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!

176. Chapter 176

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 176:

Midoriya walked slowly down the hallway on the third floor of his dorm building at Heights Alliance. The message on his phone echoed over and over again in his mind as it had since a minute ago when he read it. 'Come to Iida's room.' The message was from Todoroki, and Midoriya felt a pit of dread along with other emotions swirling around inside him. This could be for anything. There's no certainty that it's necessarily, it doesn't have to be, about him. And even if it is, maybe this is, the right time. Before it goes on any longer. Before he gets even more popular, so it hurts everyone even more when he… But what if he never has to, leave? What if he really does stay?

The green-haired boy's footsteps were slow, but he could not avoid reaching that door forever. Midoriya knocked twice, then he started opening Iida's door as he had heard two voices inside already. He walked into the room, and the thought that maybe this wasn't about what he expected it to be about, was dashed. One look at Iida's face told him what he needed to know. He looked to Todoroki and felt guilt swell up too at the way Todoroki turned to him, his eyes narrowed showing he knew what Midoriya and Iida had been keeping from him. Midoriya closed the door behind him then stepped forward into the open space on Iida's floor that made a triangle with him, Iida, and Todoroki.

"What's, going on?" Midoriya wondered.

Todoroki frowned at the boy on his right who he was sure already knew based on the expression on Midoriya's face. "I know," Todoroki said.

Midoriya shifted his gaze to Iida questioningly for a second, a final hope that maybe Todoroki was bluffing to try and get him to just start freely talking about it. Then Midoriya asked the taller boy who did not give him the look he had wanted, "Did you-"

"No one needed to tell me," Todoroki cut in before Midoriya could accuse Iida of giving it up. "The way the two of you have looked over this past week has been enough." Todoroki gave Midoriya a darker look which made his friend look away, "But it's not like, we all didn't know already. Him admitting it to you, or you finding out solid proof, it should have only impacted what you did about it." Iida and Midoriya both looked to Todoroki with hesitant and anxious expressions, and their classmate continued in a lower voice, "Instead, the two of you have continued on like nothing happened. You've allowed him, to remain free."

"The proof we have," Iida began. "It's not like…" Iida stopped himself, as it was not the lack of proof which caused him to stay inactive over the past days.

"Todoroki," Midoriya started, his voice a soft, pained whisper. "You don't know, the kind of things he did-"

"I know better than any of you," Todoroki replied in just as low a voice, though his was more accusing. He narrowed his gaze at Midoriya and spoke to his classmate who went wide-eyed just like Iida, "I have known the truth for far longer than you have." His heterochromatic eyes shifted to Iida and he said harsher to his classmate who looked shocked, "I can see it clearly on your face. A look, I know I myself had before that none of you saw, or understood at least. Like you know what really happened, the reality beneath the lie."

Iida pulled his head back farther and his eyes shook at the angered look Todoroki was giving him. Iida's look started to harden and get more harsh directed back at Todoroki though, "If you've known, for so long, then why haven't you done anything about it?"

"The same reason my dad doesn't," Todoroki responded. "Because I didn't have proof." He looked back and forth between his classmates who got back to defensive expressions again. "I've known since the first time I went abroad with my dad, to Switzerland." The others looked up and into Todoroki's eyes that were less harsh and more like he was just explaining it to the two of them now. "It's where I learned what the AoD were really doing across the world. How the tips we received were from the Army of Death. How they left clues ten steps behind them to lead us to villains they didn't have time to face, or who they didn't consider worth their time."

Todoroki's voice darkened more, "And I know Zach defeated all four of the Shadow Bosses other than Eziano Mozcaccio." He narrowed his eyes more at Iida and then at Midoriya at the ways the two of them reacted to that last sentence. "He himself, with his two hands. He stopped those villains."

Midoriya lowered his gaze from Todoroki, confusion over his face along with regret at being caught in this lie. As much as I've been investigating with Lemillion, Todoroki's been digging in his own ways too. "Todoroki, how did you find all that out?"

"Because although I'm not a pro hero yet," Todoroki started, his expression firm and glaring back at Midoriya. "I've recently told Endeavor I'll be joining the ADTF after graduation." His classmates stared at him with their eyes opening huge, and Todoroki said in a lower tone, "So he filled me in on everything I could need to know. Anything I might hear from Zach that would prove that he was in fact Death." Todoroki paused, and he said to his friends, "Since I saw the two of you at the joint training, the way you acted around him, and the way you especially looked after coming back from talking with him, Iida," Todoroki shifted his gaze to the tallest of the three of them again. A look of regret flashed over Iida's face that made Todoroki curl his fists at his sides too, "Since that night, I have been deciding what to do."

"What to do?" Midoriya asked quietly.

"At first, I wanted to go straight to my dad and reveal that I discovered the truth." Todoroki paused then added in a darker voice, "Then I wondered if anyone would back me up on it. Since, I do not know why the eight of you are keeping Zach's secret."

"Hagakure and Ojiro do not know it," Iida began, as he knew why Todoroki assumed it was eight of them. Todoroki glared at Iida, but Iida's expression stayed firm and he just nodded his head in an intense way back at his classmate one more time.

Midoriya looked to his right at Iida and he got a more hesitant look on his face now. Leaving only those two out, is telling Todoroki that the other four have lied about it. That they're keeping that secret too, and that could get them in trouble… though, all six of us accepted that possibility, when we did not arrest Zach that night.

"Even if I did have your support," Todoroki continued. "I do not know if our words enough would be proof to incriminate him."

"Todoroki," Midoriya began. "I know, this is important to you. But, you should talk to him too before you-"

"I know you want me to do that, Midoriya," Todoroki started. "But nothing he can say will deter me from this. I'm a member of the Anti-Death Task Force." Todoroki Shoto said that in an assured voice without hesitation in it. "And I also know," Todoroki continued. "That the people in the AoD are not evil people." Midoriya paused with his mouth open, while Iida stared at Todoroki in reluctant agreement, shifting his eyes to Midoriya to see how he would react as he expected what he was about to hear. "They have helped a lot of people. I just told you Zach stopped some of the worst villains the world had," Todoroki grit his teeth for a moment, and then he said in a darker voice, "And it wasn't just him. He fought alongside people who-"

Todoroki paused, a regretful look flashing over his face and his eyes shifting to the side for a second, showing even he did not feel so righteous about what he was doing. "I read a file on Mark," he said.

Iida and Midoriya had both heard that name before too. They had heard it once, back in the forest on Inazuma Island, "I died on that operating table, but when my heart stopped, my friends didn't give up on me. They- Mark pumped my blood through my body to keep oxygen going to my brain so I wouldn't have brain damage despite how long I was dead for without being brought back by Death. He didn't even know he could do it… He had never done something so precise before, but he told me he needed to do it, so he just did it…"

The small smile Zach had as he told them that, the nostalgic yet sad look on his face, it made sense with the way Todoroki was looking now. "The file had the unredacted information on everything about Marcus Johansen and his Water Control Quirk. It had who he was before he became Mark Smith of the CIA, and before he was one of Death's most trusted advisors." Midoriya and Iida stared in shock at Todoroki again at the kind of information he had that they didn't. "He was trying to be a hero, but because of his Quirk which could control blood, and an accident involving a classmate, he was recruited into that agency. And he went on the run because he didn't want to torture for them anymore." Todoroki paused and he thought about how his dad looked when he told him how Mark had died. He thought about the story his dad had told him about the attack on the League of Shadows' headquarters where Mark had saved him.

The boy with half red and half white hair shook his head and continued in a low voice, "Information my dad has from American heroes around California shows that they caught a few CIA agents who they were ordered to release. Those guys with firearms, operating on U.S. soil, were caught by the heroes and would not give up what they were doing there, and then the heroes had to let them go without any explanation. Endeavor found on the unredacted file of everything Mark Smith, that that was his last confirmed spotting after going dark for over two years. A CIA agent reported seeing him, reemerging for the first time alongside a vigilante from the Pacific Islands and one other, a girl whose identity is unknown but matched descriptions of the fourth person at the Lifebringer Incident with Zach, the Gentle Criminal, and La Brava." Todoroki narrowed his eyes and confirmed in a low voice, "I'm certain it was that, Darling, girl."

He expected a darker reaction out of Iida and Midoriya. Todoroki stared at them and then found his fists clenching in more anger at the two of their unenthusiastic looks. "That's proof! My dad said that it could be a coincidence, or even that that girl being with that Mark doesn't mean Zach was associated with him, but Zach and that girl were caught in the video surveillance after that and- We have proof. This is proof!" Todoroki darted his eyes back and forth at the two who looked back at him wondering what they were supposed to do, or say. "I've never known the two of you to go easy on a criminal. Even if he is, your friend, you have to-"

"He's our friend," Midoriya said. He spoke over Todoroki and he stared down his classmate with his own expression getting angrier when Todoroki just gave him a dark look back. "He is. Or he, was," Midoriya lost his steady look with a more sad one forming at how intense Todoroki's was with that angry look on his face. "But I really think you need to talk to him first. There's so much that he's done, that he never let any heroes even your dad find out about. So many people he saved and villains stopped, that he gave the credit away for."

