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!

182. Chapter 182

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 182:

Around lunchtime on Friday at U.A. high school, Sero Hanta felt his phone buzz and he pulled it out of his pocket on the way to the cafeteria with some classmates. He looked at the sender's name in surprise, then he lifted his head and nodded off Kirishima and Mineta to go on ahead as they looked back wondering what made him stop all of a sudden. "I've got to make a call," Sero told his friends who just nodded back and then went ahead for the cafeteria with the rest of their class. It was not any of their business to pry in each other's private phone calls, especially since most of them were working with pro heroes and had to keep a lot of their activities confidential from friends.

Sero had not received a message from the pro he worked with though. He texted back while heading for the back doors of the school to get outside before making his call. 'What's going on Kotsumura?'

'Zach's out sick from school today. Second day in a row. Could you give me a call when you have a chance? I'm at lunch rn.'

Sero called Kotsumura and was glad he had already headed out to make this call as the first message alone had made him curious enough to want an actual phone call.

Kotsumura's phone rang and he was semi-surprised that Sero called him up so quickly, but he assumed the U.A. students must have had lunch at the same time for Sero to be responding this quickly. "Hey, Sero," Kotsumura began. The two of them were not necessarily close, but they had exchanged information back at the joint training after hanging out a bit more in the morning the day the U.A. students went home.

"You say Zach's out 'sick?'" Sero wondered. "You think something's up with him?"

"I actually went to his place to see him-"

"Was he there?" Sero asked.

"Yeah," Kotsumura replied while nodding himself, leaning against the wall of a hallway outside of his own school's cafeteria. He pushed off the wall and started with a small frown on his face, "And he looked fine. I mean, not to make it seem like this is some big deal or anything…" Kotsumura Keiji hesitated, and Sero understood why as despite what he just said it felt like it had to be at least a little serious for him to have called.

"And? What'd he say?"

"It's, weird," Kotsumura said slowly. "I showed up at his place after school yesterday, and he came to the door and let me in. I swear this isn't me exaggerating or anything, but I thought he might have been, wearing makeup? I don't know, I didn't mention anything about it but his face just looked a little…" Sero rose his eyebrows and cracked a half-smile as he wondered what Kotsumura was even talking about here. "But the weirder thing was, he told me how he really was sick, but then he went on about what he was up to while at home. It sounded important, and like it was actually why he was staying home. It was super obvious that he wasn't really sick at all. The way he acted, it was like he was showing me he was perfectly fine."

Sero's smile was gone and a much more thoughtful look had covered his face. "Really?" Sero wondered, his voice low and his thoughtful tone coming over the line.

"It's weird, right?" Kotsumura asked as he could hear that Sero thought so too. "If Zach was actually fine, but he was too busy to come in because of other stuff-"

"You'd think he'd actually pretend to be sick," Sero said, finishing for Kotsumura and then frowning deeper after his response. "Two reasons he might not have done that, are that he's either actually sick, or he just isn't pretending good enough to convince you-"

"Which, since it's him, you'd think he would only let me notice something like that-"

"If something was off about him," Sero agreed with another nod. Zach's sick? Back during that trial they made it out like he couldn't get sick from anything. Like, all bacteria would just die trying to hurt him. But, aren't viruses not actually living things? So maybe, he caught a bug? "And what did he sound like? Did he look fine… the makeup," Sero muttered at the end, giving it more thought this time. Hagakure talked about that night he showed up at her internship, in disguise at a night club! He would have that on hand, it's possible.

"That's the reason I brought it up. It sounded silly in my own head, but then I thought, 'What if he is sick?' And, 'What if his complexion was showing it?' Like, it's crazy to think of someone as strong as him coming down with something," Kotsumura started in a way that made Sero nod his head in total agreement there. "But, even Lifebringer can get sick, right? Did he ever, while he lived at your dorms-"

"Not that I remember," Sero replied.

"Well, then," Kotsumura hesitated for a moment. "You think, you could go see him? I asked him a couple times at the end if he really was doing okay, but he was so convincing and I relented to just leave after a little. The more I think about it though, the weirder the whole interaction was. And him not showing up today, I texted him but he just told me he's still, and he put it in quotation marks, 'sick.' Then he added how he had discovered some more stuff about his investigation last night that he's doing on his own- it was all so- it sounded like something he would do. But he wasn't convincing me."

And Zach's the best at convincing everyone that he's alright, Sero thought. He shifted his eyes to his side at his phone, and he sighed while thinking of why it was Kotsumura was asking him instead of going and trying again himself. Zach made it pretty clear that night how close he still feels with all of us here. He's still one of my best friends too, and those Shiketsus have known each other for three years, and Zach for not even two months. "I wish I could go check on him after school, but I have to leave right after school for the whole weekend. Interning with Ape-Man," he explained, though his voice was low and sounding hesitant as he wished he could take five or six hours out to head the other direction by train first then back before heading to where he had to be by mid-afternoon that day.

"Damn, well I know if I show up again he's just going to bluff his way through it again… if it even is a bluff. I might just be looking too deeply into it."

"No," Sero assured with a shake of his head. If Zach really was sick, he wouldn't let anyone know. He wouldn't want anyone to worry. "I'll talk to Yaoyorozu and see if she'll go visit him. Feel like he'd tell her, that kind of…" Sero frowned for a moment and his expression darkened as he realized what he was saying.

"Alright, that sounds great. As long as someone looks into it. If he's not actually sick, don't tell him it was me who got you guys to go… actually, nevermind. He'll know it anyway."

"Haha, yeah, he would," Sero replied. "Alright, thanks for the head's up, Kotsumura. I'm sure he'll be fine though, so don't worry too much about it."

"Oh I'm not," Kotsumura replied back with a laugh this time. "He kicked the crap out of all you guys after all-"

Sero hung up the phone and pocketed it. He had reassured Kotsumura there at the end, and the way he hung up made the blond laugh himself before heading into the cafeteria to talk to his classmates about how the U.A.'s would figure out how Zach was really doing. Sero's smile disappeared though after the end of the call, and he frowned deeper at the thought of what he just said. He'll be fine? Zach getting sick seems unlikely. Something might be bothering him though other than… but the makeup? Would Zach really put it on in a way obvious enough for a friend he didn't want to see it to call him out on it? Except, it wasn't obvious enough for Kotsumura to ask. If Zach wanted it obvious enough to ask, then he could have actually pretended to be sick and said that he was covering up how pale he was, or something. Maybe he wanted Kotsumura to ask, and he just didn't bring it up on his own because it wouldn't make sense for him to intentionally do that.

The tall teenage boy rose his arms up and rubbed his hands through his black hair in a frustrated way. There are so many possibilities when it comes to Zach. And trying to understand what he's thinking? That's like, impossible! Except for probably Yaoyorozu. He lowered his hands and shook his head around, deciding against trying to look into it any deeper. It'll just give me a headache. Even if I went to see him, he'd probably just bluff with me too. Those fun happy texts he's been sending recently, it's like he doesn't have a care in the world. And I feel like when he's talking with me he might actually convince himself he doesn't, which is why it's so great we're keeping those up. Life can't always be like that though. And if when we're talking is when you're having your good times, your shit times are happening when I'm not around to help you out.

If things can only be positive when we're talking though, that's fine. You got deep with me at the joint training, and I know the one you still care the most about here is her. Just hope the two of you still have a close enough relationship despite you giving it up back then. She was so quick to jump in that ambulance with you though, when Airi shot you. Sero rubbed his forehead and sweatdropped with a glance back at the school building. No point in standing around thinking about it. She'll definitely go, I just hope when you talk you actually tell her what's up.

---

Yaoyorozu walked down a street of Yutapu she double-checked the name of three times on her phone before finally putting it back in her pocket. The girl in a purple sweatshirt put her hands back into her front pocket and continued towards Zach's apartment with her hood up over her normal spiky ponytail. Her eyes shifted towards nearby rooftops and her fingers curled around the weapons she also had in her front pocket along with her cellphone. No one's attacked him at his home, so far. The longer they wait could also be to lure him into a false sense of safety. Then again, this could be the first time they locate him if I lead them to him from the station. I didn't think, Yaoyorozu frowned and she shifted her head to look towards the apartment complex she had described to her earlier.

'Zach's home sick for the second day in a row. I think you should go check on him.' "Kotsumura from Zach's class just hit me up. Zach's out from school and he went to check on him yesterday. I think he might actually be sick… you already heard?" Yaoyorozu slowed down, then she curled her hands into fists in her sweatshirt and glanced around carefully again as she headed for the stairs up to the second floor of the building. Muoko-san and Sero both think I should be the one here. I am concerned too, but, Yaoyorozu hesitated as she thought about the last conversation the two of them had which ended in a way that was so eerily emotionless for the two of them. It felt like, something had ended.

Despite not wanting to think about it like that, Momo found herself moving slowly towards Zach's apartment with the thought that both of them had said what they needed to say last time, and yet they did not leave each other with words of how they needed to talk again. I told him what I needed to about Kyoka. He said he wanted things to go back to normal, but that he knew it as well as I did. There is no more normal. I still care though, and if he actually is sick… Though it is likely something else. You cannot get sick. If everyone thinks you are sick, it's most likely because, Yaoyorozu frowned and stopped before reaching his door. What is it you are planning now? You know you need to graduate in order to become a hero, and I know that's what you want to do! It's what you told Midoriya! If that, if even that was a lie… then you are more than just a liar, Zach. Yaoyorozu hardened her expression and resolved herself, So I must find out what you are really doing.

Yaoyorozu stepped up to Zach's door and knocked on it.

Zach jumped up from his bed and grabbed his phone off the stand next to him. No warning, he thought, frustrated as Kotsumura had warned him at least yesterday before showing up. He ran out of his room and glanced towards the bathroom, and a make-up kit under the mirror. Damn it, not enough time. How do I look- there's no point in checking. Zach lifted his hands to his face and smacked a couple times, then he shook his head around fast and ran back to his room, grabbing a black glove off the nightstand next to where his phone had been. I never forget this! Shit, I have to be careful- Zach realized his vision was starting to get red, and he shook his head around while turning off Nightmare as he had accidentally activated it back in the manual way again.

Zach turned and ran back for the hall as another two knocks filled his apartment. Momo? He thought in surprise at the sound of a feminine voice calling in, then he stumbled to the left and had to put his arms out and grab onto the wall behind him, as he had run into the right side of his bedroom's doorway and bumped off it. Ow, he shook his head around and looked down the hallway that looked longer to him than usual. Can I get it past her? She's so observant, and I barely convinced Kotsumura yesterday! He's pretty observant too though, admittedly. I can do this. "Coming," Zach called out. That's not how I'd respond if I was fine. "Momo? What are you- kah-" SHIT! Even the single cough out of his mouth made him curse mentally.

Wait. This works. She's here because she must have heard. It's an act. I shouldn't act for her, shouldn't lie- But she'll just worry if she thinks I'm not actually doing alright. And I'm fine. Zach coughed a couple more times, convinced at least partially that he was doing it on his own to better convince her.

Is he messing with me? He knows why I'm here, Yaoyorozu frowned hesitantly after getting a concerned expression on her face for a moment there. Would he act sicker this time, knowing that he must have appeared sick enough to get others to call me? Or- wait, what is the purpose of this? Why would he- I'll just ask. I'll ask, and he'll tell me the truth. If he doesn't, I'll know. I'll know! I have to still be able to tell when you're lying. Or maybe, I never was able to tell… because you never lied-

Zach turned his doorknob and opened the door in a strong way, looking out at Yaoyorozu in surprise that she showed up at his house unexpectedly. She took one look at his face and her eyes shot open huge, and Zach's entire expression dropped as he could see instantly there was no point in faking or acting like anything. He just dropped his arm from the door he still had it on, and his eyes lost their surprised expression to just droop unenthusiastically with a sigh coming out of his lips. His eyes lifted above Yaoyorozu's head, checking if anyone could see him through the door, then he said, "Come in."

He moved out of the way and Yaoyorozu hesitated but then rushed inside after a second. She paused and took a look around his apartment. It was a seemingly normal place, with a shoddy paint job but some nice furniture and a space much bigger than the dorm rooms at Heights Alliance. Then she turned back to Zach quickly though as he closed the door, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Zach replied. He shook his head and started for his kitchen, but he lowered his left hand to the side and ran it along the top of the couch as he walked. Her eyes darted down to his hand as he walked like that, seemingly keeping himself moving in a straight line by using the couch as a guide. "You want something- ack- shi- kah agh, gah kah…" Even Zach's curse after letting out the first cough got cut off by a bigger fit of them.

