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!

178. Chapter 178

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 178:

"I told you I don't like it when you do that," Midoriya said, a frustrated expression on his face as he and Zach talked while on a run on the outskirts of Musutafu. They were in an older section of the city that got more abandoned in recent years as so much of the city was rebuilt and built on top of, leaving the warehouses and industrial parks in this area sparsely used. Some of the areas had construction going on at them, showing those old buildings were going to be replaced by something new as well, but there were not many people walking around to interrupt the boys following a path Zach had chosen for them.

Zach stared forward even as Midoriya frowned to the side at him while saying that. "I'm saving lives."

"But if you're just doing it, to get here quicker," Midoriya countered.

"I know," Zach admitted. "Don't think about it so hard though." The fact that those people live or die determined solely on whether or not you wanted to talk to me. Their lives mean only that much, or they mean everything. It all just matters on how you want to think of it. "I could waste a few hours on the train, but I choose to get here faster because I want to save a few people too. It's not just for saving time, Midoriya. I wouldn't have just died for that alone."

"Only one today," Midoriya specified considering what Zach had already told him, then he grimaced as that sounded harsh in his own head. "Not that that's not-"

"It was almost out of my time limit too," Zach replied, not going to wait for Midoriya to apologize for something he did not feel his friend needed to. "But I've got over two hours now. Two hours twenty minutes is the max from what I know," Zach said, looking to the side as he told Midoriya it. "I struggled to get it started that time, the day the four of us talked under the gazebo," Zach added, telling Midoriya when it was he had figured out that limit and making Midoirya's eyes widen more as Zach had not told them he saved anyone that day.

You could have used that for an excuse to Todoroki, Midoriya thought while looking back forward as they were nearing a road they would have to cross carefully. Was it another excuse you had, if all else had failed? Midoriya frowned deeper while jogging in place just like Zach, then they ran across the crosswalk as the signal turned green for them to do so. "Left after the next block," Zach said. "There's an old industrial park near here with a fence that's easy to slip through too, if you want to go check to see if it's unsafe and do some parkour around it?"

"Have you done that before?" Midoriya accused harshly.

"No, was waiting to see if you wanted to do it with me," Zach replied casually. "If it's so easy to get into, it could be dangerous for kids who might be able to get in and do the same thing. We can cite whoever's in charge of keeping that place locked off if there are safety hazards we discover while jumping around a new environment-"

"That doesn't sound…" Midoriya paused and he hummed to himself, losing the upset look as he decided to stop looking at it as sketchy and try to just imagine it the way Zach was. It's a loophole, and he's really just saying all those reasons because he wants to run around that area, but we really could find out… And if it is unsafe, and kids could- does Zach think kids would go in there to mess around? Did he just want me there in case we get caught, because it would look less sketchy if the two of us were there than if it was just him?! Midoriya spun back to Zach with wide eyes, and Zach looked back at him in surprise too as it seemed like Midoriya was thinking really deeply into this. The way Zach looked back at him made Midoriya's eyes shift back a little, as he wondered if he was overthinking it too.

If we get caught… Midoriya thought, as he considered it seriously while looking back ahead. "Yeah, we could do that," he finally said to Zach, replying in a way Zach did not actually think he would when he suggested it. Then we don't need an excuse. We tell them the real reason we checked it out. "How'd you find this place?" Midoriya wondered after Zach told him to follow him with a bigger smile on his face as he was glad that suggestion worked out.

"I've been running around a lot of cities around Japan since I got back," Zach replied. "Mainly Yutapu and Musutafu, but a lot of the rest of Tokyo too. I've checked out a few other cities too when I hit a hospital in them to keep things a bit more even and spread out around Japan."

Midoriya nodded his head, as he had heard news reports multiple times a week recently about Lifebringer's appearances and the people he had been bringing back to life. Those reports always end the same way though. Everyone keeps asking why you aren't doing it more. I guess, I shouldn't confront you over it anymore. I should just appreciate that you are saving those people, when you really don't have to be. Of course you would though- except, you don't seem very enthusiastic about it. Or like you even care… More like, it's just something you can do, and that you choose to sometimes-

"Over there," Zach said, pointing diagonally across the street and the next one to the right. He and Midoriya crossed the road at the perfect time too that their walk signal ended while the next one was turning on for them, so they did not have to run in place for very long. The two slowed down as they neared the fence, and Zach jogged alongside the front of it before reaching the gate that had a chain loosely wrapped between either chain-link fence. There was a padlock keeping the chain there, but Zach just pulled on the chain and then pulled one side of the fence outwards to make a gap big enough for him to squeeze through. He was a muscular and tall teenager too, and Midoriya frowned as any kid feeling risky could have easily done the same thing despite the warning sign, singular, posted on the gate.

Midoriya pulled the fence out with one glance to either side in a hesitant way, before slipping inside and letting out a deep breath to stop being so nervous about this. I'm a hero checking out a safety hazard that children could hurt themselves on. His head lifted and he stared at the four-story building, the large shipping containers scattered around the left side of it, the mound of sand on the opposite side of the building as the street that he caught sight of the edge of, and a lot of steel beams and sharp flat plates laying all over the place that had covered in dust and sand to show the yard had not been used in quite a while. "Let's go inside," Zach suggested, looking back at Midoriya and then turning forward and running for an open garage door that led into a wide inner room that Zach wondered what it looked like for a few days now.

"Alright, but we do have to check for safety hazards," Midoriya reminded. He's just doing this for the parkour course. Does Shiketsu not have the kind of training grounds that U.A. has, or has he just mastered all of those already and wants one he hasn't seen before? "So I wanted to talk to you," Midoriya started as he jogged from behind Zach up to his side, as he was very fast and was able to catch up with a small use of some One For All. "About…"

The two of them stopped just inside of the building when they turned into the main first floor room that had been emptied of the heavy machinery that used to be in there. There was a sign sticking up in the middle of the floor like a 'wet-floor' sign would be. On that sign were big words that just said, 'You Do Not Belong In Here.' Zach chuckled which caused his friend who paused at the sight of it to look back towards him and see Zach's amused expression. Zach glanced back and shrugged his right shoulder closer to Midoriya, "What? They had a sense of humor about it. I think it's a point for them, having this second warning and all."

"Hmm," Midoriya hummed, glancing back towards the sign himself and wondering if that did count for something. Are the last ones to run this place really responsible if something happens, when they've put up multiple signs to warn people that it may not be safe?

"Let's check upstairs though," Zach suggested. "Could still be worse than we think." He started running in the direction he thought the stairs would be, and he asked loudly as Midoriya had to catch up again, "What did you want to talk about?"

"Italy," Midoriya replied and ran up on Zach's side again. They ran to the outsides of the room, and Midoriya hopped up like Zach did onto a pile of wood pushed all the way to the wall. They had to be more careful as the stack was not completely sturdy and had a narrow path to run on, but Zach kept up his speed and Midoriya trailed right behind him. "I want to know what you were doing there."

"Thought you knew everything already?" Zach asked without looking back, as he dropped off the end of the stack of wood and made for the doorway into the next room. He could see through the opening a steel staircase on the other side of the next room leading to the floor above.

"I mean before, you joined the mob," Midoriya specified, though he had to hesitate before getting all that out as it was a sentence he did not ever think he would say.

"Still need to be more specific," Zach replied. "Which time I went? Right after the League of Shadows' HQ was destroyed? As the war raged through February with King having the Italian mafias hunting down heroes?" Midoriya looked at Zach's back in surprise, and Zach turned his head to the side a little and looked back to see if Midoriya meant around then, because that was when Midoriya had been to Italy himself. "You showed up in Italy while I was in the middle of that war with King, where the fighting was so constant and violent that I had to leave powerful villains like the Gazpaccio to heroes, though I figured it would be fine with Hawks, Deku, and Tsuykuyomi there-"

Midoriya's expression angered and he snapped at Zach while running up to his side and past him a little, as he could see the staircase and did not need to trail behind Zach to reach the next floor. "So what? You left something so small to me?" He asked it frustratedly and in an accusing tone like Zach was saying the things the heroes were dealing with were nothing compared to the kinds of fights he was in.

"That's not it," Zach replied, slowing down a little with a look of surprise appearing and then fading from his face quickly as he could see how the way he worded that would make Midoriya think it was so. He sped up again and jumped up in the air on Midoriya's right, hitting the metal staircase a third of the way up and grabbing onto the railing with both hands, swinging his legs under it to throw his whole body onto the steps. He spun upon landing and continued running up ahead of Midoriya who just took the steps three at a time from the bottom one to try and keep up with Zach. Zach did not hit the top of the stairs either, instead jumping from two thirds of the way to the part of the railing that wrapped around the second floor. He yanked twice as hard this time on the rail, but it stayed firm and Zach nodded while throwing himself under that railing too. Still sturdy enough, he thought to himself before glancing back at Midoriya who just jumped from halfway up the stairs to right over that railing he swung himself through.

