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!

220. Chapter 220

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 220:

Late at night on U.A.'s campus, two teens walked down a road after dark when all students should have been back at their dorms. Zach brought them past the unnamed building with only an O with an X over it marking what it was. They knew it as where Kaminari betrayed them, but the two of them did not even give the building a glance as they continued down the road. Zach motioned ahead at Training Ground Xi. "There aren't a lot of security robots in this area-"

"You would know," Kirishima retorted without breaking stride just behind Zach and on his left.

I would. But not for whatever reason you think, Kirishima. Zach just nodded his head without glancing back at his classmate. It's because I can't leave this campus, and I knew whenever this happened it wasn't going to be quiet. With you it was inevitable. You're not the kind of guy to wait this long. Already I was surprised but… but I think you thought I would initiate. That I would give you a chance but I- I still don't know what I'm supposed to say. I prepared for this but not for you. For that look in your eyes. You're Kirishima Eijiro. Red Riot. Why do you look at me like you never look at anyone else? Not even villains get this treatment.

Zach turned into the training ground and Kirishima followed. The redhead walking behind his old friend was busy glaring daggers into the back of Zach's skull, but his eyes did wander around and examine the rarely used Training Ground. It was not a huge one, but it was large enough that from deep inside there would be seclusion from everything else. He knew there was a different kind of isolation to this place though, because they both knew about the fight Midoriya and Bakugo had had on campus. The fact that Zach walked straight here without hesitating showed he did not expect to be interrupted.

The zone was suburban. No houses had more than two stories and they were mostly separated though there were a couple of blocks of connected housing. Cars were parked in driveways, on the streets, in parking spaces in front of the commercial area of the fake town. Zach walked through the commercial zone and around a corner near the main street, but his steps were slowing. I don't know what to say to you, Zach hesitated more but continued walking past a fake movie theater he remembered hiding in during a practical training years ago. He recalled his team with Sato, Iida, and Kaminari getting handily beaten by their classmates' team, a team which Kirishima was a part of.

He and Iida were preoccupied with one another that day. Who was it who caught me-

"Here's fine."

Zach slowed as Kirisihima said that and stopped where he was in the street. "Just down here then," Zach said, nodding to his left and walking around for the side of the theater.

I don't want to be interrupted. This has been a long time coming. I needed to do this. It needed to happen! Zach's eyes still darted down to the floor as he headed into a wide alley separating the movie theater from another line of shops going perpendicular to the theater down a road he had been about to turn on instead. I haven't talked to him. Person to person- man to man. It's Kirishima. That's, the only way this would work.

Zach stopped in the alley and looked back at his red-haired classmate standing there in the darkness glaring at him. Kirishima's expression eased for a moment and his fists uncurled as Zach looked back at him and met his eyes. "So," Zach began. He waited a second after speaking but then asked, "What do you want?" Stupid.

Kirishima's understanding look that he was starting to get as he thought he knew why Zach looked like that wiped from his face in an instant. "I want-" Kirishima bit down and cut himself off. He looked to his side and glared at the wall of the alley on his right. "You know what I want. Don't act like you don't."

"I seriously-"

"Be straight with me," Kirishima snapped with a look back towards Zach. "Just for once. Talk to me," Kirishima paused and he had to grind his teeth after saying it, before adding on, "and don't you dare fucking lie. Not this time."

Kirishima, I can't- Zach locked his jaw and his chest clenched up. If I lie to him here… It's my only chance. He's giving me only one chance. I've done nothing but lie to him since I came back and he knows it somehow! "Alright," Zach responded, despite knowing how much of a lie he may have just told. "So, what do you want to talk about-"

"Why are you here?" Kirishima asked. "Why'd you come back?"

"Mina needed me not to leave-"

"And you were going to leave that night?" Kirishima snapped, his tone raising and his eyes getting more discerning as he looked down towards Zach. His classmate hesitated for a second before nodding his head slowly in response. Zach kept eye contact with him the whole time, and Kirishima's expression eased again with his own face scrunching and his eyes darting to the side as Zach admitted that to him. What about your plans? "After all you did to come back here, you were going to leave."

Kirishima muttered in a low voice but it was still loud enough to reach his classmate. He lowered his eyes down to the floor then rose them and glared straight into Zach's dark hazel eyes, "Why are you back?"

"I just said-"

"Not to U.A.!" Kirishima shouted, then his eyes narrowed more with is eyebrows pointing down in towards his nose. His glare got more intense as he growled in a lower voice, "Why did you come back to Japan?"

Did he not want me to? Zach wondered from the feeling he got staring back at Kirishima. "There were, a lot of reasons."

"Like what?" Kirishima asked louder.

"I don't know! Kaminari, and facing all of you again-"

"You came back to face us?" Kirishima asked, his tone raising along with is chin so he looked down his face more towards Zach. His expression scrunched up, and he wondered louder, "You think you've been facing- you haven't faced shit!" His head came down and he snapped that at Zach with his right arm swinging out to the side. "You won't even talk to me-"

"You're the one who's been avoiding me!" Zach called back, before he stopped and pulled his head back. What am I doing? He has every right to be angry. "I'm sorry though," Zach added. He spoke before Kirishima could retort to that last shout, and Zach mentioned softer, "I should have made more of an effort. Or, to just talk to you like this, at least."

"You had months… I mean, I did too," Kirishima glared off to his left for a second. His fists started curling again though, and he shook his head around, "No… No!" He snapped his head back and yelled at Zach, "You don't get to do that! I don't have to feel bad- I came out to see you! I did," Kirishima reminded himself of it while saying it aloud so Zach would remember too. Zach kept making eye contact, though Kirishima could see shame on his face. The redhead growled his way in a loud and angry voice, "I wanted to know what you were doing back. I wanted to talk to you, to make sure that it was really you in there."

"What do you mean by-"

"I have no idea!" Kirishima shouted. He swung his arms out to either side and then yelled at the black haired teen ahead of him, "Because I have no idea what happened to you! Where you've been," he said, and he glared Zach down as his old friend's expression twitched. "What you were doing," Kirishima added, his voice softer but cracking for a second. He grit his teeth and then rose his voice back up, "Who you were doing it with?" His pitch rose and his eyebrows curled up too as he glared down at Zach so angrily but with sadness in his eyes too. His lack of understanding frustrated him to no end, and anger welled up inside him as Zach was opening his mouth to respond. "I want to know!"

"I was- I've told you. I told you where I was-"

The sadness in Kirishima's eyes wiped very fast. His rage bubbled just below the surface, though it was very visible on the outside too as his arms started shaking. "I said not to lie to me," Kirishima started growling.

"I'm not! I really went to America. I fought as a vigilante all over the world. This world, and in others- I mean that!" Zach snapped it when Kirishima started to look back angrier at him. The redhead hesitated, and Zach stepped back a foot closer to him and said in a softer voice, "I mean the stories I tell. It's all the truth. I-"

"You're a fucking liar," Kirishima snarled. "Even now," he paused and his eyes pointed straight down at the floor between them. "I can't believe it. I can't believe… except I can." Kirishima shook his head around while Zach's chest ripped at that last sentence. "You lying to me, it's nothing new. Like those two weeks you spent ignoring me. Pretending every second we were together," Kirishima rose his gaze up and glared at Zach but his expression was colder now, no longer open to hear excuses or answers to his questions. "You're not even as convincing as you were then- or maybe I'm just not as gullible, when it's not my friend trying to convince me."

Zach winced and he turned his head with a look down. "We're not even friends anymore!" Kirishima yelled angrily when Zach made that reaction in front of him. "Don't- don't pretend," Kirishima growled, stomping forward while Zach turned and looked back at him with his eyes full of grief at the sound of that. "Friends talk to each other!" Kirishima shouted at that look in Zach's eyes. "So why the hell did I have no idea about you struggling to control Death?!"

"No one did-" Zach started, desperately raising his voice again.

"I should have," Kirishima snapped, interrupting him. "If it was before I might have," he added, speaking of a long time ago when he may have been the person Zach told about something like that. "When it happened though," Kirishima's voice started lowering. "I stayed away. I was, frustrated, that I didn't know anything. Having to hear it later that Sato and Shoji were helping you the whole time, when I could have been. I knew though..." Kirishima opened his eyes more from the squinted look he just had, and the pity and self-hatred was gone as he glared back at the person he knew he should not be feeling those things for. "I can't just forgive you that easily. It doesn't work like that."

"Then what do I need to do?" Zach asked. His eyes opened wider and he allowed the desperation to come out more clearly in his voice this time, "How do I make things right?"

"I don't know-"

"How do I fix this?! I've been trying everything and I- I really need to fix this. It's why I'm here, Kirishima. That's the truth-"

"Not the whole truth," Kirishima growled back. "Don't even pretend like it is. We're all just secondary. Something important, like how important it was that you leave us letters before you go." Kirishima's red eyebrows narrowed back in but he growled a question out, "And how important were those letters compared to the actual Lifebringer Incident? Sure, I bet you think they were pretty important to you. If it was that important though, you wouldn't have done it AT ALL!"

"I had to!" Zach yelled back. "I- I had no right being here-"

"You had EVERY right to stay here! You chose to leave," Kirishima growled and shouted it at the same time at his classmate who leaned back in front of him. "You left and went God-knows-where, did things you won't tell anyone about, and then you come back and think what? That it was going to be easy?! That I would just- that I would what?! WHAT?!"

"I don't know!" Zach shouted. He panted a few times after calling it out at his old friend. One of his friends who he looked at and remembered too many good times with, more than almost anyone he knew… "I don't know what I'm supposed to say, Kirishima." The spikier-haired teen ground his teeth harder at that answer, and Zach tilted his head back but continued to try, "Am I supposed to apologize? I tried that. I've tried and tried, but you don't forgive me. You don't have to. I- I don't forgive myself for that night either." Zach said that in pain and he squinted his eyes for a second before continuing louder, "Do I try to be the person I once was- or even better? Be a real hero this time? Can that make you forgive me? I've tried that too. I've tried nonstop since I got back here, to make things right with everyone-"

"It shouldn't be about making things right! Things can never be made right," Kirishima shook his head while saying that lower, his tone deepening and getting less angry and just more frustrated. "Making things right? Apologizing? Like what? We're all just fragile people who couldn't handle what you did and need something to fix us?!" Kirishima snapped that and glared at Zach, then his chin tilted up and he looked so much angrier at Zach for not responding quick enough. "Is that really it? We were your friends! Friends. Not fucking, glass."

Kirishima shook his head, not even knowing what he was talking about anymore. "I don't want your fucking apology," Kirishima growled when Zach opened his mouth again. "This isn't you. It's not real."

"It's all I know how to do, this," Zach responded. "I'm trying-"

"Well stop trying!" Kirishima yelled. He rose his voice louder while pulling his elbows down to his sides, "You can't make things right if you don't tell me anything!" Zach's face scrunched up so much more, his lips pursing and his chest feeling like it was about to explode. "I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO YOU ARE!" Kirishima shouted at the top of his lungs at the stranger in front of him.

"You do-"

"I don't! I don't know you. I don't know this person in front of me. I don't even know if I knew who you were before you left." Zach wheezed in at the sound of that, and Kirishima just snapped at him at the sight of that, "You know it's true! You were never being straight with me. Every single second we spent together-"

"That's not true."

"Then where were you?!" Kirishima shouted. Zach started shaking his head, and Kirishima snapped, "How can you just say no like that?! What the- hell?" Kirishima's face twisted with his voice crack, and the frustration peaked on his expression. He ground his teeth furiously and snarled ahead of him, "Stop hiding."

What am I supposed to say? What am I supposed to do? I hate this. I can't think fast enough. I can't use Death to get me out of this. I can't manipulate someone like him- I don't want to! Just talk like- I can't tell him! I CAN'T TELL HIM! Zach's chest felt like there were elephants stomping on it. He stared desperately towards Kirishima but just shook his head. "I'm not-"

"Stop putting up that mask!" Kirishima yelled.

Zach flinched and the redhead stomped towards him in more anger than Zach had ever seen Kirishima be in before. Seeing that kind of look on the face of someone who should never have to look like it, someone who never looked that enraged- and Zach knew all the rage stemmed from him. It all came from what he was doing to Kirishima at this very moment, but there was nothing- I can't.

"You don't tell me anything. It's all a lie. Every word out of your mouth. Even the way you feel right now, I- I can't even believe that look on your face. I don't even know who you are!" Kirishima yelled it straight into the face of his old best friend. In his eyes flashed the sight of the person in front of him laying in his arms as his body went limp, a smile on his face and gratitude in his eyes for Kirishima's friendship. Something he had treasured, and which at this moment he remembered it felt like the most distant memory that caused the strongest pain he could imagine inside.

Zach's expression started shaking though at what Kirishima was shouting at him. His lips trembled, but anger covered his face instead and he snapped loudly, "You want to know-" What am I doing?!

"YES!"

"You really want to know how I feel?" Zach wondered, his voice raising into a yell and his body leaning forward with his face shaking more and more. I can't- I CAN'T-

"Yes! That's all I've ever wanted. You're lying whenever you're-"

Zach's hands rose up on top of his head and he curled his fingers into his hair. He pulled his hair while screaming at the top of his lungs and leaning his face forward towards Kirishima's, "AHHHHHHHH!"

Kirishima froze in place. His eyes opened huge, as Zach looked between his lifted arms and screamed at max volume at him. Around the corner back on the street where he had followed them until, Bakugo stood frozen with his back up against the corner of the theater and his eyes wide at the sound of that scream.

Zach staggered forward right in front of Kirishima and snapped his head forward so it was inches in front of Kirishima's that had to lean away as it almost seemed like Zach was going to headbutt him. Zach's fingers curled tighter into his skull though and he screamed so much louder, "AHHHH! RAAAAAAAA! AHHH YAAAHh HHAHAAAAAAA-" Zach stopped screaming for just a second, lowering his arms in front of himself while stumbling backwards a step again. He looked to his left shoulder and grabbed it with his right hand, and he screamed, "RRAAAA!" He ripped off his fake left arm and threw it aside with the sleeve of his torn shirt, and he looked back at Kirishima and tilted his head to the side before letting out a horrified scream that cracked at its highest pitch.

