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!

225. Chapter 225

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 225:

"Are you voting? Rin? Hey Rin?"

"Huh?" Rin lifted his head and looked at the dark purple-haired girl in front of him who just waved a hand in front of his face. "Oh uh, what?"

"Are you voting?" Jirou repeated to him. "You can, right?"

"Oh… I guess," Rin realized. "I'm eighteen… But we're in Gangwe. Reports are that votes from Gangwe might not be, accepted… People are encouraged to do so online anyway though. If the numbers come out weird it's…" Rin trailed off and looked back at the holographic map floating in the middle of the Fundong FLICC's command tent. He quieted down and stared at the red dots all over the region, far spread and not just around the big red dots of Beiju, Xing, and Fundong. There were various sizes of outbreaks with a few new ones occurring in different edges of the region just over the past twelve hours. In each of the new outbreaks the heroes had been too late to realize what had happened. They all knew the villains were long gone from those areas by the time the case numbers started to explode.

"There's a case in Bogoxi," Rin muttered, staring at the map and the red dot over where he knew he could pinpoint his home. Jirou stared at the side of Rin's face and could assume what was in that town based on the look in his eyes. "They say, it was someone who got it in Xing… But if there's only one infected there, will they spare the resources to get them on a bus and out of town?" Rin wondered the question mainly to himself, as it was all he could think about as horrible thing after horrible thing raced through his mind. "And if not, and they get sicker while in town, and from their body a secondary release-"

"Rin."

"Yue Fei's already-" Rin started while turning next to him with his eyes wide.

"They'll be alright," Jirou said. Her voice was soft, and she reached a hand forward and grabbed Rin's left hand with it. He darted his eyes down in shock as she grabbed his hand, snapping out of the trance a bit as he was not expecting that from a girl who he had thought of as a more cold person, or at least she had been for a long time. She gave him a small smile and reminded him, "They're getting better treatments ready. And a lot of the doctors who just got here say they're close on a vaccine, or a cure-"

"They don't even know," Rin whispered back at her. The fact that it was "or" a cure, told him that they had no idea what they were talking about. "You don't-"

"But that doesn't mean I don't hope it's true," Jirou countered him. "We have to, so that we can keep this up without despairing. You have to pull it together. For them too," Jirou reminded him with a look back to the map. She hesitated, then in a lower voice whispered, "Don't call them… You'll only freak them out, unless you can get it together." Jirou looked away quickly, and Rin's eyes shook as he stared at her back, Did she hear me?!

Jirou left the command tent, glancing to her side before she walked out to see Szechuman out cold at a table with his head down on his crossed arms. Buccaneer slouched on the floor against the side of that same table with his back up against a metal bar on the corner and his head bowed into his chest. She looked past that table though and saw Tunnel Maker glance up from his computer and straight towards her. Jirou had to look away from Aquifer's sidekick, though the young German man kept watching her until she was gone.

Jirou headed out and looked to the lab ahead of her, wanting to go inside for a minute just to check on their progress that she just reassured Rin about. I hope he calms down. We can't lose anyone else. We're already stretched so thin!

"Earphone Jack. You doing alright?" She turned her head and nodded quickly at Ectoplasm's clone that swept across the floor and just nodded back at her, glad to see she was fine. He turned and headed into the command tent, and she wondered, Doubt he'll even pause on Rin for a second. The TST's stretched even thinner than we are here. I heard Midoriya was in Beiju with Todoroki a few hours ago, but he just texted us that he went to the CHS Qin to check on some of the people Tsuyu and them captured. They said a few seemed suspicious, but he didn't seem to think any were part of a terrorist cell. It has to be stressful for him too.

Jirou headed into Tent 1 where she had her current shift that Szechuman had made in their schedule that lasted for at least the next five hours, though someone was going to have to wake him up to give them their next orders soon. She figured his nap would not last that long anyway. No one sleeps for more than five hours around here. The coffee's helping. Jirou did not feel too tired, though she wondered after a second if it was really the third cup of strong coffee she had had since last waking up or if it was the adrenaline of the fact that they were down a third of their staff from sixteen hours ago.

We've lost people to the sickness, to their fear, Jirou stepped into Tent 1 and saw Shinso literally sprinting down an aisle farther away from her to help hold down an older man who was seizing on his bed. What the hell-

"Someone help! What's wrong with-"

"He's a diabetic!" The woman in the bed next to the man yelled at the two teenagers who were at the man's side trying to figure out how to help him as this was a new symptom. "His insulin!" The civilian yelled at the Japanese teenagers, and Kendo started rummaging through a pouch the man had next to him-

A third figure rushed up to the side of the bed and pulled the needle out of her own chest as she finished making it. There was not a second to waste, and Yaoyorozu injected the emergency shot into the man who stopped spazzing out on his hospital bed. "Write it on his clipboard," Yaoyorozu said to Shinso who nodded back at the girl he was staring at with wide eyes as she gave the command. Yaoyorozu turned and started away, zipping back up the front of her HAZMAT suit to cover the exposed skin she pulled her Created syringe out of.

His doctor must have been Dr. Reena. I saw her often in this area. She kept working until she was about to collapse, so she must have hid that she was feeling sick for a while. That was foolish of her, Yaoyorozu looked to her left and gave Jirou a nod before continuing away, looking either way to patients who mostly stayed quiet other than their noises of pain and discomfort. None of them bothered the few heroes around the room. The fact that the disease could spread from the sick to the non-infected, and that there had been no cases of recoveries other than through revival, had made for a much more grateful group of patients terrified for themselves but hopeful in the fact that there were still heroes there for them…

It was feeling more and more like a hopeless situation though. The heroes felt it the worst. The teenagers in Tent 1 wondered why the people around them did not see it like they did, but it made sense if they thought about it for long. They wondered why the patients did not lose hope after seeing countless numbers of other patients be taken out of there and into the critical ward where they would never be seen again, but the ones who had seen so much of that were the next ones to be brought out, and patients only recently admitted were the ones watching them get taken away for their first views of it. The eighteen year olds from U.A. did not recognize one person in Tent 1 who they had seen on the day of their arrival, who many of them had spoken to and told how they were going to help them as best they could…

Those people are still alive though. Zach passed out that first day, Shinso reminded himself. And none of those people who died while he was out- None were the ones we met.

That doesn't make it better. They were still people. Shinso cursed in his head while lifting the clipboard and seeing that the information telling them what to do was already written on it. Neither him nor Kendo had thought to lift the clipboard though and see that the man had pre-existing conditions. We just panicked. Where are the doctors? Shinso looked to his left and right, and a moment of sheer panic filled him as Kendo was the only person around him not laying on a bed, dying.

Kendo put her right hand onto Shinso's left shoulder. Her hand gave his shoulder a hard squeeze, and he looked back at the girl who did not give him a comforting look. The look she gave was resolved and just told him to bear with it, and Shinso lost his panicked look to return to a more apathetic one with his lips flat. He nodded back at her and then turned and headed away, I have to get ready to bring them all lunch.

Jirou was still close to the connecting tube between tents when she heard the flaps moving behind her and looked around to see who came out. "Zach," she whispered, staring with wide eyes at the boy who looked straight ahead with his expression dark but not looking exhausted. His breathing was steady, and he turned his head slowly and looked into Jirou's eyes. What is he thinking? Is he just hiding pain right now?!

I slept for forty minutes four times between the last four revivals. Each revival period took place under ten minutes. Each ten minute period had more corpses than the period prior. Every body had a chance of infecting others, but safety measures are instituted. Calm has fallen over the infected cities. The people of Gangwe see how harshly they are rejected by everyone else. It is dangerous for them to try and escape now. Zach nodded back at Jirou and stepped towards her as she looked like she had something to say.

Things have escalated just outside Gangwe's borders as well. Sudden quarantines just from the fear of what may have happened. A few new cases appeared outside of the region, though they were recent travelers who were quarantined after escaping using their Quirks. Sent back to hospitals inside this region to be saved before they are prosecuted. I know they just wanted to live. They probably didn't even know it could spread when they escaped, and it's likely they didn't know they were sick when they left either.

If they could get out, why couldn't the villains? Does this mystery villain group not have a member who can break our quarantine? Or are they trying to find a way to get their whole group out, because they don't believe the quarantine walls will crack even if there is another isolated infection elsewhere? At this point, enough is known about Sleepless that any outside infection will be immediately locked down. They need extreme caution in their next release if it is outside of Gangwe, because all resources will go into finding them if they hit outside and without their comrades around they won't be able to last long. That means they're here, somewhere. Inside Gangwe. So close, and yet we can't catch them.

"Are you alright?" Jirou asked, looking into Zach's eyes that had a different kind of far-away look to them as Rin's did when she saw him a few minutes ago.

Zach blinked a few times in confusion. His eyes focused on the girl he was already looking straight at, and his mind stopped its constant mental tirade without him actually going back to the pain. "I'm, fine," Zach replied. He said it slowly and shook his head around fast, For Jirou to ask me that, I must have looked horrible. I wasn't thinking about anything too bad either. Am I tired?

"That's good," Jirou whispered back though, and Zach's thoughts cut off again as he looked at her in surprise.

I guess it's not too strange, he reasoned with himself, his expression softening as he gave her a nod and a small smile. In a situation like this. People dying all around us. For her to stay mad at me for… No. No that doesn't make sense at all! What I did wasn't just some small thing to put into perspective. I… I destroyed her. She's right to hate me. What happened? I ruined things forever. I knew I couldn't change your mind! WAIT! This doesn't matter right now- It does to me!

It can't. Not at this moment.

Zach shook his head around and he wondered to the girl next to him, "What do you think?"

Jirou did not question what he was talking about. The wording was vague but she looked around the tent they were in and stayed quiet for a few seconds. "I think, I think too many people are dying."

"Agreed."

"And I understand why the need to find the terrorists, is more important than ever," she added while looking next to her and into Zach's eyes. He stared back in surprise, but Jirou had heard other heroes arguing and cursing about Lifebringer trying to take over the operation with talk like she was agreeing with now. I don't blame you for wanting to end this as soon as possible, she thought while looking into Zach's eyes, trying to hide the sad look that might give away what she heard him talk to Recovery Girl about last night.

"It's still very possible that Fundong is the site of their home base," Jirou continued, her voice getting lower. "They may have just started attacking farther away starting later on, so that the heroes closing in around them would expand the search farther out," Jirou suggested, and she looked for a positive response from Zach who she hoped would nod back at her. He did, and he agreed that it was definitely a possibility. Jirou felt a weight lift off her shoulders. It was not all the weight, but some of it shifted away as Zach gave her vindication for her actions in the early morning before dawn.

Even with his agreement though, Jirou still felt so uneasy about what she and Tunnel Maker had done that morning on their secret mission. The two of them had been sent out to dig underneath sections of the city with no underground. They were staying away from sewers and subways, in very small tunnels the Underground Hero could make that only one person could fit through at a time and which did not risk collapsing thanks to his Quirk. I can't tell him about it, Jirou reminded herself, as much as she wished she could just say it aloud. We have to do it in complete secrecy because of the Chinese laws we're breaking.

Yue Fei requested it though, Jirou thought darkly. He sounded desperate, and much sicker than before. I couldn't deny him. Even, if we are intruding on the privacy rights of citizens, breaking the laws we're sworn to protect? Jirou pursed her lips again and stared at the side of Zach's head, I'm breaking laws but accepting it, because it could save lives right now! I- no, no just remember. She stopped as she had to tell herself, again. Her expression steadied and she shook her head, I'm not breaking the law. In emergency scenarios the law can be put in the hands of the response team, allowing for extra-judiciary measures such as the lockdown…

And yet I know this measure is going too far. Her conscience she tried to clear felt darker and her eyes dipped to the floor. That's why we're keeping it secret. That's why it won't be stated as a measure publicly, as much as we're trying to catch the villains off guard. It's so people never know. It's wrong, and I'm doing it anyway. Just for the chance of helping, not even a sure thing…

"You guys," Kendo came towards Zach and Jirou. She smiled at them while lowering her ERT she just got a notification on, and she said in an optimistic tone to her U.A. comrades, "The UN just passed the resolution."

