A/N Hey guys. Sorry for the long update. Moved into a new place. Started working as a ski instructor. Nonstop training and shadowing different teachers. I have long work weeks and longer certification courses to try and increase my pay moving forward. Update speeds are naturally gonna slow down there. And especially during holiday breaks where I used to post the most; ski seasons are most busy during everyone else's vacations. Anyway, I'm glad to get another chapter out. Hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia
Chapter 240:
"…Take the west flank. And Koda, keep eyes on Present Mic and Cementoss senseis. Let us know of any changes in their positions."
"Zach," Ashido started in a whisper just like Zach was speaking in. "Couldn't you… I mean, not that I don't think we should all do this," Ashido lifted the right corner of her lips up higher. "But are you just messing-"
"I'm going to be distracted. They don't plan on letting me graduate that easily," Zach countered the pink girl in the team of four who looked back at him in surprise as did Koda and Todoroki. Todoroki looked at Zach questioningly to check if their classmate was not just lying to them, but Zach continued in a serious tone, "I'm certain they have brought someone in who I revived in order to 'surprise' me with an enemy I've revived before. I don't know who it is yet, but in order for them to feel they've really tested me it will be an actual difficult task. I'll pretend to be caught off guard, then I'll join Todoroki on the west flank while leaving a decoy to fight my enemy. If Present Mic and Cementoss move, Koda give us a signal to change up the strategy. If not, we'll make the push straight through to the goal in record time."
Ashido grinned again. As much as she thought Zach had just been making this strategy for the heck of it when he could just plow straight through all their teachers' defenses, she thought the plan was an amazing idea anyway. Neither of the other boys suggested making a strategy either when they got ready for the final part of the practical exam which was a sudden joint exercise with a randomly selected number of comrades and randomly picked comrades at that. The idea was that they would be thrust into many situations just like it where they did not know what the fight would look like beforehand, who they would need to work with, and they would need to strategize and act in the moment. They had just been put together and thrown into the zone with the specifics of why they had "been called on" for this incident, and they were given a picture that the "cops" initially on the scene caught "on surveillance," though it only showed them a basic layout of part of the zone as well as two of their teachers dressed as villains.
Outside of the zone, thirteen others in Class A watched the two exams that just started simultaneously. They doubted their own exams would look anything like these two groups,' but they were still watching carefully for both clues on how they had to act in their next and final test, as well as just to cheer on their classmates. "No handicaps this time," Mineta noted as he looked at the teacher-villains on the security cameras.
"There they go," Jirou said, watching as Zach's group split up. Ashido ran to the right while Todoroki shot left. Koda cupped his hands to his mouth and yelled upwards. Zach jumped up in the air and flapped a pair of black wings behind him. He shot forwards rapidly towards the goal directly. And then out of the sky above him dropped a shadow that slammed into his dark body and dropped him back into the stone floor below. Jirou's eyes shot open wide, "Who is- whoa!"
Midoriya darted his gaze over to the other screen from the one with Iida and Bakugo on it. He darted a gaze over then back to his other friends he assumed would have more difficulty, then his eyes snapped back as he recognized the hero standing in front of Zach when the dust settled. The man leapt backwards and created a twelve foot gap between them. He stared down at the boy who was tall at six foot two but still a few inches shorter than he was. The Korean hero put his hands down on his hips and narrowed his gaze villainously at the student who smiled back at the man who had been crushed by a falling plane he had caught a month ago.
"Wonder Man," Zach said with a nod at the foreign hero who his school called in to assist with his final exam. It was strange they had not called anyone to actually take me on during the previous days. Star-Spangled Man is busy. Wonder Man makes the most sense. I almost just said his name to the others but that would have made them think I had actually known, or that I was cheating, listening in to the teachers. Eavesdropping when I really wasn't. I just made the connection. Predictions.
"It is good to see you again, Lifebringer. Or should I call you Sazaki right now, as it is not determined whether or not you can be a hero yet?!" Wonder Man rose his voice in an attempt to be combative. He took his hands off his hips and then could not hold a villainous grin any longer to instead smile in a more pleasant way towards the student he was going to try his hardest to stop from getting any farther.
"Call me whatever you like. I look forward to working more with you in the coming years, Wonder Man," Zach replied with a respectful nod back at the older pro whose eyes widened for a moment. Then he grinned even more at the boy who responded like that.
Wonder Man bent his legs but darted his eyes around for Lifebringer's classmates as well. He saw Lifebringer rush forward fastest so he knew they had some time, but he also predicted the student had made some other plans. Yet as he tried to focus on the U.A. final exams and watching out for those other world-famous teenagers, his eyes shifted back to the darkness swirling around Sazaki directly ahead of him. His mouth opened as he prepared another remark back in a villainous persona, but instead he said, "Thank you. For Muindo."
"No clue what you mean," Zach replied while nodding back in acknowledgement but a way telling Wonder Man never to speak those words again. The silent message passed even with Wonder Man's eyes bulging once more, for both the response and the realization of what he just told that teen he knew in the first place. It was something he felt he never had the opportunity to say in China and had been eating away at his subconscious for too long, but the time to think about that ended as suddenly as it began. Zach's body exploded with Death and erupted twenty times his size before slamming forwards at a rapidly overwhelmed Wonder Man.
Out of the darkness shot a figure to the left behind some obstacles already blocked by clouds of Death keeping them out of sight. Zach slipped away to Todoroki, then he turned his head up and motioned towards the goal for the birds that flew around in two circles then sped back to Koda without giving him or Todoroki a warning about their enemies.
