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!

239. Chapter 239

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 239:

"I'm glad you came to see me," the short woman in front of Zach started. The middle-aged woman with long blonde hair smiled softly as she looked into Zach's hazel eyes with her bigger bluer ones. Softy was happy to see Zach smile back at her, and she said, "You're looking better than the last time we talked."

"Last time?" Zach wondered. He leaned back in the soft chair in front of the school psychiatrist. Told her all about the Hammer. Tried to keep it as a story about Terra though. "Yeah," Zach said. "I guess I'm a little better than then," he admitted with a tilt of his head to the side. She knows that I was never in another world now. I'm certain she understands that. I also feel a lot different from last time though. No longer surging with the euphoria from Ares or barely holding back Death that swelled inside me. "A lot better, actually," Zach corrected himself. "Even if I have crossed the threshold where I came to regret how unburdened I had become in those days after I returned here."

"So you again, feel pain thinking about hammers-"

"I'd rather, not talk about that today, actually," Zach replied.

Softy nodded, though she hesitated after a moment. "I understand… and before we continue, I want you to know that you should not feel you have to rush things with me." Zach looked at her questioningly and Softy gave him a comforting smile, "Although your graduation is right around the corner, I extend to you an invitation to free sessions at any time. Do not feel that you need to tell me everything today, or that by not telling me it will be something left unsaid forever." Zach's lips flattened and he stared deeply into her eyes as she finished to him, "I am always available, Zach. My door will always be open to you."

Zach closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. That's nice. Even if I disappear. Even if 10 years from now I've been gone all that time. I could return after not seeing you for a decade and your door would be open? That's why you're a hero. "Thank you, Softy. I'll definitely keep that in mind."

Softy nodded at him glad to hear that serious response to her offer. Then she wondered while nodding at him to go on, "Alright then. What is it that you would like to talk about?"

Zach eased into the soft seat he was in and relaxed himself. Take deep breaths. Work through it. It's now or never… Well, apparently it's not. But I still resolved myself to do this today. I need this.

"I wanted to talk to you about my dad," Zach started to his therapist who just nodded back at him to go on. "More specifically, his death."

Zach turned from Softy and looked to the windows of her office that had the blinds drawn but still some light coming in from the cracks. "I've never actually told anyone about that day. Not really," Zach added softer, thinking back on brief mentions of it but never a time when he had gone into detail. He closed his eyes somewhat as he thought about the Lifebringer video that had been made about him. He thought about what the officer had written in his police report and frowned deeply imagining how that cop must have seen him back then.

"Do you still blame yourself?" Softy wondered in an empathetic voice.

"No," Zach shook his head, though the tone in which he responded sounded more like he was disagreeing with the wording of her question rather than answering it. "For a while I didn't actually think, it was… Softy, a long time ago I came to the belief that it was not my fault that I killed my mom. And all over the world I found people like me, cursed children who helped me become even more certain of that because I knew that I wasn't lying when I told them how it wasn't their fault. The terrible things that happened when they were kids because of their Quirks? I cleared them of any blame and I meant what I said. And so I have to equate that same basis on no-guilt towards them, to myself."

Softy nodded back at him slowly. That's an amazing understanding to come to, but, something's still off here.

"But, I never talk about the day my dad died. And I kept looping together what happened to my dad to what happened to my mom. That neither were my fault. That they were just terrible things that happened when I was a kid." Zach paused and his eyes narrowed as he continued darkly, "But I was ten. I knew what I was doing. I was already trying to be a hero at that point-"

"Zach," Softy interrupted with a shake of her head. "A 10 year old is still a child."

Zach hesitated after her response then said, "I didn't believe I was anymore." He looked back into her eyes, "I had been packing my own lunch, making my own dinner, keeping the house tidy by cleaning up the empty beer cans every night…" Softy's eyes softened and she gave him another sympathetic look as she considered that kind of childhood. He went on, "I felt like an adult, the adult of the house, by that point."

"And I had already decided that I would become a hero. Despite Death. Despite what I had done. I spent every day after school up on the roof of our apartment building. Training to Grappler's self-defense videos." Zach got a tiny nostalgic smile on his face for a moment as he mentioned that. His smile dropped though and his expression got darker and guiltier as he looked away from the woman in front of him who could instantly see that wave of guilt based on how he had to avert his gaze. "He had been deteriorating since he lost his job- before that. The day I killed my mom, it crushed him. But he tried. He really did, Softy. I know people look back on him only for what he became at the end, but he was a hero. My hero. And he was still my dad, longer than that."

Softy nodded, "Of course."

"But," Zach continued as she seemed to agree too quickly. He stopped himself though rather than cut back on that, and his expression darkened more with his black bangs covering his eyes as he bowed his head a bit. "But even though he was trying. Even though I knew, that I had taken the woman he loved from him… Society hated him. Took his license. His sister became estranged. The alcoholism was…" Zach bit down and stopped himself. "I always make excuses for him, because I love him. But that day-" Zach bit down harder and his eyes watered, but he held it back as anger filled him instead. "I was ten years old, and I came home from school and went to train as usual, but I wasn't feeling up to it that day."

Zach lifted his head and looked much more sadly into Softy's eyes. The anger left his expression and he just stared at her with glossy eyes showing how much this was hurting him to talk about. He shook his head while looking in her eyes and said, "So I went back to the apartment early. I walked inside, and he… He looked at me. And he asked! He- he asked me… 'Where were you?'" Zach's eyes squinted and the water in them pooled on his lower eyelids. Softy looked at him in a way trying to understand but also confused at what he was getting at. "That was when I was ten, Softy. I had started training up on that roof two years earlier. After All Might saved my life, catching me when I leapt off that same roof."

Zach's watery eyes stayed squinted and he bowed his head more. "Two years," Zach whispered. "And in all that time, as I was watching him fall apart and lose everyone and everything in his life… all I wanted was for him to ask that question. I wanted him to ask me one day when I got home so that I could show him. So that, I could bring him up to the roof. Show him- ah, hahh, what I had been doing, all this time. That I was going to be a hero! That, I was going to make up, for Mom," Zach whispered that softer and he bowed his head again after looking back into Softy's eyes.

"It was something I thought about so often right after I started training. I wanted him to see, but," Zach paused and looked away from his therapist again. "But as time went on, and he never asked… I stopped caring. I wanted it for years. So, so when my dad asked me that years after I started training? Sober when I got home. Maybe because I was back earlier, but any other time I would get home and my dad was already three deep, sitting on the couch watching tv. Or maybe still out at some bar…" Zach grit his teeth frustratedly as he thought back on his rough relationship with his father for those few years. His pause only lasted a couple seconds before he mentioned again sadly, "And then my dad asked me, 'Where were you?' Something I had been waiting for, but, but that day I-"

He paused and grit his teeth again as he tried to talk about this. He shook his head while Softy gave him a nod suggesting that he could continue to her. That she would not judge him for whatever it was that he felt so guilty about. "The fact that I had been at the same place I always was," Zach started quietly. "Up on the roof where I had been training for so long, and my dad didn't know? My dad, who was supposed to be a hero?! Titanium!" Zach yelled his dad's hero name then panted a few times while his eyes refilled up with grief and regret. "I looked up to my dad," Zach said under his breath. "And I always wanted to show him that. I thought, I could fix things if he knew, but that day! As I came home early because I was a little tired and not in the mood for it. Because I wasn't hanging out with friends, because I thought I needed to prove that it wasn't my fault and make up for what I did… I screwed up. I wanted to show him that I would make up for Mom. That I would be a hero! And when I finally had that chance!"

Zach rose his voice louder and his face scrunched up as his neck tilted back. He stared at the ceiling with his eyes shaking, and he whispered out, "'What do you care?' I asked him."

"I was angry." Zach bit down and then bowed his chin back down to his chest while Softy felt her heart rip in half at the response Zach just repeated. "And my dad saw in me something terrifying in that moment. The first time he ever asked me what I had been doing. I was always out of the house, because I didn't want to be there when he was sober. At least when he was drunk he, he could look at me sometimes-" Zach closed his eyes and tears squeezed out at the corners but rested there for now. "'What do you care?'" Zach repeated it but in a harsher tone now. It sounded as if he was repeating how he had said it back when he was 10, and he took in a sharp breath of regret before shaking his head and opening his eyes again to look into Softy's.

"I stormed off to my room. And I lay on my bed, so furious that my dad didn't know. I didn't care to show him anymore. My dad had lost all my respect in that moment. That he even had to ask? I- I hated-" Zach could imagine that day and laying on his bed glaring at his ceiling in such rage. "I snarled that at him then went to my room after looking at him like, like he wasn't-" Zach closed his eyes tightly shut and gasped out. "I hated him for what he became, and for what my dad still blamed me for that had me up on the roof for so long- it was his fault! I, I just lay there and fumed at him. Shaking in how angry I was, just to hear that question?!" Zach yelled that out while tears spilled from his eyes now down his cheeks.

"My dad saw me though. My dad cared enough to ask where I had been. But the single fact that he didn't already know, when it was the same place I had always been… That one question made me so angry. The image I once had of Titanium was betrayed by that question, because what kind of hero wouldn't know where their own son was? It infuriated me! Enraged me. I lay on my bed glaring at my ceiling so angrily, hoping that the way my dad looked after I said it and just walked past him was a good indicator of how that made him feel. I wanted my dad to feel shitty for it… And then I heard the 'crack' come from his room across the hall." Zach's eyes closed again and more tears fell as he whispered that hoarsely to his psychiatrist who closed her own eyes and bowed her head in deep sadness to hear that.

"Zach, it's not-"

"My dad was sober that day," Zach continued to her, cutting off his therapist before she could console him. "Maybe because it was just too early and I was usually training at that time, but I had been home that early before and my dad was usually either gone or gone." The second way Zach described it sounded more like he was saying his dad was already drunk by that point rather than he was not in the house at some bar somewhere. "Which means he did that in a stable state of mind. He wasn't under the influence, when he offed himself. I heard the crack and I got up from my bed. I walked in there," Zach continued in a low voice. "And I saw him hanging there from a fan blade bending but not broken. It was just too strong. His eyelids partly open, eyes unmoving, like the rest of his dangling body…"

"He did not leave a note," Zach went on in a soft voice. "But I think I know why my dad did it. I always, kind of knew. I tried to put the blame on him for leaving his young son alone. And I put the blame on how I killed my mom, an accident which led to that horrible series of events, but that wasn't really me! I had come to believe that as much as I had killed her, it was not my fault. I wasn't to blame. It was just bad luck. But that's not true for him. Because I had the chance. A chance to save him. And I blew it."

"You were still just a child," Softy countered him, trying to be more stern with her voice that he was speaking so assuredly on his guilt here.

"An aspiring hero," Zach corrected her. "And I could have saved him. That was my chance. Show him how I was still trying. Bring him to the roof and just, try to convince him. That I was going to be good. That all those worst fears he had about me weren't true… And I remember the way he looked at me. 'What do you care?'" Zach repeated the line he had said again. "When I asked him that, and his eyes opened wide. The look of anger covering my face. The rage that he saw inside me, from how I was being brought up. From what that broken home was doing to me. Or, what it had already done. I think he saw that his worst fears were right. No one had ever heard of a Quirk called 'Death.' And, when he saw me like that, I think he just killed himself because he knew what I would become. Both because he was afraid of me, but also because he loved me too much still."

"I was the only one he still had after losing everything. He lost it all just to try and keep taking care of me, even though he looked at me like I was… He looked at me like- like it was my fault. Like I wanted to do it?!" Zach paused then snapped, "And suddenly he saw what he was always terrified I would turn into. He saw it in my eyes. The monster that killed his wife," Zach stopped for a moment while speaking in this angrier tone that had Softy looking uneasy in front of him. Zach continued in a dark voice to her though, "The rage, of a child who had already killed, who had a Quirk that would mean he would kill again, and Dad probably knew what he had to do."

"Kill me," Zach said. He said it in a low and cold voice. It was calculating. He said it in such a steady way that Softy felt chills that Zach actually thought this was a possibility. "Save everyone, before I could turn into a monster too powerful-"

"I'm sure your father was not considering that," Softy started to counter.

"I've known it my entire life," Zach countered right back at her. "I knew it that day. As I stared at my dad's dangling body that could not break that bending fan blade, I knew why he did it. The fear that caused Titanium to kill himself. And I knew that my father still loved me. Even though I could have believed that my dad heard my response and just decided he no longer loved his son, and without anyone who loved him or who he loved back, there was no point in living. But I think my dad really was a hero!" Zach countered that last suggestion of a possibility. "And even if Titanium thought that his son no longer cared about him at all, he would have still tried his best to love the boy. And so he couldn't do it. He couldn't kill me, even though what I said that day must have terrified my father."

"Can you imagine it?" Zach wondered to the shorter woman in front of him. "Having a son who kills your wife, and who gradually grows to hate you? Who would likely hate the world as well for all of it…" Zach's voice got lower there and Softy wondered if he was actually speaking in hypotheticals or if that was true about him back then. Zach got quieter though and his eyes full of grief once again, "My dad killing himself, shook me from the way I was feeling that day. Getting lazy and feeling I didn't have to train nonstop? The frustration at my dad and all his flaws, without the understanding of why I was feeling it: because I didn't want to blame myself for my mom's death anymore. It was an accident. I wanted to believe that. It was the truth, but because it was truth, it started to make me waver in my decisive goal of becoming a hero…"

"Once my dad killed himself," Zach continued right away. "There was no questioning that it was my fault. And now I had to make up for two deaths. And that kept me on the track, to become a hero," Zach admitted. His voice was even softer and Softy stared at him with huge eyes at what he was suggesting. "I look back on that day and think of how my life might have diverged had my father not hung himself. I could have just, told my dad to follow me and showed him the roof. Told my dad that I wanted to be a hero. Saved his life. Saved our family even… But would I have still tried to become a hero? Or, would I have already been one?" Zach wondered the second question softer as he considered that potential past that never happened.