"Tea Master finally got approved?" Jirou asked.

"Well, don't say 'finally,'" Kendo countered the girl from Class A. She kept a smile and continued, "It happened early due to pressure from inside the team to go now and they got the permission to. The Third Response Team is going to arrive tonight with several planes full of top-of-the-line equipment and full-body protective gear for every member of the TRT."

Jirou nodded slowly back at Kendo and tilted her head with a small shrug. It just felt like the response had been delayed so long because of how quick developments were occurring around them, but when she thought about it for a second it was actually just a day it took them to deliberate before getting confirmed. Zach's thoughts were less on the timetable and more on the new very experienced hero coming in a command position to Gangwe, I don't know Tea master well. I know she's a great hero though and that she is opposed to Lifebringer and Death, even if she did not join the ADTF. Keeping Britain safe above all else. Maybe this is her way of repaying the help others gave her during the Age of Villains that she never gave out herself. UK doesn't have a very high villain rate right now. I wonder how she'll deal with me when she's publicly stated before how if the fugitive Lifebringer fled to the UK she would personally take him down?

"The Proper Hero" doesn't like it when people go around the rules. Who would have guessed? Zach's thoughts were sarcastic to himself but he still relaxed at the thought of this great team of heroes coming to assist.

The relaxing moment Zach had was cut short. "Hey! Hey heroes!" The three who had been talking looked towards the end of the tent closest to their staff tent, where a man had stood up from his bed and was shaking the woman on the hospital bed next to him. "HEY! Hey she's not- she's dead!"

"What?"

"Oh my God-"

"Isn't that how it spreads?!"

"You're all already sick!" Shinso yelled at an older, overweight woman with short hair who just exclaimed that as if intentionally trying to start a panic. She pulled back at that shout from the Japanese teen rushing to the bed of the deceased woman. He lifted her wrist and his hand shook as he felt no resistance to lifting it up. "What the hell?" He looked at the machine next to her that made no beeping sound- "The power isn't…" Shinso looked down and saw a plug disconnected from the machine attached to her that would monitor her vital signs.

Shinso's heart raced as he realized why no one had noticed this. Other patients around him started freaking out, while he thought in an unnerved way, How long? How long was this person laying here without moving? I brought meals, but if people were asleep I didn't… They could request when they woke up. People getting any sleep while infected with Sleepless is just so rare, that we don't want to wake them up for their last times! How did no one tell… Shinso lifted the clipboard, Where is Dr. Ramirez? Xili Dung? I- I saw Xili coughing a few hours ago-

Shinso turned his head as did all the patients around him. They looked to the opposite end of the tent where a large group of people were pushing their ways inside, despite a pair of volunteers trying to stop them while also holding their masks to their faces in fear of the mob in front of them. "We need help!"

"No doctors have been to Tent 14 on the street all morning!"

"Get Dr. Kayate," Zach said to his left, motioning his head behind him and for the lab which Jirou started sprinting for.

Zach leapt up in the air and flapped a pair of black wings above him. Everyone on the beds around the room who were looking to the entrance of the tent and worrying about the chaos that was starting, snapped their heads up in awe as the black bird flying overhead. It shot across the length of the tent in an instant while Kendo was calling out at everyone to stay calm and starting to head over herself. Zach dropped down in front of the crowd who all stopped when he landed, and he called forward in Chinese at them with his darkness leaving his body, "We're sorry for the delays. Many of the doctors have been getting sick, so the frequency of our checks on you will be slow today. Tonight however, a massive response team of foreign heroes and doctors is being sent in by the UN."

The leader of a special response team sent in by Japan who arrived in Fundong earlier on U.A.'s private jet came running forward behind Lifebringer. "As for now, Dr. Kayate will personally attend to those of you who need immediate attention. Meals will continue to be brought to your tents, and every hero, doctor, and volunteer here is working as hard as they can to keep you safe." Zach glared forward at a man who opened his mouth ready to shout at him. Zach's eyes glared straight into his and flared red at the man who froze with his jaw dropped and sweat all over his already sweaty face. "And if we cannot save you, I will revive you. So calm down. Do not disrupt the peace-"

"Lifebringer," a voice cut in from behind the group, trying to force forward. A shorter woman under five feet tall shoved some other people out of the way, and Zach saw a woman in white scrubs and full protective gear who had a lot of people following behind her. "I just arrived with a group of excess infected from Beiju. They're all nearing critical stages-"

"Nearing critical?" Dr. Kayate started, stopping and looking at the short Chinese woman frustratedly. He had not been at the Fundong FLICC for long, but he knew their situation well and snapped at her, "We don't have the ICU beds available for a new group-"

"Well they ran out in Beiju!"

"Please! Just let me- gga- gaarhgghhh-"

A man from Beiju with a long neck and giraffe ossicones (antler-like protuberances) sticking out of his head hunched forward and collapsed to his knees as he barfed just outside of the FLICC.

"You," Zach said to his right without missing a beat. One of the two volunteers looking overwhelmed by the situation turned to Lifebringer who motioned away. "Get a mop and clean that up. The rest of you," Zach snapped at the group in front of him. "If you aren't just arriving from Beiju, get back to where you belong now. You are straining our resources by getting in our way, and making it take even longer for us to get you help."

"We just want- ack- ka- ahg- help," a young teenage boy coughed blood into his mask before raising his bloodshot eyes and finishing that sentence at Lifebringer.

"Then do what I say," Zach replied in Chinese to him, his own look softening at the terrified one on the child's face.

"How many of the near critical patients did you bring?" Creati asked while stepping up to the person in charge of the arrivals from Beiju.

"The first two buses have 146, but there are four more just behind us…"

"What are they thinking-"

"Transporting the dead is much more difficult, and no one's willing to take the job as the drivers are all getting infected. Lifebringer could just fly to the different FLICC's…"

Hundreds upon hundreds are arriving, Zach thought while looking over the heads of those in front of him to a line of people trying to come their way into a tent already beyond maximum capacity. Several of them are going to die at the same time as each other, or within the same few minutes. And those are all people from Beiju. Added to Fundong, and Wangti, when the wave from Xing arrives it'll be constant deaths. Hundreds every few minutes. It's already over a hundred an hour! Regionally. Not here yet. As long as I keep up the revivals… the revival groups will grow larger.

"Where are they going to put the new patients?" An older woman on a bed asked quietly to her side, looking at a family member concernedly.

Shinso glanced back and his heart fell as around that woman, other patients just looked to the bed that there was apparently a corpse laying on for some reason. Shinso bowed his head as a man next to him whispered, "Guess, this bed just freed up."

"I'll help you, kid." Shinso was starting to look around, but he turned to the guy who had initially started shouting to the heroes to come check on this dead body. Shinso stared at the man with wider eyes as the patient no longer looked frustrated by the failure of the heroes to notice what was happening. As he looked around the tent, it looked more like a small group of teenagers trying to take care of everything than a unified response that was actually in control. The only ones he could get mad at were those trying to help them, but the look on Shinso's face a moment ago made those around him ease back their own criticisms. "Come on. Help me carry her off," the older man nodded to the woman's legs as he went for her head, and Shinso gulped but nodded and rushed to that end of her.

Ectoplasm and Rin came into Tent 1 with a larger group of doctors and nurses, taking many away from work in the lab as they were hearing reports that the FLICC was getting out of control. A couple of heroes left the critical care tents as well, now made up of both Tents 3 and 6, which was a tent that had been wrapped around the morgue tent with only a small gap splitting it so that the revived could make it out without having to step through Tent 6 and see all the soon-to-be-them.

Francois and Aquifer stepped back into Tent 1 after last being in there a half hour ago. The two of them glanced around and watched as a patient was helping one of the teenage Japanese students carry off a dead body. New patients were being admitted but the processing was taking longer as there were no empty beds and too few staff to just up-and-build a new tent. They were out of the supplies they needed to go put up a new tent anyway, and Ring-Ring announced that the person who they were calling for because he was the one in charge of choosing new positions and arranging that task was already in bad shape in one of the newer tents he had set up yesterday.

"What about the cots in the staff tent?" Zach wondered, cutting off Ring-Ring and Gilgamesh who were arguing about where to put these people, while in front of people who did not need to see the ones in charge not having an idea of where to put them.

The two older heroes seeming to try and take charge of the situation looked at Sazaki in surprise at the suggestion. "If we put them in there-" Gilgamesh began.

"We don't. But we don't need the beds as badly," Zach replied. "We barely use them anyway, but we can't have them staying in the staff tent either. We'll move the cots to the second floor of the Kabung Office Building." He looked to Ring-Ring and motioned back behind the new patients and out to the road the office building was not too far down. It was closer than some of the newer tents that had been established up to two blocks away, and Zach told the hesitant-looking female hero, "You don't need to ask anyone for permission. Not the higher-ups here nor the building's owner. It's martial law, make the order," Zach told her with his eyes boring into hers and a steady nod telling her this was the right move.

"Then we'll use that building," Ring-Ring responded with a nod back to the teen suggesting that response. "Can you bring the cots?"

"We're on it," Kendo replied with a quick nod and a look to her left where she saw Rin was coming over looking ready to work again. "Right Dragon Shroud?"

Zach pulled back from the entrance of the tent as things were starting to ease up in the area. "I'll get Shinso and we'll bring food around to all the patients," Zach said with a look to his side at Jirou. He glanced behind her at Ectoplasm and gave the teacher a faint smile, "I think it'll do them all some good to remember I'm here. Keep everyone calm despite the lack of-"

"Lifebringer!"

Zach turned his head and he continued with his small smile as he looked towards a woman pulling along a boy just shorter than her looking around thirteen or fourteen. She had him held by his left hand, the two of them had masks on, and the boy she was pulling behind her was coughing as she ran up to the hero. The others around Zach were starting to relax as he had been responding to all the developments quickly and without any hesitation. They had plans now to carry out some actions that would ensure the FLICC's smooth operation, and as long as they could last just a little longer until the TRT arrived, they all knew they would be able to get some rest soon.

The woman who ran up to Zach opened her mouth behind a mask that was blue so they did not see the blood that splashed out of her lips onto the inside of her mask as she started coughing. She hunched over and Zach reached forward to steady her by the shoulders. "I'm- ack, ka-kugh- kogh- I'm sorry, to bother you," she gasped at him in English.

"It's fine," Zach replied to her, lifting her by her shoulders to get her straight up again. He looked down at the boy next to her who was looking up at his mother afraid then back forward at Zach with his eyes getting angrier but also still so full of fear. Getting sick in Beiju with so many others must have been terrifying. They made it here though. What's wrong with these two? Zach noticed a look in the woman's tearing eyes as she lifted her gaze back to Zach again, "What is it? I'm going to help you-"

She shook her head at him. "I know- please. Please, revive my… I know, there's no cure-" her lips pursed and the boy next to her gripped her hand tighter. "Do you, remember me?" She whispered at him.

Zach stared straight at her and knew that tone in her voice. Is it the mask? I, don't remember… Zach looked back down to his right at the boy who had a furry red tail that was limp down behind his back and nearly tucked between his legs. In his mind, in a faint memory, he watched as that tail lifted up behind a dirt-caked face and started wagging rapidly as a child called out something in glee. It was a shorter boy… It's been a long time. Kids, grow fast.

"I don't, know what you're talking about," Zach replied with a hesitant shake of his head. When was it? It… was Qingxiao. A cabinet had fallen in her house.

"I lived in Qingxiao… during the earthquake, a cabinet toppled…"

He dragged her to me. He was hurt himself, but the boy didn't die before. He saved her though, by getting her to me. Zach looked straight into her eyes and nodded slowly in understanding, his heart rate racing as he tried to keep his expression steady through his clear mask.

