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!

217. Chapter 217

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 217:

"This doesn't make any sense."

"You said he wasn't going to be a problem, and now he's back with all the people we're expecting will be a problem?"

"If Lifebringer's in our way, I'm not- I mean, we've got to find a way to get him out of our way."

"You said you would deal with him," Diamondfist growled towards the blond teenager standing in the middle of a crowd of League of Villains villains. Unlike Rabbit who cut back on saying how he was not going to take part of this when Raijin shot him a look, Diamondfist kept frowning at the eighteen year old who looked back his way. "Now that U.A.'s got him, and until the end of the term too? Our plan goes off while he's there."

"It will all work out," Raijin assured the villains crowding him.

"Do you really believe that?"

"Not to overstep," Duke Dread began. He glowered at Raijin though when the teen who had tortured him before glared back intensely his way. "But Lifebringer can't be around when we start this. I may have the loyalty of the Jazz, but not a hundred people will follow me if they think we're going up against him. Let alone eight thousand."

"More every day, I hope," a white-haired woman standing behind Raijin questioned over to the lord of the Jazz who just frowned back her way only to ease away at the look in her menacing eyes.

"Zach isn't a problem," Kaminari Denki repeated, a line he had told the other villains around him many times before. "He won't be there the day of the assault, but should he be, I have preparations in place for that as well. Dozens of contingencies for everything, and yet we will not need almost all of them. Zach's about to lose it. Moving to U.A. will only work to quicken his deterioration as he is surrounded by suspicious and hateful people resenting him for all he's done to them specifically." Except with Zach, he's sure to get them back on his side. I need them thinking this right now though. No point in explaining what's on the flashdrive to peons. "Just focus on your own tasks and forget about Zach. He's my problem to deal with, and I will deal with him myself. For that, you all have my word."

Raijin held up his right hand, "Villains' honor."

A few of the people around him eased up at how relaxed he seemed. Others humphed or turned away as they decided that Raijin was keeping things from them if he really was this unconcerned with Lifebringer's recent movements. Raijin looked back and nodded gratefully at the white-haired woman who had come over and had been backing him up there, then he walked off towards Dabi and Toga, who glanced his way then spun and started off before he arrived. Raijin rolled his eyes but stopped next to Dabi who he preferred of the two anyway.

"Everyone's nervous about the kid," Dabi muttered. Toga didn't say anything, Dabi thought, watching his long-time comrade heading away. But I could see it. He's on her mind too. The kid-

"Zach's not going to be a problem for you. I'll have him out of the way before the attack," Raijin assured.

"And if not?" Dabi wondered.

"Then I'll kill him myself," Raijin replied with a grin spreading on his face. "Though, I will not slack in my duties in hopes of that future," he added. No one would accept that, Raijin thought to himself. As much as the aspect actually made him grin in an excited way, he knew that if he did not precede it with his promise of not having to face Zach himself, no one would believe in him. Once I kill Zach though, all of that will change. If! If, I kill him. My plans should result in him being nowhere near us when the plan starts. He'll be too doped up and trapped to even know what's going on let alone stop us. "How are things on your end?"

"Waiting on word about the…" Dabi slowed down and he turned his head with his eyes growing huge.

In the underground camp of the League of Villains, a cold win flew into the villains who all turned where Dabi just stared with his eyes huge. Kaminari spun and stared past the hooded figure who was one of the other two who just entered the room and who made the entire room feel a few degrees colder. Not far from that figure in the purple winter coat with its hood up, just a little behind and to the left of the figure in back rather than on the right like Geten, was a figure with long orange hair spiked up a few times over the middle of his head but with a single spike going down across the top of his face and shadowing over his right eye.

Rikiya Yotsubashi wore a black tattered domino mask over his eyes that had frayed edges intentionally making it look like it was made of black flames. Under the mask on the right side of his face there was nothing but scar tissue though it was hard to tell at first glance that he only had one eye due to his pointed bangs covering most of those scars.

Everyone in the room stared to the middle of the three who just came in though. They all looked towards one figure none of them had seen in person for quite some time. The white-haired woman who had started speaking to Toga in a low voice stared over in shock like everyone else, though she noticed the shorter and younger girl next to her grinning madly after a second and with stars in her eyes as the excitement flooded through her body.

Raijin was the quickest of everyone to react though. No one had expected the lean but muscular figure with long gray hair waving behind his neck. He had no extra hands sticking to his body, and his face was cleared, and Raijin took a step forward and smiled towards the leader of the League of Villains who he had seen a few times on video calls but not in person in several months. "It's good to see you, Shigaraki. When the mountain you were training on suddenly vanished, we were all worried about you."

Shigaraki started forward into the deep underground room full of his allies. Keymar dropped off of the box of weapons he had been sitting on and staring towards Shigaraki with his eyes huge. Furuki Keymar, or the villain Splodo, could hardly believe his eyes despite having already "met" Shigaraki Tomura not too long ago. The sight of the man in person was another thing altogether. Shigaraki's presence was insane. Members of the Radians who had not known that Intanzo was secretly under orders from Shigaraki until recently lost all qualms they had with it.

Duke Dread felt his body cover in sweat as he saw a man he had not long ago considered a has-been. Bitchess 'n Cream smirked and licked her lips as two voices echoed over each other in her head. He's pretty hot, Manika Esiri thought with her co-inhabitant Bitchess. And damn, was I wrong about him and Intanzo? She looked to her side at a comrade of hers who she had been alongside for so long now. He had told her their biggest secret a while back, knowing that she was fine with it and trusting her which they had appreciated. Intanzo's strength is unreal. I thought he was the only one with a chance of stopping Lifebringer if it came to it, but, just one look at him.

Intanzo started forward as only a few in the room had. He looked to his left and motioned back at Iscariot. Just past the number two of the Radians, the woman with long white hair started ahead as well with Toga and they moved past the former hero Thunderclap who stepped back from them and also darted a glare around him too. Splodo stopped heading forward himself. As much as he had been trying to keep up with the big players of the League of Villains, getting involved with all their plans and making himself a big shot by acting as such, he held himself back. He looked towards Duke Dread, then back at Iscariot, then over at Diamondfist too who seemed to hesitate himself before deciding to just stay where he was and watch from farther away.

"So you really were responsible for that, huh?" Dabi wondered after walking up towards Shigaraki, his hands down in his pockets while he looked their leader up and down. Something's real different about him now. He had this kind of look already, so it's not that. A whole mountain was really him?

"I knew it! I knew it was you!" Toga exclaimed. Shigaraki looked her way and Toga leaned forward while bouncing up and down excitedly, "Are we doing it? Are we really doing it now Tomura-kun?!"

"Any reason for showing off that you could destroy the whole mountain like that?" Intanzo wondered, tilting his head to the right as he watched the younger man who gave him a look back right in his eyes.

Shigaraki smiled at the group of villains he had around him right now. Geten and Re-Destro came up on either side of him and completed a circle of villains who stood in the deep underground where only a few of their strongest leaders were not around. Shigaraki hummed before responding to anyone or saying the things he wanted to. "Sonic and Meta?"

"Hypnos?" Raijin wondered to the white-haired woman beside him who was on top of that.

"The mask technology we recreated is of amazing help to us," Hypnos replied with a smirk to Shigaraki who had not been directly involved with their smaller plans lately. He was not much for micro-managing them ever since he isolated himself to train. "The two of them are carrying out all we need them to in broad daylight. Nikko has no idea his secretary's been replaced by Pinoko either," Hypnos added with a chuckle. "And luckily, she was Quirkless."

Toga smiled and enjoyed this conversation so much it made her jaw hurt at how far the corners of her lips pulled up. After watching a video from Sueguon that they had gotten leaked to them, she had been very persuasive to Hypnos and the Doc in order to get them some of those masks themselves. I get to be here for this! Toga thought, so glad she had gone through the trouble of pushing for the use of those masks now as she was able to be there when Shigaraki had returned. Although the masks were not perfect as they did not completely change someone to match their target like her Quirk could, even going so far as to giving her their Quirks as she had discovered (which was why Hypnos mentioned the secretary's Quirkless-ness), the masks completed their purpose nonetheless.

"Sending them in quite early," Intanzo mentioned, as he had not been directly involved with Hypnos' plan here either.

The woman with long white hair smirked towards Intanzo whose eyes remained calm and his expression relaxed as he stared back at her. His smile lifted slightly on the right corner but she just continued looking right back at him undeterred and unintimidated by the most wanted man in Japan, while the Japanese government and heroes did not even know her name. Her smile just lifted back in response at him, and she wondered, "Why? Did you need them for something in the meantime? I figure it is better to give them time to adjust the people around them to any new changes in their personalities, keeping suspicion down on the day of if people are out to look for those acting strangely."

"You are all doing very well," Shigaraki said to the others around him. His eyes turned to Raijin though and he added, "Although I thought Sazaki would be out of our way by now."

"He was about to lose it," Kaminari replied with his shoulders shrugging up. "But-"

"Unless Zach was acting that whole time," Dabi countered. Raijin glared back at the black-haired man who he instantly took back how he liked him more than Toga as he thought before.

"He was acting in a way that didn't have anyone thinking he was going to be leaving-"

"Except for you," Dabi replied. That statement made Raijin close his open mouth, and everyone else looked at the two of them as Dabi stared into Raijin's eyes. The blond boy frowned at the counter that he did not have an easy reply for, and Dabi did not need to add anything else.

Maybe all the acts, you're saying, were all meant just for deceiving me. "It doesn't matter," Raijin responded after a few moments. He had to admit to himself that Dabi had a point, as he figured Zach considered him the biggest threat that he might have spent all that time and action solely to deceive him, as he had before. He had also planned for that though. "In my possession is something that will turn the tide on Zach once and for all."

"It should be enough to get rid of him for good this time," another voice spoke up, outside of the circle of villains who all spun at the sound of it.

Intanzo, Raijin, and Shigaraki all stared over into the shadows with darker looks for a moment that made the woman with blue skin freeze where she was. She only hesitated for a split second though before walking forward towards those insanely powerful villains who all glared her way at once. Sly stepped out of the darker shadows and in between several higher-up League of Villains' members who were all shocked to see this person that a couple of them had seen before briefly.

"What the," Dabi began muttering at the sight of this person who he did not remember showing up down here.

The others relaxed sooner as the person who appeared down there revealed themself and they saw who it was. "What Danny gave you is worth what he charged. And, he is willing to offer his services again-"

"What changed his mind?" Raijin asked. He stepped away from the circle of judgmental villains who had been questioning him about his methods of dealing with Zach himself. "Weren't you all heading out to stop Zach yourselves?" Raijin's eyebrows narrowed in and the boy glared at her darker as he added, "Isn't Eziano going to take care of Zach before I get my chance to? Wasn't it your 'Devil' who said that-"

"Things have changed," Sly replied, her voice soft but her tone unsteady as she responded. She glanced towards Shigaraki, and she added, "You're the only ones who can stop him now."

Her voice was afraid. This ninja-looking woman with a small amount of blue skin showing sounded unnerved, not about the powerful villains all around her who could have killed her for suddenly appearing in their base like that, but about the one she was speaking of now. "We were always the ones who could stop him best," Raijin replied smugly, leaning back and tilting his head to look down his nose at one of the "assassins" who sounded so much less impressive now that he was seeing this.

"What is your boss offering?" Shigaraki asked towards Sly.

Intanzo looked next to him as Shigaraki Tomura started walking that woman's way. The female assassin herself opened her eyes wide as the leader of the League of Villains started her way, asking in a normal tone with a small smile on his face but yet so much power and authority behind it that it shook her at her core. Sly gulped, then she began, "Full loyalty. Same price as before, but to become a member of the League of Villains…"

It's amazing, Intanzo thought while looking at the back of Shigaraki's head.

Intanzo thought of the way Gigantomachia looked at Shigaraki that he never fully understood. As former followers of All For One, the idea of following his successor had been harder for Gigantomachia to accept or so he had heard. Intanzo smiled in a low way while staring at the back of his leader's head, I can see now. Intanzo noticed how Raijin was grinning with such a cocky look happy about Shigaraki's strength rather than in awe of it. Intanzo shook his head though at that boy's immature reaction, while thinking, I know now why Shigaraki was chosen as the successor rather than myself.

"Why does he not ask me this himself?" Shigaraki wondered to the woman whose voice he cut off while looking over her head. Sly's eyes bulged, and back behind her Danny appeared in the shadows out of nowhere.

Sly spun as her boss appeared there, her power no longer working on him once he moved like that. Danny "The Devil" shook his head though as Shigaraki calling him out did not do anything for him. "Was she not speaking for you?" Shigaraki wondered as the woman who had been offering their services was just offering loyalty that Danny did not seem to want to give. "Do you need another demonstration of my strength?" Shigaraki asked, tilting his head to the side and smirking more. He held up his hands and Sly stared at them in panic, but Shigaraki just held his palms up and seemed to be relaxed completely as he said, "Well if you do decide to join us, I am glad we have you on our side again. Even if you are not impressed-"

"You need to stop Lifebringer in a way that doesn't involve fighting him," Danny said. He said it in a low voice with his eyes dark as he spoke to the leaders of Japan's underworld. You're the only ones who can, Danny thought with his heart racing harder as he saw Shigaraki frowning back at him in a way that did look somewhat dangerous. He shook his head more though and added, "Use the flashdrive. Use your ties with those in the light and get him out of the way first." He bit down as he saw more looks darting his way of people losing fear of him, losing respect for him, and he snapped in a low growl at Shigaraki when that leader frowned at him, "One mountain is nothing."

The growl made silence fall underground as everyone stared at the assassin who many of them had thought was going off to join Eziano to try and kill Zach Sazaki. "I'll join you," Danny offered. "No rules this time. Because there's no longer that threat of what happens if I break them."

"You mean," Intanzo began, his eyebrows raising up in surprise.

"He's fucking crazy," Danny whispered. "Yeah, one of your mountains is gone. The entire Muindo Range was reorganized and redecorated with the corpses of every assassin in the world." Danny bit down, and he hissed, "We have to stop Lifebringer without fighting him. He came in and the world shattered and mountains fell apart and were blown away and at the end of it, Lifebringer flew off and all the assassins were dead. Eziano was dead. Even our God who came down to fight him was…"

Everyone in the room stared towards the two assassins in a sudden confusion overtaking the fear of how The Devil just claimed Eziano Mozcaccio's death. The Devil spoke in a lower voice after beginning that, "Our God who Eziano and Eziano's father, and his father before him all praised…" Sly looked back towards Danny who had stepped closer to the woman he had been a part of Eziano's actual assassin organization with. The two of them were members, but because of fear rather than actually being devout.

"We were in their order," Sly admitted as it seemed Danny was fine with revealing this now. She looked back towards the top leaders of the League of Villains, and she whispered softly, "We were not just hired and working under his rules, but part of His order. God's… I saw him once."

"I'm glad to be rid of them all," Danny said, his voice a deep growl. Sly looked back towards him and her eyes softened more and Danny shifted his gaze to her for a moment to show there were a few people he did mean to exclude from that 'all.' Other than their friends who had died that night though, Danny could not think of any he actually cared about losing. He continued darkly though, "But I also know that now, you League of Villains are the only ones who could stand between him and ruling the world. Exterminating us all."