"You were just a kid," Softy repeated again in a quiet soothing voice to him.

"Sure," Zach replied. "But, I knew it even then. I knew what I had done, and I look back now and know that I was right to think it back then. That was the first moment I really had a chance to be a hero," Zach said quietly and in a depressed voice. "I could have saved my dad's life. Instead, I accelerated his death. The cops came after I called them, and I just left and went on a run. Went to train some more. I didn't cry, because, I didn't feel like I had the right to. My Aunt Maye saw me looking like that. Her nephew who had now killed her brother and her sister-in-law? Of course she didn't want to take me home and risk her own daughter's life. I didn't blame her. I still don't. She made the right choice… and she still died because of me anyway." Zach shook his head again and sighed in an exhausted way just talking about that.

"You think your father, killed himself to, stop himself from killing you?" Softy wondered, making sure that this was what Zach had told her here.

"I think he was a conflicted man," Zach replied. "I think, he had tried so hard to keep loving me. Even as he lost everything else, he continued to look after me as best he could in his state. His depression was a crushing thing for me to watch too. I went from bragging to classmates who my father was, to trying to keep it a secret and getting embarrassed when people found out. He needed help. Needed someone who specialized in cases like mine, and no such person exists. They didn't exist, eleven years ago. And most of the world still lacks that job where a professional can help in situations like mine. We were left to suffer because of my Quirk."

"And Dad, even after losing his pro license, was still a hero. A boy with the Quirk of Death and a backstory that I'm sure he had heard countless villains give him as they pleaded with him to let them go. Strong and weak villains alike have similar pasts. But he saw the danger I posed. When I had gotten in a fight with a classmate and he yelled at me so furiously because 'What would have happened if my right hand had touched him?' He was terrified of the danger I posed. And he realized that he had no idea what I was up to. I was only ten, but I was maturing fast. So seeing me look at him like that? Like I hated him? What kind of ten year old is that full of hatred? I think I terrified him. The one person who had to convince himself every day that the kid in his house was not some kind of monster but his own son! Something he had to force himself to believe to be able to still watch over me… And I shook that belief. I broke his conviction to keep looking after me. Because what if he was wrong? What if I really was turning into a villain? Then, it would be his responsibility to put a stop to it, right? I think that question is what drove him over the edge. I don't think he was seriously considering it, but…"

"But just the thought alone terrified him enough. That he could even consider something so horrible, and the fear that if he waited any longer he'd become more convinced… That's what I think. That's why he went and killed himself that afternoon. So suddenly. While I was one room over. He was just, scared."

"Softy, the way my parents died was not uniform. I cannot put the blame on one thing and say that's what caused their deaths. My dad saw in me something that day that I have strived to avoid becoming." Zach lowered his eyes down to the floor in regret. "And too often, I have failed in that. I failed and could see that my actions were exactly what he feared. I won't let that happen anymore. I look back on that day with a clear mind now. To remember what it was that killed him, so that I never make those bad choices again. I have to remember. And I had to tell you, because too many times I look back on that day by myself and give excuses for why I didn't just tell him where I was. When he finally showed me that he still cared. When he finally asked that question that should have made me so happy, and I shoved that care he tried to show back in his face. And it kill him."

---

Zach walked into the U.A. cafeteria and could hear the instant shift in volume, even if the room did stay loud from all the people discussing their morning exams. A lot of people still froze and stopped talking at the sight of him walking into their same lunchroom as if he was just another student. "Hey Zach," Mineta ran up to his classmate as Zach was walking by his table that he jumped up from. "Where'd you go? We were only a few minutes into the final-"

"I finished," Zach replied to him. He had gone up to Midnight who was proctoring the last final exam that morning and asked to leave early and why he wanted to go. She had been fine with it and let him go after he turned his test in that he had rushed through, surprising his teacher though she had noticed how quickly his pen had moved on the page during the first few minutes of the exam. "Just needed to go check in with Softy, about something."

Mineta nodded his head, his eyes opening a bit wide at the response that implied something he did not want to ask about. He felt Zach was asking him not to ask anymore about it so he shrugged his shoulders after a second and nodded at him again before backing up and heading over to his table. The lunch line was pretty empty since he had come in late, but one person who did not finish her exam early and actually spent until a couple of minutes after class was at the end of the line in front of him. "Little tired there?" Zach wondered.

Jirou turned her head sideways and after a second smiled and held back a yawn or sigh at his question. "Not really," she responded, though there were bags under her eyes and she had felt the beginning of the morning exams was tough due to her lack of sleep.

"Sorry about that," Zach told her.

"You're fine. Where'd you go after you left class all of a sudden?" She wondered.

"I… checked in with Softy," Zach replied, deciding not to lie about it though he was wondering how many times he was going to have to answer.

Jirou looked back more in surprise at him. "Stuff we talked about last night?" Maybe I should talk to her. I should. I've vented about you to her for so long, but maybe she knows now after you…

"No, something else," Zach answered. He shook his head as he could see what she was contemplating. Jirou just nodded back at him though and did not pry asking what that 'something else' was.

Lunch Rush served the two students in his line and gave them a thumbs up after putting the food on Zach's tray. "Nice to see you two talking!" Zach lifted his eyebrows at the chef who rarely said much but he did smile as apparently Lunch Rush had noticed the animosity between them. Jirou got more of an embarrassed look on her own face as she considered how she had blatantly ignored Zach before when he tried talking to her on this lunch line. She nodded back at their teacher and the hero who approved of their friendship, then the two of them walked out of the line together and back into the room.

Zach looked over towards Mineta who had left a seat open for him next to Sero too. Both glanced back at him, and Zach thought at the sight, Looks like Mineta told them not to ask. That's good. Better than if I sit elsewhere. But-

"I'm going to do some review with Momo and Tsuyu," Jirou said with a nod over towards where there was only one empty seat at a different table as where she saw Zach look. "Talk to you later? And, don't worry about how late you kept me up," Jirou added, smirking as she thought about how he had purposely left even earlier than she had wanted anyway. "Got it?"

"Yeah," Zach replied after a moment. He smiled softly too that she said that to try and get him not to feel bad about how tired she looked. "Thanks, Kyoka," Zach added. Then he turned and headed towards his seat, ignoring the slightly red cheeks of the girl called by her first name in a cafeteria full of people. She gulped and looked away, quickly heading towards the girls she was going to study with while avoiding gawking gazes of some of her other classmates.

Geez! It's different when we're alone in my room! Ugh, you don't think about that though! Because you already call Mina and Momo- and everyone calls Tsu! Jirou lifted her head while thinking about two of those girls who she was about to reach. Momo was staring at her with eyes so wide they were almost the size of Asui's normally plate-sized frog eyes. Jirou took a seat on Tsuyu's left, glancing across the table at Yaoyorozu and Todoroki who was on her inside. Momo and Tsuyu were at the far end of the table, and on Jirou's left Midoriya was also staring to his side at her in total surprise. He had been engrossed in a conversation on his other side, which meant he was looking past Iida and right towards Zach and Jirou who had just talked to each other between Class A tables looking more than just amicable.

"Did you…" Yaoyorozu started to her best friend across the table from her and slightly to her right. Todoroki looked amazed as well and Jirou grimaced at the looks they were all giving her.

"Didn't you say we were going to go over some hard English words during lunch-" Jirou started, looking down at her food to dig in while trying to shift the conversation onto studying.

"What did Zach say to you?" Asui wondered on Jirou's right side.

Jirou froze as she was about to break her chopsticks apart. She looked to the frog girl and into the big eyes staring back at her in a completely confused and also somewhat frustrated way. Asui appeared upset and glanced by Jirou for a moment which made Jirou glance back over her own shoulder and towards the other table that Zach had sat down at and was eating in silence. She frowned as despite him sitting between a lot of his friends, Zach just quietly started eating lunch while they spoke around him. Her eyes got softer as she saw that expression looking more like it did right after his talk with All Might the day before. "Nothing," Jirou muttered in reply to the girl behind her. She looked back forward and down at her food, mumbling, "Nothing, I didn't already… that I shouldn't already, have known."

Yaoyorozu stared at her friend in disbelief and amazement that swelled inside her at the same time. Her lips were still parted in astonishment, but they lifted up at the corners as she glanced back over towards Zach for a minute. How?! This isn't just you making up- something's different about her! How? How did you do this?! Why couldn't I… Yaoyorozu's eyes focused more on Zach as he shifted his gaze partially in their direction for a moment only to focus back on his food. Not in "our" direction, Yaoyorozu countered her initial thought at seeing his eyes dart over here. He looked towards me. He saw me looking and looked away. What happened between you two yesterday? I heard Sato said he saw you two together. I thought you were making another attempt but, but what is it? What is on your mind now?

"Did I hear you wrong, or did you actually just call Jirou, 'Kyoka?'" Sero wondered with a hand cupped to his mouth to the boy on his left side.

"Yeah," Zach replied. He took another bite of food, "We're making up. I think," he added. I don't want to say it too confidently. It's the first day after. I can't be sure that she won't start to remember more reasons why she's so mad at me… Though, I can hope she won't. She doesn't seem to want to relapse. Who would want that? Doesn't mean it won't happen. And if it does, then I can't try with… I shouldn't try anyway. Why assume she'll fail? Or that we'll fail? It's a team effort. What did I tell Kotsumura?

"You called Jirou 'Kyoka?'" Hagakure wondered across the table in amazement. She and Ojiro were sitting next to each other, and Zach looked up at them and instantly winced at the sight of their faces.

He stared at the empty spot where Hagakure's face should be and grimaced at the thought of the time he called her by her first name too. Zach did not want to look away though his face did cover in guilt, and Hagakure leaned back while Zach stared quietly into her eyes. "I'm sorry about… when I called you, 'Toru,' Hagakure," Zach added. He looked away as Ojiro had tried to keep a steady look trying not to let any anger show yet thinking back on the night Toru first brought this up to him made him frown at Zach again.

"When'd you do that?" Mineta asked on Zach's left.

"It doesn't matter," Hagakure interrupted before Zach could say anything.

Sero figured it out though just based on timing. The day you took down Mysti. It's the only time it works out.

I heard what you said Mysti did, Ojiro reminded himself and cooled his head. Fergus' number 2. Running those labs. Self-destructing one while you were down there. Killing your comrades. I know you only did what you did to protect us, including Toru. Still, I can't just let that all go so easily. Even if she has.

Zach lifted his right hand and scratched the side of his head. He put down his eating utensils and let out a long sigh. "Man, I am tired," Zach muttered. I thought talking about Dad was going to be a weight off my chest. So why am I feeling so weighed down right now? Or, is it actually weight? Or is the lack of pressure just making it harder, to focus? What am I doing? Next week. I saw a hundred different articles about what people are expecting on graduation day. The arguments politicians in different countries are already having. How representatives a world over are promising closer ties with Japan. Promising immortality to their constituents. And we're all sitting here in our little bubble, pretending that the world isn't waiting for me. Waiting for the cure to death.

"Do you guys know…" Zach started but stopped himself. The others had stopped their other conversation that they had tried to involve him in after he sat down to no avail. He wondered at them then stopped as he realized none had been eating either and were just staring at him. He paused, but then he sighed and continued anyway, "Do we get our pro licenses right after graduation? Or-"

"I think," Zach looked to his right and past Sero who also turned to Koda who smiled back towards Zach after speaking up. "After the finals are graded, the teachers hand them out. That's what Rylo-senpai told me, last year…"

"Smiling Hero: Devilbro?" Zach wondered. He recognized their upperclassman's name but was checking if that was who Koda was talking about as he was more familiar with the hero. Koda nodded back quickly in response. He's working with Bikergang right now, just like Nagiso…

"Guess that's even sooner than graduation, huh?" Mineta mentioned. It was already obvious but he felt awkward and did not know what else he could add to this conversation.

"Why?" Sero wondered though as to why Zach brought it up.

Does that mean I don't get to go to graduation? If I waste my time at graduation, even though I have a pro license? People might just start booing the entire class of third years. Criticizing the teachers for taking up my time. Chanting at me to get to work already. I can't take a day break before I start. I haven't made clear what my exact plans are for after, but they've all already made assumptions that I'll be reviving nonstop. I can't do that. What if I, pick- I can't- but like! Just 1 an hour. If, if I limit it like that? 24 a day? That's, pretty rough. But doable. If I make a pattern and continue it long enough then that will be fine. Until there's a crash with multiple fatalities, Zach cancelled his own plans in his head at that potential future. I can't just revive one based on eenie-meenie-miney-mo. I'll have to revive them all. If I do that, then I could take a multiple hour break though? That could work out. Limit to 24 a day, then just maneuver hourly as best as possible. 24 deaths a day. That's not a lot! Not… not that bad. I can do that. I surely… Surely I can.

"Zach?" Sero wondered again at his friend who did not respond to him. "You feeling alright?" Sero asked when Zach turned back to face him.

Mineta gave Sero a look past Zach, but Sero was not asking it because Mineta mentioned Softy and just leaving alone how Zach had left during finals. Sero asked because of the way Zach looked so faded right now without answering his last question.