"Z-"

Zach stepped forward and reached around the back of Kirishima's head with his right hand. He gripped into Kirishima's hair and yanked his head forward, smashing their foreheads together and looking into Kirishima's eyes from as close as he could while screaming out, "AAAAAAAhhh AHHH AAAAAAAHHHHHHEEAEeeaaahhh… aahh ahhh ahh," Zach panted a few times after screaming in so much anger and grief, and with a look in his eyes impossible to understand as Kirishima had never seen that look before. A look showing he had seen the most horrific things in the world. Things that seemed to reflect off his dark irises as Kirishima stared into them, and Zach screamed again as Kirishima stood there with his jaw dropped not knowing what to say anymore.

"Zach, what are-"

"This is how I feel!" Zach screamed at him while letting go and pulling his head back a foot. He glared ahead of him in rage and roared, "You wanted to know?! RIGHT?! RRARAAAAA-" Zach snapped his right hand to his chest and grabbed at it, but his heart was not hurting no matter how fast it was beating. That pain was a relief. A reminder that I couldn't take everything. That I could fucking die. WHY DOESN'T IT HURT!? "RRRAAAAAAAHhhh! Ahhh ahh- AHH!" He screamed a sob, seeing a thousand faces in his head, and a thousand bloody sights, and he tilted his head back and roared.

"Zach stop. Calm down," Kirishima lifted his hands up and tried stepping closer to the freaking-out mess in front of him. "What did I do-"

Zach's face twisted and distorted in panic and fury. He shook his head around rapidly at the misunderstanding and yelled back, "NO! THIS IS HOW I ALWAYS FEEL! AAAAHHHH RRAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

His head snapped down and he snarled, "I have lost more than I can remember. And I have done things, unspeakable things. And I have seen the-" Zach spun his head to the right and clenched his eyes shut. "I have seen the most horrible- I have seen, children BURN! My loved ones, dying in my arms. I've killed so many," he shook his head around with his eyes opening and glaring so much darker ahead of him. "And I have watched as my closest friends were massacred!" He turned his head and glared back more enraged than he thought he could be at Kirishima, as he growled rapidly at him, "I have fought in a river of blood against a man experimented on solely because I had brought him back to life, because they wanted to see what made him different like you! I fought him to the death in a river of corpses-" Zach wheezed as he hadn't breathed in a while, and he tilted his head back as tears fell while finishing, "Surrounded by people, skinning and eating each other alive, a mile below the planet in a hell of blood and despair and FUCKING NIGHTMARES!"

"Only they would be nightmares, if I still dreamed. I don't even sleep." Zach hissed that while lowering his head and glaring through glowing red eyes full of tears at the person he once called friend who stood before him.

Kirishima was fully stuck back on the hell thing Zach was talking about, and he could not follow along fast enough to keep up. "What are you, talking about-"

"A child! With the power of a nuclear weapon, dying in my arms!" Zach yelled. "And I had to hold onto him, because if he didn't know that not holding his power back would hurt me, he might've set off a nuclear explosion! I had to hold him as he died- not thinking about him but about everyone else! Even though that kid had jumped in front of a shot meant for me!" Zach yelled it in agony, and he squinted with his eyes back to normal and just full of despair as he shook his head. "An eight year old boy! And as he melted through my arms," Zach rose his right arm and bit down on his right shirt sleeve, and he tore it to the side to rip it off. He turned his arm and showed the browned torn-up scar covering his entire underarm so discolored from being melted through. Kirishima's eyes shook as he stared at the scar Zach was describing the origin of, "As that boy died, I could see in his eyes that it was the first time he thought anyone ever cared about him, like I cared about him so much!"

He scoffed it while screaming in regret and rage at himself. "And I was so afraid for the kid, and yet I didn't bring him back. Even though he died thinking I cared so much- I couldn't risk the nuke-" Zach brought his right hand to his face and gripped his skull as hard as he could. "And I let that kid die! So tell me," Zach snarled. He looked up and glared between his fingers at the classmate who he was shouting all this at for some reason. "Tell me, what does telling you this do? Does it even matter?"

"Do you even believe me?" Zach snarled, cocking his head to the right and giving Kirishima a skeptical and angry look as he questioned whether this was believable or not.

"I…" Kirishima was going to respond quickly, but his shocked expression started to change. His glare returned and Zach's eyes opened wider, his right hand lowering from his face as Kirishima focused back on all Zach just shouted. "What, 'unspeakable' things, did you do?" Kirishima asked, and Zach's whole body tensed up. His expression shook and then filled with anger for a moment, only for Kirishima to ask him, "All that happened on Earth, didn't it?" His tone came out knowing, and he glared down harder at his classmate who hesitated from the question.

"None of that was just, just stuff that couldn't have happened here. You don't have anything to say about Terra?" Kirishima rose his voice, getting louder as he watched Zach's expression shifting away from the real one full of so much emotion from the past couple minutes. "So was it all really just a lie? Everything else?!"

"Not everything-"

"So most of it then?!"

"What have I told you that isn't real?!" Zach yelled back. "The Battle of the 6 Armies? That's real! Going to other worlds? That's-"

"Going to Terra!" Kirishima specified it with his shout back. "SAY THAT! Say that you went, to 'Terra.' To fight the Arcasians. With dwarves and orcs and dragons- You can't. You can't even look me in the eye," Kirishima shouted it faster while shaking his head as Zach started to shift his gaze at this line of questioning. "I don't know how I'm supposed to react to all that," Kirishima continued when Zach was starting to look even angrier now. "Because I don't understand any of what you just told me! None of it makes sense!"

"I just-"

"I'm not smart enough!" Kirishima yelled. It was a strange thing to yell and as strange a thing to hear being yelled at you, but Zach flinched and pulled back at the shout he understood too well. "I'm not tricky like you. I don't know how to deceive people. I don't know how, to- to figure you out. To read the subtle clues- I don't get what people are talking about! I don't get what you're trying to-" Kirishima bit down his sharp teeth in sheer frustration that he could not understand a thing here. "Other people, they're forgiving you and- and they say things like 'I don't understand.' Well I don't," Kirishima growled, his tone upset but also tired of being upset about it. "I don't get it at all."

The redhead started to get angrier again, his fists clenching at his sides as he rose his glare up in the darkness and met Zach's eyes. "But I know when I'm being lied to. It's something that took me a long time to learn. I'm slow like that, you know? I don't know how to make up lies that go on for weeks, or months, or for… are you planning on just, lying forever? For years?" Kirishima asked it with a confused look, as if the aspect of Zach doing that was mind-boggling to him. "I can't separate the lies. That's too hard for me."

"So what is it Zach?" Kirishima wondered. His classmate did not respond and he rose his voice louder, "What's the lie?! In the Enudora Forest, I knew what you were lying about afterwards. You told us everything you had been holding back. Right?! I was able to tell!" Kirishima stopped and panted for a few seconds just as Zach was doing in front of him, only not as hard anymore. That made the spiky-haired teen's breath speed up even more, and he growled angrier, "What is it? Tell me where the lie starts. Tell me what happened."

"Too much-"

"That's not an answer! Ah ha, ah haa," Kirishima balled his fists tighter and they shook as he barely held himself back from shouting again. "Tell me what you did!"

"I killed people!" Zach shouted back. "Is that what you want to hear? The 'terrible' things I did," Zach cocked his head to the side and wondered it back at the first person he ever brought back to life. Someone Zach never expected to look at him the way Kirishima was now. It fueled anger inside him rather than grief at the moment, and he questioned with an angry tone covering up the pain that subsided below, "Is that enough for you, or do I have to explain why I did it? Why I killed them, each time-"

"Yes. You have to," Kirishima growled back. His voice was colder and his eyes locked unshakenly back on Zach's.

Zach stared him right back in those unwavering eyes and replied in just as dark and cold a voice, "Then we'd be here for hours."

Kirishima flinched and his neck tilted back. His head yanked backwards and his eyes shook at the answer that came out so cold from Zach's lips. "And you question why it is I lie?" Zach wondered skeptically. His pitch rose and his head tilted back too with his eyes shaking at the sight of Kirishima looking at him in that way. "I hate what I did. So much of what I've done, but, I was a soldier." Zach blinked slowly and then refaced Kirishima steadily and gave his classmate an intense look no longer ashamed of what he was saying. "And I killed, because I was at war."

"I could arrest you for saying that," Kirishima responded, his voice hoarse at first but finishing in more just an upset way at the truth of it. This isn't a lie, right? He wouldn't lie now, but he lied about leaving Earth. So he killed all those people here? There wasn't a war here. He just, killed villains. More and more of them while he was gone. I didn't want to think that that was what he was doing. I didn't want to think about it at all, and I yelled at people who said you were doing stuff like that. I defended you! I- I BELIEVED IN YOU!

"You're an idiot," Zach retorted. Arrest me for what?! "And you're a coward," Zach added on as Kirishima bared his teeth and then started grinding them at the additional part. "Falling back to that option instead of just dealing with this between us! You'd rather get others involved-"

"I'm not a coward!" Kirishima yelled, stomping his right foot forward and glaring angrier at Zach than ever. "You're the one being a coward! Too afraid of us all looking at you like this, that you'd rather just lie forever?!" Kirishima shouted it, raising his pitch near the end as he was questioning if that was really what was happening here. He was still too unsure about anything, as there were too many lies to pick through and figure out. "You're too scared of us all being a bunch of Kaminaris?!" Kirishima added even louder, seeing if that was part of the reason.

"I remember what you were saying in that forest," Kirishima growled. His voice got excessively low and his eyes narrowed darkly at his old classmate and friend whose expression remained dark and unmoving while facing back towards him. "You were trying to get Raijin to admit that one of us was a second spy. Even though you really knew who it was…" Kirishima's face scrunched up thinking of that part about the Hunter Zach screamed all about too. "Not Lifebringer!" Kirishima's heart tore but he shook his head around fast and snapped, "I still trusted you! I was friends with Kaminari too, but I didn't push everyone away. I still trusted Class A-"

"I couldn't do that!" Zach yelled back. "It didn't make sense to just ignore the possibility of potential spies-"

"I was your friend! Not a potential spy," Kirishima's fists balled at his sides and he stomped closer but Zach did not back up. "We needed to trust each other then more than anything! We all needed, to believe that it was just a fluke! A one time thing!" Kirishima shouted it with his fists slamming down behind him and his body leaning forward as he tried to get that into Zach's head. "I could still trust after what happened. You made it hard for everyone else to though. I, I wanted to trust you even when you came back. I wanted you to admit what you had done and prove you weren't, that you weren't him."

"I'm not him," Zach started under his breath.

"Everyone else became so distant for a while. 'Who's next?' It's like they were all thinking that!" Kirishima's face got more conflicted and frustrated, and he growled so much angrier at both himself and Zach, "I didn't want to be like that! But you- you won't tell the truth. And all that time you weren't, being a-"

"A what?!"

"A hero!" Kirishima yelled. "You weren't being a hero, like I thought you were… Just in your own way."

"You have no idea what I was…" Zach trailed off and he bowed his chin to his chest. That's not a good counter. He wants to know. I can't tell him. I already told him! What am I doing? I'm going to lose it all. He's threatened to arrest me. I can't control this situation. It's not something I can just think out and come up with the right answer for! This is Kirishima! He's my friend- He was- Zach's teeth clenched behind his lips and he snapped his gaze back to the other teen who glared harder at him for the angry look on Zach's face like he was the one frustrated here.

"It's better that you don't trust me," Zach countered with his voice low but seething. "If you can really trust so easily after all this, you must be an idiot who wants it to happen to him again." Kirishima's whole body shook in rage, and Zach glared at him harder, "It's not being a coward. It's being smart."

"I don't want to be smart then if it makes me an uncaring asshole who only cares about himself." Kirishima's elbows pulled in as Zach's whole body twitched including his right arm. His voice rose louder after they both twitched like that, "Because if you cared, you wouldn't lie to us all while pretending to be our friend!"

Zach's eyes clenched shut and he twisted his head with it sharply cutting down again. I was faking it- Damn it just stop this. If I'm getting angry over that though, then I'm not pretending am I? Why would that cut so deep? I'm not pretending! I'M NOT! Zach's eyes snapped open and he looked up with his harshest glare at the teen standing very close ahead of him. "If I can't lie and still be your friend, then I can't be your friend." Because no one would still be friends with me if they knew it all.

"That's not true!" Kirishima shouted back though from a few feet away. "Friends don't lie to-"

"If I tell you the truth, then we have to be enemies," Zach countered before Kirishima could finish.

"Why?" Kirishima asked. He demanded it louder when Zach hesitated instead of responding right away, pausing the back-and-forth. "Why?! What did you do-"

"Everything!" Zach yelled. "Everything. I did whatever you think is the worst thing I could have done after I left here. I did that and so much worse," Zach shook his head as he replied. He said it and rose his gaze to the dark sky for a moment, then he brought his eyes back down and met Kirishima's gaze. He met the hero's eyes and saw how badly Kirishima did not want to hear what he just heard. He continued to Kirishima anyway though, "You want me to explain to you that they're all wrong? You want me to tell you the truth, so that I can clear everything up? Well I can't. Because if anything, the stories of my cruelty are watered down. My wrath knew no bounds."

"So you really…" Kirishima's hands stopped shaking as much. His eyes still shook for another second even as his body became ready for it. "You're a villain." Kirishima stated it and he glared when Zach's expression just got angrier and darker. "You're telling me you're a villain!"

"I did what I had to do!" Zach snapped.

"You put yourself in that situation! You ALWAYS do that!" Kirishima stepped towards Zach and rose his hands up at his sides to make a point, but Zach's right hand started raising at that moment and curled up as well. Kirishima's fists balled tighter and he swung his right fist out to the side while close enough that it almost hit Zach, who did not lean away at all when the hand came close to him. "You didn't have to do any of it! You, killed people? Did you torture them?!" Kirishima rose his voice louder and his expression twisted when Zach did not reply right away. Again he was reminded of what he heard in the Enudora Forest about the Hunter. The cruelty that Zach had shouted about in so much agony because it was a step too far, and yet looking at him now Kirishima could see that the line that once existed was gone.