Midoriya was coming over his head, and Zach spoke to his friend about to land in front of him, "Espuci Vermon wasn't something 'so small.' He was going to sell so many costumes to villains, legally, and get away with those sales because some countries were allowing cops to start using Quirks. It wouldn't have been strange if huge shipments started leaving the country for destinations like those, and shipments of a lot of things were under attack in those days. The world economy was in a recession, because people were uncertain about trade when international villains were openly attacking trading vessels, hijacking ships and stealing supplies. International trade was down and everyone was worried about it with villains everywhere, and no one would suspect Vermon intentionally 'lost' those shipments to King's men."

Midoriya looked over his shoulder at Zach who stared him seriously in the eyes for a moment as they crossed a floor with more hazardous conditions than the floor below. There was more left up here, even though it looked partially like an office space in half of the floor, and Zach and Midoriya swerved between desks and old construction equipment, occasionally jumping up on things and to other obstacles just to see if those obstacles would break beneath their landings. Zach spoke to his friend as they crossed each other jumping on opposite desks than the ones that would have been their next destinations if they had just run straight forward, "Vermon would have armed King and all his forces with powerful costumes. The Gazpaccio would have gotten stronger, filled in the spot at the top of Italy the Arvanetti left open," Zach jumped and did a front-flip before coming down and sprinting ahead of Midoriya who was dropping off of sheet of metal he bounced on as it was leaning on a pillar in the middle of the room. "And I was relieved," Zach continued as his friend landed on his left and just behind him, "that I didn't need to redirect more people there to help though."

He glanced to his left and into Midoriya's eyes, "Because I was certain that even if things there were worse than I thought, the villains more prepared than I knew, you could handle it. You were my failsafe," Zach said, and he nodded at Midoriya who was first surprised and then shocked as it looked like Zach really meant that. He looked back forward though and lowered his expression he just gave Midoriya after a second, "Though, I had Hyper go anyway, just in case…" You died, Zach finished to himself.

"And when you showed up in Italy after I left?" Midoriya asked.

"It was just to get Hyper out," Zach replied. "You caused me a lot of problems, but I also used the leaked footage from that police station to my advantage. Terrified the villains to see the police let me go without even trying to stop me. It was like the authorities were telling villains that they were letting the AoD loose on them, because they were out of control-"

"That's how you saw it?" Midoriya asked harshly. "Because I saw a miscarriage of justice. They allowed you to-"

"Oh it was," Zach agreed. "No doubt about that. But you showed up in Italy in a time where heroes and police needed all the help they could get. I know you don't think what I was doing was necessary, but crime in Italy was organized long before the rise of villains. Italy's crime families that had operated for so long in the shadows were more ready than anyone else in the world for the opportunities they were provided as the age of villains started."

"Age of villains." You talk about it like it's over, but Shigaraki's still out there! All For One, and Raijin, all the League of Villains! Intanzo and The Radians! And the Jazz, so many in Japan alone-

"…The Porzoni, the Sabbrozzi and Gazpaccio," Zach listed off. "They killed heroes like crazy. Italy already needed every hero they could get, and suddenly they were down dozens in a few weeks. It was as bad as what the Cult of Stain was doing here. There though, it was under King's orders. The heroes who died in Italy started with the ones who were part of the ADTF, with one of the strongest Italian heroes, Jupiter, falling in the early days. I couldn't-"

"I know this," Midoriya started. "Metallore told me, about how King had them hunted down. He said Michelangelo survived two attempts on his life-"

"Thanks to my tip one time, and me intervening another," Zach cut in, and he nodded when Midoriya looked at him in surprise again, as that was something he did not know.

Metallore probably didn't know that either, Midoriya realized.

Zach continued after Midoriya got quiet, "The amount of power King had was absurd. He had the strongest forces in the world, easily the largest numbers at least." Eziano's were better quality-wise, as a mean though. Zach slowed down his run, and then continued while turning to face Midoriya and just standing still near the middle of the second floor of the industrial building, "King was enraged that I had the gall to attack their HQ and force him to flee. So he massacred heroes."

Midoriya stopped too and he stared at Zach with wide eyes at what he was saying that he had never heard of on the news or anything. "The CHAF, the Combined Hero Assault Force that Africa created to combat the 'age of villains' that Mombat declared in early January," Zach started in a low voice to Midoriya whose expression got dark and grim too as Zach brought them up. "The bombing that took all those top heroes from countries around Africa out, was orchestrated by King. It might have been African villains who carried it out, but it was King who told them to."

"If you knew…" Midoriya started.

"No one wants to know that there's a villain in the world with that kind of power," Zach replied with a shake of his head. "King was a Shadow Boss, which meant he operated from the shadows. But I revealed him. I attacked his Headquarters with the entirety of the Army of Death and the Anti-Death Task Force, and he still escaped with most of his strongest forces and Digger, who I still haven't caught." Zach added that last part in a more annoyed voice, his eyes darkening more at the thought of the elusive villain he had never seen but had come across his work countless times now. "I revealed him, and so he adapted to being known."

Zach's expression shadowed over as he continued, his head bowing a little, "King had his people hunt for anyone remotely involved with the AoD. He had gangs kill families and friends of suspected AoD members in a campaign of terror across the world. Any of my comrades whose identities were suspected or revealed, we had to get their families into hiding or they'd be killed… like a few of them were. Against my forces," Zach explained to his friend who was staring at him in shock hearing that. "There were no rules. Villains are always pretty brutal, but we were villains ourselves and acted against all codes that villains had. We worked with cops and heroes, we turned over villains to the authorities, and they feared us enough that they were willing to do anything to stop us."

"Do you think I'd be standing here if I lost a battle? Losing for my side would mean death, or so much worse which many of my comrades faced after being captured…" Midoriya remembered what Zach said to him, Iida, and Todoroki in that gazebo, and he grimaced deeper at the idea of what this 'so much worse' was that Zach was referring to.

"If King was doing all that, across the world," Midoriya started. "And you've said before that the villains knew you were Death, then why wouldn't he come after us? After your friends?"

"Two reasons," Zach replied and held up two fingers in front of hi. "Because of the structure of Japan's villains," he put down one finger. "And because of the strength of our heroes. The second reason, is the same reason I barely ever came back here. It didn't have to do with me not wanting to run into you guys," Zach explained, shaking his head as he meant that and knew it would be hard for Midoriya to believe. "America's heroes are considered very strong too, and most people around the world argue either Japan's or the U.S.'s are the most powerful. However the U.S.A. also has so much more land for those heroes to protect that they did need more help from their Special Forces, from vigilantes, and from me. Whereas here, Japan's heroes were plentiful and battle-hardened, powerful, and ready for whatever international villains might try to move in."

Zach paused for a second, and then he continued to his friend who was looking at him in astonishment that Zach thought so highly of the heroes of Japan compared to the rest of the world. "But the first reason is more likely what stopped him. Faith was insane, and yet the Cult of Stain was the most powerful villain group in Japan for a time. If King had tried moving into Japan, he would have had to deal with fanatics and no one ever likes dealing with fanatics, especially not careful guys like him. Then after you guys took down Faith and his Cult, that was the time where King came to have more power than ever and he had the chance to move into Japan. Japan's heroes were on a high after defeating the Cult though. The ones responsible for killing so many heroes over that past half a year, they were gone and for a second Japan felt safe."

Midoriya remembered this time well and he nodded his head at Zach with a serious look spreading over his face too. "That time didn't last long though. Things didn't get peaceful here, they never did," Midoriya said it and Zach could tell Midoriya was referring to something he had seen Zach say on the news the other day. Zach agreed with a slow nod of his head that Midoriya was right, even though he had treated that conversation with the reporters too much like things here were more peaceful than they were.

"That quiet moment left an opening for King, but he didn't move quick enough here. The League were still quiet, the Cult of Stain was destroyed, and the other villain groups weren't making big moves yet. It was back when the Radians were a small villain gang and Intanzo wasn't a household name. Before he was even on the heroes' radar, let alone the most wanted man in Japan." Zach paused for a moment, but as he looked over his shoulder and thought about continuing the run, he shook his head and refaced Midoriya as this was more important than checking out the safety of this abandoned building he really only entered to get a quiet moment with Midoriya. "And now, villains around the world know that Intanzo's the current Kingpin of Japan."

"People think he's more dangerous than Shigaraki Tomura," Midoriya said in a low voice, a scar on his back burning as he said it.