"Pl- agh ohhh," the Chinese woman clenched her eyes shut and moaned as the headache was pounding and unrelenting.

"Mom," the kid next to her whispered.

"Ma'am, we need you to come-"

"Please!" the woman interrupted Ring-Ring trying to get her to come with the rest of the group. "Please," she whispered again in a hoarser voice, lifting her right hand and grabbing Lifebringer's. "I know- Even if you're not, him. I know you, might not be able, to save me…" Tears spilled out the corners of her eyes, and she bit down hard before gasping at the older teenage boy, "But save my son. Please, save him. I- I have family."

"Mom," the kid begged up at her to stop talking, but in that moment his mom's knees buckled below her as she imagined her son on one of the beds around her. She imagined all the horrible things she had seen on the news and the pictures of the dead and dying. Reports on why the disease was called Sleepless and what it did to their bodies. "You're going to be alright. He'll- Lifebringer will save you again. He will-"

"I didn't before…" Zach whispered, lowering his arms slowly as the woman's legs he had tried to keep her on were not standing back up. He just gently rested her down on her knees as her head was bowed and tears were streaming down her face as she wheezed in and out heavy breaths.

"You're going to save her! You have to-"

"He'll be alright, if you just…" the mom tried to finish the sentence again. She felt the little boy's hands shaking as they gripped her left hand though, and more tears fell from her eyes as she did not know how much longer she had of consciousness. How much more time she had with her son… Her head rose and she looked into Lifebringer's eyes, "Can you really not, save me? Maybe, because it wasn't you, the first time?" Her voice rose, hopeful as she looked desperately into Lifebringer's hazel eyes.

Ring-Ring was feeling her heart tear as she looked down at the woman and then ahead of her at Lifebringer. "Maybe," she started hesitantly. Zach bowed his head more and squinted his eyes, "If you just tried, for Heiping-"

"It doesn't work on people who have been brought back to life before," Zach said.

"How do you know though-" Gilgamesh started to say too, trying to bring some hope into this horrible moment.

"My Quirk brings people back from their first deaths," Zach countered, his teeth clenching and his face getting more upset. His eyes squinted harder and he said, "But it's failed countless times on people when they died a second time." Some others opened their mouths to argue-

"Countless." Zach repeated it with his fists clenching as he lowered them from the woman in front of him he had helped down softly to her knees. The boy next to her had tears in his eyes but they started falling now at the sound of that. Others who heard the tone in Lifebringer's voice as he repeated that one word felt their skin crawl. They were unnerved by the certainty in his tone, and the idea of how many times Lifebringer must have tried bringing back people he had already saved before…

"It's going to-ack aggnnn, ah ahh- It'll be alright. Aunt Mai will-" the mother in front of Zach had quivering lips and tried to hide her expression from her son next to her harder. He was grabbing her around the whole arm closer to him now, crying louder at what she was just saying to him.

Was there no father? I don't know. I brought so many back that day… Far more today than then. And I can't… I'm saving so many! Everyone! Almost… almost everyone. Zach's face pulled back as the mother in front of him turned to that boy, putting her arms around his back and pulling him into a tight embrace. I can't save everyone. I- I have to stay here! I'm not doing enough. People are dying. I can't keep up- And I've saved so many people in China! If everyone I brought back gets infected, Zach started panting while staring at the two in front of him. Everything else in his vision faded away. It all just turned into a blur on his sides and behind the two knelt down in front of him in tears.

"Hey," Zach whispered. Zach knelt down and leaned close to the two in front of him. The mother and the boy looked up to him. Zach was only a foot in front of them. He looked into the woman's eyes, at her level, face to face. "I promise you," Zach began. His voice was stronger and his expression filled with determination that had the woman's breath freezing in her throat. "I swear to you," Zach looked her dead in the eyes and heard nothing around him other than his own breathing. "I will not let you die."

She stared back at Zach in shock. All she had wanted was to tell him that he had to save her son, that someone else would raise him, that she just wanted Lifebringer to protect her boy and that she knew he might not be able to save her… all that. What he told her and the intensity in his expression and voice at the claim though, made her trust him. After a second she nodded back with tears filling her eyes for a different reason. She gasped out at him, "I believe you."

Zach stood up off the ground in front of the two of them. Everything else that had faded returned to his vision and he could see it in his peripherals. Not far behind him, Kendo and Rin were staring towards Zach's back with their hearts pounding and their eyes shaking at what they just heard in a tent that had fallen silent around him. Other patients were staring towards Lifebringer in amazement, while Ring-Ring and Gilgamesh stared at the boy in shock at that declaration.

Why would he say that?

You don't give patients, false hope… Not if the boy, Gilgamesh looked to the kid who was hugging his mother telling him that everything was going to be alright now. If you fail him-

Sazaki, Ectoplasm's clone looking his student's way watched as Zach's head started turning to the right, then the left as he looked all around him with a different kind of look on his face. It was a new look Ectoplasm saw that had him feeling a pit grow in his gut. This isn't good.

His intense and focused look shifted. Jirou stood closest to Zach and watched as he glanced her way and then past her. That look in his eyes, Jirou's racing heart rate slowed down at an expression she saw right there. The awed look she had that was also in disbelief at what Zach just promised without the power to back up, shifted like his was changing. It doesn't look like the Zach he's been passing off anymore. What is he thinking?

How to deal with this? Zach's expression of cold, resolute intensity had replaced the heroic one completely. It twitched though at the sight of some patients looking at him with uneasy expressions, the narrowing gaze of Ectoplasm and Jirou, stunned looks of others wondering what he was doing. It isn't smart.

He's resolved to make true to that promise, Kendo's chest tightened up and she started panting while staring towards him in amazement. What is, he… about to do?

It's not a promise I know I can keep. That's what puts the pressure on though. I cannot let that boy down. I cannot let him live without a mother, Zach's teeth clenched and his look somehow got even more resolved as he turned for the connection towards the command tent. He stopped though before heading that way, and he looked back over his shoulder and down at the two who had lifted their gazes to him. "What's your name?" Zach asked the woman kneeling there.

"Su-Jin," she whispered back at him. "And this- ahm, ach- is my son, Tai."

"It'll be alright," Zach reminded them, then he stared ahead and left the area without another word.

---

"What are you saying?" Szechuman's eyes narrowed and his harsh glare locked on Sazaki's eyes. "How could you have a lead? Did you overhear one of the patients say anything?"

Zach shook his head no in response. He was in the command tent of the Fundong FLICC and had a small group of people around him near the middle of the room. A lot of the support staff sitting at computers had turned away from them, and Buccaneer was shaken awake too by Tunnel Maker then shushed to make the American student just listen.

Midoriya had just arrived back at the tent himself with another member of the TST and old friend of his. He and FlyGuy had initially been heading back for lunch themselves, but Ectoplasm told Midoriya to return with a message that had him staring in pain towards Zach the instant he came into the command center. Deku overheard what Szechuman just asked Zach too though which made him stare towards his friend with even wider eyes. A lead? It's been days without finding- What kind of lead, Zach?

"We need to go to Yuanbo," Zach said.

"Yuanbo?" Captain Wong asked. A leader in the Police Force and emergency organizer of forces for the Fundong FLICC asked the question incredulously. "That's not even inside Gangwe-"

"It's just outside the western border with Chongchuon," Zach countered. "One of the closest cities to Gangwe and with a metropolitan area that crosses over the border so there were sure to be crossings through today. People going in and out of Yuanbo to work. Trucks bringing medical supplies and food into this region. It's a high-"

"You think the terrorists have escaped through that block?" Szechuman questioned, darting a look to the hologram device where a map of Gangwe constantly hovered with even that portion all the way to the left starting to glow with small red dots. "The border was closed-"

"That's not what I said," Zach replied and cut off the FLICC's commander. He stared into Szechuman's eyes then mentioned with a glance to Captain Wong, "But an investigation regarding the Sleepless Outbreak in Yuanbo would turn too many heads. Depending on how powerful the terrorist group is, I wouldn't want them to know I'm getting close-"

"And what information do you have that tells you there's something in Yuanbo?" Szechuman asked, his voice more demanding this time as he refaced Lifebringer. He stared at the teen carefully and then his eyebrows pushed down as he questioned, "Well? It's several hundred miles from the epicenter of the outbreak. You want to redirect the TST… And, and what? What is the lead?"

"I can't say exactly," Lifebringer answered. "And I don't want to redirect the TST. I would go myself, but I need permission and a team to come with me," Zach looked to Ectoplasm who stared at him with wider eyes as the kid looked directly into his eyes. "I have to have Ectoplasm sensei with me, so in that case I suppose I would be taking part of the TST."

"Lifebringer," Ectoplasm said towards his student. The fact that Sazaki was not trying to avoid his supervision was only a minor relief, while a much bigger grief to him was this entire situation. "If you can't say the origin of your lead-"

"How do I even know you have something worth taking you away from here?" Szechuman snapped. He was exhausted and felt he did not get enough sleep last time he got any. He had slept in a weird position too and just got news that two of his agency's support staff members had arrived from Beiju to be put in the critical care ward here in Fundong. "Your job- the reason we called you here to China was so you can revive patients dying from Sleepless."

Zach's gaze lowered from the pro in front of him. Every minute I spend away from here is going to be lives lost now. I can't- I can't fly back and forth. Should I really be doing this? I could still back down. The moment of hesitation was shredded by the looks on that mother and child's faces that he remembered so vividly in his head. His head rose back up sternly and without doubt on it. I waited so long, Zach thought with hate on his face that was not meant for Szechuman who started getting angry back.

That I was taking Star-Spangled Man's motives into account at all. People's lives are on the line and I was worried about him? And his ADTF watching me?! Zach grit his teeth harder, I considered how it would look to the others around me. I told myself to follow even though I knew I could lead. People listen to me, and I can convince them to even if they don't easily. And why do I need their permission anyway?! It's to save lives! Stop doubting yourself. Just, go out on a limb. Whatever the consequences may be.

Szechuman tilted his head up and growled, "If you need a break then take one, but don't act like you have a lead if you don't-"

"De-Lavio." Zach said the name and Szechuman's mouth stayed open for a couple of seconds. He stared ahead at the teenager and slowly closed his jaw while others in the room just looked to Szechuman and Zach confusedly. Even Ectoplasm, Captain Wong, Gilgamesh, and Miss Moda got confused looks on their faces, but Zach saw that a few of the other heroes recognized the name he just said.

"Where," Szechuman started. "How did you get that name-"

"I'm not just doing this because I 'need a break.' And I'm not suggesting it because I think stopping the terrorists is more important to save more lives, which I have not hid my belief in." Zach glared back at Szechuman but his gaze was solely in a serious manner at the FLICC's commander. His eyes darkened for a moment as his head tilted forward, his black hair falling over the tops of his eyes and casting shadows over half of his face. "I can't save anyone else right now," Zach said in a low voice.

"But I can do this," he rose his head and looked in Szechuman's eyes intensely. "I can track this lead, see where it goes. I may have nothing. De-Lavio isn't someone you can track-"

"Who is, 'De-Lavio?'" Midoriya asked towards his classmate.

Kendo, Shinso, and Rin all looked towards Ectoplasm as they were searching for an answer from their teacher. Ectoplasm was looking Szechuman's way though, and Szechuman glanced back towards him then at others around the room. "A former, Triakuza member," Szechuman replied. Others looked at him in surprise at the answer then slowly back at Zach as Szechuman finished, "I've just heard the name before. Nothing about him other than that…"

"As I said, De-Lavio isn't someone who is easy to find," Zach continued. "And his involvement may be nothing more than a rumor I heard," Lifebringer rose his voice louder and darted his gaze around the room. Then he looked back at Szechuman, "But let me investigate it. We can take the plane that Riekers returned with. Fly there and investigate, look into any hits on the lead I've currently got," Zach offered it up and stared hopefully, and desperately at Szechuman as he made the request. "We don't have anything better to go on. So just trust me, and let me do this."