"Yeah," Zach mumbled in response. He opened his mouth to say something else and respond to Sero's last question. He stopped himself though and sighed while looking down at his food. Why bring it up? They won't have any fresh perspective. I've been thinking about it for years. Nothing they suggest could help… "'Why not, just save whoever you can?'" Zach muttered the phrase then shook his head and rose it with a more serious look coming over his face. He looked to his right at Sero, then across the table at Ojiro, and only when he looked left at Mineta did he see the look of recognition and huge eyes on his face also looking hurt. "You remember that?" Zach wondered.

"Kaminari," Mineta started. He hesitated, then he continued after bringing up the name that tensed up his classmates, "Told you that… Is that what you're thinking about?"

"Remember? I didn't know, if I should bring back old people," Zach said with a look back towards Ojiro who he remembered at this very lunch table looking at him in an unnerved way when Zach brought up this conversation years ago. "Kuroiro's grandma had been healed better than she was before I revived her, so, why not?" Zach paused and he grimaced while looking to his right and at Sero who grimaced too and did not know how to respond to Zach.

Sero thought of the other night when they were up on the roof and Zach told him about some American pop star who had overdosed who he would not go save. The weight still on Zach's shoulder was not something he envied, and he reached his left arm out around Zach's neck and smacked his hand down on Zach left shoulder. "I don't know what to tell you. His answer doesn't work anymore though. You know that."

"But his was the only answer that really worked out," Zach replied with a sigh and another shake of his head. "Saving who I can? At this point- or, in a week's time, that will just mean 'saving whoever is most convenient.' Or, whoever's the least inconvenient for me to save… Whoever's closest?" Zach muttered as he tried to figure out the best way to phrase it. He let out a deep breath and just poked at his food. "I've got no clue. Can't save them all though…"

"Zach, are you," Hagakure paused. She stopped herself then leaned over the table, "Really going to just start reviving people, after graduation?"

Zach lifted his gaze up to meet hers. "Don't you think I should?" Zach questioned back.

Hagakure's invisible eyes widened and she did not respond to him for a few seconds. Why not just answer me? Would my answer actually stop you- no way!

"It's going to hurt so much though," Zach muttered, looking back down from Hagakure's invisible face. He stared at his food and sighed exhaustedly as he thought about what was almost there. Haven't even started yet. This is embarrassing. How the hell am I going to handle this? I know I can't. But I also have to do it. Fuck. I have to try. If I at least try, then when I stop- Don't do that! Don't plan for failure! Maybe, I can do more than I think. Maybe I'm not as… I'm not weak. I'm convincing myself I am, but I'm stronger now than I've ever been. In all sense of the word. I am stronger.

Zach shook his head hard and chuckled at the line he just said. "But that's what us heroes do, huh? Self-sacrifice, is the essence of being a hero." Zach lifted his head with a more encouraging and even wise smile as he looked at his friends who a moment ago had no idea how to even approach this subject or help him with it. The look of acceptance on his face to go ahead with what he just said though and do his work as a hero put them at ease, and it amazed them at the same time.

They told me I wasn't cursed, Zach thought while looking across the table at the couple who he had sat with along with Mineta the other day. You three told me that and I believe it. I have to. Of course I do. It was always just, a fear. I'm not cursed though. As much as this is going to suck, it's something I get to do. Not many people can save an infinite amount of lives. I know that on any day, at any time, in any place, I can be someone's hero. That's a gift. A gift of pain? Zach was skeptical of his own thoughts though he got back to eating his food and tried to focus on his classmates' conversation. They were clearly troubled by the intense things he had brought up to them a few moments ago, but they were trying to be as normal as they could around him.

It's not a curse at least. It can't be. I met a ton of people around the world with different beliefs. I was never religious myself, but sometimes I guess I do ask God why this happened to me. So then I must think there is some sort of higher power, because if not, then why did all of this happen? If I believe at all in curses then I'm at least a little superstitious, like Shoji says. So why did so many terrible things happen to me? What is the reason? If there is no higher power, is it really just coincidence that killed everyone I ever loved? Or does it mean that it's my fault? I have to believe that there was a higher power at work, because every time something horrible happened to me, it pushed me more and more towards doing better and greater things.

I don't see how I can do more at this point though, Zach added to himself in a darker way as he was just thinking. If more bad stuff happens, I'll keep doing good to try and fix it, but I would do that even if… even if nothing bad happened anymore. I would! I can't let it be determinant on how horrible the things around me are. Doing it no matter what, makes it so nothing worse has to happen! I just want the world to be a better place. I believe it can be! And as much as I hate all those terrible things that happened to me as a kid, and through my life, to all the people I loved… I've saved millions. Zach admitted that thought to himself and looked down intensely at his food that he picked at while thinking far too deeply for lunch time. Without me, so many innocent people, people the world never would have known about, people who couldn't have been saved by heroes, millions of lives! Without me what would have become of them? And those are just the lives I immediately saved, not the lives I made better, or the people who may be saved without the villains around who I removed from the world.

What I was doing was making a difference. I had to in order to live with all I have done in order to reach this point. Did it even out? That doesn't matter! Evening it out, isn't the point! It's being a hero! Doing it not because you feel that you have to, but because you don't have to but want to do it anyway! Choose to do it anyway! And I will make that choice! Zach cracked a grin on his face, How can I be cursed when I'm blessed to know that I've saved so many lives? And I know, from this moment forward, if I'm not making up for anything then all the lives I'll save will just be voluntary. Heroic choices to sacrifice each day. And I can make that choice! Even without guilt. Without the feeling of "need!" I can still be a hero!

Even though I fixed things with Jirou, Zach thought it and his smile started to lower back down. Was that really all that kept me from feeling I had to make up for it all? Fixing things with her should have… it should have lessened this burden then. Something's definitely different now. And yet, it's no lighter. How?!

It's like there was one thing really tethering me to this place, Zach realized as quickly as he asked himself it. His irises were blood red and his fingers tightening around his eating utensil in his right hand as he glared at his food. The one unfinished task I had left that required me to be in the light. That's not true, Zach tried to remind himself internally. You know that All For One is as important, but the bait was never taken. Zach countered himself just as quickly a second time which retracted on his previous retraction. AFO could be dead for all I know. Succumbed to injuries…

Though Ares thought he was still alive. I don't know. Zach let out a low deep breath. But there's an emptiness that I feel after patching things up with Jirou that I wish wasn't there. I thought it would be replaced with a sense of, something better. But it's an emptiness rather than a feeling of relief or accomplishment. Just, nothing. Zach's expression got colder the longer he stared at his food. Maybe because I know that all that awaits me from a week from now to eternity is pain. And no amount of friends are going to fix that. No. Any time spent with them that people find out about, would just get them ostracized. Blamed for all the people I did not revive while "wasting" my time with them. I can't tarnish their names as heroes by getting people to put deaths on their hands. I won't do that to them. I can, talk to them on the phone though?

Zach's eyes squinted and his teeth bared behind his teeth. Is that all? Watch them from afar? Talk on the phone while, while living as… What is "life" going to be? That's not enough! Not enough to hold me here. I want to be a hero. I, I could make an agency! Right? People would be protesting outside every day. Under constant attack by family members of those who I left to die. A target for all the enemies I made. I could put it somewhere remote. On top of a mountain? Live, like a hermit? I don't want that. That's not the life I thought of, when Monoma brought me back! That life- Zach's eyes started to shift to his right but he froze and snapped them back down to his food. What am I thinking about? There's no way…

Why not? Aren't I just scared? Come on. What was it that you told Kotsumura? All that advice, was it really just for him? For that specific case? Zach grimaced deeper but his teeth stopped grinding and his eyes lost some of their deep red color, turning into a brighter red instead as he shifted his gaze past Sero on his right towards another table he got more uneasy to look towards. His eyes stopped shifting as he noticed other people looking his way too and did not want them all to see where he was turning. It's now or never. Never, seems what's more likely.

Zach sighed while starting to eat again. Don't do it. Be fine with never. Things are complicated enough as it is. Why would I, bring in someone else? I don't deserve it- but I thought I kept making that argument with myself because of Jirou? Because of what I did to her? Doesn't fixing that, change things?

Maybe, but that wasn't everything. Zach got a darker look back in his eyes though it did not cover up the nervous look beneath it. That wasn't what built the wall between us. That was me. Jirou was a part of it but never the foundation. I don't know who better to talk to about it though…

---

Zach was hesitant as he stood in front of the girl sitting on her bed which was once his bed. Her parents had dropped off new bedding for her at the front gates of the school that she and Zach had picked up before heading back to the dorms. He had attempted to apologize to them too after he greeted them, but the Jirou's had seen a difference in their daughter so dramatic that they thanked him instead. That annoyed Jirou who first tried to get him to stop apologizing then snapped at her parents to stop too. They were back in her room now though and Jirou had asked him a question that Zach stood there hesitating to answer.

Last time I told myself I wouldn't do it, I wound up running back to Kaminari's room and asking him how he did it… This could go wrong again. It should. It will. Last time I was pretty sure she felt, the same way. Right now I'm almost certain that's not true. And why is that? Zach took in a deep breath then sat down at Jirou's desk chair and looked seriously at the girl in front of her who nodded at him to say what he was thinking.

"When I left," Zach started. "What I did in order to, be able to go," Zach continued. He knew it would sound weird coming out but he had to explain it to her if to anyone. "To be able to leave you, and leave everyone here, I had to stop caring. Those couple of weeks I really forced myself not to care about all of you and your feelings, as much as I could manage," Zach added on, as Jirou could still think about her heartfelt letter covered in wrinkles that she had un-crumpled and was inside of her desk. She slowly nodded at him, and then Zach told her, "So I just suddenly changed how I felt about Momo."

Has he been thinking about this since I asked yesterday- no, before that! Is it because I asked though that he's asking me? I don't know what to tell you! Jirou nodded at Zach again, though her experience with relationships was small and had completely ruined her perspective towards them for what she figured would be forever. "She had time to forget about and get over us, while I never had that. I just suddenly stopped caring, and yet I couldn't even do that right."

Zach got lower in her chair and lower in volume near the end of what he just told her. "I broke up with her just to lessen the blow when I left," Zach admitted. "Even though I could have tried just acting worse and let her break up with me because of my shitty attitude, I couldn't do that. Even though I told myself I didn't care anymore? That would have been optimal, so why couldn't I?" Zach's voice turned into a mutter and he frowned deeply as he questioned himself from back then as he never had before. "The truth is, Kyoka, that when it comes to Momo I've always been so confused. I never know what the right way to go about it is."

"And when I came back I didn't know what she was doing there at the end of the bridge," Zach continued in a steadier voice though confused as well. "Or in my hospital room," Zach added softer but looking Jirou in the eyes to see what she thought. He remembered waking up and seeing her there. He thought about how confused that had made him. "I knew she had the time to get over me and would have done so already, and yet she was still there for me. I thought, maybe, things could go semi-back to normal, or at least to before we started dating. But that couldn't happen either because I never actually got over her, and I was suddenly back into Zach Sazaki's shoes again, when I could still differentiate between myself and who I once was and felt I was acting to be in every situation."

"So you really were, just lying back then?" Jirou asked him. She thought about the person who came back and tried to convince her of lies while apparently he had been pretending the whole time. She frowned at the way he worded it but Zach started shaking her head making her think she got it wrong.

"That was back when my lies sounded real even in my own head," Zach countered her. She rose her eyebrows at him wondering what the hell that meant, and Zach just shook his head again as he had not spent enough time with Jirou since he came back for her to understand that easily. He continued in a softer voice and moved on, "And yet Momo's been there with me, and I know that she got more detached and more over me in the time I was lying to her, while I was still realizing that I was always Zach Sazaki and there was no difference to differentiate my own thoughts." Jirou leaned back and tried to follow along though too much of this was more confusing in just trying to understand what he had been through since returning to Japan rather than how their friend tied into it.

"While I was still trying to get past all of that deceit and the lies that I had built up in my own mind, there was too much in the way to be able to realize something. The truth is, I never had the time to get over her. Through my whole time gone," Zach admitted to the girl sitting right in front of him. "I never once wasted the time to think about what I had done to her. It would hurt me and slow me down and prevent me from saving the lives I had gone out there to save. And if I was going to waste any time thinking about her afterwards, then that would mean that I cared that much, and if I cared that much then I wouldn't have left in the first place. So there was no room to think about it. Subconsciously, I knew that thinking about it would delegitimize everything I believed when I resolved myself to run."

"Hold on, hold on," Jirou lifted both hands in front of her. "If you never thought about it after you left, and you never thought about it after you came back-"

"I'm thinking about it now," Zach replied to the girl in front of him whose eyes grew huge as he really admitted that to her. "Right now," he added.

"Because I never took that time to get over her, or even thought about our relationship that once was but I would die never thinking about. It would just be a distraction in the middle of a war that I could have no distractions in. And yet," Zach continued and stopped himself with a sharp jolt. He grit his teeth and his eyes squinted, "When Darling would throw herself at me naked, time and time again, and she would tell me she loved me and try to kiss me, all I could think about was Momo." Jirou's eyes bulged wider and Zach continued softer, "Who I had never stopped…"

He trailed off rather than finishing that sentence. His head turned towards her windows and he stared through the cracked blinds. Some light shone inside and onto him in bars of light, though they came in at an angle that did not hit his eyes at the moment to blind him. A bar of light went across the bridge of his nose and one over his forehead with his eyes more in the shadows. "While she had the time to get over me," Zach continued in a soft voice. "Right now, I'm more like the person I was back then than I have been since Kaminari yelled that stuff in my face. The moment Kaminari's betrayal set in that day, that moment I understood about Jenny's death, and that Webb and Ganji, and my Aunt Maye and Tsura were all already dead. Even though they were alive, and yet there was not a thing I could do to stop it because contacting them would make it more likely… and yet they all died anyway!" Zach yelled, his voice raising as saying that in a calm voice was too hard as he really did feel like himself from back then before the betrayal. A version of himself not as able to accept these things thought about them and shouted them in pain with his head tilting back as he called it out.