There could be other teachers in hiding. Glad that we split up in this way. They could be moving for Mina. That's why she's over on her own though. The most nimble, I have faith that she's fine and will be able to dodge any sudden attack. Others who are impervious to Death could be here as well, and Wonder Man is just to make me think they've shown their trump card. Even Star-Spangled Man might have actually shown up. Don't take anything off the table. Zach crouched and sped forward on Todoroki's right side. "Move in," he said, his voice slightly scratchy though his body was losing the last of the black veil on it. Todoroki nodded in agreement, though he could not help but look over Zach and back for a few seconds towards the black cloud that was fighting against a powerful hero who he had lost sight of inside it.
Midoriya looked back at the screens he was more focused on with the other exam starting up. It's Zach. He knew Wonder Man was coming. Or, he at least knew something- maybe he was just prepared for it. Or he just adapted in the moment. I never doubted he'd win.
"Focus, Yaoyorozu!" Bakugo shouted to his left in annoyance as they started running to their positions after Iida made a plan. He was annoyed to take the back seat on it as he just wanted to rush forward with them guarding him, but Iida denied that plan talking about how the teachers were expecting it after all. Their situation was more delicate as well than another exam going on simultaneously. And Bakugo wondered if that was why he was stuck with both class representatives: just to see if he could handle listening for once and following their play calls. Iida had been the one to make most of the strategy though, and they were all following it, and Yaoyorozu was even running exactly where she was supposed to be going.
Her head rose in surprise and turned to Bakugo in confusion at why he shouted at her. "Rrr- If you're going to be distracted, don't get in my way!"
Yaoyorozu's eyes narrowed and her head pointed back forward. Her expression intensified. "I have no idea what you mean."
Class A finished their practical finals without issue. The teachers had no handicaps. They fought against groups of their students who often wound up in one-on-ones with their own teachers for the past three years. Even Principal Nezu's strategy could not stop the tag-team of Deku and Froppy who were the only two chosen for their practical, the smallest group of the day.
During the post-fight analyses, Ashido bounced up and down next to her former pro and their R-Rated teacher who had tried ambushing her during their practical, only for Ashido to escape every crack of Midnight's whip all while holding her breath to escape the pro's gas Quirk as well. All Might attempted to give advice to the supposed team leader as despite Ashido's amazing escape, Midnight had been close to catching her a few times. Zach's response had made both Midnight and All Might stare at him with much wider eyes though, as he argued, 'I was sure that Mina could get around Midnight sensei. She had worked closely with Midnight in the past and so was better prepared than anyone to evade her one-on-one.' The implication was that Zach assumed correctly which teacher would have been the one laying in wait on the eastern flank. He had picked his classmate best suited for that assumption based on their shared past and his trust in his friend.
Zach had not told any of his teammates about that prediction beforehand, but after he said it Ashido gave Zach a big hug for the praise and lack of any hesitation in how he claimed his trust in her ability. Midnight had to lean back as she saw that and even shook her head while she crossed her arms in a more amazed way. Even at this moment he builds up more trust as a team leader in the future, Midnight could see it when Zach countered their post-fight analysis by assuring his teammates and future colleagues that he had planned for every scenario and could be trusted to lead them again in actual dangerous situations. Whether he had actually made that prediction or if it was a lie was beyond the point. His actions were in no way affecting his grades at this point, but he clearly cared more about those future incidents that this exam was just training for in the first place, a training which he took seriously enough to actually consider it as such. She chuckled to herself, thinking, I doubt he cares at all about whatever grade we give him.
Did you decide to stay then? All Might wondered towards his student who he was still unsure about. Become a hero of Japan and fight alongside your classmates against the villains still lurking here. I know you can do it, Sazaki. And I believe it is the best move for you. No matter what others may think you should do, or what they will tell you, I believe that the hero's path is the correct path even for you!
Bet if Zach told her to jump she'd be five feet off the ground before she even questions why, Jirou thought while sitting down on a bench behind some of her other classmates. She lifted the left corner of her lips up after the thought though and looked away from the two ahead of her. Mina trusts him more than anyone. I don't get that. Even if I can forgive him, I just… Jirou lifted the other corner of her lips too while she continued looking away from Zach. She chuckled to herself and then glanced back up and towards his back. Oddly enough, maybe I can trust him too. She laughed to herself and shook her head thinking of him dragging her bed out of her room without any warning the other night.
Jirou stopped chuckling to herself though and looked to the left as she spotted someone staring her direction. Her eyes filled with confusion at the uncertain way Momo was looking back towards her when Jirou had just been smiling. Yaoyorozu's eyes shifted back towards Zach then to the floor herself, then she lifted her head with a steady expression back on her face and turned to discuss results of the exams with the others around as well. Jirou tilted her head to the side though as she watched her best friend get back into it without pause, fully focused on schoolwork and… Something's wrong. Jirou thought of the one look she saw on Momo's face and it frustrated her that she could not place it. Momo was happy yesterday that things were better between us. Of course she'd still be happy about that though. Something else? Maybe she's just getting nervous now that the finals are done and we're actually… that's not right. She was looking towards me and then at Zach. "Hmm," Jirou tilted her head back and gained a more thoughtful expression. Sleuthing is a hero's job. It's not prying, or anything.
"Both classes?"
"Passed with flying colors," Principal Nezu replied to the man next to him whose expression was mostly hidden behind his large yellow helmet.
"Hmph, sure you didn't make it too easy on them?" Power Loader wondered. The two were in a dimly lit basement. The floor under their feet was made of cement as were the walls though they were also lined in lead.