Szechuman's harsh expression was gone. He thought about the first thing he heard after being woken up. Why would you promise someone, you had already saved… Szechuman's chest tightened, Do I owe you this? Or is it not about owing you? Would you really, expend resources you know are slim for something you don't think would… If you are Death- even if you're not! Lifebringer, found the War Boys. He cornered the League. "It, isn't my call," Szechuman said. He thought about just confirming it there in the moment, but he shook his head as he realized he did not have that kind of authority even as the commander of the FLICC.

"In a way, it's mine," Ectoplasm started. Szechuman turned his way and although he had things to say about what he was really talking about, he stepped back while Ectoplasm moved forward closer to his student. "Why can't you tell us where you got this lead?"

"Imagine any one of the hundreds of reasons you could come up with not to give away your sources, Ectoplasm sensei." Zach's response was harsh and his eyes unwavering as he glared into the teacher's. "Then pick one," he finished.

Rin pursed his lips and opened his eyes wide at that answer. You can't talk to the teacher like that!

"Zach," Midoriya started. He stepped forward and shook his head, "This isn't the time for… Do you really have an idea?"

"I do," Zach answered him.

"You know what's at stake, right? This is another Gondorhan kind of incident," Midoriya continued. Others around the room stared towards Midoriya with growing eyes at the mention of that incident. "If you know anything-"

"Y-Yeah!" Rin just realized and moved forward before stopping. He gulped though and shook his head, "If you have anything that could-"

"Enough," Zach snapped in frustration. He glared at Szechuman then darted his gaze over to Rin and Midoriya, "This has nothing to do with Gondorhan. It's never had anything to do with Gondorhan. And if we wait around and don't catch these terrorists it's going to have an even higher death toll than Gondorhan in a few days!"

Midoriya stared at Zach with his eyes bulged and staring back in confusion and then realization from the look in Zach's eyes alone mixed with an expression on Szechuman's face that the Chinese hero tried to hide. "When, did you realize-" Midoriya started.

"It was the first thing I considered," Zach answered straight at Midoriya while others were still catching on or totally confused by the conversation. "Because I already knew that this had nothing to do with Gondorhan, so Yue Fei's announcement made me question 'why' he would say it was, and there were a hundred good explanations." Zach explained it calmly but with his voice moving fast with no room for any interruption, "And since I've arrived it's become all the more clear that my explanations were right," Zach looked back at Szechuman. That hero looked at him partially in regret but also confusion of his own as to why Sazaki had kept quiet, until Zach continued at him, "But there was no point in telling it to anyone else and making them think that this situation is not as dangerous as can be. Which it is."

Zach looked back towards Rin for a second who he shook his head at, a glance towards Ectoplasm too as he saw his teacher understanding what he was saying now. He looked to Deku and continued to him alone though, "It was just one option." He said it softer and with a shake of his head as Midoriya looked too stunned by everything Zach was saying right now which were things he had not even considered. "One of the many options that I imagined when Yue Fei was making his announcement." Midoriya thought of Zach's glowing red eyes when he looked back and saw his friend standing there watching the screen so intensely that night, and he leaned his head back as Zach went on without pause, "And from the front lines I can see why Yue Fei made the call to tell everyone that. It's been too short a time since Gondorhan, and governments and their people are so concerned about it that they wouldn't want to leave their countries unprotected for any reason, except to figure out what caused Gondorhan so as to explain it to them and show them all that they're safe again."

The response was cynical and made the assumption that Yue Fei had lied because the top Chinese hero had also been cynical of the rest of the world's reasons for responding to this incident. Lifebringer suggested that the reason the foreign heroes were all here was for the sake of their own nations and their scared people, not the people actually suffering from Sleepless all around them. And yet rather than upset them, the heroes could see how confident Lifebringer was in stating all of this as fact and started to wonder why they had really been sent, or if they would have been sent at all if Gondorhan had not been mentioned.

"The way, Yue Fei responded to Coola," Kendo brought up quietly from behind Rin.

"Didn't sound much like a lie," Zach replied towards her. "Yet I assumed he was lying from the very beginning, and that response assured me of it. We're all investigating the virus and trying to stop it but Yue Fei had some reason why he couldn't tell us about the Gondorhan link?" He asked it skeptically and added in a lower tone, "I am sure others may have noticed it but said nothing, just as no one here should say a word moving forward so that we can ensure that Third Response Team still comes to help us."

"And that team is coming," Zach continued. He looked back at Ectoplasm and went on, "They'll take our places for the time we're gone."

"I'll take full responsibility afterwards. I will make an announcement that the information I had was faulty and that there was no apparent link. Until such time, avoid any questions…" Szechuman avoided the looks of many in the room staring straight at him. If he knew and kept it quiet for this long, why suddenly tell everyone? Is it to pressure me to allow him out? I'm already fine with it! Why can't he save any more people right now? Is it his Quirk's limitation or his own?

Zach turned from Ectoplasm who did not have an immediate rebuttal for the last thing he said, showing there was a chance he was more on board with it now. He looked to the others in the more crowded area to his left, and he repeated in a serious voice, "I have a hint on how we can get more information on the terrorists. Now we can argue over how I discovered it or how legitimate the lead is," Zach looked the other way and continued towards the Class B students looking his way, "Or you can just listen to me and work together to stop these villains before another city is hit and thousands more die. I can't keep up with revivals anymore. I can't… do it…"

"Zach's right," Kendo said, stepping forward and nodding fast at her classmate from the other class in their hero course. She looked away from him while he was staring at her and she stared straight to Ectoplasm, "Lifebringer's information is likely good."

Midoriya shook his head rapidly and then jumped on board as well, "I trust you, Lifebringer." He used Zach's hero name and nodded when Zach looked his way. Zach, I'm the only one here who knows the truth. I- Midoriya spun as Ectoplasm started nodding his head.

"I'll get the jet ready," Ectoplasm stated in a low voice. His gaze stayed locked somewhat harshly on Sazaki for a few moments as the boy refused to give him specifics on his lead, but he turned towards the FLICC commander and added, "Though it may be tough to get clearance from Yue Fei in his state-"

"I'll make the request from Yue Fei myself," Zach interrupted. He lifted up his ERT and started away to a side of the command tent, the call already ringing, with Yue Fei picking up immediately. The commander of the entire operation sat up in his bed with his skin looking pale and an oxygen machine already over his face to make it easier for him to breathe. Doctors and others around him had already told him it was time for him to be put into a medically induced coma, and he felt pain all over his body, but he sat up as fast as he could when he saw the name of the hero contacting him…

Ectoplasm started away, and Szechuman brought up loudly before he left the area, "Who else will be on this team? I cannot spare too many-"

"Let me come," Rin began, stepping forward quickly. He darted his eyes Zach's way again and then back to Szechuman who he paused when looking at. One of the top heroes in his country who he had looked up to since he was a child stared back at him, and Rin steadied his expression and got a more stern look on his own face. "I'd like to request, to join Lifebringer on this mission."

"I'll go too," Kendo added, making Shinso turn to his side at her and then hesitate himself as both of the Class B's with him were raring to go. The work I have here, Shinso glanced behind him. "Don't feel any pressure to come along," Kendo assured her classmate behind her. "In fact, two of us going with him should be enough."

"Even that is too many," Szechuman said, his voice low and his expression showing he was contemplating this number of his staff leaving the FLICC.

"I really…" Rin started, but saying how he really wanted to go would not have convinced Szechuman. He still looked towards Zach again though urgently, I didn't understand any of that before you said it! I was totally lost to things that he had figured out a long time ago, and Zach probably has some contacts in the underworld or something who he contacted. I have to stop this now, before a release in Bogoxi happens for real. "I need to go," Rin said lower.

"The doctors who came with Officer Riekers can take our place," Kendo mentioned, thinking about the plane that Zach mentioned just a little before. She spoke to Szechuman seriously and added, "We don't need to stay because we aren't as understaffed anymore with that group who arrived here to help us. Those doctors need to pick up the slack as we gave them time to adjust to the crisis they were stepping into. Too many weren't helping out this morning, and they should be put to work," Kendo said this in a suggestive tone to the FLICC leader who did not get annoyed even though it sounded almost like she was criticizing how he had been unconscious during a bit of chaos at the FLICC.

I'll rest when it's over, Szechuman reminded himself. And I'll get coffee after this meeting. "Alright then. The two of you may go with your classmate and teacher. Everyone else! Get back to work."

I believe in Zach, Kendo thought with her gaze shifting into the corner of her eyes where Zach lowered his ERT and gave a nod in Szechuman's direction. He confirmed that Yue Fei gave his permission which happened in much less time than it took to convince Szechuman and Ectoplasm. She imagined a figure flying out from in between some trees at a ski resort, and the crazy story he had told her and her friends at lunch when they sat together. He talked about infiltrating villain groups like it was a hobby of it that he did on a reoccurring basis. I also, think you're probably Death… Though Death has kept reviving people- Either way, you know what you're talking about!

Midoriya hesitated while staring towards Kendo and Rin who Zach walked straight up to and started talking. He had heard them volunteer to come with him, and Midoriya doubted Ectoplasm would say anything against the extra help. Sensei was mad that Zach's being secretive, but that doesn't mean he doesn't believe him. Ectoplasm sensei thinks Zach's onto something. I do too! Midoriya pursed his lips as Zach glanced his direction. I'm on the TST already though. I, have leads of my own, that I need to follow up on-

A hand shoved on the top of Midoriya's back and he stumbled forward before spinning around. He looked back at FlyGuy who nodded his head across the tent over to his classmates, "Go with your friend." FlyGuy looked over Midoriya's head and straight at Lifebringer who looked him back in the eyes. He's the kind of hero, I dislike the most. FlyGuy looked back down at a kid who he did like though, and he said albeit reluctantly, "I know Lifebringer can help us out, and you should be there with him Deku…" FlyGuy's eyes rose again and he finished in a lower voice, "For multiple reasons."

---

"Twenty minutes out from Yuanbo. We're landing secretly," Riekers announced over the private jet's intercom. "Kiter doesn't want to freak anyone out inside Yuanbo with the knowledge that people from Gangwe are entering the city. Apparently a lot of people in the city believe rumors about it spreading much easier than the heroes are telling them."

"They'll know that we were in there when they see us," Sheshou muttered, though under her breath as she was not going to argue with the ranking hero in Chongchuon who was also splitting control of the province during the transitional period, though she currently had more power than the governor due to the martial law Yue Fei declared which had spread to neighboring regions of Gangwe. "Some of us more than others," Sheshou added while looking to the group of Japanese students who were famous world-wide and whose arrival in China was broadcasted around the nation, and world.

"But as long as they don't see us land, word will spread slowly. And they'll just think we're tracking down leads, which is true," Fu added.

Ectoplasm glanced across the aisle to the pair of women facing each other on opposite seats. He looked back forward and past the empty seat in front of him to a seating group of four farther back in the plane where four of his students were sitting. Yue Fei allowed us to leave easily with your request… I'm surprised he's still conscious and giving orders in his state. It was real bad last time I- but even if he allowed this mission, Ectoplasm lifted his ERT and focused rather than looking at the pair of Chinese heroes in his peripheral view who Yue Fei had sent as hosts and supervision to the Japanese team.

Zach thought on completely different lines as his teacher though, The two of them being on the team to 'watch' the foreign dignitaries was something Yue Fei did to help us. Not hinder us. Considering who it is that joined us, I'm confident Yue Fei told them in secret to get me whatever I needed. He picked the two who watched me… In the-

These two were the ones Endeavor interviewed about the Villain Summit, Ectoplasm thought, knowing more about it than Zach thought he did. His eyes were locked down on his tablet but he still frowned behind his costume's mask, Even if he allowed us to go, he did so with the belief that Sazaki is Death. I don't believe it myself, but it's become clear to me the Chinese are confident that he was, and they don't care. In fact, they all respect him more for it. The kid's using that. There's no point in convincing them otherwise when using the reputation has let him come out here… Right?