"Zach!" Yaoyorozu ran up to his back and reached out her hands-

"Don't," Zach said in a low voice. He hunched over for a moment while coughing, but he reached up and grabbed the counter, pulling his body back straight up and standing in a steady and strong way. Zach looked back at the girl behind him in that strong way and said, "I'm just sick. This is normal-"

"This is not normal when people get sick," Yaoyorozu countered him. Her expression got frustrated and she continued, "You would know that if you've ever been sick before."

Zach hesitated at her retort, then he turned around and walked over to get into his kitchen. "I'm fine," he muttered. He opened his fridge and got out some milk, "You want some breakfast?" She came so early-

"Zach, what are you…"

What did I just ask her? Zach thought back on the time his phone showed when he picked it off the nightstand to check for any texts. He stopped while leaning into his fridge with the milk lifted, and he put it back in and said with a small smile, "Kidding. I've just been sleeping through most of the day, that I guess…" I was up earlier though, wasn't I- I spent hours up this morning, working. "I just overworked myself-"

"Zach, I think, you should come sit down," Yaoyorozu's tone had concern in it and yet got more serious as she walked around for the kitchen herself.

"I'm fine," Zach said while taking an orange juice carton out of the fridge instead of milk.

"You're not," Yaoyorozu countered, reaching out herself and taking the carton from him. "Zach, let me," she paused while standing right in front of Zach in his apartment, in his kitchen, looking up into his face that looked gray and had bags under his eyes. She looked so closely at his face from up close, his pale skin and the sweat that dripped down one side of his face as he looked back into her eyes from a foot away. Yaoyorozu leaned her head back after a moment and turned, walking around him towards a cabinet she figured correctly would have glasses in it.

"I'll make you a glass of OJ, but go sit on the couch," Yaoyorozu told her friend who turned his head and watched her back with wide eyes at how she was speaking to him. "I'm going to call Recovery Girl."

"You don't need to-"

"I do," Yaoyorozu countered in a firm, unwavering voice. "Because you won't," she said with a look back at Zach who leaned away at her scolding expression. After a moment she sighed at his expression. "Hahh, just, go sit on the couch," she repeated to the boy staring at her in shock as she just took charge without listening to what he had to say at all.

She turned back and started pouring him a glass of orange juice, and Zach noticed she was only pouring one, "Pour yourself one too-"

"Sit," Yaoyorozu repeated, looking towards him harshly and making Zach lean back.

He smiled after a second and held up his hands defensively. "Alright," he finally responded. He turned and headed back to his living room, Better now than if it got worse. If anyone sees Recovery Girl coming in here right now, I'm still fine enough to kick the crap out of all of them.

Three Hours Later

Knock Knock.

"Recovery Girl's here," Yaoyorozu said, looking to the boy laying on his couch who sat up quickly in that moment only to start a coughing fit and look towards his windows with a panicked look on his face.

I'm not ready to fight at all! I feel like shit! What if that's not Recovery Girl- "Wait," Zach said, pushing down on either side of the couch.

"Don't stand-"

"I need to open it," Zach said firmly back at the girl who stepped towards him instead of the hall to the door now. "Just, let me," he said when Yaoyorozu reached out to help him back down. He looked at her seriously while saying it, and she hesitated but then moved out of the way for Zach to move around the couch for his front door. He stacked up against the edge and leaned his head towards the peephole, Yaoyorozu watched from behind him with her eyes wide at the sight of the knives that just slid into his hands from his sleeves and covered in darkness. Those knives vanished back up into his sleeves though and his eyes returned to their normal hazel shade, though dimmer than usual as he just stared out into the semi-darkness at the top of the short woman's head outside his door.

She was reaching her hand for his door again, but Zach started opening it for the old woman first. "Hello, Recovery Girl-"

"Sazaki! What are you doing standing up?" Recovery Girl stormed forward into his apartment and then frowned towards Yaoyorozu who got a sweatdrop and apologetic look on her face. "Why did you let him get the door?"

"I had to check for assassins," Zach said to the old woman who looked back at him and rose her eyebrows at the statement that should have sounded intense, but came out more like he was making excuses in a weak way. His voice had cracked midway, and Zach tried to clear his throat afterwards only to reach up and grab at his neck quickly. He started rubbing afterwards to make that sharp stinging sensation look to be more of a faint burn he was trying to rub out in his throat.

Why am I trying to fake this so hard? He lowered his hand before Recovery Girl could scold him anymore, and he crouched down and asked the woman he put himself more on eye-level with, "Do you know what's wrong with me?"

"From one look? That's not how…" Recovery Girl shook her head around. "Go sit on the couch here."

"Here," Yaoyorozu stepped forward and reached out to help Zach around.

Zach hesitated, but then he stood back up fully and walked forward on his own, just letting Yaoyorozu grab around his right arm and help him around the couch. Focus. Not there, Zach sat down and opened back up his eyes as no one was touching him. His eyes only opened back up half of how open they normally were though.

"I think we should get him to a hospital," Yaoyorozu said, bringing it up to Recovery Girl even though Zach had shot her down the last two times she mentioned it over the past three hours.

"No hospitals," Zach said darkly.

"It may be serious enough," Recovery Girl agreed after examining Zach from up close for a moment. "Lay down," she scolded the boy who opened his mouth to argue with her. He lay down on the couch, and Recovery Girl continued, "But you are right. I will administer whatever treatment is necessary here. If that is acceptable to you?" She wondered to the boy who seemed ready to make complaints about even her being there. He hesitated though at her stern look, and he lowered his head back down to the armrest at the end of his couch while Recovery Girl sat on a chair Yaoyorozu had already brought over for right there when she had told Zach to lay down earlier herself.

Yaoyorozu frowned lower but refrained from saying anything else about the matter if Recovery Girl was alright with treating him here. Bringing him outside looking like this would be a signal to villains that he's weak. He'd be targeted by all of them at once. Even Raijin would come out for the opportunity no one would ever suspect would show itself. Hopefully villains don't know his current location, but if they do, if they saw Recovery Girl come in here and know something is wrong with him. Yaoyorozu's expression hardened and she turned away from the other two as Recovery Girl had Zach following a light she moved back and forth in front of his hazy eyes.

"I need to use the restroom," Yaoyorozu mentioned.

"Down the h-ack, agh-gah- ka-kah," Zach hunched his body forward and his hands moved up to his neck again, and then he stopped coughing and Recovery Girl looked at him oddly as the halt came right in the middle of his coughs.

"Let me feel your throat," Recovery Girl said, and she moved her hands up for Zach's neck in a quick way that made him move his right hand away from it fast. Recovery Girl pressed her hands into his tonsils, rubbed around his throat, and Zach started coughing again as she was doing this. Her eyes shifted up to his face and his pained expression as he coughed, then she lowered her hands down from his neck towards his chest that she felt tense up completely as her hands lowered under his shirt. She ignored the feeling of all the scars over his skin and just pressed down on his body, making Zach wince and his fists curl at his sides in pain.

"Here too?" Recovery Girl wondered, lowering her hands more and pressing on his stomach, then down at his sides which tensed as her cold sterilized hands came close. She pressed tightly on the areas and Zach felt himself clenching all over, his upper body no longer hurting like his throat, but his midsection feeling completely messed up as she pressed her hands on it.

Just stop. I'm fine, as long as you're not touching- Recovery Girl moved her hands away, and Zach's expression filled with relief. Recovery Girl stared at him oddly though, her eyes focused on his mouth as he did not let out a gasp of relief or anything there after she finished testing him. Zach just breathed calmly out of his mouth and in through his nose in steady intervals, and Recovery Girl hummed to herself and pulled out a notepad she wrote on with a frustrated and confused expression over her face.

Yaoyorozu came back out from the hallway and moved for the back of the couch to stand on Zach's other side as Recovery Girl. "So, do you know what's wrong with him?"

"Unfortunately, I do not," Recovery Girl replied. "He is sore over his entire body. He is coughing like he has tonsillitis, and his tonsils did feel enflamed. The back of his throat was also red, however, even if this was the cause of his coughing and sore throat." She frowned back at Zach who was just looking back at her and listening closely like Yaoyorozu, "It does not explain the pain in his kidneys, especially when one of those kidneys is not his own." Zach frowned some more at Recovery Girl who was saying this without holding anything back despite the fact that there was a third person in the room. Recovery Girl was speaking more to Yaoyorozu than to him actually though, making Zach sweatdrop as the old woman continued speaking over him to the girl who only looked back down as if to check on him before looking to his doctor. "His lungs are contracting short on breath but his heart is beating steadily… His temperature is normal, and yet he looks to be burning up," Recovery Girl frowned at Zach who just looked back at her and shook his head in confusion as her look appeared accusatory.

Her accusatory look shifted a bit and she wondered, "Do you have any problems in your medical history you haven't told me about? Or has anything happened more recently that you think could be causing this rejection from your entire body?"

"I haven't been sick in 11 years," Zach replied. "But my arms and legs feel fine. I'm a little dizzy, but I can see fine and I'm just-" Zach paused, took in a deep breath and held back any coughs that tried to just come out of his lips. He smiled instead at the old woman with a glance at Yaoyorozu too who stood there with her sweatshirt taken off so she was in a long-sleeved white shirt that had the sleeves rolled up. "I'm fine. Whatever bug this is, I'm sure it will go away soon. Or Death will kill it," he added with a slight shrug, sitting up more on the couch and putting his legs off the side in a steady way so calm that Recovery Girl did not feel the immediate need to tell him to lay back down.

"I figured staying home from school was a good move," Zach said. "Because I didn't want to get anyone sick. I wanted to get some rest too, thinking it would make it go away faster. I'm sure by the end of the weekend, I can get back to class." He turned and smiled at Yaoyorozu, "Just tell everyone I'll be back on Monday…" Zach finished that with a smile like he was completely fine, but her expression made him hesitate and think of what he just said. His smile lowered and his eyes grew wider for a second, then he lowered his gaze down to his lap in a frustrated and pained way. I can't even convince her, that I meant for her to text my Shiketsu class. This sucks. Why did I just say something like that?

"It's fine, Sazaki," Recovery Girl started, and Zach rose his look to face the woman who gave him a reassuring look that made his eyes widen even more again. "Knowing you, rest may be all that you need. I am going to take a sample of your blood anyway though, and I am going to test for any other illnesses that I feel could be affecting you. I do not believe this to be a contagious disease though based on what I am seeing, so do not worry about that. Just, take it easy this weekend."

"Thanks, Recovery Girl," Zach started. "That was exactly, ka- ack," he shook his head and cleared his throat, before smiling wider and opening his eyes more in a way he felt would be reassuring. "It's what I was planning on."

Yaoyorozu felt her pocket buzz and glanced down at her phone she pulled out to check. Recovery Girl got a similar text a moment later, and she pulled her phone out of her pocket which made Zach look at her and then back at Yaoyorozu hesitantly. He wanted to ask what had happened for both of them to get a message like that, but Recovery Girl lifted her head and looked back at Yaoyorozu in surprise herself after reading the message. "Are you sure?" Recovery Girl wondered.

"About what?" Zach asked, looking back at Yaoyorozu in confusion here.

"After you were seen coming here, if you were," Yaoyorozu started. "It is possible that villains already know Zach's condition. I can protect him-"

"Wait a second-"

"As well as make sure that he does in fact take it easy, as I doubt he will if no one is keeping an eye on-"

"I said-"

"And, as I came here first before you arrived, villains who saw you arrive may know that I am also in the building. If they doubt at all that Zach is truly the one sick, they will fear the possibility that I came to see Zach because I was sick, then you were called. Those who fear that possibility will believe it more the longer I am here, as they question whether or not I am waiting to die so that Zach can bring me back to life immediately."

Zach paused with his mouth open this time to counter Yaoyorozu again. He froze, because his eyes opened much wider and he looked to the tall girl walking around the end of his couch whose theory repeated in his head. Recovery Girl looked at Yaoyorozu in an impressed way herself, while Zach stared at her less in shock after a couple seconds and more in hesitation despite the great idea she had. "It's not safe-" he started.

"And I am a hero," Yaoyorozu countered right away. "Do you not think me capable of protecting you from your potential assailants?"

"That's not what I…" Zach started.

