more hopeful way, "And I have to keep believing I can. Because even though I know I burned those bridges a long time ago, those bridges mattered more to me than anything in my entire life, and even after this long…" Zach's voice trailed off.

I still care about each and every one of them. Seeing them all again yesterday. Together and fighting, and talking and laughing, they're just like I remember them. And I remembered why it was I needed to come back here. Why it is I'm trying so hard. It's because I care about you all. He looked to Sero who was watching him wondering if Zach was going to finish. More than you could ever know.

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A/N Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Pretty drunk right now. Don't know how that fits in, but as I said, I'm drunk. Anyway, thanks for reading! Just had a fun night with my best friend, and you know it seems like Zach did too, maybe. Well, I'm going to hit some review responses before passing out, if I make it through editing as I'm writing this before I start re-reading the whole chapter to fix any mistakes in grammar/spelling, or change around some things to make it sound nicer. Might not be the best thing to do while 12 deep, but hey, I'm not Zach, and I'm not having Darling sleight of hand alcohol out of my drinks ;) y'all are awesome, and again I hope you enjoyed this. Getting this one out fast, and I'm already deep into the next chapter so I'll get that next one out quickly too. Looking forward to this hurricane coming this week by the way, going to head to the beach for some fun when it gets close, but for anyone in real danger zones be careful of Dorian. Hope you keep your wifi even if the power lines go down, so you're able to keep up with the reading over the next week or so! Edit: Alright, so the next night now, didn't finish editing last night, then had work all day today and am currently in the middle of my fantasy football league's draft, but I'm a great multitasker! XD Not gonna edit my previous message 'cause I found it funny rereading! Review responses time though:

DarkJokes chapter 172 . Aug 28

The long awaited chapter is finally here. Just when I had thought you couldn't make Zach anymore badass you go and pull off that amazing "Standing on the pile of bodies and looking at the other villains". Honestly at this point his UA classmates should just back off. Do they not realise if they were in Zach's shoes they'd have given up being a hero the very first day when They were tortured just like Zach or the day where you see your childhood friend and her whole family burn in front of your own eyes as she screams your name. It's not like it stopped there as well and his last remaining blood related family was killed and he lost so many comrades in the war. A single one of these things is enough for you to give up being a hero and spend your life as an average person but Zach's constantly been getting rid of villains and never took credit.
Ilda should be ashamed of himself as should others now. Especially Jirou acting all pissed when she's not even felt a fraction of pain Zach has. My boy Zach should stop trying to explain himself to them now. Rather just be happy with Shikatsu people at least they don't constantly remain suspicious of him.

Zach looked back last chapter hard at the Battle of the 6 Armies, the reality of it and not just the epic story he was telling everyone. Despite the characters last chapter seemingly all being against Zach though, we've got some more understanding ones this time as they hear him out at the fire and then has his close friends stay up with him through the night too. Kotsumura and Sero are willing to listen with less judgement than most others, and Zach realized his need to vent when he was talking with Iida the night before. As for Zach stopping trying to explain himself, he's not sounding close to reaching that point, yet... Zach lets Sero in (and Kotsumura too), on how much it is the U.A. students mean to him this chapter, and Sero can see that the selfish thing Zach did with Darling by coming back there, he's also doing with them too. Zach wants more than just to make up with those friends, as he knows he hurt them in the Lifebringer Incident more than just leaving them behind, and as many excuses and defenses as he had to tell Sero, he knows he hurt them and he knew he would before he did it but did it anyway. As much as it might feel like Zach was in the right and doesn't deserve all this grief, he's not going to give up on it that quickly, as he'd never let himself off that easily here. Anyway, thanks for reviewing and hope you liked the new chapter!

AMR-MNR chapter 172 . Aug 27

Haven't read it yet but JESUS CHRIST 49,560 WORDS IN ONE? WHAT? AAh, ok, will review again when I'm done. See ya!

XD Longest chapter I've ever written! Thanks, and hope you finished/enjoyed the chapter!

Don't hurt zach chapter 172 . Aug 28

This motherfucker is one giant lie factory. I seriously have issue figuring out what is truth and what is lies, and whether Zach really does have these 'Mental issues' or if he's bullshiting/sympathy gathering in order to fit his perceived character. He's done shit like this in the past, so I have to take his existence with a grain of salt. Was this the desired effect? because jeez dude its working too well.
Hopefully I'm not just stupid :'D

Love the name! Lol at least this chapter I don't hurt Zach too much. Messing with Zach's mental state has made this story harder to write, but also a lot of fun too as it's been happening since the early chapters when he dropped in that depression after the Sports Festival. He constantly hits low points and really bad things that mess with his head, and he's lied to everyone before (and I by association lied for chapters straight before). Especially since Zach has returned to Japan though, so much of what is going on even with Zach is shrouded in doubt even for you guys, which I love. It's been over 30 chapters now since he came back to Japan and y'all still can't tell if he's telling the truth or not. XD Anyway, keep having fun deciding what to believe with what he says/does as the story continues, though he has been getting a bit more straightforward recently... Thanks for the review!

Tmb's Kouhai chapter 172 . Aug 28

Wow. This is the heaviest chapter so far. Not only with that retarded word count, this chapter included fights, casual conversations, regular processes, rebuiling of friendships, reconciling past issues, reevaluating the past and reality, reevaluation zachs entire mental stability, and so much fucking more I can't even.

Cutting the review a bit, since it's a real long one. Anyway, same with the last response, not ever gonna tell you guys straight out when/if Zach's telling the truth, since, you know, no spoilers. As for some of those questions though, Access was 18 which I mentioned early on in the AoD chapters. At some point Spiral came in as a 19 year old, but when I reread Death as a whole at one point, I noticed that I had Access looking at 'the younger man' next to him, and I wondered if I messed up or what I was thinking there since Spiral was 19 and should have been older than him, so I came up with the getting hit by an aging-Quirk thing as my excuse for that. As for Spiral dying, in the chapter after the Battle of the 6 Armies, where Zach is trying to sleep and just listening to that day echo in his head in all bold, we hear a shout for Spiral's name once along with a lot of other people getting massacred, which may be the one time we heard that he was dead there. It was a real dark chapter, with Michael wanting to quit, La Brava and Gentle having taken off to take a break, the Cloak had crashed because Zach had Whiteout knock everything out high up in the sky, and Zach had that conversation in that chapter with Rebel about getting the Cloak 2.0 soon. Anyway, this is a very, very long story. Takes me some time to remember everything that happened, and I've tried to read each of my chapters multiple times so as not to leave any plot hole or storyline unfinished. Thanks for reading, and reviewing, and I hope you enjoyed the new chapter!

Momozaki chapter 172 . Aug 30

Great bonding chapter. Loved every minute of it
*Sees Momo and Zach
Just kiss!
*Sees Jirou and Zach
Just make up!

XD Thanks for the review! Another bonding chapter here, Zach gets some moments with his friends, though he regrets not doing more in the one day he had with all of them. Momo and Zach and Jirou and Zach are some important relationships, and he's trying at them... but we'll see how that goes for him moving forward. Thanks again everyone for reviewing, faving, following, or just reading this story. I'll get the next one out soon as possible!