Zach lowered his ERT where he saw a third message from a different hero than the last two times he had been contacted from the FLICC. Heroes kept telling him to just come back for a few minutes then go back out and join the rest of the team he had heading to Yuanbo. It's not outside my time limit yet- Zach ignored the thought while nodding to his left at Midoriya who sat on his side, the two of them facing the Class B students across from them. The seats on the plane could be shifted around and turned to face each other, and the four of them sat in a square formation having a conversation through the flight.

"Yuanbo's a few hundred miles away from the epicenter, but the attacks have been scattered all about. We also don't know if the outbreak is the whole of the villains' plans or if the Sleepless disease really is just a cover for something greater," Midoriya said, explaining something Star-Spangled Man had brought up earlier in their search which he had been constantly thinking about to better help him search for clues.

"I don't think that makes sense," Zach countered slowly, shaking his head and facing his friend on his side. "It's not that it's impossible," Zach assured him as Midoriya looked surprised that Zach would not think there was a chance of that. "But the idea of making a distraction to draw in all the heroes, they must have known that something this big would get huge international response teams coming in to deal with it too. As confident as they may have been of success, unless their plan is just to kill as many heroes as possible- which is a possibility- they'd be assuring failure by getting this much attention on them."

"'Assuring failure?'" Rin wondered back in confusion. "You just, assume they can't win?"

"Not against the might of all the heroes in the world," Zach replied, shaking his head and even lifting the right corner of his lips for a moment while looking across the gap at Rin. "There isn't a single group in the world that can do that. If villains could, they would have done that a long time ago. Even most of the strongest villain groups we've had in the past few years wouldn't dare going up against the top heroes of a single nation in an all-out fight. An example being the League of Villains staying quiet even after taking down half our strongest heroes. They did it in an ambush, and they fled as fast as they could afterwards back into their holes where they're waiting for another opportunity."

"But maybe this is the tactic that the Chinese villains, and this De-Lavio you mentioned, are using to try and take out all the heroes," Midoriya suggested. "Or maybe they were hired by someone else around the world to draw out the strong heroes from their nation- maybe even the ones who actually were responsible for Gondorhan, and that's the connection Yue Fei had!"

"I'd agree with everything except Yue Fei finding that connection. I'm certain that was just to get us all to come help," Zach denied his friend. "If Yue Fei really knew, he wouldn't have given up that information to the villains in a press conference to the world. He wouldn't want villains capable of that kind of destruction to realize we were catching up to them."

Midoriya closed his mouth and after a second nodded at Zach to finish with his theory from a minute ago that he had interrupted. "I don't think the disease is just a first-step to anything, because we don't have a cure. Because the villains who are using the disease didn't know how powerful it could get but have clearly expanded their use of it. I believe, that this is the villains' endgame. Sleepless. And the chaos that it creates. The failure of heroes to stop an enemy that they can't just beat-up and arrest. Stupid reasons like that. Probably see themselves as idealists, and there are probably a few fanatics at the top of the group that are going to be difficult to deal with when it comes to it. Figuring out how to cure people infected with Sleepless who already have it," Zach said the last part in a lower voice, his eyes focusing and darting to the window at his side as if he hoped to see their plane starting a descent already.

You really think you can save that woman… Rin thought, and he glanced towards Midoriya who he also saw looking at the back of Zach's head in a knowing way as he had heard about the promise himself.

"I-ck, uck kugh," Kendo lifted her arm to her mouth and covered it while the three around her, and everyone else in the plane, spun her direction. She lowered her arm quickly and lifted her hands up defensively in front of her, "Sorry. Swallowed some spit," she had a bead of sweat dripping down the side of her face and smiled about it while everyone continued to give her hesitant looks. "Really, I'm fine," she assured them.

Fu cleared her throat to check if there was any strange sensation in it. Sheshou glanced hesitantly at her and then did the same, just to make sure that she did not cough on accident later and confuse everyone like that. Ectoplasm got up from his seat though and walked towards his students, giving Kendo a scary look which made the girl lean back into her seat with more sweat on her face. Ectoplasm looked at that sweat and then at the girl's face that at the moment did not have a mask over it since they had taken them off for the flight. They were not planning on wearing them in Yuanbo which would draw attention to themselves too, but Ectoplasm started wondering about that as he looked at the students under his charge.

"It's just a cough, Ectoplasm sensei," Kendo assured him. "We were all wearing masks the whole time we were with patients, right?" Kendo looked next to her at Rin who slowly started nodding then did so quicker at Kendo's risen eyebrows and hopeful look that he would back her up more strongly.

Midoriya felt his heart rate start getting back to normal. Ectoplasm eased up his glare too that was telling Kendo to tell him the truth, but he said in a low voice, "I will remove you if you do show more signs."

"Understood, sensei," Kendo said with a nod back at him but a reassuring smile that it really was nothing.

Midoriya looked back at Rin as Ectoplasm started away and questioned if he had ever been to Yuanbo before. Rin mentioned how he had been once not too long ago, actually during a summer break while already in high school. Zach nodded along and asked if Rin had been specifically to the Nando District inside Yuanbo, surprising Rin who shook his head that he had not and got Midoriya asking if that was more specifically where they were going once in the city, to which Zach nodded his head.

Kendo tried to refocus on the conversation as much as she could without letting her expression show the pure state of shock she was stuck in that she managed to push aside to convince Ectoplasm and the others that she was fine. She was too astonished to speak up and say anything, and she stared at the side of Zach's face that she had seen a look different from everyone else's when they looked towards her after she started coughing. She noticed it because she had glanced his way specifically when she could not hold back her cough or hide it this time. That look, of sheer panic… In his eyes he was so, he's hiding it now. That look- Kendo pursed her lips. It was you.

She saw that dark helmet bowed over her as she opened her eyes. "Battle Fist. Battle Fist. Are you alright?" She saw his black armor covered in blood. Her blood. And she thought about the look on his face as he just spun to stare at her in terror beyond that of the others on the plane who did not know one simple fact that would have changed everything. He knows I've died before. Iida would have told me if he asked Zach- he wouldn't have done that. It was him. It was really… I have to hold it together here. He promised that woman he can save her, and I believe him! If that's where we're heading- if we're going somewhere to find a cure for this disease! Then I need to go too. I need to, save myself.

---

Chh Schlooo- dnk- ka-ch The side door of U.A.'s private jet opened up and the escalator slid down though it was turned off this time, letting the arrivals walk down it rather than wait and wave to the fanfare that was nonexistent in Yuanbo. Zach stepped into the doorway and put his black visor over his eyes, then he tapped a button on the side of it to expand it over the top of his head giving him a full helmet. The visor's HUD changed up as it expanded outwards and upwards, giving him a larger display and more functions available for expedited use through the controls of his gloves. Both of Zach's hands had the support items expanded over them and glowed blue on the wiring along his fingers to his wrists.

Zach's eyes scanned over the tarmac and into the city that Yuanbo's airport was smack in the middle of instead of just outside of like Xing's was. Yuanbo stretched around them with two sides clearly having fewer tall buildings which was needed for planes coming in and out of the airport. His gaze scanned towards the small commercial and financial district where the tallest skyscrapers were, then he looked a different direction towards the ten-twenty story apartment and office buildings that were smaller sizes that the central district's. Been a while since I've been to Yuanbo. Kiter was here last time too, Zach looked down towards the heroine awaiting them on the runway with a pair of bulkier men in her agency wearing black suits with sunglasses on behind her.

"Not quite the same welcome as a few days ago," Kendo mentioned. At the sound of her voice behind him, Zach started down the stairs and had a hop in his step as he sped down them.

Fu snuck around the side of Deku who was about to start going down the steps himself, and she leapt up with her wings opening behind her back and flapping to slow her descent. She lowered down and landed while Zach was hitting the bottom step, and she jogged forward to Kiter before Lifebringer reached her. "What do you need?" Kiter asked. "I can't spare much, but these two will stay with your team and get you whatever they can while you're here. Anything I can get you now?" Kiter sounded ready to head off herself and just looked Lifebringer's way for a second as the boy shook his head at her.

"We're good. Those two cars are fine," Zach added with a motion back towards a pair of vehicles farther down the private runway of the airport where they had disembarked out of view of the terminals. Kiter glanced back and Zach wondered at the back of her head, "You don't need one, right?"

"No. They're all yours," Kiter replied. She looked over at the rest of the group getting to the bottom of the stairs off the plane and talking to each other. "Not a very big team," she mentioned.

"We don't need one," Lifebringer responded. "Thanks for your help. We appreciate it. You can get back," Zach finished. I know you're busy. You said it yourself by only giving us these two. So no need to stick around and ask questions.

"Alright." Kiter turned and started running. She lowered her arms in front of her body while hunching forward mid-sprint. Her body started to flatten out and lift up in the air as the speed she had gained along with the angle of her body was pushing her upwards. Kiter's arms stuck together and she jumped off the ground, pressing her legs tightly together and kicking them up to get horizontal with the rest of her flattening body. On the sleeves of her costume were devices that wrapped around the tiny strip of her arms dangling below her body, and her thin hands curled around the bottom of that string to control the support tool that maintained her momentum and direction. Within a few seconds she had soared away from the landing strip and was heading back towards the nearby border with Gangwe where she had stationed herself as it was the area she felt most needed attention.

"I'm Jumping Jong. This is X Force," one of the two men in Kiter's agency started while stepping forward to Lifebringer and Fu. The man had short black hair like his partner's, was around the same height, but his costume was yellow with black stripes while X Force's was purely white other than the red 'X' in the center of his chest and on his back at the same height. Jumping Jong's jaw was also a bit thicker, and his eyes were completely black rather than X Force's brown irises inside of regular white eyes.

"Can we ask where we're headed?" X Force wondered.

"Nando District," Zach replied. X Force grimaced at the response that came without hesitation.

Jumping Jong nodded his head but responded to that quick answer, "Fine. When we go though, be careful and don't draw too much attention to yourselves." He wondered for a moment if that was going to be possible with Lifebringer, yet because of the teen's helmet, part of his face was blocked so Jong hoped it was possible. After pausing he went on, "Focus on Sleepless and not anything else you might see. Nando District, it's an area that usually needs a lot of attention. I'm sure that the lack of hero presence is sure to have made the local gangs normally being watched carefully feel a lot freer right about now."

"Zach, did you check your ERT?" Midoriya wondered while walking up behind his friend.

"No. We're heading out," Zach replied. He motioned towards the vehicles and asked the two men in front of him, "You know the area?"

"We'll drive," Jumping Jong answered with that response. He then lifted his head to the others and reintroduced himself and Kiter's other sidekick who were at their disposal for the duration of their stay in Yuanbo. "…However long that may be-"

"It won't be long," Lifebringer assured while already walking forward, getting Jumping Jong to turn himself and speed up so he could get to his vehicle first. They were inconspicuous cars that did not look part of the Police Force or any hero agency. Just a black and a silver SUV which could easily fit their whole team of nine. Zach lifted up his ERT while Midoriya walked up onto his right side to tell him, but he stopped as Zach looked at the message he received on it above a few other messages from people back at the Fundong FLICC begging for him to come back.

Heiping passed, Zach closed his eyes and collapsed the tablet without reading any of those other messages in full. The more he tried to avoid looking at them though, the more he realized he had subconsciously read them all and even closely looked at the pictures that were sent to him of the youngest their comrades back at the FLICC wanted him to return for, at least. He shook his head around and shoved the ERT into his tool belt. She was probably already infected before heading to Beiju. No, she must have been. By the time she got there the Sleepless wouldn't have been hanging in the air. And she tested positive before any infected from Beiju were critical enough to infect her. Must have been the dead from Fundong. She may have already been sick when she picked us up? That, makes the most sense. Based on the time it took.