Jirou put both of her hands up over her trembling lips as Zach yelled that. Her eyes were huge as Zach yelled out in his hoarsest and most raspy voice, "I had known from the moment Kaminari betrayed me that they were all going to die! And I had to sit there doing nothing as they were all murdered. I was helpless. And they all died. And it was all my fault! They were being murdered because of me and I couldn't do a thing but spend every waking second thinking about their horrible deaths at the hands of my best friend who I told their secrets to!"

Jirou leaned back on her bed. She was taken aback, staring at him in shock as despite how much she had tried to think about it from his point of view, she had never realized the extent of it. Just how fucked up were you back then? Every second we saw you after that day, you were thinking about all of that?! Tears filled her eyes, And you tried to help me, even though you must have been feeling like that during our talk? Jirou's tears slid down her face and made Zach slam his mouth shut and just seethe breath between his teeth to try and stop himself from getting any further off track. I always thought the two of us had it the worst, equally. Momo was right though, and you had it so much worse than me.

She noticed something else too that made her bow her head while she apologized and started wiping her eyes and face. It was even harder for Zach, because, of this!

"Even though I knew all that," Zach continued to the girl in front of him as he finally caught his breath and remembered what he was trying to tell her. "Even though I felt for sure that I needed to stop the League as quickly as possible, Momo made me doubt myself every step of the way. I knew that I had to distance myself from you all, but the way I did it with Momo was solely to lessen the blow on her when I left, and I wish- I wish I had done the same with you. I'm sorry-"

"I forgive you," Jirou whispered back at him. "And I'm not mad- I'm happy, that you told me what you did that night. Rather than push me away. I needed that, really. No matter how I felt after the Lifebringer Incident. I really needed to hear those things you said."

Zach nodded back after a few moments but still shifted his gaze away though."Momo almost convinced me to stay," Zach said. His voice was guilty that he would admit that to someone else who he thought should have given him even more of a reason to question himself. He continued though with a look back into Jirou's eyes, "I almost told her, the day of. My resolve was shaken as I saw her waiting for me outside of the dorms, after I had already left the letters in all your rooms. After I had already set up every last aspect of the plan. It was already past the point of no return, and yet as we walked to the bus together I knew I couldn't do it. I couldn't leave her." Zach said with his head tilting up and his eyes shaking though still staring down into Jirou's. "I, cared about her so much, and now back like I was then again I don't know how to feel."

"I don't know if I should just accept that I have no right to really try to make things as they were before, or accept what she believes, which is that I'm a good person," Zach told his friend sitting in front of him whose eyes opened wide as it sounded like this was something Yaoyorozu might have told Zach very recently. Zach thought about what she had told him in his room and it made his heart race though the conflicted emotions still covered his face too. "And to try again," he finished. If I am a good person like she says, then don't I have that right? And, don't I have the responsibility to all those who died and never got to live out their lives? This kind of life! A life for a good person, where they go after it! I should go after it! Shouldn't I? Or is it too late?

Zach shook his head again and lowered his head to stare straight forward at the girl before him. "I don't know if we could ever get back, but I haven't tried because I don't feel I have the right to after everything I did… after lying to her."

"If it's something you care about this much," Jirou started slowly. I don't know though. Momo always said she got over you! You know that, but you know it and you still want… people's feelings can return, can't they? Or did hers ever actually go away?! I don't know! Jirou pulled the right corner of her lip far to the side into her cheek with an uncertain look as she stared back at Zach without knowing an answer to give him.

"I lied though," Zach repeated softly to her. Jirou looked at him questioningly as to why that was so huge considering he was a compulsive liar and him lying was just par for the course. He continued though in what was a shock to her, "That was the big thing between us. I wouldn't lie to her. I could lie to anyone, and yet when it came to her, our relationship was special because I never lied. Before we even started dating, she was just the one person I couldn't lie to. I never could…"

Jirou eased herself back forward and her shocked look vanished. You two were great together. Is that what it really needed? Trust? The truth, at all times?! That's what a real relationship is! I never had that. My relationship was one big lie, but you broke up with her rather than tell her one! "Then that's what you need to do," Jirou told him. She looked closely at him after leaning forward and he stared back with wider eyes at her intense statement and the way she was staring at him. "In order to get back, you have to tell her everything."

I've told her, so much…

"The things you won't tell any of us," Jirou continued at him. "I know you have a lot," she added and Zach trailed off his previous thought that was a lie even to himself.

She knows about Ares. She knows, about Life City. I have not told anyone else about that place. But that's not the truth. Telling her about those insane things doesn't mean I'm telling her everything. I held back. I hold back when I talk to her so much now- that's not different though! I always picked and chose what to tell her and what to omit. Lying by omission was not something we considered lies between us, right? But, but maybe now, it's not enough to just tell her the same things I can tell everyone. What is the truth? The real truth that I won't tell anyone else?!

"So in order to convince her that you're really back, you have to go that far. Tell her something so she knows you wouldn't lie to her again. Because, I know it too," Jirou admitted back to him. "I knew when you were lying to me, and I watched as Momo changed too. I, I could see it," Jirou looked away when he stared back in her eyes with his own looking wider and with pain in them at what she was saying. Jirou looked off to the side and said, "I watched as Momo went from caring about you like she did back before you went to Tartaros, to a different way as she lost more and more hope because you kept denying her visits, over and over. And then from that, to a few weeks after you got released when you had lied to her to her face so many times," Jirou knew all those times her best friend had gone to see Zach now, why it was that she returned looking so discouraged as much as she could hide it from everyone else.

"By that point," Jirou said in a softer tone. "I think she really lost all trace of that relationship you once had."

"You're right," Zach said. He nodded his head while looking down and then over at Jirou's door. I know she's right. Not seeing Momo while I was down in Tartaros hurt her. She needed to tell me so much and by denying her, I showed her that I didn't care that she had those things. I cared more about my own story and building it up and protecting it. Protecting myself. Rather than listening to her. I knew I would wind up lying to her though, because I still knew that it was all a lie- And yet I told her those lies! Did I?

I told Momo about Mr. Fergus before anyone. About the most horrible things that hurt me too much to describe to her, but I told her the reality. And yet it wasn't enough. Zach reminded himself and leaned back in Jirou's desk chair, giving the young woman in front of him a thankful smile for her help. With Momo, I can't hold back anything. That's what our relationship was. I could tell her things I couldn't tell anyone else. Show her. Show her that she's still that person to me. It's the only way.

---

"Something on your mind?" Midoriya stretched his left arm up over his head and tilted his body to the right. He bounced a couple of times with his hand fully extended out above his head, then he bent the other way while giving Zach a questioning look.

"Nope. Fully focused on this," Zach responded, and he rolled his neck around before cracking his knuckles outwards in front of him. Only his right hand's knuckles made cracking sounds when he did it. Then his left hand lowered down his green and blue costume, he grabbed at a couple of hilts from his golden belt and drew knives. Three knives went between his fingers with the blades sticking down as Zach lowered his left arm pointed down but also in front of him. His right hand curled in front of his body and his feet started bouncing on the floor in place as he brought his right foot forward then his left in a repeated movement. Zach bounced in an ever-changing step as his front foot and back foot interchanged even though his right hand continued to stay in front of him, only moving slightly to change the position he needed it in depending on how his body was turned.

I know they bothered to get it sanctioned first, Vlad King thought while sitting back and looking down over Training Ground Theta. But I'm against this entire idea. The walled-in training ground was empty other than the two students in there. The layout of the training ground had a few buildings in it, an artificial river, some trees, but mainly it was an empty field of mostly dirt and vacant lots. There was some construction equipment in two of those lots, an old-looking factory surrounded by empty dirt zones that just had fencing around them, and some hilly areas with dirt roads on them. U.A.'s campus was huge and each training zone could encompass a large amount of space, but Vlad King was not against the idea just because these two students were taking up the entire training facility for themselves.

Unlike Zach's fight against Kirishima, or Midoriya's against Bakugo, the students had actually gone to the main office and requested permission days ago for this. They stood there in the middle of the training ground facing one another with intense expressions despite how the two were still talking as friends and facing one another as classmates. It was not a "fight" as much as it was training in the form of a sparring session sanctioned by their hero high school. And yet at the same time, they could each feel something different about today.

When we fought during the joint training you held back a lot, and you had help from your classmates too, Midoriya thought as he imagined facing down Class 1's four strongest students all together.

We fought last week but there were a lot of heroes on your side then too, Zach thought after thinking about the joint training himself. No help for either of us this time. No one else around to make us hold back other than Vlad King. He can handle it, Zach lifted a slightly bigger smirk as he thought about the teacher who already had looked uncertain about this whole idea.

Midoriya thought Zach's smirk was more in a victorious way though and it made his flattened lips curve down more at the corners. "This won't go like the race," Midoriya started.

"I know," Zach replied. "This time, it's serious." I didn't want to fight you then either. Those other heroes were around, but that's not what really caused our fight not to mean anything. I was just trying to run!

"We both know the fight ahead won't be easy," Midoriya said.

"We do," Zach agreed. His look was intense and focused. Despite how he had appeared distracted all day to his friend, Midoriya could see him really looking fully focused right now.

He's different since the trial, Midoriya focused on his friend's expression. Zach's look became less competitive. He could not fake that for very long. He's doing this with me because he wants me to be ready for Shigaraki. That's all. He's focused. No longer hiding from anyone, not even himself. And that makes him a much darker person. Midoriya could see Zach's eyes imagining terrible futures as they stared at one another before this fight. It was as if Zach was amping himself up to take this seriously and not give any room for his friend because their enemies would not as they just agreed. Because if he doesn't do this and even help me get a tiny bit stronger, and I die, that's something he'll blame himself for. He thinks it's possible. I can see that he's afraid of it! I haven't shown you everything I can do though, Zach. And I want to see what you can do as well. What new skills you may have acquired, since you killed Ares.

Midoriya's expression darkened itself as he thought about his friend bringing that black sword down through his greatest enemy. Draining him of his life. If we had fought that night, would you have even tried? Or did you want me to kill you so badly that-

It doesn't matter now. Midoriya closed his eyes then took in a long deep breath. His legs bent at the knees as his arms tensed up. His right leg pulled backwards with the sole of his shoe sliding across the floor behind him. His eyes opened and he stared under the foremost curls of his green hair towards his classmate whose legs coated in Death on the calves and ankles. The black wisps were kept to a minimum so Zach was not wasting any as he coated joints in his Quirk. Midoriya's eyes caught all the different areas where Zach started using it instantly. That night the fight would have meant something else. The joint training, you had a different goal in mind. And last time, I wanted to arrest you without having to fight, as much as possible. Right now though. In this moment! It's time to give everything I have!

"One For All, 86%, Full Cowling," Midoriya's body filled with power. He could feel it coursing through his veins and surrounding every inch of his body. There was no more and no less in any of his joints or appendages. He filled up with power and pushed breath through his lips as his head lifted with his hair bouncing upwards from the force of the powering-up alone. The ground under Midoriya's feet shook before he moved. All Might's power. As strong as All Might ever was. We measured it. This is my maximum for extended Full Cowling! Midoriya's feet curled down under his pre-bent knees.

"Come," Zach said. His face turned pitch black as he saw the bending of Midoriya's legs. His body turned black and his hands shrouded so densely in it that a touch could mean instant death.

Midoriya swung both of his arms in front of him. His hands crossed each other in front of his body, and he called out, "Delaware Smash: Air Force!" His arms crossed in front of his body and the force from the swinging of them seemed like the initial attack as it blew apart the ground in front of him with winds blowing the dirt back in a wave. Midoriya's hands stopped though with his forearms crossing each other, his eyes darting back and forth then his feet kicking up off the floor. His hands that had crossed all had the fingers curled in, and he flicked them out towards the floor where he saw black wisps shooting under the dirt wave towards his legs.

CRSH- BOOOF DOOoom Dd-dd- Chhhh… The ground uplifted as a hundred cracks broke apart the lot they had started in along with several around it. The closest building got a long crack up the wall closest to them, then it collapsed with windows shattering and more dust blowing up from the fall into the walls of dirt and debris flying back the other way.

Going to be hard to get close, Zach disappeared even farther away from Midoriya. The early snakes of Death he had go close to test Midoriya's defenses were all blown away into nothingness. He sent more Death out that way and slid it underneath the ground in the much wider and larger cracks from all the upturned earth that Midoriya had left for him. When Midoriya pointed his fingers down though before, he sent himself flying up into the air.

Deku flipped around and spun in midair then kicked both legs out in front of him in case Zach used his incredible speed to come up on him during a backflip. The kicks sent huge visible forces of air through an empty sky, while at the same time they dragged all the rising dust and dirt towards a far side of the empty zone. Deku's move cleared up much of the cloud he had created through those kicks that were meant to repel a possible attack by Zach. There was a third use to them as well though, as he soared away from the section of the Training Ground where the ground was covered in cracks and could have Death hidden under it.