"Considering their experience over these past three years, we did make the exams harder. Much harder than in past years. Just as last year's needed to be extra difficult to ready our students for the harsh reality of the Age of Villains," Nezu said. His voice remained steady, and yet both of them remembered the blonde valedictorian of the year before who their hearts pained for. At the thought of Fantasma too, Power Loader's expression hardened and his head rose to stare into the darkness of the room ahead of them.
"Finished the last batch today," Power Loader said. "Just in time…" His eyes shifted to the right and down at the shorter principal whose ominous warnings about their potential timetable had scared him into barely sleeping at all recently.
Nezu nodded his head. "Let us hope not. I may be wrong. I pray that I am." His little beady eyes narrowed into the darkness of the room as well. Then he looked up at the ceiling, and he wondered, "How long would it take to deploy them?"
"I tried to upgrade the response system, but the security in keeping this place off the grid makes it difficult to easily access wirelessly." Power Loader stared into a room not dim because of some intention of being mysterious or making the place look as sketchy as it appeared, but only as lit as it was because illuminating it more was an impossible task. Only three of us know about this room. Underneath a school… It's immoral. We're immoral.
"The final exams today proved that our next generation is capable of so much," Nezu said to his colleague and subordinate who had an uneasy look on his face as they stared down their own creations. Deku's One For All has grown more powerful than All Might's and is still rising. And his ingenuity in solving problems in ways I do not expect despite not being capable of the same kind of mental manipulations as Sazaki and Raijin have is amazing. Just like him though, Shigaraki's Decay, Raijin's mental control and Electrification, they are things that can get past my preparations. They are things I constantly worry about. Possibilities I must prepare for in every way if I cannot pinpoint the exact way that this next and largest attack will occur.
"If we're not training the students with these then we can't make any more," Maijima said. His voice was dark and he spoke in a low voice even though no one else but them were around. Ishiyama only made this space stable. He has no idea what we're using it for. He wouldn't doubt the principal though. He wouldn't come to check in, just for the hell of it… Power Loader psyched himself out even as he was arguing about how Cementoss would not come down here. The fact that he was afraid of his own colleague showing up and seeing this made the pit of guilt rise back up inside his stomach. His face looked like he was about to retch as he muttered, "I even had Mei help me."
Nezu lowered his gaze down at that regretful voice of the man he had asked to help him. Power Loader's eyes shadowed over and he said in a low voice, "I don't know if I'll be able to recover, morally, from that." These aren't tools to assist the students. Maijima stared out over the machines in front of him that looked all the more menacing in the dim light of the musky basement. Shadowy figures that he had built so powerfully and which all looked to be staring right back at him now. I had my own student, my favorite student! I'll admit it. She's a Goddamn genius. And I had her unknowingly use that genius to build us… weapons.
"Raijin stole our ANT's," Nezu said in a low apologetic voice to one of his teachers. Power Loader looked back and then at the floor as it was this very reason that he had agreed to this morally questionable task in the first place. "And I am certain the boy has advanced upon them to make them stronger and stronger. Our own countermeasures to the villains' bio-weapons have given our enemies technological superiority. Or so they will believe," Nezu said in a more stern and fully determined voice without the hesitation that Power Loader spoke with. His own confidence on that made Maijima ease back too and nod in agreement with the much smarted man next to him.
"I have installed the data from the fights of our students against the prototypes of these Intel-ANT's. Their training has powered-up these new Intel-ANT's while these robots have made the students stronger at the same time. Parallel in their growing strength. And although we cannot make any more of these weapons," Nezu said, speaking the word aloud that made Power Loader hold back from wincing. It was something he had consciously decided to do, and he had to stick by his decision now. "What we have built here will save many lives on the day that they make their move, should we fail to find them first. A greater success will be never needing to deploy this arsenal. Self-destructing all of them and burying them here. However, I cannot take that risk this time. Not with what is on the line."
Power Loader grit his teeth and nodded his head. Nezu rose his dark gaze from the floor in front of him and stared at the line of 15 Intel-ANT's directly in front of them. He turned his head away and walked back with Power Loader hesitating another second before turning too. They looked away from the line of 15 weaponized super robots, and the line of just as many behind them, and the line behind that, going back deep into the dark room towards some distant wall…
"Hahhhh. MMmmmeeeehhh- ahhhh… Nnnsss, ahhhh…" Raijin breathed calmly and deeply in the middle of a room with six walls. He turned and looked left and right at the discarded ANT's he designed himself to try and kill him. They were deactivated around him on the floor and sparking still. As hard as I try. No piece of modern technology can exist without electricity. There is no Raijin-proofing that I could develop, which means the damn mouse won't be able to either.
"Raijin, sir!"
Raijin turned and looked up towards a speaker on the wall near the doorway to this training room. Dice's voice came through after he called out to the eighteen year old executive of the League of Villains, "Come to my lab! I would like you to see the finished adjustments to your gear."
A smirk spread over Raijin's face. "Finished, huh?" What a stroke of luck. Kaminari headed for the door. He walked out into a rounded hallway dug by their contracted foreigner who Kaminari could faintly hear down below him digging out more tunnels at that very moment. I was already making new plans based off counters to a less favorable outcome. I couldn't blame the Doc. If it was impossible it was impossible. I couldn't figure it out myself, so I had little expectations. But I did have my hope.
The spiky-haired blond walked down a long tunnel. He passed by an outcrop of the tunnel and glanced in towards a group of twenty villains who were hanging out and eating together. They had the news on one of the televisions in the lounge area connected to one section of barracks. Kaminari glanced towards his old best friend whose picture was on the screen as it always was. Then he looked back forwards and continued going with a more smug look spreading over his face that shook the other villains who had looked out at him only to see him grinning at what the news was saying about Zach Sazaki.