"We'll get a call going when we're in the vehicles," Ectoplasm said as some of the team were slowing down wondering which car to get into. They figured if they were with Lifebringer they would actually know what was going on here, so most of them wanted to get in that first SUV that Zach was climbing into the passenger seat of now.

Deku nodded and jogged to the second car as did Kendo who glanced cautiously towards the door Zach just closed. She turned her head to the side while running around the back of the second SUV, out of everyone else's sight for a second. "Mm, nnk, ku-" She shook her head and continued around the car, wiping her brow and then smiling as she jumped into the backseat with a hopeful look about her. Ignore the headache, she reminded herself as she wanted to raise her hand right back up to her head at that feeling. I hydrated enough on the plane.

"Now that we're here," Ectoplasm started, his ERT out and the rest of the team hopping into the call from the vehicle behind them. He looked to Lifebringer in the seat in front of his while he hid his aggravation as to being stuck in the backseat because he did not want to waste time telling his student to switch seats with him. He looked into the boy's visor when Zach looked back and continued to him, "Tell us what we're doing in Yuanbo. What's in the Nando District you mentioned?"

Jumping Jong glanced into the rearview mirror in confusion that Ectoplasm needed to ask that after their team had already arrived. He just refaced the windshield though and continued driving to a back entrance of the tarmac where the guards knew they were coming out of in a minute. This is starting to feel like something we're going to keep off the books, Jumping Jong thought with his expression getting darker. But the revival total was up over a thousand this morning. That means the death toll would have been that high. It's still over a hundred, and with Lifebringer out here I'm sure that number's going to shoot up. Don't say anything about it. There has to be a reason, Jong reminded himself.

"The hit I got brings us here," Zach said, moving his ERT to the side so it was between his seat and the driver's, while also pointed enough back to show Ectoplasm, Rin, and Sheshou behind him. He turned it more to Jong who was struggling to see it, though he pointed it back again as X Force was part of this conversation too even if he could just follow their vehicle there. Ectoplasm turned his ERT to show the others in the car behind while Zach continued, "On Wilmur Ave., on this strip between Kungchi and Iorn Streets." Zach slid his finger over the map and highlighted a small section of road between a long one that still was winding away from an actual main street on more of a grid pattern. The two streets went diagonally into the road and met on a different block several away, and on the map were many smaller spits of connecting paths between roads which the passengers could only assume were alleyways the map adjusted for.

"You know an exact location?" Ectoplasm questioned harshly.

"Not of the people we're after," Zach replied without breaking his composure or losing his steady and focused look. "Just where we can get more information on my lead and see if it pans out. Could be nothing. After all, it's just a tip. But just follow my lead and we'll be in and out. Hopefully we get the information I'm looking for. Anything on these terrorists." He paused and turned his head to look out the window to his right. The sidewalks were pretty empty around the airport, which made sense since planes flying in and out of Yuanbo had drastically cut down over the past few days.

Farther into the city though, in a direction away from the tallest buildings, people on the sides of the street were walking around or standing about in groups. "We're in the Nando District now," X Force mentioned to his passengers looking out the windows of his vehicle. "Ignore the masks. We have to accept them all right now."

Kendo pulled back at an extremely offensive mask that a man in a group of six wore while they were hanging around the porch of a short apartment building. Most of the others wore bandannas around their mouths and noses with different white and black swirling designs on them. They continued down the road and a few guys had shirts wrapped around the bottom half of their faces, one had his shirt lifted over his head and the sleeves tied back behind it to only show the slit of his eyes, though he had goggles on over his eyes too.

A few kids went running by down the sidewalk in a different direction of the guys with shirts on their heads. The kids were wearing surgical masks like many other people did, but some of them had to make do with other forms of personal protection they put over their mouths, noses, and eyes. "Everyone's afraid," Jumping Jong said as he drove slower down the street that had people walking in it to avoid others that were standing around on the sidewalks. "And a lot of people who live here work to our east. Not too far to our east is the border with Gangwe, so they're all stuck at home waiting to see if the virus spreads here."

"Think our presence will upset them?" Rin wondered softly.

"If it bothers them they'll have to deal with it," Zach's voice was curt and cold. I don't have time to waste. I'm already wasting time. Precious seconds. It matters though. Doing things this way. The right way. "Is everyone alright to just follow my lead on this?" Zach wondered loudly. He looked behind him and right at his teacher again. Anything I do wrong, you have the power to tell Principal Nezu and get me expelled. I know that. I know he told you that I know that. Trust me, Ectoplasm.

"You're the one with the lead," Ectoplasm responded after a few seconds.

"Alright, then listen up." Zach looked out the window for a moment then continued for the rest of the team of nine to hear him. "Nando District has a lower average income than any other in Yuanbo. The average reported income is lower than most places in China, and yet people afford these apartments where rent costs as much if not more than in many other areas where tenants' incomes are higher. Only makes sense if a good portion of the population makes their money off the books."

"Wait a sec-" Jumping Jong began.

"Our hosts don't want us investigating any of the other crimes going on here though, and I agree. We're here for Sleepless and nothing else," Zach said. "So don't waste our time if you think you see something suspicious. You're probably right. And it's probably something illegal. And it's not what we're here for," Zach said.

"Average income in this area is rising-"

"Gradually," Zach cut off X Force this time. "I know the area. I've been to Yuanbo before. Things aren't as bad as the peak of the Age of Villains but you both already made it clear to me they aren't perfect. As I said though, it's not our problem and I'm not here to insult your city or anything. I'm solely here to help, okay?" Zach wanted the Chinese heroes to ease up on their flustered responses at how plainly he was calling out an area of high crime rates that they felt they were doing a good job at lowering over the past years.

"You've been to Yuanbo?" Rin wondered when Zach stopped for a moment.

"I have," Zach replied, looking back at his fellow student who asked. "So let's just see if I'm able to get anything to help us find these terrorists. Let's move calmly and carefully but remember that we're on the clock here." Zach shifted his gaze to the ERT Ectoplasm had open and was still on a call with the car behind them. She saw the way I reacted when she started coughing. The way she looked at me afterwards confirmed she noticed and that she realized for sure. I can't convince her otherwise. It doesn't matter! I DON'T CARE IF I CAN! Calm. I'm going to save Su-Jin which means I'll save her, since Su-Jin showed symptoms earlier.

"Getting close," Jumping Jong started, his breathing calmed down a bit and his eyes shifting next to him to see what Lifebringer thought.

"Park on Kungchi before the corner of Wilmur," Zach said, nodding ahead to Kungchi St. that they were getting close to.

"What are we walking into?" Ectoplasm asked, his voice low and intimidating to the Chinese heroes and some of his students. As he thought about Sazaki mentioning how he had been to Yuanbo, and how they should be ignoring other crimes going on around them, certain aspects of that conversation were making him extremely uneasy as to what was about to happen here.

"I haven't been here in over a year," Zach replied and lied. More like nine months. "I'm not certain of what we'll find but just follow my lead and keep close. Everyone put your earpieces in and join the connected channel I'm sending out…"

A pair of SUVs stopped on the side of a road in Nando, Yuanbo. The teams emptied out of the vehicles, only for Zach to tell Jumping Jong and X Force to stay with the cars and be ready to move at a moment's notice. Then he turned to Sheshou and Fu, "Go on 'patrol' at this intersection," he then looked specifically to Fu, "and the intersection of Wilmur and Iorn."

Fu nodded back and flapped her wings to get up in the air. Instead of going down Wilmur herself to reach the intersection she was going to "patrol," she was just going to lift over the apartment complexes and head over there quicker. Neither of the two Chinese heroes ignored or even hesitated at his orders like the sidekicks from Yuanbo had. They followed his orders as was Yue Fei's instruction to them.

"On me," Zach told the other four from U.A. who followed closely behind him as he walked up to the corner. Zach turned right onto the strip of road he had pointed out a few minutes ago on his ERT. The road had more people on it and not many cars though there were a few parked on the sides of the road that looked stylish and personally designed. There were more groups of people hanging out on this street than the last one which still connected to a more major road. There were only apartments and a few corner stores, a small restaurant and two bars on the avenue section. As they walked down it though, Zach saw the butcher's shop that he was looking for which was just where he remembered it.

A lot of people on the road looked the heroes' way, and several quickly slipped back into their apartments. Others stayed exactly where they were though and just stared the heroes down as they walked by. An older man sitting on the top step of his apartment looked down through glowing white eyes at the group of 5 walking past him. They could not see his mouth behind the mask over it, but that mask was designed with a mouth pitch black full of razor sharp white teeth all dripping in blood.

A couple teens on bikes rode past on the left side of the heroes walking down the sidewalk, both of them wearing masks too but no helmets. One younger kid dangled from a fourth story window across the street by extending legs that bounced him down a story and back up to his window over and over, and each time he lifted he did a sit-up and called what he was seeing inside to the rest of his family who just rushed to the window. We need to be careful, Deku's eyes scanned the dozens of people currently in his view, as well as others who were just inside their windows or doors but poking out to look at them too. Anywhere Zach is he could draw attention from enemies he made.

If Eziano Mozcaccio learns where Sazaki is right now, Ectoplasm thought anxiously. How would he find out- Any of the people here could contact him. They may have already. What about the guards at the airport? The kind of power we think Eziano has is unreal. If another missile gets launched-

"It's in here," Zach said. He led the group behind him towards the butcher's shop, but instead of heading in the door he went just to the right of it into a thin alley that did not go very far back. There was a three-step staircase to a side door though that was cracked open and had a brick on the ground keeping it propped. Zach opened the door and more smoke came out than was already slipping through the crack of the propped-open door.

He held the door open for Ectoplasm and Deku right behind him. As Rin and Kendo were following though, Zach stopped them, "Dragon Shroud, Battle Fist, watch the door. Only stop people from leaving if we contact you… Can you?" Zach's eyes focused on Kendo as he asked it, and she nodded back at him in a serious way that made him turn without further question and start up the stairs that were just inside.

Rin glanced to his side just as Deku and Ectoplasm each focused their gazes on Kendo for a moment after Zach's question that was directed solely at her. The other two turned and followed Zach up though as he moved by them in a narrow stairwell and just continued up without saying anything else.

The other two won't leave me alone. Can't find any other excuse to leave them outside the last door. They'll demand to see it. Or to just watch me and make sure I don't do anything while out of their sight.

Don't ask me to stand outside, Zach. You know I can't, Midoriya thought while staring at the back of Zach's head and hoping that confrontation was not about to arrive.

"Stay out of my way here," Zach started in a low voice, walking around the bend of the stairs and past a couple who were so close while they talked that their lips were almost touching. The two were smoking inside and the things in their hands they were smoking did not smell like tobacco to the other two following just behind Zach. "Don't ask any questions and just remember that we're here to stop the virus."

"What are we doing here?" Ectoplasm asked. In this random run-down apartment complex, above a butcher? In a shady area of Yuanbo?

"I have a source here," Zach said. He glanced Midoriya's way and added, "A real one, this time."

Ectoplasm's eyes opened wider than Deku's as Midoriya just nodded in understanding though he also got the reference. Ectoplasm thought of something he had heard years ago though, when Sazaki was punished but not nearly as severely as he thought the kid would be when Lifebringer suddenly appeared at the War Boys' base. The Principal and Eraser said he had a C.I. from his time with the villains. I didn't think that made sense but, but it wasn't! It didn't make sense! He just said that this time it's real…

That's right, Ectoplasm thought of the bus ride after he picked up Class A from the police station post Lifebringer Incident. He didn't find them using a C.I. The kid had friends in the underworld. Secret anti-heroes he worked with even back then. Back when he was a first year even. He says this is a real C.I. this time though. Something, heroes use themselves. Something I'm sure he was planning to use when he became a pro. Something a kid who's not a pro yet isn't actually allowed to have, which makes sense as to why he would hide having one until getting that license.