Of course this will only make him angrier. I don't care though! I can't explain it- There is no explanation for the kinds of crimes I'm admitting to. He's a hero. With Kirishima it's simple. I knew that. I knew there was no point in trying. "You don't know-"

Kirishima snapped before Zach could get out another word, "You've told me enough! I do know- I know! That what you did was unforgivable. Unexplainable." Kirishima's eyebrows narrowed in and his expression took a different look to it than it had up until now. "Unjustifiable."

"I don't need to justify myself to you-" Zach started with his voice getting louder.

"Yes you do!" Kirishima yelled right back. "You owe it to me- to all of us to tell the truth!"

"And telling you the truth? Just a piece of it," Zach leaned his head forward and swung his own right hand out in front of him which made Kirishima lean forward farther rather than pull back from it. Zach's arm did not pull back though and his hand came very close to touching Kirishima's face when it swung like that, but Zach rose his voice louder even as Kirishima bit down and shook in rage and preparation. "How is that going for me? You think I'm a villain? My enemies burned children alive. They ENSLAVED people! And I ripped them apart!"

Kirishima stomped forward and pushed his hands out into Zach's shoulders. "You had no right!" Kirishima yelled as Zach stumbled back.

He had thought he was prepared for it to reach this point, but Zach still took several steps backwards before stopping in an unbalanced posture. That was a hard shove, Zach turned back to Kirishima and had no look of surprise on his face. I wonder if I knew it would come to this. Why I'm here. Or, did I want it to? Zach's right fist balled and his expression got much darker and matched Kirishima's now. Because of Rappa. You're alike, you know. Talking with fists, is the only way to get things through to some people…

Zach walked back forward towards Kirishima, "I had every right. No- I had a responsibility, to do what I did." Zach reached forward and pushed on Kirishima's left shoulder using his right hand. He shoved Kirishima back and the redhead's right leg lifted and dropped backwards. That foot shoved into the floor and broke through concrete to drag back only a few centimeters before stopping. Zach's shove had similar force in it to Kirishima's, but Kirishima did not stumble backwards nor make any other movement other than slamming that Hardened foot down for support. His left shoulder that turned a bit back shifted forward and pushed Zach's hand back with it. Kirishima glared forward a foot into Zach's hazel eyes that shifted from Kirishima's shoulder to his feet and then his face but with Kirishima's right fist in his peripheral vision.

"Excuses." Kirishima growled.

Kirishima's right fist hesitated down at his side as he stared into Zach's eyes from this close. The two of them glared at each other so angrily but both of their expressions flinched in the next second. Zach pursed his lips for a moment as he saw the hesitation in Kirishima's expression, and he asked with is tone raising up a little, "Are you really going to tell on me for doing what was right?"

He thinks I'm going to- Kirishima's fists balled tighter, but he bit down and then shouted, "I won't! If you just tell me everything I wouldn't-"

"I don't believe you," Zach growled. He would. He'd have to. He can't make that promise at the start- You have no idea!

Zach's reply really pissed Kirishima off though. He yelled out, "I'm a man of my word! Unlike some people!" Kirishima leaned forward more so his face was just in front of Zach's. The sharp-toothed teen growled out, "I don't lie or deceive or trick people, especially my friends."

Zach already strongly hated that part of himself. Hearing that growled straight into his face from someone he once thought of as one of his best friends, brought up that hatred in full force and nothing could have felt worse in that moment. His whole insides clenched up and his teeth started clenching so much harder as he forced the corners of his lips down, At least I can still feel pain. Good to know that, at least. Stop- STOP SMILING! Zach's eyes shook and the feeling of gratitude and relief he felt at being this upset and in pain was finally completely overshadowed by all that pain itself.

"You must feel so superior, not having to do those things," Zach started. He lifted his head and glared down his nose with his eyes full of anger towards the teen in front of him, "But not everyone can be that naive-" Zach turned his body to the right. His body turned sideways and Kirishima's right fist started passing along the front of his body. Zach reached his right hand out and pushed on Kirishima's left shoulder. "You don't lie? Good for you!" Zach's shove on Kirishima's left shoulder was lighter than his last one, however Zach pushed the force in the perfect angle that with Kirishima's right arm's momentum, his legs lifted and crossed because of the shift in weight Zach put on his body.

Kirishima stumbled away and spun to face Zach from Zach's left side now. Zach's body was already facing that way from the side-turn he made to let Kirishima's fist pass by first, and the way it seemed like Zach perfectly prepared for and countered every aspect of Kirishima's move could not have upset the redhead more. A punch back, or a stronger attack, anything would have been preferable than a light shove that made it out like he was not even worth taking seriously. "Raa! You don't have to do those things either! It's all a fucking excuse to you-"

"I did what I had to do-"

"You have excuses for everything!" Kirishima yelled. "But that's all they are. Excuses." He ran forward.

Zach stepped forward with his left foot and turned his body as if he was going to punch Kirishima with his left hand. Kirishima could see Zach did not have his left arm though, and he rose his left arm to block the right fist he saw Zach balling. The movement with his left side was not just a feint though, and Zach's left arm flew over and reconnected as he was in the middle of punching. Kirishima's eyes darted over and the right fist he was swinging changed directions to hit Zach's left arm instead. Zach finished punching but the side of that left arm was hit by Kirishima's fist right as he connected his knuckles with Kirishima's jaw.

Clank- CLANK

Kirishima's head turned a few inches to the side and upwards as Zach's fist collided with it. Kirishima's fist hit Zach in the arm though just below his elbow on the outside of it, and the clank was louder with Zach's arm being swung more in front of his body. Zach jumped back eight feet and landed while still looking into Kirishima's eyes. There was no mark left on Kirishima's face down near his chin that had hardened and made his whole expression look rougher. Down in the corners of his eyes though, Zach could see the dent left with ripped fake skin around it where Kirishima just punched his prosthetic. Even with as strong as the metal is, he was surprised but not too much when faced with the person before him.

It's not about Kirishima's strength though. Just that his Hardening was harder than the material used for my arm- which admittedly is as impressive.

Kirishima was not focused on the effectiveness of his last punch like Zach was. He marched forward and snapped while raising his fists up and Hardening both of them, "All those people you say you've killed." Kirishima had to stop himself as he saw the man in front of him turning his body and sliding his right foot forward. Zach had his back to the wall of the theater only a couple feet behind him. His fists both flared with dark auras for a moment and then that aura slid down his arms rapidly to his elbows and his shoulders leaving the areas between the joints just a darker shade of his natural skin color but not actually dyed in black. Pitch black veins ran through his arms, and Kirishima could see pockets of it down at his ankles, behind his knees, and around his hips. Kirishima only hesitated for a moment when Zach turned into that much more threatening pose, before he growled right on with it, "Where was it you killed them?"

"You keep talking about other worlds!" Kirishima demanded with his arms raising into more of a fighting stance as Zach faced him like he was not going to just let himself get hit here. He slid his own feet apart and started to circle to the right, but Zach's feet just pivoted in place showing he was not going to go along with it. Kirishima still got it so Zach was facing him with a much longer gap behind him down the alley as they were facing each other longways now. "But I know you're lying about that! That's one of the things you made up. Out of all the stories, it's the very first one-"

"Earth," Zach replied. He cut Kirishima off and replied to the young hero calmly, "I didn't kill many people in the other dimensions I visited. It was on Earth," Zach answered with his black eyebrows dipping down more towards his nose and his eyes glowing red as he responded. "My enemies were villains. Monsters." I can't lie- what am I doing? What does it matter? Zach's fists balled tighter and he stomped forward with his back foot when Kirishima rushed him.

Kirishima brought his right elbow upwards and punched underneath that arm. Zach stepped right up close before Kirishima's left fist could start gaining much momentum. He slammed his right fist forward much faster than Kirishima was moving. His step forward and the punch at that speed closed the distance far faster than Kirishima was expecting. Zach slammed his right fist forward and pounded his knuckles straight into Kirishima's chest between his upper and lower arm.

Kirishima readied himself to be hit and then continue swinging his left anyway. The force of Zach's punch took him off his feet though and made him gasp as he no longer felt the surface below him. He felt the hit through his Hardening and his eyes darted down to see Zach's bare hand ripping through the black tevlon glove because of the Hardening it hit. Kirishima's shirt ripped too as Zach's hand had ground on the Hardening, but Zach's skin did not break through as his glove had ripped.

I'm strong. Zach watched as Kirishima hit down and skid backwards down the alley twelve feet before finally planting his feet down hard enough to stop. Zach started walking forward, and he had to tell Kirishima who looked at him confusedly and angry that he did not understand how that happened. "Every time I kill someone it makes me stronger, Kirishima." Zach balled his fists, and out of his back exploded a blast of Death that rippled behind him and then curled around the right side of his body. It surrounded his right arm, but Zach lifted up his left when Kirishima started running forward.

Zach pointed a glowing blue light on his left palm at his friend running towards him. Kirishima kicked upwards in mid-run, the toe of his right foot Hardening and dragging through the cement below him that it tore up. Rocks flew up in the rubble shower at Zach who covered most of his body in Death and made it so thick that he was pitch black. The pieces flew right through him, then Zach lifted his right arm up and got ready to elbow down once Kirishima's right fist passed through his chest like that rubble he just kicked. "It's pointless to fight me," Zach growled in a low voice somewhat scratchier and deeper from the Death in his throat.

Kirishima slammed his right foot down and he sent his right fist flying. He Hardened it and ground his teeth at that statement from his friend that may very well be true considering he could see that rubble flying out of Zach's back and hitting the ground harmlessly behind him. He remembered attacks going through Zach in the Lifebringer Incident after he had injected with Trigger too, but what Zach just said about killing was still settling in on him and he was too upset and angry to stop himself and think about this. He threw his right fist as hard as he could forward, and Zach's right arm swung out instead of coming down to elbow on top of Kirishima's head.

Zach lifted off his feet and flew backwards fast. He was lifted from near his chest and thrown backwards onto the ground where he tumbled legs over head for a second before gripping the ground and tearing it up with his left hand. He flipped himself up onto his feet and looked down at his chest covered in super thick Death that did not part when Kirishima punched it. That's right. Someone I revived, Zach lifted his gaze back towards Kirishima who seemed to be realizing the same thing already. This has happened before. It happened against Zombieman too, don't get flustered- Hawkins too. Zach's face twisted in anger shown through as the darkness had mainly left it clear.

"Death won't work on me! And it looks like I can still hit you," Kirishima ran forward and charged at his opponent. His eyes shook with rage but flinched as an image appeared in his mind for a split second. Zach started running right back at him, and the flinch and look on Kirishima's face made Zach think of what he guessed correctly Kirishima just pictured.

Kirishima saw himself lifting his left hand with his elbow down on the table between them. "We better get a matchup now, so you can back that up."

Zach saw his left hand raise and clasp with his friends, "You bet… As long as we both never lose to anyone else, we'll have to have a matchup sooner or later."

Neither of them imagined at the time that it would be this long before the fight actually came. And neither could have guessed then what would be the setting or reasoning for their clash, but the two still remembered that moment as they slammed into each other. Zach's left forearm pushed stronger into Kirishima's right forearm when they collided, so despite scratches appearing on Zach's arm it was Kirishima whose momentum was pushed back to have him down on his heels.

Zach's left shoulder rolled upside-down and he grabbed Kirishima on the underside of his right arm. He yanked down and kneed up with his left leg for Kirishima's face that he just pulled towards it. Kirishima's face Hardened, then the redhead winced and clenched his eyes shut as Zach saw the Hardening happening and sped up his leg rapidly with Death completely covering and solidifying his leg with a much denser version of it. He knocked Kirishima up off his feet and into the air, "I can hit you too." Kirishima heard the voice directly in front of his face. He opened his eyes that were still clenched shut from that painful knee, but Zach was not above him in his arc.

Zach grabbed the back of Kirishima's collar and swung down back into the floor. He twisted his whole body with a swirl of Death coming out of him during the spin to speed him up more before the release. Kirishima's whole body became harder this time and despite breaking through the ground, he rolled up onto his feet and sprinted to where Zach was landing without pause. Zach kicked off the air with his left foot when he was a foot and a half off the floor, stopping his descent short. A small pair of wings came out of his back and flapped hard. He slammed his right knee into Kirishima's face while the teen was still adjusting to the fact that Zach had slowed his fall.

Zach pointed his left hand forward and fired into the ground just behind Kirishima and on his left side. Kirishima's eyes darted that way, but he was already taking a step back now from the last knee that was not as painful as the last but still had him easing backwards. Most of the debris brought up by the blue blast hitting the floor and making a small crater flew right behind him, though some shredded through the back of his shirt. Zach reached forward and grabbed Kirishima by the face with his right hand just as Kirishima was refocusing forward. He pushed down as if flipping his body over Kirishima, but when he released his hand he was ducked low and sliding around Kirishima's legs to his right side instead. Kirishima's eyes were rising high, and Zach's hand had swept off the side of his face fast before pulling away out of sight too quick for Kirishima to realize that it was going the opposite direction as he was starting to look up.

The darker-haired boy sliding around Kirishima's legs stared up around the side of Kirishima's head. He caught a glimpse of the other teen's face. I don't want to fight like this. He doesn't- Zach's hesitation gave Kirishima the moment to realize where he was, his eyes snapping down in the corners and glaring hard at the crouched teen who stopped moving all of a sudden in too fast-paced a fight for that kind of pause. Kirishima's body was starting to turn around anyway as he thought Zach had flipped to his back, and his left arm had risen and clenched a fist already though he saw now he was not going to have as much of a wind-up for it.

Kirishima punched. Zach's body spiraled around and his arms swung upwards while he shot out of his crouching position. Kirishima's eyes widened as Zach's body snaked around his arm and up his shoulders in a second. Zach's upper body came out of the blur of darkness that just sped up him during a punch that was flying through empty air now. Zach put his hands together over Kirishima's head and brought down, and Kirishima pulled his head back only for Zach's left foot to slam him in the face and work with his momentum of pulling away to launch him off his feet. His foot? Kirishima never saw the kick coming.

