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!

198. Chapter 198

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 198:

On the northeast coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island, thirty miles outside of the closest town of Aisuri, Lifebringer and Roady arrived at their destination to many awed looks. Zach had his scars all covered up, though he was also wearing a scarf over his neck scars that doubled in function by completing his ensemble of high-life spring fashion clothing that he had had to help Roady pick out too.

His partner did not have as much makeup on, though Urukio was upset about the amount of hair dye and gel he had in to make his hair less recognizable. After being recognized twice that day already though, once by his waitress that morning off Rairosu's boardwalk, and once by a homeless man helping out his partner, Roady knew he needed a disguise as much as Sazaki did. Still, he looked into the driver's seat and could barely recognize the person next to him even though he had been there when Sazaki was putting on this disguise. He talked about wishing he had a "mask" like it's something he's used before. A face-mask, to make him look like an entirely different person. That's only possible with Quirks though, and Changeling died taking down the Stain Cult so no luck there. Could ask your friend Toga…

Zach prepared himself up to the second he was getting out of the car to speak to the bodyguards and rich people around them who were all staring at his car in amazement. Edo Minzio. Twenty-three. Born in Nara. Wealthy mother, unlike Roady's wealthy father. My mother instilled better fashion sense in me than Roady has, which is why I'm taking the lead.

This car is too crazy nice. The fact that you can pull something like this off is, it's pretty cool. Roady had to admit it to himself, though he tried to make it look like he was used to stepping out of the car and not like he was anxious about every move he made in the multi-billion yen vehicle. Roady stepped around the front of the vehicle as Zach came out of the driver's seat. Though it annoyed him to admit, he agreed with Zach's reasoning for him to stand close so that Zach's large build would stick out less among the rich people who did not have as large of bodies as him. Zach's build fit in more with the bodyguards, though luckily because many of them were a few feet bigger and wider he stuck out less than he would if the high-fashion car show was not full of so many wealthy folks in need of protection.

The fact that we have no protection might lead some people to think we're easy targets, actually, Roady thought. He saw a couple of people approaching them on the driveway outside of the nicest house he had ever seen before, and he kept a cool demeanor about him as he stepped forward with his partner. "Edo Minzio, yes?" A slender man stepping forward asked it with a look towards Roady, only for him to give a short shake of his head that made the man and his wife look at Zach instead. "Edo-san?"

"That's correct," Zach replied with a bright smile at the couple in front of him. His smile completely pushed aside any unease they all felt towards him, relaxing dozens of people with a single innocent look like he had not lifted a finger in his life to hurt anyone. "Toyoshi-san, then?" Zach wondered, as the man he had contacted beforehand would be the only one to know his fake name. "How do you like the-"

"It is unbelievable!" Toyoshi exclaimed, looking past Zach again at the black, mid-sized sedan. The thin man with dark hair styled like Roady's dyed-black hair let out an awed breath at the sight of the vehicle. "A 2008 Honda Civic. Remarkable."

"That is an ancient model," Toyoshi's wife agreed with a nod, though her eyes of disbelief did shift from the car back to Edo Minzio more than her husband's did. Zach made sure to make eye contact with her in a moment while her husband was looking towards his car. He gave her a certain look before grinning back at her husband who turned to him to ask a question about how he even filled up the car with gas considering the clean fuel almost all cars on the road used today.

"I have it delivered to my place- our place," Zach corrected his response with a look next to him at Roady. "Sorry for the late introduction. This is my partner, Tachiko Vivishi. Vivi," Zach added with a lift of his eyebrows at the man next to him who kept himself from seething a hiss at the younger boy on his left side who just called him by a pet name of his fake name.

"Nice to meet you," Roady said, keeping his voice civil and as what he considered high-class based on the tones Zach and the couple in front of them were using.

"You as well, Tachiko," Toyoshi responded, and he shook Roady's hand as his online contact's partner held it out.

"This is my wife, Elena," Toyoshi mentioned too, holding his arm out behind his wife in her long white dress that was thin to her legs but split on the sides revealing her skin from her knees down. The dress was sleeveless though there was a white pelt-scarf/coat that was draped over her arms and shoulders and halfway down her back. She wore very expensive jewelry on her neck and in her earrings, and the European-looking woman gave the gay couple in front of them a friendly smile of greeting.

"Shall we go inside?" Elena Toyoshi wondered to the group in front of her. "The auction does not begin for some time, but the showing has already started."

"Who should I talk to about putting the Civic up for auction-"

"You are- you're, seriously…" Toyoshi was stunned.

Zach had talked to him about his vehicle online, getting in close with the man who he knew was a close contact of Mitosh Xilovic. Xilovic's Japanese cliffside estate was the location of the auction that Zach knew Nakahara Hiroto's car was being auctioned off today. No sign of Nakahara Keimin yet. She must be inside. He nodded at Toyoshi with a sad sigh, though he tilted his head to the side admitting it was a necessity after Toyoshi just asked if he was sure about selling. "Apologies for not mentioning that before. When you said you knew of an auction where cars like mine were being shown off though, it was exactly what I have been looking for. Any attempt to sell on my own and I know it would be undersold."

"I still don't see a need to sell-" Tachiko began.

"If we intend to move to America anytime soon," Zach started back, sounded exasperated but then stopping himself before 'getting back into it.' He just shook his head and frowned at his partner who rolled his eyes in frustration but agreement to leave this for later, or never considering they were about to sell the car. The argument they had apparently already had several times became clear to the couple in front of them without the two explaining anything. The United States' emission laws had long banned vehicles like their own. Any car enthusiast would know that which made it a discussion that did not need to be had yet also one that instantly gave their characters, more character.

"Let us go inside then? Shall we?"

"Let's. Is Mr. Xilovic here?"

"Not right now, no."

"How do you know this man by the way…"

---

6 Hours Earlier…

"So how're you liking Shiketsu?" Roady wondered, staring straight ahead as he asked. He felt too awkward sitting there in silence while Zach did his hair for him.

That's right, Zach thought with a smile as he looked over Roady's head into the mirror ahead of them. It was the bathroom mirror from R.J.'s house that Zach told the Italian man to bring to the warehouse for them to use."Oh yeah, I remember you and Popfire graduated from there years back. I-"

"Four years," Roady cut in. "Not that long ago," he muttered afterwards. Roady darted an annoyed look up in the mirror at the smirking teen who sounded like he was calling him old right there or something.

"Yeah okay," Zach started, though he did not sound convincing in his agreement with Roady. "I just thought, people there might have known you though… but no one seems to know who-"

Roady rolled his eyes and looked back down into his own eyes as he saw how Zach was just fucking with him now. "Shut it," he said, cutting off the younger boy who laughed at the remark. Zach continued to wash and dye Roady's hair so that it would not come out easily or be noticeably fake. Since he was dyeing Roady's hair just plain black, he wanted it to come off as more natural than dyed, not that Roady would not be able to talk his way out of just dyeing his hair for appearance's sake if they were questioned.

"Alright, tell me more about this case," Roady said, getting back into it.

Arubo was sitting back on a rolling chair that he had been annoyingly sliding back and forth across the warehouse floor on for the past ten minutes. He sat up after just leaning back in it, and he rolled it over towards the other two with papers Zach had asked him to hold. Choze had left for his job a little while earlier, but Arubo and R.J. had both offered to help them with their disguises. Zach was not leaving it up to the two of them though. He did not want to just deny the offered help either, so while R.J. was out to pick something else up for him now, Arubo was "helping" at their "base."

Zach started before Arubo could start saying, whatever it is Zach thought he might begin with having all the papers surrounding the case in his hand. He told the two with him, "His death was not Quirk-related. No witnesses. Apparently his wife was on a spa vacation with a few friends at the time of his death, and she has a rock-solid alibi with all three of her friends and video proof of where she was at the estimated time of Hiroto's death. She returned home the day after he passed, and she didn't even take him down yet so the crime scene was clear of any evidence pointing towards her being the culprit."

"You think it's her though?" Roady questioned, as she was sounding pretty innocent to him. Zach nodded, and then Roady admitted with a half-nod though he stopped moving his head as Zach repositioned it with his left hand, "She could have hired someone. With a fortune like her husband had-"

"That's one theory," Zach said. "Her husband could have noticed any large amount leaving his accounts though, and considering Keimin herself did not have a job, I doubt she has private accounts with enough in them to hire a professional killer." Plus, it shouldn't be that easy to hire an assassin. For someone outside of the underworld, it should be nearly impossible somewhere like Japan. Anywhere really, now. Zach saw Roady frowning again at his counter to that theory, and Zach added, "It's still possible, but just one option. If she's sloppy she'll have done just that. I don't think heroes and the Police Force would have missed something like that though. A wife would always be the first suspect, as any partner is, in the question of whether this was a murder or not. More so, when she was left as much money as she was."

"And the car," Roady mentioned.

"Yes, and the car," Zach replied. "Worth billions. An antique the people close to him said he was obsessed with. And Nakahara Keimin is about to sell this car at a high-scale car auction before his body's even cold." Zach said that with his voice flat and cold. His eyes focused on the mirror though Roady was not making eye contact with the boy whose eyes were so intense with that statement. Arubo sat up more in the rolling chair and lowered the papers he wanted to chime in to mention something about, realizing in that second that there was not anything for him to tell Lifebringer that the boy would not already know. "At a place like this, if cops or heroes show up, even with a warrant to investigate they'd be stalled at the door long enough for those people to scatter."

"What are you talking about?" Roady muttered, more interested than in disbelief of the statement.

"Things like these car shows are places where villains who have the most resources frequent. Villains who are out in the open and not considered villains technically because they have powerful lawyers to get them off and slimeballs working for them who can protect them in worst case scenarios where there's no way to escape guilt. People who will take the fall if the time ever comes, knowing that they'll be supported in prison if they take the fall instead of their rich associates. There are many methods these people can use to get away with their crimes. There could also be villains themselves who have large amounts of money and disguise themselves knowing that no one there will care to check their identifications as long as they fit the part, or as long as they have the cash to get in."

"And Nakahara Keimin-"

"Isn't at the level of richness of these people," Zach countered as he knew what Roady was already starting to say. "But she has the car. Priceless vehicles like hers, and ours, are the only tickets people like us are going to get into a place like this."

That's not what I was going to ask, Roady thought, though now he was even more interested in a few different things based on that response. Just how rich are these people if Nakahara's considered poor in comparison? And, what "priceless" vehicle are we getting? He said he sent R.J. off to get the car… "What's this car we're taking?" Urukio wondered. "And where are you getting it from?" He added, turning his head a bit to the side to look back and up at Zach in a semi-accusatory way.

Zach understood the look. He had been making it out like this place was far, far above their ability to get into. I'm not using Army of Death funds, if that's what you're thinking. That is what you're accusing me of at least, Zach sighed but just shook his head once at Roady before replying. "It's a Honda Civic, 2008."

"A what?" Roady questioned, never having heard of the car before. "And from 2008…" he trailed off, as he saw Arubo's expression in the corner of his vision.

The homeless man finally jumped up as Zach gave him a serious look showing he was not just fucking with Roady. "How?! That has to be worth- hundreds of billions! H-How?!"

"Someone owns that antique. Someone who lives only an hour from here," Zach added. Then he paused, and finished in a lower voice, "Someone whose younger sister was brought back to life during her study abroad in America two falls ago."

"You-" Roady started, but Zach shook his head. "Then, how did you-"

"When I wouldn't tell him whether or not it had been me who saved her, he assumed I had." Zach grimaced at the look Roady gave him, and he added with a raise of his voice, "And he was happy to help me too. I told him we'd get it back to him without damaging it, and that it would help me with this investigation."

"When was this?" Roady asked in confusion.

"Remember when you went to help R.J. get the mirror?" Zach asked.

"Thought you went to get our disguises during that-"

"I'm a great multi-tasker," Zach replied.

"So R.J.," Roady started, a bead of sweat forming on the right side of his face. "He's picking it up for us?"

"Yeah. I told the guy not to be worried when he gets a look at who's picking up his car-"

"You don't think R.J. will take it?" Roady wondered. Zach smirked, then he wiped it from his face quickly. Roady had seen it though, and he growled in anger, "Or you think he's too afraid of you to even try something like that?"

"No, I just think it's laughable that he'd do something like that," Zach replied, though his voice was unconvincing to the hero who just hummed at his response. "R.J.'s a friend. He wouldn't break my trust like that."