"Then it is decided," Yaoyorozu said before he could come up with another reason. "I have already cleared it with Mr. Principal."

When she went to the bathroom, Zach thought, bowing his head and then shaking it as he had not even questioned what she was going to do when she asked where it was. "Nice," he admitted, his voice low and nearly under his breath though the ladies both looked at him in surprise hearing that. Zach smiled even and rose his head back up giving Yaoyorozu that half-impressed and half-tired look. He could see she knew that he would have told her not to even get started on trying to find a way to stay off of campus to keep helping him through the weekend, if she had told him what she was doing. Now though, she already had clearance from the sound of it and from what Recovery Girl said after receiving that text.

"Thank you," Yaoyorozu replied with a small nod back at Zach.

Recovery Girl looked back and forth between the two of them, confused as she did not get what the 'nice' or the 'thank you' were in reference to. Thought he would be more against it, the older hero wondered to herself. "Well," Recovery Girl began again. "I believe the two of you can work out sleeping arrangements and whatever," she continued right on despite the two teenagers with her getting more awkward expressions on their faces. "But Sazaki, you sound well enough that I feel fine leaving you in Yaoyorozu's hands for the night. I will return tomorrow with the results of the blood work I get done. Now, hold out your arm…"

When Recovery Girl was done carrying out the tests she could with only the bag she had brought with her, she said her farewell to the two students and left them at Sazaki's apartment for the night. She left with a few vials of Zach's blood in her bag, and she frowned thinking about all the tests he had undergone with reactions so different from anything she had ever seen before. Sazaki, Recovery Girl looked over her shoulder after taking a few steps from his apartment. Is he doing this to himself? Does it have to do with Death? A genetic disease I haven't checked for before? I thought he would be immune to most diseases. His body has fought off cancer, and he does not take immunosuppressants despite the foreign organs residing in his body. It did not appear like his body was suddenly rejecting them either. There is so much to check for. I will find out what is wrong with you though, Zach Sazaki.

"Recovery Girl! You're awake!"

"I, was attacked. Himiko Toga took my- the students!"

"They're all… alright. Recovery Girl, Toga tried to use you as a disguise to take the blood of all the students of Class A, but Zach Sazaki stopped her and forced your location out of Toga, which helped us locate you… There's something else though. Something that happened with Class A, after you were rescued…"

You saved my life. You saved me, and yet when I first saw you after that occurred- "Recovery Girl… Is the offer still on the table?" The old woman walking away from Zach Sazaki's apartment saw that look on his face before she gave him the antidepressants he had finally asked for. You never took those pills. I don't know if they would have helped you, but somehow you aren't depressed anymore. You don't seem it, at least. But you are hurting. You are in pain from something, and I will figure it out! I must save you. Recovery Girl imagined the x-rays she saw of Zach after he was shot on his way out of Tartaros. She imagined the boy's body she got a look at completely naked when she was helping with the surgery the day he was shot.

"Sazaki. I saw your x-rays. I've seen your entire body. Why- How could you, still be-"

"I had some amazing doctors, over the time I was gone. They saved my life more times than I can count. Kept me alive pretty well, didn't they?" Those doctors you mentioned, they were amazing. They really were, to put up with someone like you. Recovery Girl smiled softly with a light shake of her head, But at least, I have Yaoyorozu to watch over you this time. I would not feel comfortable leaving you for an extended amount of time otherwise. However, with her there, I know should your condition worsen she will not hesitate to call me. Recovery Girl curled her fists in determination, In the meantime, I will find out what is wrong with you.

Back at Zach's apartment, he lay back on his couch with a couch pillow behind his head and a more relaxed look on his face after Recovery Girl had gone. Yaoyorozu was in his kitchen, and she said in a relieved tone, "You have lots of healthy options in here. I was worried you would only have ramen…" Yaoyorozu put more food on the counter and hummed to herself as she wondered what she should make that would potentially help Zach the most in his recovery.

If I fall asleep right here, I won't even have to convince her to take my room. She'd push to have me move to the bed otherwise. Zach smiled softer, and Yaoyorozu hummed to herself while looking towards the couch as Zach was not responding to her. She went over to check on him a minute later, and she looked down at his face that looked so peaceful as he lay there sleeping. Her eyes shifted from his face down to his chest, and she confirmed that there was a slow but steady movement of his chest up and down. "Zach?" She whispered.

Zach's eyes opened back up and looked into Yaoyorozu's eyes staring down at him. "Huh?" He wondered, as her eyes opened wide that he was actually awake.

"Oh, sorry. I thought you were sleeping," Yaoyorozu said.

"Just resting my eyes," Zach replied with a small smile back at her. I was sleeping, he thought to himself but just smiled at her in a casual way. Then his smile lowered a little, and he added, "Actually, I'm just a light sleeper. Doesn't take much to wake me."

"Oh, then sorry about that," Yaoyorozu told him. She opened her mouth to mention what he said first, but then she closed it and just gave him a small reassuring smile herself before turning back around to head into his kitchen. Something like that isn't a lie. He just didn't want me to feel bad about waking him. That's kind, if anything. "I'm going to make us some dinner." I may have to order in some groceries or food tomorrow, maybe some soup for him if his condition does not get better. What is it? He looks so ill, and yet acts so strong despite it. He is speaking normally, and yet some of the things he says don't make sense. He's dizzy, coughing, but Recovery Girl doesn't know what it is? I thought it would be easy for her to diagnose. Then again, nothing seems to be easy when it comes to you.

Yaoyorozu looked back towards the living room, and then she started moving around his kitchen with lighter steps to continue preparing their food. A worried look spread over her face for a moment, then she shook her head and pulled out her phone. I must let Assurely know that I will not be at work tomorrow. I cannot leave the apartment though, and anything I say in here Zach is likely to overhear. I do not want him knowing I am missing my internship to take care of him… He admitted to me that I actually woke him up, but I am willing to keep this from him? I'll tell him after then. She nodded to herself as that made sense, I don't want to worry him and exacerbate his condition. It could be stress related. Maybe, Recovery Girl could use help determining what is wrong.

As she continued to cook food to take care of Zach, Yaoyorozu opened up her phone and searched the web based on the conditions she was seeing. Her face filled with panic, and she quickly put her phone away after only a few minutes of reading what the internet suggested his problems were. Everyone on the internet is very pessimistic, she thought with a shake of her head but a worried bead of sweat sliding down the side of her face. He is not dying. Recovery Girl would have been more serious if he… unless, she does not want either of us to worry? Her bedside manner could be that good- I am going to worry myself sick here.

---

Zach opened his eyes and squinted them shut right away as light came through the blinds near him and made beams flash through his vision. His eyes parted a little more and he rose his head a bit, and he groaned under his breath just from the overall feeling through his whole body, "Uggnnn." Fuuuccckk. This sucks. I need to throw up? Geez, Zach turned himself to get up off his bed, before shaking his head around as he looked into the back of his couch and remembered where he had fallen asleep. I've been waking up through the night, he reminded himself, as the fact that he was on the couch should not have been news to him.

He looked the other way and saw Yaoyorozu sitting back on the recliner past his feet around the semi-circle of furniture in his living room. She's too close to the windows, Zach thought with a shift of his gaze above Momo to where that light had shone through at the perfect angle to hit him in the eyes. He was not used to sleeping there but figured the sun must have just reached a point in the sky to get him like that. Quietly now, Zach thought, keeping an eye on Momo while reaching to his side to use the coffee table as a stabilizer as he got up. His right hand got soaked as he put it to his right, and he pulled it back fast but had already started leaning his body to put his weight there.

Yanking his hand back that fast knocked over the ramen Yaoyorozu had made him in a bowl on the middle of his plate. The soup the ramen was in was cold now, like the rest of the food Zach had only taken a couple bites out of when he first woke up and recalled her telling him to eat something. Unfortunately, he only remembered that conversation now, as he was falling off the couch and pulling the plate and bowl off the table onto his falling body that hit the coffee table and knocked it out over the carpet. "I'm fine," he said immediately after landing when he heard Yaoyorozu jump up from her chair. He cursed under his breath, I was trying to be quiet so you could sleep. Not make as much noise as fucking possible. I'm an idiot.

"Are you alr-" Yaoyorozu started, but Zach had responded already and she realized he was answering the question about to come out of her mouth. "Here, let me help you-"

"Don't," Zach started, lifting up his left hand and putting a palm at her to stop her from reaching down and helping him. He took in a heavy breath, then he rose his face with a small smile and admitted, "I'm covered in food. Don't want you to get any on you, when you don't have a change of clothes here like I do." Her light-gray eyes opened wider at that general concern he expressed for her comfort here, while he was laying on his floor looking sick and covered in food. He chuckled at her expression she gave him that made her feel even more at ease at the genuine tone of those laughs, "I need to take a shower anyway. I think I forgot yesterday, it just went by so quickly."

"Do you, need help?" Yaoyorozu wondered, only hesitating for a second and pushing herself hard not to blush or even think of this in an uncomfortable manner. "Because I can," she assured when Zach looked at her hesitantly wondering if she really just said that.

He got an even more awkward look on his face and started shaking his head quickly at the girl who seemed to think he might actually need her help with that. "I'm, good," he told her. The fact that she was looking at him in that serious way though made him question his response there, and that made him question his going to take a shower in its entirety. If I'm not okay, and she has to come in there… Oh man, this is so- I'm fine though! At least, I'm fine enough to take a shower on my own. Zach shook his head and got up to his feet in a steady way. "Sorry for waking you. I'll go shower and change, and I'll be back here in a half hour. Okay?"

Yaoyorozu nodded her head, relaxing a little as he gave her that 'half hour' bit as if to tell her that she had the right to come check on him if he took any longer. Zach then quickly made for his bathroom, stopping in his bedroom for a second to grab the change of clothes he would need afterwards. Don't want to have to walk across even the hallway in just a towel. She's seen all the scars already though. And you showed everyone the fake arm. Pretty much everyone. All of Class A and Class 1 at least- Zach realized he was just standing in the bathroom looking at his metal arm, and he shook his head around before stepping to his shower and turning it on.

Luckily his prosthetic arm was waterproof, so he was able to shower with it still attached to his body. He did as he said he would and showered quickly, got changed quickly, and made it back to his living room in half the time he said he would be gone just to be careful. He offered Yaoyorozu to take a shower too, but she said she would wait until later as Ashido was coming to Yutapu to bring a small bag for her and to see how Zach was doing too.

Zach smiled at the response and just sat back on his couch again in a relaxed way, Mina huh? I was worried. It seemed like she might have still been feeling badly about me. I thought what I said at the joint training, how I acted, would help it out, but Jirou just getting angrier at me probably didn't help my case.

The two eighteen year olds stayed in Zach's living room through the morning, and it was morning as Zach had woken Yaoyorozu up at around six o'clock. She suggested he get some more rest, but Zach shook his head and responded that he had gotten so much rest he needed to be a little more active to get his body moving again. Neither of them knew if that would help or exacerbate his condition, which was why Yaoyorozu stayed quiet about it when Zach started working out. When he started coughing during his pull ups though, Yaoyorozu scolded him and got Zach to go back to the couch as she prohibited him from doing any more strenuous activity.

He accepted, but he still grabbed his laptop first to do "work" as he said when she asked what he needed it for. Zach turned on the television in his living room, he went on his computer, put one headphone in and held a conversation with Yaoyorozu at the same time that was entirely separate from what he was doing or what they were watching. For the first time in a while, Zach just asked Yaoyorozu what she had been doing at U.A. and outside of it recently. They talked about him so often; what he had been doing for over a year, how he was doing, their relationship that he had messed up, that he realized he was not as up-to-date on how Momo was doing herself.

Yaoyorozu felt strange talking about how she was considering she was staying at his apartment while he was sick, but she decided not to just put the attention back on his sickness that she was getting increasingly worried about despite Zach talking like this was just another day for him. His coughing fits had continued and seemed worse than when she arrived at his place the day before, and she called him out on covering up how bad he looked in the bathroom, though Zach told her he did not want Mina to see how badly he was doing. The fewer people who know, both of them thought, and they knew that the way Ashido looked when she would leave his apartment could be a factor in whatever the villains were thinking about, if there even were villains watching from nearby.