"…you think it is a sign that the government and other heroes would allow Sazaki to get away with anything? They still plan on giving Lifebringer a pro hero license, which will grant him the protections under the law when he goes too far. And we all know that clause is going to be used frequently and with little repercussion to him-"
"If Lifebringer decides to go too far though, I think I would trust that he does it for a good reason. Like any hero! If he has a pro license, that will just make me believe even more in those decisions when the time comes and we have this argument about what he did to… Shigaraki Tomura?"
"We could only hope…"
Raijin continued to smirk as he headed away from that room which got too far that he could no longer hear the hosts. Had to bring them all underground. Can't risk them watching something like that up on the surface and running to the cops in fear.
You all think I brought you down here just to prepare? No. You're my prisoners. Pawns. Fucking tools. If you weren't all a bunch of cowards then maybe you would still have your freedom. Instead, you're sitting in nice little play-pens that I've had built for you. Cells. Paddocks, really. You can graze around in here with the illusion of freedom. Your feeble minds don't even understand your own captivity though. Imbeciles are less useful than a single ANT. But, keeping them around makes it easier to corral the more valuable ones. The mob mentality will keep them satisfied in the illusion as well, even if they would notice otherwise.
Raijin's smirk had gone away as he continued on towards Dice's lab. Dabi. Hypnos. Sonic. Rikiya. All cowards. So afraid of Zach. Not that they're wrong to be. It's frustrating because they're intelligent enough to be that afraid despite the power they hold. It's much more risky when the ones in charge are afraid. Shigaraki has Machia though. Re-Destro's 100 are devout to him and he's loyal enough to Shigaraki that his fear does more to aggravate me than risk losing him. Dread's too afraid of me to try anything. Splodo's confident enough to follow and believe. Sonic and Meta have seen what I do to those who falter. Worst that will happen is their flight should things go south. But Sonic won't risk Shigaraki's wrath as long as he still thinks we're winning…
He walked out into a much wider area than the hallway he was just going through. The Doctor's lab was across the wider and taller area that had a ceiling over a hundred feet high above his head. Raijin's presence made villains to either side move out of the way, though most were too focused to give him more than a second's glance. Off on his right side, Todo Viscucci yanked his right arm back and fired out of the wrist launcher towards a human-shaped target he hit right in the middle of its chest. The spike fired from his wrist launcher imbedded into the chest of the target, blinked twice with red light, then it exploded and the target blew apart. "Hey hey!"
"Whooo!" Morph spat out his cigarette and cupped his hands to his mouth to holler. "That thing is fucking sick!"
"I need one," Sheik agreed. She glanced to her right at a more muscular man with blond hair and stitched-up scars all over his exposed skin. "Doubt you feel you need it though, huh?"
The German's face twitched and then turned slowly towards the woman on his left who he smirked at. His body was larger than it was a week ago, and he cracked his neck to either side before humphing and responding in a low heavily-accented voice, "It is not necessary."
Diamondfist chuckled while lowering his wrist that he had just stared at with a huge grin plastered across his face. "Let's stack up as much as we can." Diamondfist glanced over his shoulder and towards the back of a blond teenager who walked past them. He tilted his head back with a smug expression at the sight of the kid's calm demeanor. His comrades glanced that way and their smug and confident looks faded more than Diamondfist's did. He looked back at them and said, "Against normal heroes, we're going to be unstoppable."
"And…" Rabbit began. He had cheered out when Diamondfist blew apart the target, but he was more anxious now. He looked hesitantly to the older man with spiky light-blue hair who he had been following lately since they left the forest base.
Rabbit did not need to ask the question on every villain's mind. Diamondfist grunted and looked away from him, and he said in a calm voice, "He'll be out of the way. Trust the plan…"
Far on Raijin's right, past villains closer to him and moving around supplies by hand or on trailers, a giant metal leg dropped down just past four men jogging by a stack of crates. One held out an arm to steady the crates that wobbled as the pointed leg pressed down into the ground with a loud Clank before more legs moved up behind it. Raijin lifted his gaze up into the darker shadows higher in the cave system where their artificial lights did not reach as high. He watched the shadowed silhouette of the massive mechanical creation move by, then it came to a stop where some mechanics down below were yelling into radios at the pilot who had brought it here for repairs.
"This plasma energy is soooo clean," Bitchess 'n Cream called out. She lifted up her rifle then pulled it back to her face and sniffed along the glowing green tube of the top of the barrel. She spun around then bowed her head gratefully towards a man with large glowing green forearms as well as huge spherical vats of the plasma energy in his shoulders. Her voice changed and she gave a softer smile to the doctor in a pair of glasses who had brown skin and a foreign face. "Thank you, Source."
"It is, only the start of my repayment for breaking me out of prison. I will owe you even more once Death is dead," he added, looking to his left towards Raijin who glanced their way as well.
Raijin smirked towards the Indian man once experimented on who had been captured by the Army of Death last year in Italy. Was a good thing keeping The Devil and his bitch Sly around after all. "I cannot wait for more repayment, Source." Vihaan Shah. That energy in his arms is as "renewable" as it gets. But rather than using it to power our army, focusing it for weapons is a much better use for him, for now. I've already siphoned enough for years, but now that excess may all be used at once. Who knows?