Especially with his kids under watch by the mob, Roady thought, his expression darkening a bit more as he realized there was no way R.J. was stealing the car, even if it was worth a fortune. It may not be fear that brings him back here, but it is fear that keeps him from even considering it as an option. "Alright," Roady started, needing something to get his mind off this. "So we go to this car auction. We find Nakahara Keimin, and then what? You think she'll just tell you that she killed her husband, or got him killed?"

Zach did not respond for a second, and Roady started to him while looking into Zach's eyes in the mirror, "This whole thing sounds real suspicious, sure, but what if the wife just didn't want the car and knows she can make a lot of money from selling it? And even if that's not it, what if there really is just no proof of her crime? As good at this as you are, and I won't deny this is pretty good," Roady paused, then he told the teen behind him who did not get a smug look from that to just stay serious instead, "You've got nothing right now but a hunch. And without her husband supporting her with his wages anymore, she could need the funds. This could just be a necessity for her."

"That sounds reasonable," Zach started. "Except I checked an updated registry I got from a Toyoshi Rando, a contact I made we'll be leaning on heavily when we get there. On that registry I saw the car went up on it before her husband was killed." Roady's eyes opened wide, and Arubo looked to Zach in a lot of confusion all of a sudden at that statement.

"But, isn't that proof?" Arubo wondered.

"Nope," Zach replied, and he turned Roady's head back forward as he started to style it. Roady grumbled in annoyance as Zach started styling his hair without any spikes, and as he saw Zach reaching for the gel he found an urge to stop him here and say that the dye was enough, but he held off. Zach continued with an explanation Roady focused on instead of what was happening to his hair, "Now I suspect if I go and accuse her of murder we'll have a conversation that goes something like this: 'Did you kill him?' 'No!'" Zach rose his voice in tone just a bit to distinguish his voice from the suspect's. He went back to his own voice, "'But it was up for auction early. He loved that car, and you needed to kill him to sell it.' At which point she would realize the misunderstanding I'm having."

"'Misunderstanding?'" Arubo wondered confusedly.

"Or she'll show me that I'm misunderstanding by giving me some shocked look and then a realization with wide eyes that what I'm saying would make sense to me, a hero." Zach paused and continued while holding up his right palm to his side, "She'd shake her head around, and say so genuinely: 'My husband loved that car.' She knows that if I had done some digging and asked around I would have learned that truth anyway. The best way to make me believe her would be to sprinkle as much truth as possible in the lie-"

"Like you do?" Roady wondered darkly.

Zach nodded his head and said, "Exactly."

Zach paused, and then he grinned at Roady's surprised look that shifted after a second in a lot of annoyance. He just rolled his eyes though as he decided to leave that for later, and Zach continued when he saw Roady was ready for him to, "If I went at it this way, she'll have this excuse ready and say that he loved it but they were arguing about selling it. His job wasn't doing well, not making as much as it used to, they were going to lose the house, having marital issues," Zach listed off a bunch of reasons and then let out a soft sigh like he was using her voice again. "'He loved that car, he loved it so much that I think when he realized we couldn't afford to keep it anymore…'"

He trailed off and lowered his eyes, as if acting like Keimin herself trailing off there in a way to invoke emotion from the people she was saying this to so sadly. Then he rose his head and added in her tone, "'That's why I'm selling it." Zach paused again while the other two stared at him in shock at the emotion he actually stirred in them there just acting like this woman. Then he spoke back up, "This is where I'd cut back in that she was selling it before he killed himself. But then she'd counter, that she told him that they were going to bring it to that auction or it was over. She gave him an ultimatum. Lose her or lose his car. And he killed himself. 'He left me alone in this world, because he loved that car more than he cared about me. About us. I loved my husband, once, but this car isn't going to be some memento of our time together. When I look at it, all I see is what tore us apart. The thing that he loved more than he ever loved me.'"

Zach finished with Roady staring at him with huge eyes and his jaw dropped. He imagined if some woman had said that to him using exactly that tone, the same amount of emotion, and he knew he would have probably believed her. He almost believed Zach from the look the teen was showing on his own disguised face there, but Zach rose his gaze back up to meet Roady's in the mirror in a harsher way. He continued in a lower voice, "It'd be a nice story to tell the cops or heroes who investigate further into this seeing what she's doing with the car so soon after his death. A plan I'm sure she already has in place, if she's this confident to sell it immediately after his death."

"I'm not going to fall for it," Zach continued. "Or any other story like it, though I am fairly confident on this theory of what she'd say. A nice 40% or so," he finished with a shrug.

Forty percent? Don't sound very confident about it, though I guess if that's the one most likely of what you've come up with and it's only 40, then you have a ton of these theories at the ready. Roady thought it, admitting to himself that it was actually more likely Zach was right if the highest probability was that low.

"Anyway, I need to investigate without her knowing I am… we are," Zach corrected himself. "We show no signs of being heroes. Nor that we know anything about her car, her husband's death, or how fast she's selling it."

"I know how to, be undercover," Roady said, hesitating for a moment as Zach gave him a questioning look to see if Roady actually was experienced in matters like these. "Not as much as you, I'm sure," Roady muttered in annoyance at the look though he had to admit it aloud so Zach would not think he was on his level. "But I'll be convincing."

"Good, because we're going to act a certain type of way with as priceless as our car is. Rich guys who are somewhat casual about selling a car worth billions-"

"You're going to sell it? That guy lending it to you-"

"I explained to him my plan, and he's fine with me doing whatever. I'm not actually going to sell-"

"You, told him everything?" Roady wondered, confused and surprised to hear that when he himself still did not feel like he knew all Lifebringer was planning. He stared at Zach in an odd but intrigued way as the younger man replied that he had. How does he do stuff like this secretly, when so many people actually know what he's doing?

"…He was happy to let me borrow it and to keep quiet about the whole thing. I know it's not all I could be doing right now," Zach added, his frown lowering more as Roady watched him. The older boy by four years stared at the expression Zach made without commenting on something that had been in the back of his mind the whole time now. Zach continued while locking his gaze with Roady's, "And this really is an investigation based on nothing but a hunch, but if it isn't suicide I want to know why Nakahara Hiroto was killed over a car; what could have possessed his wife to do such a thing and set it up as a suicide? Or, what else is going on?"

---

Present

Rando and his wife Elena walked with Zach and Roady through an elaborate entranceway into a house fancier than either of them had ever been in before. Far nicer than L's place, Zach thought, though he already expected that from the high-fashion futuristic architecture he saw from outside. The inner walls were all white, with glass inner walls in several areas and underneath the ornate steel railings leading upstairs or down if one were to head closer to the cliff that the building was built on the side of overlooking the coast. An entire wall on the coast side was made of glass, though that wall had been opened up down the middle and pulled to the sides to allow guests out onto the decks, plural, some of which were more like exterior rooms just with no ceilings or ceilings that had been pulled back to give the house a more open feel.

Roady tried his best not to look around the place in awe. He ignored how much money he knew had to have gone into constructing a place like this, instead focusing on the conversation Zach had initiated through his vague question about Mitosh Xilovic. "…and although very busy, he has left open the possibility that he could show up today. Mitosh very much enjoys these sorts of events, and I am sure he set it up with the intention of being here himself. It does appear that something may have come up though, unfortunately-"

"Toyoshi!"

Toyoshi Rando and the three with him turned and looked into another room where many of the other people in the place just looked to. The area just inside of the entrance was not very crowded, but the people Zach and Roady saw were ones they had to keep themselves from staring at. Instead, they looked towards the large man bigger than Zach, though still smaller than many of the men and a few women in suits who were around the building and exterior. Those suited-up men were often following around the rich people gathered at the home, many from a distance, though some right up close behind them. Others seemed to just be standing near closed doorways, or at open ones. The large men at the open doors stood motionless without making eye contact with the guests like they were as much a part of the house as any of the paintings hung up on the walls, one of which Roady found his eyes drawn back over to several times even as Toyoshi was apologizing to them that he had to go speak to a different guest.

"…You are free to look around. I will speak to the auctioneer and have the staff move your vehicle inside to include in the showing. I am sure they will all be very excited to include it…"

Rando left with his wife after giving a quick farewell to the guests he had gone outside to greet personally. He had been dying to see the car Edo told him online he would be bringing, though he had been skeptical of it until the moment he saw the vehicle itself. Such unknown people as Edo Minzio and Tachiko Vivishi having such an expensive vehicle seemed doubtful, as what he found on the two online was brief. Roady watched as the two who had let them in walked away to go speak to a man who Zach pretended not to stare at closer than any of the other guests who were much more famous. The older hero thought, They believed our disguises. I didn't think we could pull it off. Faking being this rich… though, I guess there are other people here who I don't recognize immediately. Roady told himself that to chill out, because of the two he saw above the famous painting he kept glancing towards on the wall underneath a staircase.

At the top of those stairs stood a pair Roady had to glance back up at as he thought he must have imagined seeing them. Roady lowered his head back down as one of those people looked down at him, trying to avoid making eye contact with the two he was sure would not recognize him, even if he had recognized them. What? I- I didn't just… What?!

Edo finally looked around in amazement at the beautiful building he had entered. His taste was refined, and he admired it all, and then his eyes widened as he looked up at the famous American pop singer and former United Korean president next to the railing on the floor above who looked down and saw him staring. "Wow," Edo said, looking back down next to him at Roady. He kept his expression as his disguise's, even though he could see Roady not acting much like he wanted Tachiko to right now. Roady realized it and recovered, like he knew the kind of famous and powerful people he was going to see in here, even if he was not expecting what he just saw. There were no cameras inside easily visible to the guests, though both heroes suspected they were around, somewhere. Zach looked next to him at Vivishi, "I am stunned we made it in."

Roady knew from Zach's looks that he was not saying that as a mistake letting his Lifebringer come through. He was saying it as Edo, and Tachiko just hummed and started forward himself towards a different room than the one Toyoshi and his wife had left to go speak to other acquaintances of theirs. "Who were those men Toyoshi went to speak to?"

"I don't know, but he did not want us meeting them. You would think he would have introduced us to friends of his, instead of rudely breaking off so suddenly like that." Zach's voice sounded indignant and like he thought he was being treated rudely by their contact/host. He seemed to have some position of power in the building, though from his lack of interactions with staff and bouncers during their time together the two young heroes did not know if he actually had the power to order them around.

Roady continued the conversation they were having beneath their words, "I didn't recognize them. Though I'm sure they didn't recognize us, either."

Our disguises are working, Zach thought. We are being treated older than either of us are. We're dressed the part, even if our clothes don't cost as much as most of theirs. Had to pull out every stock I had left to afford this kind of stuff, and it just made Roady more suspicious too that I have "that much" money. Well I've got nada now. It'll be worth it though. We don't stand out at all. No one pays us any mind.

That group Toyoshi went to talk to were not people he wanted to impress us with, Roady thought at what Zach had said first. The man called him by his last name without any honorifics. Toyoshi just smiled and walked over to him though, even going so far as telling us a few things before he left so as not to insult us. He did not bring us over though, implying that we are not part of the conversation he knows that man wanted to have with him. Who were they? He had several bodyguards right behind him, unlike most of the more famous people I see around here. "Do you see anyone we know?" Tachiko wondered, looking around the building some more as he and Zach walked through it together, side by side very closely.

The building was wide and the guest list was select, meaning there was much room to walk around freely. They headed up a flight of stairs and walked slowly across a floor that had circular panels all over the white floor, and over those showcase platforms that could surely rise and fall, were cars that had been brought up in the building. People around them were admiring the fancy sports cars, antiques hundreds of years old, and a couple of cars that had been crafted only once as a special design so there were no others of their kind in the whole world. One of those was on a risen platform on the side of the room with the wall behind it mostly glass, showing the water in the background with an orangish sky that cast a beautiful glow over the black and silver car that anyone could tell was priceless.