Unfortunately, Zach's plan to make Mina think he was doing fine did not work very well. Especially considering he laid back down when a headache came on after multi-tasking so much in the early morning. He stopped his "work" on his computer, focused fully on just the tv and talking to Momo, but even then he groaned and they turned off the tv to just talk to each other without any background noise too. Yaoyorozu even texted Recovery Girl about how Zach was doing before Ashido arrived, though Zach acted a bit better then for the hour the pink girl spent at his apartment.

Ashido gave Yaoyorozu her bag and then went and sat near Zach on a chair close to his couch while Yaoyorozu went back to the recliner. Zach had a blanket over him, the same one from his bedroom he woke up to find over his body. Yaoyorozu had gotten it for him as well as one for herself, though both of them were over Zach now after Ashido decided it would be best if he was wrapped up more in case this was a bad case of the flu. Yaoyorozu assured Mina that Recovery Girl was already working to figure out what medication to give Zach, and she told the other Class A girl worried about Zach that he would be fine. She said it in such an assured way like it was what Recovery Girl told her too, that Ashido relaxed a bit, though then Yaoyorozu also told Mina quieter about their worry of villains seeing her appear too worried upon leaving Zach's apartment.

Ashido headed out of Zach's apartment with more a relieved look on her face than anything, happy that Zach was actually going to be alright and making sure that anyone watching could see that she knew that was true. Worry only flashed over her face for a moment, when she realized that Zach's condition they initially told her about might have been worse but they did not tell her all about it so she would look calmer leaving his place. She relaxed again though and told herself to worry about that after she returned to U.A., and she grinned to herself thinking about how she was fine with leaving when both Yaoyorozu and Zach told her that she did not have to stay longer. Both of the others were surprised when she was okay with leaving just like that, but Ashido felt smugly satisfied by the turn of events, and she rubbed her hands together as she neared the train station. Momozaki back at work.

As much as Ashido was staying in a good mood about Zach's condition though, as soon as she left, Yaoyorozu got a lot more worried as Zach "relaxed" back into a laying down position on his couch again. She checked a message from Recovery Girl that had a tone of frustration in it, and she relayed to Zach in a less frustrated way that Recovery Girl was still working on it instead of saying how she had gotten nowhere. She did relay that Recovery Girl was asking for some help though, and Zach mentioned with a chuckle that he hoped she would go see Ms. Anastasia.

"How are you feeling?" Yaoyorozu asked, as Zach had been laying on the couch for a few hours and did not look any better, though he also did not look much worse. His body seemed to be rejecting his attitude that everything was fine, and although he responded positively like he was getting better, Yaoyorozu frowned at him for the response.

Zach lowered his gentle smile too that he had while answering, and he sighed at the way she was looking at him. "I feel like shit," he said. Her eyes widened for a moment and then she scooted the chair she sat on right next to his couch forward a little. "Don't," Zach started when she started reaching out to check his temperature by touching his forehead. She hesitated, and he hesitated too with her hand partially outstretched. She finished reaching it out and Zach did not pull away and just let her put her hand there on his forehead. His body that had tensed up relaxed as her hand cupped over his forehead, running over it and part of her palm resting over a scar on the upper right side of his forehead into his hairline that she pushed back to see the mark better.

Zach looked out from under her hand into Momo's eyes. She stared at the mark she made more visible by pushing his hair away, hair that covered the mark most of the time almost completely. "How, did you get this?" Yaoyorozu wondered at him, her eyes shifting back down to look into his eyes.

Zach closed his eyes and he shook his head, making her move her hand back as he did. Then, with his eyes still closed as Yaoyorozu gave him an uncertain and upset look, Zach started softly, "The Siege of Razmatan." Yaoyorozu hesitated more but looked at Zach in a concerned way at how he started. "I know, I know," he muttered with his eyes still closed, imagining how she was looking at him though. "But it was bad. The bloodiest day of the war. As bad as the Battle of 6 Armies was, I didn't have as large a force that day as when I invaded the stronghold at Razmatan."

"And it was there that you got that scar?" Yaoyorozu wondered.

"As well as the one up here," Zach whispered, lifting his left hand for a moment and rubbing cold fingers across the left side of his face. His lips were in a small smile as he mentioned it while not really thinking too hard about it. His hand lowered back down though, brushing down his cheek to his chin and under it to his neck where that scar continued. "It was bad," Zach said, shaking his head softly but trying to keep his lips in a small smile. "As much as the Arcasian forces were spread out and isolated from each other, in Razmatan they were all fighting together. It wasn't like the 6 Armies either. There was a level of deception that went into every fight, but this was a full-on assault. An invasion the likes that world had not seen before. A force of my size, taking on the biggest army, and the strongest factions of that army, all at once? It was unheard of. Their biggest stronghold. The most fortified base in their world-"

"Where was this, on our world?" Yaoyorozu asked softly.

"It was on Terra," Zach repeated softly, though his lips lowered into more of a sad frown as he said it. He glanced at her and shook his head, and after a second Yaoyorozu just nodded to let him go with that. Zach nodded in relief, looking back straight up with his lips closed for another twenty seconds as he just thought in silence. Yaoyorozu got unnerved as she watched his expression for some reason. Her eyes started shifting down it to his chest, but they snapped back up quickly as Zach started in a soft voice, "All over that world, people were getting abused. They were hurt. They were dying. They were…" He paused and his eyes closed, but even closed he still whispered in a more pained way, "There were slaves. Sex slaves. Children slaves… Child sex slaves. And people who had been experimented on. Tortured. Alone. Their families dead. Their lives ruined. Hundreds, thousands of people who were not fighters. People who were just like the people who joined me and fought with me, but who weren't fighters, and who I didn't know what to do with."

Zach closed his eyes tighter, but then they relaxed and his lips started to curve up a little. "I didn't know where to send them, when they had nowhere to go. I couldn't just take everyone with me. My army couldn't support all those people, and there were so many of them. I always thought that. That I needed a place to bring them. A place that was safe. Too often, I would help people only for my enemies to come to that place searching for me. Too often, people I saved were not helped by the people I brought them to. The orphanages, the governments who said they would help them, they didn't do enough to help these poor, oppressed people."

Yaoyorozu stared at the side of Zach's face in uncertainty but also listened closely to every word he said that sounded like it was coming from the heart. She watched his face closely and examined how well he looked though, more focused on his sickness than what he was saying, as interesting as it was. "And then I took Razmatan," Zach said quietly, his smile lifting a little more. Yaoyorozu got confused and rose her eyes to Zach's face wondering what that had to do with all he just mentioned. "An entire city that had been the biggest stronghold for Arcasian forces. Giant towers, the best weapons' technology in the world, cloaking systems, in a hidden valley undetectable to almost everyone. It was, the perfect place for what I had always imagined."

"What do you mean?" Yaoyorozu wondered softly at him.

"The perfect place to protect all those people," Zach whispered in response. "I took the city. I sent the captured Arcasian forces to Allied territory and had them tried on war crimes. And I took that captured city, restocked it with food and weapons, brought in the best people in that world who could help me… And then I brought all those poor people I'd been trying to help around that world. I took their poor, their wounded and unstable innocents, and everyone who needed my help but I never felt I had ever fully saved. I took them all, and I brought them to haven. To a city of my own creation. To, Life City."

Yaoyorozu smiled at Zach as he told this story with a big smile over his face, looking relaxed and calm and even proud. She just received a message from Recovery Girl saying what time that evening she would be returning too, and she relaxed herself as Zach continued his story. "It's an amazing city hidden in the mountains. I made it for all peoples of that world, no matter what species or race they were. Elves and dwarves, orcs and humans, vampires and trolls and humans. It's a place of unity in the fact that they're all survivors. It's, the best thing I've ever done," Zach said, in such a proud way that had Yaoyorozu getting a slightly more confused look on her face. "The most good I've ever done, the best thing I've ever created," he let out a small sigh and rolled his neck around with his eyes still shut. "That hidden little city, in Kazakhstan…"

Zach trailed off while looking partially delirious, but the girl sitting next to him had frozen up completely. He didn't convert it to Terra, but that- Yaoyorozu's heart was pounding harder and harder as she stared down at the top of her legs that her hands started to shake on. Her eyes rose up and stared at Zach's peaceful face with his eyes resting shut again. As calm as he looked though, her eyes were huge and she thought at him, Why would he make that mistake? That doesn't make sense. It, it could mean that the rest of the story is converted from something else too though. That none of it is truth… or maybe, all of it except for the proper nouns that came before, Kazakhstan?

"It's the most heroic thing I've ever done," Zach started again in a low whisper, his eyes still closed and his expression showing he did not notice his own slip-up there that had caused Yaoyorozu to stare at him in so much shock and disbelief. "And I'm really not, a great hero," Zach added, his smile lowering down while his eyes opened a bit.

"That's not true," Yaoyorozu started to counter at him. She was still trying to wrap her head around what she was trying to realize here, but Zach shook his head at the way she countered.

"It is," Zach said softly. "It's always been true. I've never been, hero material." Zach tilted his head back on the pillow over the armrest and stared up at his ceiling. "Back at my trial, the first one. After it was all over, Judge Wilson called me up to stand in front of him. And he asked me a question he said would determine my fate."

Yaoyorozu stared at Zach closely, leaning forward and looking at his face in more confusion as she had watched that trial over a dozen times. In that moment, something like that happened? Yaoyorozu recalled watching Zach go up for one final word with the judge that the cameras never caught the sound of.

"He asked me if I would ever use my Quirk again? Should I come across a situation where I thought I could save innocent people by using my Quirk on villains, would I use it?" Zach paused and then said in a reflective tone, "And I answered wrong. I thought, I always thought, that I had answered correctly. No matter how much time passed, I told the judge that I would have to make that decision in the moment. Based on the situation," he lowered his voice in a regretful way near the end and grimaced at the thought of what he was saying like it was wrong. "That's not the hero way though."

"It's understandable," Yaoyorozu whispered back. "That you would feel that way. And who is to say that it's wrong-"

"Midoriya," Zach replied, chuckling and tilting his head back again before frowning at what he just said. He continued anyway though, "He told me something the other day. We were talking about, sacrifice. What he was willing to give up. I was, but not really, suggesting that if it ever came down to it, where Midoriya had to take a life in order to save a million, he wouldn't be able to do it. To me, that was the difference between us. But that's wrong. It's not that he wouldn't be able to do it, it's that before that moment happens, he never even considers it." Zach hesitated and ground his teeth for a second in frustration, while Yaoyorozu stared at the side of his face and felt herself breathing quicker at the intense and thoughtful look over his whole pale and sweaty expression.

"I always thought, I was just being prepared. But Midoriya, and you, Momo," Zach turned his head to the side and looked into Yaoyorozu's eyes. "You wouldn't even consider it, when it's the first thing I think about. I think about the worst case scenario. That's not being logical, it's just being unheroic. Because thinking about that worst option makes me have that choice on standby." Zach shook his head and sat up a little, fidgeting where he was laying to get more of his back up on that armrest to look into Momo's eyes at a better, more level angle.

"You can't help but think about those worst cases though," Yaoyorozu started to him, lifting up her left hand as she offered this to him. "Because you've seen the worst case scenario happen too many times."

"But I always thought about it," Zach countered her, suggesting it was back before he saw so many things to back up this method of processing. Yaoyorozu put down her hand, and Zach continued to the girl in front of him whose eyes lowered down as he said, "Shindeki Buda?" While Yaoyorozu's eyes were still down, Zach continued to her, "I always thought it was smart to plan for any possibility, but real heroes do that horrible but necessary thing if it ever came down to it, while beforehand they could still say confidently that they never would. It seems contradictory, but it isn't. And it's why I failed at the trial. I know now that my answer wasn't really the 'right' answer as I always thought it was. I even knew the one Judge Wilson wanted me to say but I couldn't say it myself because it would have been a lie. For so many people though it wouldn't have been a lie."

"Yeah, one day they may have used their Quirk to really hurt someone even after saying they wouldn't there when asked, but they wouldn't have been lying either when they said that they wouldn't. I understand that to so many heroes they wouldn't even consider it until they were pushed into that corner, and even then!" Zach grit his teeth and then pushed out a breath as Yaoyorozu was staring so closely at his face. He turned back and was going to lay back down, but he bowed his head for a moment and shook it in frustration at the idea of stopping there. "I thought that made me more prepared than anyone else, but it was just me being more prepared, to do something bad. That wasn't a good thing. It wasn't logical. It was just the wrong answer."