The League around the room were stunned. They were frozen where they stood, because to them, it was Lifebringer who stood in the way of them and world domination. Why did this assassin make it sound like the other way around?! Raijin flicked his right hand forward, and everyone around spun then looked towards Danny and Sly who screamed out in pain as they were zapped. "Thank you for your input," Raijin thanked the assassin while Shigaraki turned himself and looked back to Raijin from the electrocuted bodies of their spazzing-out allies on the ground now. "But you already helped more than enough."

He did not sound scared. Nothing Danny had said seemed to get to him, and he held something up for Shigaraki to see when the leader of the League turned back to him. "Will you get Sazaki taken care of in time?" Shigaraki asked the confident younger man who seemed so assured that this was no problem to him.

"I'll deal with Zach as promised," Raijin assured Shigaraki. "I actually wanted to punish Nikko for letting him get back to U.A.," Raijin continued, raising his voice and making all the villains look to him now rather than to the assassin who had scared so many of them into an even deeper-seeded fear of Lifebringer than they already had. It was a rational fear, but Raijin needed to quell it anyway and he continued calling out about how he had full control over the Prime Minister of Japan, shrugging his shoulders as he did while he spoke in a casual tone about this amount of power. "I want the prime minister to keep thinking he's nothing more than a pawn, and that he has to do everything I say, as Nikko has yet to realize just how important a piece he is in our games that he actually does have some push. Things he can say he won't do in order for us to keep him under our control and in the position he's in…"

Other villains were getting confused. Raijin had seemed like he was talking about the control he had over the PM which was somewhat reassuring, but now he was talking like Nikko actually had control over him that the man just did not know yet. That somehow started putting them even more at ease though, which was the real confusing thing here. Why it was that he was smirking despite what he was saying to them. The fact that even though he was the only one having bumps in his plans while the rest of the operations were moving smoothly, should have made him more apologetic or nervous, or anything but calm and excited. Unless he was crazy… but he did not sound crazy. He sounded intelligent.

Intanzo leaned his head back and looked towards Raijin hiding the amusement from his expression, only allowing the impressed look he had show through slightly as well.

Danny rose his head shakily and glared with a furious expression at the blond teen whose intentions he could not read. He could not even tell if Raijin planned on killing him here or if that was just to get him to shut up, but he was preparing himself to fight back and kill them all as he did not believe Raijin like the rest of them. What he could see on the kid's face after looking up like that though, He believes in himself. I can see that much at least.

"…I couldn't get too annoyed at him when Zach made it back to U.A. when I thought Zach was about to disappear." He looked back Shigaraki's way and added, "I have the situation under control. I'm all ready to send this to Nikko who I so graciously forgave for his mishap, a mishap he was terrified I was going to react harshly over." Raijin tossed up the flashdrive in his right hand and snagged it between two fingers, his index and middle, then he curled those fingers up and held the flashdrive over his head. "Now I can give this to him, and I am ready to send it to Nikko. Just say the word."

"And it will work?" Shigaraki wondered.

This time, Raijin looked back down to Danny who he gave a small and grateful grin. "Oh yeah. Although I don't appreciate you sneaking your way in here, I suppose this gift I paid for evens things out." He paused and nodded his head as a signal that he was going to let them live and continue to help the LoV. He glanced back at Shigaraki and added, "Pick the right moment to use this, and in that time we can make our final preparations for the swift conquest of Japan. Turn them all against each other and abuse the moment."

"It's not just about Japan," Shigaraki responded. The leader of the League of Villains had long wavy bluish gray hair, a slender and lean figure not as tall or large as many of his subordinates. He wore gray and black, and he had scars all over his neck from years of digging his own fingers into it. Shigaraki held up his hands in front of him and out to the sides, "Nor is it about making villains around the world 'rise up' to do the same in their nations." Some of the others who thought that was a major part of the plan got confused by that statement, only to stare at Shigaraki with their eyes growing wider as he continued, "They will rise only behind us. Below us. We will not stop, nor will we slow down when Japan falls. Their nations will crumble and their skies will burn."

Shigaraki's tone was not overly cocky. That was the craziest part about it. He was smiling, speaking on their bright dark future, "I need you all to trust me. Neither Lifebringer, nor Death, nor Endeavor, nor Deku will be able to stop our ambitions. They will be rolled over by the free future where everything in this world has fallen. Their society rubble beneath our feet. All they've built destroyed… torn down…" Shigaraki's body gave off a destructive aura unlike anything any of them had ever felt, other than Sly though even that assassin stared forward with her eyes trembling at the familiar sight. Shigaraki's face shadowed over and he looked absolutely horrifying yet at the same time made everyone in the room smirk in crazed ways with bloodthirsty excitement surging through them, as Shigaraki Tomura finished, "…decayed."

---

Zach lay on the floor of his room and did sit ups on a slant to make it harder on his abs. His legs were up against the wall and he curled his body in as far as he could without any Death inside his stomach to make it harder on his abdominal muscles. So much stronger. The boy who had not slept all night slammed his left fist into his own stomach after doing a crunch, and he chuckled at the faint feeling of pain he felt in his ribs. He had barely held back on that swing inwards, and though flexing, the fact that he could not feel anything was good news.

He lifted his shirt and ripped off all the bandages wrapped around his torso. Zach kicked his legs up and backwards, flipping himself up onto his feet and then cracking his neck to either side. Still not tired at all. Another day is starting up. Barely felt anything from all that working out. Wasn't too focused on actually training as much as on the languages and news and tomorrow- today. It's already light outside. I'm pretty smelly. Under the bandages too, and my right arm?

Zach swung around his right arm. He moved it in front of his body and he ripped the cast off of it with his left hand. He broke pieces apart and checked his red skin underneath while rubbing his arm that did not feel very sore or even in the slightest amount of pain. He smacked down on his own shoulder as Sero had done in class the day before. Broken bones are like nothing. A few days and they're gone. Though without killing Ares my body wouldn't have done it this fast. Recovery speeds up with killing, not just with my strength. I should get this injured again just to test if the recovery speed at my new max is slower than this recovery is going. I think it should be without a kill to boost its speed, but there's no telling what Death has in store for me this time.

He headed downstairs for the showers. His head was bobbing as he imagined the music he had been listening to while working-out there for a while. He had put on some electronic music with heavy beats that were rhythmic and sped up gradually through the song, making for a good workout song that he liked to lift to. His head was bobbing to his internal music as he was passing the fourth floor, and he glanced in at Bakugo who was just about to walk out of the hall when the blond stopped to stare at him. Zach looked Bakugo's way and smirked while bobbing his head still, and his smirk grew more at the dark look that covered Bakugo's face as if taunting his classmate whose eyes bulged at the look Zach just gave him while turning back forward and continuing to bob to no music at all.

Zach had told Bakugo before how he was looking forward to their fight. It's what echoed in Bakugo's head as he wondered if maybe Zach's smirk was a reference to that, though he was frozen to the spot and just stared at Zach's back as he continued down the stairs. The spiky-haired teen had a hesitant look on his face at how smirk-y and carefree Zach had looked. He had been busy all afternoon the day before and could barely sleep with all that was happening everywhere, yet Zach looked like he had just gotten a full night's worth of sleep and did not know or care about the tribulations of the world.

Chill. No way. Zach laughed to himself at the half-attempt he made to try and fake a less happy expression. Everything's going great for me. Hagakure and Ojiro forgave me. Thought they'd be the hardest to get done in a single week, and here I am. One day in, crushing it. Zach went to the showers and turned the water as hot as it could go as he stood under it.

He stood there and washed off. He shampooed his hair, scrubbed his body down, and he frowned as he could clearly see the steam rising from him despite his body not feeling very hot. It was hotter yesterday. Hurt more. This arm can't feel shit, Zach got more annoyed as he turned his left arm over in the shower. I've got some free time today. My shit should be arriving so I can do some work more effectively. If my arm is repaired I can do everything more efficiently. I can't hunt them down from outside the school, but I have the resources to hunt them as well as any hero could from inside this facility. From on this fucking campus, I can track them and locate them. I feel like I can do it right now.

That's fucking sick. Zach smirked and stared straight up into the hot water that he let get in his eyes and clenched them shut with his mouth twisting into a bigger grin this time. Get it out now. Can't walk around like this. You just saw how Bakugo reacted! Need to chill. They'll think you're a psycho otherwise. He chuckled under his breath and shook his head while bowing it forward and resting it against the hard tiles in front of him. I already feel it surging up to Limiter 0 levels, but I have the control now. I learned control and I won't create new limiters. It will all be mine to use. At any time. At any place. Under my full control. I won't limit it like last time as I felt it rising like this. In fear of what I might do or how strong I might get.

I wasn't prepared to face Ares because I held back my power from even myself. I won't do that this time. I told Midoriya I know that Shigaraki's going to be near impossible to beat. Kaminari's a fucking genius and All For One just needs the drop on me and he can end it all. I won't let that happen. I can't. I have to be as strong as I possibly can be. Zach snapped his eyes open and glared forward with tinted red vision that faded back to normal shade after an instant. The droplets of water stopped falling in slow motion off the strands of his hair that were wet down to his forehead and stuck off the skull bones of his eyebrows. Those droplets moved faster and faster while the streams of water falling around him sped back up, and Zach grinned again and even laughed as he could see and count the individual droplets in that moment.

Zach finished getting ready for class and put on the new uniform he was granted. Midoriya's was almost perfectly his size, but this one was just slightly bigger as he was about an inch taller than his friend. Have I gotten taller since I came back in January? I knew I grew in prison, but I thought maybe it was over. Zach walked out of the building in a uniform made just for him. He thought back on waking up in the hospital after getting out of Tartaros, and the looks of his classmates from Class A who had almost all shown up for that other than Jirou and Todoroki. They're still some of the most distant. Two of the hardest to normalize things with in under a single week. Under it now? Can I do it? By the end of the weekend. Start of the weekend? Ha! Giving myself less and less time. It's an ambitious goal. Can I accomplish it in one day?

Do I want to? He wondered to himself in a more thoughtful way as he headed down the road towards school. Without needing to fix this, what else would I spend a month doing here? Wasting time that's what. It's what it'd feel like, yet if I could do it quicker and I don't just so it doesn't feel like it then I'll know it and it will feel like it anyway. So then I need to do it now. As fast as I can- don't rush it. Don't get too cocky. They won't like that. That's not how… It's not an easy task. It's the hardest thing ever. Harder than killing a God? Zach asked himself it skeptically.

As he was on his way to school, Zach spotted some figure up ahead of him who was half a foot shorter but a muscular teen who he suspected was in the hero course. The first-year he spotted was glaring down the road towards him already, even though a few of his classmates were talking to him and urging him not to do this. Zach slowed down while raising his eyebrows at the boy with long white hair who started marching down the road towards him. Ah shit. This must be that kid who challenged Bakugo. They told me about him. Kimikaro Hone.

The boy with pitch black eyes stopped directly in Zach's way on the road to the school building. His tiny blue pupils were steady in those black eyes as he stared down the older boy, and he crossed his arms after looking Zach Sazaki up and down from close up. Kimikaro's classmates in the first year hero course were staring at Lifebringer but they gawked as their classmate called out, "What are you smiling about? Think you're better than us because you're a celebrity? Or that you can still get into Class A?"

What a ballsy fucker. Zach lowered his smile down a bit but the corners of his lips were still raised in a friendly way as he looked down at this sixteen year old. Though I'm glad, Zach thought as the kid kept snapping at him in a cocky way as if daring Zach to try and fight him. He stuck with that kind of stuff and didn't call me a murderer or bring up my parents like Dendo did. Zach's expression got flat for a moment as Kimikaro announced how he was 'no big shot' and how he 'could take him' easily. Zach stepped forward and he smiled again when Kimikaro's body tensed up with his eyes growing wide as he thought this was the start of a fight.

Zach moved to the side though and continued around the younger kid who turned and glared in a more pissed-off way as he had thought Lifebringer was coming at him, only to do the same thing Bakugo had done to him at the start of the year. Zach glanced to his right at the boy glaring furiously up at his face though, and Zach just smiled at the kid who had spent a year at U.A. now with the intent to be a hero. There was no anger on Lifebringer's face suggesting anything Kimikaro had said had gotten to him. Zach just said as he walked by the kid's side, "I look forward to seeing you become a great hero. Pretty brave there, Kimikaro."

Zach continued down the road. The student behind him just turned with his face scrunched up. His mouth opened as he wanted to call something out at him, but he was confused and could not continue his angry rant as he for some reason felt like thanking Lifebringer for saying that to him. He knew my name? That's, pretty, fucking cool. Kimikaro frowned when his classmates spun back to him and started rambling about the same thing he had just thought.

He must have gotten scared after watching Fantasma's live death. The strongest of her class in U.A., only a few years ahead of him. So he's trying to prove to himself that he's still the same fearless kid who challenged Bakugo on day 1. He needs to prove it to himself because he doesn't know if he can still do this. He doesn't know if he's the same person, the same kid who wanted to be a hero. Zach continued to smile in a more friendly and casual way as he headed towards school, hiding all of his thoughts as he just walked at a steady pace forwards. Wonder if it would have been better to call him out on that? Make him confront it directly?

I think if I told Kimikaro instead of letting him figure out those insecurities on his own to get past them- but we might not have time for him to do it himself. Is letting him overcome it on his own prudent? Time's running out. That push will help at least. If he's still struggling next time I see him I'll disappear and reappear behind him. Whisper something in his ear about fear or something. Scare the shit out of him and make him confront fear like he's never faced it before. A low chuckle slipped out of Zach's lips and he frowned for a moment as he wondered, Why did that make me laugh? That's not good. I need to relax. The euphoria hasn't started to die down yet, but it should before the boost does. The boost won't die down actually, because the rest of my strength is recovering even as I lose the boost, and then that boost will get added onto the full recovery.

As I lose the boost I'm recovering faster. There will be a moment when the euphoria should be gone but my strength is still rising. I have to know that moment! If not, I'll have to live with the euphoria of life forever. The thought made his lips crack back up into another smirk. That wouldn't be so bad, would it? Living life like this? On fucking Cloud 9! Just accept it for another day before getting worried. Keep the excitement lower though. People are still concerned about yesterday. All of Class A will be focused on it, so my reactions will make them make assumptions about the things they're thinking about. They'll want to put me into their theories because they didn't know where I was, and some of them who would have counted me out because they saw me come back that night are also the ones who might remember I still had my skin sleeve at the time.

There's Zeira. She hasn't come to see me yet. I expected a greeting when she first saw me, but she's stared from afar without approaching. If she hears about Kimikaro's approach and what I said to him then maybe she will. After all, I treated the two of them very differently upon our meetings…

Zach started up a new day in Class A no longer wearing his sling as he had on the day before. All Might questioned him about it, and Zach replied that Recovery Girl was being more cautious than anything but that his arm was fine. He moved it around to show it to his teacher who confusedly nodded his head while watching Zach's arm movements closely and not seeing anything wrong with them suggesting it was still broken. Recovery Girl had told him Sazaki's reasons already though, so Sazaki's lie did little to make All Might believe that was actually the truth though it did convince many of his classmates who thought the sling and cast were a bit of an overreaction considering how fine Zach had appeared to be.

It could not have recovered that fast, could it have? All Might wondered to himself as he tried to teach homeroom without keeping too much focus on only one of his students.

Zach's classmates watched as Zach showed off his arm movements as well. None of them could read his expression as he showed it to their teacher. He had stared straight at All Might as if only showing it to him with no care that the rest of them were watching him and his arm carefully. Some of them remembered how he had reacted when Sero hit him in that arm the day before. They could not tell if he was faking it then, or now, or what!