Bitchess continued to turn her head and watched as Raijin walked farther past them. She turned back as another member of the Radians fired off his plasma cannon, and DismemberMen's shorter body (showing parts of him were currently elsewhere), was knocked back by the recoil. The former cop still smirked though in a dangerous way as he stared towards the massive hole in the cement wall ahead of him that had melting outsides where the green liquid continued to drip.
DismemberMen turned towards the leader of the Radians who had been checking out their new plasma weapons as well. "With this we can free Carlos, Handork, and the others. Tartaros won't stand a chance."
"Tartaros comes next," Intanzo reminded his subordinate who frowned for a moment but then nodded in agreement back to him. Then Intanzo turned his head and narrowed his eyes after Raijin but grinned even as he did. He watched interestedly as the teenage boy walked towards a teenage girl who had just walked out around a corner and was heading towards him.
The teenage girl did not look like one. She walked seductively, even though her appearance was more plain. Her short brick-red hair and the crow's feet next to her eyes made her appear more in her thirties or forties than in her teens. It was not Enri Nikko who walked up to and past Raijin's side though, despite her appearance. Enri glanced inwards at Raijin, the two of them sharing a glare that bored into the eyes of the other. Toga smirked at that dark look Raijin gave back to her. They each just continued walking after barely missing bumping into each other, and both grinned even more after walking by the other person.
When Shigaraki no longer needs you…
Unlike Nikko, she really understands how much she's needed. She knows that I can't do anything to her. Even with the masks, her Quirk is still better than them all. But you're a stupid bitch. So, so stupid. In a world where villains don't have to hide, what use do any of us have with you? Your usefulness is just about up. Raijin chuckled under his breath as he walked through the rest of the massive cave towards another tunnel for the Doc's lab.
The boy formerly known as Kaminari Denki made his way to the lab of the Dissector, or "Dice." The door at the top of the stairs in the lab was cracked open already, and smoke was still coming out the top of it. Raijin glanced to either side of him before opening the door. There were scorch marks on the walls, and a couple of Jazz members were coming down the hall in his direction from the opposite way as the open cave area. Those Jazz villains had mops and buckets, which Kaminari felt was needed since other than the burns on the walls there was also some red and his feet had squished on something just outside the door.
Raijin opened the door the rest of the way then headed down into a lab that looked even more messed up than the last time he had been inside it. "More failures, Dice?!" Raijin yelled down as he headed down the stairs.
Dice stopped using the power-saw as Raijin's voice carried to him. He spun and lifted up the metal mask over his face he used for protection while carrying out his work. He had a cut on the right side of his face that did not look cleaned or bandaged at all. Raijin laughed at the sight of his disheveled but excited appearance. "Failures?! No- Well… yes, a few," Dice admitted as Raijin gave him a skeptical look and a nod towards the left side of the room where some human carcasses and husks were discarded.
Raijin slowed down after getting off at the bottom of the stairs too. He looked towards a body that was half-melted, and half wearing a set of white scrubs. He looked at the burnt-out face of an Indian doctor who he had brought there against his will. He actually frowned at the sight of him, and he asked before anything else, "What happened to Doctor Suresh?"
"Suresh? Oh! Ah, alright then let's begin with that. All of the 100 received the enhancements with a 100% survival rate. Which is remarkable! Considering the prevalent failures among Jazz, Radian, and even your own League volunteers." Dice explained.
"Hmph," Raijin nodded his head. "The ones who could already survive their trials had stronger wills then."
"It seems that way," Dice agreed. "However, it was Splodo who killed Dr. Suresh-"
Raijin's face twisted. A distortion formed on the young villain's face and his eyes darted towards the Doc whose eyes opened wide at that threatening look. Sparks came off of Raijin's fingers and he asked in a low voice, "Why wasn't I told that Splodo was taking part?" Splodo escaped Endeavor. He was a vital piece to this plan. Every powerful pawn is. Fuck. We had him undergoing enhancements as it was, there was no need for this! "That's a waste of-"
"It wasn't a failure!" Dice said quickly, shaking his head and then smiling ear to ear at Raijin's misunderstanding. Raijin rose up his eyebrows while looking back to Suresh's recently-killed body, then to a lot of the equipment used for the bio-engineering that all seemed damaged or completely-destroyed as well. "He exploded- or, rather, it seemed like he had exploded."
Dice stepped away from a bench where he was attempting to repair some of his equipment to keep working even in a lab barely suitable to walk around it anymore. Corpses and broken machinery lay everywhere, and the mad scientist walked up towards Raijin and explained in a gleeful voice, "His body erupted so powerfully it blew Suresh back and covered in burns. The horrific way in which he looks now, happened in an instant as the containment vessel blew apart. Blastoff seemed to have undergone a violent change similar to the effects of Double, though Apocalypse would have been a closer description in the way it killed him. And yet, that was only my initial analysis! It was amazing, Raijin. Even Intanzo turned in shock to see that Splodo was behind him."
Raijin's eyes opened wider at the sound of that, and Dice nodded rapidly in agreement with that reaction. "He had Blasted-Off so far forward in such an instantaneous moment, he likely burned his own body through the side of Dr. Suresh. It may have been the biggest success so far-"
"And why was it you failed to inform me that this was going on?" Raijin asked.
"Ah! Well, Splodo arrived personally with Shigaraki, who allowed it," Dice had more to say but he saw Raijin appeased by that explanation alone and relaxed himself after seeing the easing of the boy's expression. Dice continued, "Splodo initially was not intending to go for any extra enhancements. He was mainly relying on the tech boosts to try and kill Endeavor, yet when he saw how much more powerful Geten, Genial, and David became, he decided to risk it."