Yaoyorozu opened her mouth, but she hesitated while watching Zach who had such a thoughtful look over his face while revealing all of this. Is it wrong of me, to think differently? It sounds like you are finally realizing some big thing but- but I don't think it was wrong of you to be prepared. Others, may have waited too long when those horrible things happened to react in ways that were necessary. Heroes, wouldn't have been able to make the kind of choices you made. In Yemen? How many heroes were still just trying to ease the tensions? How many were trying to stop the violence, and failing, but didn't try anything else? You saw the worst case scenario, and it was so much worse than the horrible decision you were left with. You lost your arm that day! You stopped a war from happening! But, Yaoyorozu had opened her mouth again wanting to say some of this, but she hesitated even more as Zach shook his head while staring down at his legs. That wasn't you- or, that's not who you are now. Who you're trying to be. That person, really isn't a hero. It's why you started this by saying that you've never been a great hero… but if not a hero, I don't know how to describe a person who does something so amazing.

"It's, a different way of looking at it," Yaoyorozu finally started.

"It is," Zach agreed. He rose his gaze to hers, and he added, "It's an 'unheroic' way of looking at it, which is why I'm a bad hero." The way Momo looked after he said it did not upset Zach even though she did not have an immediate counter for him. "Because I was willing to look to that dark side from the beginning instead of when I was only forced to, which was why I was too quick to kill Shindeki Buda." Yaoyorozu felt her heart clench, imagining the scene herself and the bullets flying through Buda's arms and legs. She could hear Zach's scream, and she could see that man's unmoving corpse on the ground in front of her. "I could blame Kaminari all I want, but if I was just a little slower then Snipe sensei would have saved us, but I wasn't slower. Because as much as I said I hated it, as much as it horrified me what I did… I know everyone else in our class would have waited a little longer than I did to make that decision. Everyone else, except for me."

"You saved our-" Yaoyorozu started.

"Potentially," Zach countered before she could finish. "And if Snipe hadn't shown up when he did, and the heroes came two minutes later and I had made the same decision, things would have been different. They'd be so different, that this conversation probably would never have happened. I'd probably believe even stronger in the ways I had done things for years after that. Ways, that I'm still trying hard to kick, to be a better hero who doesn't act so… so dark." Zach paused for a moment and then finished with a soft look back into Momo's eyes, "But we both know, Snipe sensei was there on time. I could have tried to stall, talked about my Quirk, said, a million different things. I could have kicked and yelled, fought back right there in a way that would have made him take me out early so that you two could have fought back against him. I could have screamed for help, making him cover my mouth or just taunt about how far we were from everyone. I could have talked about how the heroes would be there soon, and how he had no time to finish us off when he should have been running, or getting back to his Warp Gate. I could have pretended like we had planned for that eventuality beforehand, saying something in 'code' to you and Jirou, or called out to All Might like he was right behind me…"

Zach had continued for twenty seconds straight with possibilities, and Yaoyorozu's expression got more and more hurt as she heard in these options that it was not the first time Zach was thinking of them. They were all coming right off the top of his head, because for almost three years he had been thinking about all the things he could have done that day before killing the man who had taken him hostage. "You were just a kid," Yaoyorozu whispered, cutting off Zach as he was about to list something else. His eyes widened and his eyebrows rose up high, but Yaoyorozu just repeated to him in a soft voice, "A kid trying to save his friends. And hindsight is twenty-twenty. You can't blame yourself for not coming up with those options that day."

"It's not about blaming myself," Zach replied to her with a shake of his head. "Not anymore. But I can still look on that and say, with confidence, that I didn't make the best choice. Not the right choice, not one to be proud of… We don't have Quirks, so that we can harm others." Zach said it and shifted his eyes down with a sadder look covering his expression. "We learned how to use our Quirks, to save people's lives…"

Momo's eyes softened more and she exhaled an audible deep breath as she had heard that before. "That's what Thirteen told us," Yaoyorozu whispered. "At USJ."

"And he was totally right," Zach said, his eyes lifting back up and locking with Momo's as he remembered that too. It sounded so amazing to me. It was what I believed, a real hero would be like. A hero would follow that truth to the grave. "But for so long," Zach continued while still locking eyes with his friend. "I'd forgotten that. Stopping villains? It was always, supposed to be about saving people. I had… too much hate in my heart. I started to enjoy fighting, and I enjoyed it way too much. Fighting in the sense that I was… it shouldn't have been enjoyable. I shouldn't have liked it, but I had become a warrior. Not a hero. And I liked to fight, which inherently means that I liked hurting people-"

"That isn't true," Yaoyorozu said back, countering Zach and shaking her head when he looked softly back at her. "That's not the type of person you are. You look for the bright side, and you see the beauty in everything, and if your life had become one giant, constant fight, then it makes sense that you would find it fun. Because you enjoy life," Yaoyorozu shook her head at the surprised boy in front of her. "And that isn't wrong. That isn't a bad thing, that in all that darkness you tried to enjoy it. You, you," Yaoyorozu paused and hesitated at the way Zach was looking back at her. She continued though after a moment and leaned forward on the seat next to Zach's couch, "You have always pushed yourself to be better. The day you picked your hero name, you remember?" Zach stared back at Yaoyorozu and nodded his head, and Momo continued to him, "Aizawa sensei told us how heroes' names matched their natures. And you chose Lifebringer, because-"

"That was the kind of hero, I wanted to be," Zach finished for her. "One who brought life instead of took it away."

Yaoyorozu nodded at Zach and he sat up more on the couch in front of her. He looked back into her eyes with hesitation spread over his face, uncertainty and a shaken conviction of the self-deprecating things he was just saying about himself, after being reminded of how he had felt all the way back then. I always wanted, to be a great hero. That was the goal. I was failing back then sure, but what kid starts out as a great hero? Not many. She's telling me I'm still that person who wants that though. The type of person I am? Am I even that person anymore? If you believe I am, then, Zach's hazel eyes stared deeply into Yaoyorozu's light gray ones. "Momo," Zach began, his voice hoarse but raising in tone a little.

Yaoyorozu's eyes started to widen, and then she jumped out of her chair as Zach's cheeks puffed up. "I'll get a pot!" Yaoyorozu called behind her as Zach rose his left hand and covered his mouth, turning his body more and hovering his face off the side of the couch.

Go away. Force it to darkness too! Zach could feel all the liquid and gunk coming up in his throat turn to black, but it was still in there and slid up and then vanished into the darkness inside his neck. Zach felt his insides scream in pain though, and he gasped with his left hand snapping from his face down to his stomach that he grabbed through the blanket half on top of him. As Zach gasped, Yaoyorozu was rushing back over with a pot, but she froze and stared below his face where the black ooze just splashed out of his mouth and onto the carpet below his face.

Shit, Zach could see Momo in his peripheral vision, but his eyes focused back on the black goop below his face too. The darkness faded from the puke and made it go back to normal throw-up colors, which was disgusting and smelled horrible. Zach started gasping for breath too, and spit came off the corners of his mouth as he grabbed his stomach even harder feeling more puking coming. "I'm fine," he muttered, then he turned his head and puked again only into the bucket this time, and this time it was normal puke colored from the start which Yaoyorozu was watching closely while bent down next to a violently sick Zach.

I need to call Recovery Girl!

---

"You haven't found anything wrong with him?" Yaoyorozu asked in an even more worried voice after Recovery Girl's response.

The short old woman sat just next to the couch Zach was laying out on. Recovery Girl pressed her hands hard down on Zach's chest, and he started coughing heavier than Yaoyorozu had heard him cough through the entire afternoon. "If his condition's only getting worse," Yaoyorozu continued.

"I found nothing wrong with him, but that does not mean I don't know what is happening," Recovery Girl replied, and she frowned while lifting her hands from Zach's body. "Those coughs looked painful. Are you in any pain now?" She asked it while staring at Zach's face where his eyelids were partially cracked and looking back at her. He kept panting for a couple of seconds while just staring at her, but he could not fake a surprised or confused look or anything. He just stopped panting and shook his head at her, a darker look over his face confirming what she was accusing him of with the question that sounded more like she was guessing he was no longer in that pain.

"I had a wild theory the last time I was here," Recovery Girl began while frowning at Zach who turned his head away for a moment and looked into the back of the couch with a frustrated but also very sick look over his face.

This sucks, so much, Zach wanted to cough and puke at the same time into the back of his couch, but instead he just clenched his eyes shut to stop the pounding headache he had.

"Sazaki, you are making yourself sick," Recovery Girl scolded the boy laying before her. Zach shook his head, clenching his eyes shut tighter as his whole torso gripped in pain. I'm not doing this! He yelled it at himself as pain covered every inch of his body. "You've been prepared for another attack on your life." Recovery Girl stated it and Zach stopped groaning, his eyes opening and his body turning a little so his dark eyes could shift to Recovery Girl's. "You're ready to be shot again, aren't you?" Zach's eyes started filling with a look of dread and a knowing look at the accusation.

Yaoyorozu looked back and forth from one to the other at the spot closer to Zach's head on the living room side of the couch. "I don't understand," Momo began. She looked from Zach's expression of disdain back to Recovery Girl, "What are you talking about?"

Recovery Girl watched as Zach shook his head, but she frowned deeper at him and said, "Someone needs to make him take care of himself, and he never listens to me." Zach's squinting eyes opened wider, and then Recovery Girl continued with Yaoyorozu there in the conversation too, "Sazaki, you need to let your organs do their jobs. You cannot just turn all of your organs into Death and keep them like that forever. They are 'vital' organs not solely because they are weak points, but because they have important jobs in keeping you healthy!"

"What?" Yaoyorozu looked back at Zach, specifically at his chest that she had noticed something weird about in a few moments over her time there. She looked at his face too, and she saw him look at her in a guilty way as what Recovery Girl was saying made it seem like this was all his fault that this was happening. Zach opened his mouth and he let out a breath, a real breath, but he brought his left hand up to his chest and started clenching it as he fully returned his lungs back to normal instead of keeping them as a swirling black mass that had him forcing out intentional breaths and moving his chest as sub-routines. "How much, of your insides were-" Yaoyorozu started.

"When I felt around his body before, it felt like he had returned the insides but his skin was not ready for that to suddenly happen when I was pushing over it. The outer layer cannot exist with nothing solid on the inside," Recovery Girl spoke like it was obvious and in a scolding tone while shifting her eyes back firmly to Zach. The short old woman sighed at Zach's look back at her, and then she snapped, "There is no point in protecting yourself in this way if it only hurts you more!"

"It doesn't always hurt-"

"You're filled with darkness!" Recovery Girl exclaimed. Yaoyorozu stared at Zach's face and then shifted her eyes down to his body that he had been so adamant about her not touching since she got there. Every time she had reached for him to help him sit, every time she got close to touching him, He didn't want me to feel the effects of Death? Recovery Girl glared at the boy trying to argue with her, "I could open you up right now and instead of blood I bet that darkness would spill out."

"But I have to do it," Zach countered. Recovery Girl and Yaoyorozu both opened their mouths, but Zach continued quicker, "Especially right now, because I'm sick." He looked back and forth at the other two and sat up more on the couch, turning almost his entire insides into pitch blackness so that even his skin looked less pale. When he spoke though, the two women in front of him could see deeper in his mouth where his throat seemed to be exuding darkness. "I need to keep my body safer than usual as it's the best time for my enemies to come after me."

"You're having organ failure because of it though," Recovery Girl countered in as frustrated a tone. "This is not one of those situations where you don't know which one came before the other and you're stuck in a loop because of it. You made yourself sick doing this, and now you're keeping yourself sick and making your condition worse because you're arguing that you're sick so you need to?"

"I've been doing this for," Zach stopped. He paused, and he grimaced but then continued to the old woman in front of him, "How can you be sure that this is actually- ack, kac-agh, how can you be sure?! That what I'm doing is the root cause of the problem? I'll admit it probably isn't helping, but I've been doing this for a while, and I only just got sick."

"I am almost certain," Recovery Girl countered with a shake of her head. "How long though, do you mean by 'a while?' If it's been several months or years even, then maybe it isn't correlated. Do you mean a length of time that long?"

"No," Zach responded softly.

"So you just started this recently?" Recovery Girl asked, nodding as she did as she already thought so herself. "After you were shot?"