Unlike the day before when he missed some of his morning classes while he was with Recovery Girl, Zach stayed for the whole morning this time. He was there for Cementoss' class and was glad to see his block-shape-headed teacher smile at him looking happy to see him back at U.A. Cementoss would change his mind by the end of the class period about being happy about Zach's return. He had even asked his newly returned student to read a passage from a classical Japanese poet's epic that the class was in the middle of and that Cementoss had hoped his student had caught up on by that class.

Zach read casually. He read aloud the difficult grammar and messed up once as he saw an old kanji that was not used much anymore, making him smile in an odd way when Cementoss had to correct him on the more classical meaning of the word. His smile confused most people around him other than Midoriya, and for Mineta who felt like what he saw Zach reacting to had to do with what he was doing in the common room the day before.

What the hell would he need to know some old dead kanji character for though? If it was really just for being able to speak with people from different countries- now that I think about it, a lot of those books were on old languages, like I saw hieroglyphics out there! Mineta's eyes narrowed at Zach while he was reading, and the short boy finished to himself, And if he was lying about his reasons for studying that kind of stuff, then was he lying about not knowing the news until I started talking to him either? He just wanted to talk about it- I would have been happy to!

There was no reason to lie. So maybe, he wasn't? I don't know. I can't tell… Which sucks. Even though you told us you were Death- you were forced to tell us. It doesn't count. It doesn't, show that you can tell the truth. It wasn't even that you were forced to say it, Darling just said it to us. Said it so that you couldn't stay, and we trusted you enough to believe that other stuff you said. Stuff that made it so we didn't arrest you for being Death, even though there's no proof other than what you said… I believe some of it though. A lot of- most of it! Should I? Mineta lowered his gaze down to his desk frustratedly. He got so emotional about stuff. It makes sense that it was him. I believed him! Yet I believed what he said yesterday and it's clear he's lying about a lot right now!

Zach sat back in his chair with a strange expression of happiness on his face. It was different from the day before. Other people had seen his smile and the way he had been talking to Ashido before school, and they could tell that in a big part he was showing her that he was alright. That was finished though. He could have gone back to some sort of normalcy. Instead, he was relaxed and showing it without a care in the world. For the students of Class A who spent the afternoon before searching for survivors on Mt. Yamagucha, only to find none, it was unwelcome.

Ashido stared over to the side of the room and frowned as she saw Jirou glaring at the back of Zach's head. Her frown stayed there though as she shifted her gaze forward and saw Zach's fingers on the right edge of his desk tapping away. Is he struggling, because of the tapping? Ashido did not know why she would have felt better had Zach tapping like that been a sign that he was struggling with PTSD from the Void. But the tapping was not repetitive or to each second, it was to a beat of a song he was thinking of and practically humming along to.

His eyes are red. Cementoss could not help but think it after leaving Class A. He stood in the hallway thinking of what upset him most about Zach Sazaki's overall demeanor through the class period. Yet as much as he seemed overly cheerful, in a general good mood, and free of the concern that the rest of his students clearly felt over the events of the day before, his eyes were the most concerning thing to the teacher and pro hero who felt more like he had to focus on the hero part right now. Or, were they? Cementoss wondered to himself, walking past a confused colleague who glanced at him with a look wondering what his expression was for only to receive no response as Cementoss' eyes were lowered thoughtfully as he walked down the hall.

Zach's normally hazel eyes were not the same shade as usual. They were not red, but Cementoss' confusion was justified nonetheless. They were darker than usual. Not in an emotional way, but his irises were a darker shade of greenish-red that melded in a strange and off-putting way to the teacher who had looked him straight in those eyes unlike the rest of the class who could only catch side glances of him while they all faced the same way in that classroom. When the period ended, Zach focused on making his eyes return to normal as some of his classmates got up. The swirls of pitch-blackness faded from the hazel and any hint of red vanished as well.

Cementoss knew I had Death on the brain. Thought I kept it out of my corneas, but even maintaining regular vision with no red tint I couldn't keep the physical aspect from showing… Zach had his left hand over the desk, and he tapped the pencil between two of his fingers on it while deep in thought. His head turned slightly to the left and he looked out the windows during the break between periods. "Ahh," he let out a long breath of air that made a noise from how heavy it was.

He shrugged out his shoulders then looked back down at his left arm which felt much different than his right during the shrug. Everything I need should be coming in today. Don't know if the Costume Development Studio will have everything I need. Power Loader might have stocked up because of his arm, but it's still better to have my own personal repair kit on standby. New clothes, a laptop, everything I'll need for a few weeks here.

Jirou glared hard at the back of Zach's head and at part of his face as he was somewhat turned which gave her a look of it. His eyes never shifted back to her though as he could have looked into the corners and back at her. Her frown deepened for a moment but then lifted back so her lips were flat. What am I getting annoyed for? I want him to react or something? I don't even care. Jirou put her left elbow on the desk and rested her chin on it so her head was turned mildly to the right, getting Zach's face out of even her peripheral vision. Just staring at the back of his head doesn't piss me off. Anymore, she added it to herself in some frustration as she thought about how angry she would have gotten about this had it been a month earlier. Even a few weeks ago- but not being mad just means it's done. We're not friends.

Jirou rose her eyes up to the ceiling and then took her chin off her hand as TyreFire walked into the room for their Calculus lesson. It was a class she was struggling with, though she found herself getting annoyed again as Zach refocused as well and looked to get ready to take close notes. Like you don't know calculus, Jirou scoffed internally. She lost the annoyance quickly again though. Why would he? Why do I just assume, he knows everything? Probably because he outsmarted Raijin, Jirou's eyes darkened but she tried to focus as TyreFire got right into his lesson to the third years at U.A. he was teaching.

I'd never admit that before. What you did was so unforgivable, but you beat him. Seeing that smug look wiped from his face should have felt so much better. It only really feels good right now, at this moment, thinking back on it. Jirou lifted the corners of her lips for a moment, laughing about it in her head as she imagined Raijin's face in the moment his plans stopped going so perfectly that night. She got back to her usual expression a second later though, yet instead of anger she just stared at the back of Zach's head in an apathetic way. A main reason I was mad at you, I guess, was probably because you made me into a hypocrite. By my not showing Momo the letter.

She admitted it to herself sadly but at the same time relieved by what she had finally done the other day. It just built up for so long, but that weight's totally gone now. That weight is gone and I'm no longer being a hypocrite, which means now I can see clearly that I am still angry at you and it has nothing to do with what I'm doing myself. Jirou's thoughts were clear and her eyes narrowed with her glare returning at the back of the head of the boy in front of her. The anger was much less infuriated and no longer something she could not articulate to herself well because of the guilt, as it had always been before. Then again, even with her calmer anger at the boy in front of her, she found it getting offset while she tried to tell herself all the serious reasons she was concerned about him. He's killed before. He is a killer, and he can do whatever he wants. He has the power at least. Considering the Villain Summit he interrupted, the League of Shadows' bosses he took down, the Pit…

Her feelings of concern and her intense gaze wavered at that thought.

"He said he had to wear a collar?"

"That's what he said, Todoroki. And the scar looks like it could be-"

"It's not." Jirou closed her eyes and grit her teeth for a moment as a small movement of Zach's head revealed some of the back of his neck where the scar tissue wrapped around and was visible to her above the collar of his school uniform. She remembered how dismissive she was of Sato when he was telling Todoroki about some of the stuff Zach said at the hospital that neither she nor Todoroki had gone to visit Zach in after he was shot on his release from Tartaros. "Every word out of his mouth was a lie. I knew it was all you were going to hear. Getting shot was just his way of drawing you all in, or a way to pretend to villains like he's weak so that they don't go too deep into hiding. It's all a ploy, and any of you who seriously buy his stories are being idiots."

Jirou opened back up her eyes and focused on the calculus lesson as best she could. The Pit, Sueguon, the Villain Summit, it was all so crazy. Learning about all of that- and that you set up the raid on the League of Shadows' HQ to include heroes from the start. That's crazy. They could have just arrested you on the spot! They should have, no- well, it would have been legally the right thing to do, but you had faith in them I guess. The Pit, Jirou thought it to herself again, as every time she started thinking about it her mind quickly wandered to all the other things she had heard at that meeting which were crazy too. None of them made her heart twinge and ache though as this one did, though when she thought about the way Zach had been looking the past day now she could not imagine the Pit having existed at all.

I saw the pictures! She yelled it to herself, because somehow Zach's cheerful expression was making her doubt her own eyes. He killed innocent people. People pit against each other in fights to the death. And you were there killing so much that they dubbed you the "Champion?" The Champion of the Pit, the Pit that you would go on to destroy. How many people, in that place alone? That thought had Jirou's heart lose the aching feeling to start speeding up more instead. He was brutal out there, and yet, Jirou thought about the surveillance in Sueguon where Death glanced back towards the corpse of the villain who had been ripped apart by his comrade he had just had to take down himself.

That was Zach, Jirou had known it through the video despite Underlord's appearance. That moment though frustrated her at what it suggested he was feeling at the time. An enemy he was fighting in the Villain Summit wasn't affected by Death either. What kind of mystery is that? And why does it make me sick to think about? The implications of it, Jirou was getting frustrated by how little she could focus on the calculus class, and how it was not even the things Ms. Clue wanted her to concentrate on after yesterday that were keeping her distracted. He left me- us. We needed him and he left us. And now we let him come back here? And, now I have to deal with being part of the force going after him while also… also being his classmate again?

Jirou frowned deeper and in a more serious way, As long as I don't think of it like that, it's fine. We're in the same classes, that's all. I'm sure that's how Bakugo's going to do this. Her eyes shifted to the right and back to check on Bakugo, only to dart her eyes to the front of the room as Bakugo was writing furiously and taking many notes that she sweatdropped at the sight of. And he's going to do it without failing out too, Jirou scolded herself, as her grades were far from the top of the class unlike Bakugo's.

---

"MMmm!" Zach lowered the burger in his hands and had to shake his head with his eyes clenched for a second. Man that's good, his eyes opened and he stared down at the burger Lunch Rush had made. As good as Bailey's BBQ. Zach sat back on the bench and thought about the Tennessee park table where he and Darling had had some delicious burgers and brisket she had picked up for them at a place nearby while he was working from the park. He could imagine that girl smiling at him from across the table as he talked about their next moves across the American southeast and what he had talked to Gentle about over a video call a few minutes ago.

Airi faded from mind though. No one sat in her place. His eyes shifted around as he took another bite with less focus on how good his food was. The table was empty except for one other person who sat down at the end of it, though Bakugo had his headphones in and was focused intently on something on his phone. The cafeteria was oddly quiet, and Zach glanced towards other tables too which caused some business and general studies' students to avert their staring gazes.

I really need to give them some space. My goal was too lofty. No way I could fix everything in a couple of days. Look how busy everyone is, he took another bite of his food and had to smile at the wonderful tastes of BBQ sauce and spices that Lunch Rush had mixed together. Fucking amazing- It tastes just as good as yesterday's! That's good. Great! So they're busy, he refocused as he chewed slower to savor the food. They all know that dealing with me is important too. I've seen how intense some of them are about figuring me out, or figuring out how they want to deal with me, and yet they're swamped with schoolwork and their actual jobs too.

Most of Class A was missing from the lunchroom, but a lot of Class B were not there either. Even more were gone than yesterday which was before his classmates knew they were all going to be as swamped as they had become after meeting with their pro heroes who wasted no time getting them to work. Even now, Zach had seen some of his classmates poking heads around corners or talking on the phone while carrying away their lunch trays and juggling notebooks to take notes on the calls they were on with other heroes who wanted to keep them up to date on new information only privy to their investigative teams. They all needed to be ready immediately after work to start helping or there would be no point in the pros bringing them along when things were so tense.

I have to give them some time. Use the whole month. They'll feel rushed if you keep showing creepy smiles- I'm not being creepy. I'm just happy. Relieved. Kind of sucks though that no one else is feeling good right now to share this time with me. Don't know how much longer- Just enjoy while you can. Even if Sero was being a bit, Zach lowered the right corner of his lips down and stopped chewing. He thought of looking past Jirou who darted him a dirty look when she thought he was approaching her, then she rushed off while he went right up to Sero on their way to the cafeteria a few minutes ago.

He had tried just talking to his friend in a normal and friendly way, but as much as Sero responded at first and tried to humor him back, the conversation did not end well. "Zach I- just. I've got to make a call to Ape Man," He was busy. A lot of people died around Mt. Yamagucha. Or at least they're reported as "missing," but I don't know when my friends are each going to learn that they're not. Trying to smile and have friendly conversations with me about nothing isn't what they want right now. It probably pisses them all off to see me so relaxed while they're busy like this. It definitely does. He imagined the cold shoulder he got from Tokoyami who was speaking with Kirishima about something now that Gang Orca and Hawks were going to work together that afternoon so their schedules intertwined.

Even the boy at the lunch table Zach was sitting at with now, Zach thought of Bakugo's annoyed snap at him not too much earlier. "Out of the way! Nobody's got time for your shit." Bakugo had barely looked at him, more just one of his angry shouts as Zach had walked into his path near the door to the classroom which made Bakugo tilt his head back and yell that before storming past in annoyance. Tokoyami had given a glance but looked away back to Kirishima who Zach gave a look as if wondering what Bakugo's problem was, which got Kirishima's look turning much angrier too like Bakugo's had been. Nobody's got time today. That's fine. I've got enough to do while they cool off. If they do- They will.

Behind Zach and at the door to the cafeteria, a pair of Class B students entered the room after a call with the pro hero they were working with together. Monoma Neito and Kuroiro Shihai stared towards the near-empty table where Zach Sazaki was sitting and the two stopped their talks about Mt. Yamagucha. Both of them thought about all the incidents that had happened within the past few days, and the one that they had focused least on was Zach's oddly timed return to U.A. They each thought that if he was still out there he would have been dealing with these things himself, but instead he was hanging around U.A. while the country wondered what he was doing.

The two glanced at each other, but Kuroiro looked back towards Zach first and just stared towards the boy he had not gone and talked to since Zach returned. He had not seen him since Zach's release from Tartaros, yet Kuroiro thought back and he felt his stomach clenching as he imagined the last time they had talked. He started towards Zach's table. Monoma took in a huge breath of air and then started forward as well, cracking a grin as he walked towards the Class A student who turned his head and stared back at the two of them approaching with eyes that seemed strange.

Monoma ignored the look of Zach's eyes because of the look in those eyes and the smile that broke on Zach's face at the sight of the two of them approaching. "Hey guys," Zach said to them, lifting a napkin and wiping his mouth as he finished chewing and swallowed his last bite of food. "Great lunch today, right?"

Monoma could not keep up with his casual smirking appearance as he stepped up right behind Zach on his left. He was lost for words for a second at the first thing Zach said to him after years, and he dumbly nodded before realizing he had been flustered. Monoma sat down on Zach's left side, and he wondered next to him at his old friend, "Can you even taste food? A superhuman monster like you-"

Zach rose his eyebrows and then smirked menacingly back at Monoma who leaned his head away. Zach laughed and his face was back to the relaxed and friendly one in an instant, before turning to Kuroiro who had darted his shocked eyes to Monoma at the last statement he made. Zach's response took it as a friendly jab at him for being Class A or something, rather than how he knew he could have taken it. He also completely ignored how Monoma's first question fueled the dread inside him that he desperately tried to ignore with some humor. "Hey, Kuroiro," Zach said to the dark boy behind him who had yet to speak or sit down.