Zach and Roady moved towards that car as it was where the largest crowd they had seen so far was gathered. There were a few of the bouncer-looking men standing on the sides of the showing platform, allowing the guests to come up as close as the rope in front of the vehicle where many stood looking at the electric panel below the platform which wrapped around it. That screen had digital letters on it in a fancy font that Roady stopped from rolling his eyes at, as he could almost hear the words on the panel being spoken in an overly affluent tone. The urge to roll his eyes vanished though as he read what those letters spelled out. Three hundred and thirty years ago, this car was designed by… President Hardoovidge? Built using government funds, it was what started the investigation and eventual impeachment proceedings… Sold in a program by the U.S. government for…

Roady gulped as he read the first of several price tags on the car's legacy. The military hardware Hardoovidge drew in his designs was removed by the U.S. government before selling to Franklin Drudge. Drudge made his own additions to the car however, replacing some of Hardoovidge's more childlike aspects to his dream car with sleeker, more practical designs. On the panel below the platform, pictures of the car taken over the centuries after any changes made were put up, showing how the vehicle looked every step of the way to its current form. Passed down from Drudge to his children, it stayed in the Drudge family until Primatech Holdings Ltd. was nearing bankruptcy, at which point Riccardo Drudge sold the vehicle to an unknown buyer around the time of the emergence of Quirks. For centuries the vehicle remained lost, until last year when a shipping yard…

Zach kept his eyes from going wide, though he did have to suppress a smile for a moment at what he was reading in the car's history. Shit. There was something like this in one of those crates? I knew it was being used as storage for dozens of different villain groups, but there was no way not to involve heroes with the op. How did the Chileans lose it though? He found new interest in the history he had only been reading with half-focus as he examined the people around him in his peripherals.

"Confiscated from one of the shipping crates being used by villain groups, it is suspected that the vehicle had been in the hands of villains for a long time. Whether the vehicle had been stolen by villains over the centuries it was missing, or if Riccardo Drudge sold it off to a villain himself and it traded hands from then on in the shadows, there is no doubt the vehicle is the same as the one that initiated Hardoovidge's impeachment. In his journal put into the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Hardoovidge claimed to have signed his name below the VIN. This entry was discovered by historians long after the car went missing, after his great great grandchildren turned it in to the museum, so this could not be confirmed until the car was discovered outside of Santiago, Chile last year. Under the VIN that remains the same as it was recorded historically, is the signature of William Hardoovidge that has been authenticated to match his journal's penmanship."

All the writing faded from the digital panel again, but instead of showing off the car through the years as it had before and seemed to be doing on a loop, a different message appeared now. A light gasp escaped the lips of a woman on Roady and Zach's right side and a little behind them showing she had just walked up and was reading the same thing they had been. The two heroes turned as the woman whispered aloud, "Up for auction?"

"How'd Xilovic get his hands on this beauty?" Another whisper said on Zach's left side, an automobile enthusiast talking to an associate of his on his other side who just shook his head in shock at what he had read.

Zach looked towards them when he heard that whispered question too, though Roady took another second to look away Nakahara Keimin who had just appeared behind them.

Careful Roady, Zach thought, hoping Roady would not turn and start up conversation with the woman this early on. If you start talking to her then she'll get suspicious the next time we approach. Why are these strangers approaching twice? We could use that to show we want her car, except right now we have no way of knowing that she's here to sell a car. Our first approach needs to be when she's next to Hiroto's car, so that all following approaches could be seen as us trying to get on good terms with her in attempts to haggle down the price in the future.

There was no way Zach could transmit that message into Roady's head, though the wish to be able to do so did hit him pretty strongly as he saw Roady thinking about what he should do as the one closer to Keimin. Damn it. Where's Himazuri when you need her? This would be so much easier with her next to me. We wouldn't have to say a word and we could just keep in character the whole time, while still talking about what's going on and bouncing ideas off each other. I have no idea what you're thinking, but just, just let me handle this. Zach did not like the thought he had, as it sounded to him like he was insulting Roady even in his own head. I know you're a hero, but you know I've got more experience. Just, let me take the lead.

Roady glanced to his left, and Zach looked to his right into his partner's eyes. Roady hummed, and he said, "Takes 'priceless' to a whole new meaning. Do you even know what the Civic's history is?"

Good. Fucking great! Zach got a semi-annoyed look on his own face at the question, as he did not. What he did see though and made him the opposite of annoyed, was the look on Keimin's face. She made a small glance to her left side and the side of Roady's head that had turned just enough that he would not be able to see her looking, even if she was not staring directly at the back of his head. The way Roady was turned also made it easier for Zach to watch Keimin's reaction to what Roady just said quietly but not quietly enough that the woman on his right side and just behind him would not hear his voice.

She's wondering what our "Civic" is. She's interested because we're also selling a car that is also not as impressive as this car in front of us. He's built a camaraderie between us as fellow car sellers who might be disappointed in how much we make compared to some of our competition. Fucking great. Zach turned away and held out his left elbow a bit as he started away from that crazy car that had its original description appear below again that he had already read in its entirety. "Let us see if they have hors d'oeuvres. Hopefully we can find a different room to put the Civic in for the showing-"

Roady locked his right arm into Zach's left without mentioning anything about it or even thinking in annoyance, as their target was right next to them. She did not look like she would say anything or follow them, but it was their first impression on the woman and they wanted her to see them completely ignore her while talking about their own vehicle like it was their reason for being there. "This is clearly the best room though, to have Hardoovidge's super car in it. If we put our car in here…" Roady rose his eyebrows suggesting it could make their car look nicer just by association.

"You just want to be able to say that your Civic was up for sale in the same room as that beast of a vehicle," Zach said, sounding salty at his partner though his words also made it clear he was more upset that the other car would be getting so much more focus despite its appearance. I wouldn't touch that car with a ten foot pole… Oh who am I kidding? It's a masterpiece. And the history alone, Zach sighed though turned his head a bit as he did so, trying to hide his disappointment and acceptance of defeat in a way that almost had Roady laughing except for the uneasy feeling he had that Zach was not faking his expressions.

That's scary good acting, Roady thought, then he turned his head and looked around the corner of another room with an interested raise of his eyebrows. Alright. Time to taste some food probably worth more than what I spend on food in a month… or year. Jeez, this place is so freakin' nice. Roady started towards the waiter he had seen walking around with a silver platter on one hand that had bacon-wrapped shellfish of some kind, each individual piece stuck with a toothpick different from the one next to it in some way so the guests had a varied choice. When he started that way though, he saw a bar installed out of one of the walls that had a bartender in a nice suit vest with his long white sleeves sticking out rolled up to his elbows as he shook a shaker. Behind him on that wall, were the top-est shelf liquors Roady had ever seen, on the bottom shelf.

I don't even know what Pinroq Kamouev is, but I kind of want to taste it once in my life, Roady admitted to himself as he looked to the actual top shelf where a solid gold bottle of something sat in the middle of the line of ridiculously expensive bottles. Each of the bottles alone looked like they would cost tens or hundreds of thousands of yen, and he suspected each shot of the liquor inside was worth as much or more than that.

"You want a drink, Vivi?" Edo asked, seeing where Tachiko was looking and giving him a look offering to let his partner go get one, though with a small hint of disdain in the back of his voice showing his own masked distaste that his partner would feel the need.

Could be good for blending in, Roady thought. Though if they ask for money or try to charge to a card or something… it's better not to risk it. He said the biggest mistake we can make here is anything that actually involves us proving our wealth, since we don't have any "wealth" to speak of. "I am good, for now," Roady said, adding 'for now' afterwards to show he would potentially get himself something if they were speaking to a group of people later who were all drinking.

Sounds good. The distaste was Edo's, Roady. I don't care if you do. I underestimated you a minute ago, and I'm not going to do that anymore. We've got this, and if you want to grab a drink of Pinroq I can't blame you. I let my forces crush a few bottles of those we stole from King's compound in Russia before we fled. The "spoils of war," they called it. Closest thing we ever had to a party was the army taking that one united shot. Not that I joined in. Had to keep Snow and Cody from it too. Stupid kids, Zach smiled. It was a small smile that could have been of a hint of satisfaction that his partner had chosen not to drink in knowledge that he wouldn't, and Roady started to get annoyed by how good an actor Zach was being here.

"I wonder what this Xilovic looks like," Tachiko mentioned as they headed together out onto the middle deck behind the house. They went straight towards the railing overlooking the ocean hundreds of meters below off a very steep cliff that once had beaches at the bottom wrapping around much of the coast. Those beaches had long been eroded though, leaving only large rocks sticking out of the water at the base of the cliff that the waves broke apart on before hitting the cliff wall. The fact that the waves were broken up by those rocks first made cliffside houses like Xilovic's safer from any future erosion due to rising sea levels. It was a luxury the town of Aisuri did not have against the steadily encroaching waters that were slowly turning Aisuri into its renowned nickname of the 'Japanese Venice.'

Zach nodded in agreement after taking in a breath of awe at the view from Xilovic's house. Those paintings near the entrance were famous, but not famously stolen. There are probably museum curators who wish they would be donated though by the private owners. Saw some originals that were painted by the most famous artists in history, and it shows the kind of man Mitosh Xilovic is to have those right at the entrance. Even without most anyone ever hearing of him, they see who he is from one look at those paintings that are put up but don't have descriptions below. Like they're not up for display but up as actual decorations in his house.

Even though most people did not know anything about Mitosh Xilovic, Zach was one of those who knew of him, and Roady knew now too because of that. He did not need to tell Roady anything else about the man he had already gone into on their way here, but that meant their current talk was a conversation the two of them could have clearly as a way to keep them talking and not drawing any suspicion towards them. It was difficult to come up with conversations to talk about as completely different people who knew little of what people like the ones they were disguised as would talk about. Zach knew a variety of strange and specific topics to talk about with people to get closer to them easier, and he thought about Roger Whitewood and the conversation they had had about Quirkball earlier in the term that had made him a quick friend of his without him even trying very hard. Though there were high-life topics Zach had gotten himself interested in to be able to help in scenarios like this too, he knew Roady would have no idea what he was talking about if he brought up the different kinds of caviars and how he wondered which ones Xilovic's waiters were bringing around. He knew Roady did not know the various species of lobsters, or what different types of modern architecture Xilovic had merged in this hybrid-styled estate.

"He clearly has a very refined taste. I would like to meet him, if he even comes to his own party," Zach added with a chuckle and shake of his head at how insanely wealthy this man was to throw a party like this and not even come.

Roady nodded in agreement with that sentiment and then sighed in a bit of jealousy, thinking for a moment about his own place he and his wife shared, and that they had been discussing selling recently for something a little bigger in order to support a third person. I'll get a hero's salary again more than the support team's, so we should be able to get something good too. Don't need anything with this much room anyway. Roady convinced himself that this was too over the top for him, and he pushed away that jealousy though let it come back after a moment. Tachiko wouldn't be satisfied though. Right? The shit Sazaki wrote about me in that article made sense, but I feel like I'm supposed to come off as douchey, yet like, pretentiously douchey. Hard to act like that in a place where everyone's richer than me though. It would be easier to act like Tachiko in a place where I can actually look down on people. God this disguise is the worst. Keimin seemed to believe it though, and that's what really matters here.

"Attention mina-sama."

"Sounds like Toyoshi's voice," Roady mentioned to his side, while he and Zach looked towards a wall where there were three thin horizontal slits that the announcement was coming out of. Urukio cupped a hand to his mouth and whispered to the side, "Seems like you really got us in touch with someone important."

I don't even know who Toyoshi Rando is. I couldn't find anything important about him. He seems as super rich as everyone else here. Business partner of Xilovic's, I think. Maybe he changed his name too though, and I just know him by something else, or I could have looked him up if I had searched a different name. Zach wondered about the harmless man he had met outside who he was almost certain from their initial interaction was not a criminal. These kinds of people are careful not to break laws. More careful than anyone. They know the good life, and they are at risk to lose everything by acting stupid. They also know they're in danger though because of their wealth and so they hire goons who look strong and scary, but that doesn't make them villains either. They're the kind of people who get paid solely for their fighting prowesses, because even private security can't carry firearms. People who failed out of hero schools but were trained by heroes to use their Quirks first. Private security and security guards who started training Quirks under Lifebringer's law, and are ready to use them to protect their clientele.

Xilovic's security is definitely the best here though. The bodyguards of the rich and famous who came to this are ready to protect their clients, but I've seen the way they're looking at Xilovic's men. They see that these guys are as good as it gets, and there are many more of them scattered around the place than there are each of their bodyguard teams. Should their clients act stupidly, they fear what may happen should they step in between Xilovic's men and their charge. People wouldn't be so surprised, if they knew that he is an Abbasi. Mitoshi is not his real- his initial first name either. I knew of him back as Death. Nothing to suggest his activities were anything other than high-society legal. Skeevy and with some shady business dealings, but every time I looked into him it was more just him getting away with some small immoral shit because he's rich. Something he wouldn't think twice about though, is hosting people who are even sketchier than him. At a place like this, with as influential people as the ones who could come to buy such cars, the potential for entrepreneurial villains is high.