"I agree," Iida said firmly. Todoroki glared over at him, but Iida continued in a low voice, "The Villain Summit, was a complete lie." The other two looked at him confusedly at what he just said, wondering what he meant by it. "Zach fabricated the whole thing. It has, boggled my mind, trying to wrap my head around what he did to, to change our history. But the Villain Summit was actually an ambush on the Army of Death, by a force of villains over ten thousand strong."

"You can't be serious-" Todoroki started to say.

"In five armies, they came at him. From Asia and Oceania, Europe, Africa, North America, and South America. Split apart by the regions they were from, united under leaders they didn't all necessarily know," Iida's fists clenched at his sides and were shaking, while the other two staring at him in confusion and disbelief started to breathe heavier as this was starting to ring a bell. "And Zach's force, his sixth army," Iida paused for a second, his eyes lifting up to look at his classmates who he shook his head at as they gawked at him awaiting an explanation as to what he was talking about. "I refused to believe him, that night in the forest. But, but he convinced me. He was the one who convinced the world what happened that day. He convinced the Chinese heroes who were the first to arrive on the scene. And the villains said nothing, like they always do when it comes to him," Iida finished with that, his eyes lowering back down and shadowing over. I feel foolish for repeating this. I feel like, it is idiotic. It sounds like a fairy tale.

Todoroki's huge and shaking eyes steadied and lowered to the floor themselves. More than Dad knows. If Zach's been telling them things, he's been telling them all these crazy… truths? The Army of Death caused several deaths of Chinese civilians during the Villain Summit. That's what I know.

"He's done so much good," Midoriya began, lifting his head fast and looking to Todoroki with a more desperate look. "Just give him a chance, to do it right this time."

"We gave him that chance before," Todoroki countered.

Midoriya opened his mouth, hesitated, and he closed it. Then he shook his head though and said, "Please, Todoroki. I'm asking you, hear him out?" Midoriya looked straight into Todoroki's eyes and stepped closer to him in Iida's room. "His reasons, the things he's done beyond what you already know. We have no idea how many people he's saved out there-"

"And we have no idea how many he's killed," Todoroki said. His voice was cold and his eyes dark as he looked back into Midoriya's that grew wider there. "Do you really think those six in the forest were the last ones? We got the file about the Pit from Lemillion, after Hawks gave it to him." Iida and Midoriya both got darker and more conflicted looks again, Midoriya thinking specifically on those photos he saw in the file himself, but Todoroki's shifted a little that way too. In his head he could see Zach staring at him from outside of that jail cell in the training dome. He saw that old classmate of his, give him a small friendly smile, and he could see the red marks around his neck that he knew the origin of now. His teeth ground over each other and he continued in a strong voice, "And even if the people there-"

The other two looked at Todoroki with wider eyes, as it almost sounded like Todoroki was going to say 'deserved it.' He shook his head instead though, and he said while looking up into Iida's eyes, "Do you really think they were the only ones? The only people Zach killed, himself, I'm not just talking about the people his organization was responsible for killing. How many people, has Zach himself killed? How many do you think?" He asked them and left the question hanging in the air, but neither of the others wanted to respond to it.

It doesn't matter how many he saves. How many he kills is what's important. That's, what he told me way back then, Midoriya closed his eyes while thinking about him and Zach talking about that. Killing one person and then saving 100, killing that one person still condemns you. Everyone knows that. But what if it's, saving ten thousand, and killing one person but the one person was a villain about to kill someone else? That would be alright- and yet, what if it's, saving 50 million, and killing 100 people? What is the- ratio? If we judge on case by case bases, there is no justice. There need to be codes, or there will be chaos. But if I was judging case-by-case, then I'd choose to let Zach go. That's- that's the same decision all those cops made! Heroes around the world just let him do whatever, because they were judging case-by-case, and every time the case was that he had come to help or save them! No one ever caught one of them before me, and I know why now. They were just helping. And, and if Zach was willing to change history in so many different ways, how many of those "killed" by the Army of Death could actually have been killed by heroes, or by other villains, and the AoD just took the blame to help out?

"I don't know," Midoriya replied softly to Todoroki after a few heavy seconds of silence hanging in the air between them. He rose his eyes up and looked steadily into Todoroki's eyes though, "But you'll never know without asking him." Todoroki glared to his side, his expression pissed as neither of his classmates he confronted were acting as guilty about it as he thought they would. He expected them to crack under his pressure and to just go along with him, having been caught hiding what they knew…

When Todoroki glared to the side, his eyes locked on something that made all the anger on his face fade away. He stood up straight and he stared at the single pair of glasses Iida had sitting on his desk, right in front of his desk chair like he had been staring at them closely recently. Iida saw where Todoroki looked to, and Midoriya looked over as well before shifting his gaze back to Iida's face and his eyes unblocked by any such glasses. "It's the only pair I have left," Iida said, his voice low and soft making Todoroki's eyes soften too at the sight of those lenses. "I still see him, bloody and exhausted and calling me a weakling as he lay over my body. As he told me to carry him to Tsuyu," Iida stared past Todoroki and straight at that pair of glasses, the only ones he kept now that he did not need all the extras in his room.

Todoroki lowered his gaze to the floor, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly as he thought about that day too. I don't owe you anything, after what you kept from me… What you're still keeping from me- that's not true. I do owe you. For Shoji, and Kirishima too. I let you leave with the villains. I let you die in that arena. You and I are through… but- "I'll hear him out. And then I'll take him in, after he's confessed to me as I'm sure he will, as long as you two are there with me." Iida and Midoriya opened their eyes wider, but Todoroki finished in a low and firm voice, "And if he resists my arrest, the three of us, together, will take him down."

---

"… and Power Loader mentioned you got it to him for free? How'd you manage that?"

Zach rolled his eyes and continued to walk down an empty road in Yutapu City. He looked around the corner of a building and down its alleyway, and he nodded his head at the sight of a pair of cellar doors on the right side of the end of the alley. There was a steel door at the very end that connected to the back of a business on the next road over, a deli from what Zach remembered when he walked down that street a couple minutes ago. "They like to help people, especially heroes," Zach replied, speaking like there was no secret reason or anything and Roady was just trying to be antagonistic over little things here. "Getting a hero back on his feet- metaphorically but literally in your case, it's what they want to do. Why complain about a good thing?"

"Because it's sketchy, and coming from you it makes it even sketchier. I don't want to be helping out a group of villains-"

"If you're not paying them, then how would them giving you a new leg help them in any way?" Zach retorted, interrupting his old internship friend and then looking away exasperatedly as Roady snapped at him again.

"I don't know how it will help them, but why don't you just give me their information yourself? Then I'll skip past you, the middle man, and see if they're really legitimate-"

"Sounds good to me," Zach replied, though he moved his phone away from his ear as he felt it buzz as he was talking. Roady paused for a second too there, as he was surprised Zach would be okay with that and wondered what he was supposed to say now. He had wanted to keep denying the help, but the fact that he just said he would do it if he could skip past the middle man left him in a jam. There were already so many reasons to take the offer, and now that he would get a chance to investigate himself, even if he wasn't going to take the leg in the end he still needed to do it… for research purposes.

'You need to come to Musutafu to talk with me, Iida, and Todoroki.'

Zach stared at the message for a few more seconds, then he held down on it and typed a quick response before putting his phone to his ear again. "Alright, I'll send you their information and you can get in contact with them yourself. Tell them I suggested them to you, and it should be enough for them to give you everything for free. I've got to run," Zach finished there before Roady could even respond, and he hung up the phone and pocketed it with his expression falling flat and his eyes cold. Well, this sucks.

Zach's body erupted in darkness. Two black wings came out of his back and slammed down, and he shot straight up into the sky like a missile into the dark clouds above. His body spun around as he broke through the clouds, and he swung his wings behind him this time to head in the direction of Musutafu. He pulled out his phone again and checked the exact location in Musutafu that he asked Midoriya to specify when he checked his text a minute ago.

A park. Not the best location for it. Not the worst though. 'What time?' He sent back, then he pocketed his phone into his sweatshirt pocket inside the darkness once more. He flapped his wings again, speeding through the air so fast some clouds pulled after him making a wake of gray and white across the sky. That wake was getting whiter, as the clouds had been darker up above Yutapu and thinned out much lighter above the Tokyo area. There's Musutafu. The Rasheed Corp. headquarters over there. Still haven't gone down there. They know I can though, so they wouldn't be. What Kaminari might have left though are lots and lots of bombs. Better to just stay away.

Zach flew towards a three story building he dropped down on top of right on a helipad meant for emergency airlifts. The darkness faded from his body, and Zach walked forward out of the vanishing dark wisps towards the stairwell leading down into Musutafu General Hospital.

Everyone recognized Zach Sazaki immediately. He went down the stairs and then crossed the third floor to the main stairwell leading to the first floor. Zach reached that floor, and by the time he hit the door to the stairs for the basement, two doctors had run up to him and were talking rapidly to the teenage boy in a dark blue hoodie that had his own hero name on the back of it. "…two hours and twenty minutes ago, and another three and a half hours ago. Do you think either of them can be saved?"

"We have a patient on the second floor who just coded, but we managed to save her. It doesn't look like she's going to make it though-"

"Let's start with who's already dead," Zach suggested at the female attending on his right side. "By the way, is Dr. Honda working today?" Zach wondered.