Kuroiro slowly sat down on Zach's right side. He nodded at Zach in response and greeting, but the nod was slow and he could not speak yet as Zach looked at him awaiting him to say something. "I-" Kuroiro started. Monoma had a weird sense of deja vu, thinking of right after the Sports Festival when Kuroiro had brought up Zach's childhood friend, whose screams they had heard before the SFI. "I'm sorry," Kuroiro whispered.

"Don't be," Zach replied with a small shake of his head, knowing what Kuroiro was referring to and giving him a light smile but also soft look of understanding. "It's not your-"

"I avoided you after Kaminari's betrayal," Kuroiro said, his eyes low as he sat next to someone he had once called friend. Someone closer to him than most of his own classmates. "Because I couldn't face you," Kuroiro admitted with his teeth clenching for a second in pained regret as it came out. "I couldn't go to you and say what I needed to. Say how sorry I was that I told Kaminari about the letter." Kuroiro rose his eyes and looked into Zach's that he definitely saw now were darker, shaded with blackish red inside the hazel. The look of those eyes made Kuroiro's pitch black face show even more regret all over it, as he gasped out, "And brought him with me, to meet Jenny."

Zach stayed quiet for a few seconds. His lips were flat as he stared at the boy in front of him. Monoma's eyes were huge as he stared past Zach's back and into Kuroiro's agonized eyes. Down the table, Bakugo had muted his own phone and was staring out the corners of his eyes with a surprised look at what he just heard. He had interacted with the Class B student a few times in the past year and a half, nearly two years now, without noticing once that what Kaminari had taunted Zach with in that basement had gotten to the Black boy so much.

"And I'm sorry," Zach replied back to Kuroiro after watching him apologize for that. "I'm sorry for not telling you earlier, that it's not your fault. And," he continued fast before Kuroiro could interrupt. "That I forgive you if you need it."

"I was the one who you told to go to her, and if I didn't bring him-"

"Shigaraki would have killed her anyway," Zach replied with a shake of his head. "And I do know that for sure. Because I'm the one who told him," Zach explained it to his friend whose eyes opened much wider just like Monoma's behind him, though it was Bakugo down at the end of the table who froze and stared with massive eyes of shock at what Zach just said. "In Camino Ward," Zach explained. "When Shigaraki leaked to the press that I had gone voluntarily and U.A. didn't deny it, I knew that the Akers were watching. I knew that they had heard, and I whispered, 'I have a family.' How I didn't want them to find out that way," Zach shook his head and he looked away from Kuroiro for a moment with a darker look over his face and the regret coming back up despite how far in the past this was.

"Doesn't matter now," Zach continued though, his smile returning as he leaned back to see both Monoma and Kuroiro. He focused more on the boy on his right though, as he went on, "After Mr. Akers came to the trial and said all he did for my sake, that sealed the deal anyway. Nothing you or I did could have affected it more, than John's kind heart which doomed him to that terrible death. Blaming ourselves for the actions of villains only causes more damage than good. So I forgive you, because it really, really isn't your fault."

Kuroiro gulped. His eyes shook for another second, and then he gave one of his rare and actually creepy smiles that Zach appreciated to see lighting up that dark face. "Anyway," Zach continued, shrugging his shoulders out and then reaching back for his food. "Saw you've been incorporating a lot of support tools lately. Following my lead huh?"

Monoma rose his eyebrows high that Zach was going to move right past this, and more-so that apparently Kuroiro was going to as well when his classmate started responding in an affirmative way to Zach's tease. It's been weighing on him for that long? And Zach just… Monoma smiled, and he hopped in on the conversation talking to Zach about his own weapons that he could use while Copying anyone's Quirk, though Zach responded casually how he had not noticed or seen Monoma on tv though. He said it as just an observation, but the jab hit Monoma in the chest and made Kuroiro chuckle in the back of his throat.

"…I have cans for spraying black graffiti everywhere. I can use Black anywhere I need-"

"Have you tried using black flares? Or smoke grenades that pop black smoke?" Zach wondered. Kuroiro paused and stared at Zach hesitantly as Zach continued eating but spoke faster and with a growing grin at his own ideas. "Since you can move black things that already move on their own, instead of painting certain things black you could toss those grenades that release smoke and then control the whole cloud. As well as dragging the grenades along the ground as they continue to give off smoke if you paint those grenades black in the first place. Then you'll have a reproducing cloud of smoke to zip around with as fast as the air can travel- And if you ever died," Zach continued even more thoughtfully and with a bigger grin that unnerved the two Class B students. Zach eased back on that grin, but he still elaborated on why he smiled there, "The two of us would be unstoppable, as you wouldn't need any of those weapons."

"In full Nightmare," Zach continued with an amazed shake of his head as he considered more combos and possibilities with their Quirks. "I could have you controlling a mass of Death without getting hurt by it. It would be like you have Death too as well as your own Quirk…" Zach trailed off, and he coughed and cleared his throat as he saw the other two staring too stunned at him at the things he was saying here rapid-fire like he must have had them all planned out long beforehand, or that he had to have been thinking about them for a long time. "Just saying," Zach finished, as if the ideas could still use work because they were vague and had not had a lot of thought put into them, which was true. True for him at least, which the other two actually believed.

"That's, beyond anything I've thought of myself-"

"Sorry," Zach said, knowing he overstepped and probably made Kuroiro feel inadequate for his extensive reasoning there. If there was a time you were just too weak, I know you're pissed now that you never thought of this. I hope it works when you test it out. "It's because of my time as a leader and commander," Zach attributed all he just said to. "I had to come up with uses for everyone's Quirks and counters for everything that my enemies could use on each of my individual comrades," Zach spoke without needing to explain what he was talking about, as he just assumed the two of them had read Oda's stories about him from prison. "But I went too far there," he added at the end with a look of apology next to him, making Kuroiro realize that what he was feeling must have been noticed by his old friend.

"It's no problem," Kuroiro started. He paused, then he added, "But I'd rather not think of how I could use my Quirk after dying, as I'd prefer not to die."

"I'd bring you back," Zach replied though, smiling at the Class B student and then giving Monoma a grateful look too as well as one suggesting the same thing. Monoma could not accept that though, frowning darkly as he heard Zach's offer and thought of something that happened about a week ago.

"Why me?" Kuroiro asked.

Monoma continued to frown while looking right back into Zach's eyes. "Us specifically?" Monoma added.

Zach's expression started to darken too, as what he just said was meant to be a good moment. He looked to Kuroiro whose look also got darker, and then he responded, "Yeah you specifically."

Monoma bit down and he closed his eyes for a second. "You can't just-" everything he had been seeing on tv for months, rushed at him all at once. "You don't get to choose," Monoma whispered, and he pushed back and got up from the seat. It was the end of lunch and a lot of people were getting up, but his standing seemed more to do with what they were talking about. "No one does," Monoma said, thinking on the Sports Festival and how many people they had brought back together. "'As many as we can,'" Monoma said. He stared down at Zach who looked back at him with his eyes slightly wider, as Monoma just quoted him from a moment when he had needed that.

The blond teen remembered sitting in a stairwell in Musutafu General that had cracks on the walls from the battle's damage. Crying as he could not take it after dying again in such a painful way, and what his friend had come down there and told him in a moment neither of them had spoken to anyone about afterwards. "You forget that?" Monoma asked softly, and when Zach did not respond he turned away and started off.

Kuroiro continued to frown when Zach looked back towards him too. He wanted to be annoyed by the response Zach gave to their questions. Yet instead, he felt bad about looking at Zach this way as it did not represent how he felt inside. He had to stand up and get going himself though, as he did not want to face the warm feeling he had that he already felt guilty about. Even after all this time, we're still friends. You still consider me a friend.

---

After school Zach stood in the workshop where he needed to repair his left arm. U.A.'s Development Studio was equipped with most of the tools Zach needed already. His packages had arrived at U.A. though, and after being closely searched through by the school's robots to make sure it was safe for him to bring them in, he now had everything he needed. He had music playing though did not wear headphones as it would be dangerous to do such work without being able to hear his surroundings.

The person who came into the Studio was the one person at the school who spent most of their time there, as she had for the past three years. The genius mechanic girl had pink hair short down only just below her chin where it curled out a bit in thick strand clusters. She wore a gray tank top, gloves, and work pants that were navy blue other than the gray overall straps that were currently down at her sides making her pants look baggier than usual. Hatsume Mei wore work boots and had tools sticking out of the pockets of her work pants, and she had her own specially-made goggles up on her forehead pushing back some of her hair too.

Hatsume entered the lab expecting to see someone in there since she could hear the music from outside. When she stepped in though, she stared forward with her jaw dropping slightly and her eyes bulging at the sight of the figure ahead of her. He had on a black tank top and tight black pants, as well as a black glove on his right hand. Above that glove and below his shoulder though where he had no sleeve sticking out, his arm was covered completely in scars. The amount of space not covered in scar tissue was less than the amount with scars on it. As for his left arm, she could not stop from staring at the pitch black shape of the muscular appendage that was holding onto a metal left arm as well.

Zach needed both arms to do repairs, but he was doing repairs on his own left arm. He needed the left, and he worked with his Death Arm working the same as his mechanical one would. Oddly enough though, his left arm actually stuck out of his side just below his actual shoulder. Some of his repairs were needed in the shoulder joint where his nerve damage had been especially severe, causing the lack of feeling farther down his arm that he was working on now to save the shoulder part for later. He had a steel mask over his face with a glass slit near the top of it he looked through while using the blowtorch with his right hand. He turned his head though when he heard someone enter the room, and he turned off the blowtorch before fully turning and raising up the mask from his face.

"Hatsume," Zach greeted the girl he had not spoken to in years. "Good to see you," he said, and Hatsume grinned big and rushed into the room.

"Is that it?!" Hatsume ran right up on Zach's left side. Zach tossed up his damaged left arm and then sucked his whole Death Arm back into his body as she approached. When he pulled it in on his left side though, the black appendage shot right back out of his right side just below his right arm. He maintained two arms at once, though he caught his left arm with his right hand and then turned it over and showed Hatsume both sides.

"Whooa," Hatsume slowed down and her eyes bulged. Zach thought it was just at the sight of his amazing prosthetic, but Hatsume had seen the kind of prosthetic Zach was using before already. "This arm's as good as Power Loader sensei's? The one you got for him?"

"I helped him get it," Zach said, trying to distance himself from being directly accredited for it. "But yes, it's as good-"

"Then how'd it get this much damage?!" Hatsume exclaimed in amazement. She snapped her eyes up to Zach's face, then she grinned and looked back down before reaching out and taking the arm out of his hands. "Wow. That's insane," Hatsume bent the arm at the elbow and checked out the dents, scratches, then she winced and let out a yelp. "Ah!" She tossed up, and Zach's black arm extended around and up in the air, catching the arm and lowering it gentler as his arm retracted back to its normal length. Hatsume forgot about the burning sensation in her fingers for a second as Zach's arm did that so naturally without him breaking eye contact with the girl he chuckled at as she got too excited and grabbed where he had just been blowtorching.

"I tend to get it banged up pretty often," Zach replied, without giving any specifics. "Fake skin does a good job at covering up damage, but sometimes you need to do some real maintenance to get everything working right. Not the usual tinkering," Zach said, putting the blame on himself for letting it get to this point as if the damage had accumulated over time rather than it being a single recent incident that caused this. That was the first warning sign to Hatsume, as she was nearly convinced by him yet at the same time did not believe that one bit.

"Huh," Hatsume said, nodding and keeping up her smile though as she remembered her excitement and kept it up. "Well get back to it! I want to see how you repair it," Hatsume said, then she added to the boy in front of her who she tossed his arm to, "And I have to do some work on my own babies! So don't mind me!" She expected him to maybe counter her or ask for privacy, so she made sure he was unable to do so by bringing up her own work that she could use as an excuse to stay and watch him closely.

The two of them started working not far from each other. Conversation died down as Hatsume got really into her work, though Zach could tell that even as focused as she was and as good at building as he watched her to be, she had enough skills to make it look like she was fully focused while at the same time watching him eagle-eyed. She's Zooming in on my scars. And on the dents. She can tell many of them are from the same place. As Zoomed in as she is too, I'm sure she can tell there are finger marks where he clenched down. Someone strong enough to dent my steel, will likely make her think of Midoriya.

Did the two of them really fight?! I heard from Vivi that Komori said that Mini-ta thinks you two slugged it out the other night!

Zach started buffing out the dents that she was staring at. He checked energy levels on a panel just below his elbow on the underside of his arm. He reconnected and disconnected the arm several times from his shoulder and checked the energy during the process to measure its readings. He got to tinkering on his shoulder, wincing as he used two black hands wrapped around his body and extended out while in front of a mirror, watching them work inside his shoulder that he could not just turn to Death in order to stop the pain, as then he would be unable to do any work in there. Maybe if I just make my central nervous system Death for now. I could do all the work without pain, and get it done easier as well. Without causing unnecessary damage or wasting any time. Or just disconnect a few connectors by turning, this section in between, into Death- "Ow." Alright that didn't work. Don't know why, but I guess if I'm turning individual clusters of nerves into Death it couldn't disconnect my nervous system. My body just adjusts to the changes. If it was that simple to mess with my internal bodily functions then I never would have survived haphazardly using it without considering them for the past few years…

Hatsume leaned over Zach's right shoulder as he was working away, his eyes glowing a dim red as several black arms stuck out of him and helped his maintenance work on one of the most high-tech pieces of equipment in the world. Her eyes sparkled through her goggles she was wearing now, and Zach had to turn to the right and squint at the glow coming from her eyes. As soon as he acknowledged her presence, she erupted with the questions she held off on as to not distract him, now that he was distracted already. "Are those wires inside connected to the nervous system- Those thicker ones are weapons, right? The cables look thin though, so do you have to repair them after each use? Have you already repaired them this time-"

"Power Loader's arm has a nervous system connector as well-"

"But your baby is much more amazing! It's far more advanced!" Hatsume exclaimed it and Zach did not bother trying to under-sell his arm any more as she was clearly able to tell from her closer inspection. "That energy inside it, where does it come from? Is it limitless, or do you have to charge it-"

"It recharges on its own-"

"The energy source is Quirk-based then, right?"

"Yes. It runs the energy weapon inside my left palm," Zach turned the arm and showed off a small circle on his palm that opened and glowed blue, then closed back up with the steel panel again. "It's-"

"Did you just control that with your mind?" Hatsume asked, and then she had to hold back a squeal as Zach's disconnected arm moved its fingers and gave her a thumbs up in response.

He rose back up a hammer in his right hand while most of his Death arms had retracted leaving just one to steady his prosthetic. "You want to help me repair it?" Zach wondered as he got back to work, hammering away at dents on the underside of a panel he lifting up to try and get it back to normal. Hatsume's eyes lit up and she spun to Zach in surprise, and he offered, "You can have a look inside while you do. It's not too easy for me to do on my own." A black strand whipped out of Zach's right side over to a tool bench he grabbed a suction device from and pulled back to himself. Though the tool was weak and he doubted would work on anything more than a dented car door, he figured maybe the U.A. lab would have an adjusted one meant for some stronger materials.