"And we know they're wrong," Zach replied. "But Intanzo is dangerous. To be known as the most powerful villain in the country most people associate with having the strongest heroes, it's not an easy feat. Intanzo shook the world though. The Nara Raid incident happened back when Endeavor was off with the ADTF fighting the League of Shadows' smaller groups who they tracked all over the world with the information we got from their headquarters. All the huge arrests being made around the world had everyone here excited, but that incident is what got the ADTF to split back apart, as Endeavor needed to return to Japan for a while which caused the rest of the ADTF to break off as well. Not to mention all those heroes dying in their homes countries, forcing those strongest heroes to split apart and go home themselves, only for many of them to be killed too even if they had quit the ADTF."

Zach paused for a moment and then continued in a low voice to his friend listening closely to his every word, "King didn't have anything to do with Intanzo though. The Radians' base was found, and the raid team went in for them, and every one of the heroes involved was killed." Zach knew Midoriya already knew it, but Midoriya did not understand the importance of it on a wider scale and the green-haired boy nodded at Zach to continue explaining as he paused. Zach continued after seeing that nod, "Surviving police officers part of the raid reported that a Tartaros escapee, Camoflora, who Yoroi Musha had put in there himself was working with Intanzo. The two of those old men fought each other in a brutal fight that resulted in both of their deaths. On the other hand though, Intanzo alone killed Floodgate and five other pro heroes with her, along with eight sidekicks of those pros, and twenty-six police officers."

Zach said those numbers and ground his teeth for a moment in frustration, and Midoriya got a dark expression on his face too with his eyes shifting down to the ground. Zach continued after a moment of silence for those people he just mentioned, "Endeavor, Hawks, Best Jeanist, Lemillion, and Kamui Woods were all out of the country at the time. They had to rush back there immediately. Endeavor was flaunting his victory against the League of Shadows, and everyone could see that and knew why he was doing it, but the fact was that he was out of the country and couldn't respond to the attack before Intanzo escaped."

Midoriya nodded as he remembered how those top heroes all returned to the country, and yet the news still put them on blast for not being there to stop the Nara Raid from going so horribly wrong. They were blamed for putting the needs of other countries before our own. Especially since there were not many villains in Japan getting caught after the League of Shadows' raid, compared to other countries at least.

"Afterwards," Zach went on, speaking a little quicker as this was not as important to what he was talking about. "Intanzo was put on the most wanted list, and he quickly rose to the top as the Radians carried out attacks more confidently through February, and killed or maimed various heroes who came after their group. Until that bad loss near the end of the month that resulted in the capture of a few of their higher members, when their attacks became less frequent and they faded out for a while. The point though, is that Japan's villains were facing off against Japan's powerful heroes, and the last thing King wanted to do was drag Endeavor back out to lead the ADTF again after his forces. He liked how the ADTF were separated and easier to kill. But he would leave it up to the big villain names in Japan to take care of Japan's ADTF forces: the Jazz, the Subspace Devils, the missing League of Villains, and the Radians led by that maniac Intanzo. As much as I left dealing with those villains to you guys, King and the international villains of the world mainly left Japan's powerful heroes to them."

Midoriya shifted his eyes to the side for a moment in a frustrated way, and Zach could see why he would feel that way. All the biggest problems in Japan, are really just isolated to here. That's what he's saying. Zach was fighting villains on a global scale while we've just dealt with villains on a national level. But, he came back here, Midoriya's eyes shifted back and his expression intensified again at what that thought meant. Which means the villains here really are the worst. As strong as all those monsters were he was facing around the world, he doesn't think the ones here were weaker, he really just thought we could do it without him. Then he comes back, and he takes down the Subspace Devils like it was child's play.

Midoriya took in a deep breath and pushed away any negative emotions towards what he just thought. Which was a good thing. He saved a lot of people that day, and somehow he managed to convince everyone he did it within the rules again. "Italy," Midoriya reminded, wanting Zach to continue back on track.

Zach nodded at him and his expression returned to normal too as did Midoriya's. They both knew the time period Zach was going to refer to now, and Midoriya listened closely as Zach responded to what he had asked before, "King had so much power unrivaled. Villains were most of the time weaker than pro heroes, so to be able to order villains to go hunting for heroes was something shocking. I didn't expect so many villains in so many countries to suddenly attack like that, and I was not the only one. Most people in the world would not even be able to fathom what was happening though, so no one put together that it was one man orchestrating all of this and not a coincidental incidence that in February, after the raid on the LoS' HQ, more heroes were killed worldwide that month than in the three months before put together."

Zach paused for a moment and then finished to his shocked friend who had never heard that statistic before, "Even though the crime rate continued to decline steadily in February across much of the world." Midoriya's eyes shot open wider, as that was a statistic he had heard mentioned often throughout February and March. He recalled back then a lot of heroes dying, but those heroes were treated so favorably upon their deaths and people celebrated their lives and their final actions which the fall of villains were being attributed to.

"As the heroes lost forces though, from mutilation and death and forced retirements, or from them resigning out of fear," Zach added the last bit in a lower voice more disappointed and sad than the steadier voice he had said the other parts with. For some reason, Midoriya felt the same way though, as he imagined the look on Ms. Joke's face the last time he went to see her to ask what Faith had said to give Wrangler a heart attack. Zach's low voice shook Midoriya out of that sad feeling they both just felt though, "My forces grew faster than they ever had. The reign of terror King caused across the world could be seen by those in the shadows, vigilantes, anti-heroes, some heroes who could see it and what I was doing, and victims who wanted to help… And as I countered all of King's movements and orders around the world, and recruited more forces to help combat his thousands of allies, I fought against the Italian mobs in Italy. I stopped assassination attempts on Michelangelo and protected towns from the mafias working with the worst villain groups that had emerged in that time."

He paused for a few seconds, then he continued in an even quieter voice, "The President of Italy was being paid off by the mafia, and so the heroes in Italy were only to focus on the unaffiliated villains while the mafias who acted in public had police teams alone investigating them. However, the police on those teams were all assigned by higher-ups in the police department who were as corrupt as the president and only picked incompetent and other corrupt cops to head those investigations." Midoriya's bottom lip dropped farther at every word Zach just said as he did not doubt it was true, yet he found it so hard to believe. The President- wait, but didn't the Italian President…

"…The paper trails and information we found at the League's HQ was only the tip of the iceberg for corruption across the world," Zach told his friend looking so shocked before him. "A lot was probably destroyed before we could get to it too. And forced to hand everyone over immediately to Endeavor and the ADTF as I was, there was no way I could interrogate any of them. I was lucky enough to be able to escape from there without having Endeavor chase after me." Zach paused and then said in a lower tone, "But after that day, more and more people with power were threatened and blackmailed and bribed every day to keep up with my own quickening of the pace of rooting out all that corruption."

"What you're saying," Midoriya started, his tone full of disbelief and his eyes narrowing as he did not want to believe this. "The Italian President? All the police in Italy?"

"It wasn't all of them," Zach said darkly. "But it was a lot. I never wanted anyone to know how bad it was though. I didn't want everyone to lose faith forever in those symbols of authority and democracy. So I went on my own campaign of counter-terror," Zach said, the corners of his lips lifting up and a scary look appearing on his face that gave Midoriya the chills. Zach rose an eyebrow while smirking at Midoriya like he just showed him how scary he could be, but Zach kept that expression even as he continued, "And although I didn't expose everything which I felt would've destroyed faith in our societal systems, I threatened the president and forced him to stop and to not run for reelection, which he didn't this past election season, retiring instead. And I brutalized the corrupt cops and got men fired or arrested for taking bribes, and I told some Italian heroes what was happening which got them all doing more because now they knew what had been kept from them."

"That's not the way to- you should have just turned everyone in to heroes you could trust," Midoriya said in a firm and disapproving voice of Zach's actions. "All of those cops who never got arrested, the Italian president who was there when I was, who isn't in prison now even though you're telling me he was a villain-"

"I tried it your way first," Zach said. He said it and quieted his friend with that single statement that made Midoriya hesitate to continue arguing his point here. "You remember Arkistan?" Zach asked in a low, regretful tone. "That's where the Syndicate were. The ones who had planned the Christmas Nuke." He reminded Midoriya of what he had said so quickly back on Inazuma Island, but what Midoriya had not forgotten a word of as it had shocked him to his core at the idea of. He also felt bad for Zach bringing it up now, as he remembered Zach talking about that kid Phinx killed who had 'died in his arms.' Zach continued as he saw Midoriya give him a slow nod to go on, "It seemed like the obvious move to me. I had discovered so much corruption, and I had proof of that corruption implicating Prime Minister Fornkak, dozens of high-level government officials, chiefs of police, and heroes," Zach finished that with his most regretful voice.