"Her shift ended two hours ago, actually," the male physician with a thin black beard replied apologetically. "I could contact her-"

"It's fine, I was just wondering," Zach said with a shake of his head like it didn't matter. She defended me pretty strongly on the news before. Said she was positive I wasn't Death. I'm glad she did. I needed more people doing that, or everyone would have been so sure of it from the beginning.

Zach went to the morgue, where a resident and an intern they were with were waiting next to a steel table that had a body on it inside an unzipped black body bag. "Mr. Harrison was just brought down here," the female attending began to Zach when he looked at that man's face, which still did not look too pale like he had only died recently and was just brought into the hospital's morgue. "Can we start with the ones who died farthest back?"

"Yeah. Bring them both out," Zach replied.

"Mrs. Yamato too- the patient who died three and a half hours ago?" the woman questioned in surprise, while her male coworker rushed towards one of the drawers and called the resident and intern to come help him.

The medical student interning at the hospital looked back at Lifebringer over his shoulder, then he spun forward as the doctors yelled at him to focus and grab the patient by the feet. "Patient?" This is a cadaver.

"Put her down," Zach started, "and get the other patient out too, don't want to waste time." He said this while removing his glove from his right hand, and he held it up as a warning to the others to all move back from him as he stepped to the elderly Mrs. Yamato. It's too long. You know it's too long. Try it anyway. Direct contact on a body that doesn't look that damaged. Come on.

The doctors in the room stared at Zach. The ones who were supposed to be getting out the other patient who died a while ago stopped and watched as the eighteen year old pressed his hand over the center of Mrs. Yamato's chest. "Nothing," Zach said, his voice low as he moved his hand back after a couple seconds. He shook his head with a look at the man next to him who had gotten hopeful when Sazaki asked to see her too.

"Alright, onto Kato-kun. He's a twenty year old college student at the University of Tokyo. Fell down the stairs at his apartment complex while moving some furniture."

"Break his neck?" Zach questioned.

"No, but bad internal bleeding. Surgeons opened him up and tried to stop it, but the fall was too much." Zach watched as the bag was unzipped, and he saw the boy's face was bruised and he had black and blue skin around his neck and naked upper body around his shoulders and chest. "Can you help him?" The female attending physician questioned, and Zach looked to his side at her for a second before looking back at the student and nodding his head.

Over two hours. But I'm at full strength. I haven't brought anyone back today. This could be my new record. It probably will be. Zach pressed his right hand down on Kato's chest, and he curled his fingers in while grinding his teeth. "Come on," he muttered, his eyes closing and his body leaning harder forward onto his arm. Dark wisps started coming out of Zach's fingers, wrapping around Kato's sides and down below his back. Zach ground his teeth over each other and his expression shook as he clenched his eyes tightly shut. "Ah- Nnnn," he felt his insides slamming into something hard, and he felt his spleen rupture and his kidney puncture. "Ugh- AHH-" Zach clenched his teeth to stop from screaming, even as he felt his heart getting slammed into in a way that exacerbated a pain emerging just from his risen heart rate.

Then he moved his blackened hand away, and he let out a gasp and then a steady breath in his next release. He reached forward with his right hand and put it down on Kato's left shoulder, and he gave the older boy a light shake that made him part his eyelids a little. The young man closed his eyes a second later, and then those eyes snapped open again and he shot up on the table. He looked to his side in panic, "Lifebring-" his voice cut off, and he looked around with his face pale again even though it had regained color when Zach was reviving him.

"Did I…" Kato began softly, his eyes still huge as he looked at the doctors and the morgue around him.

"Others more recently?" Zach questioned, looking over at the medical student and resident behind him. "Besides Mr. Harrison. Was there anyone before him, after Kato?"

"Did I die?!"

"Let's get you dressed, okay?" The older male physician with the black beard quickly stepped to the table and wrapped his own white coat around the naked boy who jumped off the table in a panic. "I'll explain everything…"

"Yes, there was one more, Lifebringer. Thirty minutes ago actually, one of our patients in the ICU succumbed…"

Zach stayed in the morgue for another ten minutes, as bringing back Mr. Harrison took longer than he thought it would. He noticed another doctor enter the morgue while he was bringing back the final two patients, but he ignored the young medical resident in blue scrubs who was watching him with a darker look than the other doctors. The second and third patients Zach brought back did not wake up for long after reviving. Their eyes opened for a second and closed again just as quickly, neither of the older victims jumping up like Kato had.

The doctors took away their revived patients, leaving behind their helper who told them he needed a minute. Zach was panting and leaning back on a metal table until the last of the doctors he was helping had left the room. Then he stopped panting. He stopped, and he stared at the resident who stepped back inside and frowned at him with a dark look over his face. That look got nervous for a moment as Zach stopped panting to immediately stare at him like he was awaiting that doctor's re-arrival into the room. "There's another patient upstairs. Yunoi told you she recently coded, and we know she won't make it much longer."

Zach started walking forward, and the twenty-seven year old doctor standing in the doorway held his ground firmly. "Can I have your number? Please, so we can call you when she-"

"I'm sorry," Zach said. He looked into the doctor's eyes from up close, only a couple of feet away from him. "You can't. I have to go-"

"That's bullshit," the doctor snapped. The young man's fists clenched at his sides, and Zach lowered his eyes down to them before back up into the doc's eyes with a look questioning if he was serious. The doctor hesitated for a second, but his angry look remained, his eyes getting darker still as he looked at the boy denying him this request. "Why don't you give us your number? Every day, I watch my patients die in this building, and you could stop it."

"I could," Zach replied coldly. "But-"

"That woman who we just saved!" The doctor yelled at Zach, who hoped the basement's walls kept the sound down there well enough that the first floor of the hospital did not hear that. "Saving her- it's going to kill her! I should have just let her die if you were going to-"

"Yeah, guess you should have," Zach reached forward with his left hand, grabbed the shocked doctor by their right shoulder before he could back up at all, and he shoved the man out of the way of the door. The older man stumbled to the side and spun with a stunned look covering his face at how forceful that was that it almost knocked him over. Zach did not turn back to him though, just stepping forward into the doorway to get out of there.

"Lifebringer! Wait," the doctor stepped back behind Zach and his teeth were grinding as he glared at the teen's broad back. "There was a car crash here yesterday. Three kids in the backseat, the mom was on her phone." Zach's eyes stayed locked straight ahead of him, dark and unmoving like the rest of his expression. "Three of them died. Leaving one lucky kid an orphan… We tried to get in contact with you. I tried," the man behind Zach clenched his fists so tightly he drew blood. "I posted it all over QuirkBook. Asked everyone to get in contact with someone who could get in contact with you. It was after school," the doctor paused and he tilted his head back with frustration covering his face as Zach would not even turn around. "What were you doing, that was so important? You weren't at another hospital. You weren't saving anyone."

Zach stepped forward out of the doorway and for the steps out of the basement. "Where were you? Where were you, Lifebringer?!"

"I'm here now," Zach whispered. He paused at the bottom of the steps, and he looked over his shoulder with such a dark look the doctor stumbled backwards without needing to be shoved this time. "In one hospital, in one city I don't even live in-" Zach cut himself off and glared even harder at the doctor who had no idea the clenching feeling in his chest much worse than feeling those dead come back to life. "And I just saved three of your patients. I bet I've saved more people in this hospital than you have in the past month." Zach tilted his head back as he said that, and he glared down at the man staring at him with shocked shaking eyes. "Get off my fucking back."

Now for the reason I'm really here, Zach turned back around and headed up the stairs, leaving the doctor behind shocked and alone in the morgue.

He headed out of the hospital and down the streets of Musutafu without looking back. He put his hood up as he walked, and having the word 'Lifebringer' on his sweatshirt actually made him blend in more with people walking around him out on the sidewalks. Zach made sure not to bow his head and continued smiling as he walked, though the smile was small and only half-up in case he was missing someone watching in his peripherals. Some of these streets have changed around over the past two years. Over the past 18, really, Zach thought, as he looked across the street at a wall that used to be an alleyway from what he could recall a long time ago.

As the building's wall started to fade and turn into an empty alleyway, Zach's eyes shifted down and at the backs of three boys walking together down the sidewalk and turning into that alley. It was a wide and well-lit one so it was considered a shortcut by the kids, and they had no reason to be afraid as they walked down it together. Behind the boy on the left side of the three, a girl ran up behind them and right up next to that boy with messy black hair who turned to her and shrugged her off as she grabbed him by the left arm. Zach turned his head forward, seeing one last flash of red hair in the corner of his vision as the alleyway faded back into reality.

As he neared the corner of the sidewalk he was on, the same little boy with black hair was standing there, only there were a lot more people at the corner of the crosswalk than Zach had just seen. All those people, the boy included, were looking up in the sky and smiling, calling out as the flying form passed overhead. Zach lifted his head and spotted All Might in his costume and muscular form, putting a salute up to his head and waving it down at the people below who all cheered, none louder than the kid looking up at him.