I won't fall for what you did during the race. Giving you the opportunity though will have you expend some of your Death in hiding down there… Midoriya was still coming down into a landing but he watched as Death curled up from underneath large sections of upturned earth and emerged out of cracks. Zach walked forward shrouded entirely in Death with his hero costume impossible to see inside the veil. He walked between two huge sections of dirt that were tilted upwards diagonally in different directions. His red eyes glared straight towards Deku, while thin black lines rose from cracks around him and snaked back and forth in the air. Thin tendrils of darkness wiggled and then froze all at once, and the tips of them started curling out in Deku's direction. Blobs of darkness that had come out of cracks and around chunks of earth merged together on top of the sections and created small beastly dark creations.

Then Death shot out from Zach's feet and spread past all of the tendrils that extended out from the cracks much farther as soon as they were fed by the source. The wave of Death that came from Zach's legs covered all of the upturned area around him, and then it all pushed towards where Midoriya just landed down. The entire floor spreading much farther out to Zach's left and right was getting engulfed in Death each second. And it continued to race towards Deku who bent his legs down far this time, then leapt up into the sky in a way that cracked the ground under him in five directions, then the ground pushed down after the cracks were made and more cracks rose up far from them as the ground disconnected and cratered in.

Zach stopped extending all the Death and he brought some of the moving ground beneath him to his back. He jumped up and flapped a pair of black wings behind his body to create a shockwave in midair that sent him flying up after Deku. Midoriya flipped before reaching the top of his arc and he flicked all ten of his fingers behind him. His body curled forward as he flicked, and he spun himself into a dozen front-flips in a row on a perfect trajectory towards Zach. His right leg extended before he could reach his friend, and Zach's body started splitting in half as Midoriya did an ax-kick down right on Zach's angle of approach. The slice of force that Midoriya kicked at him went right between the halves of Zach's body that attempted to pull back together after passing.

The force of the kick was too strong though. Pulling his body completely in half like that left him too gaseous and without enough mobility in the air because he only had one wing on each side. He tried to control all of his Death mentally to just pull himself back together that way, but the drag in the force that passed between him was too close and too strong and pulled his body downwards. His darkness lagged back behind him and more-so on the outsides farther from the force, stretching his body out as it pulled back together in a swirling mess that made Midoriya bounce back instead of kicking again.

Deku's eyes darted behind him as he kicked in front again to stop himself from crashing into the rapidly swirling mass of Death getting pulled by the empty gap in air after he pushed all the particles aside. His eyes darted back and he saw the huge black wave rising up, and out from that wave emerged dozens of black arrows that flew out ten times faster than the huge mass was moving. They raced at him and Midoriya flicked one finger at a time, maneuvering around in the air as best as he could though using extra force to push him much farther on each attempt since Zach's arrows were making sharper turns and would hit him if he did not extend the distance between him and Zach. Getting close enough to ensure I get a good hit in is impossible. It's difficult! Midoriya corrected himself as he did not want to think of it as 'impossible' since it was something he needed to do. He feels the same way about me. And, the same is true about all of our enemies. Dabi, Kaminari, and Shigaraki.

Midoriya landed down on ground far from where Zach was gathering himself in the air. A wave of darkness slammed into him and then all collected at once with even the arrows in the air pausing as Midoriya had sent himself flying so far from them. Midoriya stared towards the form in the air a quarter mile away from him. Black wings spread on Zach's back much larger than they just had been. Darkness that had slammed into Zach made his body seem so much denser, and yet he still seemed to hover in the air with no effort at all on his part. Be it from the wings or from the darkness expelling from under his black feet, he just hovered there and glared with dark red eyes towards his opponent who had rushed so far away from him.

We're destroying the area, Deku. I suppose we didn't establish that I'm the villain here and you're supposed to be the one limiting collateral damage. That's the point though! This is for you. Against an enemy you can't touch. Zach flapped his wings behind him, and all the Death not connected directly to him pulled as fast as it could behind him in a swirling tornado coming after the user of Death's flying figure. His right arm bulged in size to eight times what it just was, and Zach twisted his body with his wings flapping again as he neared Deku in an instant. He slammed his right fist down into the floor where Midoriya was just standing. His head snapped to the left and watched Deku fly by. Zach's black wings pulled off towards him while the fist that just hit the ground broke apart and snapped backwards to push into Zach himself.

The huge explosion of Death that blew out from Zach's fist into his body surrounded him. The instant it hit him, Zach's head and right arm were coming out of the mass of Death that had broken off his back. The wings formed into the shape of a man with red eyes and a black arm reaching out of the mass that was added to by a tornado of darkness changing directions. Midoriya glared at that tornado that pulled into Zach's body to make it stronger rather that cutting off his path and trapping him between the tornado and his friend. He was already coming up with a counter for that pincer move because to attack in either direction while in midair would propel him towards the rest of the Death. His path became clearer though as Zach dragged his trailing Death into himself to make his body stronger…

Midoriya spun around short in midair. He brought his fists together and smashed them straight down in front of him. He had a pissed-off look on his face and made the ground down below him twenty feet break apart with a huge wave of debris rising up around them. His feet kicked behind him and he shot out of the wall of debris towards where Zach had just been. His right arm was pulled back far, and his eyes darted up at the sight of rising red dots only to see the much larger mass of death was pushing down below him and using the dust for cover. Directly ahead of him emerged another dark body with red eyes that pulled back the string of a Death bow, and an arrow of darkness bulged to life on the bowstring. He had partially cut off his own visibility and by the time he got out of it only an instant later, there were three directions he had to focus on, and Midoriya's teeth bared even harder as his heart rate skyrocketed and his breathing picked up fast.

"Oklahoma… SMASH!" Midoriya's body started twisting in midair and he flicked both his wrists and the tips of his toes to speed up more and more while counter-balancing himself with each swing. He did not have a great position to do it, but he spiraled around so quickly in midair that wind pulled around him and became visible in midair. It pushed out in all directions, slamming Death down into the floor and breaking it apart away from him forwards, as well as pushing Zach farther upwards so he sped up to get out of a wind funnel that slammed into him.

More black wings pulled out of Zach's back and flapped in front of him to get him farther back as Midoriya shot out of his spinning vortex straight towards him. Most of the Death around Zach had been blown upwards by the wind, but Zach's wings only flapped forwards once before flapping twice as hard behind him and shooting him back even faster at Midoriya who he was about to collide with. Midoriya's hands coated in black of their own and he snapped them forward, "Blackwhip!"

He wouldn't, Zach dodged them anyway even though he doubted Midoriya would keep those dark whips connected to his hands while they collided with him. Instead he felt they would hit him more as something to stall him in midair, and he eased to the side of them without slowing much at all. His left hand rose in front of him and a blue light glowed through a black veil, then he kicked his left leg up and a slice of Death cut through the air where Midoriya just yanked his body to the side.

Midoriya spun after dodging and he glared towards Zach who stopped himself in midair at the look Deku gave him. His opponent dropped down out of the air without backing any farther away, and Zach did not push out Death from his soles to slow his own drop towards the ground. "What?" Zach asked.

The slice kick didn't need to miss! I barely dodged it, and Zach could have just pulled it towards me instead of letting it continue to fly by! Midoriya was frustrated as he had planned on finding a way to blow away the huge slashed kick of Death only for it not to sharply cut towards him as he knew Zach was capable of doing. Even though he thought in that frustrated way though, his teeth still ground behind his lips so as not to show Zach his frustration. He's holding back, but, I'm still the one getting pushed here.

Midoriya wanted to argue about it yet despite trying to just change the momentum, Zach pushed him back only a second after he thought he might have gained the upper hand. I'm giving it my all, and you're not even… Are you really trying? I have a sense that you're just trying to teach me. That's… If that's true! Deku opened his mouth while looking at his classmate staring straight at him in a way wondering what was on his mind and somewhat confused as to why Midoriya had stopped fighting. His classmate hesitated after looking like he wanted to speak up, then his face got more unsure at the way Zach looked back at him, and he asked quietly, "Do you really think, you couldn't beat Shigaraki?"

"I can't," Zach said.

There was no pause in Zach's response like there was in Midoriya's question. Midoriya looked back uncertainly as he tried to judge if Zach was telling him the truth, or why it was that Zach couldn't do it. "I can't do it," Zach repeated. It has to be you.

"I want people to rely on you, Deku. I want them to be able to rely on you-"

"Then stop holding back," Midoriya retorted. Zach looked back with his mouth frozen open and then closing slowly. His eyes focused in and his expression hardened which got Midoriya's face doing the same. "Because I don't think you're trying right now." If you actually think it will come down to me, then you wouldn't hold back so much. You know he won't. So you know that you can handle it if I fail? Is that it?! I… I think you might really be able to stop Shigaraki, even having revived him before. When you say it, it sounds more like you just "want" me to be the one to stop him.

"You want to get serious then?" Zach asked back. Midoriya stared at him closer and Zach said with a low voice and insanely intense expression, "Then remember that we still have Recovery Girl for another week, and show me what you've really got. Let's take this up high," Zach nodded his head above him towards the sky.

Midoriya paused thinking about being somewhere with no solid ground to give him a base. Zach was egging him on to go all-out and yet using that much extra force while at the same time controlling his lateral momentum in the sky was going to add an extra step to the combat. Zach was not egging him on in a friendly and competitive way though. His eyes narrowed at Deku for being upset with him, and he told his classmate who seemed to hesitate at the suggestion, "Go all out if you want me to stop holding back so much myself. And don't argue with me about moving this into the sky. It's not to protect the Training Ground or Vlad King sensei."

"When you're fighting Shigaraki you won't be able to touch the ground at all," Zach told his friend who nodded right back at him.

Gone was all hesitation in Deku's eyes. Shigaraki Decayed an entire mountain. That means that wherever he touched spread the Decay from that spot over a huge area. Midoriya could feel scars covering his back screaming in pain at the thought. Had his Quirk been that strong in Mosu Esupa… It wasn't. And mine wasn't as strong as it is today either. "Let's bring it up then," Midoriya replied.

The two of them launched themselves into the air. "Midoriya," Zach called out while staring ahead into his friend's eyes as he kept up evenly with Midoriya's lift-off speed. "You'll need to finish the fight for good before touching down once after you bring the fight into the air."

"I know that-"

"No," Zach countered him at how fast Midoriya responded. "Shigaraki cannot touch the ground after you get him in the air."

Midoriya glared back at his classmate whose expression was similarly dark glaring back at him. He refused to acknowledge what Zach was suggesting might need to happen. I won't kill Shigaraki. Mt. Yamagucha was enormous. Shigaraki Decayed it. In a populated area… I still won't. I'll find another way. Your worst case scenario won't happen Zach. I'll stop it, and I'll do that my way. I will find a way to make that possible.

Midoriya and Zach rose up high enough and could tell from each other's looks that it was time to keep fighting. Midoriya's breath came in sharply, Focus! If not now then what better time will there be to draw it out?! In the middle of a fight with Zach- it's training! Sparring. I know that Float has never worked before. The previous holder, Nana Shimura, Shigaraki's grandmother and All Might's teacher, had a Quirk that can help me protect everyone from her own grandson. I have to tap into it! Right here! Right now! Before we touch the ground!

Zach took in a deep breath of his own and focused on his classmate whose entire body seemed to glow brighter and get stronger than before. He might not be able to keep up all of One For All for long, but I'm going to start falling here. Shigaraki can't fly, I don't think. No tech or bio-enhancements should… well, maybe. But if he gets Shigaraki up, he'll have a time limit to end it. That's how much time you have to beat me. Soon as I touch the ground I'm going to extend Death and cover everything around us. "Decay" the entire Training Ground, to give you an idea of what that will look like… I need you to understand failure- and if he wins right here? Stops me from touching down? Well, then what do I need to worry about failure for?

He brought us up here solely for me. We talked about this as if it was just a sparring session, and now it's more like we're training me for Shigaraki. Does he want help preparing to fight Raijin? Midoriya had a brief moment of hesitation before he attacked. The thought that both he and Zach had that they were considering Zach to be Shigaraki in this fight from here on faltered as he wondered about how they should both be training. His hesitation went away just as fast though. I doubt Zach will need it…

Outside of Training Ground Theta, two Class A students stared up into the sky after seeing those two blurs shoot up into the sky above the training area. Vlad King was staring up into the sky and sweating as he wondered if this still counted as being inside the training ground if they were that high up. He remembered the Sports Festival where Midoriya fought Bakugo though and how most of that fight occurred up in the air so the two could use more strength against each other without worrying about the spectators. Vlad King suddenly realized that if that was the case here, then the battle he was just trying to watch was not close to how strong these two were about to go at each other.

Mineta and Tsuyu stared into the sky too and opened their eyes wider as a blur of white and one of black slammed into each other. The collision made a shockwave that they heard a second later, and they watched as spinning trails of light and darkness bounced away from one another then sped back. Huge visible gusts of wind force slammed into masses of darkness that seemed to have minds of their own. "Whoa," Mineta whispered as he looked up towards the epic battle he could barely see or keep track of. "They must have, gotten an ok from the school."

Asui looked to the boy next to her who was just slightly taller than she was now. They're over a training area. You're right. You are but, Tsuyu looked back up in the sky in worry for her classmate and friend. "Gero," she croaked nervously.

Mineta looked back next to him at the sound of that croak. He stared in confusion at the green-haired girl who looked concerned at what they were seeing. Mineta's confused expression shifted gradually with his lips curling down more at the corners as he kept his head turned partially to the side watching her watch their classmates sparring up in the sky. "Zach's, not going to hurt Midoriya," Mineta said. He frowned more as Tsuyu looked towards him and her eyes widened that he could somehow make out what she was feeling.