"I turned over every hero, no matter what their crime was or how corrupt," Zach said this while shaking his head at the mistakes of an earlier him. "I handed over everything I had to G-4 and Tyton, and they gathered up Urakao, Gizmo, and the Rynzo Group, and they did a clean-up of the entire country. It felt like my biggest win I'd ever had. I learned about the League of Shadows down there, and I saw how widespread the Fergus Conglomerate's power really was with the Atlas Corp's involvement. My comrades who died in the Dragons' Den, the Syndicate's mountain headquarters, I believed I was doing them a service by revealing all Arkistan had to hide. I believed their deaths had meant so much because of all the arrests that were made. But, the number of arrests wasn't what we cared about. The number of villains we stopped wasn't it either. It was supposed to be about making the world a better place."

"I don't follow," Midoriya said, shaking his head as Zach's regretful tone did not make sense to him here. "What you did there sounds like the most good-"

"And what happened in Arkistan in January and February?" Zach questioned. "You were focused on Japan mostly, with all that was happening here I'm sure," Zach said it with a darker expression at Midoriya who was speaking carelessly to say what he did was good. "You clearly didn't follow what happened in Arkistan next, and neither did a lot of the world who just reported good things about how all that corruption was stopped."

Zach took in a deep breath and steadied his angry expression back to just a serious and informative one again. "Removing all those government officials left the country weak. It put people in charge with little experience, and who were also easy to corrupt because they were not ready for the pressures of bribes and threats. Few of the new leaders were able to resist. Worse, those heroes who I exposed and who were all arrested or stripped of their hero licenses for any amount of corruption they were a part of, they included some of Arkistan's strongest. Arkistan was now down half its best heroes, and the Syndicate were gone which meant it was open season for the villains who rose back up there the second I left the country. While heroes were all focused on each other and the government, lower level villains in Arkistan dug their claws in and gained power quickly. The League replaced their fallen contacts with the Syndicate with contacts with the new strongest villains there. And that wasn't even the worst part. Revealing the Atlas Corp, I really only wanted to expose the people working with Mr. Fergus-"

"Wait, when you say 'Fergus,' you mean there was an actual villain-"

"Named Mr. Fergus," Zach finished for Midoriya. "With the most annoying fucking Quirk, Possession and Beams. A composite Quirk, which we were screwed against but somehow managed to defeat during the world loop." Midoriya shook his head around as there was too much new information he was receiving to absorb at one time. Zach continued back on track though anyway without further explanation on Mr. Fergus, "But the Fergus Conglomerate employed millions of people around the world. All those subsidiary companies like the Atlas Corporation, they weren't all evil. In fact, those companies were some of the best, more humanitarian companies in the world. It was why they were so hard to notice. Why no one ever suspected anything of them, because of all the advancements those companies had made in medicine and Quirk knowledge, technology and agriculture, science in general. The Fourth Eye existed inside every single part of the Fergus Conglomerate though, Fergus' own secret society controlling something much more powerful than a country: a group of corporations. And I wanted to stop them Midoriya, I needed to stop him after all I saw he was doing. The worst fucking villain in the entire world," Zach said it with a shake of his head and twitch of his right eye that went away quickly but not fast enough that Midoriya did not notice it and feel his stomach drop at the sight of.

"But it wasn't just the corrupt ones who lost their jobs when I exposed the Atlas Corp," Zach continued again. "Their stock prices fell. Investigations started into different companies Fergus controlled, and legitimate plants were shut down, and good people lost their jobs and fell on hard times because of what I did. The Syndicate and Arkistan felt like my first big win since Mongoloid and SISIS, but I fought for months after that and I saw the long-term effects that my actions caused wherever I went. And the long-term effects of what I did in Arkistan were mainly negative. And I learned from those mistakes," Zach finished, his eyes narrowing as he came back around to how Midoriya originally countered his way of dealing with Italy's corruption.

Midoriya's eyes widened again as the way Zach dealt with things in Italy was not just some illegal, rash method of dealing with things Zach's own way. He learned from experience. Every 'loss' he had taught him something. And his losses happened on huge scales with millions of lives on the line. I- I don't have the experience yet to actually say- but I know what should and shouldn't go on. I know what you should have done… Or, I know the "right" way that things should have been done. The way you did them in Arkistan. A way, that you saw put the country in worse shape.

"Back to Italy," Zach suggested again. "As I went off against the corrupt in Italy and forced them to work with me and heroes more than with the villains, I also went hard at attacking the worst Italian mobs, which succeeded in pulling the most powerful Italian gangsters out of Russia." Midoriya got confused again and Zach explained, "They had gathered there with their strongest men at King's compound in Siberia. I first went after King's biggest hideout in Italy but he had already left, and so often I was a step behind him. There's something you don't realize about King, Midoriya. All over the world King was directing killings of heroes, maintaining his control over the mobs with the League of Shadows' backing as powerful as they had ever been with King's men taking charge of Zolo's activities, and Bolivar mainly running Turbo's weapon facilities and moving them around."

Zach's expression darkened more as Midoriya stared at him in shock hearing this. "And when I took down Bolivar, it didn't take long for all of Bolivar's powerful Pueblos to flock to King and gain more power by allying with him. Power that would last even after I defeated King to make those men into the new most powerful forces in the world." Zach shook his head with his teeth clenched, thinking back on that cycle, how every time he took down a powerful villain, more of them were waiting to take that villain's place. He relaxed his jaw though and shook his head to get that frustration off his face, then he continued in a steady voice to Midoriya with his expression looking less like Zach Sazaki's each second to more a face that Midoriya associated with Death.

"I hit the peak of Quirk warfare in Italy, and Russia. Because I hit the Italian mafias hard when they sent their strongest fighters over to Russia to back up King, and so the mafia bosses sent their strongest guys back to deal with me. But then before King could replace that drop in his force's strength, I attacked with the forces I had already been gathering up at the same time." Midoriya stared at Zach in awe as his friend continued on about his strategies and how he had done this feat that Midoriya never had any idea the planning that went into it. "I trusted Mother Russia, and I trusted that the heroes she trusted in Russia and Eastern Europe could be trusted with the plan too. She was there when Kaminari betrayed us. I knew she would not fall for anything, and I searched out other heroes I could trust too. We gathered up a force we could trust, while my own forces bulged and trained harder, practiced and strategized and got comparatively smarter because of how many fights we were in daily against how little experience King's guys were getting just fleeing from me."

He paused and then continued in a low and intense voice, "Taking down King was the biggest victory of the war. I mean that, in that I felt it was because there were no negative consequences. I didn't feel a single loss that day. Not a single lasting casualty, a few first deaths, but no one I couldn't revive, while I took down the most powerful man in the world." Midoriya's hands trembled and his eyes shook as he stared at the person in front of him who just said that to him in a serious and truthful voice. And as hard as it was to accept, it was not hard at all for him to believe after all he had already heard.

"How?" Midoriya whispered, and he doubted his voice could have come out any higher in volume than that.

"The Italian mobsters still at King's Russian compound called back their strongest fighters who they needed for assistance," Zach began. "But I expected that and had a trap waiting for their transportation which allowed me to capture those men as well without even having to face their powerful Quirks that could have turned the tides of the fight, or at least killed a lot of my troops. I made precise plans, precision attacks on every soldier. I knew the exact layout of his fortress including the extensive basements, and I put out misinformation to make King think I was in Italy at the time, and to make him think that I had no idea where he was or what his forces were like or what his base's layout was. My strategies were superior and my men better trained. I had to bring a force of heroes large enough that it would be believable that they defeated King and his army without me, because I also needed them to take the credit for something so huge that my force could never be accredited for. And I was able to convince those heroes why that was so necessary, and in exchange for his life, I forced a captured King to order all his men to go along with the story too."

"You would have killed him-"

"Maybe," Zach replied. "But maybe not. There were heroes all around me. And killing him would have made it less likely they would keep their mouths shut about my appearance. We had won that day, without killing a single villain, or losing a single member of our allied team. It was as perfect a victory as my fight against the Subspace Devils, except on a global scale with a villain a thousand times more powerful and influential than Overlord ever was or would be." Zach paused for a moment and then lifted his flat lips into a small smile, his face actually going back to looking normal as he said nostalgically, "In the end, it was Darling and I who fought King together. The two of us against that monster shocked by our appearance in his base, in his very command room before he even had time to organize a solid defense. And oh, it was a battle Midoriya. The fight of our lives up to that point. Everything that was on the line. The pressure, King's insanely powerful Quirk, his fighting skills too, but Darling and I were in sync. We moved as one weapon and took down that villain like it was what we were meant to do."