Those cheers faded as Zach turned the corner and went left, avoiding the crosswalk altogether to just head down a different street. As he walked down it though, his eyes shifted across the street to a cafe that had outdoor seating. It was still the middle of February, but a couple chose to sit outside in what was not an overly cold day, and their waitress brought out some coffee for the two of them. At the table next to those two though, Zach saw the same waitress bending over with a tray of four cups of coffee she put in front of the young teenagers sitting there. Two on one side of the table, a boy with spiky blond hair and a girl with long earphone jacks coming out of her earlobes, and two on the other side… The table Zach was staring at extended, and walls formed around it with more people sitting around those four inside a cafeteria he recognized well, after all the meals he'd eaten in it.

What's about to come? Is my life flashing before my eyes? Oddly calm right now. No one seeing me too, and it's like I'm trying to draw attention with the hood. Or is the hood actually working? What am I thinking about? Zach put his hands in his sweatshirt pocket and rubbed them together, both inside of gloves already but his right feeling a little cold. Rubbing it with his left did not make it all that warmer, but inside the sweatshirt's front pocket had its own warmth to help him. There's no point in worrying, he reminded himself.

Zach sighed out a breath of cold air that only hung in the air for a second before fading away on his face as he walked through it. I'll try to save myself like always, but it might not work this time. Knowing Todoroki. All he must know, if he has his dad's resources, and he's talked to Iida and Midoriya now. They couldn't keep their mouths shut a single week, and the ones who know will only expand. It might even be better it's ending this soon.

Zach looked down the road and across the street to the entrance to a park he had subconsciously made his way towards. He let out another heavy breath though without walking into it this time, as he stood still and stared towards his destination he had crossed part of his home city to reach. His head turned to the left and he looked back in the direction of his old home, not that far from there. There's a whole new building there now. My home is gone. This city has changed. Rebuilt. Zach smiled softly and started walking again. He glanced around and felt a semi-satisfied feeling inside at the smiling faces, or even frowning ones that were still peaceful despite whatever problems those people were facing in their lives. Safe.

He neared the entrance, and he took in a deep breath of fresh air that seemed fresher near the grass and trees of Musutafu's All Might Park. The feeling of satisfaction he had a moment ago completely left him after taking in that breath of fresh air. His smile remained, as there were still people around him on the sidewalk and even inside the park, but his chest felt darker and his heart beat slower than it had been before. Not even a week. Or should I say, they gave me another week? No, no I wanted longer. I needed more time. I need more time.

As Zach walked into the park, a woman was walking towards the exit with her dog on a leash at her side. The dog had been running around freely through the park and she was feeling frustrated as it had taken her a little while to get him to come back to his leash. The big dog was an intimidating breed to some people, but she loved him all the same. However, she knew the danger of having a dog whose head was at her stomach's height while she stood straight up, and when that dog spun its head and started growling towards someone walking their way, she tugged tightly on her leash and grabbed lower on it. It was more to make the passerby feel at ease than to stop her dog which she did not think really would do anything, "So sorry about this. He's usually more obedient-" the woman apologizing for her dog before even looking up stopped raising her head to apologize to this person face-to-face.

She lowered her eyes back down to her dog who had stopped growling with a different look replacing its face. The large animal bowed its head and its legs bent at the knees, and it scooted back down the sidewalk before reaching the end of its leash, and it tugged for a moment before moving around to get behind its owner's legs instead, keeping her between it and the figure walking towards them on the opposite side of the sidewalk. "Nnn, nn nnnn," the dog whined while hugging its master's legs closely, its head turning and watching the teenager walk past who turned his head too and glanced down at the animal looking at him with half-bared teeth that could not hide the fact that the animal was cowering.

The dog owner lifted her head up, and she froze before saying anything to the person walking past her who turned his head back forward to just keep walking. She was on the right side of him, and as he turned his head back fully forward she caught a glimpse of the right side of his face and under his right eye. "Come now," she whispered quickly to her dog, and she turned and sped-walked off for the exit of the park, glancing over her shoulder three or four times on the way out. She had to double check that she was not just imagining things, especially when she saw the 'LIFEBRINGER' plastered on the back of his dark blue sweatshirt.

Zach stopped after walking a few steps past where the woman and her dog had paused. He looked down the path and to the right off a smaller section of sidewalk, to where there was a gazebo sitting in the park without anyone under it. There were three people who just arrived from the other side of it though, and who had seen what just happened with the spooked woman and her dog who rushed off in a hurry. Zach stopped walking and his smile finally lowered down.

His lips fell flat. His eyes locked on Midoriya's for a moment, before shifting to the right side of him and the middle of the three who had come out to talk to him. This time, Zach did not smile at Todoroki. And Todoroki's eyes were as cold as ever, darker even as he glared back at Zach. Iida grit his teeth on the far right from Zach's perspective, and the tallest among them looked past Zach again and yelled at himself, Animals fear him! That dog cowered from a look at him! It must know- Am I going to allow my choices to be determined by a dog?!

Zach started walking again, and he motioned with a nod of his head at the gazebo to his right. The other three turned left and walked towards it, up a couple of wooden steps, and under the small rounded roof. Zach had been farther off, so he arrived last, and every one of them there realized in that very moment the positions they were in. Zach stood with his back to the one opening in the gazebo. It was not like there were not escape routes all around the small pavilion, as just hopping over any railing would get one out of there. Zach had the easiest route out of there though. He could step backwards and run at any time. Zach rolled his eyes after stepping onto the even level of the gazebo, and he walked around the inside of it before leaning back against a railing so it would at least be a little harder for him to book it away from there. "Better?" He wondered at the three who could see why he had done it and why he was asking that.

He knows we might try to capture him, Midoriya thought, his heart racing much faster than Zach's steady and slow heartbeat.

If Todoroki makes his move, we will both side with him, Iida thought at Zach. But you already know that. You came, prepared for that. Would you still come willingly? Would you ever have, or was what you said on Inazuma a lie too? I can't tell.

"Hey there, Todoroki," Zach started while facing his former classmate with red and white hair who he had not had a cordial conversation with in years. "You finally want to talk?"

"Not particularly," Todoroki replied.

Midoriya opened his mouth, but Zach responded right back to Todoroki, "Then they convinced you to come talk to me first? Thanks guys." Zach's words had no emotion in them, no tone of actual gratitude and genuineness to it.

"I found out on my own," Todoroki said darkly.

"Found out what?" Zach questioned.

Midoriya and Iida both gave Zach confused looks, while Todoroki's expression just got darker still. "You still want to play games, Death?"

"I'm not Death," Zach stated. "Unless by 'found out on your own,' you mean you suspected me as much as anyone else did, and you had it confirmed somehow recently."

"I always knew-"

"Are either of you going to admit it?" Zach wondered. He looked to Iida, then to Midoriya, as he still could not tell who it had been.

"He, knew," Iida started, his voice regretful though he did not take his eyes off Zach to show he was not fully against what was happening anyway.

"So he told you," Zach replied with a nod, figuring it out by Iida's response that it was him. You couldn't have just tried to lie? Even- whatever. It doesn't matter now- Except it does! Because he'll tell other people with just a push! "And you decided that that meant you should just share everything with him? Why not, just turn me in yourself?" Zach asked it with his eyebrows raising up under his hood, his head shaking in a small way as his face scrunched up in frustration.

Iida's eyes were wide and they shook for a moment before steadying and narrowing at Zach for the regret he was making him feel. "That's not necessarily…" Iida started.

Todoroki's eyes shifted to the side with a dark glare at Iida telling him to stop that. He already felt for Iida a bit after hearing Zach just tell him that, but it would have been worse if Iida were to give Zach any false hope here. "You don't deny it then?" Todoroki wondered back at Zach.

Zach looked back into Todoroki's eyes and he stayed silent for a few seconds. His head turned to the right and he looked out of the gazebo, back out towards some tall buildings in Musutafu that he recognized from seeing above before. I could just fly away. Never return. As if, Zach looked back at Todoroki. He already knows. He's probably recording though. I- I trust you though. If I trust him, shouldn't I just accept this? Unless he's only doing this, because of Dabi. "Todoroki-"

"It was a yes or no question," Todoroki said before Zach could start saying something to him.

"Why don't you want to talk to me?" Zach questioned. He asked Todoroki in an inquiring tone, his head tilting to the side and one eye narrowing more than the other, one eyebrow raising up as he stared closer at his old classmate, and friend. Todoroki hesitated after Zach's question instead of just snapping at him to answer him again, as it sounded like Zach knew something there, and he did not know what that was himself. "Since I've gotten back, you've avoided me or just straight up denied everything I told you."

"I want to hear you say it," Todoroki said firmly. "Tell me the truth right now, and confess that you are Death."

"I'm sorry," Zach said. He said it and in a low and sad tone with his eyes looking apologetically into his old friend's eyes. In no way did it seem like Zach was talking about this conversation or that he was sorry for not being able to answer the question.

Todoroki's fists balled at his sides as he knew what the apology was for. "I don't want to hear it," Todoroki growled.

"Fine," Zach replied, letting it drop there just as easily as Todoroki was willing to push it away. Todoroki's eyes shot open huge though as Zach relented like that and did not continue on that current conversation path. His heart rate sped up and he started to feel regret welling up in his chest, as there were questions he had but never admitted to himself of having until right then, right now. He didn't see any visitors while in Tartaros last time. I'll never know- that's exactly what he wants! He wanted me to think of- that bastard, Todoroki's eyes narrowed and Zach's narrowed right back at him, no denial in his eyes for what Todoroki's were accusing him of.