Hatsume's uneasy feeling rose back up inside her at the masterful control of those black strands he had been doing a good job of keeping away from her. She figured that was to make her feel safe, and yet watching him use this Death to create multiple arms that extended faster than she could move was more unnerving than reassuring. His mastered control over Death, scared her. He's a nice guy, Mei reminded herself, as it was something she had picked up on after the first time the two of them met. She had remembered the interest he showed in costume development that was more focused than many of his friends with strong Quirks who thought of their costumes as ways to improve their abilities, while his reasons were more for compensating and improving his mobility and ability compared to everyone else.

She agreed to his offer. Zach quickly regretted inviting her to help him though, as it was not a few minutes into her "helping" him that she was trying to add various new devices she had created for Power Loader's arm only to be denied by him. Zach had to deny her as well, as much as some of the attachments for his arm did look pretty cool when she strapped them on suddenly and showed it off to him. He held off on immediately denying everything she offered, rather telling her that they would finish repairs first then talk about anything more that might be added afterwards.

"So I've got some ideas for my costume I'd like you to have a look at too, by the way," Zach brought up as he went back to working on his arm alone, having to nearly pry it from Hatsume's hands so he could finish without her installing her jet engines that would make his arm fly much faster when he used his rocket fist attack. It completely worked at distracting the girl who had no idea what Zach's costume looked like and asked him as fast as she could to see it. "Shiketsu still hasn't sent it over. They have it right now, I don't know what the wait is. Principal Nezu doesn't want me going out in it, but for practical training I wish I had it rather than just our blue gym uniforms." Clank

"…But a lot of the tech in my costume is top of the line, and I really want you to get a look and see if there's anything worth adjusting before graduation. Plus, I hope you can get some ideas from what you see included on my costume too." Clank "It'd be useful I think in your post-graduation work to see-" Zach paused for a second as he lifted back up the hammer in his right hand. His eyes darted to it and he focused in on the tool for a moment. Then he continued while looking back at the girl confused by his sudden pause, "To see the kind of tech I accumulated around the world and got incorporated all in one costume. It's as amazing as my arm, more even-"

"More?! We have to get it here now!" Hatsume exclaimed with a small dribble of drool at the right corner of her mouth making Zach smile and chuckle at her enthusiasm. "Let's go complain to Mr. Principal together! We could get it expedited here this afternoon…"

Clank

---

At five o'clock, U.A.'s resident psychiatrist stepped out of her room and turned around to lock the door behind her. Her patients' files were in there and thus this room was locked to everyone at the school, and she was the only one with a key to it. She stopped as she was locking the door though, seeing something in her peripheral vision she had not noticed when she stepped out a moment ago. Softy turned her head to the right and stared towards the person, then she tilted her head and looked up to his face so much higher up than the boy's head used to be. He was no longer the runt of his class though, rather he was taller than average and far larger with his imposing figure.

"Zach," Softy whispered at the sight of him.

She opened back up her door, and she motioned inside with her other hand. Zach smiled gratefully at her and nodded. He walked into her office and she followed him in, closing the door behind her. "I'm very glad you came to see me," Softy said to the eighteen year old who no longer looked like a child. The scars on his neck, on the left side of his face, the right side of his forehead partially visible under his bangs, on his left ear, they were all horrible.

Softy expected that whatever had brought him to her had nothing to do with those scars though. You were the cause of the grief for many of my patients over these past two years. And yet, she took in a deep breath while Zach was still faced away from her after entering the room and walking towards a chair he looked at nostalgically and with a small smile.

"I'm sorry, I failed you." Zach spun around and lost his smile at the sound of that when he was just thinking about how much he had been helped in this very room.

"You didn't-"

"When you lied to me, in our final session," Softy continued. "I should have understood why you were doing it, rather than getting flustered and suggesting that you stop coming. I should have seen why you would practice lying to me. It was all in order to deceive everyone, so that you could better prepare for the Lifebringer Incident."

"Can we, not talk about that?" Zach asked.

Softy's mouth was open, but she hesitated and then closed her mouth. You are a student. Your problems now, come ahead of my own remorse. "Of course," Softy said. She walked over for her own chair and motioned for Zach to sit down with her right hand.

"Thank you," Zach said with another nod back at her. "And, if you use Sooth here-"

"I won't-"

"No, it's fine," Zach countered. He paused at the look she gave him, but he smiled and said, "I don't mind it. Might help me out if you do, so just use it if you feel it'll help."

"Are you alright?" Softy wondered.

The question gave Zach pause. He leaned back into the chair and put his hands together in front of his body. His left had new fake skin over his repaired hand, and he wore a black hoodie with his own hero name written across the front of it in white. His hood was bunched up behind his neck, and his hair was messy and had waves in it as it continued to get longer from the short haircut he got right out of Tartaros. Zach pressed his fingers together in front of his face with his thumbs touching just below his chin, his elbows resting on the armrests of the comfortable chair he had leaned back in and looked so thoughtful as he did.

"I don't think so," Zach replied. His voice was calm, but his expression got more serious as he stared ahead into Softy's eyes. The tone he used got Softy much more serious as well. She nodded her head at him, hearing the uncertainty and yet seeing a look in his dark eyes that scared her both for the boy and for the rest of them. It scared her more for him though, and she nodded at him to continue in a way hoping he would trust that her intentions were first and foremost to help him. Zach nodded back at the sight of that intensity in her eyes to do her job, and he took in a deep breath while lowering his hands down.

"The thing is," Zach began. "I can feel, something changing. Inside me. It's happening even now," the boy with dark red eyes spoke. They did not glow, but they were not hazel. His eyes were a low maroon red and the bones above his eyes shadowed over his sockets to make them even darker while he spoke in a steady flat tone. Softy was not prepared for this kind of conversation. She did not even know if Zach would come to see her, though she had been told by the principal that apparently Sazaki had been seeing a therapist at the order of Principal Memuria of Shiketsu. She did not want to ask about his other therapist, nor was she certain that he had actually been seeing anyone at all.

"What's changing?" Softy asked.

"It's, hard to explain," Zach replied. He glanced away to his right, then he looked back at her as he thought back and began speaking aloud what he was remembering, "When I was gone, I spent almost all my time fighting. I didn't want my friends to die without me there to bring them back. More importantly, I didn't want them to die at all, and I wanted to be there to protect them." He paused and then continued on in the same tone, keeping it from dipping dark despite what he was about to talk about. "I was in charge, so I had that power to order no one to fight unless I was there. Yet that didn't mean I could be everywhere, at every mission, at all times."

"No one could be," Softy replied quietly back at him, reassuring him that it was alright that he could not be.

He nodded thanks back at her, but then he went on, "So one day, some of my comrades were out on a recon mission. I had messed up. I didn't take the proper precautions, didn't send a strong enough team, and backup wasn't close enough to get to them when they didn't report in. I got there as fast as I could," Zach paused and he grit his teeth for a moment. Softy nodded in understanding, but Zach shook his head at her in a sadder way that she thought that was the end. "They weren't there," Zach explained. "The three of them were missing, and I knew they had been taken by our enemies. And these enemies were known particularly for their brutality. I thought, if I could just figure out where they were as fast as possible- if I could just get to them right then, I could still stop what I knew was about to happen to them."

"So I investigated myself. We needed the recon because we didn't know where they were, but I put my full focus onto this now rather than all the other fronts of my war that my focus had been split around. I brought my forces back from other battlefields and other nations and empires they were planning attacks on the Queen's forces in." Zach paused and he shook his head while giving Softy a knowing look, then he nodded his head to the right as if saying 'moving past that,' to her bewilderment and yet understanding at the same time. He continued, "We tracked down their gear which we designed to be impossible to track, and which made us completely rework our armor afterwards so as to prevent our enemies from being able to use the technique we used to find our friends. To save them," Zach finished.

"You did save them," Softy said, though she did not smile as there was something about this story that already told her it was not that simple.

"I did," Zach replied though. "I flew as fast as I could. I had their precise location. Not just the enemy fortress, but the room that my friends were in. My comrades. People who trusted me to protect and save them. Who I loved," Zach paused and he thought about a wall smashing apart as he flew through it. "The enemy weren't ready for me at all. I did not wait for my army. I rushed in alone. I smashed through the outer wall and right into the room my comrades were in. As the wall broke apart I can still see this room becoming more and more visible as the debris flew around me. I saw, my comrades. Two of them…"

Zach paused and he had to close his eyes. He saw through bricks and stone flying around the glimpses he had spotted at first before everything settled and he could get full views of them. Even just those initial glances had told him though. "I was too late," Zach said quieter.

His eyes opened and he looked at Softy, "See, one of the enemies I was facing, I knew of him. Let's call him 'the Torturer,'" Though he was really known as The Hammer. After his tool of choice. "He was renowned for his cruelty. I figured he might be who my comrades were going to be brought before. I wasn't ready, to see them though. Two of them were already dead. Not just dead though, but their arms and legs were completely shattered. Every bone in their fingers and toes too." He stopped for a second, and he went on quieter, "The same thing was already in the process of happening to my third subordinate, but as the only one left who the Torturer had, he had to do it slower and with less fatal methods so as to keep him alive. When I busted in, the claw of the hammer was in his left eye- the socket I mean. Both eyes were already gone, but the Torturer was just tugging at his skull from the inside and taunting him as the claw mushed through what remained in there."

Softy had heard many horrible things in her life. Watching Zach talk about this still in a steady tone though, as if the story was still far from being completed, it pained and scared her even more. He's, so far gone, Softy could not wrap her head around that look Zach had given her about the stories he was telling. The look like they both understood the reason he had to tell the story like this, and so she knew that the rest of this was real. The fact that he was telling her despite also showing that he was not being entirely truthful, or rather the fact that he was in her office at all told her that this was no attempt to trick her. Something worse is wrong now though, Softy understood from the tone Zach used of just building up to the point still, while able to tell about his friends' brutal demises.

"I can smell that room still," Zach continued. "The stench of my dead friends and their shit, their blood… But I wish I had restrained myself," Zach admitted. He looked into Softy's eyes and she knew where he was going with this now. "I told myself afterwards that not killing anyone else at that lair except the Torturer was enough. It was mercy, and restraint, and then when my comrades arrived we needed to clean up and get the villains I had faced to the proper authorities. We took the information we got from them to go after everyone associated with their group. And I had to send everyone back across Terra to work double-time to catch back up on our fights that I had dragged them away from to save our friends. I told myself while I brought the three of them back, that it was justified because of the pain I was feeling. Then I just moved forward."

"It's not something I think about," Zach said. He paused, then he corrected in order to better explain to her, "It's not something I've ever thought about. Not how I cut the throat of my friend begging me to do it, so that I could revive him back to his full strength rather than leave him an eye-less cripple the rest of his life. His short, short second life. All three would continue fighting with me. Those three who did not crack under the torture, and who fought at my side until their final days." Zach stopped again and he said softer, "But I never thought about this moment. Not really. It's my first time ever confronting it, and suddenly being able to do so is frightening, but what's worse is how un-frightening it feels. How ready I am to face it, how confident I feel about facing living without having to fear or hide everything from myself, and facing it all without the kind of crushing depression-inducing feelings I've always felt."

He paused for a few seconds, then he continued in a lower voice to the anxious woman before him, "But I can still see that man's eyes." He said it and he paused as he pictured them so vividly in his head. "As the hammer was taken to him. His own hammer," Zach whispered. "With the blood of my friends still on it. The same blood splattered all over that room. I remember shouting, 'Oh you like hammers do you?!'" Zach's voice rose as he quoted himself loudly. Then he said back in his softer voice, "As I broke the man's kneecap with it. He had tried swinging at me after I caught the hammer that went flying out of his hand in surprise as I smashed through the wall. I think, he still thought himself strong up until that moment. He was quick to react, I mean, when I suddenly rushed in at him."

"After his first kneecap though and my screams of rage, he lifted his other knee to try and flee but, but I took that kneecap out too. Shattered it into a million pieces," Zach swung his arm again, then he whipped it back the other way. "As he tried to speak to explain himself or beg for mercy, I don't know, I shattered his jaw like glass. Took it clean off. Nearly ripped it through his skin, and pieces of the shattered bone were sticking through. I had hit it so hard though that the jaw shattered without spinning his skull around, so he was still alive. And I grabbed him by that shattered jaw, clenching his chin and making him stare at me in…" Zach slowed down. For the first time it looked hard for him to speak, which was reassuring to Softy as much as him explaining this brutal execution was the farthest thing from okay.

"I, lifted his his chin," Zach continued. "And I slammed the hammer down on his skull so hard that it hit the floor. I smashed straight through his body, with a hammer. Just a regular hammer, like one you would find in a toolbox. The simplicity of it made him so horrifying to those he tortured. That he could inflict so much pain with a simple object they had all used themselves, at some point in their lives. My men had withstood all the torture though… But in the end, the three of them were alive at the end of the day. He was dead, and I had killed him."

"I justified it to myself, Softy, that this guy had killed people. Probably a lot more than I knew. More than just my own friends and it wasn't just because it was personal, though in that moment maybe," Zach shook his head at the thought of his selfish reaction to what he saw in that room. "But that moment before I brought the hammer down," Zach continued. His voice was low and his expression dark, and he said in regret as he thought again about those eyes, "No matter how much pain that man was in… he didn't want to die." Zach rose his head and he looked into Softy's eyes sadly.

"He wasn't hoping for the release of death, he just wanted to escape, to run away, or even to be thrown in prison." Zach hesitated, then he whispered, "He was at my mercy, and I bashed his head open all over myself. God I was strong in that moment. I don't even know if I used any Death, but I had to have. His eyes flew out of their sockets and splattered on my chest. My hammer did not slow down. Not on his skull, nor his chest cavity it partially dug through as I continued swinging down so hard it took me off my feet. I threw all my weight into that swing, and when I hit the floor the cracks shot out from the hammer all the way to the walls."

"And he shit himself," Zach added. "Like so many men do when they die. Like so many did just by looking my way." Zach paused and his eyes shifted away for a second, his expression darkening but getting sadder itself. "Do you know what that feels like?" His eyes shifted back to Softy, "To be so terrifying to your enemies, that when you walk into a room men lose control over their bowels? Their bladders empty into their pants and you have to step through puddles to get close to them, and the closer you get, looking into their terrified eyes the more likely they're going to shit themselves in fear because they lose focus on holding it in when the only thing on their mind, the only thought they are able to have is of whether or not they're about to be killed, or worse, by the monster before them."

"You're," Softy started. She gulped, cursing herself internally that she did and it stopped her from continuing. "You're not a monster," she finished.

"I am- or at least, I was," Zach corrected when he saw her opening her mouth to argue with him. "To defeat the monsters who prey on the innocent, I became the same kind of monster except I preyed on them." Zach's therapist gulped again as he admitted this to her. "War when one side is willing to go farther than the other wouldn't be a very long war. I didn't want my forces to lose their humanity though. I needed them to stay good. But I had to show my enemies that I was willing to stoop to their level. That it would not be the side of good fighting the side of bad, but two sides of a war who were both willing to do whatever it took to survive and destroy the other." His voice got more exhausted by the end, even as Zach felt the energy surging inside him stronger than it had ever been. It's what pushed aside his exhaustion so quickly despite speaking on things that he could never talk about without getting so weighed down that it was hard to continue on.