He had Hardened his whole head at the last second when he thought the fists were coming down towards the top of his skull. Hardening did little to mitigate the pain. Kirishima stumbled backwards but managed to maintain his footing, though he reached up his right hand and grabbed at his face where he felt that blow so heavily. Kirishima's hand lowered a little and he glared over the top of his fingers towards where Zach flipped around and landed on his feet, crouched but standing up straight to face him with a flat and calmer expression than Kirishima could manage. His hands dropped from his face and his head tilted back, his expression shaking and his eyes squinting in sheer frustration at the blank look that just stared back at him. Doesn't he feel anything? Don't you remember?!

"You're nothing like the…" Kirishima trailed off and could not even finish that sentence. "Or maybe you are. Maybe," Kirishima paused and his eyes closed tightly shut for a moment. He opened them and finished, "I was wrong when I shouted those things at your trial-" Kirishima's mouth froze open as the calm look Zach managed to return to his face after kicking Kirishima too hard there, broke down completely with despair and then pure anger.

Don't stop just because- Zach's face twisted more in frustration at the way Kirishima looked at him again from his calm facade shattering. "Maybe you shouldn't have," Zach replied with his tone raising in pitch cockier. His expression did not change, but Kirishima still balled his fists in anger at the sound of that voice. It's not easy for him, Zach thought as Kirishima ran forward, darting to the left and right quickly but still just at a regular pace as Zach's red eyes traced him around. Those red eyes started fading in brightness, though the darkness around certain joints and parts of his body grew stronger at that same time to compensate. To see how hard it is for me to do this.

Zach stepped backwards. He leaned to the side and dodged the first punch, then he waved his right hand in front of his body but pulled it back when Kirishima started to redirect early to adjust for the block. Zach dodged that second blow even easier because of Kirishima already adjusting it away from where he was now. "Stop, running!" Kirishima yelled, jumping up and slamming his arms together in front of his chest with them hardened and making a clanking sound.

"Fight me!" Kirishima yelled as Zach's right foot was lifting up again to step back. Kirishima's face twisted in rage, but Zach stopped from the look in his eyes and the tone laced in that voice. His foot hesitated in midair, and then it changed directions and stomped forward right in between Kirishima's feet. For the smallest of split seconds, the right corner of Kirishima's lips moved upwards before he grit his teeth and pushed his feet twice as hard down on the floor just as Zach did.

Zach slammed his left fist forward while covering the front of his torso in the thickest Death he could solidify so densely before the blow would hit. Kirishima's body started to look different right as he was punching forward though. Only on part of his body, Zach thought, as he could see Kirishima's hand still coated in his regular Hardening. Over his chest and neck and face though, Kirishima's body became rigid with sharp edges and a jagged image. Already the strongest defense, all he's been training is his power. The ground is breaking below his feet more than mine. He won't hit me with Unbreakable though. Not yet. Out of Zach's left shoulder erupted a blast of darkness. His entire left arm shrouded in twice as much but all that condensed even more than the darkness on his chest, and black flames came out of his right leg that had stomped forward and that he swung backwards while launching his body into his punch.

"UNBREAKAB-" Zach's left fist slammed into Kirishima's chest and cracked the Unbreakable armor. The black-haired boy whose fist connected with Kirishima's body first felt the collision of his opponent's fist into his own body, but there was no pain there. He pushed his arm upwards and followed through, sending Kirishima flying diagonally back the way they came.

Kirishima slammed into the wall opposite the side of the theater. He left a crater in that wall even just bumping into it and bouncing off. Kirishima hit the ground and flipped, flipped, tumbling over himself and ripping up the ground as he was still hardened on most of his body. What? Kirishima thought after gasping out during the last roll. The thought snapped him back to consciousness of the ongoing fight, and he slammed his hands down below him and dug two trenches of finger marks back right out onto the sidewalk outside the alley. He stood up slowly with crumbs of ground falling off of him.

In the small indent in the front of the building where the doors of the theater dipped in from the front wall, a dark figure slinked more into the shadows to keep out of Kirishima's sight while the redhead marched a couple steps so he was back into the alley. He can't win. Doesn't matter. Bakugo's fists clenched, his left curling tighter around the phone in his hand with a blinking red dot on the bottom of his screen and a squiggly white line across the middle. I can't do a thing until it's over. This is between them. Once Kirishima's down though, I'm coming for you.

Kirishima only stepped closer to Zach for a second after getting back up. The question he had just asked himself was at its core simple. The base question of 'what' echoed in his head, as two things became painfully apparent to him after the last blow he received. He stared at Zach with his eyes losing much of the anger in them for a moment. He looked at that figure staring back at him through dark eyes though ones not necessarily glowing red even if they were that color. That hurt.

He realized it when he was hit and the pain had kept him from fully understanding what had happened. Kirishima released his Super Move though while facing Zach, panting lightly while that shadowed figure stood steady and glaring back at him angrier than Kirishima looked now. I was in Unbreakable. It hurt, just as much as it did before. Kirishima's eyes moved to Zach's arms and legs, to the joints encased in black and not wisping at all. Zach's skin was darker but his Quirk wasted nothing. As soon as I used it, he used more power. The exact amount! It hurt as much as before- exactly as much as before! How much stronger is he?

The control Zach had over this amount of Death was not as amazing as what Kirishima understood at that second was still inside him. How deep are his reserves? How much more… Kirishima was not the smartest of Class A. That he accepted and was fine with. He found this incredibly easy to put together though. He used just enough strength to hurt me before but not any more than a normal hit. Not enough to really- it hurt! He knows I can take it. He hit me with the intent to cause a certain amount of damage though. That's it. Kirishima put words to it in his mind and figured out what it was that had him so frozen in place. Yet this was only one of the two things he understood in the moment that made him stop where he was and just stare down Zach with his eyes darkening more and more. He didn't attack at any time with a certain amount of power behind his attacks. He thinks he's that much stronger, that he can base how hard he hits on how much pain it will cause me? Even in Unbreakable?!

But that's not… Kirishima stopped his own thoughts as the things he was shouting angrily at himself were not actually what had his gut clenching so tightly. "Why am I still able to hurt you in Unbreakable?" Zach asked for him as Kirishima struggled to collect that thought. Zach wondered it while taking a step towards his old friend and cocking his head to the right. "Hm?" Zach's hum in his throat cracked to be higher pitched somehow even without him opening his mouth.

Something inside Kirishima's mind had kept him from accepting much of what Zach had already told him. None of it was fully filed under "truth" in his head, and so it kept any of this from being as impactful as Zach wanted it to be, and as Kirishima himself wanted it to be. By Zach's own admission though, or failure to deny too many questions, Kirishima knew the lies were still happening. He remembered the Lifebringer Incident though and that Zach could just tell the truth. So now he recalled a secret Zach told him that he got angry about but also felt like his classmate was taking too much of the blame. He felt like Zach had been talking badly about himself, using metaphors or hyperbole, or even just lying to make Kirishima hate him as much as possible. For some reason Kirishima knew deep down that Zach expected this to happen and that Zach did not just bring them here so their "conversation" would not be heard by anyone else.

"Who did you kill?" Kirishima asked in under his breath. His voice was the only noise in the alley though. He rose his gaze up and stared into Zach's eyes, and Zach squinted his eyes back with his fists curling tighter than ever.

Damn it, Kirishima. The frustration made a physical reaction all over Zach's body from his expression to his curling toes. Look at you. You put it together. You realize it, and- and you still! Damn it! Deep inside you're still giving me the benefit of the doubt. Zach shook his head once and then glared back at his classmate confronting him over this, finally. Everything I've already said, he wanted to believe I just left out the most important parts. "You want to believe it was all self-defense, justified even," Zach started in just as low a voice as Kirishima had just spoken in.

"How come you can hurt me, when I'm in Unbreakable? Why is it so easy?!" Kirishima yelled.

"Because I've killed many, many people. And every person I killed made me stronger. Forever." Zach's head tilted back just a little and he rose his voice louder than Kirishima had just shouted at him, "That look! That's why I lie!" Any of the previous looks Kirishima had given him or shown him that he felt so bad about, would have been ten times better than the one of disgust he saw appear for a moment on Kirishima's face. Zach stomped forward and felt enraged, but as tightly as his fists clenched he did not want to just run forward and hit his opponent like he usually could when this angry at someone. "It doesn't matter how much good I do! How much I try to help people!"

Kirishima's expression faltered and he stared back at Zach with his fingers uncurling and his mouth slightly ajar. A light breath slipped out between his lips and he released the grip his hands had completely, while Zach snapped forward at him, "Death makes people think of me a certain way."

"It's not because of your Quirk-"

"It's always been about my Quirk!" Zach growl-yelled back, his fists uncurling but just so his fingers could each be curled out of the fist and pointed down shakily at his sides.

Kirishima just shook his head back though. He shook it without the anger he had on his face before. "I didn't look at you that way because of Death. I looked at you that way, because I didn't want to believe you were out there killing people." Kirishima sucked in breath as he saw Zach flinch and have to look away. The redhead's fists curled back in slowly but in a calmer way than before. Much less emotional. "But if that's true," Kirishima continued.

"Then what?!" Zach roared back.

Kirishima's right foot slid forward and pushed rubble aside. His body hardened and hardened even more. It doesn't matter how strong he is. Death can't knock me out. Zach won't run from this. Kirishima's eyebrows narrowed in towards his nose and his focus was as intense as could be. "Then I have to arrest you."

Zach stared Kirishima back in his eyes and his twitching tensed fingers stopped shaking like that. Calm- FUCK! I fucked up! Zach's fingers tensed even more and his head shook, his eyes shaking worse as he ground his teeth and glared furiously back at Kirishima. His classmate started moving forward, and Zach shook his head more, "That's not going to happen." Zach accepted Kirishima's resolve to capture him, his expression getting a new level of serious himself as he could see it in his old friend's eyes. He's really trying to take me down now. He's serious this time. So I will be too. I tried already. I am trying to show you everything. Be myself. I guess, I am the one you want to take down then.

It's not the person I'm pretending to be that you're after. It's not a misunderstanding I can clear up. Zach curled his fists and rose them. There might not be any point in actually fighting you here, but I won't back down. I can't do that now. Even if there's no reason to be fighting my friend, Zach grit his teeth and he pulled his elbows down as Kirishima sprinted at him with his body Hardening as much as possible. Death engulfed his whole form and he sped forward himself, and the two of them smashed into each other in the alley with the ground below their feet breaking down into a crater that stretched from one side of the alley to the other on the first blow.

The two pushed off each other, and Zach ran back forward quicker. His movements were smoother and his body retained a mostly humanoid form with two legs and two arms through it. As he parried both of Kirishima's arms to the sides though, a third arm came out of his chest and slammed a palm up underneath Kirishima's chin. It did not have the strength to really push his head up far though, and Kirishima chomped down through the Death that broke apart mid-arm when his head snapped back down. Kirishima clapped his hands forward and Zach's body split in half, this time before his opponent's arms were touching him so those arms actually swung through empty space.

Zach's upper body reformed a lower half out of the midsection and spun a kick into the side of Kirishima's head. It was not hard enough to break through his shell, but it had enough force behind it to throw Kirishima into the theater and right through the wall. He crashed through the insulation and broke the inner siding too, bouncing on the stairs and then breaking through five red chairs of a single row in the theater. Zach leapt through the hole while debris was still flying inwards after Kirishima, and Zach swung his right arm down with it enlarging eight times its size from half a second ago. He intercepted both of the chairs Kirishima threw at different angles using the same swing of his huge arm, while also masking which direction his body continued to approach from.

The body on the other side of Zach's huge swing came soaring with wings underneath the thinner part of the arm closest to where Zach's shoulder had been he disconnected from. The huge arm itself that the body disconnected from was where Zach's main consciousness was though, and as Kirishima turned and jumped to intercept that flying Death shadow before it reached him, a long but thinner arm extended out of the thick black arm all accumulating into one man again.

Zach pulled Kirishima back by the top of his head and used his extra long arm to whip around himself and fling back into the wall. He flung Kirishima lighter than he had kicked him before though, and this time he only cracked and badly damaged the inner wall near the hole rather than broke his classmate completely through it. Kirishima dug his hands and feet into the wall, then he rolled his whole body while swinging all four limbs towards Zach.

A debris shower flew at Zach and what pieces hit him went straight through his body and out the other side. Kirishima dropped down from the wall and sprinted right towards Zach despite that attack doing nothing. He ran at him straight up through the stairs that were too weak for when Kirishima's toes hit them that they were being broken apart themselves. The ground shook as Kirishima charged like that. The lack of emotion on Kirishima's face was all Zach focused on when he looked down towards his sprinting classmate though. Kirishima was focused and frustrated but that frustration was clearly on his uphill battle and how he was losing the fight.

Zach did not dodge or block this time. He stepped closer to Kirishima at the last second and rose his left hand with it open. He caught Kirishima's right fist in his palm and leaned his face forward out of his own Death veil. "You want to know who I killed? Fine. I was at war." Zach pulled his head to the side and then rose his right arm and locked Kirishima's other fist down into his armpit. He pulled them closer together and put their heads much closer, and he growled into Kirishima's face, "You think it doesn't haunt me? That I'm this powerful?! I have to live knowing that this power I feel every second of the day is only mine because of all the lives I've taken. But I took those lives because I had to!"

Kirishima smashed his head forward and Zach could not blow apart his own head in time. By attempting to do so though and turn his head thin enough that Kirishima's would just pass through it, he took away too much protection and that Unbreakable headbutt in the forehead made him stumble backwards with his Death seeping off his body in huge waves of wisps that flew up to the ceiling from his sudden loss of complete focus and control. Zach shook his head and sucked it all back in within an instant, but Kirishima did not care about that sudden show of an enormous vat of strength hidden inside. He just marched back towards Zach and growled at him in an angrier voice again, "Because you had to? Is that what you call it?"