The three strongest of the 100. They were already dangers, but they all volunteered under Re-Destro's orders. All successes. And now Splodo as well. I saw The German has undergone treatments. Power acceleration this late in the game solidifies advantages on all ends. "Alright Doc, and what do you have for me?" Raijin wondered, refocusing towards the side of the room where the equipment was least damaged and where Dice ran back to in twice as much excitement as what he had just been talking about.
"Your armor and all your gear has been fitted to ideal specifications…"
"Did it fuse better with the machinery I provided-"
"It was magnificent!" The Doc interrupted, and Raijin was not even upset about it at the sound of that confirmation to what he already believed would be the case. "The problem wasn't in the idea but rather that we did not have the technology to create the kind of battle gear you wanted, Raijin, sir. But now… Even Virtucorp would be jealous. And all in this tiny cave! I am a modern day Da Vinci, if I do say so myself." Dice typed into a keypad on the outside of a huge steel safe that had protected the equipment inside from any potential problems caused by the other experiments going on in this lab. Dice opened the safe and continued softer under his breath but in an even more cheerful and yet deadly voice, "Or maybe Mengele. Who knows? Hehehe…"
An absolute psychopath. Makes him more trustworthy than most down here though. He'll have plenty to do when Tokyo is mine. I've offered all the hospitals in the city to be under his watch. The director of medicine for all the good people of Tokyo after Shigaraki takes the country. Dread wants the palace, and that's fine. Intanzo will take the prisons. Shigaraki wants the world, but he won't let me have all of Japan. That's disappointing. I'd kill him for it, but I'd rather wait and see how the whole war plays out. Dice though. Appeasing him is as easy as giving a child a lollipop. And it's much more productive. Give him a block of wood and he'll give back a crossbow. Give him a proper lab, or even a half-baked one, and he can turn a joke like the April Fool's Day Villain into a threat to Bakugo and Midoriya.
Though, AFO did give him the Quirks, but it was The Doc here who made it so his stronger body that survived mentally could withstand them. A non-Nomu, multiple-Quirked… prototype. The results were remarkable, and yet so many people just ignored what he did that day because Zach took the spotlight. Something I have to thank him for, Raijin smirked more while Dice opened the safe and then pressed some more buttons to get panels on the inside to slide out then turn to reveal what was on them. Raijin stepped forward while admiring the Doc's work, He's made other bioweapons, and he advanced the tech of the ANT's, helped with the Spiders' designs too. Even using the flesh of Aizawa Shota for some of his test subjects, working the very first time as it bonded to "Haruto." That would have been game over, if only all of the Nomus and bioweapons had inherited that trait. Some were failures who only got one or two of the intended Quirks. Others got more but lost functionality as humans completely, and as they could not understand and follow orders, they had to be terminated. And some just had their own Quirks advanced to new heights, which seems to be what may have happened to Keymar.
Dozens of low-class villains who are now super-powerful test subjects that Dice assures me are 20-50x as strong as average heroes. Picked from the scum and the lower gangs of Jazz, among which there were very few survivors. But those who did survive can now match those of the tier of the Liberation Army's 100. And yet none of that! None of those super soldiers, or Source's weapons, nor our army of robots, comes close to my own gear. To this. Raijin looked left and right. His eyes scanned over the materials before him while he grinned confidently and yet in a thoughtful way with his mind racing over their capabilities. "May I?" Raijin asked in an anticipating voice while examining the equipment that looked pristine and untouched.
"Here, allow me," Dice responded with a bow of respect. He changed his tone to a more formal one as if this was some special occasion, which to both of them it was. Dissector stepped to the panel on Raijin's left and he carefully undid two latches holding the gear up that he lowered down and held out flat in both arms in between him and Raijin. "Place your arm on here, then roll it," Dice suggested.
Raijin extended his left arm out and lowered it on top of the Doc's arms and what was laying over them. He rolled his forearm over it then rolled back the other direction after it stuck to him and fit perfectly around his skin. "Snug," Raijin commented, sounding pleased. He lifted his left arm up and turned it back and forth in front of his face.
"And this," Dice continued. Raijin lowered his gaze back from his left arm that he then lowered too with his smirk growing wider still as Dice held out a sheath in front of him.
The dagger was short and had a golden hilt sticking out of the black sheath. Raijin took the knife from the tall bald man wearing a blood-stained lab coat, rubber yellow gloves, and similarly-colored rubber boots that left bloody footprints everywhere he stepped. The younger man pulled the knife back in front of himself and grabbed the sheath with his left hand, the hilt with his right, and he pulled an inch apart. Raijin's eyes focused on the piece of the blade that became visible between the sheath and its hilt, and each corner of his lips rose up higher than the Doc's did.
"It's really all done," Ashido leaned back on her comfy chair and tilted her head up to the ceiling. Both of her hands were behind it and interlocked in her hair, and she smiled in an exhausted but relieved way as she let out another sigh of relaxation. "Hahh, that wasn't so bad," she grinned and then giggled to herself after saying it.
Uraraka glanced nervously at her pink friend. "We didn't get our grades, yet-"
"You did great, Ochaco," Jirou countered the brunette girl who appeared most nervous of the four of them in their pajamas.
They were hanging out on the second floor in a common area with windows looking out over the side of the building not far from their soft chairs. It was after dinner and the four girls who had ate together had been in no rush to go to sleep. Even though they all had hero work in the morning, one final weekend of internships, it was also their last Friday night in the dorms together. It was a sobering feeling once the rush and excitement and anxiety around the final exams was finished. No one in their class had mentioned feeling unprepared on any of the written tests, and despite how hard the practical exams were, they each felt confident in their performances or got encouraged by their classmates even if they had struggled. Uraraka actually relaxed too when she saw the encouraging looks on all three of the other girls' faces when she had been thinking back on the small mistakes she made as if they were much bigger until then.