"But I will tell you something you need to hear," Zach continued. By saying 'need,' it made it so even Todoroki saying how he did not want to hear it would not stop him from continuing this time. Zach went on after a second, his eyes shifting a bit to Iida and back to Midoriya too as he spoke, "What I did all that time, I did everything like you did with the Hosu Incident."

The three in front of Zach stared at him in varying levels of surprise, but all three were surprised to hear him bring that up. His tone was not defensive either. His eyes locked on Iida's specifically as he brought it up, and he made eye contact with all three with a dark look on his face and no regret to be seen there. "You guys caught Stain, and then the police came and asked you not to let people know that it was you."

"What are you talking about right now?" Todoroki snapped, his fists balling harder at his sides and a seriously dark look spreading over his face, hostile and threatening even.

"It was because the police would have had to punish you anyway!" Zach snapped back at Todoroki, who had his own teeth bared now as the recording on the phone in his pocket was now useless. Zach continued with his voice lowering again, "Even though everyone would agree that you did the right thing, they'd have to punish you because you broke the rules."

"Breaking the rules?" Midoriya asked, his voice hoarse and making him clear his throat as he noticed it. He shook his head around and then asked with his eyes searching to see if Zach was actually serious about that, "Is that what you think, what you were doing amounts to?"

"Of course not," Zach muttered, his response in a tone like Midoriya was being stupid for even getting worked up about that. "But you understand. You broke the rules for that positive outcome, and you succeeded-"

"I didn't," Iida started. His expression was darker and full of much more guilt now, as Zach used what he had done that day to justify his own actions. "What I did, it was for revenge-"

"But you two," Zach continued, nodding at Midoriya and Todoroki and ignoring Iida's regretful expression and tone like he was about to go on a rant about how Zach had done things wrong. "You went out there and fought Stain without even provisional hero licenses. Totally illegal," Zach shook his head at them and added in the same voice as before Iida interrupted, "And you succeeded in stopping Stain, so even though you broke the rules it was the right thing to do. Yet it would have been much worse if people had known it was you."

Iida was thinking of a way to get back into what he was just saying, but his thoughts trailed off at what Zach just said which reminded him a lot of their talk the night of the joint training. He listened closer to his old classmate who sounded to him like he was actually telling the truth. Zach explained it with a lift of his right palm up in front of him, "Because it would have made more people without hero licenses think they could fight villains which would have gotten them killed-"

"Why are you bringing this up-" Todoroki started frustratedly.

"Because I'm trying to explain something to you," Zach snapped back, cutting back off Todoroki like he was cut off himself. He lowered his palm down and stood straight up instead of leaning on the railing. "Because I don't know if you really got why it was you weren't allowed to take credit for beating Stain. It seemed like you thought it was unfair at the time," Zach said, specifically at Todoroki who he narrowed his eyes at and made his former classmate stare at him with wider eyes back. Iida and Midoriya both glanced in too at Todoroki who they remembered lashing out at the police chief of Hosu who came to tell them in the first place about how they would have to be punished unless they did not take credit, unless they let it get swept under the rug.

Zach continued in a calmer tone, "The police came and asked you not to let people know that it was you who beat Stain. It was because the police and this society would have had to punish you anyway, even though everyone would agree that you did the right thing, because you broke the rules. You broke the rules for that positive outcome, stopping Stain and saving Native, saving Iida and Native, saving Midoriya and Iida and Native," Zach's eyes shifted one by one to the three in front of him as he stated those reasons in a darker voice. "And you succeeded in stopping Stain, so even though you broke the rules it was the right thing to do. Saving people. Stopping a villain. It was right, even though it meant breaking the rules, and yet no one could know. Because it would be a show that people without hero licenses could fight villains and stop them, which would inspire people who aren't actually able to fight to try and die because of it. It would have turned the public against the police and heroes who punished the next generation of young heroes for doing their jobs and protecting people while so many of the pro heroes currently punishing them had been failing at catching Stain."

Zach bowed his head more and glared towards Todoroki who glared twice as hard back at him for that look Zach was giving him like it was deserved. "And if you got away with it, but then someone else got in trouble on a different occasion where they didn't succeed as much but were trying for the same kind of solution that you did, well then the people are going to be much angrier as the law has to be set and can't just be a case-by-case thing." Midoriya's eyes trembled, as what Zach was saying went against the one thing he had used earlier to convince himself that he shouldn't arrest Zach; that Zach deserved to be judged on a case-by-case basis.

"...That's not law. That's chaos. Law has to be something they can rely on and look to for moral guidance." Zach stopped for a few seconds and shook his head while lifting his head back up again to stand straight while facing Todoroki. "The moral of this story is, you can do things right and get away with it even if it was against the law. But! You had to make sure that no one knew. If you broke the law, and something good happened because of it, no one could know about it or they would feel that the ends justified those extra-judiciary means."

"Well then you're contradicting yourself right there," Todoroki growled at Zach, though he stopping glaring so hard and uncurled his fists as he was feeling much angrier than he thought he should at the moment. In his more normal voice though still dark and accusatory, he said, "Because everyone knew what you were doing. You did those things in public, and, you did make some people think…"

Zach rose his right eyebrow up a small amount, looking at Todoroki in a way asking him to finish his thought here. Todoroki's heart raced faster though as he thought about all Zach just explained to him, and as he stared into Zach's expectant gaze he could see his old classmate waiting for him to put it together. "You wanted, to be thought of as a terrorist?" Todoroki asked, his voice trying to take a skeptical tone, though more of a tone of realization coming through as he said it as less of a question and more a statement. Iida and Midoriya both stared at Zach with wider eyes too, even though they had heard this before, as what Todoroki said aloud made them think about it again only with the current conversation in mind.

"I had to be," Zach replied, his voice soft but his words strong. "It's why if you saw me on the news a couple weeks back, I didn't respond positively when they asked me about United Korea's new law about vigilantes. Really, I don't like it at all. Judging vigilante action on a case-by-case basis, determined by the heroes on the scene, it's unreliable. People need to be able to rely on the law to protect them, and I think that new law is going to cause more trouble than it helps." He paused for a moment as Todoroki started glaring at him harshly again, and he continued back more on track, "What I'm trying to tell you here, is that the idea that the ends justify the means is the most dangerous thing in the world, because it will make people think that if they believe strongly enough in something they can fight for it. Not everyone puts the same amount of importance in something as everyone else though, and sometimes there are issues that are controversial and some people feel as strongly that they're right for one side as other people feel strongly that the other side is right."

Midoriya and Iida took in sharp breaths with their eyes growing again, something Todoroki noticed on either side of him and grit his teeth as he did not know what they were reacting to. Zach continued though while only facing Todoroki, "And if they've seen people do things, bad things, in order to make better outcomes like those people believe what they'd fight for would create, then they'd be more willing to say that the ends have justified the means before. That's why the law has to be upheld every time. That's why at no point can someone be given a pass, once they are caught. Because if they're caught and released because people think what they did was right even though it was against the law, it leads all kinds of idealists to feel they can do whatever they want as long as they believe it will make a positive end result. As long as they think people will thank them in the long run."

He paused again and shook his head with his face scrunching for a second before he steadied it to continue, "People twist things to mean what they want them to. And I'm afraid that should anyone know what I had really been doing for that year," Zach grit his teeth so hard while looking into Todoroki's angry eyes that slowly shifted at Zach's desperate stare into them. "The world would fall apart, because everyone would want to do things the way I did them. That's why when I was doing those things, I worked so hard to keep any of my actions a secret. To make myself a ghost and a rumor 1% of the time, and the other 99% to never even be mentioned at all as having been there."

The other three staring at Zach had not heard much about the Army of Death before he got out of Tartaros. They had heard mostly the same things as everyone else in the world. The lies Zach had been telling though, this didn't sound like one to Iida or Midoriya, and they had both already heard so much about that other 99% that they never imagined could have happened. Todoroki's expression got much darker though. That one percent of the time, you weren't always seen as a terrorist. Heroes agreed with you, fought alongside you. Police let you walk right out of their custody. Countries argued against your designation as a terrorist group. But not ours. "The world isn't so weak, that hearing what you've done would-"

Zach bit down furiously and bowed his head with breath seething through those clenched teeth. "You have no idea what I've done," Zach said, his teeth barely pushing apart as he snapped it at Todoroki. His head rose while a cold breeze flew through the gazebo, and Zach glared at the boy in front of him who looked ready for a fight having heard that tone in Zach's voice. Zach did not want to fight though, and he leaned his head back at the threatening way Todoroki was glaring at him. Then he started in a soft and hurt voice, "Every decision I've made since I left was solely for the purpose of saving innocent lives. I know I've saved so many people in countries all over the world. But there are also things I did for peace and prosperity, for the safety of this world and its people, that were horrible, truly horrible things."