Kirishima ran at Zach and attacked him. Zach's body retained its normal size again and the fight returning to more punches and kicks, though the kicks were mainly from Zach. Kirishima barely attempted to dodge or block though, just storming through attacks and running right back at Zach when knocked away with his flurry of blows continuing. "You had Kurogiri beaten! You had the League on the RUN!" Kirishima roared, and he ducked down as Zach punched towards his face. Kirishima's left hand was pulled back for a punch, but he just increased his speed out of nowhere and tackled forward instead only the other arm.

Zach could not break himself apart once grabbed. It had been a long time since that had been a problem. Mastering control over Death to the point where he could become intangible in an instant had been something he had not had when facing Hawkins. And against Zombieman he was still new to it and did not rely on the power as much as he did now. As his back hit the floor and they skid through rows of seats while tearing up the carpet and wood floor below them, Zach thought about how many of Ares' all-powerful attacks he allowed to go right through him. I beat Ares only because Death gradually weakened him and then killed him. He was stronger than me. Far stronger. I'm stronger now though! And I've had a few days to try to start learning to use that strength. If anything it's a burden right now. Too much Death that I-

Zach's red eyes flickered in their glow as Kirishima brought his left arm in that he was initially faking a punch with. He elbowed into Zach's gut while moving his right arm around Zach's side and gripping his left arm with it up near the shoulder to prevent it from rolling in a weird way or disconnecting. Oh yeah. He's arresting me, Zach snapped his own head up this time and headbutted Kirishima right back. He increased the gap between them a tiny amount. They were all used to holds and techniques to pin villains and keep them from escaping, but Zach was far more skilled in escaping from those holds than Kirishima was at knowing the reverses to those counters Zach had invented and picked up over the years.

"No," Zach started, while swinging his right arm through the gap between them and popping Kirishima's right wrist off of his left shoulder. His left hand was already pushing up, and without the pressure down on it, his palm swung into Kirishima's face and turned his Hardened head to the side. Kirishima's whole body looked sharper and more jagged as he used Unbreakable on top of Zach, but Zach's legs were pulling up already below them as Kirishima focused on getting Zach's arms back in his grasp. Zach pressed the soles of his feet up into Kirishima's stomach.

Kirishima had no idea for a second how Zach managed to get his legs so far underneath him. He thought he was more on top of them still and close enough to the ground that Zach could not bend his legs and get much strength behind them. What he could not see without leaning too much higher up and making it easier for Zach to escape, was that half of Zach's body had already flattened into a black puddle in the ground. His legs were sticking out of the ground just above the knees, and all that puddle suddenly flushed up into the legs and pulsed them with huge muscles that launched Kirishima up into the air.

"You're right," Zach said while flying up after Kirishima as fast as he just sent him launching. Kirishima was looking down during his flight to get a look at Zach and figure out how to fall correctly to land on him, but his eyes snapped back up to see Zach raising with him to the ceiling. Zach smashed through the roof just as Kirishima stayed as hard as he was and the two broke holes in the ceiling. They landed on the roof and faced each other, and Zach continued while more illuminated again by the moonlight and light from the city and parts of campus around them, "I didn't need to kill them all."

"I killed people who were trying to kill me. I killed people who were aiming at friends and about to kill them. There are moments I remember, where it was life or death for one person or another. I chose in those moments to kill in order to save a life…" Zach gulped and his face scrunched up. Guilt flooded his eyes and he admitted with his voice cracking, "Sometimes that was my life. I killed to save my own life," Zach confessed. "I did."

"You didn't need to kill them-"

"And sometimes I killed when I didn't need to," Zach agreed, raising his voice and nodding back with his eyes closing more so they were almost shut. "You're right. You, you're right and I messed up in the Lifebringer Incident. And I came back to face up for that," Zach added. Kirishima bit down hard, and Zach rose his voice again, "I went to trial, and I was sentenced, and I was pardoned! And that doesn't make what I did right, but I've paid my dues for that. But for everyone else I killed," Zach continued.

Kirishima hesitated for a second and then ran forward. It doesn't matter. I made my decision. "So it was only that one time?!" Kirishima shouted, while sprinting at Zach who he needed to keep talking. If he's talking, he'll- Kirishima did not like fighting in ways like that. He did not want to fight Zach at anything but his strongest. He was attempting to tell himself that he wanted Zach talking because he had caught Zach with a lucky blow before when Zach was distracted, but he really just wanted to hear Zach's reasons.

I wish it was, Zach thought as Kirishima ran at him, yelling that which showed he did not think the incident was isolated, not anymore.

"It wasn't," Zach replied. He blocked Kirishima's blows and then lifted his right foot and slammed his shoe into Kirishima's chest. He sent his classmate flying back across the roof past where he had just started from, but Zach started running towards him this time before Kirishima had landed and was at that same starting spot before Kirishima even stopped himself from skidding. Zach jumped and punched his right hand down, and this time Kirishima rose his right hand and crossed his body to catch it and slam it down at his side. Zach's eyes followed Kirishima's face during the whole movement, his arm not shifting directions at all so he allowed Kirishima to guide it as the redhead was attempting. "I killed a lot of people."

Zach's fist hit the ground where the other boy slammed it, but Kirishima was not expecting the kind of force behind the blow. Zach had not attempted to change the direction to hit him when Kirishima was redirecting it, because there was no need to counter or prepare for Kirishima's next attack. Zach's fist hit the ground and blew a new hole in the roof they were on. They started falling through it but Kirishima did not let go of Zach's hand, pulling it closer instead through the rubble while raising up a knee.

Zach kneed into Kirishima's and winced but still stopped the hardened thing from hitting him in the gut. "I killed more people than I care to remember," Zach continued as they dropped back into the theater. "I killed them with Death, but even this power is nothing compared to how strong I would be if I got stronger with each person I killed without it too." They crashed into the ground but they fought each other back up onto their feet, Zach snapping the whole time at the spikier-haired hero who looked horrified by what he was saying. "You think I only killed using my Quirk? I shot people! I, stabbed them. I snapped necks and- and I beat people to death-" Zach's voice was getting harder to get out.

He found it harder to speak, and yet he continued on listing, "I shot down their planes. I- I used a hammer to- to bash a man's skull-" Zach's teeth grit so violently it looked like they might break as his jaw was shaking so hard. "I tore a man's throat out with my bare teeth, CHA- RA!" Zach snapped his jaw at Kirishima twice, making loud noises with his chomping and causing Kirishima to lean back. "And you think it was only villains?" Zach asked it with his eyes watery but his face just full of guilt and an excessive amount of rage. The question caught Kirishima off guard though. It was something that he just assumed and never questioned before.

In the shadows of the theater with only faint light shining through the holes in the ceiling, Zach met Kirishima's gaze with his eyes no longer glowing red again. "It wasn't," Zach said. His voice was low and his eyes as cold as could be. "I didn't just kill enemies about to kill me. It wasn't always in the moment. And my enemies- the people I killed, they weren't all villains." Zach's teeth bared and his heart pounded harder at the look on Kirishima's face so desperate to deny what was being told to him. "They weren't always trying to fight me! The Lifebringer Incident was not the only time I killed men who wanted nothing more than to run away!"

"I fought in battles of tens of thousands and killed- I killed dozens- HUNDREDS! At one time," Zach's hands shook at his sides and his eyes raring up with fury but stayed their normal shade. "And in that desert I MASSACRED THEM! It's a blur in my mind, but I can see myself standing there in that sandstorm afterwards. Over a hundred bodies strewn around me torn apart and burying in the sand! And my comrades were all dead. And I was ALONE!" Zach roared it in front of him and stomped so hard towards Kirishima the ground below them shook. Zach's head shook violently and then snapped forward and he continued roaring in rage, "ALL ALONE IN THE SANDSTORM THAT TURNED RED WITH THEIR BLOOD!"

"But they knew what they were getting into when they came after me," Zach hissed. His voice filled with dread and regret as he cut back, his head shaking harder and snapping down. Spit flung from his mouth and he hissed through grinding teeth, "I killed them all for my own survival. They were my enemies though. Monsters, villains- But, but I killed innocents for my own sake too." Zach admitted it in a voice that cracked as he spoke the words. His lips curled up at the corners and his head shook while he stared down at the floor between him and Kirishima. He rose his gaze to meet his opponent's though, and he growled in a voice so self-hating it was tangible in the air. "To save my life and the lives of my comrades, and the general population as a whole-"

"I killed innocent people!" Zach repeated it with his mouth twisting in a horrific and horrified smile. "Sacrificed others, for my own life," he admitted with his voice cracking even higher pitched.

"That's not…" Kirishima wanted to deny it. He wanted to say that what Zach was saying was a lie, or that he was putting too much on himself. "RRrr, you're just taking blame-"

"I gouged the eyes of an innocent man out and cut his throat," Zach snarled. Kirishima froze with his jaw opening wider and his eyes shaking as they grew huge at how serious that tone was. Zach stepped closer to him and snarled deeper with his face looking more animalistic as Zach thought back to that exact moment and felt what it was like. With the cheers ringing out in his ears over the loud thumping of his heart and dull hum that vibrated louder and louder each second. As he watched the final figure in the group of five besides himself dropping to his knees, reaching up at his throat. Zach's eyes were down on that man's face, blood pouring down from his gouged eye sockets, as the man clenched at his throat and the blood sprayed between his fingers. "…And he choked on his own blood as he was dying too slowly. Trying to stop the bleeding, he drowned in the blood in his lungs."

Zach froze and his mouth stayed open for a couple seconds, then his eyes darted up as he remembered Kirishima standing only a few feet in front of him in that dark auditorium. A small piece from the ceiling hit down on the floor close to them and the noise snapped both boys out of it a bit. Kirishima looked into Zach's eyes and finally re-clenched his fists as hard as possible. He isn't lying. Not anymore. It was all Kirishima had wanted for a long time now. Getting what he wanted had never felt less satisfying though. It never felt worse, getting exactly what he asked for.

Zach stared right back and his expression grew angrier at the look in Kirishima's eyes back ready to take him on. Kirishima's body was the only solid form he saw in front of him, while all the bodies on the floor were more transparent. His fists balled and blood came out of cuts on his right palm. Zach's jaw locked so hard his ears began to hurt. "Don't look at me like that," Zach snarled, though it was almost hard to get it out in one single breath as he needed to. He seethed it and sucked in a sharp breath through his nose after as opening his jaw was too much of a struggle at the moment. Sucking in that much breath through his nose was hard with the liquid almost dripping out of his nostrils that got in the way when he pulled back in though.

Kirishima shook his head once with his eyes lowering for a moment down below Zach's face. He looked down, then he ran forward with his head snapping up. "I can't let you get away with that-"

"It's what you wanted to hear, right?!" Zach stomped forward and dodged both of Kirishima's blows. He slammed his left palm into Kirishima's right cheek while his classmate was looking the opposite direction at Zach's right fist coming in. He snapped Kirishima's head to the side and then grabbed him by the right leg that was off-balanced with his upper body easing one way. Zach lifted up to take Kirishima off his other foot, but when Kirishima pressed down harder on that planted leg, Zach kicked up and nailed Kirishima in the gut. The kick took him off the planted foot before Kirishima could start to counter that next move.

Kirishima flew backwards but rolled in midair already and landed down on his feet on an armrest of a chair he hit. That armrest broke under the pressure of Kirishima's landing, Kirishima pushed down on the seat he slid onto, then he used the springs on it that automatically put the seat cushion back up when someone would stand. He jumped and lifted a little higher than his body gave off the intention of leaping, but both of Zach's hands snapped up before Kirishima could pull his legs in for the flip he was attempting to get over Zach's head. Zach whipped his arms down to his left side and slammed Kirishima into the ground, but Kirishima's right hand snapped up as the hole was made in the floor.

The redhead did not flinch even as he was making a hole in the ground. He snapped his right hand up and grabbed Zach around the throat tightly, as Zach's neck was turning pitch black in that instant and he was afraid Zach would slip away if he did not grab hard enough. He got Zach in his grip and even as Zach smashed both of his arms inwards to knock Kirishima's arm off, Kirishima's grip just tightened on his throat even as his Unbreakably-Hardened arm screamed out in pain.

Kirishima pushed down on the ground with both feet and without using his other hand to help him. He used all his leg and abdominal strength to just stand right up onto both feet from an awkward position underneath Zach. Zach tried slamming both arms down again, but Kirishima's right hand clenched harder and Zach's arms flinched. Kirishima lifted his left fist and held it at his side while gripping Zach's throat tighter than Zach could remember many things ever holding his throat before. The translucent bodies of people in rags around him and the man with no eyes drowning in his own blood reminded him of this tightness on his neck though. His eyes filled with water at the feeling and dripped out as Kirishima stood arm's length apart with one vice grip hardened around his throat.

"I was scared," Zach whispered, his Adam's apple moving up and feeling like it was scratched on the inside of Kirishima's palm that kept him from raising his voice any higher. Kirishima tried his best to keep his face as hardened as could be, which was easier with it being as Hardened as it was with all the jagged edges leaving his expression looking more stern than usual. Hearing that voice and seeing those tears made it harder to keep looking like that, but he did not loosen his grip as much as his heart tore apart at the feelings swelling inside him. Zach's face scrunched up more as Kirishima's grip did not loosen one bit. "I was scared. A collar around my neck, so tight- reminding me! That there was no escape. That if I didn't kill them, they would kill me. There was- there was no other option."

Zach's eyes closed and clenched harder shut as tears were pushed out. "Thrown into The Pit to fight other scared prisoners to the Death. Innocent people, and we couldn't use our Quirks, and I tried not to- I tried to stop-" Zach's eyes opened and he asked as the bodies piled up higher on his sides. "But how many times?!" Zach brought up his arms and slammed down with massive amounts of Death filling them. Kirishima's grip loosened quickly as Zach hit down so hard that if he kept his grip he thought he might rip off all the skin on Zach's neck. He stumbled back as Zach's arms hit his arm down and the force of his swings sent wind and Death crashing into him and pushing him backwards. "HOW MANY TIMES WAS I THE ONLY SURVIVOR?!"