Zach paused for a moment, and then he added still in a soft voice, "And then I got my reports from all the other teams. How each of them had taken the rooms they infiltrated. How in a few minutes, we had taken down hundreds of powerful villains. A force larger than our own. The villains who every other villain in the world thought were the strongest and most powerful of them all. Taking down King, and giving the credit all to heroes while the villains knew who was really responsible, it struck a fear in them that turned the tide of the war. It's why March and April had the steepest declines in villain activity in decades, because of what I did a year ago this month; taking down King like he was nothing but a fly in my wake. As strong as he was, I made it seem like I had done it with ease. And even though he was the most powerful, I still accepted no credit and stayed fully in the shadows, proving to all villains of the world that glory and fame meant nothing to me. We were ghosts. Shadows hunting them down that not even King could escape."

Midoriya felt his hair stand on end at the back of his neck. His hands almost clenched into fists at the scary way in which Zach was speaking, and yet what he was saying sounded so good for the world that his own instincts to get defensive there did not win over this time. Zach continued without noticing the shift in Midoriya's demeanor in a strange way, "I took off the head of the League of Shadows who had remained so powerful through my removal of three other Shadow Bosses, effectively shattering the organization. Its various parts could not hold together without King on top, and their strongest lasting connections were in Wampajawa where the villains could still meet and interact freely without consequence for another month."

"Wampajawa?" Midoriya asked. "You've mentioned it before."

"The Siege of Razmatan," Zach replied, and Midoriya's eyes shot open huge that that was the response Zach had for him. Zach shook his head though and added lower, "A story for another day. What I did in Italy and Russia, taking King down and the strongest mobsters with him, it left a power gap at the top. Villains adapted after King's defeat and stepped into that gap, but with new and better tactics and technology and improved drugs and experiments. They had to improve because they saw the power I had. The stronger I got, the stronger they got to combat me. That very night after taking down King, I went southeast towards Mongolia for the raid on one of King's lieutenants there before he could move or take actions to gain more power, but I heard at that time that in-"

"You did that the same night?" Midoriya asked in shock, as Zach had just told him about what sounded like the most impressive and biggest battle he had ever heard about.

"What?" Zach wondered back, like the disbelief was not warranted. "Stopping wasn't possible. Everyone adapted too quickly, and I could never move fast enough to stop everyone at once. So I was constantly moving. It's partially how I kept King from knowing when my attack was going to be. My forces had attacked villains in South America and Africa the night before the raid on King's compound. As much planning went into the attack, I was planning it out between fights against different villain groups that I was also planning strategies against and planning future raids on in other continents in dozens of other countries," he paused as he saw Midoriya looking too shocked by all he was saying that it was like he could not even process all of this at once.

Zach continued after a moment in a low voice, "All villains were my enemies. I was either calling up heroes to go after them when I found them, or going after them myself. And with so many heroes dying and peoples faith in their heroes low, I wanted the heroes to only be winning so I only really gave them the fights that were easy, once I was able to. The ones that I hoped they could all survive easily… though sometimes if it was a hero I knew to be really strong I would have them go. But my own troops were more disposable than heroes." Midoriya's eyes bulged to hear Zach say that, but Zach's expression was hardened and unshaken even seeing Midoriya look at him like that. "I loved them," Zach assured his friend. "They were my brothers and sisters in arms, but they were faceless and nameless men and women whose lives did not matter to the people of the world who would never know if they died or not. Heroes, were meant to be symbols of the strongest in society, pillars to protect people in a time where that was sorely needed. So when they were always winning and surviving and capturing all these villains I handed to them, they looked like those symbols and pillars again."

"I captured the more powerful villains, took on the strongest, sometimes with the help of heroes I called in or went to assist if they were biting off more than they could chew, but I always tried to give heroes the credit." His friend grit his teeth in front of him, and Zach could see how frustrated Midoriya was getting hearing him say all this without even bragging about it. Midoriya wanted to think that Zach was bragging to him, and yet what he just said reminded him how the 'credit' was never important to Zach. "And when during those fights, villains would kill each other with splash attacks meant to kill us, or try and fire a bullet through a comrade's head into my soldiers, those were the times I would tell the heroes to mention my involvement. Keep it so that villain casualties were not the fault of heroes being too reckless and brutal with their enemies, but that it was a group of terrorists who ignore the rules that caused it to happen."

Midoriya let out a heavy breath and he shook his head. How he created his label as a terrorist. He's telling me straight out, and I understand it, and yet you still were one. Even if you were the one who declared yourself a terrorist anyway! That doesn't, change the facts. You change the facts. Facts? I'm learning our whole history right here, and I'm trusting that everything you're saying is true. Midoriya looked deeply into Zach's eyes, and he thought, And it is. All of this is the truth. It's a truth I desperately wanted to know. I knew you were playing everyone. Planning out so much while out there as Death. I knew you had to be using the media and manipulating… but to this level? To the extent, that history bent around your whims? That you could decide to expose corruption or let it go unnoticed, and forever after everyone will think of things the way you wanted them to, it's insane. And what's even more insane, is that you acquired all that power in the span of a single year.

He understands it now, Zach thought while watching the gears turn in Midoriya's head. He saw his friend look at him in a way finally, truly, understanding like no one else did. No one outside of my army, and probably Eziano, really gets it. Iida couldn't wrap his head around it as quickly as you. He never could. But you always knew what I was doing, Midoriya. I told you for so long how I was going to use everything to change things for my goals. And you saw me doing it. You called me out on it long before I left this place.

"I kept it so everyone didn't just see how strong heroes are, but how good they are too," Zach finished in a soft voice, after talking about how he always took all the blame when villains were killed. "I had the power to do something like that, and I could see that I had that much power, so I used it for so much more. In Italy, when the strongest mafias and villain groups fell, other mafias started gang wars and came up on top. It all happened again like things were before the age of villains, and the mafia families had alliances and worked to stay in the shadows and stay alive and continue to commit crimes. But when I changed their ways instead of just removing them, it was different this time. There was no power gap like there was in Arkistan. Villains couldn't just rise again in that society, as much as a new business can't just emerge in an existing market without coming up against so much better competition from those who have been there longer. Villains and economics, not mutually exclusive either."

Like war and being a hero, Midoriya thought back to an earlier conversation the two of them had had a while back.

"Their position in society is already filled up," Zach said. "And it's filled by people who aren't actually committing crimes. It's why Italy's crime rate is so low right now, because people thinking of turning to villainy would sooner turn to joining a mafia where the members don't get arrested and everyone treats each other like family. They'd prefer that to turning to a radical villain group that even the mobs are all against now instead of working with them like they did earlier last year." Zach stopped for a moment and then he grinned in a way that made Midoriya feel so much dread at the look on his black-haired friend's face. "I changed Italy at its core. Altered the societal dynamic and filled the position of villains with non-criminals-"

"And with one of your own in control of that class, to make sure it never descends back into criminal again," Midoriya finished. Zach's smile lowered down and his lips fell flat, like Midoriya's while he stared intensely back into Zach's steady and bold eyes unafraid of anything. "Don Gino, they call him now." Zach did not say a word, and Midoriya spoke louder, "He's one of yours, isn't he?"

"I don't know what you mean by that," Zach replied, turning his back to Midoriya and running off. Midoriya thought he was running away for a moment, but Zach continued speaking in a regular tone which made it feel like he was just continuing the run as if they had not stopped for 10 minutes there. "Because I'm not Death. Which means I don't have anyone-"

"Do you really think that?" Midoriya asked, suddenly on Zach's right side and a little in front of him which made Zach's eyes widen at how fast Deku just moved to get there. The wind rushed past Zach and made his spiky hair wave around, even though it was styled up over his head. It had grown a bit longer since Zach got out of Tartaros and had it cut, but he was still able to style it in the same way he had right after getting the 'do. Midoriya stopped Zach in his tracks, as he asked in a dark voice, "Do you really think that if you left and went back to them right now, you wouldn't be welcomed back as Death?"

Zach froze at the question that had never been asked of him before. He looked at his friend, his heroic friend whose expression was so intense at the question. And Zach replied in a soft voice, "I, seriously don't know. I don't know who's still alive back there. I don't know if the guy I left in charge, is still in charge. I don't know anything about them anymore. There could have been so much turnover already. They could have all been killed and I'd never know. Or most of them could have been, and then the few who remained recruited more people who I don't know and wouldn't suddenly accept me as their leader." Zach's response made Midoriya open his eyes wider and wider the longer Zach went on it.

Has he not thought of it before? Midoriya thought in as much shock as anything he had heard in that building. It's like he's wondering right now, whether he'd be let back in- Why did I ask him that? I don't want him thinking about that! Midoriya spun back forward and continued running, snapping Zach out of his thoughts and making him smile as he ran after his friend who was the one to suddenly cut off the conversation and get running away this time. "Don't worry about that though," Zach assured his friend who he was sure was worried by the way he ran off like this. Midoriya turned his head partially to the side and looked back at Zach's smiling face looking as heroic as the last time he saw it on the news. "Because I told you why I came back here, didn't I?"