"Thanks, Kyoka," Uraraka whispered back as she relaxed too. She eased more into her soft seat that she regretted not using more often in the past years. I'll miss these seats, the nostalgia filled her for a moment as well as some sadness as she glanced up at her friends. Her eyes lingered on Momo for a moment at a look she saw on their tallest girl friend's face, but she turned instead to the girl with the dark ponytail that was still tied-up unlike Momo's hair that had no tie in it and fell straight behind her back. Uraraka wanted to smile at the laid-back and happy look on Jirou's face that appeared as relaxed as Ashido's was, but it confused her too much as she thought about how Jirou looked just a week ago.
Uraraka was not the only one giving that kind of look to Jirou, though Ashido was smiling more about it as she looked to what Uraraka was already seeing. "So Kyoka," Ashido leaned forward in her seat and smiled to her side at the girl on her right. "Can you tell us what Zach did?" Jirou opened her half-closed eyes and lowered her soft smile down to flat lips at that question. Ashido bounced her eyebrows at her friend though who looked into her eyes back, "You and him are so cute now. He called you Kyoka even, it's adorable- hahaha," Ashido laughed as Jirou's cheeks got a little red from her friend's attempts at teasing.
"Shut up," Jirou mumbled. He's called you Mina for years. And Momo for longer… Jirou glanced to her taller friend who was also staring back at her and looking very interested to hear an actual response. That look from Momo made Jirou glance away, but she felt more obligated to answer when Yaoyorozu was looking at her like that who she thought she owed an explanation to. You tried to convince me so many times. And I just denied you all that time. "He just…"
"What?" Uraraka whispered, leaning forwards herself and staring at Jirou with wide eyes as she needed to hear this.
Jirou glanced back Uraraka's way to see how invested all of them were in hearing this. It relaxed her more and made her feel less tense about talking about it, thinking about how much the three girls around her cared to know this. "He really just apologized a lot," Jirou admitted. She was not whispering though her voice did remain soft. "Over and over again. And, I finally read his letter to me, where he apologized more," Jirou glanced to Momo and checked something only to look back down at the table between the four of them in a sadder way for a moment.
"Wasn't he already, apologizing? All that time?" Ashido wondered.
Jirou's sad look turned annoyed and her forehead scrunched. She lifted her head and looked to the pink girl with a frown, as she thought about how Ashido had tricked her in the joint training into getting secluded with Zach so he could do just that. She lost her frown after a few moments when Ashido leaned back thinking of the same thing. Jirou tilted her head to the side in admission. Then she looked up at the ceiling and continued in a quiet voice, "He explained a lot too. He told me all about, Airi, or 'Darling."
Jirou looked back towards Uraraka as she clarified that. Uraraka's eyes bulged as Jirou did though. Her jaw dropped as she was really surprised to hear that, and she wondered in a whisper, "Zach actually told you?" Back in the hospital when she first saw him, Uraraka remembered how Zach had sounded like he would never tell them anything about that girl. She got even more surprised though as she looked from Jirou to her other two friends at the table. Ashido and Yaoyorozu both seemed to already know about 'Airi.' The idea that all three of the others knew already and she did not upset the brunette who tried to hide it while looking away for only a moment. "What about," Uraraka started while looking back to Jirou, though she kept the other girls in view as well. "…what he did to her?"
Jirou shook her head though at the question. Ashido smiled brighter at the look on Jirou's face as she did that, though Yaoyorozu's eyes lowered down and she looked even more frustrated. Jirou locked eyes with Uraraka alone though and responded slowly, "…It's more like, what he did for her."
That makes so much sense! Ashido could not help it and had to look away to rub her eyes. Zach telling her about Airi? Genius! If I knew that was what it took, I would have told her ages… It doesn't matter! Not anymore. He made it in time!
Yaoyorozu bit down harder at Jirou's response to their friend's troubling question. Uraraka leaned back in her seat though with her huge eyes shaking for a few seconds. All the terrible things we assumed about it, we really were just wrong and none of us understood. Uraraka understood it easily, and she was not surprised by how easily she was coming to this understanding. She smiled and laughed once while her gaze lowered to the floor. Then she whispered under her breath, "Of course it was." Her smile went down a bit and she scolded herself, It's my own fault for making those assumptions. Why did I do that? I know Zach. I shouldn't have had all those misconceptions about him, when I was defending Zach about being the kindest person before. I thought I believed that, but I still thought he did some… some horrible things. Not that he didn't…
Ashido saw Uraraka's expression frustrated at herself for assuming bad things about Zach and also looking hesitant about forgiving him completely. It felt too serious for the relaxing hang-out session that they were having, and Ashido spun excitedly to Momo in a moment that made her taller friend ease back. "So! Momo!" Ashido got both of the other girls turning as well so now all three of them were looking at Yaoyorozu. "Has Zach popped the question yet?"