He knows the loopholes to avoid being a criminal himself as much as I do. Xilovic's just, good at being rich and getting richer. I wish there was something I could do about him but there's not much suggesting he's actually a criminal. I wasn't taking on the upper class. Wasn't just fighting all rich people. Even if he abuses the systems and sometimes did things that did not benefit common people but took advantage of them… that's just how things work. It's how businesses work! How people get rich, through taking the money of others. That's fine. Xilovic's fine. He hires the best bodyguards because he's willing to keep contacts with sketchier people he needs to be wary of. He outbid me though trying to hire the Carmoni African Security Service.

The CASS wouldn't protect the terraformers we hired into our charities. It would take up too much of their time, and they're under a different contract, Mijori Umbanoro said. Former hero turned private sector right in the midst of the Age of Villains, after the CHAF had been wiped out and Africa needed heroes more than ever. I didn't want to ask for his help, or even pay for it, but his firm was the best. And yet it was also under contract with the Abbasi's, and with one Mitosh Xilovic. Formerly, Oshtim Abbasi.

The Abbasi were a well-known name to some despite staying out of the news for most everything other than their businesses. Even in business dealings that had huge impacts, the name 'Abbasi' was rarely mentioned as it was people they hired as CEOs and on boards of directors who officially made moves for them. Zach knew them though as a rich family in Saudi Arabia, the richest in fact. He and Roady started back inside as others were heading to where Toyoshi was telling everyone to go, a downstairs auction hall that the access to had been closed-off so far leading everyone inside to excitedly go down to check it out. As they headed that way though, Zach noticed an increased presence of dark-skinned security he believed to be Xilovic's, and he suspected the man himself was here now.

Although Saudi Arabia is a democracy now with a lot of changes to their constitution, the Abbasi was one family close to the royalty but far enough removed from government affairs that they avoided Mongoloid's purge. They fled to the U.A.E. for a bit, but they returned to a country in need of powerful people and yet with a strong hatred of villains. The Abbasi were not loved by the people, but they publicly funded enough charitable works in the country to be able to establish themselves back with growing industries that they hired lots of Saudis into. Made themselves richer than they were before Mongoloid. Using the chaos of the world at the time for their own profit, yet no matter how I looked at it, it was always legal. Gained popularity through charities and hiring Saudis who needed work in a chaotic time, and really they helped keep Saudi Arabia peaceful after Mongoloid, even if doing so made them billions. They knew well enough to fear me and stay on a straight path- Still, as powerful as they were, they were bound to have contacts in the underworld. And a young guy like Mitosh, changing his own name which I believe was most likely pressured by his family not wanting to be tied into whatever he was doing, it was highly likely I would see a villain here.

He knew the chances were high, but as everyone throughout the property headed down some very wide and ornate staircase for a lower hall, Zach spotted a face he recognized despite cosmetic surgery the villain had had done. The crowd was diverse, with people from all over the world moving together and speaking different languages as they headed into the lower hall. Zach made a face while listening to a few men speaking Arabic on his left like he did not understand and was uncomfortable that not many people here were speaking Japanese.

He made that face in a moment he believed Keimin might have been looking his way. Roady also spotted the woman on the steps who seemed to be looking their direction, though he noticed her eyes locked on someone else who turned on the steps and made a certain face back towards her. An acquaintance? Friend, Roady corrected himself, as the woman walked straight up to the man and began talking as they headed downstairs.

Zach and Roady were surprised as they reached the hall. They did not think they had missed that much in their walk around and time they spent outside, but all of the cars upstairs had been brought down and were set up in a completely different way now. The room was massive, covering more than the width and length of the estate above so that the people inside could tell that it actually went below the lawns too. There was a huge tinted glass wall on one side of the room too, and Roady sweatdropped as he looked at it and imagined it just looked like a rock wall from the outside. If there weren't so many people here treating this like it's a normal thing, I'd probably call this an evil lair. And I know some other people in here have to feel that way!

She knows him, Zach thought, while he and Roady headed towards a spectating area on one side of the risen central area that all the cars were on. It was like a road in the middle of the room, with circular platforms connected to its sides in rows of fifteen on both sides. The cars could be driven off their platforms and up and down the road before going to the end of it and the square platform that would then be raised for the spotlights and for everyone to bid. Zach and Roady were not focused on the amazing display or on what Toyoshi was announcing to people through the room though. He did not even follow the villain he had spotted. He just watched Keimin as she walked towards the side of the road where her car was waiting on display, very slowly spinning on the platform that kept the car moving so as to show off all sides to everyone no matter where they were in the room.

For someone who just lost her husband, Roady thought, keeping himself from frowning in anger despite how this was looking to him. The woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties was twice the age she looked, and Roady saw this old-young woman lean forward as the man next to her leaned his head down next to hers to say something in a whisper in her ear. The action was intimate, flirtatious, and Nakahara Keimin giggled like a schoolgirl at something the man just said to her.

Blond. His hair's dyed though. See darker roots. Is he conning her? Did he seduce her, and convince her to kill her husband? Zach's thoughts raced as he narrowed down his many theories based on what he was watching. Did they come together? Was he searching for potential buyers before? Or is he a potential buyer himself who she spoke to beforehand to get into something like this? Is he the one who told her about the auction, or did she really know about something like this beforehand since her husband would have been involved in these circles? That man will be on the lookout. She's off-guard now though. Here she is, at the finish line. About to sell her husband's car to the richest people she's ever met. She doesn't look to be feeling guilty, which means she's not thinking about it, which means it's possible she'll be sloppy. Something like this must look illegal to the untrained or unprepared, and if she's feeling like a criminal already then she must feel like the people all around her are villains too. Her lips will get looser, thanks to the man with her, and the scary bodyguards all over the room, and actual villains in here, who she does not look nervous of but more like she fits in with them.

Once Xilovic shows his face, and she sees the man right in front of her who owns this "evil lair," she'll feel invincible to be here. Power crazed. Getting away with murder. The rush she's feeling to be with that younger man, selling her husband's car after getting away with a perfect crime. Her airtight alibi unable to be questioned. About to make billions. Have sex with a young man. Eating lobsters covered in caviar and downing million yen champagne. The stage is set. "You see that?" Zach wondered to his side, not keeping his voice down at all as he spoke to his partner next to him.

Roady looked at Zach as he motioned at Nakahara's vehicle. Here we go, Roady thought as he gained an interested look of his own after hearing Edo's piqued interest in the vehicle.

"Looks within our price range, hopefully," Tachiko mentioned. She's enjoying this, Roady thought as he saw the woman lean up and whisper something back at the man who chuckled in a way that made Keimin smile more brightly. This guy's part of it. Keimin needed an accessory. Maybe she's not a criminal at all, and this man seeing her took advantage of her own feelings wishing to sell the car and took care of her husband when she told him she was going on that spa weekend. Keeps her out of suspicion, which means he may care for her too- or he just knew he needed her off the hook in order to get the car sold. Could be trying to get her to sell it for cheap to someone he knows, or he's using her and wants to take all the money she has. Maybe she didn't need to be manipulated though, and she's just looking for a younger, richer model than her husband.

Zach and Roady had similar theories as they headed towards their target, but although Roady kept his cool despite the anger he felt towards the woman he was suspecting for murder, Zach had to uncurl his right hand that curled in anger for a moment there. Roady had been nervous about the fact that Zach was not wearing his glove on his right hand. He trusted the kid to be careful though, and Zach had been walking most of the time on Roady's left side with his right hand closest to his partner. It was mostly to keep people from bumping into him, though Zach also occasionally walked on Roady's right side so he could lock his left arm with Roady's right in order to make sure no one noticed how he was not touching him. The lack of a glove on his right hand unnerved Zach more than it did his partner, but as focused as he was on everything else, a chunk of his focus had been locked on his own right hand since he got out of his car. He made no indication of wanting to shake Toyoshi's hand earlier even though it was their first meeting, instead speaking as if continuing from their conversation they had been having online earlier, thus there was no need for an introduction between the two of them.

As Zach approached the couple he had stayed farther back from the road in comparison to, Roady stayed on his right side since the area around the hall's road was crowded. Bouncers and bodyguards stayed farther back in the room for the most part, watching from the walls and exits, allowing their clients to walk right up and take seats in spectating sections looking in at the road where the auction would take place on. The two young men were prepared to start, when a voice spoke on the right of the two, "Edo-san. Tachiko-san." They turned and watched as Toyoshi Elena walked their way, looking at them slightly differently than she did earlier.

Like she thinks because we hear her husband on the announcements we're much more impressed by her now for being married to such an important man. Zach thought it, and yet he made his expression show that he was much more impressed with her now for being married to such an important man. He watched the woman in a slimming white dress with her white fur scarf as she sauntered their way, and she looked to the side and at the closest vehicle that the two had been heading towards to look at. "Are you thinking about bidding on this, vehicle?" She paused before saying 'vehicle' like it was not of her taste, and Zach held back a smirk as he saw Keimin and the blond man with her both look back at Toyoshi Elena as she said that.

"Actually, we were," Edo replied to the woman, acting like he had not noticed her tone there in the least. The way he replied made Keimin wonder if she had even heard that tone correctly, and it made Elena doubt she had actually gotten that tone through considering Edo replied as if she was asking because she also admired it. "Before the bidding begins though, I wanted to make sure it would pass emission standards in the U.S. We don't plan on keeping our new car in a garage, after all."

"Or we wouldn't be selling the Civic in the first place," Tachiko mentioned, and he nodded down the line towards where their black Honda Civic was spinning on display for more people than were gathered near Keimin Nakahara's.

Keimin and the man she was with both glanced in the direction of the Civic they saw a small crowd gathered around. It was a car more priceless than their own, indicating the homosexual couple in front of them were wealthier. The two of them shared a look with each other failing to mask their excitement as they already had a potential buyer interested in their car. "If you are worried about the emissions of this vehicle," a voice started to the side of Elena which made her turn and see the blond man walking forward. "I can assure you, this car runs solely on clean energy."

"That is good to hear, Mister…" Zach trailed off while stepping forward towards the tall blond man who was around six feet tall and a little less broad at the shoulder than him, and yet who looked bigger in the comparison of their two statures and postures at the moment. Roady did not know how Zach managed that, but he also stepped forward and looked over at Keimin as she came up next to that younger man's side. Elena seemed interested in this as well, continuing to stand next to the young heroes who did not know yet whether or not they were happy to have her there.

Not what I planned for, Zach thought, though he admitted to himself it was not the worst thing that could have happened. Suspicion of us is practically erased with Toyoshi's wife here. The man making the announcements right now in this place, knowing us, is like an all-clear to people that we're okay with anything.

"Kazuki. And this is the beautiful, Nakahara Keimin," the man going by 'Kazuki' introduced the woman who stepped up to his side. Despite being fifty years old, Keimin did not have any wrinkles on her face. She had the complexion of a much younger woman, and a youthful expression to match even if it did show off some more experience in it too.

"Ah, Nakahara-san," Toyoshi began, looking to the woman in surprise like she did not recognize her until she heard her name. Zach and Roady both cheered internally as Elena mentioned, "My condolences for your husband. I heard what happened."

"Yes, yes it was quite a shock," Keimin replied, and then she shook her head and looked to the young men who seemed interested in the story behind this.

Zach nodded along as he intently listened to Keimin and gave his own condolences once she mentioned how her husband had killed himself. Roady did not look Zach's way, even as he was amazed by the woman's explanation that sounded remarkably similar to the theory Zach had given for her being there. Even though she was saying exactly what Zach said she would though, it did not make Zach any more confident. He felt wrong after hearing it. Roady felt like he was hearing what Zach expected, and yet he also felt like he was hearing a very good explanation for why this woman did not kill her husband. It did not have to be all some big elaborate lie after all, rather just that this was the clearest explanation that Zach had predicted because it was the most likely, and Lifebringer's suspicions were nothing more than that: suspicions.

The two of them wanted to talk for longer, but Kazuki was gaining the slightest sense of suspicion towards the pair as they responded and reacted to the story about Hiroto. So Roady took the opportunity when people around their Honda Civic seemed to be looking for the owners so they could question them about the vehicle. Toyoshi Elena mentioned it to him too when he got her looking that way, and Roady was again grateful that she had come to talk with them, as it gave him the excuse to excuse himself.