"Later," Zach said, grimacing harder as he did. "I have to do it though. I thought, I needed to," Zach countered himself this time, as he knew arguing with his doctor any longer was stupid. I'm doing this, to myself? "Fuck," he muttered under his breath, and his body started to look even sicker. He tried to counter his sickness by replacing even more of his failing body with Death, but it sounded like in the long run that was going to exacerbate things even more. His face looked more tired, his skin paler, and Zach's whole figure seemed to just get weaker in a couple of seconds.

"You only just started this?" Recovery Girl wondered.

"Since when?" Yaoyorozu asked, trying to figure out how long it had been based on the interactions she had had with him recently. Back at the gazebo? Something seemed so off, about the way he was drinking that coffee! I didn't notice because, because what? But- "Why, did you start?" Yaoyorozu asked, her confusion rising more though her heart was racing faster at the question she started coming up with reasons for in her own head.

Zach looked straight at Yaoyorozu with his eyes dark and with deep bags under them. His next breath came out long and raspy, and then Zach whispered in a voice that sounded so ill, "Recently, I've become, less protected. I needed…" Zach stopped and his eyes just closed in pain as his whole body felt so sore and weak.

"Less protected?" Recovery Girl muttered, trying to figure out what that meant.

Yaoyorozu understood though. She pulled her head back and her eyes filled with pain while she stared down at Zach's weakened form. Airi, Yaoyorozu thought, her heart clenched up at the image of that girl's face in her mind. She was protecting him. Even after she shot him, she was alerting him when assassins were nearby. She was exposing them to him at times when he didn't even know they were there. He knew, that she was spending her time protecting him, someone he trusted to watch his back enough that, that he didn't feel the need to make himself full of Death at all times. And now that he's gotten her to go away, Yaoyorozu sighed and unclenched the fists that had balled as she was getting upset and ready to scold Zach to just listen to Recovery Girl, and for doing something like this in the first place.

"Will he get better?" Yaoyorozu asked, turning to Recovery Girl and giving her a questioning look that got the older woman refocusing on Zach's condition. "If he just lets his body work without turning any of it to Death again?"

"He should be fine," Recovery Girl replied. She looked to Zach whose eyes stayed partially parted though looked exhausted like he was ready to pass out at any second. "Somehow your body can maintain itself even when you replace your insides with darkness for a little. Your blood still pumps around when you don't have a heart, oxygen still reaches your cells when you don't have lungs, it's a function of your Quirk that this occurs. However, what's really killing you is that you're not going Nightmare or fully staying in your regular form. Your Nightmare form is what works with your Quirk allowing your body to function even with your body undergoing a transformation. Going only partially Nightmare is leaving the rest of your body in its human state, and your human body needs the proper amount of blood and nutrients flowing through it. Your pancreas, your liver, your kidneys, they all have important functions that keep your body in balance and maintain your good health. Removing any one of them should be enough to put your body on shut down, but you've gone the extra mile and taken away all your vital organs at the same time! And you expect your body to keep moving?" Recovery Girl finished in a scoff at him for attempting something so recklessly unheard of.

Zach closed his eyes and let out another wheezing breath of pain. Recovery Girl stopped looking at him so scoldingly but continued in a steady and serious voice, "Maybe as only darkness you can't be hurt, but your tactic of becoming half and half to keep up appearances while also staying safe is destroying your insides." Yaoyorozu looked worriedly at the woman next to him who was making a diagnosis specific to Zach yet seemed to know exactly what it was plaguing him. Recovery Girl continued in a tone showing she was not to be argued with, "You have to stop, and choose when to protect yourself, because doing it all the time is unsustainable."

"I'll never run out though," Zach said in a low voice. "And Death, strengthens me-"

"Is that why you heal so fast?" Recovery Girl asked, an eerie quiet filling the room at the question. What Zach was just saying had made chills fill the older woman who looked down at Zach's face so intensely though. His eyes opened more and they were filled with a different kind of agony as he looked at Recovery Girl's face. She was thinking about how messed up his body looked, how many of those injuries made her believe Zach should have been long dead. "Where did this surplus of Death come from?" Shuzenji Chiyo asked quietly, for a moment not sounding like Zach's physician though her tone was still worried.

Zach's heart ached though from pain other than the physical pain throughout his entire body. He looked away, unable to tell them but impossible to hide it well how he got so strong. The two looking at him could see with that alone that it had to have been something hard for him, though Zach started speaking and pushed everyone's minds from it, "I understand, I need to stop." His head turned back and he looked up into Recovery Girl's eyes from his laid-flat position. "I accept that, in order to get better. I know, nnggnn, Recovery Girl knows what she's talking about, and what you said makes sense to me too. I thought it might, be…" He started that but winced and looked away again, pained at the admittance that this whole ordeal they were in was solely his own fault. "It's just hard," he whispered, his room spinning in his squinted vision though the other two's faces seeming to look at him so judgmentally. "With so many people trying to kill me, always looking for a moment when my guard is down…"

Recovery Girl sighed herself while looking at the teenager who said that in a pained voice but also steady. The pain sounded more from the sickness, and although she tried to imagine that tone he took was showing some of his vulnerability, his shaky and squinted eyes had a steady expression in them ready for the fight against those people coming after him he just mentioned. "I don't know what that's like," Recovery Girl told the boy. She got up from the chair and walked down the side of the couch closer to his head that was on its side looking off right at the woman's face as she came close. "And I'm not going to tell you it isn't true this time."

"This time?" Yaoyorozu wondered. Both of the others thought about how Recovery Girl had warned Zach about being paranoid when he had mentioned Kurogiri in the past. Recovery Girl continued though after a moment, "However, I know you can handle this in a different way. You are very strong, and you can handle more than anyone I have ever met."

Zach's squinted eyes opened wide in shock as the older woman was staring straight into his eyes while saying that. He even turned his head more sideways to get a better look at her to see if she meant that, and Recovery Girl got an annoyed look on her face from his movement and from the way he was looking at her. The tick mark appeared on Recovery Girl's head as she felt that shocked look was because she was so old that the "ever met" part of what she said was so unbelievable. Zach was not thinking about that though, and he just asked after a couple of seconds of seeing her annoyed look, "Are you, including All Might, and Midoriya?"

Recovery Girl's eyes widened this time and she stared at Zach in surprise for a few moments before chuckling and shaking her head at him. Her chuckles were darker and she just said in a firm voice when she stopped, "Lay back. Rest. And keep your body completely human for the next twenty-four hours. You are likely to feel more sick at first, but as inclined as you are to turn your insides back, just remember that it could get even worse if you do that. Yaoyorozu will make sure any would-be assassins are kept away from you," Recovery Girl assured the boy, with a glance up at the taller girl to see if that was true and Yaoyorozu would be spending another day there.

Yaoyorozu nodded at the older woman who nodded back in gratitude before getting more specific with Zach about what could happen should he ignore her orders. The repercussions of ignoring doctor's orders sounded very bad, and Yaoyorozu wondered if Recovery Girl really needed to go so far when it seemed to her like Zach was already going to listen to her. I just hope this is really it, Yaoyorozu thought. Recovery Girl seemed confident and Zach was accepting the diagnosis, but his condition worsened so much in her eyes after they had come to this diagnosis that it made her want to argue it anyway.

Recovery Girl had to go, but she looked back towards the couch and thought about that last question Zach asked her. You do not even realize what you just asked. She turned around and headed out of the apartment, and she questioned herself on her way out, I wonder if he realizes that he should be dead a hundred times over with a body like that? How he is still alive does not just amaze me, it baffles me. I know he should be dead with those injuries. I am glad he is not, but I cannot explain it. The amount of damage he took in such a short time, internal damage too that people need to recover from over the span of years, only for those wounds to be covered up and compounded with new scars. It's unbelievable.

"You should really, go home too," Zach said to Yaoyorozu in a raspy voice as she stepped up close to where his head was laying. "Someone could attack-"

"I want to stay until we're sure that you're recovering," Yaoyorozu replied with a shake of her head. "As well as to protect you while your body is completely here and you're still weak. If I leave, you'll turn your insides into Death at every footstep you hear outside, and it'll lengthen your recovery time."

"That's not…" Zach started. Then he lifted the corners of his lips and smiled up at Yaoyorozu's face, "Alright, maybe that sounds, like it could happen… Unnngg," he groaned after trying to raise the mood, his chest and stomach and sides full of a constant stinging, burning pain. "I'm sorry, organs. I appreciate you," Zach lowered his head and looked down at his chest while saying it. "Now stop trying to kill me- ack, KAh! KAh-kuh- ack- kah- kuh koag- ag-ak" Zach tried to stop himself a couple times, but his body heaved forward and he coughed even harder like his whole lungs were about to get spat out of his mouth.

Yaoyorozu leaned down and she put a hand on his back. She rested it there and Zach flinched for a moment, then he just relaxed and coughed a couple more times to get the scratchy feeling out of his throat that he could not just turn to darkness this time. He started to lean back again and Yaoyorozu helped his back down, but she glanced around while helping him rest his head on the pillow. Her eyes shifted to a pot still on the floor close to the bed, emptied out as she did every time he had puked, though the carpet was still smelling of the throw-up she had not cleaned up much as Zach had been telling her not to and sounding so guilty when she was arguing with him. These blankets too, and the pillow case, Yaoyorozu looked below Zach's head to the pillow he had been using that his sweaty hair had to have sweat all over for the past day straight.

"We should get you to your bed," Yaoyorozu suggested. Zach turned his head that felt so wobbly on top of his neck and glanced up at the girl above him with a look wondering if that was really necessary. His whole body started to feel even more sore too at the idea of getting up and moving anywhere, though he was also feeling something down in his bowels that were fully human again, and ready to punish him for what he had done to them. "Let's get you over there," Yaoyorozu said again, as Zach looked against it but was not saying anything like that. His eyes shifted towards the blankets on him and then back at the pillow case, "I'll do the laundry for a little and clean the blankets and pillow cases, alright?"

Zach looked back at her and was surprised as it sounded like she was ready to do that anyway. I wanted her to do that, while I used the bathroom. She wouldn't have to leave for it anyway though. Shit, this sucks so much. Zach turned his body and put his legs off the couch, and Yaoyorozu put his left arm up over her shoulders. She ignored the discomfort of how hard his left arm was, and she helped Zach up so they could walk for his bedroom. He started to walk more confidently on his own though, and he looked at her with a sheepish look while crossing the front of her body to be on the right side of the hallway more towards his bathroom than the bedroom.

"I'll get on the laundry," Yaoyorozu said at that last look he gave her.

"Thanks," Zach said it response, trying not to mutter it and to get it out in as genuine and steady a voice as he could. Then he started coughing, but he turned away from her and headed for the bathroom like it was nothing but another fit. As soon as he stepped into the bathroom though, Zach stumbled forward and reached out. He grabbed the counter in front of his mirror and brought his face up with a look of excruciating pain covering it. He stared into his shaking eyes with the corners of his vision black, and his cheeks puffed out only for him to force it back down again. Don't do it. FIGHT IT! As much as he was trying, his entire being was pushing him to use Death and fill his whole body again to lessen the pain.

Yaoyorozu did the laundry in Zach's living room, and she got changed while she did into a fresh set of clothes that Ashido had brought over for her. She turned her head after slipping into a new shirt, hearing Zach through the wall past the washing machine and dryer. He had started throwing up in the bathroom this time, which she figured was better than throwing up anywhere else at least. I know this must be hard. Just hang in there, she felt bad at the loud retching sounds she heard coming through the wall, but she also started to feel bad as he had gone in there alone likely so as not to bother her with this as much. You shouldn't feel it's all your fault, but, Yaoyorozu moved quicker and started up a load in the washing machine that was pretty loud and drowned out some of the sound of Zach's sickness.

Zach felt a bit of relief hearing the washing machine come on like Yaoyorozu just kept at it instead of going around and listening to him from outside the bathroom door. He would not have been able to hear her footsteps either way over the sound of his own heart banging in his head, as well as his throat scratching and voice groaning. The orangish-black water in the toilet splashed as he hurled into it again, then he froze up completely as he heard a knock over everything.

"Lifebringer?"

Yaoyorozu hesitated while near the door already, but she heard that innocent-sounding question of Zach's hero name and realized it quickly. "It's fine Zach," she called out. Yaoyorozu checked through the peephole anyway, then she questioned through the door, "Excuse me, who are you-"

"Norita Riku, Zach's landlord," the man on the other side of the door responded to the talking door. He had just heard Zach's call from inside asking who it was, sounding concerned, and the man outside lifted his head to make his face easier to examine to whoever was looking out at him.