The wind of Death faded and Kirishima stared ahead at Zach whose neck his eyes were drawn down to. Zach's calmer voice echoed in his mind, "I had to wear a collar for a little, and I had my throat slit too…" It was, the first thing he told us when we asked what happened. Kirishima realized it as he thought back to the hospital when Uraraka asked about Zach's new scars. The carefree way in which Zach just mentioned it briefly like it was no big deal kept him from even considering that it might be true. A collar-

Zach ran forward at the redhead starting to give him a different look. NO! Zach screamed internally. I don't get to just- It doesn't get to happen every time! "How many times did I step into the Pit with four other innocent people and come out the only one still alive?" Zach ran right up to Kirishima who rose his fists, and Zach snapped his arms forward and grabbed both of his arms by the wrists way too fast for Kirishima to start dodging them. Zach pulled Kirishima's fists aside and put his face right up to his classmate's, looking straight at him and slightly down into Kirishima's eyes from inches away, "How many times? How many? How many times? How many people were in the Tusukan Desert? The sandstorm buried them before I could count, and I couldn't tell afterwards just from the fucking arms and legs sticking out of the sand."

"Each day with its own brand of horror. Each one more horrible than the last." Zach pushed away Kirishima's arms he was holding and leaned his forehead onto Kirishima's with a hard enough smash forward that it hurt both boys even without any Hardening on Kirishima's face. "RAAAAAA! AAAH HAAAAAAAA!" Zach put his hands on the sides of Kirishima's head and screamed as he had before but so much angrier than just the despair and horror he had yelled in at first. Agony replaced the anger in a short time though, as he screamed and screamed at Kirishima, "RA-RRAAA- The mask isn't for you!" Zach screamed into Kirishima's face.

"It isn't for all of you," Zach pulled his bloody right hand back and bit down on his bottom lip breaking skin instantly. He gripped into his chest with his right hand and left marks at how hard he gripped himself, "It's for myself! Because if I had to live like this-" The amount of bodies Zach could see around him made it hard to even keep his eyes on Kirishima anymore. Everything was bathed in red as desperately as he tried to keep his eyes from turning that color and tinting it as such. "If I had to live every second like this, I'd die of heartbreak," Zach gasped out. "If I had to act like someone who had seen all these things, I'd never be able to hold a fucking conversation. I wouldn't be able to do anything, without fucking SCREAMING!"

"Because you can't just see those things and be alright. They fuck with you. Destroy you!" Zach panted heavily and shoved his hands into Kirishima's chest making him back up farther. Kirishima only stumbled back one step this time though before planting both feet down harder, and Zach stopped right as he started to march forward after him while Kirishima brought his fists back up again.

Kirishima clenched his eyes shut for a second and shook his head around. It doesn't matter! IGNORE THAT! Kirishima had feelings telling him to stop and help, but he ignored them and glared as his eyes opened right back at Zach again. "I have to arrest you." He put himself there. Horrible things happen to people. To a lot of villains! Most villains, shout these kind of things. Kirishima's cheeks shook as his teeth clenched violently behind them. He could see the villains in front of him who yelled their sob stories before that he had sympathized with. It's not different, just because he's your- Kirishima's head tilted back and his eyes squinted but instead of water they just filled with more rage at the situation itself. "Prepare yourself," Kirishima snarled, forcing it out in a single breath to keep it in a steady tone.

He's not stopping. It doesn't matter what I say. It finally, doesn't matter. Zach thought about Darling attacking him in the woods. He imagined the looks on his six classmates' faces as they agreed to let him go. He pictured Todoroki in a gazebo with Iida and Midoriya. Sato and Uraraka turning away from him. Iida in the joint training forest at Shiketsu High. Midoriya, Bakugo, and Todoroki confronting him in the national park. He pictured Shoji sitting in front of him as he rambled his madness, and Sato coming to meet him in the gym to apologize, despite everything. And he saw Midoriya time and time again, so many times now overlapping with the times with other people there. Kirishima's not Midoriya. He's not any of them. It's simpler for him. It wasn't simple though! I want him to understand but-

Zach's fists clenched when Kirishima rushed him. But it doesn't matter. I know what was right. If he can't accept it! Zach's teeth bared again and he sprinted forward twice as fast as Kirishima was moving. Kirishima predicted the speed though. He did not guess it was Zach's fastest but figured that Zach would move just that much faster than him. He ducked earlier, and Zach adjusted with Kirishima's movements easily, but Kirishima focused his Unbreakable only to where Zach was aiming and it Hardened twice as hard as his usual Super Move.

Zach's blow did little to slow his opponent's attack. Zach's body did open up like swiss cheese though. Holes ripped through him in half a dozen places, and Kirishima's mind went to shifting his trajectory to two of those other places when he saw that his first target opened up. He had not even thought about switching to those areas yet when he saw that they already had holes in them. "GRrraaa!" Kirishima pulled his arm in instead of finishing his blow at the realization that it would not work, and he spun his body to the side and elbowed out instead. He slammed most of his arm into Zach hitting him between holes in his body.

Zach folded his body over the arm he also predicted as Kirishima's fallback attack. He grabbed Kirishima by the back of the legs and pulled them out from under him while Kirishima flailed his arms to throw Zach's extended folding body off of him. As he was being lifted in the air, Kirishima gripped his hands into part of Zach's torso though. Zach did not slow his throw at all, and the force of his own throw sent him spinning around in midair too when Kirishima tugged at Zach's body with all his strength in one direction randomly. Zach's intentional movements added to momentum in a strange way that spiraled him in midair, but Zach just allowed himself to barrel roll in flight and landed on his feet despite it.

He turned his head and looked back to where Kirishima hit the ground on his hands and knees. "You still going to stop me?" Zach asked loudly as Kirishima dragged himself up onto his feet. The spikier-haired teen's body became all jagged again as he turned himself as hard as he could. He stomped towards Zach and tore holes in the ground with each step, and Zach yelled at him in his approach, "For what?! You don't know what I did! What I had to do!"

"I know that you're Death." Kirishima stated it through rough lips. His face was as narrowed as could be and his eyes seemed to glow red more than Zach's in his jagged appearance. "And I know you lied about where you were. And I know you killed people-"

"I did what I HAD to!" Zach ran forward as Kirishima rose his right foot to stomp forward again. Kirishima brought his leg down quicker as he picked it up without the intention of moving it very far or dodging with it. "You want to know it all?!" Zach swerved Kirishima's punch in Unbreakable easily. He slammed his right forearm into Kirishima's neck while still at full sprint and tackled Kirishima backwards. Kirishima allowed his momentum to roll them to put him on top, but Zach just put more force into a second roll and tumbled himself right back on top of Kirishima again. He pressed his arm down into Kirishima's throat to no effect, and his head leaned down over the redhead's jagged and impossible-to-read expression.

"I know enough-" Kirishima started growling up, his arms pushing upwards on Zach's.

The two of them leaned up off the ground as Zach shook his head back and forth. His eyes squinted in frustration, and he wondered, "So easy to tell the truth isn't it?" Zach pushed off of Kirishima and stepped back while Kirishima got up on two feet. Kirishima did not pause the fight to listen. His teeth just bared harder and he rushed at Zach, but Zach backpedaled and was a step away with each swing Kirishima threw at him. "I tell you the truth and this is your reaction? But oh, it was my fault for lying for all that time. Because telling the truth would be easier?!" Zach leaned his head away and dodged Kirishima's fist, but Kirishima's arm hardened so much as it was passing him that his skin actually protruded out more as it overlapped itself by becoming too hard.

A scratch cut on Zach's right cheek and his head pulled away faster. Zach's face covered in anger but his right fist that started swinging forward flinched when his knuckles were right in front of Kirishima's eyes. The redhead barely saw the fist coming when Zach suddenly stopped it short. Zach opened that right hand bloody from his own nails rather than from fighting Kirishima. He lowered it and just pushed into Kirishima's chest. The palm was already close to Kirishima's body so it did not seem like Zach could get much force into it, but Kirishima was wrong in assuming that. He was thrown back fifteen feet and stumbled six steps backwards just barely maintaining his footing.

Kirishima stared ahead at that palm that pushed him, but his eyes were drawn up the arm and to Zach's face so full of rage glaring back at him. "I tell you the truth and of course this is your reaction," Zach whispered. He shook his head slowly and sadly while speaking the words, and he added, "It's what you have to do. It's what anyone would do." What they all should have done. How they all should have reacted. You're not the odd one out, Kirishima. This is a normal reaction to what I was saying. Zach's face still stayed angry despite his thoughts trying to justify why Kirishima was making him feel like this. "But it's still my fault isn't it?" Zach wondered, raising his eyebrows over his conflicted and pained eyes. "That I didn't tell you the truth sooner? That I postponed this?! It's still easy to blame me for lying for all that time, even though I knew this would come out of it!"

"You have to face up for what you did," Kirishima growled ahead.

"And what did I do?!" Zach asked louder. "You think you know, because I tell you my crimes. There's no way I could explain it all. No way I could describe to you, all that I've done!"

Kirishima Hardened his face even more and kept his expression hidden beneath. It just looked more emotionless with it as jagged as it was, and he ground his teeth but spoke clearly, "Your reasons don't matter."

"Ah ha, ahh haa, ah-ha ah-ha ah-ha-ah-ha," Zach's panting got faster and faster. His eyes shook and his fists clenched and unclenched over and over. "It doesn't matter?" He asked, his voice cracking as it rose in pitch. "What do you know?" He doesn't know anything. "What do you know about it?!" That's because you won't say it! You can't! He's already arresting you, WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO LOSE!? "You think you can vilify the things I've done? You don't know a damned thing."

Kirishima stepped towards Zach but Zach stepped back towards him in that same moment. "The attack I stopped on your precious Sports Festival?" Zach wondered. Kirishima stopped and stared forward at Zach confusedly, though his eyes grew wider after a second behind a face as solid as could be. "The nuke I stopped from blowing up Paris? That little kid-" Zach ground his teeth harder, and harder, and then he seethed at Kirishima, "The League of Shadows?"

Kirishima's heart rate skyrocketed. Nothing else had been as concrete a confession out of Zach. Zach had not denied it now multiple times, but he had never straight out said the words that Kirishima wanted to hear from him. Zach's heart rate sped up faster too as Kirishima stared at him with wider eyes like that, like the confession actually meant anything at this point. "You have any idea, what they would have done to this world? The kind of torture the people of this world would have suffered at their hands?" Zach's eyes clenched shut for a moment, It's too late now. "I didn't leave here, intending to become what… what I became."

"But when Mongoloid-" Zach's voice rose and he cut it off. His eyes were full of water and he turned to the right, squinting them for a moment and sucking in a sharp breath through his teeth. "What was I supposed to do? When no one else did anything?" His eyes lowered and stared through the water in them at the floor to his side, and he pictured the first of his Army who was brought to him outside of his time limit. Only two of his army were able to be revived that day, and he could see Muhammed's face when The Gorrani Boxer he had recruited to face Shakad and SISIS had been brought before him too late. That vigilante laying on the floor was the first of so many, and Zach turned his head back to Kirishima with a colder look in his eyes. "Someone needed to stop them."

It really was all… All of it! "You-" Kirishima grit his teeth. "And why did that have to be you-"

"Because no one else was there!" Zach shouted back. "You think I wanted it to be me?! You think I wanted, to go to WAR?!" Zach yelled. He panted harder and then stomped towards Kirishima and wondered, "You think you can judge me and take me in? What do you know about it? What do you even think happened out there?!" Zach asked it louder and he wondered skeptically, "You think you know? What do you know about the League of Villains' international holdings? Organizations allied with them that I hunted down. What about King, how many of his lieutenants do you know of? Each one of them was more powerful than any of the most wanted villains in any country in the world. Each one had far more power than any single villain organization, and I tracked them all down and I threw them in prison."

"You think I went around killing everyone? That's not what I was doing, but you wouldn't know. You don't know anything! So don't tell me it doesn't matter the reasons!" Zach shouted. Kirishima shook his head around, his expression returning to normal as it was hard to keep it Unbreakable for this long. Zach cut him off as he thought Kirishima was about to start speaking, "I didn't just kill my enemies. I took down Mongoloid and his Demons, and yeah some died, but it was war! And I managed to spare the ones I did, and I got them put on trial for their crimes. And when I found his wife Arma, still alive, taking over local villain groups with powerful allies from the League of Shadows, with tech more powerful than I had seen before- did I take credit for taking her down? NO!"

"No, the new Saudi government needed legitimacy, so I gave it to them," Zach growled. "Their people needed something from them to show that they were the ones getting justice- to stop their people for calling for me to be their king!" Zach stomped closer to Kirishima, not stopping this time as he walked right up to the other boy whose fists were shaking at his sides but did not raise when Zach got right up in front of him. Zach had just sent him reeling from a small attack, and Kirishima was looking the more beat up of the two of them, though Zach had some bruises on him as well and a tiny cut that Kirishima looked for and found strange that he could barely see.

"I have beaten presidents and vice presidents, premiers and prime ministers. You know how many of the world's governments are corrupt at their highest levels? It was too many for me to just expose them all. You think you know what I've done? I have entered a dimension inside of the internet that turned my mind into data, and I fought scientifically advanced bears engineered to be killing machines and nothing more-"

"You're just making all that up!"

"NO!" Zach yelled right back into Kirishima's face. "No, not anymore." He looked straight into Kirishima's shaking eyes and growled it at his classmate, "Despite some of these things being unbelievable, I'm not lying anymore. You just don't understand, because it's impossible for you to wrap your head around."

"Shut up," Kirishima snarled. His eyes were down and he balled his fists tighter again. It doesn't matter! Shove it all aside! "You…"

"What?!" Zach asked. "You think you know war? I fought on battlefields you've never heard of. Against enemies that you never knew the true danger of. Ones who would have burned nations to the ground if I wasn't there! Villains who would have killed MILLIONS! If it weren't for me-"

"And what about Dabi?!" Kirishima screamed. He snapped his head up and glared furiously into Zach's eyes from a foot away. His expression was full of anger, and Zach's self-righteous look was shaken at the hurt look in those furious eyes.