The separation was something he and Zach had planned out before arriving, yet Zach had warned him that they needed to be careful about the timing of. At the moment there were several witnesses of them breaking apart though, so one could discuss selling with other potential buyers, while the other continued looking into the vehicle they would try to leave there with. The fact that they were selling the only car they arrived in too intrigued Elena, and she felt a grin tugging at her face though she kept it down for now. I must tell Nakahara when Edo leaves. They arrived in one car and are selling that car. They will be leaving with another vehicle, so these two must make a strong pitch.

Zach glanced around, and he thanked the two he had just had a short conversation with before heading for the opposite side of the room to check out a different car. Give Keimin a chance to ease Kazuki's worries. If he mentions any off feeling he had about me or Roady, which is likely his own paranoia rather than one of us making a mistake there, she'll mention how she saw us upstairs paying her no mind and just looking interested and focused on the cars. Roady will make them believe that too as he sells selling our car.

Roady was selling it too, as in he was acting his ass off as he repeated all the facts about their car that he had drilled into his head along with his own fake background on the way here. "I have an eye for these sorts of antiques, and I would like you to hold off…" a man in front of Roady stepped closer to him and put an arm around his side, motioning away from the Civic and the small group of people around them who had been trying to get chummy with Roady and help him decide on who to pre-sell the vehicle to. The self-proclaimed car connoisseur led Tachiko Vivishi away from the group who frowned after him, but they all turned back towards the stage-road as Toyoshi's voice started a new announcement.

As the connoisseur led a reluctant Roady away to discuss the price of the car Roady should start his bidding at, another larger man started towards them too. The guy wore a suit, and the thinner man just a couple inches shorter than Roady who was leading him away frowned a bit towards someone who Roady could tell was an acquaintance of his. The smaller man who started leading him away at first began as they stopped, their voices below the noise of the announcement so no one else would be able to hear them, "That 2008 Honda Civic truly is a priceless vehicle. Not many of its kind left in the world-"

"And I would very much like to be the one to have it," the larger man in a suit who walked over began. Roady glanced at him, a guy who looked a little bigger than Zach and appeared to be the bodyguard of the man who separated him. Why would he be quiet to let this guy talk though? The bodyguard's acting like this guy's in the way, as if he's the one with power in this relationship. Is this just his public in to this party, and he's the one with the real power… Or is this small guy just the front man? He's the guy they have with a clean sheet, and his boss is higher up than him? Seems like that's the picture they're drawing for me.

"I bet I could convince you to sell it to me for 800 million," the big man started to Roady who frowned deeply as that was less than many of the others had already offered.

The thin man in much more fashionable clothing continued after the big man stopped, "In fact, I know that exact car." Roady froze up, and his eyes shifted back to lock with the shorter man's, "There is only one of its kind here in Japan, and it belongs to Kumoto Onu."

Roady's eyes opened wide, and a bead of sweat formed on the side of his face and started rolling down. Then, the potential buyer and large man next to them got a much bigger smirk on his face to push aside the surprise. "In that case, how about 400 million?" Roady darted his eyes back to the guy and looked surprised again, though so did the connoisseur who just informed them of the vehicle's rarity.

"400 million? This car belongs in a museum," the thinner man hissed at his bodyguard.

Alright, maybe not so simple a power relationship as I thought before. Something's up with the way they're acting. Maybe equals. The big guy's look is more threatening though, Roady frowned in a deeper way though he tried to keep his dark expression only looking to be from this blackmail the big guy was putting on him now. The mark-down of the price the man was offering was a threat to reveal the car's true owner to other potential buyers who would be more cautious to buy knowing that fact. Roady's thoughts were more on the fact that the man was still trying to buy it from him though. He suspects it's a stolen car, and yet he's trying to buy from me. The fact that he's willing and treating this like it's something that happens often here…

"How about no?" Roady wondered back at the bigger man whose smirk lowered down after he turned back to the seller. "As I'm sure there are many in this room who don't care about that bit of information. Enough of them, at least, that I can make a billion easily here." Roady tilted his head down more and smirked up at the man in a much more threatening way all of a sudden, making the big guy who was starting to give a much darker look back hesitate at that expression. It was like both the connoisseur and his bouncer both realized that they were accusing this man of being a car thief, a villain, and this villain was suddenly glaring back like the fact that they knew put both of them in his crosshairs. "But I'd suggest you keep your noses in your own business, and out of mine. I'm sure my boss would be very upset with anyone who got in the way of this sale."

Roady smiled again and nodded at the two in a completely fake friendly way, then he turned from them and headed back towards his Honda Civic. Just by mentioning some vague "boss" I'm sure the two of them will shut the fuck up. No one wants to mess with a villain and accidentally piss off some crime boss. Imagine Intanzo sent me here to fund the Radians, or something. Just keep your mouths shut long enough for us to finish this.

"…introduce the host of today's auction, and the owner of this fabulous property-"

Roady lifted his head and turned towards the end of the stage where spotlights hit down to the side of the central platform and revealed a man walking out from some backstage area. Toyoshi Rando's voice called out as the lights shone down on him, "Mitosh Xilovic!"

"Thank you, thank you Rando," Mitosh gave a small bow to the people who had started clapping for him hosting this party, then he nodded his head up like he was nodding at wherever Toyoshi was watching from. "Everyone. Esteemed guests from all over the world, I thank you all for coming." He said it respectfully and in gratitude that they would come here for a simple party he was having. "I hope you have been enjoying yourselves, and I apologize for my rudeness so far."

Man of mystery, Zach thought while watching the guy walking down the road and looking so confident without even trying. He was smiling and seemed to be bragging humbly just by his casual expression of apology for being late. The amount of famous, rich, powerful people all over the world looking towards him and yet he did not seem to feel any pressure by it. His house that was nicer than all of their own, and yet an expression of a humble man who was not shoving that wealth in their faces. Many of them were seeing Xilovic for the first time, and they were surprised to see an Arabic man with fair skin tone and a head of long black hair that fell back behind his neck to the top of his shoulders. It was messy but with a charm in how it fell, seeming natural and yet cool at the same time. He was dressed in a red vest with two of the buttons together over his torso, over a plain white button down and black pants, almost looking like one of the valets outside and yet with a completely different aura to him.

Zach could not help but crack a smile as he watched the man, And he's trying really hard to pull off that appearance. It takes skill to pull off not trying hard at all. All the people here wondering who he was are getting a first look at a man who would show up late to his own party. In a magnificent hall full of priceless cars, looking like it was built into the cliff solely for this purpose. He's even convincing me a little that he had just arrived from some important something or other, something that could not wait. Yet Toyoshi knew he would arrive late even while telling me that he might show up. Toyoshi was in on it. Xilovic wanted to come in just like this. An entrance after people already have a first impression of him based off his wealth, location, guest list, and material possessions. Showing them a more humble man than the version they imagined. Someone shattering their perspectives of him, and someone so mysterious at the fact that they have no idea where he had been for the first half of this event.

But I'm not here to criticize Xilovic Mitosh on his lifestyle. He broke off from the Abbasi family and still made his own fortune, and though it looks like he has some unsavory associates in here, there's only one person I'm after right now. Two, maybe. Keimin might not actually be a part of it. I'll see though. I don't have the resources of Death. I don't have the ability to investigate each one of them, creating a list of potential villains, searching all over the world for credible information on them. I'm not Death! I'm a hero. Here to investigate a murder. That's all. And that's enough.

Zach watched as Keimin left the side of Kazuki, giving him the opportunity he had been looking for. He ignored Xilovic's introduction, his introductions of some of his esteemed guests he was glad could make it, and who the spotlights went on for a moment for each of them. He was thanking the staff and the chefs in particular, which got a loud round of applause from his guests who were all very impressed with the food that had been dazzling their tastebuds all afternoon. The sun was setting, but since they were on the northeast coast they did not have the problem of the sun directly shining through the glass window, only the benefit of seeing the sunset colors over the ocean that Xilovic mentioned. He said it in awe like he was just noticing from the road-stage where he could see over his guests and past the support pillars around the room, though he had stopped in a perfect position between two pillars to stare out at his awesome view...

"Guy's good at making a speech," Zach started, and Kazuki turned his head to see Edo Minzio next to him. He had looked up Edo himself after speaking to Keimin about the two who he thought were likely to buy the car earlier. Kazuki hummed and nodded his head, though he gave Edo an interested look to wonder why he had come to him to start talking. All business then, Zach thought. "Vivi is a worry wart," Edo began, and Kazuki thought about the article he had read that had a quote from Edo Minzio referring to his partner off-handedly in an interview in that same nickname. It was an article Zach had just made, and yet one that his computer had allowed him to choose the date of publication of, showing that his relationship with Tachiko had been going on for a while and that his persona had existed long before today. He went beyond just dating the article itself, but on the very bottom of the website it was posted on, the 'Last Edited' date showed a date six months earlier too.

Some of the precautions Zach had put into making his disguise had worked, even if Kazuki had not investigated too thoroughly into who this person was. There was too much going on to focus very hard on a man who he did not actually find very suspicious, and who he was only looking into in order to see how much money he could squeeze out of him. "Yeah?" Kazuki wondered back at Edo. "What's he worried about?"

"Keimin seems like a nice woman," Edo replied, though he gave a sly grin to his side and said to the man, "But I can see you're the one to talk to about leaving with that car."

Kazuki cracked a smirk. The blond man was lean in figure and had a light beard of blond hair around his mouth and chin with only stubble on his cheeks. He was Japanese, and Zach examined his dyed beard and hair, to the necklace he was wearing that just looked black from the string as he could not see what was on the bottom of it that went inside his v-neck long-sleeved shirt rolled up only on the left sleeve. The man had on a leather belt holding up his expensive-looking jeans, and there were bulges in both of his pockets that Zach noticed when he checked the man out while in the guy's view. Kazuki felt several things after Edo said what he just said. The fact that he was clearly the one to talk to about buying the car made him feel powerful, the fact that this guy who had come with his partner seemed to be checking him out built up his self-confidence, and in his head he was now the type of person who could sell that car for a fortune he would be leaving with.

Men are fucking simpletons. Women too, most of the time, Zach thought as he watched Kazuki's eyes and saw the emotions that he had been attempting to sew inside him. Maybe I am just a manipulative asshole if this is so easy. Fuck it though, as long as I just do it to villains… except I don't. I might only do it intentionally here- FOCUS! Fuck man. Look at him. You're not the bad guy here. This mother fucker, getting close to Nakahara's wife, consoling her for her lost husband. That's what people see of him, and what I could see them talking about as I read their lips. Talking all about the new fancy apartment she's going to move into in Tokyo. He's trying to "help" her out with that, but that's what they were talking about with grins like the real conversation was just below, and I didn't even catch most of it.

"Well you're right, but this is an auction. I don't see what talking to me is going to help you out with…" Kazuki started to Zach, talking like he did not know how this worked. There was risk on both sides. Edo could offer a single price early on before the auction, one that was above what Kazuki thought the auction would ultimately bring the price to. If there were few bidders in the auction for Nakahara's car, then any offer Edo made now would be taken away and he would just bid above the top offer in the auction. On the other hand, if he sold the car now and took it off the auction block, there was a chance that someone would have paid a lot more for it had he let it remain.

Zach had this conversation with Kazuki while barely focusing on the words coming out of his mouth or the price he was haggling with. It was something no one actually putting that much money on the line could do, but the words he was speaking meant nothing. They held no weight or meaning behind them, and he just kept talking while his thoughts got darker and he continued to stare at Kazuki with eyes slowly getting more full of a seething rage. Whenever Kazuki would glance back to the side at him though (as they spoke while facing the road together and watching Xilovic speaking), Zach made sure he looked as amicable as possible.

He made her happy. She was blushing as he flirted with her. I can see it. Who he is. How that happened. There are so many answers, but I see you. That fashion sense is better than most men. You aren't gay but you are as easy to talk to for a woman like Keimin, with your high-class style, fine appearance, your charm. You broke down her defenses easily. A younger man looking as good as you, you must have made her feel like a young woman again with your interest in her. She looks like she still feels that way any time she's with you. But for the first times you made her feel that way, it would have opened her up completely. And she explains her debts, her issues with her husband, while you were just poaching her car and looking to be the buyer she'd be most interested in. Be the one to get in with her so that you could buy it for cheap, convincing her… except you saw an opportunity. Better than flipping the car for a profit, you wouldn't have the buy the car in the first place at all.