Yaoyorozu jogged over to the hallway and described the man to Zach who gave her an affirmative noise that the man sounded like he was actually his landlord. She went back to the front door and said from inside it, "Sorry about the noise, if you can hear it through the walls."

"It's not like I got a complaint or anything," Norita replied, holding up his hands defensively for whoever the girl speaking through the door was. The man got a concerned look on his face though as he continued, "I was just walking past and heard, well, is he alright?"

"He's actually not feeling too well right now," Yaoyorozu replied. "But if you could keep that quiet, he would appreciate-"

"Oh no, I understand totally," Norita shook his head around fast at the girl he heard sounding similarly concerned as him. The man shorter than Yaoyorozu herself with a chubby figure and round pink cheeks gave the girl a bright smile through the peephole as she looked back at him. "Tell him I hope he gets better soon. If he gets any sicker though, I can drive you kids to the hospital if you need a ride."

"Thank you… Norita-san. I'll let him know."

Zach stood in front of his mirror and splashed water into his face over and over. Norita isn't a spy. Yaoyorozu is fine. She won't open the door. He won't go around telling people I'm sick. I'll be better by the time he tells anyone anyway- "Uggghhh," Zach groaned from the bottom of his throat and leaned his head forward over the sink. He turned the water fully on cold and stopped washing his hands for a second to just put his whole head under the running water. I'm so fucking defenseless right now. If those assassins were to come for me… I'd still probably kick all their asses. I don't know though. I don't think I could confidently use all my Death feeling the way I do. It could get unstable. I could fly away at least though- but if they targeted civilians to make me stay? If they started an incident right outside, they could get me. They'd probably kill me. "Gurggle-glarg-gurg…" Zach gargled the water filling his mouth and then finally pulled his head out of the sink when he heard Yaoyorozu outside the bathroom door.

"One second," Zach said, and he started drying off his whole head only to feel dizzy again and start slouching into the glass wall of his shower. "Bed?" He muttered through the towel, shifting his head to look at the door in some confusion. Oh yeah, that's where we were going. Fuck. I'm so- "Feeling a little out of it," Zach admitted aloud, moving for the door as he said it to warn the girl he was about to see again. "Happens when you've kept your entire brain as a black mass of swirling Death for over a week…"

---

"MmnnnNNNnn," Zach's low hum turned into a groan and his eyes opened up. Was I sleeping? He shifted his eyes down to his heaving chest and thought, Must have woken myself up right there. Surprising I can even fall asleep with as much noise as I'm making, let alone Momo. Zach rose his gaze and looked to the foot of his bed where Yaoyorozu had stood up and was looking at him in some concern at how he had woken up sounding like he was in pain.

Zach gave her a small smile though when she looked at him in that concerned way, and Yaoyorozu sighed and stepped back closer on the left side of Zach's bed which was the side he was laying closer to. Zach noticed there was a chair sitting there on the left side of the bed, though for the life of him he could not remember her bringing it in there. Actually, when did I even get-

"How are you feeling?" Yaoyorozu wondered.

Zach did not pull away as she reached over and put a hand on his forehead. She frowned more at how hot he was, but when she leaned back Zach looked up at her and replied, "Like crap." It was in a joking tone, and as much as the response itself was not positive, his voice did not sound as hoarse as earlier. Zach started coughing again though after answering, though he pulled his own blankets up and just let out a long sigh afterwards to show he was dealing with it. "How long was I out for?"

"Well," Yaoyorozu began slowly. She pulled out her phone and glanced at the time on it, He hasn't asked in a while. This is the most coherent he's been in, huh, Yaoyorozu lifted her head back up and replied, "It's early Sunday morning, so…"

"Sunday?" Zach muttered, tilting his head farther back into the pillow and then groaning at the movement. I've been sick for days now. If I had known what was causing it earlier… I had my suspicions though. I even knew I wasn't just turning my insides back to normal so as not to hurt Recovery Girl, but because I didn't want her knowing. Such a stupid move. "Feels like, I'll be able to make it into class tomorrow," Zach admitted with his eyes opening back up.

"That's good," the girl standing next to Zach's bed replied. She stepped back and then grabbed the chair near the foot of Zach's bed, pulling it around more to be closer to his head when she sat back down. "Norita-san came back a while ago." Zach's eyes shifted to her in a little surprise, and Yaoyorozu continued, "He went down the street to get you miso soup and ginger ale. I tried a few sips of the soup while it was still hot, it was very good-"

"From Akibono's?" Zach wondered.

Yaoyorozu nodded in a bit of surprise, but Zach added, "I've, tried the miso soup there before." He gulped and then tilted his head back on the pillow with his eyes shifting back straight up, "I'm not very, hungry though…"

"That's fine," Yaoyorozu said with a nod at the boy who she was fine letting get more rest. "I thought you might say that so I already put it in the fridge. You do need to eat something soon though. You cannot regain your strength otherwise."

Zach nodded in agreement, though the prospect of getting up from that position right now made him clench his eyes shut. "Ugh, this sucks so much," Zach mumbled, his body starting to turn onto its right side only for him to flip right back onto his back as his side hurt too much leaning that way on it. "I never knew being sick was so, I don't know-"

"What did you think it was like?" Yaoyorozu wondered with a smile and almost laughing at what he just said.

"Well I knew it wasn't, fun," Zach muttered in reply, though he felt stupid for saying that anyway. "And I sympathized, but I didn't really know, uuggghhhhh," Zach ground his teeth and Yaoyorozu stopped smiling even though she wanted to keep him talking and distracted from the discomfort and pain he had to be feeling. "But! This is worse, well- not worse than, Reverb's."

"Who is Reverb?" Yaoyorozu wondered.

Zach turned his head a little and said, "He got real sick, once, like this." Zach took in a deep breath and he calmed himself down. He relaxed, curling his hands into the blankets more to wrap them tighter around him.

Yaoyorozu also felt more relaxed seeing that peaceful look on his face. He definitely looks better. I must inform Recovery Girl when I have the chance. It seems he was really doing it to himself.

"It was weird," Zach started. "Because, it was not often we had to deal with sickness on the Cloak. My airship," Zach specified, wondering if he had ever told Momo about it before. She just nodded at him though with a look telling him to continue with what he was saying and not feel the need to explain the context. "They were so strong, and they were dying all the time from non-disease causes, and after I revived people usually they were very healthy so no problems there… but, Reverb got sick once. He was from, a poorer country… He didn't have the right vaccines before joining, considering we were traveling all over the world."

"Ahh," Yaoyorozu nodded as that made sense to her. Talking about this so casually. I am glad. I told you before I would never repeat what we talk about to anyone else. "Was he, alright?" Yaoyorozu asked, hesitating for a moment but finishing the question she had started already.

"Yeah," Zach whispered. His eyes shifted from Yaoyorozu to the ceiling above him. His tone got a little lower as he went on, "It's why I started getting all my troops vaccinated with mandatory shots though. After people joined I had them go through a physical with my doctors-"

Momo chuckled and lifted her right hand to cover her mouth. "That is an impressive health care system," she said. It's amazing, that you had to consider even things like that.

"Sure," Zach muttered, and Yaoyorozu lost her smile in an instant. Her eyes locked on Zach's face and she saw his head still pointed straight up to the ceiling. "Bad healthcare," he said it so softly, and then he whispered in an even quieter voice, "was never the reason I lost people. Reverb was really sick, but he got better. He got better and kept fighting with me for, a couple months after." Zach's voice got gargled as he mentioned how long at the end, and he shook his head around and swallowed as he had not noticed his mouth so full of spit that it had slid down into his throat while he was speaking. Spit glands working, trachea and esophagus are there and separated. No more manual forced gulps or breaths. Just eat and breathe normally. This last week, I've been like a machine. No one should control every action their body undergoes, especially not when they're already controlling every thought and emotion-

"Zach?" Yaoyorozu wondered, as Zach had just trailed off in a hazy way. His eyes shifted back towards the girl on his left who stared with wide eyes into his foggy ones that seemed unfocused and dark despite it. His head tilted to the side like he was waiting for her to continue, then his eyes grew wider though still unfocused.

I was talking, Zach reminded himself, looking back up to the ceiling and trying to get back on topic in his own head. "Statue Man," Zach muttered. "The monster, like a Medusa… not, not really," Zach mumbled at the end and closed his eyes tightly. Yaoyorozu felt her heart ache as he stopped himself like he was trying to shift back to reality, but Zach's eyes snapped open and he explained, "Because Gorgons, they turn people to stone, but Statue Man was himself made of stone. He's the one who killed, Reverb," Zach paused for a moment. He stopped and he started to look back towards Momo only to drag his eyes away not wanting to make eye contact, "I fucked up-"

"It's not-"

"I walked by Statue Man over and over," Zach continued before she could try and keep him from putting the blame on himself. "But they were always different statues in different poses. I thought they were all over the place. He was really just, turning himself into a statue though, every time I would turn the corner. And there were other statues around! Real, fake statues, but I should have noticed. I should have, I should have noticed… I should have noticed." He turned his head back to the side after repeating it over and over, and he said to the girl next to him with his eyes wide, "And Reverb was there. He wanted to help me. Wanted to… If I had just noticed he was a person… Just a little sooner…"

"It's alright. It's not your fault. You tried-" Yaoyorozu stopped as Zach's face seemed so pained despite her attempts to relax him. After all this time, it still hits you this hard.

Zach's head hurt and he clenched his eyes shut while tilting it back to a position with the back of it pushing into his pillow. "I wish I had come up with a story for this," Zach whispered, his voice so hoarse and quiet as he continued. "But I guess I hate thinking of it so much, that I avoided even making a story. Because it's all my fault." Zach clenched his fists tighter into the mattress at his sides, his heart pounding as his mind yelled at him to counter Yaoyorozu for what she had just been saying to him. He grit his teeth and seethed through his teeth, "I brought him with me on his second life, just to get him killed."

Momo's heart rate skyrocketed and she stared at Zach with her eyes shaking at what he just said. "'Second life?'" She whispered the question at him.

Zach's whole face scrunched up, his eyebrows narrowing it but his forehead wrinkling like his lips. Zach's lips curled and his neck tilted back, and he had to turn to the right as his face was covering in so much pain. The way he had said it, made it sound like there had been many on their second lives. Bringing people back, only for them to die again, Yaoyorozu looked at the side of Zach's face she could still partially see. Only for you to lose them again. The way he looked right there, I know, many of the people you brought back to life died again.

I already knew, Yaoyorozu reminded herself with her eyes lowering down in a sadder way. I thought you might have died while you were out there, because I kept hearing about so many AoD members dying. I knew though. I knew there was another reason it could be. Yaoyorozu started to open her mouth but froze. I want to ask. How many people did you bring back only to lose again? How many… I can't ask that. The hand she started lifting lowered back down, and she couldn't bring herself to ask the question on the tip of her tongue. When just talking about one of them is wrecking him like this? How could I bring that pain up for him… But, then, how does he even- How does he hold himself together?! When one death, one person he cared about dying is this hard for him? No, no there's no way he can actually handle…

Yaoyorozu whispered still with her eyes down, "I'm glad you told me about him. And about that day," Yaoyorozu continued, and she lifted her head and watched Zach's head to wait for him to turn back towards her. "It's good to talk about it."

And I haven't talked about it once. I never told anyone, what happened to Reverb. The two of us left and I came back alone… again! Zach's face scrunched up and his eyes shook, and he started coughing violently but turned back to Yaoyorozu anyway during it. She's right though. I know she's right.

There could have been more believable stories, so why those fantastical tales? I always wondered, why it had to be something so unbelievable. Why you would choose something even you couldn't really believe.

"Remember, that woman I let, die?" Zach whispered at the girl in front of his face who stared back at him in surprise at what he was bringing up. "When I escaped, the League of Villains. I remember talking about her with you, and how I knew afterwards how that had helped." Yaoyorozu nodded her head back at Zach who even smiled a little as he continued, "Talking about it, getting my feelings about it out in the open, I really needed that."

"You can do it again," Yaoyorozu assured him.

Zach shook his head though and rose up his blanket to cough into it a couple of times, before lowering the hand under the blanket he had reached up with. He grabbed his chest after coughing but in a way harder for Yaoyorozu to see since it was under the blanket. "I can't," he muttered, shaking his head and keeping her focus there while he gripped at his tightening chest.