"You're going to be a hero," Midoriya replied, and Zach nodded at him while running fully up to his side.

"And as heroes, we should check out the floors above too," Zach suggested with a nod up, as they had just run into another room that had a tall ladder going all the way up to the top of the building past two other levels of mostly steel walkways and catwalks. Midoriya glanced up too, then back at Zach who he continued looking at with a hesitant look for another few seconds, before lifting the corners of his lips a small amount and nodding back at him amicably.

"Let's do it."

---

"…I told Midoriya it was important, but he didn't really get what I was saying," Zach said while standing next to Yaoyorozu, the two of them under a gazebo in Musutafu Zach liked as it felt like a lucky spot to him. The last time he had gone there he was half-convinced Todoroki was going to arrest him, and since then he and Todoroki had eased back into a less confrontational relationship, which he saw as a complete win. He was smiling while he talked to the tall girl next to him, and though he wanted to lean back on the side of the gazebo he also did not want to step back from her to do so. Leaning back like that with her, it'd make it look like I'm trying to act cool or something. Doing it with those three guys I was just, I don't know, it was a relaxed way to stand- Am I not relaxed? I feel relaxed.

"If those costumes had gotten out there, and the villains got their hands on them," Zach paused and shook his head with an ominous tone in his voice before the hesitation. "Well, I don't want to think about it, or I didn't, at the time. It would have been a waste to just think of how big a victory it was, by thinking of all the negative consequences it could have had. But had King's men all got those support items and costumes, and not just the hundreds he had hiding with him, but all his affiliated gangs around the world? As soon as the League of Shadows were revealed, King took advantage of it and the fact that he had escaped Death and Endeavor, the AoD and ADTF," Zach lifted his coffee and took a quick sip before lowering it while shaking his head again. "Every gang in the world he contacted knew that King was starting something huge. It used to be that the Shadow Bosses only operated deep, deep in the shadows. King was revealed though, so he adapted immediately and was ready to arm his forces on all corners of the world in a couple weeks. I doubt even Vermon knew what he was getting into, or to how big an extent the damage would have been-"

"It does sound like that would have been very bad," Yaoyorozu agreed with a nod, and she lifted her own hot coffee to take a sip from it.

"Definitely. As much as trade was being disrupted at the height of the villain activity, stuff like hero costumes and support items were always more heavily guarded than other products. Plus, most countries just built their own and did not outsource with that sort of thing, so it was even harder for King to get that kind of armaments all over the world." Zach paused for a moment and he lowered his smile a little at the look on Yaoyorozu's face that made him feel like she was not too into this conversation. She didn't say much right there either. It's more like I'm just the one talking. Should I ask how her day, was? No, no if she's letting me see that, is there something I'm doing wrong right now? "This is all," Zach started slowly. "The truth. I mean that," Zach assured afterwards as she rose her eyebrows and looked at him in surprise at the sudden shift.

"I know," she replied, her eyes returning to normal though Zach still felt uneasy by the way she was looking back at him. Yaoyorozu felt that strange feeling as well, as she looked at Zach looking back at her in a doubtful way at her expression. "I know, you're telling me the truth now," Yaoyorozu added, though her voice got softer there.

"Then, what's wrong?" Zach wondered. He was forward with it, and he said in a lower voice, "I'm sorry, for the stories. I tried- more with you than anyone else I tried to tell the truth."

"I know you did," Yaoyorozu replied again. "I remember," she assured him, giving him a small smile at the thought of one of their early conversations back before Darling or anything was revealed.

Zach nodded back at her, but both of their smiles lowered down slowly after a few seconds. He opened his mouth, closed it, then he started to the girl in front of him, "I just want-" he paused as her eyes focused on him, like she really wanted to know what it is he 'wanted.' Zach hesitated, then he continued to the eighteen year old girl in front of him with a spiky black ponytail, "I want things to go back to normal. Between us."

Normal? Yaoyorozu thought. Her lips stayed flat and even curved down a little, and she looked away and stepped to the right side closer to one of the railings of the gazebo. She almost leaned forward on it and sighed, but she held back and got a more frustrated look on her face while turning back around quickly. Zach pulled back at that spin, and Yaoyorozu hesitated herself with her head pulling back a bit. Then she stopped hesitating, and she frowned at the boy before her and told him, "Things aren't normal. You," she stopped, then her pursed lips that got like that for a second as she thought about all that horrible stuff he had told her a little over a week back, shifted back into an upset frown.

"I'm not angry," Yaoyorozu started to explain, as Zach was looking at her with eyes needing to know what it was she had to tell him. "Not about how you left," she continued. "Not even about how you came back," she added, though her voice rose a little as her hands started to curl up at her sides. "While you were in Tartaros though," Yaoyorozu looked into Zach's eyes and saw a hurt look flash through his eyes, but she did not just let it go there. "I came all the time. All the way out there, a far trip, but I never stopped coming," Yaoyorozu's voice lowered and her eyes stared at Zach in a way that made his shake at the expression in them. "I wanted you to change your mind. One of those times, just once, I wanted you to decide to come up there and talk to me. But you only saw me when you came out and were forced to."

"It's not because I was forced-" Zach started quickly.

"It is," Yaoyorozu countered back at him, her tone strong and unwavering like she knew that for a fact. Then she hesitated though, and she shifted her eyes down only to look back up and say softer, "It feels that way." Zach's chest clenched and he had to look away from Yaoyorozu's judging eyes. "It feels like, whatever your reasons for being here are, I'm not a part of them." Zach's eyes looked back and grew wider, but Yaoyorozu continued steadily towards him instead of reacting to that look, "I know you have lots of reasons. I think those reasons are important too but- but I thought I was important to you. And I became an afterthought of yours," she said it without much of an accusing tone in her voice, but more assured like she did not need him to accept or deny it, as she already knew it was true.

Zach's expression steadied and his breath came out heavy in a sigh. His eyes shifted down and he thought to himself darkly, She's not wrong. He looked back up when she started talking again though, and he kept his mouth shut this time to let her speak.

"You left seemingly for good," Yaoyorozu went on. "And the whole time you were gone all I wanted was for you to come back, but then when you did you wouldn't even see me. You ignored me, didn't even give me a reason why for six months." Yaoyorozu paused after emphasizing how long it was, searching his eyes for an excuse or reason he could give her. She only searched for a second though before stopping and going on softly, "I had so much I needed to tell you back when you returned, things I had needed to tell you that whole thirteen months. The longer you ignored me though, the less all those things mattered. How your seat had been empty since you left. How we had left it in the classroom and I had felt like that meant we all knew you were going to come back some day." Zach's eyes opened huge at what she was saying, but Yaoyorozu's voice did not have much of an emotional tone in it, and she just shook her head as she saw his eyes widen in what might have been an emotional reaction. "Or I hoped it did," she continued quieter. "That one day you would return to that seat, to our lives."

"They were things I needed to tell you and told myself I would if you ever came back. If I could just be sure that you were alive, I'd be happy… But then you did come back, you were within reach," Yaoyorozu's teeth clenched and her face got so frustrated as she glared at Zach from a few feet away. For the first time alone where she thought he would only respond with the truth, and because of that, how she really felt came out too. "I was in the same building as you, and I couldn't- I just-" She stopped herself and took in a deep breath to compose herself in a more professional way.

Yaoyorozu shook her head once while looking at the boy standing silently in front of her. "The longer you were in there, the less important those things became to me. The questions I had for you too. 'Why?' Didn't matter as much. 'How could you do that to me?' Apparently, I wasn't that important to you that that question even made sense." Zach tried to stand there and just accept the anger and grief, but he felt like weights just dropped on his heart, and he forced his arms to stay down instead of reaching up and gripping the left side of his chest.

I, Zach thought, pursing his lips to keep himself from shouting anything. The conversation was crushing him, but, I don't want to tell you why I didn't meet with you! I- I knew it was an awkward amount of time to be gone. I knew some people might think of things in different ways… but I didn't think it would be worst for Momo. That the time was just too long, but not long enough- or maybe it wasn't about the time. Maybe it is what she just said and I messed it up myself only through what I've done since I got back.

"Well?" Yaoyorozu asked, as she was telling him all this and he hadn't interrupted again or tried to give a good explanation as she knew, or hoped he'd have.

"I don't," Zach started, a pained and hesitant expression over his face as he did not want to say a word. Don't lie to her. Never again. "I lost my mind," Zach whispered.

He said it aloud and Yaoyorozu felt her own chest squeeze at the look on his face. The look in his eyes as he said it, like he was admitting it aloud for the first time, it made a similar pain in her own chest as the one Zach had felt in his a minute ago. She shook her head while frowning though at the answer, and Zach's face scrunched up that that was not enough on its own.