He lowered his eyes again and then spoke in a lower voice, "War meant losing friends. Losing yourself. Giving up your own needs for the sake of the army's. And it meant that sometimes, you'd find yourself doing something you never thought you were capable of." Zach's tone was dark, and he said in a serious voice to the woman ahead of him, "I couldn't hold a hammer anymore. I couldn't even look at one, or a plane, or chains, a helicopter, a sunset… They were all hard to look at, even just a couple weeks ago. Fixing up my arm at Shiketsu, I couldn't even look at a hammer for more than a second, but today I was using one fine and didn't even think about this."

He rose his head and the concern was clear on his face. Softy's eyes shook though, and it was hard for her to focus on what it was he had finally gotten to which seemed like the real reason he was here with her. And as much as the rest was terrifying and confusing, this was by far the worst thing to hear from him. She shook her head though, reassuring herself mentally as Zach said, "And when I did think of it, it didn't make me gag. It didn't make me drop the hammer with shaky hands as I recalled what I had done in horror. No. I just went on using it and decided to come here after to delve into my psyche for why it is I'm fine now."

"That's a good thing," Softy started. She took in a deep breath, then she let it out slowly. She took in in again and she said, "Isn't it?" The question made Zach pause again, and she told him, "As horrible as some of what you just told me was, I have to remind myself that you were in another world. Whatever that world may be. And things sound different there. I won't justify anything you did, I can't- But when you come here talking about this as if it is a bad thing that you are overcoming your traumas, I feel concern for you. It is something you do often, where you cannot let go of the terrible things in your past."

"It's not about letting them go, Softy," Zach countered with a shake of his head. "I couldn't even think of that day and now, I can talk to another person about it and not break down? Not even feel guilt, but rather just regret at making the mistake."

"You wouldn't have talked so much about his eyes if you didn't feel guilt," Softy countered. Zach did not have a response for her. He nodded his head after a second in understanding, which made Softy's heart race so much more rapidly. Did he just accept that? He sounded assured not a second ago that it wasn't guilt he felt! How is he changing his mind and accepting… Softy focused in on Zach's red eyes. "Your eyes," she brought up. "Why are they red?"

"It makes me think faster," Zach replied to confirm the suspicions he noticed her having. "Death on the brain. It makes me think so fast, and without hiding from my thoughts or from how others see me, it's just smarter. It will help me figure out Kaminari's location to do it constantly-"

"Is that your goal?"

"It's the most important thing now," Zach replied. "Stopping him. All For One might destroy the world, and Shigaraki might take it over, but Kaminari's still inside Raijin." Softy froze and her heart raced at that sentence. "…And if he's witnessing all this, it has to be constant torture. Far worse than anything the Torturer could do. A nonstop, endless torture forced to watch what his own body's doing." Zach's head shook back and forth as this was not what he wanted to talk about here. "Softy, you might think it's overcoming trauma to be able to think about this thing with the hammer. It's bad though. I shouldn't be able to think of it. Not like this."

He's so self-aware it's scary. He knows his own mind inside-out. I don't know if I have anything to add that could help alleviate this situation. Softy pursed her lips, as she definitely did not want to respond with what she just thought about being unable to help him. "Are you afraid, of yourself?" Softy wondered to the student sitting in front of her.

"No," Zach replied, rather quickly. That would be a bad thing to say to her right now. "Just concerned about what this means going forward. And dreading what's to come."

"What is to come?" Softy asked.

"Just," Zach paused. He pursed his own lips and then said in a low tone, "I know that when I come back- if I come back to my senses, I'm going to look back on how I feel now and hate myself. Hate myself for the sole reason that I was unburdened for a short period of time. That I could live without feeling it all."

Softy's voice got even quieter, as she repeated back to him in the form of a question, "'It all?'"

"The past. The present. The future. All I've done and will have to do." He responded with the answer that he felt coming from the heart. "How I may come to be treated by the people I had loved, or hopefully still love at that time." His voice got softer itself, and he finished on a positive note, "Yet maybe this feeling won't be fleeting as I fear it is. Maybe I can continue on like this. Happy. And maybe I'll be, better, because I'm doing better. A better person like this."

"As much as having a guilty conscience helped me know I was still human, it hurt," he explained that and shook his head in amazement. "Oh did it hurt, but right now I don't feel that. That's why I had to come here and sort these things out aloud."

"Because you're not in pain?"

"Yeah." The response was simple, and both Zach and Softy just sat back in their chairs at the sound of it. I guess, it's just that simple. Zach put his hands behind his head and looked up at the ceiling. "Huh."

---

This is much easier with a laptop. Zach sat at Midoriya's desk while his classmate sat on the left side of it, both of them on their laptops with The God Book open in between them.

The two of them were talking and discussing the texts they were deciphering, so neither had headphones in. That meant Midoriya was unable to hide it when he clicked on a link that immediately started playing a video that caught his eye. Zach looked to his side, and Midoriya grimaced but slid his computer forward and turned it diagonally so both of them could see the screen. There was a title below the video taking up more of the screen, explaining how the man being recorded and aired by a large news station was the husband of a missing hero. "…I woke up and she was gone. I have no idea where she is, but I just pray to God she isn't in Gondorhan."

"No one at Rhino Chick's Texas agency have been able to contact her…"

As the reporters started talking about the clip that they aired again, Zach humphed to himself and refocused on old Roman texts that had long been understood by historians. It's ironic. He's praying to God when her God killed her.

Midoriya lowered the volume and turned on the subtitles as Zach lost interest quickly. The noise Zach made from his throat as if scoffing at the man's heartfelt plea crushed him a little bit, but it was nothing compared to the guilt he was already feeling watching this. I should have helped you. Saved her, and brought her to justice but still, saved her life.

They were my prisoners. People I had captured which meant they were now in my care until I could put them on trial and send them to prison. I had even tied up Umburt with Blackwhips, dragged him away with the others while he was still conscious, and that villain died where I left him along with so many others- In his head he saw the one reaching a hand towards him, before the light closed in on them and shredded their body so fast. With his speed though, he was still able to watch it in slow motion as skin and flesh was ripped from bones that shattered and turned to dust and they were blown away by the force of the beam blowing through them. All of them. Heroes, and the premier of Yugalvenia whose whole country is calling for his return, a call that I know there will be no answer to.

And I can't tell Principal Nezu everything. Not about who was there. I, I don't want to speak ill of the dead. Zach's right about that, Midoriya glanced to his side at his friend who already seemed past this. He doesn't want to implicate all those missing people. I don't either. Them being missing may leave their loved ones without closure, but knowing would actually be worse in this instance. That's not a reason to kill them. But if they are already dead, does that make it okay? Is that gray, light enough? I don't know. I hate, dwelling in the gray. It doesn't feel right. I once was able to question how you could do it. I used to think, maybe, that I was even jealous that you could do it. But it's wrong. And questioning how you can is something I only did because I thought we were the same. Friends both trying to be heroes…

Isn't that what we are now? Midoriya thought it to counter his previous thoughts, but he could not convince himself that things were that simple anymore.

I'm not going to be the only one working on this right now, the darker haired boy thought without showing his classmate he noticed or that he was mildly annoyed at Deku's being distracted. Not Rhino Chick either though, Zach thought as he looked up other top stories in the news today. Yesterday's news. More news following up what happened yesterday. Still no survivors in Gondorhan. Images of inside the quarantine are still not getting out. Fears of similar incidents happening around the world is causing some panic. Every little flu in, Denmark and, China, they're treating it like the end of the world. Just a bunch of hysteria that should get easily calmed down by heroes. Worst place to check for how people are really reacting are message boards like these. Conspiracy theories are 90% nonsense. Luckily I can tell which is the ten percent. If I imagine that 9.9% of that truth is what we spread as conspiracy, and 80% of the bull are theories that are fake that we also propagated… What's the .1% that the Army doesn't know about but is the truth? Where's the hole in the needle for me to thread?

Knock Knock

The two boys each lost in thought spun to the door. Neither were thinking about The God Book with so much going on in the present, but they each spun back to it quickly. Zach grabbed it and got up quietly, moving towards the corner of Midoriya's room without making a noise with his footsteps in a way that Midoriya wished he did not notice. "One second," Midoriya said, while getting up himself and heading towards his door.

"Deku-kun," Uraraka started from the other side of the door. Midoriya paused for a second, then he continued to the door and started turning the doorknob while wondering, What does Uraraka want?

"Can we talk about Zach?" Uraraka said through the door as Deku was opening it up. Her voice sounded rushed, but Midoriya still stopped with the door partially open. He saw Iida also standing out in the hall next to Uraraka, and he sweatdropped at their serious expressions as he knew this was about to make everything very awkward.

Zach finished hiding The God Book then walked over behind Midoriya as his friend finished opening the door. Uraraka's bottom lip dropped and her eyes widened as did Iida's next to her, though his eyes shifted onto Uraraka sympathetically after a moment of surprise.

"Oh, hi- Zach," Uraraka said. Stupid. Stupid stupid! Uraraka kept her thoughts from showing as much on her face, leaving her just staring towards Zach awkwardly for a few seconds.

Midoriya opened his mouth, but he did not really know what he was supposed to say either. "Do you guys, want to come in? We were just discussing the news," Midoriya said with a motion to their computers that he and Zach had already switched over to news stories even before the knocks came at the door.

"Ah yes, of course," Iida said with a serious nod. I have not yet gotten Zach's insight into the events of the past few days. It would be valuable to all of our investigations.

Shouldn't be long now anyway, Zach thought to himself while stepping to the desk and sitting back at the chair he was at before. He turned the chair though and put his elbows back on the desk behind him while leaning back on it. He suppressed a grin but let it show through that he was doing so while glancing by Uraraka, clearly avoiding her gaze as he attempted to hide his feeling of wanting to laugh about what had just happened. Each action of just turning his head and the expression he made was so multi-layered that Uraraka did not realize how deep inside she relaxed at the sight of him treating it as less awkward and more just amusing to him or that he was trying not to laugh at her expense. It made her think that he was not as much concerned about what she was going to discuss with Midoriya, which on an even deeper level started to alleviate some of the concerns she had arrived there to speak about if Zach was not worried at all about what they could be talking about or what Midoriya could tell her at some other time.

"I'm most concerned about Gondorhan," Zach started to the two who entered the room who he had yet to speak much to since coming back to school. "I know Yamagucha is closer, but the mystery around Gondorhan's really got me at a loss." Zach's eyes were a dark crimson, and he leaned back and nodded at Iida, "What about you?"

"I, am currently fully focused on Mount-"

"Yamagucha was Shigaraki," Zach said. He spoke like it should be obvious to Iida, and he rolled his eyes at the surprised look Iida gave him at his response. "Come on. I know focusing on it is important, but it's no mystery we need to look deeper into. He did it. No idea why, so maybe that's something. Maybe he just wanted to show those of us who would know it was him just how much he's capable of now. Or just a taste of his power," Zach corrected himself, the second suggestion sounding worse as he made it out like maybe Shigaraki was even more powerful than that.

"You really…" Uraraka hesitated. She thought of the last conversation she had had with Zach.

Zach looked at her and his smile lowered a bit as well but stayed lifted at the corners. He recalled it as well. He remembered admitting to her and Sato about the gaps in his story. How what he was saying did not match up with the timeline he had provided. "That's what I really believe," Zach said. His voice did not get any more serious. He just said it with a raise of his tone as if telling her that she could believe it or not. Her eyes widened in surprise at that kind of tone, telling her that he was not going to get more serious and say something as if in a more truthful tone than last time he would expect her to believe this time.

It's like he gave up, Uraraka thought while staring at him with her wide eyes going back to normal. Her head nodded, though she did not know if she fully believed that Zach was telling her what he truly thought. He doesn't think he can get me to trust him again after that. Uraraka glanced down and to her right. He's right. It wasn't just to push me and Sato away. Mina… she may have been right about that. Maybe it's why he said it, but he was saying the same things he's been saying the whole time. He just admitted it that he was lying all that time. Admitted it, to push us away. So that he could leave again and I'd think he was fine and that he had plans the whole time? That doesn't seem right! He looks, Uraraka lifted her head back to Zach who turned to Iida as the taller boy started scolding Zach for coming to conclusions without any evidence.

"Unless you have evidence that it was him?" Iida finished, giving Zach a more stern look wondering if he knew anything from that night he had returned to U.A.

Zach shook his head though with a shrug. "Maybe not. But you don't need concrete proof to prepare as if it were true." He said that calmly and got Iida's stern scolding look to shift, as did Midoriya's frowning one on Zach's right side where he was standing hesitantly next to his bed he did not know if he should sit on. Zach held up his right palm, "It's the most realistic explanation. Maybe we don't have proof, but what could we do if we did that we can't do without it? Tell the families that we're certain their loved ones are dead, rather than just that we 'suspect' that they are. And then we can try super hard to stop him?" Zach lowered his hand and he started up again, "So maybe we have to keep searching for that proof, just in case it isn't him and we need to be ready for some other mountain-decaying villain."

Zach's eyebrows narrowed in at Iida and he said firmly, "That doesn't mean we can slack on preparing as if this were him. Wasting more time pretending we don't know the truth. Wasting time we could have spent preparing for Shigaraki Tomura. Hunting Shigaraki Tomura. Theorizing about who else could have done it when we already have a suspect, and a motive, and that suspect has no alibi. It's obvious who did it."

If having a suspect, motive, and not having an alibi was all we needed to convict someone of a crime- Uraraka thought it and found herself gulping as she wondered if Zach meant for her to think of it in that way. Is he reminding me, that just because he lied about his alibi that doesn't mean I have proof of him being Death?! But- but didn't he just say the opposite was- WHAT?!

"Alright, even if we were to just make this assumption though," Iida started. He was frustrated by the way Zach thought of their whole process which he was making out as flawed in too cocky a way. "What would we be doing better if we were just focusing as if it were Shigaraki who had destroyed Mt. Yamagucha?"

"Searching for him. And the League-"

"We're already doing that," Midoriya countered.

"Not good enough apparently," Zach replied with a shrug of his right shoulder and a look to his side at the green-haired boy who frowned much deeper at him for that response.

"And what have you been doing?" Uraraka asked.

All three of the others in the room with Zach were frowning at him now. They were each upset, and Zach eased back into the chair as the standing teens all glowered at him for his responses. Could be my attitude. Maybe I could break the mood with a joke, but if it's my attitude and not just what I'm saying then that'll do worse to deescalate the situation. I have been searching, Uraraka. More than you. More than all of you. Why be sneaky and quiet about it? It'll just make her annoyed if I lie more. Make her hate me. I need to gain trust here, and all I've been doing is confusing her.

"Well," Zach started. "Just a few days ago I searched the sewers under all major cities in Japan of over four million people." He paused and then continued in a more casual tone while grinning again now that their looks had changed, "I didn't find any tunnels breaking off of them. Actually, the day I came back here I woke up in a sewer that morning." Zach brought it up as the others were all looking ready to ask him about what he just mentioned. That sentence had them freezing again though, allowing him to continue, "I had spent the day before searching, and when I was done I just sat down and rested my eyes for a few hours until my alarm woke me." Wonder if that's the last time I'll ever sleep. No. Shut up.

"Weren't you…" Uraraka paused. She hesitated confusedly, unsure of what to say here. She thought about the convenience store and what Zach looked like on the same day he was talking about though. She stopped pausing and asked, "Weren't you smelly- I mean, how did you do that without people noticing?"