She talked to you about those problems she told me and Roady, the ones I suspected she would use to tell the police asking about his suicide. The exact reasons. Zach's chest swirled with furious emotions, and his left hand farther from Kazuki balled into a fist, while his right stayed in front of his right thigh tucked away from the possibility of bumping into anyone. Yet even that right hand slid back down the thigh more towards his right side, as he cared less about the possibility of Kazuki touching it every second that man spoke to him without a care in the world about the man whose car he was selling. The man who died so recently, that Zach felt his heart pound in his chest at the thought of that man seeing this right now. He was looking to be the one to buy the car for cheap, or to help Keimin sell it and take a big chunk of the profit for himself. After she talks about selling the car over and over again though to settle all her problems, he learns, after all that trouble he's gone through! Her husband is talking her out of selling the car. That's it, isn't it?

You saw a problem and took care of it. Keimin was looking like that. She cared about her husband, I saw that earlier. When she talked about putting the car up for auction, about how he cared more about the car than her, she wanted us to tell her that she was more important. She wanted that! It's what you told her, I'm sure. Maybe she wanted you to do something about it, or she would… except she wouldn't! She thought she'd go back on it, because if they were truly in love then she couldn't get rid of the thing that made him so happy. Right? But this Kazuki wanted the car badly enough. He was planning from the start on getting that car. He didn't care about murdering if it fit his purpose, or maybe he had just spent too long on it to give up now. The way they were talking he and Keimin have known each other for a while. He's been playing the long con. And he's a murderer. She may have an alibi, but I'm certain you do not. You murdered him that night.

"Think about it," Kazuki said, finishing in a cocky tone and glancing at the younger man next to him who seemed uncertain but also like he did not want this negotiation to end. Kazuki had given him his "lowest" offering price though after haggling for a few minutes, and now it was in Edo's hands to figure out if he wanted to do a pre-sale or not. The way Xilovic was talking, the auction was going to begin very soon, and as Kazuki was walking away Xilovic called that out to make Kazuki smirk even more.

Roady walked over towards Zach when he saw Kazuki go away. The fact that his partner was not following their target meant he still did not have proof, but Roady had important things of his own he needed to talk about. "Minzio," Roady started, his voice semi-serious. "Someone knew that the car we brought is Kumoto's. They were still willing to buy from us though, even knowing where we got-"

"Kazuki killed Hiroto," Zach said.

There was a round of applause as Xilovic mentioned selling the car he acquired himself, Hardoovidge's super car, as the final piece in the auction. A few people whistled, and many looked very excited to see where that car would be going to. "Are you certain it's a murder case?" Roady asked quietly, having come to a mild belief that maybe they had overreacted. He was glad to be there anyway though, but he was looking to investigate bigger things now.

"I'm certain," Zach replied though, and Roady refocused on the mission at hand as he saw the intensity of his partner's expression that flashed for a moment. Don't act on emotions! The younger hero yelled in his own head. I have to work him good and get him on something he'll be charged with. And, I still… need to find out if Keimin knew. Or what she knew. She must have told him about going on that spa weekend, and if she's smart then she should know something- I need to find out the truth!

"What should we do then?" Roady wondered.

Zach turned to his partner, then he looked across more of the room to where Keimin and Kazuki were standing together. Kazuki was talking to the woman, and Zach looked away as she turned his way, though he made sure to look away too late so she saw him looking away too. "You say someone knows we stole the Civic?" Zach wondered, glancing back to Tachiko and asking, a dark look forming on his face that unnerved the hero who nodded back at him slowly. "Alright, I've got a plan," Zach said. "I want you to…"

The auction began. Toyoshi Elena came to find Edo, and she let him know that his car would be auctioned off fifth in the lineup. Zach thanked her for that, and he also inquired as to when Nakahara Keimin's car would be sold. Luckily hers was up for auction after his own, and Zach thanked the woman who excitedly asked if he was buying that car. She mentioned it having a history of its own now due to Hiroto's death, saying its price would only increase over time. Zach thanked her again but seemed distracted, getting Elena to let him go as he headed towards the woman he was intending to buy the vehicle from.

Zach approached Keimin slowly, but the woman and her younger associate both looked towards him before he arrived. He approached them, and Kazuki kept from grinning in a smug, victorious way as the first round of bidding was going off. The two he approached were already standing back from the road a bit, but not too far back so they would be close to the security and bodyguards farther towards the walls. They were just back from most of the people standing close to the road and holding up bidding signs some staff had come around to hand everyone taking part. Zach had a sign in his own hand, though neither of the two he was approaching had one of their own.

"Have you thought about our offer?" Keimin questioned Edo, who looked to Kazuki seeing that the man had made it out to Keimin like they had made an offer to the couple they were acquainted with.

"I have, and I'm willing to go for half a billion under that offered price. Nothing more," Zach said. He said it firmly, and Keimin got a thoughtful look as she wondered about the fortune Kazuki mentioned that would still be a huge amount even with 500 million yen taken off of the offer. Kazuki was not budging though, feeling more confident of a negotiator than Edo, and feeling like the man who had slowly approached them might crack with only a little pressure.

"I think you already haggled down the price enough," Kazuki started, making Keimin glance to him and then back at Edo with a confident look of her own. "I was being generous with my pricing before. This close to the auction, and seeing how much everyone is bidding on this first option," Kazuki shook his head as an offer was called out higher than the counter-offer Zach just made him. "I think I may need to rethink even the minimum-"

"Unfortunately, it's looking like we will not have the kind of revenue from our own-"

Kazuki and Keimin were starting to get confused, but Zach was unable to tell them his reasoning behind his hushed voice and why he and Tachiko were having problems here. "I told you, to stop following-" Roady started, his voice hushed and angry as he hurried towards Edo's side in a speed-walk that he tried to keep inconspicuous.

The car connoisseur from earlier followed after him, and said in a low voice of his own, "Except I must insist, that you offer me that Honda Civic at a much lower price now. See there is very little time, and only my employer will be able to properly keep the Civic while all others would be forced to return it to Kumoto Onu, its legal owner." The man saying this to Roady rose his voice just a little at the end, looking up at the couple in front of Edo who just went wide-eyed as that man said that to people in front of him.

Zach then narrowed his eyes instantly at the man behind him, and he said in a dark and low voice, "We'll consider removing it from the auction block. Now, leave," Zach said that in an intense voice, though also sounding anxious as he glanced back to the side and saw Keimin and Kazuki staring at him with wide eyes.

Roady darted the guy next to him a look that made the man hold his hands up and then back away. The car connoisseur turned and headed away, smirking subtly as he did. Roady watched him go, thinking to himself, It's a solid strategy. I'm just glad I convinced him to go along with it. Offering a share of our profits only makes sense if what he just said somehow gets us a higher price for the car, and yet he did not argue with it when I told him that it would work with this couple we're attempting to sell it to. I think he plans on turning them in after they buy it. I think he thinks, that I know he wants the car to be put in a museum. Maybe if he helps get it back to the police he thinks the owner might listen to his wishes and put it in a will to go to a museum. I'm just glad he followed along though, and he acted that out pretty well. Not nearly as good as Lifebringer's doing though, Roady tried to make his own expression as convincingly upset about what just happened while they faced the two they were trying to buy a car from themselves.

"If we could just, ignore what just happened," Zach suggested as he started speaking to the two in front of him again. The car is almost sold. We just need to hold onto it for a little longer!

Car thieves? Or they bought from car thieves, and they realized it and needed to sell it again quickly before anyone finds out, Kazuki smirked at the men in front of him. He realized now why it was Zach was in a hurry, and also why it was he was trying so hard to haggle down the price even at the last second.

"If you two could keep that quiet?" Tachiko wondered to the pair in front of him.

"Oh, I won't say a word," Kazuki began.

Keimin grinned big after a second. Zach watched that expression form on her face, and it made dread stir inside him again. Again, the look in her eyes like she's realized she's surrounded by villains. Like she understands that by being here she is a villain herself. It's not a look of a mourning wife. But, maybe-

"We wouldn't turn you in," Keimin assured in agreement. "We have more in common, than you'd think."

Tachiko gave her a confused look, while Edo gained a look of questioning then surprise, and then he cracked a small smirk of his own. "Oh yeah?" he wondered, as he looked at Kazuki who gave him a look saying 'I don't know what she's talking about' and yet in a sarcastic way. Zach rolled his eyes at the man looking like that though, and he even chuckled to himself in a way that made Kazuki's smug expression fade. "I'm so sure," Zach said skeptically. He looked to Keimin who faced him as if questioning why he was reacting like that to what she just said, and Edo said to her incredulously, "Even the idea that you had anything to do with Hiroto's death."

Zach scoffed at the idea, then when Kazuki gave a half-shrug like he could just believe whatever he wanted, Zach rolled his eyes again and started at the man who was obviously lying, "Given this time of heroes? The two of you thinking you could get away with murder?" Zach whispered it, yet his voice was as skeptical as could be. There was no judgement of the claim though, making him sound more like a car thief who was looking down on posers pretending to be villains like him. He even looked to Roady with a look questioning 'You see this?'

Keimin did not try to argue it very hard, instead just easing back as she was not very used to this, and was unsure about talking about stuff like this aloud at all. Kazuki kept a smug look on his face though, instead replying, "Believe what you want. Heroes aren't all they're cracked up to be."

"I'd say you think we're fools to be trying to convince us of that," Edo started, raising his eyebrows and then cracking a grin which made Tachiko do the same and chuckle under his breath. Edo finished, "But the two of you are fools to even pretend that you did it. Smart villains can't even get away with stuff like that."

Kazuki shrugged his shoulders again, glancing back towards the road that a car was rolling down towards its new owner on a giant treadmill part of the stage. Zach lowered his smile, his expression actually looking a bit confused and thoughtful for a moment. "You're right," Tachiko started to his side, as Edo was looking at Kazuki more confused now, and then back at Keimin who hesitated for a second before smiling at him. "They're just trying to act-"

"You said," Zach started to Keimin. "That your husband loved that car more than he loved you," Zach said it, reminding her of that fact before he started anything else so that she was reminded of it and made more emotional from the start. "You said that earlier. But… if that was true," Edo paused, and Kazuki glanced back and lifted the left corner of his lips at the growing stunned look on Edo's face. "Then why would he have killed himself, over your threats of leaving him?"

Keimin started a defense that she already had ready, even though her eyes looked like she was telling him nothing but the prepared lie, "Well he loved me too, but the car was more-"

"If that's the truth it wouldn't make sense for him to kill himself, because he would have chosen the car." Zach said it, then he frowned more at her look suggesting it didn't matter what he believed. He started up again softly, "But maybe he really loved you both the same, or even you more." He spoke like he was realizing something, confusing Keimin with his theory as he tried to still make this out to be a suicide with them having nothing to do with it. He continued in realization, "But when you were telling him to give up his prized possession, the thing he had worked on for years, he couldn't take it. Because the woman he thought loved him so much and who he loved the most was forcing him to give up his life's work, forcing him to choose, and that was too much for him-"

"That wasn't it," Keimin snapped. The look on her face was frustrated as Zach made Hiroto out to be this victim terrorized by his wife to the point of killing himself. "Hiroto cared more about that car than me."

"Then he really wouldn't have killed himself," Zach said, shaking his head again as that didn't make any sense then.

This time, Keimin smirked at him when he said that, and she replied in a low voice, "That's what I'm telling you." She smirked, and Kazuki gave her a look before glancing back towards the stage as Xilovic was out on it talking about the next vehicle he claimed he was thinking about purchasing himself. Kazuki glanced back to his side though and at the pair who were watching Keimin with disbelieving looks, though also ones that seemed to be getting more convinced each second that they had really pulled off something the two of them had thought was impossible in Edo's so-called 'Time of heroes.'

Sounding smug as she continued, Keimin whispered to the men in front of her who had a stolen car in their possession of their own, "I had the perfect alibi..." The car thieves in front of her were acquaintances who were the only people she could tell this to. It was something she seemed proud of, yet had had to keep a secret from everyone she knew. And as she began, there was no stopping her, and Kazuki did not care to as he was as smug about this situation as she was becoming. Keimin continued while Kazuki pulled out a carton of cigarettes from his left jeans pocket to light one up, after seeing a man smoking a cigar on the opposite side of the room to no complaints, "Motive for sure, but an alibi to keep me free from suspicion."