"Wh-"

"You have a good excuse for that too?" Kirishima wondered. His head tilted to the right side with his lips pursing for a second afterwards. "Why? I'm asking you," Kirishima's voice lowered and sounded shaken itself for a second. He hardened it more though as he growled out, "How could you think of that guy as a brother?"

Zach's face pulled back. He could hear himself shouting back in the Enudora Forest. Even before the trap was sprung, he could picture Dabi standing there in front of him next to Kaminari. And he remembered Kirishima off behind that pink barrier watching them, as he shouted what he did at Dabi. None of the great things he felt he had done while gone were able to justify something that had happened before he left. It was no longer something Kirishima was so detached from that he could feel his classmate was that ignorant as to the truth. He stared at Kirishima and opened his mouth but failed to think of any words to say.

"You got that close," Kirishima continued. His voice was confused and his eyebrows rose up as he wondered at Zach from this close, "After Dabi had killed me?"

"Dabi didn't kill you-"

"I died!" Kirishima yelled back. "I did die, even if I'm back now."

"I know! I know…" Zach whispered softer the second time. A rush of memories hit him at once. A scarred up man with spikier black hair than his own was looking at him, and even as he wanted to just agree with Kirishima, too many of the memories flooded in at the same time. "When I went through that portal," Zach whispered, starting to explain in a low voice. "I thought I had nothing and was ready to fight those villains to the death. I was low. Ready to die." Zach's voice was full of regret, but it changed when he continued, "Dabi gave me a different path though."

Kirishima bared his teeth in fury at that sentence seemingly putting Dabi in a good light. "Even now-"

"Dabi vouched for me, and when I was at my lowest Dabi watched over me," Zach continued. His voice was more pained than Kirishima's was angry and gave pause to the other Class A student trying to keep glaring back at him. "And he brought me back from that," Zach continued, raising his voice more but not speaking angrily or even saddened at this point. He just spoke while looking softly into Kirishima's eyes, with the sole purpose of explaining why it had been that way that he knew hurt Kirishima to think about. "We spent every day together, training, and talking about villain ideals. Dabi wanted to get me to really become a villain and I remember snapping at him that I never would, and it was bad of me to do that because I had started the infiltration at that point and that risked everything. I wanted him to be better though."

"Dabi asked me if people would see it that way, when I told him I wasn't going to be a villain. Just because I wasn't killing? He said people would still see me as much of a villain as him. I hated Dabi, but I learned more about who Dabi was while trying to figure out how this man, who seemed so sane and reasonable, could kill my friend Kirishima and feel nothing." Zach hesitated and then whispered in a lower voice, "But Dabi did feel. He had emotions, but his hate and rage overcame all of them. His anger towards heroes… Dabi followed Stain. And I thought it was just like other villains using Stain's name, but Dabi had a real reason-"

"Don't defend him!" Kirishima shouted. He was trying to hold it back, but he couldn't anymore as Zach went on and on about it.

Kirishima rose his fists and he pushed them both out into Zach's chest. He was not going to sucker punch Zach there, but he increased the distance between them first then rushed forward as he knew that was all the time Zach needed. He punched, and Zach popped his arm out to the side before it could reach him. "I'm not defending him!" Zach yelled, back. He ducked under Kirishima's other fist and then kicked at his legs, but Kirishima's legs hardened too much and Zach felt a pain in his right shin rather than causing any to his opponent. He leapt backwards, grinding his teeth in anger again as Kirishima rushed at him, Hold it back. Don't- He has a right to be-

"I can feel those flames burning through my chest!" Kirishima shouted as he ran towards where Zach was landing. "Feeling a hole burned through me, the fade into darkness-"

"I know!" Zach screamed back. "I felt it too that night, and a thousand more times after that!" Zach jumped forward and kicked out both legs into Kirishima's chest while he was still running. He knocked Kirishima back with it while falling to the floor himself, then he kicked up in the air and put himself back up on his feet. He glared towards Kirishima fiercely and growled, "You have no right to tell me what dying feels like." He shut up Kirishima with the tone he used with far more experience in the matter than Kirishima had.

"But Dabi," Zach started again now that he had Kirishima quiet. He continued when the redhead's sharp teeth started clenching again, "The things done to him by this society don't justify his actions, but when we all started supporting the hero who had done those things to him? When the world replaced All Might, and we all looked up to him saying that he was 'changing' it just made Dabi sink farther into that hole."

"He told me that Endeavor could never change, but right before our eyes we saw it," Zach said. He said it in a hopeful tone remembering those months, even as Kirishima felt more confused and hesitant at what Zach was telling him. Zach paused and then continued emotionally, "In those months I was with them, the months right after the fall of All Might, Endeavor picked up the slack. He not only fought more villains but acted more like All Might. He changed."

"I tried to convince Dabi of it! Show him that heroes could change, that there was no reason to think they were fake heroes when all of them had the power, but Dabi wouldn't believe it. And I saw it that day, when Dabi was so furious at me for trying, when Dabi explained exactly what Endeavor had done to him, that villains were created not born." Zach said that in a deep low voice to almost a whisper. "I thought, 'My life had been so hard.' But Dabi's? His twisted him into a villain through all that hatred. I try so hard not to hate people. Because of Dabi."

Kirishima's heart rate was already fast enough he could hear it pounding in his ears. He remembered though something he head a couple weeks back, shortly after the joint training. He recalled Sato complaining to Mineta about something Zach had told them at the fire in the joint training dome, about not hating Kaminari… Zach's voice continued over Kirishima's thoughts going back to something he had thought was just another obvious lie he heard Zach had told someone. "I hold back so much from hating Dabi or Kaminari, even Shigaraki though I don't know his reasons for sure. I don't know anyone's full reasoning for becoming what they became, for hating who they do so much. Hate turns people into monsters though. Hate leads to the villains' side."

"I don't want to hate my enemies. I want to understand them to better be able to stop other people from becoming like them, and I want to help my enemies too if possible," Zach added with his voice raising. "Because I hated Twice," he admitted. "I hated Twice so much, but then Twice was brought into my cell block in Tartaros, a changed man. I forgave Twice. The man who held me down while my family was burning alive. I forgave him. Because there's enough hate in the world!" Zach yelled.

Kirishima's fists shook and started raising, but he froze as Zach continued at him, "And some people will never be able to get over that hate, and it will keep them villains and monsters like it has Dabi."

Kirishima's fists loosened and he stared at Zach with his eyes wider still. I don't hate- I hate Dabi. I've hated him since the day he killed me. Of course I do though! I hate all- No. I'm not supposed to. If I do, does that mean, I'm less of a hero than you are? That's a given. Kirishima's thoughts betrayed him and his stomach tightened while his fists twitched and slowly balled back up again.

"I wanted to change him," Zach continued in reference to Dabi. "More than anyone else with the villains. I felt I came close a few times, and maybe if I had stayed longer I really could have, but I left too soon for my own selfish reasons. Or maybe they weren't selfish like I thought at the time! And it's only now, in this moment, that I wish I could go back and do the selfish thing to try and save Dabi." Zach's eyes closed and then opened back slowly, "But there is no saving Dabi now. There's only stopping him. And the rest of the League."

Zach said that firmly and he stared down Kirishima after saying the words. "Do you believe that? Do you believe that that's how I really feel?"

"I don't…" Kirishima began before clenching his jaw and stopping himself from answering fully.

"I'm telling you the truth now! Isn't this what you wanted? I know it's not perfect. And I don't have perfect answers to give you. Perfect excuses to make up for what I did and the reasons behind it. That's not what you want, right?! You want the truth. This is the truth!" Zach exclaimed at the hesitant but also still angry look covering Kirishima's expression. Is he just stubborn?! Or is there nothing to change his mind?! "What else do you want from me? Is taking me down all you care about now?" Zach asked with his voice getting shakier as he got out the question.

The question made Kirishima flinch, but even when his eyes dropped down and moved to the side in squinted eyes, his fists could only curl tighter in resolve. "I have to," he seethed out back at the question.

Zach's head tilted back and his wet eyes shook at the response. "Why?" Zach whispered. Kirishima stared back with his eyes widening that Zach would ask him that in a hurt voice. "I- I put up the mask for myself, Kirishima. I block it all out! Constantly! As best I can, I keep myself from thinking about it. But I know it's there! I feel the pain that I've buried. It's not always at the top of my mind, but I always feel it. I always remember it." Zach's voice was shaky and his eyes were desperate as he spoke faster, "Every second, every minute, of every hour, I remember it all now. It's there and there's no getting rid of it."

"So tell me, why?" Zach asked. "Why?!" He shouted with his left arm swinging out to the side of him. "You wanted to know the truth and I told you the truth!"

"You still… You killed people," Kirishima's voice was lower but his heart was thumping harder. I don't- I don't know what- It's true? All that was- If that's true though… An all-too-familiar feeling filled Kirishima's pounding chest, making his eyes fill with frustration. His heart tied in knots and his teeth bared at Zach to keep from shaking.

"I was at WAR!" Zach screamed the word, and it echoed in his mind. Zach felt like he was repeating it over and over. What Iida had argued with him repeated in his mind and made him clench his teeth violently at the idea that Kirishima could not wrap his head around this either. "You get that? War. I led an army into battles. Sieges and raids. I walked us into an ambush of tens of thousands! And I explored the deepest corners of this world and found villains in every shadow. Hiding underground with labs full of slaves and test subjects they experimented on for their own pleasure. War! Where my decisions could save or cost the lives of millions. Every minute- every decision I made," Zach growled it but his voice was shaking and his expression looked disturbed from what he was describing.

"And I came back here, Kirishima, because I couldn't take it anymore." Zach's eyes scrunched up from the bottom eyelid up. His lips curled up in the middle so the corners of his lips pulled down, and he rasped out at his old friend, "The Pit, was just one of a million different things that all added up. I- I crashed a jet because of the massive dragon coming out of the sun, that I saw because I was affected by a villain's Quirk called Trip- And I flew after them while hallucinating, and I shot down their planes before losing control from the dragons flying around me, haha- I! I had my friend give me gills, and I swam to the bottom of a whirlpool protecting a deep underwater facility full of human subjects being testing on just so they could be scientifically adjusted the same way my friend's Quirk worked naturally. How many people had to get tortured, for no God damn reason down there?"

Zach clenched his eyes shut and panted out a hard breath. "I can't- I lost my arm, and my stomach, going to war. You don't know war! You couldn't imagine it," Zach whispered. "No matter how much I try to explain it. You'd never be able to understand just how big the war was. How much of the world it encompassed." Zach's teeth started grinding as he saw Kirishima's expression still shaking but looking the same amount of frustrated and angry if not more so even after all of that. "What?" Zach asked, his tone desperate but exhausted as he shook his head and looked agonizingly back at Kirishima. "What do you want? What can I tell you, to get you stop- to get you to stop looking at me like that?" Zach's eyes squinted and the water shook on his eyelids as he held it back.

Not, to get me to stop from arresting- Or- Or… Kirishima's teeth bit down on his bottom lip, but they were too sharp for that and he had to Harden his lips after he drew a drop of blood. "I can't…" Kirishima hissed through painfully grinding teeth. He forced the words out of his lips that were so hard to make out now, "I can't just let it go. You- You left. You went out there to do… You fought and killed and…" Kirishima shook his head, biting down harder and harder. "And I can't let it go!"

Kirishima rushed forward and he slammed both of his palms into Zach's chest. He slammed Zach but it was not hard enough to knock him down, just making Zach take a few steps back before looking up from his chest to the boy who walked closer to him. "I can't-" Zach started with his voice scratching in the back of his throat. "I can't fight you anymore, Kirishima."

Kirishima froze mid-step as Zach denied him this. His hands shook as he was lifting them to push again, and he rose those hands up to his head and gripped into his temples. "Damn it- Why? Why did you- why did you have to go?" Kirishima growled it in anger, but Zach felt nothing but sadness and regret coming from him.

"I just, I had to. I'm sorry-"

"We were friends," Kirishima gasped, his voice failing to come out as a growl like he intended. He could not get it back to that though, speaking through pained breaths, "Why?" His voice rose louder, "Why did you have to go? Without telling me, anything! I needed to know why- I needed to know what I did wrong, but-"

"You didn't do anything wrong," Zach said desperately, feeling a knife in the gut at the sound of that.

"Then why didn't you tell me?! You were my-" Kirishima cut himself off and curled his fingers in with his fists shaking and raising to show Zach he would swing them. Zach shook his head though and Kirishima's eyes trembled at the sight of it, filling with water and rage-filled frustration. "You should have told me. You should have told me! I deserved to know, and you should have told me."

"If I had told you," Zach started softer. He shook his head and finished, "You would have-"

"I would have come with you!" Kirishima yelled.

Silence filled the theater. For a few seconds the only noise in there was the sound of Kirishima's panting breaths, as Zach was no longer breathing while he stared forward at Kirishima's distressed and enraged expression. Kirishima was still panting, and his eyes opened a little wider as Zach held his breath while staring back at him. Kirishima's mouth opened again quickly, but slowly it closed and his eyes clenched shut. Kirishima opened his eyes and looked into Zach's eyes darkly, "Don't you remember? After the War Boys, when you came back with Kaminari-"

"I remembered that!" Zach yelled. His voice was shaken and his whole body felt it as he stared back at Kirishima's face. His heart rate was through the roof and his eyes shook as he stared back at the serious look on Kirishima's face. "I remembered, what you said to me," Zach whispered in a hoarse voice.

"Hey Zach, about yesterday… Why didn't you tell me to come along?!" Zach's lips trembled and he pursed them together as he remembered the emphatic way in which Kirishima yelled out in front of all their classmates, "I woulda come with like that!"