The situation calls for it though. He knows it's not technically allowed, but we're trying to stop a pandemic right here. Ectoplasm focused and stopped thinking about the rules as much himself. I'll just follow his lead and get through this. I hope this manages to get something.

The team down to three members walked onto the second floor and before they even opened the door from the stairwell, they could already hear and feel the thumping in the building. They stepped into the second floor hallway and looked down it to see a door open halfway down which was the only door on the left side of the hall compared to the four doorways each with different apartment numbers on the right side of the building. The hallway had people in it, drinking and talking loudly to each other and bopping their heads to the music coming from that open entranceway.

Zach moved subtly and skillfully down the hall in a way that Ectoplasm and Deku could not mimic just by watching him. Their presence became known to a few people who turned to them and dropped their jaws, stopping what they were doing and then murmuring amongst themselves as the three just walked right by them all. Zach walked into the open door and used his left hand to ease a woman in front of him to the side and out of his way.

The apartment they walked into was far nicer than Ectoplasm or Deku were expecting to see. There was a full kitchen off to their left and a few steel drums on the kitchen's marble island that had tubes coming out of them from which one man was refilling his cup with a pink-colored drink. The apartment was packed with people and not everyone noticed what was going on because the music was so loud in there. Even some people who turned just got confused by the casual way in which three heroes in costume just walked right into the main room.

There was a hall down to the left also filled with people with a couple bedrooms and a bathroom sticking off of it. Closer to them and next to the kitchen was a kind-of dining room/ living room. On the wooden table in that room, there were a couple of automatic rifles sitting right on top of it. A guy with a brown bandanna around his face pulled it down off his nose while leaning over the table he had put his gun down on, and he snorted a line of purple powder. He leaned back and his eyes were already glowing purple, which was not normal for him.

Deku tried to keep his eyes forward on Zach, though he found himself completely aware of everything going on in the apartment that moved in near slow motion for him. Will anyone try attacking us? We're so cramped in between all these villains! They're having a party in the middle of the afternoon- Is that the guy?

Midoriya went to the right after entering as that was where Zach moved to. There was a dividing wall from most of the apartment to a living room on the right which was even nicer than the rest of the apartment and looked more secluded and private for the apartment's owner. There was a white couch in the middle of the room farther from the opening that Zach walked through, a couple of recliners off to Zach's right, a tiger fur rug on the floor, and a huge television on the wall ahead of him in between two bookshelves.

A seven foot tall man stood just on the left of the opening into the next room, there to stop others in the party from just walking in and straight up to that couch. In the middle of that couch sat a fat, buck-toothed man with a golden eyepatch who was piling up cash he was counting from a duffel bag that had been delivered not long ago and was sitting on the lap of the beautiful Chinese woman on his right. She looked to be the twin sister of the other gorgeous woman who had her hair tied back in a ponytail rather than falling straight down as her sister did, and the one in the ponytail just started giggling as the drug dealer counting cash with one hand grabbed her by her upper right tit with his other hand. Both women had four breasts after all, covered by nothing more than thin lines of white fabric.

The guard right at the entrance was too distracted by that pile of money on the glass coffee table and the bodies of the women behind it to notice someone just walked in for a second. The first person who noticed in the whole room stood behind the couch with one other person who snapped their head up an instant later and stared with bulging eyes that made the dealer at the gap turn and look next to him. The tallest figure in the room who turned and started to react quickly so as not to get scolded for failing to keep people out, found his blood running cold and his throat completely drying out in a second. AHHHHHHHH! He could not find the breath to scream out loud, but he was internally screaming at the sight of Lifebringer standing a foot in front of him, staring straight at the boss who lifted his head as he realized someone was in the top of his peripheral vision-

"Oh shi-" the villain jumped out of his seat so fast he knocked the women next to him to the sides and accidentally kicked the table in front of him out. Stacks of bills fell off it, and a "small" mound of white powder collapsed and some fell off the edge of the table where he had piled it for the party. Everyone in the room was incredibly tense as three heroes had just walked in, some of them with twitchy fingers near their weapons or getting ready to use their Quirks. The guy who jumped up lifted his hands as open palms though and spun his head to the left and right, "Whoa whoa." He composed himself a bit and looked ahead of him with a smile and a laugh at the sight of the teenager staring straight at him in his own apartment. "Lifebringer! Ah, I heard you were in China…"

Zach walked forward into the room and stopped in the middle of it just past the table that had stopped when it slid into the tiger rug that Zach now stood on. Deku and Ectoplasm each stepped farther in the room, and each had looks of heroes on their faces who were very unsatisfied with what they were seeing. For some reason neither of them were saying anything though, and the villain in front of Zach chuckled a bit more confidently after a moment. "What can I help you with?" He asked.

"Bango. Send everyone out of here," Zach demanded.

The boss nodded quickly and motioned his head to the tall figure at the opening into the next room. "Tell everyone to bring the party upstairs and come back in 30 minutes." Bango turned and motioned away for the guys who had been sitting in the recliners too, then he looked back and nodded his head twice for the girls behind him who got up and quickly shuffled away with everyone else.

The music cut off in the next room and people started shouting and arguing with the others who went out there. Some yelled at each other but the crowd started making its way out of the apartment. Deku curled his fists at his sides as those people were all leaving and he wasn't stopping them. He managed to stay put though and just continued to glare at Bango and the two who had been behind his couch but started moving forward to the sides of it then ahead of where Bango stayed.

The ones who remained were the ones who Midoriya had seen notice them the quickest, though he actually did not see one of the two notice them as by the time he headed through the gap after Zach that villain was already staring straight towards them with an insanely intense look. He's dangerous, Midoriya thought of the one villain on the left side of the couch who was directly in front of him, while Ectoplasm was more on Zach's right side farther into the room.

Clnk! The door of the apartment slammed shut, making it a lot more quiet other than the muted sounds of the crowd out in the hall. Bango spoke up first as none of the heroes had said anything yet, "I trust these two with everything. And I need them here, after all, for some protection from the brutality of heroes." He said it jokingly, and yet there was fear in his good eye as he said the words.

The fact that we haven't started trying to arrest him yet, Ectoplasm thought.

I studied Chinese for times like this. His accent is strong though. I can't expect them to speak English here. Keep up! Midoriya yelled at himself as part of that sentence Bango just said was lost to him. He got the first part of it though and figured out why Bango would want them there on his own.

"What do you know about the Sleepless Outbreak?" Zach asked. He wasted no time and got straight to the most important question.

This is Sazaki's source? Or just, someone that he knew about even- Ectoplasm grit his teeth as he glared out the corner of his eyes at the student next to him. This isn't an on-the-fence gray area criminal. It's just a villain that you knew about and allowed to carry out crimes. This is unacceptable-

"I haven't heard anything about it," Bango answered. He smiled and shrugged his right shoulder up, "I know that some psycho's spreading it intentionally, but I also know that the heroes all know that already…"

Bango slowed down and trailed off as Lifebringer was not looking at him. Zach faced the dark haired man on Bango's right and to Zach's left, standing directly in front of Midoriya and looking back at Lifebringer harshly for another second before losing the dark look in his eyes as everyone stared his way. He was a Chinese man standing around six feet tall with a muscular physique and cold steady eyes that Midoriya had been feeling anxious about. The man staring back at Lifebringer nodded and then began in English rather than Chinese, "It's a group called the Fabu."

Bango and the other villain to the left of the man speaking both stared in shock and confusion at the third among them. He continued right to Zach, "In English- Release. They're ideologists to the point of fanaticism, a cult-like following of very loyal and crazy members following some strong leaders. They're relatively new-"

"Wei!" Bango shouted, his expression getting furious even with sweat starting to pour down it. "What are you- what's going-"

The other of the villains moved up next to the boss and pulled the fatter man away while glaring furiously and in a betrayed way at 'Wei' who Midoriya and Ectoplasm were still staring at in disbelief. "You bastard. Are you-"

The informant Zach had really come to see glared to his side in a very, very dark way that had the other two chilled to the bone. Deku and Ectoplasm felt their own heart rates spike at the look of a villain who instantly was ten times as intimidating as he had been acting as only a minute ago which was intimidating already. "I warned you," Wei said in English in a low voice. "I said that we should stay away from firearms, that we didn't need them back." The other two Chinese men heard a tone that was foreign to them it was so unfamiliar. The face of someone they each trusted continued to look a way neither recognized as he spoke darkly, "I said that the drug business was failing, and you were stupid not to see it."

"You should have gone straight, like was suggested of you," Wei finished. Then he turned back to Zach and continued in a slightly less dark voice, "You ruined my plug in this group. It was a good location for me to gather info on the Fabu and others."

"What else do you know about them?" Zach wondered, ignoring the shocked looks of the other four in the room as he continued this conversation more to the point to get "Wei" to focus.

Wei nodded his head seriously back after a moment. "I know, this is important," he relented at the obvious necessity for why his plug had to be revealed. "Various small groups still larger than this den have had unusual dealings lately. They have been paying a 'tribute' to a mysterious group that threatened them and killed some of their members or made others go missing. What I know about the Fabu's methods is so limited, because of their experienced precautionary measures. I think former Triakuza who escaped their organization's destruction are working with Fabu. No information on them, their whereabouts, their numbers, bases, specific members, anything. They're good." Zach nodded along with him in an agreeing way as he had information that suggested the same theory. Wei continued, "I only discovered more about the Fabu in a recent investigation after the start of the outbreak."

"Sazaki," Ectoplasm finally started, realizing he had lost his voice for a minute there. I didn't understand. "What is…"

"Leave it for later, sensei," Zach countered without turning to his right and the teacher who froze at the tone of that voice ordering him to stay out of this. "The information you got recently?"

Zach's informant in this villain group stepped forward and pulled a slip of paper out of his pocket. It was folded up and he handed it off between two fingers, and Zach unfolded it while speaking in a lower voice, "You think the tributes make up their entire cash flow?"

"Seems like how they managed to stay off the radar entirely while still gathering up the strength for something like this. Due to the outbreak I'm sure that they're expending a lot of it. Needing more. The fact that I learned their name post-first-release shows they're getting sloppier."

"Or your attention's more focused on them," Zach countered in a quieter voice. He looked at the information on the slip that he only briefly unfolded to glance at before slipping down into a pouch on his own person which the informant in front of him allowed without looking even slightly bothered to lose the slip himself. "It's not much to go on."

"But it's all I have so far. There're drops and meet-ups that go on there, so I was looking to discover a time of one of the cash drops and report the meeting. If we stake it out though, we should be-"

"There's no time for a stake out," Zach interrupted. "The Fabu need to be found now. People are infected who have died before. We just lost Heiping. It's spreading too far, and soon too many people will be dying a day that I won't be able to do anything to mitigate it. It'll wipe out millions. Already I've missed on saving hundreds of lives coming here today, though I'm low on strength and exhausted which is how I could get away."

"I understand," Wei responded with an intense nod back at Zach. "Even if the hand-offs of cash are out here, it won't be hard to fund those stuck inside the quarantine. Put money into accounts here and it can still be used by those who are ravaging Gangwe."

"I know what you're thinking. Can you set it up?" Zach asked.

"I'll see what I can do," Wei replied. "But we won't see each other again," he continued. "I'm disappearing after this. My cover's blown." His eyes shifted to his left and then ahead at the two heroes continuing to watch this conversation silently though in less shock than before but still uneasy and dark looks.

The informant looked specifically at Deku for a few moments longer which made Midoriya's chest clench up and his eyes slowly widen, Is it because, he knows I captured Hyper? He's worried I'm going to… I need to. We need to arrest- He's Army of Death. An Army of Death soldier right here in front of us. Active! And- and Zach knows, that the Sleepless Outbreak takes precedence! That's why he broke the guy's cover- that he probably set up himself! Zach says he's not involved but, but these people are loyal to him!