"Whereas Kazuki did not even know my husband," Keimin said, and Kazuki blew out some smoke while giving a dangerous look back at the two who glanced at him. He looked right back at the stage though as if he was casual about it, nothing to be too amazed or shocked by. "Nor is he someone any of my friends know," Keimin went on. "Someone who could get in my house and make sure the security alarm stayed off using my husband's code." She smirked even more at the master plan this couple had already claimed was so impossible that they must have been amazed to hear that she had come up with it. The fact that she had gotten it past the police and heroes was something she was proud of, and she continued smugly, "Making it look like my husband had been the only one home at the time."

"Impressive," Zach started, finally cracking a grin as he admitted the story was starting to make sense. He countered quietly, "Forensics could tell the difference between hanging a man, or strangling and putting him up, than someone hanging themself though."

"Blackmail. I was at the spa, but having me beg in private over a burner phone as if there was a gun to my head?" Keimin smirked more as if her plan had been perfect. "Tie a noose. Get up on the chair. Put your neck through. He knew he was dead either way, but at least if he made it look like he did it himself, he saves me." Keimin's smirk faltered for a moment, but it returned at the amazed look Edo was giving her.

"That's, wow. So he really did love you then? Sounds like he cared a lot about you," Zach continued, sounding confused here as to why Keimin did it in the first place.

Why not stop her now? Roady thought in confusion, glancing to his side at Zach who he thought would have stopped there. What are you doing? Roady's eyes shifted down and he caught sight of Zach's fingers on his right side twitching, curling in a little and straightening out as he held back his absolute seething rage. It sent chills down Roady's spine to see Zach's impressed and villainous expression, while his fingers showed his true feelings in the slightest twitches. This could be bad. I should stop it now.

"He didn't care about me," Keimin countered Edo. She sounded annoyed as he brought that up, as the question had caught her off guard. "All he cared about-"

"Then why use yourself as the blackmail bait? Why not have Kazuki threatening the car, if that's all he cared about?" Zach asked it skeptically, and his voice was not as low anymore which made Kazuki fully turn back to the man he had never lost focus on.

"Oi, stay quiet about-"

"He was a fool," Keimin hissed back, pissed off at the young man whose eyes were judging her. "We were tight for cash, and he was still spending our money on that damn car to-"

"So you killed a man who loved you?" Zach lifted his eyebrows, the right corner of his lips curling down as his voice came out more intense.

In an indignant tone Keimin snapped, "He killed himself, by being that much of a fool that he forced my hand-"

Zach watched in his own mind as he snapped his own right hand up to Keimin's throat and clenched her by the throat. He watched her body engulfed in black flames, only to snap back to reality and see her standing in front of him still alive and his right hand still down at his own side. In that moment he imagined it though, Keimin's voice cut off and her body tensed up at the expression change on Edo's face. Kazuki glared at the man who looked so disgusted, so dark, and he snarled in a low voice, "You say a fucking word, and everyone will know-"

"Nakahara Keimin," Zach started. His voice was loud, and his tone steady and intense as he declared her name. "Kazuki," he continued on, while people in front of them closer to the road turned around hearing that loud declarative voice. "You are under arrest for the murder of Nakahara Hiroto."

His tone changed, but more than that his entire voice changed in a way as if every word out of his mouth before that had been spoken in a voice that had not been his own. Some of the people who just turned around from in front of him started to open their eyes huge, others turned as they only heard the last part of that in a silence that had fallen over the nearby crowd as people turned to see what was going on. Bodyguards nearer to the outside of the room looked towards the man who just said that sounding so serious that it could not have been a joke.

"And who are you to say that?!" Kazuki snapped back, his voice loud while Keimin just leaned her head back.

"We're heroes, now put your hands behind your heads and get down on your knees," Roady called out. "I am the hero Roady, everyone stay where you are!" He shouted that out as voices started to raise around him, and as some of the security on the outside of the room started moving in fast.

Elena had been walking over as she saw Edo and Tachiko seeming to be the center of attention for something, and that woman froze with her eyes bulging at what Tachiko just shouted. Xilovic stood on the stage with his expression darkening a lot, and security all over the room moved. Famous people got nervous looks on their faces as a hero shouted his presence in the room, as most of them had no idea what he was there for and figured they were all in trouble. Some just heard him yelling about putting hands behind heads and getting down on knees, and rich people looked to bodyguards near them who stepped forward.

Keimin pulled her head far back, so confused and lost at what was going on. Sweat formed all over her face, while Kazuki took a full step back, lifting his hands up as he pulled in a sharp breath through his cigarette that glowed brighter with his suck-in of breath. All over the room, bouncers and security and shady people started to move despite the hero's orders. Then, everyone looking to the same spot in the room watched as the man next to Roady ripped away from his neck using his left hand.

Zach tugged off his scarf in a single swift motion. His red skin around his neck and the scars on all sides of it became visible. And as that happened, his right hand lifted at his side with darkness engulfing it. A black flame flared over his risen palm, and on the stage Xilovic threw both of his hands up at his sides. "Stop!" He yelled, his words directed at his security all over the room to stop them from moving. Because the guy who just ripped off that scar, had a Quirk that everyone in the room recognized immediately.

"Oh fuck."

"Is that…"

"Surrender now," Zach said to the pair in front of him who realized who he was.

Kazuki spat the cigarette out of his mouth along with a puff of smoke. He swept his right hand across the front of his body as the cigarette flew out, pulling the flames off the burning butt so that five flames were caught at his fingertips. Keimin snapped her head to the side in shock as Kazuki's movements, and then she stumbled back and spun as Kazuki fired off the five flames in different directions while calling out, "I've got to thank you Lifebringer, for allowing me to get training from heroes on how to use my Quirk!" He jumped backwards while saying that, pulling out his lighter to give himself more fire to use.

Roady darted to the right, dodging one of the flames that went for him. Three had gone for Zach, one for him, and the fifth towards Kazuki's right side and some of the rich people there. Zach ran straight into three tiny fireballs, darted to his left and slammed his body straight into the fourth, then he darted back in the direction of where Kazuki was coming down. He moved much faster than the villain who just attacked while calling out something so cocky, and he slammed his left fist forward where Kazuki's stomach was lowering down to in front of him. The man's shocked eyes bulged even wider while others around them pulled back going 'Ohhhh' as Zach's fist was visible on the villain's back.

Zach reached up and grabbed Kazuki by the collar with his right hand still covered in Death for a moment, making sure the man was not thrown off of his left fist due to the amount of force he put in it. The Death also worked in knocking him out, though as Zach dropped him he figured the man probably would have collapsed from that first punch even Death-less as it was. He turned his head to the right and lifted up his right hand still flaring with Death, pointed his index finger out, and snapped his hand up like a gun. A black line of Death shot out of it like a bullet into Keimin's back as she sprinted towards the stairs.

Her head turned back at the last second to see if anyone was chasing her, though Roady had just gotten in front of her actually. She saw the darkness the instant it hit her, sending the top of her body pushing forward with her momentum even as her legs stopped moving. Keimin's arms swung back behind her as she fell forward, and Roady ran up and caught her to lower her to the ground softer than if she had just face-planted at full sprint like that.

Zach let out a heavy breath, and he reached down into his pants' waistband and pulled out a glove he put on his right hand while extinguishing the Death on it. He doesn't represent everyone who used Lifebringer's Law. It has helped more people than it's hurt. I know that. Zach reminded himself to ease the rage he felt towards the man at his feet, though he still stared down in disgust for a second before looking back towards Roady who was looking his way. We got the confession. I recorded it. It was not coerced. She fucking- bragged! He loved her and she-

"How dare you?!" Toyoshi Elena marched towards the heroes who had a nice gap around them that Elena stepped right into.

"Um, Elena dear," Rando's voice came over the room.

"You come in here, and you lie about who you are- You tricked and deceived me," Elena was speaking in a voice appalled at the heroes for what they had done. Thinking about the conversations she had had with these two who she had liked and thought she could be friends with. "You sneak your way in here and-"

Zach lifted his head and locked eyes with Elena. He gave her a dark glare back that scared the woman shitless, and he said, "Your scarf looks like it's made from polar bear fur." Zach's eyes narrowed and he said in a low voice, "I love polar bears."

He turned from the woman who no longer felt any need to yell at him. He stepped towards Roady but stopped as his comrade was looking a different way at a man who just stepped through the crowd with a bodyguard detail of four men around him. The former president of United Korea marched forward and gave a stern look at the heroes. He stared from Roady over to Lifebringer, and then he started in English in a firm voice, "Do you have any idea what you have done here? You do not belong here, heroes."

"Mr. President," Roady began, holding up a hand and trying to calm down the former politician who seemed enraged at the heroes' interruption to the auction.

"No! You come here, uninvited, and attack guests after you suddenly declare that you are arresting them? Do you know who I am?" He asked that and glared at Roady, then over at Lifebringer, "You are already on thin ice, Lifebringer. I will have you-"

"What?" Zach asked. He cut off the man in a tone that had him frozen with his mouth still open. The bodyguards of the former president wished more than anything that he had just stayed back, as Lifebringer took a step towards them. Roady gave Zach a look telling him to stop, but Zach questioned in a low voice that had Roady's expression changing, "How were you going to finish that?" Zach gave the former Korean president a dark look and then rose his voice louder, "Were you about to tell me, that you were going to use your power as a former political figure to get us in trouble? I'd have you know that threatening heroes with retribution for doing their jobs, is an offense in itself. Especially if you are in a position of political power, that you would attempt to abuse."

The room was silent. Not a person spoke as Zach stepped another foot closer to the former Korean president who got sweat on both sides of his face at the intense look on this teenager's. The feeling like he was talking down to an immature teen was gone, replaced by the feeling of talking to someone completely different. Every person in the room saw someone other than Lifebringer staring down that former head of state like he was nothing to him. He felt no fear of the power that president had to threaten him with. He looked ready to arrest anyone and everyone in the room, with no care of the consequences he would face. The backlash mattered little to him, and Roady hated that he had felt so nervous a moment ago because of his own fear of the backlash from this politician whose actions he completely agreed with Lifebringer on.

Zach stepped one more step closer to the politician, and he said in an annoyed voice talking down to the old man, "Don't implicate yourself in a crime when no one's accusing you of one. Yeah?" He asked it like he was speaking to an imbecile for the president to almost get himself arrested like that. Then he turned his head and looked around. His words scared all the bodyguards frozen, though it impressed some of the rich and famous people who were actually smiling as they looked towards Lifebringer. He was speaking English, and he announced, "The two we arrested committed murder, and they just admitted to it. We are not here to break up the auction," Zach looked towards Xilovic when he said that, though he then pointed his right hand up in the air and fired off a thin line of Death like the one he had shot into Keimin's back.

The line shot up in the air, curved after rising fifteen feet, then zipped across the room to his right over many people's heads and into the chest of a man lifting his arms to protect himself. "Ahh-" the guy yelled then fell backwards right between two of his guards.

"And that man!" Zach yelled before everyone could start shouting. Even Roady gawked at him for what he just did, only to spin his head again in shock as Zach shouted, "Has a warrant out for his arrest in Poland! He is an executive of the Podpalacz! He disappeared with most of their money the day that villain group was taken down and arrested. I am sure, Mr. Xilovic had no idea of his real name," Zach added, looking to Xilovic who stared straight back at him for the first time with an uneasy expression, as he had remained calm before once he realized it was Lifebringer.

"I had no idea," Xilovic agreed with a nod back at Lifebringer. "Thank you, for clearing that up," he added as Lifebringer's announcement had kept everyone in the room calm.

I already heard someone call him by a different name when I lurked nearby him. Would have been a much bigger issue if he was going by his real name. Zach looked back to Roady, and he said, "Let's get them into the Civic. We'll head out now, and let them finish the auction." He turned back to Xilovic and said, "We'll need you to raise the Honda Civic back upstairs so we can take these villains to jail."

"Yeah Lifebringer!" The female American pop singer called it out, losing her uneasiness with a big smile on her face growing instead. She had been unnerved herself by the environment and the atmosphere of the people around her. She had been worried that she was brought here to a place that seemed to full of shady-looking people, but the fact that heroes were even at a place like this relaxed her more than anything, even if Lifebringer was pretty scary. "Great job!"