He admitted it and his heart hurt at the looks all three gave him. Zach had to continue though despite those heroic eyes glaring righteously back at him, "And yet since no one know the truth, it's alright. Because the result was good. Because I had done good and shouldn't have been punished for it." He said that in a steadier tone that surprised his classmates and angered them after as they checked his expression and saw he still looked to be telling the truth. "Because if people had seen all I was doing, the ruling of me being a terrorist would have been removed, which would have led everyone to think that they could fight in violent ways for what they believed was right too, and that was wrong."

"What makes it right for you but so wrong for everyone else?" Todoroki interrogated.

"It wasn't right for me to do it," Zach countered back with a shake of his head. "But other people would have thought it was. It wasn't right for you to try and fight Stain either," Zach added, tilting his head and then shifting his eyes to Midoriya as he saw the green-haired teen look at him with a more understanding look as a thought ran through his head.

Midoriya's gaze shifted in at Todoroki, That's true. And more than that, Endeavor's let Todoroki in on classified information about the AoD, even though he's not a pro. Those heroes in Italy, they accepted the help from the AoD while pretending like they didn't know it was him, because once they had accepted it that's what makes it wrong. Or- no, it was wrong. They knew it was wrong, but they let it happen anyway? It helped them out. And as long as they never had to address it, it would have been fine. But it was also right for me to go after his comrade? He said the law has to be upheld every time! He's contradicting himself even now!

Zach continued while his eyes shifted back to Todoroki's and locked with his combative former classmate's, "I knew. I knew the entire time that what I was doing was wrong and even evil. Yet those evil means made for ends so good that people would have justified them, if ever they were judged. I was willing to do anything, no matter how horrible. That made me a bad person. I understood that though, and I accepted it. I knew it was wrong to do the things I did, because I knew the things I was doing. But as long as no one else knew what I was doing, then nothing wrong was actually happening."

Iida started shaking his head, his eyes getting darker and lowering down with such a frustrated look covering his face again while Midoriya and Todoroki just stared in more hostile confusion as they were not wrapping their heads around this. What is the truth? Iida thought to himself, his eyes lifting in a pained way to look at Zach's. And, you knew what you were doing though? You knew what you were doing was wrong but did it anyway? I want to think, that makes you a bad person… And yet why do I feel bad for you, right now?

"As long as history kept me out of everything, just as history will never mention the three of you in capturing Stain, what I did won't cause any harm. In that one incident too much bad stuff would have happened afterwards, and the police would have needed to punish you to show that what you did was not right. It only matters when people find out about it though, and that's why the police would need to punish you then. I understand why you would have needed to be punished should you have taken credit for Stain. I've always understood it, from the moment you asked me to keep quiet about it, even if I was more focused on Grappler at the time."

"The idea of lying to the public for a greater purpose made sense to me, maybe because I was already lying all the time anyway." Zach's eyes narrowed as he saw Todoroki's fists ball at his sides, his expression getting even more combative, like he was preparing for something. "And there it is," Zach said. His tone shifted and his expression was darker as he glared back at Todoroki in a way much darker than how Todoroki was currently looking at him. For a moment Todoroki thought Zach was just accepting his threatening look and was going to fight him, or try to flee, but Zach continued in that dark tone, "The real reason you're here right now. The reason you're trying so hard, has nothing to do with what I've done with the AoD. It has nothing to do with Death at all. You're just pissed at me for lying to you."

"Shut up-"

"I'm sorry," Zach said. He said it and his tone lifted a little from the dark tone, but his eyes stayed narrowed and he continued, "But that doesn't matter, because you'd rather just assume that what I just said was a lie too. You'd rather think of it all as lies, and ignore everything I say."

"You're a convincing liar," Todoroki replied, and Midoriya and Iida spun in with surprise as they were confused by the sudden turn in the conversation they did not see coming. It felt more confrontational now than before, but for some reason it seemed like Zach was the accusing one now as he looked down darkly at Todoroki. The red-and-white-haired teen glared back though and continued, "And you've admitted here, that you were Death. You told me that you're a terrorist, and you're asking that I don't say anything because you don't think the world can take it?"

"I know that you telling people, will get people killed," Zach said in response. It made Todoroki freeze, and it had Midoriya and Iida both looking back in nervous confusion.

"What are you talking about?" Midoriya asked, as Zach had left the option of arresting him up for debate back on Inazuma, and he never brought this up.

"I checked, when I got out of prison," Zach started. "Putting myself in there, there was a spike in villain activity in almost every country in the world other than this one. Villains couldn't believe it. They wondered if I had some plan or something, because they had known for far longer than anyone else who I was with a certainty." Zach's voice was ominous and wind blew through the air ruffling the hood over his head. The top of his hood shadowed partially over his eyes with an expression not Zach's emerging on his face, a more intense and focused look as he stared at Todoroki accusingly and made the teen he was glaring at feel an even stronger surge of anger towards him for it. "So they tested the waters. They made their moves, after going into hiding in fear of me. They tossed out some bait, sent weaker villains out to see if it was safe for them-"

"How do you know any of this? How could-" Iida started.

"He's just making it up-" Todoroki began too, as he had not heard of any of this back in the summer.

"The surge did not last long, nor did it make much noise," Zach retorted. "Because what people were more focused on, was how the Army of Death made its reappearance for the first time in a while, and right after I was captured too. And people focused on them, because they acted more brutally than they normally had, and the deaths they caused were reported on more confidently as crime rates were down so news stations didn't want anyone thinking they had support anymore. I don't know if it was right, but it's not my call to make anymore."

"The Ge-" Zach's focused and intense eyes shifted to Midoriya in the darkest way imaginable that had his friend pause with his chest pounding. "Death," Midoriya continued, his voice softer and his eyes shifting down for a moment before lifting up with a more determined look of his own. "You think he intentionally killed villains, in a brutal-"

"I meant brutally, just by the fact that there were more villain deaths and that they were reported on," Zach said. "I think it was a tactic. And I do think, that the villains who thought that maybe me being arrested meant that the AoD were done, learned in those few days to a couple weeks, that my arrest meant nothing. They were still out there. Death was still out there, and he was powerful, and they cowered again so the month of August did have lower crime rates than the month before, despite a bumpy first week or so. A lot of the villains who cowered and fell back into hiding though, many of them should have been convinced that maybe the rumors were all wrong. Maybe it was never me in the first place, and the real Death really is some faceless, nameless, monster out there, waiting for them."

"And you think if you're revealed as Death," Midoriya started quietly. "Those villains will surge again?" Zach nodded at him. Midoriya grimaced though and he shook his head, "But even if they do, won't the new Death, won't he stop them again? And heroes too," Midoriya added, as he did not like thinking that the Gentle Criminal would be responsible for putting down a surge in villains.

Zach's face got a semi-confused look on it though at the question. "Yeah, probably," he responded. "But that surge still means more villain attacks. Even if it is in the short run," Zach shook his head and his voice had some pain in it at what he thought would happen. "People would die. Innocent, good people, would die. A lot- but even if it was just one," Zach looked back at Todoroki who grit his teeth in anger and frustration, but could not pull his eyes off of Zach's look now that was neither desperate nor accusing. Zach already knew, and he looked at Todoroki in a soft way as he continued, "I don't know, if what I've done out there is really what makes you want to do this. But if it's the anger you feel towards me, Todoroki. If it's because of what I did to you, specifically, that is why you arrest me, then that's some bullshit right there."

Todoroki's teeth ground across each other, but he did not say anything as his thoughts were swirling with denials of what Zach was accusing him of, along with questions he was refusing to ask. "I'd tell you, now," Zach continued. "But the way you're looking at me, I know it wouldn't matter if I told you the truth I lied about for so long. I really thought I would kill him though, and that I could just keep that as another secret no one would ever have to know." Todoroki's eyes shook while growing wide, and he stared at Zach in shock as his old classmate said softer, "But I failed that night. So I told you, because I really didn't think I'd ever come back here. I didn't," Zach tried to say it in his most truthful tone, but Todoroki's eyes just started narrowing again and his breathing steadied with his bangs shadowing over his eyes just as Zach's hood had before.

Zach continued as he saw Midoriya and Iida both look at Todoroki as if seeing what they should do, like whatever Todoroki decided right here was going to determine both of their actions. "How you guys beat Stain, I learned from it. But I took it to the next level. I did everything in that way. And it worked out very well." Zach paused and he lifted his head, letting more light under his hood and illuminating his face half covered in scars. The cut up on the top right of his forehead just below his hairline, and the big scar across the bottom left half of his face over towards his ripped ear, and the slice under his right eye, they were all mementos of the way in which he did things.

"No one ever knew about my involvement with almost everything I did, except for the heroes taking credit afterwards. And those heroes kept my involvement a secret from each other too, so most of them don't even know that I worked with most of the others." Zach hesitated and then went on in a lower voice, "Yet when they'd receive anonymous tips, they'd pretend they didn't know they were from me because they all knew, but they were all on the same page that as long as no one knew it was me, it didn't matter." The use of the same word 'knew' did not make what Zach said confusing at all to the three before him. Todoroki's head lifted a little too and the shadow fell off of it. "Everyone who had any idea what I was really doing, accepted what I was doing for the same reason the police offered you that path to give up taking credit after the Stain incident. It wasn't because you would be getting in trouble, but because they couldn't allow the public to accept that something so great had come from a few kids breaking the law. It's the credit that really matters in the end, so as long as I was willing to keep everything I did a secret, the heroes of the world did not care about capturing me. As long as I spent all my time and effort stopping villains in complete secrecy, they were willing to let it slide and not notify the ADTF."