"It was, why I threw myself in prison other than staying away from Darling," Zach admitted. His lips slammed back shut again, but then he opened them and said painfully, "I lost my mind in the Void. Absolutely, lost my mind, and I didn't know reality from fiction anymore." Zach paused and he added in a quiet voice, "I convinced myself they were just stories for stories' sake, in a deeper level of my mind than even the top level where I truly believed those stories. That I had made them just to have stories to tell, but I had- I had built myself a new reality." Zach shook his head as trying to explain this he knew he would come out as crazy, but he continued to the girl in front of him anyway, "In Tartaros, I was testing out my new reality on the guards. I passed it off all as training for telling my friends this same stuff later on, but that was how I convinced myself that it was alright for me to spend all day every day inside a fantasy world of my own making. Just, that I needed the details to make sense. I needed it to be convincing. I needed to make it so detailed, and so thorough, that it couldn't possibly be a lie."

"Why?" Yaoyorozu whispered. "Why was it so important, to lie to all your friends? Couldn't you have just- you could have, stayed vague. You could have withheld things-" Yaoyorozu paused and she curled her fists tightly again. Zach looked at her in a pained way too, as the way she just suggested to him was how they used to talk to each other. The vague things, the way he trailed off in conversations, or how he didn't talk about things he wasn't comfortable with. "I told you, a long time ago, that you never have to feel like you have to force yourself with me," Yaoyorozu reminded in a quiet voice.

Zach's eyes lowered down just as Momo's did in front of him. The two of them had a wider gap between them than when they were just sipping their coffee and talking about King after first reaching the gazebo. I remember that day. Our date. Zach lifted his eyes back up, and she lifted his eyes to him too. For a brief moment, the two of them smiled as they thought of that same day and could see the other thinking of it too.

Zach's lips dropped back down though first. That day, at the table, I wanted to tell her everything. I had wanted to never lie to her. But, I guess… "I'm not the same person I was back then," Zach started. I don't mean that, in the way I used to. It's true though, to the extent I mean it now. Yaoyorozu's lips lowered too but she nodded at Zach, as much in agreement about him as it was about herself too. "Admittedly, Momo," Zach continued. "I never thought about your feelings when I was lying to your face before Inazuma. It wasn't because I thought I would never be found out either," he explained, his eyes steady and neither guilty or regretful as he told her this. He shook his head once and just said to her, "But just because, something like that isn't… it's not something I think about anymore. The old me who couldn't even lie to Momo because it hurt too much, I came back to be that guy again," he said it seriously, nodding at her to show he meant it.

The two of them thought about the hospital. How he had told her how he was afraid she would tell him to call her 'Yaoyorozu,' how he had really seemed to want to tell her how he was really feeling.

Yaoyorozu heard his voice, "How are you not- why are you not scolding me, or more mad? I killed people and- Why are you even here with me, after what I did to you?" It was the first and biggest sign to her that the person who had returned really was the same person who left. She remembered how his 'I'm sorry,' on the news, and the way he looked at her as he got off that bridge, they had given her hope. It was not until talking to him face to face though that she allowed herself to believe. I wanted to believe it too much though. I ignored the signs.

"Did you think I cared about you so little, that what you did would really change that?" Zach sighed and he lifted his coffee and took a small unenthusiastic sip as he tore his eyes from Momo and looked away. I was happy she was making things out like they were back to normal. She was happy I was back and telling her the truth. It was a nice moment, but if that was all it took… It was fleeting. We both thought with that one meeting that things could just go back to normal between us, but of course that was impossible. "I should have realized, it wouldn't be that simple," Zach started.

"No, I wanted it to be too," Yaoyorozu countered with a shake of her head back. "We should have known that it couldn't be though."

"Yeah," Zach agreed, his voice steady even as the swirling darkness inside his chest pounded like his heart racing. The feeling expanded farther through his torso, and Zach just lifted his cup and took another sip with his breathing calm. His breaths were slow coming in and out of his nose, and he was manually forcing himself to breathe that way as he talked to the girl in front of him. I think maybe my feelings changed. That's a lie. Why haven't I tried harder? Why didn't I tell her the things I held back for so long too, just like those things she wanted to tell me but never did- was it because of my time in Tartaros? Maybe that was it for her, but not for me. Before Darling, it was my self-hatred that made me want to pretend I didn't care for her in the same way anymore. No right to be happy. I couldn't even convince myself of that though, and I couldn't convince Darling either. She saw it, my lapse in judgement.

I've never stopped caring though, Zach thought with his expression flat and emotionless while raising his eyes back to meet Yaoyorozu's that searched his only for disappointment to fill hers. I know, because even when I had lost everything Zach Sazaki had… When I was in the deepest thick of it, in the middle of the bloody war, with Darling throwing herself at me in what I knew were my final days… As I had already been denying that I was Zach Sazaki when people called me 'Zach,' "I'm not Zach Sazaki-" I wasn't even right in the head, a mass murdering terrorist ideal. I had completely become Death, and yet there was another reason I could never be with Darling. Not while I was still…

"Truthfully, lying to you wasn't hard," Zach said, thinking back on the conversations he had had with her when he told her about the same stories he did everyone else. Yaoyorozu looked at him hesitantly, wondering if he was lying now since he had gone on to tell her so much of the truth when she had given him looks showing she knew he was lying back then. Zach continued though, "I did so many more things so much more horrible than that, that to even consider something like that as horrible would be an insult to all those I killed. It would be a joke to imagine myself as righteous enough never to lie to you, when I'm a person who massacred-"

"Don't say that," Yaoyorozu said. Zach thought for a moment as he cut himself off that she was saying it for his sake, but her expression got angrier and he closed his mouth instead of countering how it was true. "You can't feel that way. I know you don't too," she said, her voice firm and almost annoyed which kept Zach's mouth shut but his eyes widening a bit.

Is she right? The knowing voice she had as she told him it made him question what he had just said himself. Where did that rant even come from? It hurts to lie to her, doesn't it? Was I just lying? Can I even tell when I'm lying anymore?

"In the hospital right after you were shot you really didn't want to lie to me," Yaoyorozu countered. "Those things you just said, maybe you don't think you have the right to feel bad for stuff like that after those horrible things you say you did, but you do feel bad anyway. It may not feel right to you to do so, but you are trying for those 'smaller' things as you're considering them. You always have, no matter how much was on the line for yourself and for the world."

"What do you-"

"You were right to break up with me," Yaoyorozu said. She said it firmly and continued to the boy looking at her in surprise that she would bring that up. She continued, "We both know it would have hurt me more if we were closer when you did what you did." Yaoyorozu paused and her fists started to clench at her sides again, as the most important thing she had to tell Zach for all that time was welling up inside her and climbing to the top of her throat. "You did that with everyone," she went on, shaking her head and continuing frustratedly, "Pushing us all away worked for so many reasons. Not just the practical ones to trick Raijin, but because you knew it would have hurt us all so much more… but Kyoka?"

Zach almost lowered his head in guilt, but he did not feel he had the right to do so with the way Yaoyorozu started glaring at him now. She shook her head and continued as he stood there and took it, "Those last two weeks, after what happened with Kaminari, you were closer to her than ever. She felt closer to you than ever. And you know this!" She rose her voice even though they were out in public, and neither of them looked around to check if there were people in the park close to the gazebo. It did not matter to them at the moment. "I know you know it," Yaoyorozu continued softer, losing her angrier and more frustrated tone.

"It's what I really needed to talk to you about when I kept going to Tartaros. I, wanted to tell you that I forgave you, but that Kyoka needed help because of what you did." Yaoyorozu lifted her eyes back up in a pained way and added, "Help I was never able to fully give my friend. So when you turned me away, I didn't know what to think of it." The frustration was back on her face, but it wiped away quickly as she went on quickly, "I couldn't tell you, couldn't get your help, couldn't even talk to you about it and I- I see you now trying to fix that mistake without my help too. I watch you trying to help her because you know what you did to her was- you were the only one she felt like she could talk to about it. Not me, not anyone else, but you-" Yaoyorozu stopped as Zach could not hold that steady look anymore, his eyes shaking at all she was accusing him of straight to his face.

She took in a deep breath to calm down, and her eyes finally glanced to the sides only to see they were still secluded with no one watching them. Then she looked back to Zach with an intense expression on her face, "But if it ever does come out what you did, and you keep lying, especially to Kyoka." Momo shook her head at him and finished sternly, "You'll hurt her so much if you convince her of-"

"I'm not going to convince her," Zach said. Yaoyorozu frowned at him for interrupting her, even if he thought she was not going to fall for his stories or if she told him he wouldn't before. Zach was not referring to that though, and he said softer, "I said something on the walls of Hatto that I knew she'd remember me saying." Yaoyorozu's eyes shot open wide, as she had heard this before from the other way around. "When she listened as I drove off that night, I told her how for me it was about stopping villains. I wanted her to know," he finished softer, and Yaoyorozu looked back at him in a soft way too. There was a moment between them after Zach said that, something so real.