Tsuyu's eyes started widening for a different reason though as Mineta continued to frown at her and then started shaking his head in a mature way disapproving of her attitude. She even got a bead of sweat on the side of her face more than she did for watching Zach and Midoriya, at the thought of Mineta looking at her in a stern and scolding way. Her frown deepened though as she glanced back up in the sky and saw an explosion of darkness that five large black pillars pulled away from towards a retreating blur moving faster than they were, but not by much. "I know you don't think it's true, Tsu," Mineta started again to the girl next to him while he looked back up at the sky himself.

She looked next to her and her big eyes widened once again as she just looked at the side of his face looking up seriously into the sky towards two of the strongest people they knew. Mineta's lips stayed flat as he watched them prepare for something they were so focused on to be fighting this hard just in training. "But Zach is back. That's really him up there." Tsuyu frowned and lowered her gaze to the ground, then her head started shaking but lifted again with softer eyes as Mineta continued, "Whatever happened, and whatever happens from here forward, that's always going to be him…"

Principal Nezu sat in his office with his hands together in front of him and his elbows down on his desk. He stared ahead of him at the screen-face of a robot that stood in the middle of his room with its neck extended upwards and out over his desk to give him a close-up view of the current battle going on on campus. The small bear-mouse-man smiled as he watched his students training. "They make progress with every passing day. It is a great thing. Don't you agree?"

Hawks stared back at the mouse-like principal sitting there in the room with him. He leaned back on the wall to Nezu's left himself. He looked at the same screen the principal of U.A. was watching, then he lowered his gaze down to his right arm that he had finally accepted albeit hesitantly. The prosthetic looked and felt real, but he still felt uneasy at the feeling of it after nearly three years without one. The way they stepped up and saved China, and the fact that it's recommended by Sazaki himself, I can't be suspicious towards Virtucorp any longer. Because there's nothing to be suspicious about. Even the mystery surrounding the location of their actual headquarters which I have been unable to discover.

"They're strong," Hawks agreed while looking at the teens training together. My feathers could pick up Shigaraki and keep him from the ground, but I only have so many he can Decay before he'll ultimately drop and kill everyone. Sazaki revived Shigaraki though. I've seen him kill a lot of men with his bare hands and no use of his Quirk, but a guy like Shigaraki won't be that easy to kill. "They're not ready though," Hawks added while watching the teens fight. Deku isn't at least. He doesn't have enough experience. None of these kids do. Their internships won't be enough. Even Tsukuyomi's still just a kid. I've tried preparing him but how can they be ready when we're not? None of us were prepared to find that the League and Radians are working together. The Digger they've likely got on their side. Meaning there could be an extensive network of underground bases. Explaining why we've got nothing. Why we can't find anyone! It's so quiet as of late. It's like Sazaki's trial happened and all the villains took what he said to heart. They're afraid of him…

If only that was the truth. It's how most heroes explain away the recent peace. Everyone's giving Lifebringer the credit. That may be true elsewhere, but not here. They wanted Sazaki out of the way. They still want him out of the way. And as much as I want to trust him as our trump card, he's an unstable card to have in the hole. "But," Hawks started again while looking away from the screen where the boys were still just sparring and not fighting as intensely as possible that would keep Hawks more interested. He stared towards Nezu who continued to smile though looked serious as well when the Number 2 hero in the nation looked his way. "What else do you have to show me, for our defenses?"

Nezu nodded his head then tapped a button on the watch on his wrist that made the robot head away. He hopped off of his chair and walked around his desk in front of the hero who he motioned at to follow him. Nezu's hands folded behind his back as he walked, and he said in a high-pitched but also lower voice, "Our old student, Kaminari Denki, is certain to have learned all of our former countermeasures during his infiltration. As such, I had to start from scratch. Come, Hawks. I believe I can trust you, to keep this arsenal secret…"

---

It was dark on U.A.'s campus. Most finals ended tomorrow so that they could be fully graded and returned to the students on the first days of the next week which were the final days of the term. The mid-April night sky was partially covered in clouds, though there were stars shining in the cracks, and one could see where the moon was by the glow through a thin passing cloud below it. The part of campus that Zach and Yaoyorozu were walking towards was much farther from the main building and the dorm streets too, central areas where the lights were brighter and made the artificial illumination too bright to see the natural lighting.

Yaoyorozu was leading the conversation and continued talking as they walked towards Ground Zeta. "…All been focused on finals, but somehow you managed to do what I was afraid you wouldn't be able to before graduation. Kyoka's, happy. She's happier than I've seen her for a long time. Even if she felt uneasy about the calculus final today. TyreFire sensei put a lot of very difficult problems in the long answer problems today, didn't he?"

Zach nodded his head with a hum of agreement. Yaoyorozu looked back forwards and continued walking and talking, though she could not shake an uneasy feeling at the lack of "conversing" going on here. Zach had asked her to go on a walk with him, because he needed to 'show her something,' and yet he did not seem in much of a rush as they walked towards Ground Zeta. Yaoyorozu recognized the walk the two of them were doing. It was one they had walked together before. Only the last time they did this walk, there had been a bus waiting for them at the isolated Training Ground. It was out of the way from practically everything else on campus, which made it easier for Class A to slip away the afternoon of the Lifebringer Incident for their camping trip in the Enudora Forest.

Zach breathed calmly and faced ahead towards the Training Ground's exterior cliffs that he could see from down here. The road started to raise in elevation around where they were, which made sense because of how deep Training Ground Zeta went off the cliffs. Zeta was one of the largest training grounds on all of U.A.'s campus, and as Zach headed there he reminded himself, The last exam on the finals' schedule taking place in Zeta was this afternoon. No one should be there tomorrow. This won't cause any problems. And, it's something I need to do.

Yaoyorozu's eyes shifted to her left again and up at the determined and focused eyes of the man walking next to her. The right side of his face had marks on it that she could see even in the dim light of sparsely scattered light-posts and some star light from above. The moon had gone more behind a thicker cloud and was too hard to see now. "Zach," Yaoyorozu started. Her voice got a little more serious but it was soft too which made Zach look back at her. He stared back her way and had his lips flat. Zach did not appear intimidating on angry, but he did not look happy either despite how she was just thanking him for working things out with Jirou. Whatever happened between the two of them had nothing to do with why Zach had brought her out here. She could tell that just from looking at him. "Why are we here?" Yaoyorozu asked.

Zach stopped for a second after turning to face her, but then he turned ahead again and started walking. He spoke as he walked though towards the entrance of Training Ground Zeta that had no building in it and was a completely uninhabited and untouched "natural" environment. "I've been thinking a lot lately," he said while entering a training ground they used to hunt down fake villains who had escaped into wilderness terrains. They needed to be able to track them down and locate "villains" before they escaped the zone, because that could translate to them getting too far away in real situations meaning that the heroes had lost their targets. Yaoyorozu remembered more trainings in that zone than Zach did, and she remembered search-and-rescue training sessions as well with Vrishnuku-sensei from last year. Zach had missed that training. Just like he missed so much…

The two of them walked through the entrance into Ground Zeta and then moved farther forward. Zach did not turn to head towards the stone steps down into the zone, instead walking closer towards the ledge in front of him where heroes could watch the training from. He walked past the surveillance equipment though that was all turned off right now. Yaoyorozu slowed down behind him and stopped before he did. She could see past him and off the edge of the cliff, down into the zone a hundred feet below that got even lower the farther out from the cliff face it got. The training zone was full of trees, streams, rocky outcrops, and the occasional piece of high ground which was still far below the edges of the training ground like where they were standing right now. It was a testament to the prestige of U.A. that the hero school in the middle of a city could have such a massive forest inside its campus just for the sake of training exercises.

"I almost left Japan a few weeks ago," Zach continued while still facing away from the girl behind him. He looked down into the deep forest that stretched for miles and miles around but was enclosed to a degree. Yaoyorozu's eyes shifted down behind him as he mentioned that night where she had felt she failed him by not already knowing what Ashido told them all. "Then I was nearly killed by Eziano, his army of assassins… his master."

Zach turned his head and looked back to the other teenager staring right back at him now. "And at the trial I could have been sent to Tartaros again. Over and over, I keep getting so close to the end. Things just being over… And there are still things I want to do- fix…" Zach corrected himself but then paused and he looked away to his right while letting out another deep breath. "There's so much going on, but, there's always been so much going on."

"What are you, saying-"

"Momo, please," Zach started as she tried to interrupt. Her eyes widened as he asked her to stop and just wait for him to finish. She nodded though and he took in another deep breath before nodding his head in gratitude at her for letting him continue. "There hasn't been a time to just live in so long. After the Sports Festival Invasion I believed I could, but I forgot about that feeling. It was something I treasured in the time between I died and when Kaminari betrayed me. The last time I really imagined it possible."

All Might reminded me who I am. Not just the thing that helps other people find their happy lives, but myself! A person. Someone, who can also live a life. A life that is for me too!

"I'm glad, you're thinking about this," Yaoyorozu started softly. He did not stop her this time and she told him in a low voice, "I'm glad you want to feel that way again. You should be living for yourself. Not just for others." Zach nodded back at her though his smile had faded and his lips were flat again. It was what she had told him too. He sacrificed himself too easily, and she wanted him to feel that he was worth enough that he could hesitate like the rest of them did. It terrified her how easy it was for him to consider throwing his own sanity and safety away for the sake of others. Only a few of the best heroes could do stuff like that, but what hurt her too much was that he seemed to do it easily and without the hesitation that any sane person would have towards hurting themselves in such a way. She smiled brighter at him even as his lips flattened out, "Your life is yours."

"I know," Zach replied in a low voice back to her. "And I forgot about that after Kaminari betrayed us. But, watching my comrades die in vain? The ones who wanted lives afterwards, ones who I talked to about 'after the war' with so many times? I can't keep myself from living any longer." Yaoyorozu opened her mouth to argue about the 'in vain' part of what Zach said, but her eyes widened more as she lowered her gaze to his arms and legs that started seeping with black wisps. "And there's one thing left I need to do. Something I need to show you."

"I don't understand," Yaoyrozou said quickly back to him. She stepped forward in an uneasy way but spoke louder, "If you just tell me-"

"It's something I need to show, rather than tell," Zach explained. More dark tendrils started to seep off of his appendages, but now off the sides and back of his head and neck too. "I've never been able to lie to you, Momo. I struggled to maintain the lie I already believed myself, telling you so many things right after returning… It was why I couldn't see you in Tartaros. I really believed that my tenuous grip on that reality I was determined to believe would break the instant you asked me something, because I would have to tell you the truth."

"I can't lie to you," Zach said. Yaoyorozu's eyes widened more and Zach shook his head once more before stepping backwards so his feet were just on the ledge of the cliff. Yaoyorozu stepped forward and opened her mouth while extending a hand, but she froze as she was too uncertain as to what he was about to do to tell him not to do… it. "But even though I managed to tell you most things, I feel like there are two things left that I'm still lying to you about. Momo, back when I was last here I thought that not telling you certain aspects of my life was different from lying, but it wasn't. And even back then when I thought about how I could never lie to you, I was. Just by the omission of those things… I won't do that anymore." I can't lie to you anymore.

"Momo," Zach's voice got much more serious. "I know you know that when I kill people I get stronger. But, it's not just a boost in strength. It is, for a short time, yes. But after that boost fades, and then my power replenishes, it comes back to closer to what the boost was than what my power was before. My base power grows stronger." Zach paused and looked hesitantly one last time at the woman before him. "It only works with people. Animals and plants give me boosts but they don't make me stronger like humans do. Even animals that have been experimented on to grant them Quirks, it's not the same. I don't know why. But, every human I've killed has made me stronger…"

Zach's arms started to fall apart. His body stayed in place even though his legs were getting thinner. Yaoyorozu stepped closer and gasped out as she reached for him, but Zach's arms and legs turned into pure darkness and became too thin to hold together. His entire body turned into black wisps that blew away in a wind that made Yaoyorozu's hair shake as her hand grasped at nothing in the air in front of her. "Zach," she whispered, staring out past the edge of the cliff where some of those dark wisps had blown off. They were falling down towards the forest below. The person who just stood in front of her, turned to dark dust in the wind.

Yaoyorozu walked forward. Her eyes were locked past the spot that Zach just faded away from. He had been staring her in the eyes even as his head and face turned to gas and faded away. She walked closer to the edge but stayed out of the spot that he had just vanished from which was right on the ledge dropping into Ground Zeta. He just blew away in the wind. That's amazing. Yaoyorozu looked around in front of her for the boy who told her he wanted her to see something. Where did you go?

The moon was behind a dark gray cloud. The training ground itself was not very lit. Yaoyorozu stared down into it and could barely see the forest below. The trees looked black and she could just make out their silhouettes. Then the cloud above her continued to move and partially revealed the moon. The moon shone down, and her scanning eyes locked towards the middle of the training ground that really was black. Death pooled together too much that it was visible over the tops of trees down in that forest's center. Considering how far up and away from the center of the zone she was, Yaoyorozu's breath hitched at the sight of how much Death must have been pooled together for her to be able to see it from this distance and in the dark. As much as he was on Trigger. When he fought the Subspace Devils he used a lot too. Why is he showing me…

The darkness spread from the area she was staring towards. It spread out and covered twice as many trees, then twice as many as that. It was hard to keep counting based on the amount of ground space he took up though, as her eyes started raising from the base of the training ground to instead follow the rising section of the center of his body. Twice as tall as the trees, then three times… five. He rose up as high as the cliff she was standing on, and Yaoyorozu desperately tried not to step back. But as her head started to lift up and her eyes rose higher and higher, Zach doubling his height from when he was just up to the cliff she was standing on, Yaoyorozu took a step backwards with her bottom lip dropping.