"You can trust me," Yaoyorozu whispered back. "Believe in me."

"It's not about that. It's, never been about that." He paused for a moment and shifted his eyes to look back into hers, "I know, the real reason, I don't talk about the truth."

"Are there not some things that aren't too hard to think about?" Yaoyorozu asked him, more offering it up so that he would try.

Zach shook his head again though. "It's more than that," he whispered, his voice drowsy but his whole expression more dark than anything. "Ever since Inazuma, I've been remembering sometimes anyway. Those moments all end though, and the memories I remembered return to the way I transformed them in the back of my mind. But, it's happening more frequently. Those transplanted memories, are breaking." Zach's head tilted back and he stared up at the ceiling with a nervous look over his face.

As anxious as Zach appeared though, Yaoyorozu felt her heart through her chest and could only purse her lips while staring at Zach with her eyes huge. What is he talking about?! Those things he's admitting right here, they're so far out there! The way Zach was admitting to thinking, and the turmoil in his own mind, It feels like he's admitting he's insane! "I lost my mind," what he had told her not that long ago echoed in her head, and she pulled her head back as she looked at the boy whose face was twisting in pain and fear at the way his own mindset was unraveling. I was wrong.

Guilt flooded into Yaoyorozu's chest and she opened her pursed lips to let out a small gasp she tried to stifle before he could hear it. About so much since you got back. "My life was a lie. The beautiful world I believed in is a lie. Everything is a lie. I- I can't believe in anything anymore, can't trust, anything… I can't even tell what's real and what's not." You told me back when Kaminari betrayed us! You were already slipping before you went out there, and created a lie that covered the entire world, built a fake history to dupe billions! And yet it was more than duping the world, you believed it yourself because it was so horrible, and so that lie detectors couldn't catch you, and, and! There are so many layers! You've messed with your head so much you can't even tell anymore…

"Why-" Yaoyorozu started. She stopped herself, but Zach's sick face turned and looked at the girl sitting so far forward in her chair next to his bed. "Why did you do this to yourself?" Zach's face pained too at the hurt on Yaoyorozu's, and she did not need to explain what she meant nor did Zach need to ask.

Zach looked back at her softly and in regret too that he was making her feel this pained to see all he had done to himself. "It's because," he started, his voice cracking and raising in pitch. "Because, Kaminari beat us all." Yaoyorozu stared at him with shaking, confused eyes, but Zach's fists curled and he nodded his head at her. "He beat All Might, and Principal Nezu, and me. Kaminari managed all he did by going so far as to mess with his own head, and even though it was evil and he did all that in such a disgusting way… he was right." Yaoyorozu's eyes shook more and her eyes grew wider as Zach whispered to her, "He was willing, to twist his own mind to create that persona to trick us all. And, Kaminari was the smartest person in the world."

"Outsmarting Principal Nezu? Tricking the entire country?" Zach asked in disbelief, his eyebrows high and his voice only cracking at the end before another small fit of coughs. "I learned from that defeat like I learned from them all," Zach admitted. "I learned, and I adapted, and when I tested it for the first time in those two weeks after the betrayal, I had the biggest victory of my life in the Lifebringer Incident. And so I continued, twisting my own mind. Gnarling it up and messing with it, because I had done it before and it worked." He started talking faster, his heart started to ache from more than the pain it was already in from the sickness, and he whispered with his head tilting far back, "Whenever I thought about something that wouldn't help with my goals, I just… buried it."

"It became second nature to me. I became a natural at just shoving everything so deep. To a place I'd never have to deal with it because I would be dead before long." Zach finally paused and he wheezed a couple of times, but then he closed his mouth shut when it seemed to him like Momo might say something about him stopping. He cut off his wheezing breaths and just whispered at her in a calmer but much darker way, "But I was wrong about that. What I told you, about never being a good hero," he paused and his eyes closed in so much regret that he was saying this straight to Yaoyorozu. "It got so much worse out there because my morality wasn't just pushed to the side, it was buried. I was able to burry it. That didn't mean those things I did didn't still hurt, but the pain was buried like the pain of losing friends or losing who I myself was. It was all just shoved underneath my more important goals. And now it's coming back up… and I don't know if I can handle it all."

He finally let out a huge exhale and just stopped, laying back and closing his eyes in exhaustion after saying all that. Yaoyorozu shook her head while staring at the left side of his face, so scarred up that more of it was covered in scars than wasn't. He wasn't just, making an excuse. He really went mad. He's functioning despite it, but this kind of thinking isn't… He's so far from alright. In so many ways, he's hurting, Yaoyorozu lifted her lips up into the faintest smile. "You'll be alright," she said. Zach let out a deep exhale himself, and he turned back to the girl next to him who nodded once and said, "If anyone can handle it…"

Zach closed his eyes slowly and opened them again, and he nodded back at the girl trying to encourage him with that. "Thanks. I actually, am feeling better already," Zach added, and he shrugged his shoulders as if to prove by the increased movement that he was fine. Zach sighed though, and he smiled after it as it was a real sigh he did not have to force out because he was not just recreating his own lungs for only that moment. "I was never a good hero," he started, his voice sounding stronger than it had in a couple days to the girl next to him. "Never even a good person. But, I try to help people as best I can-"

"That's not true," Yaoyorozu cut off Zach before he could continue anymore on that track. He started to shake his head, but she questioned before he could counter her, "Life City is real, isn't it?" Zach froze, his eyes widening for a second and his head turning more to the side to look at her closer. His eyes were full of shock, and Yaoyorozu did not know whether he just assumed she would think he was lying, or if he forgot even talking to her about it in his delusional ill state.

"I," he started. Zach paused, so much hesitation on his face.

After everything he had told her already, things that would get him thrown in prison a hundred times over, Yaoyorozu stared at him in confusion at why he was struggling to speak now. She kept her voice lower though seeing that fear and hesitation on his face, "Why is that place hidden? That amazing, absurd place you talked about."

"When the time comes they'll reveal themselves to the world." He responded softly and relaxed as he reminded himself who the person he was talking to was. His voice steadied and he replied, "When they're ready to, and no sooner. Until then they're self-sufficient."

Yaoyorozu's face shifted and Zach looked at her wondering what the look was for. "Is that true?" She asked him quietly, even quieter than they were already speaking. "Isn't the AoD supporting them?"

Zach shook his head at the question. "I never ever stayed in one place too long or it would be associated with me and targeted. Doing that there would be the same as implicating that whole city of people as terrorists… But I did set up Life City better than anywhere else." He paused and shifted his gaze back up above him while laying in a more relaxed and less pained way, even as he remembered more of what he did, "I tried to help so many countries, supported so many places with all kinds of charities. In Life City though I was able to start from scratch. And so, I was able to create a society with the full use of Quirks accepted, and that meant: progress. Real, true progress."

The girl sitting next to Zach found herself at a loss for words. Zach just kept going while staring up though, "I needed to make compromises while determining who could fight with me and who I needed to help with progress. A friend of mine, Ellen, wanted to come and fight alongside me but I denied her because her Quirk was too amazing. The power to bring fruit to trees, to have flowers grow bigger and bud with peppers or herbs with amazing tastes and spices. Ack- Foodify, was the name of her Quirk. And though it helped me for a few weeks when I didn't need to gather food supplies as every living thing was suddenly food for us, delicious fruits appearing out of nowhere that had never been tasted by most people before, Ellen was one of the many in this world who I saw the full potential of."

His eyes glazed over even as he smiled while talking about this, "She could not terraform desert nations though, or cause trees to grow suddenly to full size. Nor could she spread grass and flowers over expanses of barren landscape. She could only make food, and though that was great and amazing too, Foodify doesn't work on as wide a scale as some others' Quirks. However, I did know she could help something smaller. Not entire continents, or countries, but a single city?"

"Those charities," Yaoyorozu spoke up. It was not directly about Ellen and Foodify, but she could not take her mind off of all these things Zach was saying as he so quickly moved from one to the next. "These terraformers you are talking about, are they all- I have heard, something about- what are you doing it all for?"

"The end goal?" Zach wondered back softly. "I want there to be enough food to go around to everyone. Clean water, in places where they've never had fresh, clean water just laying around. We have the ability. We have the resources and the potential with Quirks to clean the oceans and shelter the homeless, feed the hungry and give the thirsty enough water to last them the rest of their lives. Things always get in the way though. Country lines, borders, language barriers, income differences, corporate greed, corruption, trade disputes, social hierarchy, all these things keep people from seeing how easy it would be. So for those who ignore borders, and speak all languages, and who only have money so that that money can go back to helping people…"

Yaoyorozu just watched the boy in front of her and nodded as he continued. She listened to him regale her with his deeds, his best deeds, and she smiled over the look of amazement and shock and awe covering her face. This is what you should be thinking about right now. These memories will make you feel better, and so they may be able to make you physically- Yaoyorozu's eyes widened even more, at the mention of an amount of money Zach said he donated to a charity without slowing down what he was saying. How much money did you- I can't even- there was barely any time to think as Zach hit her again and again by things that put her in so much awe she could barely breathe. Whenever he looked her way though, she smiled and nodded at him to continue on.

He looked back towards the girl sitting next to him who gave him an interested look and nodded to see what Zach was going to say next. He smiled at her for listening without interrupting or saying how unbelievable it was, and he just continued with his head turning to look back straight up as he went on. This time though, Zach did not notice just like the other times, but Yaoyorozu continued smiling at him from the side instead of returning to a look of astonishment. What he was saying was still shocking, to say the least, but the girl sitting next to his bed smiled to herself because she knew she did not need to question for a second if what he was saying was true.

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A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Zach got sick from keeping his insides as pure darkness for a while, in an attempt to keep himself better protected now that Darling is no longer watching over him. The attempt backfires, but by the end of the chapter things are starting to look up. Yaoyorozu stays with Zach over the weekend, and Zach finally tells someone about Life City and the rest of the charity work he was doing out in the world as Death. Anyway, leave a review telling me what you think, comments, predictions, or questions about the chapter and what's to come! Already halfway through the next chapter so I'll try to get that one up this weekend (if not tomorrow). And other than that, just want to say... things are about to get nuts ;)

papaprep chapter 181 . Sep 23

wow..u ok author-san?
u need a break?

Lol I'm alright! Thanks for asking, and reviewing!

Super Power Sensei chapter 181 . Sep 23

Why am I getting the feeling Zach is...
(A)...going to die due to all his injuries.
(B)...being harmed/taken over by his quirk.
(C)...going to kill himself.

And the answer is... B! Kind of. Zach tries to use Death as an all-encompassing protector by keeping it going nonstop, but that doesn't work out well for him. Thanks for another review!

Incarnus chapter 181 . Sep 24

I really want Zach to have a happy ending after all he's been through, I just can't see it happening with the way the story's going though. The best ending I can see for him currently is some kind of martyr fate which is just sad.
Also holy shit but Deku is being such a little bitch. His inferiority complex towards Zach just keeps growing. Seems like he cares more about that at this point instead of actually striving to become the Symbol of Peace.

Love all this love for Zach, which I can also see through all this hate in the reviews for Midoriya XD We'll see how things go with Zach, but no spoilers from me. Thanks for the review!

.0 chapter 181 . 15h ago

If you keep hitting me with cliffhangers I'm gonna have a heart attack.

Don't die! But, ;) I do enjoy the cliffhangers... Thanks for the review!

GuestP chapter 181 . Sep 23

I have a question before I start this review... Have you considered crossposting this on ao3?
Just wanted to know, out of curiosity.
Finally, Zach tells Midoriya that he's a little shit when it comes to trying to understand and thinking he understands, but actually doesn't understand. Poor Zach, Death is no little feeling, it's something that scars your mind, which is why Zach is like the way he is.
That mention of Cee had me tearing up a bit...
I read the last three paragraphs, and I'm a little concerned... Zach's never late unless something big happened...
Ooohh, something big happened!
Can't wait for the next chapter, thank you for your hard work!~~

I have not thought about it. Mainly because I hadn't really looked at that site 'til you mentioned it. It's a lot of work editing and posting after each chapter, so thinking about doing that across multiple sites feels like it'd be a chore (though I might do it once all is said and done at the end of the story). Zach was getting frustrated and pissed, and coughing too during that talk with Midoriya which was my main sign to you guys what was going to be up this chapter. That worry was founded as Zach finds himself falling ill to Death overuse, but he seems like he'll be alright. Thanks for the review, and hope you enjoyed the chapter!