Zach paused and then looked deeper into Todoroki's eyes as he added, "And even when I ran into them, most of them understood what I was trying to do and came to understand why it was I did not fight the 'terrorist' label. Dozens of those heroes quit the ADTF when they saw what Death really was, because the heroes realized that they didn't want to fight me and my comrades. Because as much as we were villains… we were villains as much as the three of you had been villains when you went after Stain without hero licenses, or when you came to Camino Ward to save me and Bakugo." The second example added on the pressure on the three who did not just have one incident now where they could point out how Zach did it so much more often.

"Rules broken by good people- or by people trying to do good-" Zach cut himself off again. "By people who make good," Zach corrected, even though it did not sound right. He shook his head though and mentioned in a darker way, "Those first two ways I said it actually, they don't describe me, and they wouldn't justify someone breaking the rules because breaking rules is not doing good or being a good person. But some people break the rules because they believe that in the long run, the positive outcome of breaking the rule will outweigh the short-term negative of breaking that rule itself. That was what I did. For a year, I made that gamble with every rule I broke."

Midoriya stared at Zach with a stunned expression, That's too simplified a way of looking at it. The scale alone that you did these things- not to mention, the severity!

Going after Stain was wrong for so many reasons, but the others were not wrong for coming to save me. I've never thought they were, but does Zach? He thinks even breaking rules in that situation is wrong too… I don't understand, how he could break so many then.

I'm not just doing this because of… No, I asked to be let in on the ADTF's information. I thought I could help Dad, and I can! I have proof and an admission on tape, and- and it doesn't matter that he- This is why I came out here! This is what I was looking for-

Zach continued while his old friends were all thinking hard and still watching him, "I looked ahead and made a gamble that if I broke this rule and did a certain amount of bad, how much good could I make out of it? And then if the pros outweighed the cons, and I could ensure my victory, I would do it. Then I'd move on to the next one."

"What if you failed though?" Midoriya asked. His voice was soft but pained in its accusing tone, because the times Zach failed meant that he had broken the rules and done something bad without having the end positives that he had done that wrong for in the first place.

"I didn't," Zach said back.

Midoriya shook his head and continued, "What about the times you did?"

Zach shook his head slowly back at his friend who got frustrated though was confused too by the way Zach was looking at him here. "You don't understand, Midoriya. The Army of Death doesn't lose. It never loses." His tone did not shift, his expression did not take an intense or dark look, but Zach said that in a regular tone like he was just telling a common truth that would not be near impossible to absorb. He went on though even as the others stared at him in disbelief and then shock, "Not once. In hundreds, thousands of fights, I never once… not one…" His eyes shifted down and a darker look formed that turned more just sad after a few seconds. "I don't know if that's true," he muttered.

Zach shook his head and continued to stare at the floor in between him and his friends, "I, I always said that. That we had never lost. But sometimes, even in our victories, and every time was a victory, sometimes we had lost too much." The floor in front of him flashed with red, and he said lower, "They were always victories, but so often I did not feel like they were. I always pushed forward and shouted about only having victories though, even as my heart disagreed because of the amount of comrades I had lost."

"Did you really," Iida started. Zach lifted his head and was glad someone asked him a question there, as it snapped him out of the low he was feeling. Iida hesitated though and actually gulped as the idea seemed impossible for him, but he asked anyway, "You really never lost?"

"Do you think I'd be standing here if I lost a battle?" Zach asked in reply. "Losing for my side would mean death, or so much worse which many of my comrades faced after being captured." His tone got more intense and darker there again, and this time none of the three in front of him could keep their intense expressions looking back at him.

The concept that Zach was fighting that hard every day and never once lost, was intimidating. As much as what he had been saying resonated a lot with his old classmates, and on occasion what he said made it seem so much closer to what they had done themselves so it was not as bad as they thought he had become… he's strong.

Todoroki stared at Zach after the thought, and he could hear in his head his dad's voice. "…Death, defeated all four of the Shadow Bosses." The respect Todoroki had heard in his dad's voice that day had frustrated him, but more-so was how he knew Zach was Death at the time, and yet the most powerful person he knew was speaking like Death was even stronger than himself.

He fought in a death match with Stain. He led armies, and fought thousands at a time if what he said about the Villain Summit- no, the Battle of the 6 Armies was true. Iida found his mouth feeling dry, and he had to close it as he realized it was partially the dry winter air coming into his slightly ajar mouth that caused it to dry out.

Midoriya's expression was the first to harden back facing Zach though. Too strong, he added to himself after the initial thought he had with Iida and Todoroki almost in unison. Even without his Quirk, he was the Champion of the Pit- he has the technique and the strategies, the martial arts and an unstoppable Quirk, and everything he does he plans for so far in advance it's impossible to see coming. Midoriya felt a huge sense of dread inside him, and Zach looked back to his friend whose hardened look stayed locked on his face even as Midoriya felt all that dread filling him. I'll have to fight you one day. Someday. I don't know when- and I don't know why. Even after this, after it seems to me really like you did not change too much, I know these different ideologies of ours will come to a head.

We will fight each other at some time, and I need to control all of One For All and the other past holders' Quirks now. I still don't know two of them, and other than All Might and I, there was also the original OFA holder who didn't have any other Quirk to give me. But there's still so much power I have yet to control. As strong as I am, I know that fighting you will be the hardest fight of my life. For more reasons than one…

"Zach," Midoriya started softly. "I, get what you were saying." Zach looked to Midoriya and his lips lowered down, a confused look that Midoriya would say that to him. Midoriya nodded though and said, "Because, I think it's who you've, always been. What you were just saying you did out there, it doesn't sound all that different from decisions you made when you were here. And some of those decisions were bad-"

"They were bad, because I failed," Zach started.

"No, they were just bad," Midoriya countered with a shake of his head that made Zach hesitate and pull back with a more accepting look. "But you did those things because you cared. I knew, it was why you attacked me in the woods at the summer camp. Why you went through that portal, and even why you killed Spinner," Midoriya admitted that and Zach grimaced harder, his eyes shifting away for a second while Iida and Todoroki both looked over at Midoriya then back to Zach somewhat accusingly. Then Midoriya said quieter, "And it's why you killed Kurogiri. I hate that you did. It was wrong, and you deserved to go to prison for it… and you did. But I know that you did it because you cared. About everyone."

"…The people I care the most about? You think I would put them at so much risk just for revenge? Something so petty… It's not about you Kaminari, but, but it's also not about me. I didn't do this because I hate you. I did it, because every night I go to sleep in Nightmare form, in fear of Kurogiri. And, and if someone like me who has been through so much, who is so strong! If I'm afraid of him, then, can you imagine how regular citizens feel? Every night, afraid for their children's lives in the next room because Kurogiri could be there. Afraid to walk down the streets, because Kurogiri could bring an army of villains to kill them and everyone they know?! You might've been just as important a player in the League of Villains' schemes, Raijin, but leaving U.A. has made you just another strong villain. Whereas Kurogiri, you're, you're the biggest threat to peace in our world."

Todoroki's fists loosened at his sides. What had happened at the end of that night had stuck with him so strongly over the past two years, that so much of what Zach said before his final words to him had faded back in his memory. He could recall it though. He remembered why it was, Zach threw everything away. Those Shadow Bosses, they're alive. You had no controls. No oversight. And all four of those Shadow Bosses are still alive and in prison. I, I didn't even think about that. Why am I thinking about it now? Why did you let, the worst villains in the world… Why am I questioning, why you didn't kill people? Because Kurogiri was only because, he could use his portals to escape. I even- but those other people that night? Why did you kill them, and not someone like King?

It doesn't make sense, Shoto's eyes narrowed and his fists re-clenched, but his expression was more uncertain than it was before. But it does. You had heroes with you, when you fought King. Dad says the coalition of heroes who went after King really did fight them, they just left out how it was Death who located his base and invited them to fight with him. You had Dad and the ADTF show up at the League of Shadows' headquarters, and they got most of the credit along with capturing all those villains themselves… I don't care that you didn't care about the credit though! I did care though, a long time ago, when I knew it was you who had stopped Diamondfist. After you saved Kaminari, I knew that trip to Kyoto really was- fuck! That doesn't matter now! He was Death. A terrorist who- a terrorist… who stopped the worst villains in the world? And didn't even kill them, just stopped- even the day you appeared, they say you fought Mongoloid and he was put on war trials. Your comrades killed others in Mongoloid's ranks though… even if Arma was found alive, later on.

"I do care," Zach whispered in response to Midoriya. "I still, care," he added, agreeing that Midoriya was right and the him from back then who cared that much was still the him talking to them now. "I don't want you guys to arrest me, because I think it will just hurt, so many people. It won't do any good- I've already been punished, and I'm not going to be rehabilitated down in Tartaros, because I'll never be leaving there. It wouldn't even be punishment anyway; last time I just spent six months telling stories to my guards and becoming friends with them. It was, nice. Relaxing. Nothing like this," Zach admitted it with a tilt of his head to the side, almost joking though there was an odd and unnerving sense of seriousness in that tone. "It will cause so much harm though. It'll hurt so many people, if they find out I really was… And it'll make villains come out, it'll- it will destroy everything I meant Death to be, and because of that I'll have to deny it forever. And I don't want, to make you guys…" Zach paused and he had to scrunch his face as this was an awkward thing to say to them, and he actually held back from saying any more there as he hoped they could just realize what he was getting at and accept it themselves.