Kirishima's eyes were locked on Zach's as he watched Zach frozen in place without a good answer for him. "Why then?" Kirishima asked. His eyebrows rose up painfully and he wondered at his old friend, "Why did you go to villains like the Gentle Criminal and his partner, and that girl you brought back, rather than me? Your friend?!" Kirishima shouted, before panting harder again and just standing there with his hands no longer shaking like his expression that had steadied as he said these things for the first time ever. He paused for a moment and collected his breath, and he continued, "We'd fought villains together, and we trusted each other- Or at least I thought we did. But you couldn't get past it being just Kaminari. You couldn't believe- You really thought, that I was a spy?"

A tear fell out of Kirishima's right eyes and slid down his face until it hit a hardened lip that it rested on top of. "They killed me," he whispered while staring back at Zach with eyes asking how Zach could still not trust him. "And I- I vouched for you that day in the courthouse, before you left it! I- I was there." Kirishima clenched his teeth shut again and shook his head angrily back at the other boy looking so sad and hurt to hear this. "I was the one you should have thought of like- But then you, you left us and-" Kirishima stopped himself and his expression got angrier again. He growled as best he could even with his eyes still wet, "I'm so angry. I was angry all this time I was at school, mad at you for leaving, so angry at everything you did and were doing, and all that time you've been at war?!"

Zach's breath caught in his throat again and he could not force it out. He couldn't breathe as Kirishima asked him that, and Kirishima continued with his eyes leaking more at the look on Zach's scarred face, "War against villains, while the rest of us sat around preparing like the war wasn't going on?" Kirishima wondered with his deep voice cracking at the joke he just told because of how stupid it sounded now. "And the world is better!" He yelled into Zach's face.

He screamed it at his classmate who leaned back hearing that yelled at him. "I saw how things got better," Kirishima yelled, though his voice got lower in volume as he did not feel the right to yell angrily about what he was saying. "I see it every day," he whispered this time, his volume dropping too much. "I even see what you were saying that day about Kurogiri," Kirishima admitted with his head shaking and his teeth biting hard again. Peace in our world. That's what you were doing. That's what you said you were going to do, and that's what you did. "But," Kirishima continued. "But what have I been doing all this time then?"

Kirishima's fists clenched and he rose them up on either side of his head. His elbows pulled in and he dragged his arms down in conflicted feelings of duty and honor. "As a hero," he started with his eyes clenched shut. "I'm supposed to stop you because I know these things. I spent the year you were saving the world, training to be someone who has to stop you for doing those things?" He wondered it at himself with his head cocking to the side in confusion. "And I really- I really disagree with your actions! I hate what you did! But I hate that I feel so strongly against those things you did, because I know I was having a peaceful enough time to think like this. Right?"

Zach would have agreed if anyone else had asked him the question. Hearing that kind of regret for having those values, coming from Kirishima though? It just made tears fall from his eyes and slide down his face. "I-" Zach started but could not make out any words to respond to what Kirishima was telling him for the past minute.

"I get that I see things differently than you because I didn't live that way," Kirishima admitted. His lips pursed though and then he added on, "But I would have. If you had asked me to."

Zach's felt a hand grip around his heart and squeeze. You would have? His thoughts echoed in his head and he tried to shake them free, while frozen in place externally. I was fighting for this exact reason. I wanted to save that morality. I'm glad I did! I'm glad you weren't with me! Even shouting it at himself, Zach could not keep more tears from falling as he wondered if that was true.

"Why Gentle and La Brava? Why that crazy girl, 'Darling?' Before me?" Kirishima asked.

"I couldn't trust-" Zach tried to say. He stared straight at Kirishima's face though and he could not finish that sentence. His gaze lowered down and then rose back up softer, "I couldn't drag you all into it."

"I wanted you to though," Kirishima hissed back through clenched teeth. "I wanted you to trust me over those villains. I would have come with you and fought alongside you the whole time. Everything you said, I don't agree with it all but we could have discussed it, or fought about those things together!"

Kirishima stopped and his eyes dropped down to the floor between them. "I wish I had been there to help you, because everything you say you did are things I wish I had know about." His eyes rose and he whispered, "Things I wish I took part in- and I know the things you just told me are still only some of them, yet each one was more than I've done in a whole year!" Kirishima yelled. "And if I could have helped you…"

"You," Kirishima repeated. "I wanted to help you, just once." Zach's eyes bulged and Kirishima whispered at him, "I always failed. When the villains took you from the training forest and I tried stopping them-"

"You died to protect-"

"But I didn't save you!" Kirishima snapped back. "I died and failed. It wasn't even dying for something-" Kirishima bit down frustratedly. "I died in vain. Because you got taken anyway. And then I let that Nomu take you away at VTS," Kirishima added before Zach could try to counter him on the first part. "And you were put up on hooks and cut apart by maniacs who killed your family, while I just went to school like usual." Tears fell down both Kirishima's face and Zach's, but Kirishima was so far from being done. "Even after you saved my life I just left you there to be… At Camino Ward I didn't help you! I only saved Bakugo, we just left you down there so you had to kill, again. And- watching you die, unable to do a thing to help you."

Kirishima's eyes clenched shut as his head bowed far. His chin slammed into his chest and he shook his head back and forth. "I failed when I knew that what Kaminari had done must have driven you mad. I tried to figure out what was wrong, but I- I was distracted and I-"

"That's not-"

"My whole life!" Kirishima yelled. He cut off Zach and replaced their sounds with silence again around them. "My whole life, all I wish is that I could have taken some of that burden away from you. Not the glory of it. 'Cause there was no glory in what you were doing, and- that's what hurts me more, because I know I wish I was there because I want to be a cool hero people look to. I want people to know I did all that stuff, yet you won't even take credit for it." Kirishima's voice was uncertain and confused, and his eyes were full of confused respect as he lifted them and stared at Zach wondering what was wrong with him. "That's why I was so upset when you lied at the hospital right after getting back."

"I wanted you to take credit," Kirishima whispered. "Because… I knew I would have done so." Kirishima's arms dropped limply to his sides and his body slouched as he confessed that. "And I don't know what to do," Kirishima finished. His head bowed and he stared down at the ground below his feet. He told me all the things that weigh hardest on him. Things he knew I would be so against, but they're the things he regrets most of all. He should regret them though! He committed crimes. Horrible crimes… And I wasn't there to stop him. Or to find another way- or even, to help him carry the burden.

It's hard for him, Zach thought as he watched Kirishima continue to struggle with his emotions just standing there, no longer with the energy to fight just as Zach had run on empty himself. I'm not making it easy for him. He regrets not helping me, and I'm still pushing him away. Like I always do. I'm still pushing him away to the point that he can't think of any way to help me other than arresting me, because I never tried getting him to understand before. "I'm sorry."

Zach apologized. Kirishima rose his eyes again and looked into Zach's gaze, and Zach told him, "You were my best friend after Kaminari." He said it and did not hesitate to do so. It was the truth he felt. "We watched the Lifebringer video together that day. Me and you, we did VTS together. Teamed up to take down those villains, and we made the promise to fight at the Sports Festival." Zach paused and he tilted his head up and added, "And when I thought on those things, I thought about how Kaminari was there with us watching the Lifebringer video. Kaminari fought with me at USJ and against the War Boys. Kaminari and me won the first round of the Sports Festival!"

"I never suspected you, because you were my best friends," Zach paused and he grit his teeth knowing what he was about to say. "But that's what made me suspect you more than anyone else after it!" Zach exclaimed that at Kirishima and felt his heart cutting open to admit that to him. "Because you would have been my new best friend. I could see it," Zach whispered, thinking of each time Kirishima came up to him after the betrayal to try and help him. Every time his closest friend had tried to be that friend to him, he ignored him, and thinking back on it crushed Zach as he looked at Kirishima now. "And that's why I pushed so hard," he admitted."

"I'm not a-"

"I know that," Zach told the present Kirishima trying to defend himself here. "I know, I know, but I couldn't go through that pain again. As much as I trusted you, I- I had just made that mistake. I was so afraid of having a best friend again, after Jenny burned alive, after Kaminari betrayed me and killed Iida and Tsuyu. I couldn't take it," Zach whispered with his eyes full of water. "I thought the worst thing after Jenny burned was my best friend dying. I didn't see betrayal as an option. So," Zach bit down on his bottom lip and then asked, "What could be the next thing even worse than that if I became that close with you?"

"I thought, we already were," Kirishima replied back after a few seconds. He looked in Zach's eyes and said, "Even after what Kaminari did, it didn't change things for me. To me, you were still one of… You were my, my best friend. You and Bakugo." Kirishima was struggling as he wondered if he really had to qualify his friendships there, but it made it easier for him to just name both of them rather than try to do that. "And then you left. You told me you thought of the guy who killed me as a brother and then left. What was I supposed to do with that? How was I supposed to…" Kirishima's manliness kept him from finishing asking how he was supposed to feel, instead just making him angry again because he really did not know how he was supposed to feel after that. Even after all this time.

"I'm sorry," Zach replied. Kirishima bit down as that was not much of a response. "It was wrong, what I did that night. It was all wrong. I lost it-" Zach paused and he stopped himself from saying anything more. "I'm just… I don't wish I brought you along with me. I don't regret not asking you to come. All I regret, is that it happened. And that I-" Zach stopped himself again but grunted as he got pissed at himself for being unable to say it. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you any of this earlier. I should have-"

"You couldn't come to U.A." Kirishima countered with a shake of his head and angry look on his face. "I should have gone out there more. It had to be me, but I was just-"

"You did come out. I just didn't know how to talk to you without- without lying," Zach whispered. "And I didn't want to lie, but I- I didn't know what would happen if I didn't."

Kirishima glanced to his sides. Zach looked up at the ceiling and the holes in it. They each looked back at each other, and it took a second, but the right corner of Zach's lips rose right as both corners of Kirishima's did. As much as they had been at each's other's throats for a long time (or Kirishima at his at least), Zach could see those were just surface emotions. It's been because neither of us had put this stuff on the table. It left a wall between us as neither of us could confront it. I needed to. I'm the one who put the wall up. I shouldn't have, shattered my own mind. I had a dozen different things I needed to get over to get to this point, and I was still only over ten of them when we came out here.

I wasn't ready. Zach stepped forward towards Kirishima with his mouth flattening back out. He was not smiling, but he stepped towards Kirishima and rose his arms up without saying a word.

The two hugged it out. Kirishima's smile was gone as soon as it had appeared too from the sight of the damage around them. It's both our faults. I should have been there for him. No matter what he did, Ashido was right. It was our fault too. He did the best he could under the circumstances. And I- "I'm sorry," Kirishima muttered. "And, that stuff about leaving me behind." Kirishima's arms tightened for a second around Zach, but the redhead just muttered in a lower voice while looking over Zach's shoulder and into the shadows of the dark interior of the building. "I forgive you for that. I forgive you, for all of it," Kirishima corrected. What am I holding off for? If you could forgive Twice for- For doing so much worse to you.

Fifteen meters from the two muttering while hugging it out with one another, Bakugo scratched the side of his head and glared down at his phone. His expression was pissed and he rose his eyes up to the sky above for a few seconds before making a 'Ch' sound under his breath. He slid the saved voice recording to the left side on his phone screen and tapped the garbage can icon that appeared next to it. Not today. Not like that. Bakugo shoved his hands in his pockets and started walking away.

I'll get you another way.

---

A/N Hey guys. 2:30 A.M. right now as I finish up editing and get to this note and then some review responses. No corrona talk today 'cause I just don't wanna. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and the confrontation between Zach and Kirishima that was a long time coming. Bakugo follows them out there but deletes the recording he took at the end of the chapter here. Kirishima admits some long held-back feelings and Zach reveals some truth to his old friend who it finally looks like may be his friend again :) It was an emotional chapter to write, and an emotional one to edit since I read the newest manga chapter midway through it so I had to reread part of the chapter with some tears in my eyes. I hope y'all liked the fight and talk, thank you for reading it, and leave a review below telling me what you think's going to come now. Predictions or questions are welcome. And with that, review response time:

Discord Jester chapter 219 . Mar 23

Me: writing chapter for my own story.
Death: Updates at midnight.
Me: frantically grabs at my phone somehow accidentally propelling phone into my head.
Still worth. This story rocks.

XD Thanks for that! Sorry for the bump on the head, but glad you liked the chapter and hope you enjoyed the new one!

diddles321 chapter 219 . Mar 23

I hope you're doing fine in this quarantine! Glad you're back. Also, I just realised Zach could do Ainz's Ia Shub Niggurath. Kill people with black wind of death then use death boost to spawn creatures. Petition for evil Zach side story? Anyways keep up the good work as usual!

Thanks! Never actually watched Overlord (pretty sure that's where the Ainz you're talking about is from), so I gotta admit I don't follow along with the review too well. XD evil Zach side story? How do you know, that won't be the main story?! Jk... or is it? Haha anyway thanks for reviewing!

GuestP chapter 219 . Mar 24

Hey, my dude! Thanks for updating in these trying times...
ANYWAYS
I FUCKING LOVED THIS
Do you know how much this story distracts me from this whole shitstorm occurring right now? IT'S EMOTIONALLY LIFE SAVING, BITCH, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME WITH UPDATING 'DEATH' TMB-SAMA!~~
Seriously looking forward to the next chapter because of the fact that Kirishima is an unresolved matter that Zach hasn't really had the chance to resolve (and when he tries, Kriri's okay for like a minute before being like, 'fuck you, Zach' lol).
It's cute that some of Class-A is trying to connect with Zach, really it's nice. And Zach's mellowed down a bit, but at the same time hasn't which is cool and I JUST WANT HIM TO BE HAPPY ALREADY D:::
Loved this so much, and this really made my day!
Can't wait for the next chapter, my dude!~~

Hey there ma dude. So glad you enjoyed the chapter, and hope you liked the new one too! Kirishima and Zach resolve some big issues here, leading to another of Class A reconnecting with their old friend. Zach's still a pretty long way from being HAPPY though. ;/ sorry... P.S. didn't include all the review up there, just cuz I wanna stick with keeping this lightheartedness today. Thanks for the glove advice though. Spread that as far and wide as you want. Even if it helps just one person not spread it to someone else, you did an amazing thing. And as always, thanks for the reviews GuestP!