The middle of his body spiked up hundreds of feet from the ground. The base of his body continued to widen as well. The forest died inside his form. The massive giant of Death rose up over three hundred feet. It had a base a hundred feet in diameter to Yaoyorozu's left and right. Out of the sides of its body while it continued to rise, two black arms bulged from the middle and snapped outwards. Two more appeared above it but curved up, and another two formed behind them the same time that another set of arms emerged out the sides just above the second set. Then a set emerged out more the front of Zach's body but still on his sides, just lower down with the arms bending at the elbows in front of a huge black mid-section, massive black hands pressing together in front of where they assumed his chest would be. Those hands pushed together while other arms emerged and bent and curved in different ways that were always symmetrical on either side.

His body rose up another hundred feet. Out of his back emerged black lines that pushed out in the air above and behind him. At the ends of the lines formed huge black spheres of Death. They were growing wider and larger each second. More of them emerged, four, then six, then ten. The black balls of Death pushed farther from his body but his body grew in size proportionately. A ring of darkness shot out from each of the spheres of Death and connected them all. Each Death sphere had black lines coming out of either side as well as from the front to connect into Zach's back somewhere. A wheel of Death spheres behind him as he stood there a hundred times as massive as the woman staring up towards him.

Each of the spheres of Death alone was large enough to fit Yaoyorozu standing on her own shoulders eight times. Push out everything, Zach thought, his eyes opening and glowing bright red in the mountain of darkness rising higher than anything around him. Moonlight cast down on his giant black form. In that light he stared down towards the entrance of Ground Zeta and just inside it to the girl staring up towards him. She looked like an ant, dyed in the red color that his vision tinted the entire world around him. Show her. Zach rose higher. The giant spheres of Death behind his body grew thicker. He grew each of them at the same speed and made the black lines connecting his back to the globes of Death grow even thicker too as he pushed much more out. The ring connecting them got thicker, then spikes of black pointed outwards between each of the spheres, coming out of the ring and creating extra expulsion points for more of the Quirk that Zach seemed to have an endless amount of.

He stopped growing though. After a minute of rising and expelling Death nonstop, Zach reached a point where constantly flooding more outwards was no longer possible. There's the bottom. Haven't hit it since I controlled what I got from Ares. I control it, but I've never attempted to use it all at once. This is how much Death I can use right now. So, so much. And it's so thick. Denser than that night in Enudora. Denser and yet over a much larger surface area. The potency of Death is what's gotten most dangerous. Look at her. Staring up at this- She's not a judgmental person. Nor someone to get afraid just because of this. Surprising, yes. I don't think she's afraid though. She wouldn't be stepping back closer if she was.

In Zach's red vision, he watched as Yaoyorozu walked back closer to the cliff. Her eyes scanned down his body that finally stopped growing. She glanced behind her for a moment and around, but they were in an isolated part of campus. Still, someone else could see you. Do you not care? Or, is showing me that much more important? Yaoyorozu's eyes moved back to him and looked left and right over the pitch blackness of his body. Every piece of him is potentially fatal. At that size, he's… He's… How? How is he, this size? Yaoyorozu's face shifted and her eyes rose back to those large red ones staring down at her.

The giant started to shrink. All of the darkness down in the forest pulled upwards. The head of the beast collapsed in while the arms pulled towards the body and sucked into the torso. A bulge came out of its chest and floated forwards like something pulling out of the giant's torso. The bulge stretched the black skin of the massive dark monster. That stretching darkness behind the protrusion was pulling into the smaller mass coming out of it though and taking form of a human being. It was pitch black and had no eyes but gained the shape of a man. The massive red glowing eyes collapsed as the head of the several-hundred-foot tall giant sank into itself. Then red eyes formed on the thinner smaller Death man floating forwards, with a funnel of black wind pulling behind him and sucking everything back up into Zach's smaller body.

His right foot stepped forward onto the edge of the cliff. His shoe stepped out of the darkness, then his legs lost the black veil that faded up his body and off his chest. All of the darkness on his body wrapped around his back and pulled towards a single point that everything else was rushing straight towards now. It did not happen instantly. Zach was unable to expel it all that fast nor could he pull himself back together in a mere instant, having never attempted this before. He was breathing calmly though as he stood there ten feet in front of the girl watching this in awe even though another unnerving sensation had filled her from what she was just thinking about. Yaoyorozu breathed heavier than Zach was as she stared into eyes that gradually lost their red glow and returned to their normal color, though it was hard to see that from only the moonlight. The light coming down from the moon did illuminate the two of them better though on this cliff at the edge of campus, and it made the Death more visible too so Yaoyorozu could see the exact moment when the last of it pulled back into Zach's body.

Yaoyorozu's mouth was dry. She opened it to comment on what he just showed her. It was amazing. The amount of power and the control he had over it were absolutely stunning. Yet what he told her before he faded into the wind repeated louder and louder in her head as her mouth opened. "How, many?" She asked. Her voice was quiet but not a whisper. Yaoyorozu's eyes stayed focused on his and Zach stared her right back without hesitation at the question he was expecting; the question he had come here to answer.

"I don't know," Zach replied. "I lost count."

Yaoyorozu's eyes grew huge and she stared in disbelief at him. His eyes stayed on hers even as he wanted to look away to stop having to see her stare at him like that. Of course you would react like that. Others can overlook it. They can understand. Not us. Not me, and not you. Midoriya couldn't believe it either. You knew me best though. I never thought I would lose count, and I know you would never believe that I had lost count unless I told you myself. The person you knew couldn't lose count. He wasn't the kind of person who could. Or, he didn't think he was. I didn't think I was, Zach corrected the third-person way he was referring to himself from before. But I betrayed both of our images of myself. Losing track of how many people? That is something I believed to be unforgivable. And yet here I am, attempting to forgive myself.

"You…" Yaoyorozu started. She wanted to deny him, and yet looking into his eyes she could see that this was the truth. "You don't know how many?" Yaoyorozu whispered though, repeating it to herself as much as she was asking him.

"In the days after Wampajawa," Zach started to her. "I came to realize that I could no longer count. I tried, Momo. I tried to keep track of them all. But I failed. 'How many?' Hundreds. Several hundred… Maybe, a thousand?" Zach wondered it softer at the girl whose eyes bulged wider still at the possibility that he posed as if it were not that far-fetched to imagine.

"A thousand?" Yaoyorozu repeated hoarsely.

Zach hesitated for a second then nodded back at her. Telling her these things that I would always feel I was keeping secret from her otherwise, I'm proving I can tell her anything. Show her anything.

When he was sick and talked about Life City, and all those other charities, I knew there was a flip side, Yaoyorozu averted her gaze. She looked down to her right. Something he wasn't telling me. So much, that I knew he was still hiding. That he could say all those amazing things and still hurt as he was! I told myself that not every day was like Wampajawa. That he killed that day because it became necessary, in order to save his Army… But a thousand? Even, hundreds. Hundreds is still…

"That power I just showed you is from them, and it's so much more now after killing Ares. Eziano's master. The stronger the person I killed, the more Death I gained," Zach said. He paused for a moment then added, "Not that I ever killed for that reason. I didn't kill Ares, just to get stronger. But, I am stronger now. Stronger for each man and woman that I killed… using my Quirk." Zach hesitated before finishing in that way, and Yaoyorozu flinched again as she thought about just how much bigger he would be including all his non-Death kills. In her head flashed dozens of people who he had killed in Wampajawa with his own two hands in ways that would not have made him any stronger.

Something Zach told her when he first returned to Japan echoed in her head, "But when I knew my enemies were in the wrong… when they wiped out villages and towns, kidnapped and enslaved hundreds, raped and murdered innocent women, and children… Then victory was most important. Not becoming my enemies, was less important the worse my enemies were, and there were some who I considered less men and more monsters." Yaoyorozu held her tongue and pursed her lips while trying to stare back in his eyes. I knew! I always knew, enough. Because I asked! I asked you all the way back then what you did to those you considered "monsters!"

"…I defeated them."

I knew you phrased that in order to keep from me the reality. Which could only mean that the reality was that you killed them. And yet in that one moment, I think some part of me decided to believe just a little in your stories about Terra. Does that make it better? That I thought they were people from a different world you were killing? Yaoyorozu did not know how to respond. She stared back into Zach's eyes again but continued to purse her lips as she stood there before him. You told me how bad what Fergus did was. The lab in Virginia. I've seen the slaves. Innocent children who you saved! How do I measure that, against the kind of atrocities you're suggesting? Were they justified? Can I truly believe, that every one was justified? I could!

Or… I thought I could. But if you can't remember the exact number? Yaoyorozu's face twisted and scrunched up in confusion. I could believe they were all deserved if you knew that number, Zach! If you knew the exact number then- then I could believe you! I could believe in you, if you could have just told me that. Her eyebrows curled upwards and she lowered her gaze from his face again. "How did you forget?" Yaoyorozu lifted her head and asked him.

"I was ambushed. My forces were killed and I- I couldn't bring back my friends that time. I stood surrounded by hundreds of enemies. And I killed them all, because I couldn't hold back." Zach paused for a moment then took a deep breath and continued to her, "We were in a desert. A sandstorm hit during the battle… during the massacre," Zach corrected himself. Call that a battle? They were still fighting when the storm hit! Not for long after though. His eyes darkened but stayed focused on Yaoyorozu's face instead of looking away as he again wanted to. "And when the storm passed, the sand had covered up too many of the bodies. I couldn't count them. And I realized that even if I could, I hadn't attempted to count for a few days now and, and two days earlier was Wampajawa, then Virginia the day after that was full of the scientists who I considered…"

"'Monsters,'" Yaoyorozu whispered out the word as she already remembered them talking about this. The ones he considered monsters would have included the researchers at the lab in Virginia that Zach had told her was the worst thing he had ever seen. Mr. Fergus took things from him. That's what he told me! What he saw in that lab was one, but what he did down there was another, wasn't it? Three days, and he was killing every single day. Every fight! But- but are all three of those justified? He said he was ambushed! But, but he called it a "massacre." And that lab was full of scientists. Were they even armed? Did they, even try to fight you?

"That day I lost track," Zach said. He could see the hurt look on her face searching for an excuse or reason she could latch onto to try and look past this. "That battle in the desert, it was supposed to just be recon. The two villain sides were supposed to be doing an arms deal that we were just spying on. Afterwards we were going to follow the different groups and make better plans to take down their operations, find out about the others they worked with, all of that. But my friend got sniped in the head. The other died as we fought together, and it was his second time. Then the body of my other friend was ripped apart, destroyed to an extent that I couldn't save her anymore… And even if I could, how could I start? Surrounded on all sides. Surrounded by over a hundred villains…"

Yaoyorozu was breathing faster as Zach described it in more detail and yet sounded so apologetic for what he was telling her. It sounded like he was talking about a horrible moment for himself and yet he was apologizing for letting her know it. He trailed off though rather than explain in detail what she could already imagine. His voice just became a soft whisper, "Hundreds of villains tried to kill me, and hundreds of villains died. I let some live though when they tried running from me," he added on at the end as if it was any better. Though I'm not sure why I decided to do it. Mercy? To spread fear? Or, something else? I don't know! I don't know.

"It was a trap for me," Zach said. "I didn't have any spies in the Army of Death, but they had heard that people who knew about the meet were arrested after the fall of Wampajawa. They knew that I was coming, and I didn't prepare well enough. People like them," Zach continued in a lower voice. It was serious and his eyes stayed locked on hers, though he sounded like he was admitting guilt here. "They were usually the types I would arrest. I would give them to their own countries to judge and pass justice on. I failed as Death that day though."

Zach confessed to the girl who stared at him with much wider eyes. He was not talking about this in any way excusing what he did as just something he had to do because of the way things were out there. He sounded like he was apologizing, as he told her, "It was one of the few times I wasn't able to control my emotions. I couldn't hold myself back. One of the only other times that happened, was when I murdered the Somalian pirates who were raping Darling. Or, close to…" Zach's face twisted and his eyes narrowed in rage for a moment as he thought of entering that room where her pants were ripped off and the men… His eyes flared red then slammed shut as he forced himself to calm down.

"I massacred the ambushers in the Tusukan Desert," Zach whispered, his eyes opening back up and shifting to their usual shade. "I don't know exactly how many died, how few escaped, but it was two days after Wampajawa, and I hate that from that day on the Army of Death meant a lot more for villains. I wanted to believe that it was Wampajawa that dissuaded them. Or the fall of the Shadow Bosses. But villains were finally dissuaded. I heard rumors of what Death had done, rumors that villains screamed at others were just exaggerated, when in reality? The many times I heard them, I actually heard people under-selling what I had done. All I had been doing. And it scared villains. And it decreased crime around the world."

"That April as we caught more villains than ever, even while actual villain incidents dropped off a cliff? They were terrified of me. Hiding from me. They were running as fast as they could, as far as they could, and they were right to fear me in that way. Because as much as I want to leave that life in the past, and just let the results speak for themselves, my Quirk won't let me." Zach finally looked away for a moment from the woman staring in his eyes in front of him. "It forces me to remember everyone I've killed. I can feel all this power inside me, and it haunts me knowing how I got it. Every second of every day, I feel the power from all the people I've killed. How many dozens in Wampajawa? In Virginia? A hundred in Tusukan? Or was it two? Two fifty? I just don't know. It was too many though. Too many to just move past. Too many to try to forget and move on from. Far too many, to try and hide from you."