"I know where all the abandoned buildings and homes are from the Sports Festival Invasion," Zach replied. Midoriya's heart rate skyrocketed as he thought about how Zach had told him on the night of his apartment exploding how he had located the assassin. He remembered how shocked he had been because Zach's knowledge of the surrounding area and who owned every room was beyond anything he could imagine. That last statement shocked him though, because he already knew some of Zach's ability to do this, and so the statement did not come out as hyperbole in his mind as it did in Iida and Uraraka's. Those two immediately made assumptions as to Zach just meaning that he knew where many abandoned places were, not "all" as he claimed.

"And which ones still have running water," Zach added. He lowered his smile more as he saw Uraraka's expression getting much sadder, then in a relaxed and not-at-all upset tone he told her, "I wasn't going to have anyone else be put in danger because I was around. Living like that was best." Uraraka rose her eyes and tried to change her expression at the way he was looking at her. He eased up his look when she leaned back too, getting more of a smile back on his face.

Leaving that for now, Iida thought. "Why did you search the sewers?" He questioned his classmate who turned to him now. The tallest in Class A wondered to the black-haired boy sitting in front of him, "Did you have any leads you were following? Or-"

"Nope," Zach replied. He looked to Midoriya who did not know if he believed Zach there. "But there was nothing indicating that they were in a forest either. Would have been tough to search every single forest; not so much the sewers. Plus, there are rats down there," Zach said with a raise of the corners of his lips and his tone. "So I was searching for those rats in their natural habitat." He smirked more and glanced back to the left of Midoriya over at the other two, "Just like there are pieces of shit down there."

It was a joke. Unfortunately, Zach's humor was a few shades too dark for his U.A. classmates who just stared back at him in silence for a moment. Despite it sounding like a joke, they were left wondering if those were actually Zach's reasons for searching for the League of Villains in the sewers. Zach's phone alarm went off though to save him from the silence. He pulled out his cell before the second ring of it could finish, then he slid it back into his pocket and got up from the chair. "And with that, I'll take my leave. Sorry," he apologized for the bad taste of his joke.

Zach walked forward and between Iida and Uraraka who shifted out of the way of the boy who had just grabbed his laptop and was leaving with no explanation. He thought to himself on his way out, Heroes don't describe anyone, villain or otherwise, as 'pieces of shit' when they're human beings too. Should have realized that would fall flat. No one even smiled.

"Where are you going?" Midoriya asked confusedly, as Zach seemed to be on the way to do something, yet he would also believe it if Zach just set that alarm a minute ago so that he could leave here without a good reason. He had to ask anyway though, but Zach looked back and gave him a single shake of his head denying the possibility Midoriya had just questioned in his mind.

"The alarm is to let me know it's time to head to Training Gym Zeta. I got it reserved for private training in a few minutes," Zach explained. Add "private" in there so you don't suggest coming along. Make it clear I want to do this on my own. "See you guys tomorrow." Zach nodded back at the other two as well, then he headed out of the room and closed the door behind him. He grinned as he was not stopped this time. His eyes flared brighter red for a moment and his eyes shifted down to his closed laptop. He looked back at the shut door, then down the hall towards the stairs. The God Book is in good hands. Maybe he could actually decipher something without my help tonight. Doubt it. They'll probably just talk about me for the next few hours. Wonder what they'll all decide to do with me?

Dark wisps shot out the backs of Zach's legs. Darkness formed under the soles of his feet too though and softened each step as his shoes were gone. He made no sounds on his way back to his room where he got changed and gathered up a few things while also putting his laptop away on a charger. His thoughts raced a thousand words a minute, his mind shrouded in Death, and the smirking teen in his fifth floor room sucked in a huge breath of air then focused the Death on his arms down to the two knives he had in his grasp. Slide under the sleeves. Keep Death around them. Keep Death so close its invisible from outside the sleeves. And, Zach slid the knives back into his hands that were already coated fully in Death.

"Hahaha… here we go."

---

I know it's not easy without All-Terrain, but U.A. still makes their simulated environments look exactly like real ones. Must be much more expensive though. U.A. spares no expense, for the education of this nation's youth. Plus it has government funding. A lot of government funding.

"You are obsolete! Your human body makes you weak!"

"Stupid human!"

"Foolish hero!"

These things aren't even on the level of ANTs. It's easier to just ignore them.

Zach continued to walk forward into the middle of the gym. The robots of Training Gym Zeta leapt at him. They swung their arms and kicked sharp legs, all of them set on high difficulties meant to give the students trouble. Their attacks went right through him. The robots had protocols that kept them from seriously wounding students training with them, so when their arms and legs started piercing through Zach's body they pulled back in panic.

"What the- hey! Meatsack!"

"You're not hurt!" A robot that was just kicking through Zach's stomach and pulled back its leg called out at the teenager who just chuckled at the robot's stupidity.

Zeta is pretty far from the dorms. Not a high chance of someone walking by and checking in. Not too popular a gym to reserve, and I didn't pick the earliest open time. I picked a time when most people would be back at their dorms for the night. Most everyone's back from internships. I'll see them when I return. A few of them at least. Focus on Class A interactions when you return. For now this is training. The power is getting stronger.

The boy walking forward had darkness swirling in a few holes around his torso and on his right arm that finished sealing up with skin. As those injuries fully figured themselves out though, the robots around him considering attacking again hesitated as something walked out of Zach's back and to the left. Zach continued walking forward, as the dark shadow form the same shape as him stepped out of his body and started walking forward diagonally at a slightly faster speed.

Zach glanced to his left and looked at the shadow figure that he made look right back at him. Red eyes. Zach thought it and forced his creation thicker with a black trail connecting the two of them on the floor. A bulge of darkness shot from Zach's feet to the shadow. Red eyes formed around the head, and Zach could see himself appearing in a blurry red vision. He stared forward at a version of himself wearing a black hoodie and sweatpants, two black knives sliding down into his hands. A katana hilt formed in the left hand of the shadow staring back at the Zach whose body was starting to get darker now too. That shadow turned sharply to the first Zach's right side though, as another dark figure walked out of it and grew two feet taller.

The one moving to the right grew another foot but started slouching. Its back hunched forward as its arm muscles bulged. The beast of a Death turned its head to the left and faint red orbs grew brighter on its head. Zach smirked more and more, and he clenched his fists tightly on the hilts of his knives, and he forced out two more black shadows at the same time from his left and right sides. They walked out of his body and straight out away from him.

My vision is fucked. I can see too many sides right now. It's like a panoramic view constantly but it's overlapping and my eyes can't keep up! Zach's squinted eyes had to clench shut as it was too disorienting to keep them open. His smirk grew so much wider in that moment. ATTACK! His eyes snapped open, then one pair of red eyes blinked closed and vanished in the dark mass of one of the four dark forms that converged on him at once all with created weapons of their own in hand.

Zach could not defend from more than one attack, and he leapt backwards as he saw himself about to stab himself with a black longsword. He shot twenty five feet backwards and skid across the floor, robots trailing behind him diving out of the way as three black shadows chased after the initial form that was almost as black as they were now. Those shadows flew forward so fast they left wind trails and rose up dust behind them. Death did not lag out of their bodies though. Trails of Death were only left behind in the footsteps they made that wisped up in the air, lasting rather than fading quickly at all.

Sound is as bad. Zach did not cover his feet with Death as he started running forward towards the other four shadows he was also controlling to rush at him. The one farthest back leapt up in the air, cutting off his main escape as two curved to flank him from his back diagonals. By rushing forward, he was now pincered in a triangle formation with his upper angle also blocked. His enemies were not equidistant from him though, and that made his mind even more disoriented as he could hear several different sets of footsteps. They all originated from him, but they were both at different volumes and reached his many ears at different times because of the varying distances. The distances were not that varied, but thinking as fast as he was and processing this so quickly with so much Death on the mind, he could read the minuscule differences in the soundwaves that were unlike anything he had ever experienced before, yet that he recalled happening for the first time the other night.

At the peak of Limiter 0, I remember my senses expanding. It was in the moment. It was in the most intense fight, requiring that I just accept what I was seeing and hearing. I adjusted and reacted as I needed to in that moment, without considering the implications of seeing multiple things at once. Splitting my body and creating multiple sets of red eyes, allowing me to see all over… Ares was right. New powers come all the time. Learn them all this time. As strong as you can be. Powerful enough to overcome disadvantages. Fighting in populated areas. Fighting against those who I have revived. I can make my handicaps obsolete. If I am so strong, on a level so much higher than everyone else, then no amount of preparation will be able to stop me.

I could be causing trouble for heroes later on by making myself any stronger. That's no longer a safe way to look at this. Kaminari has Quirk Destroying bullets. Shigaraki can Decay entire mountains. They've beaten me before. They've been preparing for me for years. Kaminari in particular, will have spent every waking moment preparing for our next fight. Zach's body erupted in darkness and speared out through the other four shadows falling towards him, intercepting all in mid-flight and piercing through them even as they tried to dodge. The spears he shot out of his own body had so much more Death in them than each individual shadow that could not move fast enough to get out of the way. He stood there with those bodies he stabbed getting sucked into the spears themselves, then pulled back into his body with the rest of the Death. But I have been preparing as well.

---

"Nice haircut," Kaminari Denki stood on the inside of the doorway to the room their leader was in.

Shigaraki turned his head and looked back to the boy who had just commented on his shorter yet still wavy gray hair. He looked at the long blond spikes going down Raijin's back and over the top of his head, and he mentioned, "You should consider getting one yourself."

"I'll pass-"

"You should have known Sazaki would not have just left," Shigaraki looked back forward and stated that interrupting the younger man from continuing on with any small talk. Raijin leaned off the wall too and he headed into the room closer to the leader of the League who he had not had a one-on-one conversation with in a long time.

"You know that he will not break so easily," Shigaraki mentioned. He turned to his side and faced the younger man slightly more muscular than him. Raijin's face did not have fear on it. He walked right up to Shigaraki to speak to the League's leader candidly, and Shigaraki repaid that by speaking frankly with him, "It is a mistake both of us have made in the past. Assuming that he was broken when he showed us that he was."

Kaminari frowned instead of replying for a moment as he thought about that. Shigaraki continued, "I lost him by assuming I had broken Sazaki to the point I could get him to kill Luniva. While you-"

"I know when I made a wrong assumption-"

"Because of that we lost our Warp Gate," Shigaraki cut off Raijin just as the boy had cut him off a moment before. He interrupted the teenager and then added, "And then we lost Daruma Ujiko and the means of producing Nomus for well over a year, as well as the Nomu which was our last Warp-ability user." Shigaraki paused and Raijin's face twisted with his frown deepening more as he knew where the boss was about to go with mentioning that.

"Your plan to use the Subspace Devils backfired as none of them escaped with Potaru, as you had planned." Shigaraki pointed it out, even though Raijin had never told anyone that part of his plan. Shigaraki said, "I know it's true, even though you played off every move as a total success- which is good for our forces. Keeping them in line below you and from questioning anything as long as it all seems like part of your plan." Shigaraki paused and his face got darker this time as he stared directly forward into Raijin's face not a few feet away from him. "But even if Overlord was too much of a liability to bring in, and the Subspace Devils weren't as strong as they once were, Potaru could have saved us a good deal of trouble."

"I know that," Raijin said. His voice was low and in it there was no hint of pretending like that was still just part of his plan though. He did not try to spin that loss in any positive way. Rather he felt the annoyance of it that he had shoved so far down pretending that Potaru had never even come to his mind when he discussed his reasons for allowing Overlord to be captured. Intanzo and Shigaraki had done a good job of spinning their defeat the way he had wanted them to without him needing to explain his reasoning to either one. All the Radians, Duke Dread and the Jazz, and the League members themselves who had not known of his strategy were all convinced by their act when they revealed how the Subspace Devils' defeat was planned.

But that was all it was. An act. Shigaraki continued to glare at the child before him whose failures brought up all at once like this were really looking to mount. What was it Sazaki supposedly shouted that night? Dabi told me, that he called you just another powerful player now that your job spying was done. Raijin rose his eyes back up and denied Shigaraki's glare with his look as confident as it had ever been and a smirk returning to his expression. Yet you promised me that you would put your full focus into perfecting our plans. And most importantly, preparing for the eventuality of having to face him again.

"I've been preparing for your revolution for years. It's all I've been doing," Raijin assured the big boss in front of him. "A few setbacks doesn't change how far the odds are scaled in our favor." Raijin held up his left palm out to the side and chuckled, and he added smugly, "Also, as much as you isolated yourself to train out in the mountains for all this time, I wasn't slacking on my own training. Or more specifically," Raijin corrected what he just mentioned. "I have not been slacking in my preparations to face Zach, though part of those preparations do involve training myself as well."

"There are more important things than raw strength though in defeating Zach. And with the amount of time I've spent planning this fight, a fight that I still suspect will never come because of everything I'm doing to prevent it anyway, the final contingency is the strongest one."

Shigaraki continued to glare at him and responded to Raijin's cockiness, "We now know that Sazaki killed Eziano Mozcaccio-"

"That's not necessarily what Danny said," Raijin cut off the leader. He rose his tone and smirked while adding, "I inquired deeper into what had happened from those two assassins who have joined us now. It seems neither know very much about what happened after Zach and Midoriya showed up and defeated their army." Shigaraki's eyebrows narrowed in and his expression got a few notches darker at the sound of that name. "The two of them went inside to face Eziano together."

"And what happened?" Shigaraki wondered to the teen who clearly had a theory about that.

"I think that this 'God' they spoke of was the one to kill Eziano," Raijin replied. "Maybe Zach and Midoriya beat him together, and then Zach showed off more strength against that 'God' but only because he was completely isolated with barely anyone he could hurt with his power." He spoke faster and went on, "No one who could see him or get hurt by his massive strength which let him use of all his Death at once. More power than he could control, in a city," Raijin suggested it with a smirk to Shigaraki whose thoughts lingered back on Midoriya even as Raijin was clearly focused on someone else. It was the fact that Raijin seemingly was this prepared though that Shigaraki found himself focusing on the other one he hated most of all instead.

"It seems to me like Zach getting more powerful with Death, if anything, has made him less of a threat." Raijin chuckled from the back of his throat while tilting his head back, "Because with that overwhelming power I'm sure he obtained the other night, after what I saw in the Lifebringer Incident. From what I've heard overseas about Death's more horrific atrocities…" Raijin's head leaned back forward and his blond bangs shadowed over his eyes as he smirked crazily with excitement and confidence, as he finished, "I'm certain that my old friend's control is weaker than ever. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if he can't control it at all."

---

Zach spiraled up into the air with a double helix of thick jets of Death pushing him into the middle of the training gym. He snapped up his right and left arm with long whips of Death extending twenty meters out from his grips cracking in midair. He cracked them and was swinging to slash down at other shadow forms spinning around and flying up on their own using the wings out of their backs. Two more muscular arms ripped from below the arms he was snapping upwards, then a dozen black spikes shot out of the double helix and flew off of it as projectiles.

His flying versions were mostly too strong and fast. Only one was destroyed and turned into a cloud of black smoke as it was pierced too directly where Zach was leading it. He managed to control the others fast enough in order to make them dodge after firing those last attacks he had planned to hit despite his own dodges. He dodged faster with more Death pulling from the bodies of those shadows into their wings and down into the soles of their feet that were spraying out Death like jet engines to send them flying around so fast.

The two lower arms extended out towards versions of himself that flew up faster and created massive swords to swing at him. As they dodged his extending arms though, he slashed his whips back not with the consistency of a black whip but of a razor wire that was so sharp it cut through them a half dozen times each with the flicks of his wrists. In a single second, the dodging flying versions of his Death shadows were cut into a dozen pieces each. Their split bodies reformed though into one larger one that flew into the double helix and right up it without being affected by the Death below Zach that he was controlling to make as strong as when he first created it.