"Y-Yeah," Toyoshi Rando said on the announcements, after seeing Xilovic glance up towards a camera watching him. "Let's give it up for the heroes."

People clapped. Zach headed towards the Polish man and looked at his security, wondering to the pair behind him if they knew their boss was a wanted criminal. The two shook their heads rapidly, and Zach picked up the chubby man he recognized despite his plastic surgery. He hoisted him up using his right hand without struggling at all and just put the man over his left shoulder, then walked back and tossed Keimin and Kazuki onto the same shoulder so he had a pile of unconscious bodies stacked up.

All the while people watched him, clapping and occasionally calling out words of thanks and encouragement to the heroes. Roady saw the real looks of the people all over the room though. The people who were not clapping, just watching so uneasily every move Zach was making like he could at any moment choose to attack them. Even some of the people who were clapping seemed to be overcompensating for their own fear of their circumstances at the moment. It took him a minute, and he convinced half- more than half of the people here that he is Death. That they should all shut the fuck up and not do anything from then on that pisses him off.

It frustrated Roady as much as impressed him. So he stayed quiet about it as they got into the Civic and were raised up to the surface to be allowed to leave. It's not even a crime scene. It's just where we arrested them. To actually interrupt and shut down something like this would cause massive consequences. If Xilovic complains now though it will seem like he had something to hide in there. It would bring unnecessary attention to him and the rest of his associates who I wish we could investigate here. Yet, I 100% agree with what you were saying down there, and how we did this. Roady admitted it to himself reluctantly, but the two of them did not have an agency backing them up. They were already on the edge of doing things against the rules, and to be at that precarious position and try to go after people as powerful as the ones below them was an absurd idea.

Yet he was prepared to arrest the Korean president right there. If he had said enough to be counted as corruption, that he would use his power as a former politician to get us in trouble somehow. Something he shouldn't have the ability to do, and yet was threatening like it's completely normal showing he's probably done it before. Sure, powerful people keep powerful contacts in government after they leave, everyone knows that. You don't come out and say it to heroes though, especially not one like Lifebringer. Kid's crazy enough that they know he might do anything. Maybe if heroes can't actually go after the Korean president, he'll just disappear. That's the fear that filled him. The confidence they have to be safe from heroes with the ways they do things, is wiped away as soon as they see him. Because he uses the fact that they think he's Death.

And whether Sazaki is Death or not, Roady realized in the moment as he looked down from the lifting platform towards a hole in the ceiling of the hall. He looked at those people down below watching them rise while he sat in the passenger seat of their car, Everyone believes he is, and he is using that to prevent future crimes through fear. Same way Death does it. Damn it, is he Death?! Or, he is a really good actor. Acting like Death, or being Death, there's no way I could tell.

The platform reached the surface, and there were staff members waiting for them who opened up the garage to let them drive up out from still underneath the house. The staff stared at the two in the front seat, confused as to what had happened downstairs that this car was the first one out and so early too. The driver did not wait to be recognized though. He just drove out of the garage, and once they were heading down the driveway to an opening gate Roady started, "That was, pretty good. You terrified a lot of those people though, people who weren't all villains-"

"And some I'm sure were," Zach muttered in response. He shook his head though, pushing aside his annoyance as his mind was swirling with thoughts of what else he could have done down there if he was not a hero. He just said after a second, "It's justice. We're putting away killers. It was the right thing to do." Zach paused, and he added, "Plus, it will make the other rich people there who felt immune to the law a bit more on their toes. That place is surely tempting to many of them who feel Xilovic got it through illegal means, especially because of their lack of recognition to who he is. Now, they'll be less prone to those tempting thoughts of committing crimes and getting away with it using tremendous power. And it will-"

"Why do you need so many reasons for everything?" Roady snapped. He sat back in the passenger seat, looking annoyed again at what Zach was saying. "Can't we just have caught these two- three, and leave it as that?" Roady did not want to think about all that other stuff Zach was suggesting would happen because of what they had done. It was too many steps in the future, and the assurance Zach had of it all pissed him off as it reminded him of the reasons he knew Zach had committed so many crimes himself in the past.

"I'm fine with that, I guess," Zach said with a shrug, and he cracked a small smile as Roady glanced back at him. His hands tightened on the wheel even as he smiled like that, and in his head he could see Keimin smiling as she bragged about her husband's death. I could have killed her. I should have. She deserves worse- she'll be in prison for a long time. Zach pulled out a tiny recorder from his pocket, and he handed it over to Roady using his right hand that was in a tevlon glove.

Roady lifted the tiny device that was smaller than any recorder he had ever seen before. He shook his head at the kind of tech Zach had just casually on him, then he pocketed the recording himself that gave proof of the crimes of the pair behind them. He looked back at the fat man in the back seat on the floor, then at the pair slumped into the back seat who they did not bother putting seatbelts on. He did not care enough either as he looked at the two who had been bragging about their murder before. Roady looked back forward and lifted a small grin as he thought about the car connoisseur who he had seen staring at him with a dropped jaw during the short clean-up after the arrests. His smile lowered slowly though as he thought again about the events leading up to the confrontation and arrest.

Urukio looked to his side at the eighteen year old driving the car down the road that led away from Xilovic's place on the cliff's edge. He knew he should call the local police and tell them how they were coming, and to explain why it was they were going to arrive with three arrested people too, and why he had Lifebringer with him, but all of that could wait. "You know, you did good down there," Roady started. Zach glanced to his side then back at the road as Roady was staring out the windshield too instead of at him as he gave the compliment. "You had them blabbing, and-"

"It only worked because they thought we were car thieves too. Villains like them," Zach countered. "You got that-"

"Only because you had the idea to use it," Roady countered back again, then he shook his head around as this was about to get annoying. Yeah, I helped too. Don't be a dick, and just let me tell you good job. I'm your senpai, damn it. "Anyway," Roady started, keeping that other stuff to himself as he was trying to be nice here. "Good work. You got the confession, and you were right about it not being a suicide… Just wish I could've tried some of that Pinroq before we left."

Zach grinned at the mention and he laughed after a second that that was what Roady had to say here. Thought he'd be angrier about how I dealt with things down there. I'm glad he's not though-

"Alright Sazaki, I'm making the call. This is going to be tricky, but you're just a consultant. Not an intern or anything official-"

"Call me Zach-" Zach replied but stopped himself, as that was not very important considering the stuff Roady was talking about. Roady turned to his side and looked at the teen confusedly at that response, "It's, what my friends call me," Zach added as he saw the look Roady was giving him.

Roady frowned in annoyance. Then he looked back forward out the windshield, waited a moment, and said, "Whatever. Let's just get them to the Aisuri station before high tide. Gets tricky navigating those streets at night with water running through the blocks."

"Sounds good."

"…" Roady ground his teeth behind his lips, looking out the window on his side farther from Zach as he did. "You're good with carrying those three into the station when we get there? Right…" Roady ground his teeth, Don't be a dick! "Zach?"

"Sure thing," Zach said, though he had to crack the biggest smile at how hard that looked for Roady. "What a tsundere," Zach muttered under his breath. Tick marks popped on both sides of Roady's forehead above his pissed off expression, the anger almost covering up that his cheeks got red.

"Fuck did you just say?!"

"I thought you were still just acting your disguise," Zach said, faking that he had actually been convinced Roady was playing Tachiko there.

Roady rose a fist, then stopped and growled, "If you weren't driving."

"You'd what? I'm pretty sure I'm the one who beat up these villains."

"You were just too fast. I had Keimin beat-"

"Yeah yeah sure- ey! Thought you said since I was driving-"

"Well then you had to go and push your luck…"

---

A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Sorry it took a while after those 3 days 3 updates. 'Cause I went that fast I wound up posting 197 with not much written or planned for 198, so I was starting this from scratch. Got my job at the ski place though, and even better it's not as a lift operator where I'd be working 40-60 hours a week, but as a waiter at nights so I'll have days to keep writing (on the days I'm not skiing, which will be pretty often btw). My plans to finish Death by the winter (end of the year at least) seem to be failing, as there's still a good 20-30 chapters left (which I feel like I've said a few times now... ;P) but again leave a review telling me what y'all thought of the arc. I actually wrote about half the chapter, felt like it wasn't very good and deleted it all, then rewrote it differently after the first couple days. Hope this version came out better... Review responses:

Aar0nC0le chapter 197 . Oct 31

Sup brother. Or sister. Or whatever else floats your boat. 1)how are you alive? These updates come faster than anything else I've ever read. Kudos to you for that and thanks for the sacrifice of what is probably the majority of your sleep and free time. 2) I LOVE when we get these mission type chapters? Like we used to get them a lot when Zack was still Death but I'm very interested in this suicide/homicide investigation. Especially now that we brought back Roady. I LOVE when you bring back your characters just as I thought they were only there for a plot point/development you prove me wrong and brig back their dynamic asses to throw in another ripple. Homeless Zack makes me sad but also? It kinda makes more sense for him safety wise to constantly be on the move (and the small army of homeless people he's got watching his back is reassuring to me). Love the way this is heading. I still have some underlying anxiety about what the LOV, AFO, ADTF, and kaminari and crew are all doing. (I have a feeling the climax of this story might be a giant crossover villain fight epic enough to actually end me) but I could be totally wrong. Either way, I have anxiety. But it's GOOD anxiety. Not like the anxiety I get about my doors being locked and my shoes being tied, but like something epic is going to happen and I'm going to be the one watching it. Also? Just wanted to let you know when your chapters have a lot of action I totally hold my breath, my heart rate goes up, sometimes I swear etc. I basically get YOINKED into the story. ;)))) thanks!-till next time, Aaron

Took a nice week on this one to average out my updates back to 1 every 2-3 days. Woke up this morning to finish updating as I got too tired in the middle of editing the chapter last night. Going to head to Starbucks now and write for 3-4 hours chapter 199, so I'll hope to get another one out soon! Glad you like the mission chapters, and hope you enjoyed the undercover mission this time at the car auction. Zach's homeless, and now he's spent most of his remaining cash helping him out on this mission. He's playing it safe though keeping on the move, and he's got to with the villains after him. All those evil groups scattered about with their own goals, and everything happening in the shadows while Zach's out investigating a murder mystery... We'll see what's coming, soon! Thanks for the review!

GuestP chapter 197 . Oct 31

WOOO! Another chapter sent out! Dang, tmb, you are not joking when you want to satisfy your readers, huh!? Well, you're doing a good job at everything so keep up the good work, eh?
These were good chapters, I enjoyed reading Mirio's POV and Roady's, especially Roady's ho because I actually used to like Roady (I still do, but I like Zach more so when Roady thinks bad stuff about Zach it's like, "Oh man my dude, plz stop..." but this chapter really changed my views a bit more! I especially like how Zach got all nervous around him, it was cute when he was like, "Do you want to?", and I was ecstatic because the sad sad boi's still a cute chipmunk!
(P.S. can we get more scenes with Himazuri and Zach? They're so nice to each other, that it feels wholesome just reading about the two of them uwu)
I like how you had the R.J come out and mention the mafia to Roady, and I find it pretty funny how Zach's mafia fam is just telling R.J, "Take care of him, he's family." Gosh, I just really like the fact that Zach's adopted by almost everyone, in some little way, everywhere. It gave me flashbacks to that one boxing match chapter with Bobo Cambri and Zach started letting his Italian accent come out, that was really neato (except for the part where he goes sad boi on us in the bathroom and it made me want to cry ;-;)!
Loved this chapter!~
Can't wait for the next one!~~~

XD Thanks for reviewing! Glad you've been enjoying the recent chapters, and that you like Roady 'cause he was back big still in this chapter as they investigated Hiroto's murder together. Zach thinks about how useful it would've been to be working with Himazuri this chapter (if that counts), and R.J. helped the hero boys out with their set-up for the investigation earlier that day too in the flashback. Anyway I'm glad you liked that chapter and hope it continued into this one!

Guest chapter 197 . Nov 1

I'm honestly a little scared of Zach's limit right now with his quirk, and combat skills. Honestly, this dude can probably take in anyone and win (except for maybe Eziano)

Zach is very, very good, at seemingly everything. Other reasons to fear him also include random urges to murder, past history of mass murder, and the fact that he could carry all three of those villains on ONE shoulder?! Whoa, what strength. XD He may be one of the strongest in this world, but we've seen him be damaged since he's returned. He's not invincible, and everyone knows it... Thanks for the review! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!