Everyone would be against us, Iida thought, already something that had crossed his mind many times. Whether they accept what Zach says and hate us for accusing him of being something he isn't, or they believe us and just hate that we're actually trying to arrest him for all the good he did out there. It's like we'd be the Hosu police after how we beat Stain, if we had accepted the credit, and they had punished us and our pro heroes we were interning with. Iida's heart fell but started beating even faster as his thoughts continued, No one would be on our side, but we would- we would only have to do it, if Zach had taken credit. If he said he was Death… then I would. If there's no proof though, we shouldn't push it. It has no positive outcomes, no happy ending for anyone, and for what? So that Zach can spend the rest of his life in a cell? Will that really make the world a better place? Will it make the world, a safer place?

"Don't say that, like you're trying to stop us for our sake," Todoroki started. "It's you, who doesn't want to go back to prison. And it's you, who doesn't want to be revealed as Death."

"Maybe," Zach replied. "But I don't want you guys to reveal me, because I don't want to hurt you- I don't want you to feel hurt, when people turn on you. If people turn on you," Zach corrected himself again, not saying it as a sure thing though by saying the other way first they could see what he thought would happen. Cutting back on 'I don't want to hurt you-' too sounded more like Zach did not want them to think he was considering fighting them or anything. "And maybe that is for me though," Zach continued. "Maybe it's because I don't want to feel hurt, and I know I will if that happens to you guys. If it's all my fault," Zach's eyes shifted to Midoriya specifically and his chest hurt as he pictured what he was suggesting happening to Midoriya. It could even destroy your chances, at ever becoming…

"So what?" Todoroki asked in a dark voice. "You want me to lie? You're asking me, to lie to my dad about you? He really doesn't think you're Death, by the way. He's convinced after the licensing exam, for some reason, that you couldn't be Death."

A flash of complete darkness covered Zach's face for a brief moment. His face returned to normal though as he stopped from even thinking that thought that almost pushed into his head, and then he spoke to distract from the look on Todoroki's face that showed he clearly saw some sort of look right there. He blurred Iida and Midoriya's faces out too and just said straight to Todoroki in a steady but low voice, "You were wrong in the national park, Todoroki. I didn't have anything planned. I don't-"

"I don't believe you," Todoroki said before Zach could say anything else. "You've told me that exact line before."

"I know," Zach whispered. "And I am sorry for lying about that. For lying about a lot… But if you tell your dad, it's over. He will arrest me. I will deny everything. And I think, I know, a lot of people are going to get hurt. People will die. In countries across the world from here, people will die. I don't want any of those people to die. I don't want any of the AoD to die either, and I know they'll be the first to respond when those villains react to my capture again. This time, with a more permanent ending to me." Zach paused and he grit his teeth for a moment before parting his lips and letting out a heavy, exhausted breath though his face showed he was still trying hard as much as he felt the weight of all he was saying falling on him. It was like the hypothetical was playing out in his head and he could feel it crushing him already.

"I've already made the decision to come back here and go to prison once, and it got good people killed. If I had stayed there, that short surge wouldn't have happened. And Mark-" Zach paused for a moment and he looked to the side with his lips pursed, then another heavy breath coming out as he could not hold that breath in for long. "He hadn't died before. And maybe he still wouldn't have died at all, if I had been there to make things different. To stop him from going in after EM alone. He was young. He'd been, on the run since he was a teen, chased by his government and hunted. And we were fighting such hard battles all the time, but he really wanted to live. He really didn't want to die," Zach lifted his eyes up to the top of the gazebo and his chest ached as he thought about Mark's face. He saw a smile on it and cracked one of his own, even with his eyes feeling a little wet under his hood that he made shadow over them more. "And he really believed he wouldn't. I got him to stop smoking cigarettes, because, I didn't want him to die of cancer…"

Todoroki's eyes opened wide and his breath sucked in fast. He remembered back a few nights ago, to a conversation he was watching as he cooked the stew not far from other members of the cooking team and Zach. "Life expectancy wasn't all that long over there, so most people weren't very concerned with dental health even when I brought up some stuff they could do to help with it. I made my comrades brush their teeth though, for the same reason I tried to get a lot of them to stop smoking rayal, a plant kind of like tobacco I guess…" Was that story- he was talking about them, then? I thought- I didn't think much of it at all though. Even Ashido looked at him like what he was saying were lies, and she knows! But, but to realize that the story, was actually… "Because I wanted them all to know I expected them to survive it. Ignoring their long-term health because they were fighting intense fights all the time, it was like telling me that they expected me to let them die out there. They saw I expected them to live a long time after the war, and I think that made a lot of them think they were going to too so it kept everyone staying healthier in their daily practices."

What Todoroki just realized was replaced by a new revelation that hit him in a more painful way. This guy Mark, who both Dad and Zach have talked about, thought he was going to live a long life if he really stopped smoking cigarettes. That's one way to look at it. Or, maybe Mark still thought he would die but just stopped smoking so Zach would think that he thought he would have a long life. Todoroki focused on Zach's face, and his heart panged at the sight of it. He believes it too. What he just said, he knows it's possible but he wants to believe that Mark quit because he thought he would live. I know though, that there are a lot of people in this world who love Zach. More than anything, they love him, and yet he came back and is with us again when we're always so against him!

Todoroki ground his teeth with the most frustrated look covering his expression that had all three of the others looking at him wondering what he was going to say. All three of the others were nervous too, though they were confused by the expression on Todoroki's face as he forced such an angry look out to cover the other emotions he was feeling that really did piss him off, but not to a level that he could look that angry without forcing it. Fuck. I hate this, but- I'm just, amazed by Zach to do something like this when he has those people waiting for him. Other people out there… What am I thinking about right now? Death is standing in front of me. He's, just standing there. Out in the open. The most wanted man in the world… Who's somehow out in the open, despite that. No one's ever captured him. Not a single hero. All those pros out there who could have stopped him, not one did. Do I really know better than them? Do I know better than Zach, or Midoriya, or Iida? Do I think I know better than Yaoyorozu, or is she just- no, she wouldn't hide it, just because of their history. Then, is it really wrong to stop-

Except, it's not even about stopping Death at this point. The realization made Todoroki's dark expression lower and his eyes to shift to the right at Midoriya. Midoriya did not understand why Todoroki looked at him like that, but the boy in the middle of the three confronting Zach thought of a mistake Midoriya had made earlier that Zach gave him such a dark glare over. The Gentle Criminal is Death now. Arresting Zach won't do anything- except maybe get some of them killed, if that's what Zach thinks will happen. But it won't stop them. It won't change what they do. I'd be doing nothing, except throwing a friend into- An old friend, into Tartaros, again. Not a friend. A villain. And he deserves it. For lying about Dabi all that, time… "Fine, I'll lie," Todoroki said, his own thoughts trailing off at the angry thought he just had that hesitated near the end and that he knew was the wrong reason to be doing any of this for.

"Alright," Zach said with a nod back at him. "Then if you ever want to talk," Zach continued. His look was serious and he spoke despite Todoroki's expression getting angry immediately upon what he was starting to say, "I'll tell you everything I know about Touya. If you're willing to listen." He turned and walked out of the gazebo, stepping down the stairs and walking away with his hood still up and the word 'LIFEBRINGER' seen on his back by the other three for the first time. He did not stay to talk any longer, nor to give Todoroki an opportunity to go back on it, nor to let him respond to what he finished with.

Midoriya looked in at Todoroki and then back out towards a retreating Zach who walked calmly away with his hands down in his sweatshirt's pocket. As much as his thoughts had been serious and focused on how he knew he was going to have to fight Zach, how those feelings had been reaffirmed by this conversation, something else occurred to him that made those grim feelings try to push away. When you have that conversation, you know it's a talk you need to have between just you and him. Even if Todoroki was willing right now, Midoriya's eyes shifted back in once more at his good friend who looked so conflicted and angry at the fact that Zach was just walking away like that, even if he had begrudgingly accepted to stay quiet in that single moment of doubt a few seconds ago. And I don't think he's ready yet, but once he is, you have to tell him Zach. You have to tell him, about his brother.

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A/N Thanks for reading! Zach defends his actions as Todoroki confronts him, and Todoroki's left frustrated and angry though he says he'll lie... Zach's barely staying in it, but he once again convinces someone to hold off on taking him downtown. The count is up to 7 now though. Will Zach be able to remain or will he be thrown into Tartaros once more? Can he stay out long enough to stop Raijin and Shigaraki and all their plans? What about All For One? Eziano Mozcaccio? Endeavor? Lemillion?! Everyone's after Zach, but he's sticking in it... We'll see if he can keep it up. XD Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and leave a review telling me what you think, questions, comments, and predictions for what's coming! Anyway, no responses today, short on time. Sorry guys. Next time though! :D