A black sword slashed up from beneath him. He stayed still and got cut in half, and two bodies reformed rather than the one there had been. The ten foot tall shadow that just slashed through him had so much momentum and slashed so hard that it rose up between the splitting halves of Zach's body that were forced to either side. Those two were still in the process of reforming into bodies, but the left arm and shoulder and part of the back of one created first, while the right side of the other did the same. Even without a full form yet, Death pulsed out of the opposite side of the backs of the two split versions, speeding up the muscular and hardened side of Zach's twin bodies still in the process of recreating.

He smashed his fists so hard on opposite sides of the huger shadow's head that his fists collided in the middle of its skull he broke apart. He even solidified the head at the last second to try and not let that happen, but he had sped up his attacks and hardened his fists so much already that they smashed into each other. He broke apart those hands as they hit each other, his arms merging and his bodies pulling back into the larger form that broke apart while the helixes below shot back up, and the spikes that had flown off through the air all shot back in towards him.

He flipped backwards and spun, black wings ripping out of his back and flapping once hard behind him. As he neared the floor closer to the entrance, he forced Death out of his feet and dragged along the ground to slow himself before touching down on the soles of his shoes he continued running forward on into a jog and then a walk. His wings had pulled back into him after the single flap, and two arms emerged out from below his upper arms when those wings pulled in. Those arms got thicker and more muscular, and they slid backwards to instead come out of the sides of his back but more hidden behind him as he flooded Death into them and kept them back as the front of his body lost the Death on it.

Zach walked forward and let out a deep breath before smiling wide at the girl who had come into Training Gym Zeta a few seconds ago. She had stared up into the air right when the huge Zach was splitting the other one in half, and the tallest girl in Class A had watched as all that darkness slammed together into one giant mass in the air before reforming the shape of a human. Zach walked towards her looking like himself again, but he was grinning as if wondering if she had been impressed with that final attack she just witnessed.

"Those different bodies," Yaoyorozu began to the boy who slowed to a stop in front of her. "Were you controlling them all… Of course you were, but I mean-" Yaoyorozu paused. "How long have you been able to do that?"

"I don't know," Zach replied. He said it thoughtfully and hummed to himself, "It's a new power, really. Something I'm just discovering now." The corners of his lips pulled up a little more, though he lowered them and got a softer and more questioning smile on his face. "What are you doing here?"

"You shouldn't strain yourself," Yaoyorozu started. "If you're still hurt," she continued. She stared at his right arm that he was moving around fine. "I talked to Recovery Girl and you shouldn't be-"

"I'm fine," Zach said. "Seriously. The pain is gone from my arm and ribs."

"Your ribs?" Yaoyorozu asked him.

"They were broken too. Everything's fine now though." His response came with a smirk and a clench of his right fist he slammed into his stomach only to hold out a palm as if showing her 'see?'

"…How?"

Zach chuckled once and lifted his chin, wondering right back at her, "I wonder?" He looked back at his right arm and curled his fist. He turned his arm out in front of him and cocked his head to the side while examining it inside its black sleeve. She can't see the Death shrouding my arm under the sleeve. She hasn't mentioned the extra two arms I'm moving around on my back either. Have to continue training here. No time for a break. That's why I'm doing it- Zach smirked for a moment while still staring at his right arm, then he regained a steady look he rose to show her. I'm too fucking hyped, Zach thought as he tried to stop smiling at the serious look she was giving him.

"Zach," Momo started slowly. "Why haven't you… Why not pull those arms back in so we can talk?"

"I'm training," Zach countered. His voice got more serious too and the corners of his lips lowered a little. "If you have something to ask me though, ask away." He flexed the arms on his back out to the sides to show off he had them under control, then he started juggling black spheres between his two hands back there that made him smirk more and laugh to himself as she watched it.

"The way you've been acting lately," Yaoyorozu started again. She looked up into his eyes and the corners of his lips flinched as she said to him, "You killed Eziano Mozcaccio, didn't you?"

Zach stayed quiet for a second. His arms stopped moving around behind him and instead just slid to a stop out of her sight and closer to his back. "Eziano is dead," Zach replied to the girl standing there. "But I didn't do it." He shook his head and then let out a short sigh while lifting his eyes up and looking away from her as if wondering how to put this. "The war is over though. The one responsible for all of it- The God of War, is dead. His reign is over." The cryptic words coming out of Zach's mouth gave the girl before him chills as she looked up into his eyes and his steady but insanely intense expression. "War will not cease so simply, but perhaps in time, it can."

He lowered his gaze to her and spoke in a low voice, "I would tell you about Ares and the end of the assassins. About how it was not I who killed Eziano to feel this way, but I don't want to lie to you, and you won't believe me, so-"

"I do believe you though," Yaoyorozu cut him off.

Zach hesitated. He looked at her, and he asked after a moment, "Really?" It was not a soft question or something intense and emotional. He was just skeptical that she could believe something as unbelievable as what he was just saying. "I mean, I don't just mean I'm not lying like I meant with my stories I wasn't lying about," Zach continued to explain to her. That explanation unnerved Momo a lot more as he brought that up like he had been telling the truth back then too. "I mean that there are Gods in this world and I killed one. For thousands of years his hands have forged our world and I ended him."

"Why?" Yaoyorozu asked softly. She caused Zach's lips to twitch and lower down, then curl up, then distort frustratedly in all directions. "Did you need to kill him?" She questioned in a whisper.

"What do you think?" Zach asked. He said it harshly, and spiderwebs of Death stretched out from beneath his sleeves and covered his arms. Those arms were already wearing black but the Death black was a much deeper darkness. A pitch black void stretching around his arms, then up his shoulders and over his chest into the shape of a skull for a moment before scattering with most of it sliding back below his sweatshirt.

"I think you've been using too much Death," Yaoyorozu responded, moving from the subject to what she just saw.

"I'm training so of course I'm using it," he snapped back at her. Her eyes widened at the annoyed tone. It was not angry, nor upset with her, just frustrated at the fact that she was bothering him. "And I want to get back to it, and figure out these new powers I've got." He tilted his head expectantly yet kept staring back into her eyes with the ones so dark hazel with swirls of blood red in them that Yaoyorozu refrained from mentioning. She just shook her head at him and stepped back once, her lips pursing but her expression hardening after a moment. Zach lowered his gaze down, but then the look of semi-shame vanished and he turned away from her the same time she turned from him.

"I'll leave you alone then," Yaoyorozu said quietly, though she was sure he heard her. I do believe you. Whatever happened, that you say is truth… I believe that you didn't kill Eziano. I was convinced you had, but I don't know anything about it. I don't know and you won't let me in. You won't tell me the truth, and it's not because you think I won't believe you. I told you I would. You're only using that as an excuse. The excuse that it's all so unbelievable that you have to keep it to yourself. Whatever happened though Zach, I hope you see what it's doing to you soon. When you do, please tell someone.

You can't do this alone.

Zach turned away from Yaoyorozu and walked the opposite direction of her as if pissed off by the end to their encounter. His two Death arms moved to his sides though and looked like his only arms, while he rose his actual hands up in front of him. He stopped as he heard her leave the gym, and his eyes shook as he stared down at his hands. Go back in, he ordered. He pulled the Death back into his hands, but he glanced down to his right side as one of the muscular arms he had sticking out of him just got stronger. When was the last time…

He gulped, then he shook his head around and started running forward. Death came out of his calves. It came out the joints of his knees and ankles, and he looked back and saw black footprints being left behind him. He had been trying to pull in his arms at the same time that he ran, and he growled but forced it all in at once. As those extra arms sucked back into him, his hair flared up and the black strands got darker. His vision turned more red as his eyes flashed with it. Off the brain! When was- Just stop it now! He pulled that darkness off his brain, but his heart stopped beating as he flooded it into his chest. His teeth clenched with his lips curling apart for a second, It's only getting stronger!

Calm down. Chill, Zach relaxed. He laughed at himself while letting the darkness fill his whole body. His skin turned black and he laughed some more, but when his laughter came out darker and scratchier he stopped. It feels good. It feels so fucking good! Just accept it- I can't! YOU HAVE TO! Accept it all, to get it under control. No creating Limiters this time-

WHO ARE YOU KIDDING?! I can't make Limiters right now. It's too late to start. Zach's face flashed with fear, but the webs of darkness that remained when he just tried to suck all the Death back in started spreading back over his face and seeping into his eyes making swirls of darkness flood into them around the red.

He had gotten the Death off of his heart, so he could hear how fast his heart was beating in his Death-engulfed ears. I'm so fucking strong, "Hahaha! Hahaha…" He looked back down at his hands that were covered with Death without him trying to surround them. Zach's face twisted up and his eyes trembled as he stared down at those hands. His hands were shaking and black wisps came up off of them. The dark tendrils wisped and then stopped slithering up, shooting back into his hands as he curled them into fists. I am in control. Death is my Quirk. I've been controlling it for years.

"THIS FEELS SO GOOD!" Zach roared, and he let Death explode out from him all at once. Then he sucked it all back into his body, his eyes flaring red and his body tensing up as it all shot inside him at once. For a moment there was no Death on the outside and he felt full control as it was not even on the brain, his eyes were fully hazel, and he chuckled to himself as he still felt that power and the euphoria despite that control he regained.

And then it got even stronger.

And that control was lost.

Zach's eyes shot down to his left side where an arm was bulging out of his armpit. He flooded that Death upwards onto his arm instead, then he slowly pulled back so it was just spread partially down his shoulder towards his elbow and forearm. I should enjoy it while it lasts. This feeling! He called it out at himself, but the feeling was overshadowed now. The euphoria had finally been overtaken by the fear of that euphoria. A fear that almost always was mixed with the disgust of the euphoria and overshadowed the good feelings. The fear and disgust that this time was not enough to mask how great he felt. It had not been enough to keep Zach down in the dumps as he usually got when he murdered people. The euphoria was still there, but he gagged and felt his throat fill with Death as he did so.

I've been allowing this surging euphoria and power all this time. His self-awareness made it all the more terrifying to him. It's allowed me to ignore the rising power that I don't know the end of! I don't know how strong it will get! FUCK! It only got stronger still as he tried to hold it all in. He tried to make it disappear like he never had before. As he had not been for several hours now, as he had always had Death on the brain or in the eyes or extending out of him in one arm then pulled over to another arm or multiple at once.

I can't do it.

The realization hit him like a ton of bricks. He froze in place with his breath catching in his throat, I haven't stopped using Death for hours. I didn't realize it either. Make it all go away. Stop. Stop! STOP! Nothing stopped. It won't stop, he thought as it still swirled inside him as much as he tried to force it away, force it into a pocket, force it anywhere but out. I can't stop it. It's just…

Getting stronger.

---

A/N Thanks for reading. Zach meets with Softy this chapter, as well as Hatsume, and Kuroiro and Monoma, though Class A's a bit busy for him with everything going on right now. So Zach's left to his own devices. He pushed Yaoyorozu away. And now what Raijin expects, and Zach could feel coming but tried to ignore... Well, we'll see what happens. Anyway! Get some more looks at the League this chapter and see that they have had a few hiccups in their plans, and they also learn the truth behind the Muindo Range's destruction as Danny "The Devil" rolls up for their help. The heroes and the villains are all concerned about Zach, who they absolutely should be concerned about as Softy probably realized this chapter when Zach told the story of The Hammer. Alright guys, enough for the summary and foreboding ominous implications I'm trying to make... Instead, coronavirus! X( Been very worried about this for weeks now, but in the past couple of days this has escalated rapidly. (And right when I hopped back into my stocks too after pulling out in panic weeks ago, meaning I just lost big ;.Anyway, if you find yourself quarantined right now, give Death a reread! XD Here's a chapter for you to enjoy if you're stuck on a cruise ship or in a hotel somewhere they've locked you into! Hope you all stay safe out there, and here's hoping that the next update doesn't come mid-Pandemic! Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Leave a review below telling me what you think of the chapter, predictions, comments, etc!

GrayReader chapter 216 . Feb 18

I had to immediately stop what I was doing the second I got an email saying this was updated. I think you almost gave me a heart attack with that dream sequence in the beginning though. Keep up the good work!

Haha! That's great to hear- not the heart attack part, just how quick you were to read this! XD Thanks, and hope you enjoyed the new chapter!

WomanSlayer chapter 216 . Feb 19

Okay, I think I finally got it, it had been bugging me since I read about the events in Arizona with the quarantine but, I gotta ask...
Is that a reference to Ultimate X-men: New Mutants?
I remember reading part of that volume on a reddit post when Logan has to kill a kid whose powers manifested while he was going through puberty. If so, mad respect bro, mad respect.

Thanks for the reviews! No spoilers, but admittedly I have not read the Ultimate X-men: New Mutants, ;( sorry to disappoint.

xilios2000 chapter 216 . Feb 19

i think you are really understating zach's power vs shigaraki here. he is at this point faster then lightning which means he atleast must be going at around mach 300. this is WAAAAY faster then anything shigaraki could possibly react to especially as his quirk does not boost his reaction time which if we are generous is 0.4seconds zach should be abel to just squish him before he even realises death immunity is irrelevant against brute mountain buster strenght

Idk man. I think we're about to get a taste in the manga of a Shigaraki level still in the first year of Class A's time at U.A. where he's going to be stronger than every hero around him. He's already close after that fight with ReDestro we saw (by the way hope y'all liked seeing him this chapter!), but he's also got the experimentation being done to him. We haven't seen him for a long time. We don't know what kind of tests he had done to his body. Don't know what kind of training he underwent, and as we saw with Eziano, not having a Quirk that has anything to do with boosting reaction time doesn't mean you can't be one seriously strong badass motherf***** XD. Anyway, we haven't seen the two fight so I don't know where you're getting that Zach's power is being nerfed or anything, all we saw was Zach telling Midoriya it needed to be him and that he couldn't do it... You're getting your information from Zach? And you think that's a reliable indicator of how I'm judging the power scaling? ;) lol Anyway I liked the math you did and how intense you are about this, but don't worry. I don't think I've randomly nerfed anyone yet for the sake of plot. Call me out on it if I do guys, but just Zach mentioning it isn't an indicator that it's actually going to happen, or that it would be close, as we see in this chapter Zach thinking about how much better he is than them all already, but that he's training so that he can be in a whole other league entirely! Thanks for reviewing, hope that satisfies you for now, and hope you enjoyed the new chapter!

JanbFire chapter 216 . Feb 19

Gotta say I love that out of all the people ultra suspicious of Zach, Momo is the only one who guessed what happened right immediately. lol Zach really is shit at keeping secrets from her.
Also now that we have the newly-minted God of Death/War, I can help but worry about the future implication of Zach possibly losing touch with his humanity. Like I know Zach is Bestboi and is aware of the danger, but still he really should see a therapist before it's to late.

Momo's always been good at that. Been calling him out on his shit for years now. This time she is a bit off though, as much as she assumed it did have to do with Eziano and that he had killed someone. Just as much as she guessed some of what had happened though, she also believed that he was trying to stay truthful with her... even if he did push her away at the end there. Worrying about Zach losing touch with his humanity, is something Zach also seems worried very much about this chapter! And he went to see a therapist, but is it too late already? Is he fucked?! We'll find out- Next chapter! ...Maybe, no spoilers. XD!