"I'm sorry I've been trying to do so much on my own," Zach started again. "And if you think, you know something that I could use to help Jirou," he paused and nodded at the girl in front of him that she should tell him whatever it was.

"You really messed her up inside, Zach," Yaoyorozu replied, her voice low and stern at him. It was not pained for telling him this even though she suspected it would hurt to hear. "It's the one thing I can never forgive you for. But the fact that you're here, trying, when you could be anywhere else," Yaoyorozu paused and she lifted her lips into a small smile back at him. "I appreciate it. It means a lot to me, and it may not mean a lot to Kyoka now, but we're going to keep trying. This is a mistake of your own making. You and Kaminari were her best friends..." Our best friends. "And in one month both were ripped from her. And neither were taken away, but they left on their own, after lying… she thinks your whole relationship was a lie just like the one she had with Raijin-" Yaoyorozu paused for a second, as she saw a look of pain flash over Zach's face at the wrong moment in her finishing statement to him. Her heart started racing faster and faster, as Zach lowered his gaze to the floor at the sight of her huge eyes staring back at him.

"And I'm going to fix it," Zach assured her. He turned away and stepped to the edge of the gazebo, leaning over the railing and taking a sip of his coffee. His expression returned to normal, while he took a long sip of coffee that he forgot to gulp down. He stopped drinking it too and stared out over the park as Yaoyorozu walked up to his left side, and as she stared at his face, he thought, Don't forget to breathe. His nose opened up more at the nostrils and he forced in a breath again.

---

A/N Thanks for reading. Finished this chapter and another 2 days ago but had long days of work today and yesterday that kept me from editing and posting 'til now. I'll try to post 179 after work tomorrow too though! And I'm already started on 180 so let's see for a quick update week ahead of us! Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. We (and Midoriya) get a closer look at what Zach was fighting back in the AoD chapters that we never fully saw. Zach was fighting so much every day, that it was impossible to include everything in there or we'd still be in early AoD chapters had I not decided to allow a lot to happen between chapters. We hear about Zach's biggest victory this time though as he talks about how he took down King, recruiting a force of heroes he trusted to help and take the credit, threatening King and his men into going along with the story, misdirecting all his enemies, recruiting forces to fight that Shadow Boss, and actually fighting him himself with Darling at his side. Zach brings up his experiences and how he learned from them to make those choices that Midoriya had tried to counter him on based on what is right and wrong, and although the two of them hold philosophical differences they're still friends enough to go running together :) On the other hand, Zach and Momo finally get an earnest one-on-one conversation since the truth has been revealed, and the two of them understand the gap that has risen between them. Yaoyorozu finally gets what she needed to tell him ever since he was thrown in Tartaros off her chest, as the two of them both really want to save their friend.

Aar0nC0le chapter 177 . Sep 12

Damn dude. Just spent the past week or so binging this between college and work. 100% worth the three hours of sleep I've been getting because jfc the suspense of this story? I can't put it down. ANYWAY Todoroki really had me nervous there for a second.. and I'm even more anxious as more people put it together that it's gonna get out and something terrible is gonna happen. I also really really need him and momo to talk soon. Like really talk. Idk if they will be able to actually be together because everything is so complicated but Zach really does deserve happiness and so does momo, or at least closure for a relationship they never really got. (If they do end up together this is an EPIC slowburn jfc) I'm also really concerned about Endeavor and the ADTF capturing Death and his crew. Idk what that would mean for Zach and al our beloved members of The AOD. Just really nervous, kinda thinking everything is going to blow up in my face here soon tbh. (Also my boi Zach needs hella therapy, especially after that void stuff. That's so fucked. I think I tested up a little bit in forest scene in the island like 4/5 chapters ago when he admitted to being death. That shit HURTED.) can't wait for the update! Thanks for this! -Aaron

Awesome! Great to hear I've got another reader, and thanks for the good review. Well... nice call on the Zach and Momo talk, though you're right and things are pretty complicated between them. Endeavor's got his plans, Todoroki's easing up a bit on the other hand, and Zach's getting a good amount of time to talk over his feelings and what's happened with the friends he's meeting with who know the truth. Glad I got you teary though in that forest scene a little back, and I hope I can keep up the suspense moving forward! Again, thanks for reviewing!

saintpatrick17 chapter 177 . Sep 12

What the actual f*** are you? This story's existence is baffling. You've written 2.5 MILLION GODDAMN WORDS in a little over A SINGLE F***ING YEAR. The average novel for reference is 200k words, so you've written the equivalent of 10 novels in 1 year, which is more than some famous authors write in their whole lives. The thing that really confuses me, is that this story isn't dogshit either. Like the Subspace emissary is the longest work ever written in english but its not really a great story. Before I thought Marcus Galen Sands was a machine because he'd bang out 30k per month and his story is over a million words now, but compared to his story yours doesn't waste nearly as much of its time on pointless shit. I've had writer friends who wrote for literal 24 hour periods, as in they spent 24 hours just writing and doing nothing else, not even sleep, and they've written not only less than you, it was also worse, though to be fair sleep deprivation probably played a part in that. Like this isn't an actual review of your story, but I'm just f***ing absolutely dumbstruck by this f***ing story. I've never had an author update twice before I could finish reading their whole story, but you f***ing did. Like the only minor critique I've got is that you constantly say "their bottom lip dropped" but that feels weird and I think you should say "their jaw dropped" instead, but after 2.5 million words thats all I've got to f***ing complain about. I am terrified of the eldritch creature you will unleash when this story is finally finished, because I can't believe that you are a mere human being.

*Takes a bow* Lol but really thanks for the review, always cool getting reminded of how fast I'm writing, especially when I feel so often like I've been slacking on the story. I just really like this story, so it's pretty easy for me to write. Zach's my favorite character I've ever created in anything. I don't usually write OC stories either, like my last story before I was writing this one? Nexus and Nexus Heroes Will Rise are both around a million, million+ stories (really just the same one continued on a different story), but in that one I made it a point not to include even a single OC in the whole thing. Was a pretty big shift moving into this one, and yet I got even more into this that I wound up dropping it/ putting it on pause for a long time at least. As long as you really like the characters and have a story to tell, I think it's easy to write because it's what I want to do. Don't know why I'm getting so into it here, but I just really like writing Death or I wouldn't have spent every day working on it for the past 15 months! XD Thanks again, and as for 'bottom lip dropped' thing, I usually put that instead of 'jaw dropped' to insinuate that their lip did not fall as far as it would have with jaws dropping, 'cause in my head a jaw dropping is like that cartoonish jaw on the floor kind of drop, and I'm not trying to put a mental image of that in anyone's mind for just someone's mouth opening a bit in surprise.

Logargon chapter 177 . Sep 11

Wow only 30 more chapters, I just simply can't believe how great this story is. I'm gonna be sad/happy when it's over. I need to know how everything is gonna turn out

Ahhh, hey! Don't think of it as 'only' 30, but that there're still 30 more chapters coming to this! (also, my guesses have been off before, so I'll just say that if I am off with that number, it'll def be over 30 and not under. 'Cause I can always come up with more stuff, but I'm unlikely to ever just remove a whole arc I've got planned!)

GuestP chapter 177 . Sep 12

Woah, holy crap.
I haven't been reading for a while, and recently I was like "Oh no I haven't been caught up with Death! What's been happening Ineedtareadiiiit!"
And then I found out I was 4 chapters behind. It was like you shoved four amazing super early christmas presents in my arms, smiled, and then said that there would be more to come.
Things are super freaking intense, and I loved that chapter with the AoD - cause why wouldn't I, I'm a slut for them. ;)
There are a lot(?) of new members in the AoD (I'm guessing) which is pretty cool, because even after all of this there are still people joining up. Gentle is doing an awesome job. And of course he's still a sweetie to La Brava, the little romantic.
Lots of things the newbies don't know about, which means the Battle of the Six Armies aren't really widely known even in the army excpet for the OG AoD members.
Awesome chapters, I loved every paragraph, except for the ones where Zach remembered Mark because it made me cry for my still fave character (it's so sad Zach wasn't able to be there for him, gosh, it was still really good tho).
Welp, this is the longest review I've written, I think...
Can't wait for the next chappie~~! 33

Thanks for the review! Glad you liked the chapters after a nice binge, and hope you enjoy the new one too! Mark was one of my fav characters too so it's tough killing him off, but glad those scenes get you emotional as it's the point of them. Anyway, thanks again for another review, and see you guys all tomorrow!