"I'm sorry," Zach responded after his old comrade mentioned him breaking his cover. He added though, "But it's worth it." Wei nodded right back at him in agreement with that sentiment. "Thank you," Zach finished to his comrade who spun and looked to the exit in fear. The moment he spun that way fast, everyone else but Zach spun to look the same direction. Zach kicked his right foot towards the two villains who looked. Ectoplasm and Deku started turning their heads back the other way, gawking at the two black lines that just pierced through the distracted villains in their chests and dropped them to the floor. Zach then lowered his leg to the ground with the black lines pulling back into his shin they expelled from.

Wei looked back to the two of them himself for a moment. His lips were flat and his eyes unwavering, but they did linger down on the man who not a few minutes ago told him to stay because he was one of the only ones he trusted completely. Then his eyes left Bango's unmoving body and lifted back to Zach who he nodded at to acknowledge what just happened.

"Alright," Zach started while looking to Ectoplasm and Deku who were shocked and trying to figure out what to say. "We should bring these guys in and the ones with guns we saw already. I'm betting they went upstairs like Bango told them. Can't just let that slide, but we should call in Chinese heroes to deal with it since we're on a tight schedule. Actually, Kiter's other heroes have got to be busy all over. Let's have our escorts deal with this-"

"Zach!" Midoriya exclaimed, his frustration bubbling over to make him shout at his friend to be quiet. He glared back towards the third villain still in the room with them who Zach was moving forward while including him in their plans. "You can't just-"

"We are on a tight schedule," Zach repeated back in a hiss. His expression shifted for a moment before returning immediately back to the intensely focused one with less emotion in it and just the sole desire to succeed. "Now we have a lot we need to do if we're going to find these Fabu. I have an address we need to get ready to ambush." He turned to Wei and told him his phone number, and he added, "Give me a call with the time and logistics of the meeting you set up."

"I'm going to try and get in touch with the guys who I learned about the Fabu from," Wei responded back. "If they won't give me the meet with their contacts in Fabu but get spooked instead, maybe they'll be spooked into going to tell the Fabu that someone's asking questions about them, thus running straight to the meet point. I heard they don't like using electronic communications that can be traced."

"It's a good strategy," Zach replied with another nod at his contact and clearly someone he was very familiar with. "Let's run it."

Wei nodded back and hesitated longer even though it seemed like that was all now. He pursed his lips for a moment while glancing to the gap in the rooms back to the front door. Then he turned back to Zach and muttered under his breath, "Fuck it." The Chinese man in his late twenties stepped forward and gave Zach a hug.

Zach lifted his arms up and returned the embrace, "Lives are on the line. We need to win today."

"Understood," Wei replied softly in agreement. He released and stepped back with one more short nod back at the taller Japanese boy, "It was good to see you." He turned and jogged for the exit, keeping a close eye on the two heroes he was leaving behind.

Shunfeng raced down the steps outside the apartment in a rush. Don't want them changing their minds, he sped to the front door and close to a man who Zach had mentioned upstairs was one their team of heroes was going to arrest. That member of his gang looked at him with wide eyes at his rush down the stairs that he was already halfway down. He had not gone farther as he saw the heroes guarding the door when he first came down and doubled back to question if it was a good idea to try and flee. Shunfeng stopped for a second at his comrade who opened his mouth to ask him what to do. Shunfeng's eyes darted every way and saw that no one was in their immediate vicinity.

He snapped his hands forward and strangled his comrade whose Quirk he knew was made for disappearing acts. Shunfeng pulled towards himself and kicked out his stunned comrade's legs from below him, strangled him better from behind his back and wrapped an elbow around his throat that he squeezed in the right way to knock the man out. Then he lowered him down to his butt quietly and rested his back against the corner of the stairwell's platform. Shunfeng sped up down the rest of the stairs to the front door. He ran up to the doorway and between the two teenage heroes who each looked at him and gained anxious looks on their faces.

Shunfeng was going to ignore them as he ran past, but he turned his head to the left and his eyes opened huge at the sight of Battle Fist's pale face and the sweat on it. He skid to a stop at the top of the three steps just outside the door, and he imagined a room full of dead heroes and unconscious villains, and the shouts of Death as the boy had run specifically to one girl and was shaking her bloodied corpse. Shunfeng recalled walking closer and looking down on that girl's face, before heading off to do his job as Death got to reviving her first after that battle had ended. His expression narrowed with intensity as he spun back around and jumped down those three steps, ran across the street, and sprinted straight up the side of the wall of the building across the alley from the butcher's shop and apartments above it.

Rin and Kendo snapped their heads up as the man started sprinting right up the building. Rin stepped forward and started lifting his arms, "I'm going to use Scales-"

"Wait!" Kendo shouted, swinging her right arm out with her hand growing huge and blocking Rin off.

"What?" Rin spun to her, looking confused but still focused as he figured there was some reason she did not want him to attack.

Kendo herself looked confused though and lowered her hand slowly after looking back at Rin with no answer ready for why she so hurriedly blocked him. "I…" she started. "We were told, not to stop anyone," she explained while returning her hand back to its normal size. "Not unless we were contacted."

"But-" Rin looked at her in surprise at the response he wanted to argue with. She knows that was weird though. There's no point in telling her- Rin pursed his lips as he did not get why Kendo would stop him, but he did not feel it made sense to insult her intelligence by mentioning how that man was clearly acting suspicious. Instead, he found his heart clenching as he looked closely at her face he had been trying to avoid staring at. His forehead scrunched up and Kendo looked back into the apartment trying to fake a calm look as she told him how they just had to trust their comrades.

She's sweating worse. Your skin, and- Kendo stifled a cough but her face showed it as her cheeks puffed out for a second and her eyes watered, already showing some red in them. "How long have you been feeling symptoms?" Rin asked.

Kendo shook her head and let out a short laugh. She tried to play it off, but she stopped after only a second at the sight of Rin's look out the corner of her eyes. Her head bowed and her smile fell flat. It curved down and her eyes shifted to her classmate who looked sadly back at her but also in a serious way wanting her not to lie to him. "I knew a while before we left Fundong," Kendo replied quietly. Rin's face pulled back more and he held back from letting his eyes get wet even at a response that told him the infection was already likely twelve hours in if not more.

"I was being careful ever since we started hearing that medical staff were catching it…" Kendo breathed heavily for a few seconds, making her grit her teeth as just talking for an extended period of time like this was exhausting her. "But I, spent so much time in Tent 3 and the morgue…" Kendo pursed her lips again. I can't let him know. No one should, she imagined the panicked and horrified expression Zach had beyond the looks of the others when she coughed back on the plane. She looked to her side at Rin and cracked a half-smile that looked sad but accepting, "I knew- ahm, kugh, ka- I'm fine," she held up her hand and shook her head at Rin who stepped towards her in fear as she started coughing just like that.

I can't hide it anymore, Kendo thought. Knowing that there was no point in attempting it meant that hiding her coughs was no longer necessary, and it hurt more to hold them back than actually letting out the scratchy coughs themselves.

"I know the two of you have a lot of questions." Zach kept looking down at Bango's body as he said that aloud for the other two still conscious in the apartment with him. He looked back at his teacher and continued, "But we have to deal with this drug den first. The Chinese heroes here requested that we not take their time for anything we saw. Don't assume that they didn't think anything like this existed in their city. They know, but they really are just busy right now. We'll help Jumping Jong and X Force deal with this though because we have to. The Fabu won't know anything's up because Bango had no contact with them. Wei will act quickly. He'll do so in a way that gets us actual members of this group."

"That Wei," Ectoplasm started. I was wrong. I've been wrong for so long. "What do you expect us to believe-"

"After we deal with the villains currently all over this building?" Zach suggested, raising his eyebrows at his teacher. Ectoplasm frowned but Midoriya nodded his head in agreement though with dark eyes still directed at Zach. Lifebringer rose his right hand to his ear and tapped a button on the earpiece, connecting him to everyone else, "We have a situation…"

---

A/N Zach makes his move. Thanks for reading! XD Hope you all enjoyed the chapter and new developments. Kendo's sick. Zach's using all the resources at his disposal to find the mysterious Fabu who "Wei" (really Shunfeng), knows something about. Zach's moving forward as he comes to decide that reviving everyone isn't the best use of his time, and he makes a promise to save someone already revived once before. Leave me a review telling me what you think, predictions for what's coming up, questions, comments, etc! Also wanted to tell you guys that my birthday was on Thursday, :) and I spent it at a food bank for feedingAmerica, tryna help people who can't get food on the table cuz the Rona took their jobs. Part of the reason the updates are taking a while is I started doing that a couple weeks ago, so if it takes me a bit to get out these updates I got a good excuse this time! Anyway, response time:

QuestingforBitches chapter 224 . May 3

3.3 million words in two years.
You saw that Smash Bros fanfic being the longest piece of literature and took it as a challenge, didn't you?
I remember the halcyon days when this story only had 18k...seems so long ago now.
Keep it up.
And for the love of god, don't kill Kendo. Give Zach that much.

Thanks for sticking with it for so long! Been writing constantly and editing and thinking about Death pretty much since I started writing it. Everything else is secondary XD! Lol sorry about uh, Kendo... but there's hope! No spoilers.

yasideen1 chapter 224 . May 3

Damn.
You really got Zach losing his mind. He needs a break.
Like an actual break. As in please let everything go smooth after this arc. He doesn't deserve this.
Anyways thank you for the chapter

Come on. 224 chapters in and you still haven't seen the trend yet? ;) Sorry, that's mean... maybe things will go smoothly after this. Maybe, he'll get a break... mwhaha- I'm just messing around. Maybe he'll have a break, maybe he won't. Just gonna say, the amount of times I've seen y'all hoping Zach gets a break before now... No spoilers! He is taking a break from reviving at least. And you're welcome for the chapter, hope you enjoyed the new one!

GuestP chapter 224 . May 4

HEY THERE HI THERE HO THERE
IT IS I THE GREAT GuestP, EMPRESS OF ALL THINGS FANGIRLISH
SO I F*CKING LOVE VANESSA, SHE'S BASICALLY A LESS TRAUMATISED AND FEMALE VERSION OF MARK AND AAAHHHHH THAT MAKES ME SO HAPPY
I LOVE HOW POSSESIVE LA BRAVA IS OF GENTLE IT'S ADORABLE.
F*CK YOU JIROU, ZACH HAS IT HARDER THAN ALL OF YOU
ALSO I CRIED WHEN ZACH STARTED TO TALK WITH RECOVERY GIRL AND I GOT REALLY SAD FOR HIMMM AAHHH WHY CAN'T MY DEATH BABY BE HAPPPPPYYYYYYYYY )::::
AND I FEELS SO BAD BCUZ ZACH JUST WANTS SO BADLY TO /LEAVE/ BUT HIS MORALS AND CONSCIENCE ARE TELLIGN HIM NO BECAUSE WHEN ZACH LOVES, HE LOVES WITH A DEDICATION THAT PRACTICALLY KILLS HIM AND AHHHH
ANYWAYS,
As always, I f*cking /adored/ this, and I hang off of every word in this fic, I swear
I loved this so so much and I really appreciate you author-sama!~~~
Can't wait for the next chapter!~~

HEY BACK AT YA! Haha I'm real glad you're so excited by this and liking the new developments and characters. Gotta admit I cried a bit writing that Recovery Girl scene too- but hey, at least Jirou gave Zach a bit of a break this chapter! ...Though with his new moves, things are getting dicy. As always, I appreciate the review and am so glad to see you loving the story!

WomanSlayer chapter 224 . May 8

Damn... my boy soiled himself... That's manly as fuck.

XD Agreed