Zach finally stopped. He finished his thought and took in a breath before turning back to look in her eyes. She stared back and froze at the look he gave her. I need to say something. What can I say? She gulped and found her mouth too dry to speak. Yaoyorozu's chest pounded, because she wanted to say something. She wanted to speak up, tell him… What can I tell him? Yaoyorozu was at a loss for words. I can't just- I can't say it's okay! How could I just accept this? I don't know why you told me this! I wish you hadn't, because it's not something I can just get behind you for! I can't support you over this, or just forgive you for it…

"I've told you everything now," Zach continued to the girl who was struggling too much to find a way to respond to what he had told her. Sorry, but I'm about to make this even harder on you. Zach was apologizing even as he took in another deep breath. "You once told me I never have to force myself with you. I know that. I showed you that because I wanted there to be nothing you didn't know. So that there's nothing left to keep me from telling you…"

"I love you, Momo."

"Wh-" Yaoyorozu's breath forced out from her lips. Her eyes trembled as they grew huge from the serious look on his face that did not waver on that statement. The campus never sounded more quiet as she stared forward in shock. What? Telling me the truth, so things are back the way they were before? I- I know that's what you were doing but… "I- ah, hahh, ahh," Yaoyorozu hesitated as she started to speak. She stared forward shaken, stunned, and she had to take a few breaths as she tried to speak without getting her voice back first. He loves me? You love me? Yaoyorozu stared into Zach's eyes, her own still full of shock at the statement that came out of nowhere. She was in no way or form ready for it.

She quieted her own breathing as he spoke up and interrupted the silence, "The main reason that I never said back on Inazuma for why I could never be with Airi, was because I was still in love with someone else. 'Still,' because I just never said it before, but that didn't mean it wasn't true. I loved someone before I left. Someone I had decided to leave but never lost feelings for." Zach stared softly into the light gray eyes of the astonished girl in front of him. "I abandoned you for a purpose, but I never thought about how much that hurt to do, because it would distract me from my missions. So I never got closure. I never moved past it, not like you could."

Yaoyorozu's eyes opened even wider as he said that to her. "But now as I'm back and I can finally find closure, I don't want to. I'm here, I came back, and we started drifting apart," Zach said with his eyes closing a little in a sadder way though in a way also in acceptance that it had happened. "I thought I was fine with it. You were there for me, and things were different between us, and I knew it was fine. I thought it was deserved and that there was nothing I could, or should do. We had turned into different people. Which is why," the corners of Zach's lips lifted back up slightly and his head tilted up as well. "I feel like I've fallen in love with you all over again. Even though I never stopped loving you in the first place."

"I…" Yaoyorozu stopped but then lifted her gaze and stopped staring in so much shock. Breathe! She took in a deep breath and steadied her racing heart. Her lips were flat and she stared back in Zach's eyes as strong as she could and with as calm an expression as she could manage in this situation. "I don't know what to say," she started. What do I say?! Yaoyorozu found a good line as a place-holder for a few seconds as she came up with something else.

"How about you?" Zach asked her. Her eyes that she just got to calm down opened wide again and her bottom lip lowered as well at the question.

"That's too, sudden," Yaoyorozu whispered back at him, strengthening her volume at the word 'sudden' as she had lost her voice for a second. "You can't just throw it on me like that."

"When I look forward to that future, a future of a beautiful and amazing life," Zach started to her ex-girlfriend whose jaw closed and whose face actually started looking frustrated here. She closed her eyes though and clenched them shut as he said softly to her, "I always see you there, smiling at me. Your smile, your radiance, it stayed with me through everything and I never forgot it. The things I was fighting for…" The peaceful world I imagined, was the future that Monoma told me was possible.

That possible future I imagined when I got on top of the Sports Festival stadium and stared out on the day of my revival, Zach thought while he stared at Yaoyorozu's face. He imagined what he had seen in the sky that day after he died taking a shot meant for her. A future that Kaminari destroyed. I knew it was possible though. That was the beautiful life I knew other people could have. It was the basis for why I fought. What I fought for! A life where you smile at me, and one that can never happen if I don't tell you it now.

Yaoyorozu was struggling with how to react to him. Her heart was still racing as much as she tried to calm it, and she pursed her lips in frustration as he looked at her like that. "I- how do you expect-" Yaoyorozu stopped herself and looked away from those earnest eyes staring back awaiting her answer. Then she looked back at him though and she maintained eye contact, He left. You left me! "You left, for a year!" Yaoyorozu called out at him. "And, and you're right. I did move on! I had to… You were gone for a whole year, Zach. Then you wouldn't see me for another 5 months? And then you lied to me!" She exclaimed that as if it was bigger than the other two things, but for her at the time when Zach had done it, it really had been. As much as him not seeing her when she would visit Tartaros hurt her, hearing him lie to her face when she knew the truth had been a nail in the coffin. I know why he lied though. I know that it was hard- but that doesn't change how I feel! I lost those feelings. I did. It was too long!

She shook her head then said softer, "You can't just show back up, a different-"

"Do you really think I'm a different person?" Zach asked. He did not look crushed by what she was telling him. Rather, he looked like he expected at least this much, but Yaoyorozu still looked away after a moment when he stared expectantly at her with that question lingering in the air.

Is he different? "I don't know," Yaoyorozu whispered while facing away. Her eyes pointed down towards the ground, So much of what he has told me in the past months, and what I have seen him do, makes me think he's the same. But those things you just told me? Not being able to count? Killing unarmed people? "Massacring" them? Her eyes rose up and she looked at the man in front of her. She stared at a person so covered in scars, and she wanted to believe that it was all justified. Her eyes lingered on the red marks around his neck. I want to believe that it was really a different "world" for you, but- But!

Yaoyorozu bit down and her eyes shifted back towards Zach's face. She was a hero. She stared at him and her face filled with frustration at the doubts she was having. As much as I trust him, I'm still a hero! "I'm a hero, Zach," Yaoyorozu started. Her voice was steady and louder now. She shook her head again and looked away, "How am I supposed to, ignore all you've told me? I don't know how to measure it. I don't!" She looked back up and into his eyes that flinched but stayed focused straight on her. She saw the hurt in them as she told him that, and it made her own squint and lower down away from his for a moment. "How do you expect me to react after hearing that?"

"I told you the worst things," Zach whispered back. "And I will answer anything you ask me, truthfully. That's why I told you."

"Those worst things…" Yaoyorozu stopped herself. Don't stop! He's not lying, but that doesn't mean everything's alright!

Her eyes rose up. "I don't know, Zach. You were right though. I did have that time. I, never did to my mind, what you did to yours. So it may feel like you're just picking back up where we left off," her lips pursed and she shook her head side to side once. She let out a sharp breath at the hurt look on his face as she said it, but she whispered her rejection, "I did move on though. I did." Yaoyorozu took a step backwards. I can't do this. Her chest tightened but she kept her hands down at her sides rather than lifting them over her heart. I know I got over him. Time he never had!

"Okay," Zach whispered back. He nodded at her and still managed to keep a smile even as she stepped back from him. I just needed to tell her. I had no expectations. I, I didn't think it would go any differently… Of course I didn't, expect that… Zach forced the smile to show her that it was fine.

"I need time to think, Zach," Yaoyorozu said softly back towards him. She could see in his eyes a sadder look of rejection than he was hoping to let show on his face. Her eyes shifted away, as she thought, I've always been able to read you- No! I haven't! If I was able to, I would have seen that day coming!

"I just needed to tell you," Zach said, and Yaoyorozu stopped herself.

Why? Why now? "You aren't, leaving-"

"No, nothing like that," Zach assured her, holding up both hands defensively and giving her a serious nod to show he meant it. "I just thought… Well, I wanted to tell you. You've been the closest person, or one of the closest people to me, since the first week of school. I wanted- I just wanted you to know. There are other things I want to tell you too, but I needed to get those out there first. The two most important things." I need to tell you about All For One. My worst fears. Kaminari. I still, have more I want to tell you. Maybe I should have confessed last. I don't know what I'm doing though. I rushed this. There's no time! I had to.

"I… I need time to think, Zach," Yaoyorozu repeated softly, her eyes shifting away as she said it. I can't just talk to you like things are normal right now. After what you just told me?! How am I supposed to- "Just, time to process this. I'm sorry-"

"There's nothing for you to apologize for," Zach countered quickly, throwing his hands back up again. "It was out of nowhere. I- I'll give you, space…" Zach lowered his arms and he backed up himself. We have the same walk back to the dorms. I can't even go a different direction acting like- oh man, I made this awkward.

Yaoyorozu winced in the cringe that she felt as well while stepping back again and nodding. She wanted to tell him he could walk back with her, but she also did not think they could talk right now, or she knew that she couldn't at least. She finally just turned and started walking back herself, her eyes locked down on the floor in front of her feet as she left the Training Ground alone. Her heart ached as she left him behind back there, but she shook her head back and forth at that feeling.

How was I supposed to respond?! Seeing him turn into that giant wasn't as- I expect stuff like that from him! And why not him confessing? Yaoyorozu shook her head around and closed her eyes while continuing to walk back across campus. He's been spontaneous before. The night he first told me how he felt, I wasn't as surprised- When he leaned in… Yaoyorozu rose her right arm and rubbed it across her closed eyes that she squinted back open. Her eyes focused on her own feet that she forced to keep moving, just as she was keeping her body pointed forward instead of looking back in what was sure to be awkward if he was trailing behind to the same dorm…

He just told me that he's killed hundreds of people! I already knew that though! I knew, he was at war, Yaoyorozu grabbed the sides of her pants and bit down on her bottom lip in a mixture of frustration and confusion. It was just too sudden. But even if it wasn't, my response wouldn't have changed, would it? No. No, it's not just okay. He can't just say that and think… what was he thinking? I don't know! But of everything he told me he did that it's so hard to believe he could do, the same Zach from after he came back couldn't have told me that stuff. But the Zach from before he left couldn't have told me about "Terra." Is he different then from a few months ago? Right now he just told me the truth! So doesn't that mean he's back?!

Even if he was gone. Even if he was different! He's back now… but now it's been too long! Is that it? Her hands curled into her sides harder and her shaking eyes snapped up to stare down the road ahead. Her head shifted partially to the side and she glanced backwards, but there was no one following after her. Yaoyorozu's eyes darted down then back around to in front of her as she kept walking. If he's back now. Then he's really back this time? It's different. Because, why else would he be telling me? Why now? Right before school is over?

He didn't explain to me why, so he must be hiding something more- but he wanted to talk about that. He wants to, explain it all… But I know it won't change my answer. Yaoyorozu's eyes watered and her heart clenched up too much that this time she had to raise up her right hand to her chest. She squeezed over her large breasts and dipped her chin down with her eyes squinting and full of water. I don't know exactly what his plans are, but I see him staring out the window so thoughtfully every day as if ready to go somewhere else again. The things he just told me tonight, they don't include that one thing I wish he would tell me. The one answer…

Yaoyorozu froze. Her heart rate spiked and her right hand loosened over her chest as her eyes bulged. Does my answer, affect his answer to that final question I have? What if he didn't tell me that last thing I want to know, because he doesn't know the answer yet… Because of me? I don't know. I didn't think, after all this time, he still cared that way. "Love?" He loves me? Her hand re-tightened over her chest and her other hand moved up too and squeezed over the first one. I don't know what to think. Confusion covered her face, and she gasped out before continuing to walk back for her dorm in a heartache.

Zach sat on top of a light-post neat the edge of campus. He was closer to the exit gate in the back of the campus that had the large steel walls up. There were cameras on both the inside and outside, and Zach stared at the cameras on the inner posts of the wall. His eyes glowed red like the red blinking lights on the cameras. These were the gates that he had left for the final time before disappearing for what he thought would be for good. He sighed out a breath that was visible despite the fact that it was not cold enough for that. He watched the black steam float in front of his face then fade away. His red eyes narrowed at it then dimmed and shifted back hazel before he closed them.

Could have been worse. She has so much reason to scream at me. Hate me like Jirou did. She doesn't though. She's never even gotten mad since I got back. Not really, Zach lifted his gaze up to stare at the moon. It was obscured behind clouds though and his heart sank as he could not see it. He glanced over his shoulder instead, but the campus was too large and the road too winding to see far enough down it. She was there in the hospital. Right next to the bed. I thought… His head bowed and he turned back to the gate at the back of campus. What did I think was going to happen? She'd just forgive me? Forget about years where I decided she meant nothing to me and just, just what? I don't know. Maybe, I should have started slow. Start over… I don't want to start over. It didn't feel like we started over when I came back. It was like stepping back in my shoes. The easiest time it was to do that, was with you. But that was also fake. Pretending to be Zach, was a lie to you. And that's what killed us.

Or I just did. Zach slouched on top of the curve of the street light that he was sitting on top of. The light was pointed down at the street and so only what shone around the top hit him and covered him in a dark shadow despite the fact that there was no Death around him. I just screwed it up. The best thing I ever had in my life. I left for a reason. Purpose. That was good. Not for me, but for everyone else. The best thing I ever had was her. And now, I think I might have ruined my last chance to be with her after telling her all that. If I'd just split up those two confessions, would it have been better? Why'd I have to say it all at once? Stupid. At least, she seemed more upset that I said I loved her. Did she? Or did I just not give her enough time to process the first part?

At least she looked upset about having to hurt my feelings. So I know she doesn't completely hate me, Zach cracked a small sad smile and lowered his eyes down past his legs to the floor fifteen feet below. We were in a good place with each other. I could have left things like that. I chose not to. His head tilted back and he stared up at the dark clouds high above. He put his hands down on the cold steel of the light's curved bar under him, and he leaned back while letting out a long sigh. I wonder if I'll regret that. It's hard to tell, but… The corners of Zach's lips lifted slightly more. It feels nice, just knowing I told her the truth again.