Yaoyorozu's eyes opened as wide as saucers. She stared in shock at Mina who smirked more at a look actually recognizing what she was saying. Jirou and Uraraka were more confused, though they were also interested in the way that Yaoyorozu reacted to it. "Zach, told you he was going to-"
"Eeee!" Ashido squealed and pushed down on the table as she popped out of her chair. She was too excited but quickly sat down as she said, "No! But I was hoping!" Ashido gulped and kept a smile though she was nervous by Yaoyorozu's more conflicted and hesitant expression. She continued towards her darker-haired friend, "I, kept bringing it up to him…"
Yaoyorozu had glanced away. She was hesitant to respond, and Ashido wondered back at her softly, "What did you say?" She was surprised and her chest hurt though really she just pouted as she had wished Yaoyorozu had said 'yes.' I kept bringing up last year's prom to Zach. We all know it's coming up, and this weekend is when people usually ask. I can't believe he actually did it though.
"I love you, Momo." "How about you?" "I… didn't know what to say," Yaoyorozu whispered quietly. Did Mina push him into saying it- no. He said it because he wanted to. Because he always- Yaoyorozu's eyes squinted and her fists curled over her knees. She leaned back into her seat, "What was I supposed to say?"
Ashido hesitated at that question but then leaned forward a little and suggested, "You could say 'yes.'"
"What are you talking about?" Jirou finally asked, and Uraraka looked back at her and nodded her head fast in gratitude that someone asked.
"Say 'yes?'" Yaoyorozu whispered. She looked up and into Ashido's eyes. Accept his feelings? It's not that easy. "We aren't even dating-"
"You don't have to be," Ashido started, interrupting her friend who frowned more and still looked away in a guilty way. Ashido pushed a little more though, "I know you rejected Nagiso senpai's offer, last year-"
"I've told you, it wasn't because I… still," Yaoyorozu hesitated and then looked back at Jirou apologetically as her best friend was starting to frown at her. Both Ashido and Jirou were struggling to catch up to the conversation here, and Yaoyorozu explained, "Zach told me how he feels. And, he asked how I feel…" Yaoyorozu looked back towards Ashido and looked confusedly at the pink girl whose eyes just bulged and her jaw dropped as far as it could. Oh no, Yaoyorozu thought with a half-smile and a sweatdrop, processing this current situation too quickly. She was already looking down and lifting a hand to her forehead for a facepalm before Ashido could finish figuring it out.
Uraraka looked confusedly back at Ashido while her eyes were still huge, and Ashido looked to her and said in a giddy but hoarse voice, "I thought Zach asked her to the dance." Ashido could barely hold back her laughter, though it was easier because of how anxious she was about this entire situation.
Jirou was still staring in surprise towards Momo though, yet she was not as surprised as either of the other two girls considering that she and Zach had talked about it beforehand. "What did you tell him?" Jirou whispered, and the other two looked back quickly towards their class vice rep. Ashido leaned in anxiously, while Uraraka was just staring in surprise. Jirou met eyes with her friend who lowered her hand back down as she got over the fact that she brought this conversation up herself by not clarifying Ashido's question first.
As she looked in Jirou's eyes Momo wondered to herself, Did I misunderstand intentionally? I haven't had anyone to talk to about this. You're my closest friends. Yaoyorozu took in a deep breath and then leaned forward herself in a nervous way as she whispered, "I didn't know how to respond. He, said that he loves me."
Ashido had a brief moment of hesitation flash over her face. She did not want to interrupt, but Yaoyorozu noticed her flinch and nodded for her to bring it up. Ashido rose her right hand carefully and mentioned, "Zach does say, pretty often, how much he loves us-"
"He said, 'in love,'" Yaoyorozu specified. She did not need to clarify any further, as Ashido was only halting just in case there was a small chance this was another misunderstanding. She already doubted that anyway though since this was something she had believed in for a long, long time. Mina pursed her lips to keep from smiling wide, as well as to keep from saying anything else as she just nodded fast at Yaoyorozu to continue.
Uraraka nodded slowly as well with amazed eyes at the boldness Zach apparently had in confessing to Momo. What would he be afraid of? All that Zach has seen, of course he could do something like this! And yet, rejection must have hurt… I didn't notice, him looking upset? Momo did a good job at hiding it all day though too. Was this just last night? It feels like it was last night.
Yaoyorozu looked back into Jirou's eyes again, and she continued in a soft tone, "It was so sudden. I wasn't expecting… Even if I was though," Yaoyorozu stopped herself and paused on what she was just saying. Was it that he caught me off guard? Even if I had time to think about it- I have! I've been thinking about it nonstop, as much as I've tried to focus elsewhere. I've had time to think and, nothing's changed. "I don't think, I can do it," she whispered.
"What do you mean?" Jirou asked, keeping her voice steady and trying not to let guilt show on her face. If I never took your letter from you, would this be different? Is this my fault?
After seeing the toll that everything took on Zach, Yaoyorozu imagined him trying to hold it together to her when they were in his room only a few nights ago. She saw him yell out Kaminari's name, and the pressure he felt still to keep on fighting endlessly, and she saw the way he looked at her when she told him to believe in her. I wanted to lessen the load on him. Get him to trust in me, and in Midoriya enough, that he doesn't have to… there's so much pressure on him. I told him to live his life- I wanted him to! And then I said- Yaoyorozu brought her right hand up to the side of her head and rubbed it while frustratedly and sadly looking back down again. "I can't imagine…" Yaoyorozu started.
She closed her mouth then glanced back up at Jirou specifically. "My relationship with Zach was good. Great-" she stopped again and got a softer and even apologetic look on her face considering who she was telling this to. Momo only just then thought about Jirou's own romantic relationship she had at the same time as hers and Zach's, but Jirou ignored that completely and just nodded softly for Yaoyorozu to continue unafraid of hurting her feelings. That one nod showing Jirou was the stronger one here who did not need or want Yaoyorozu to give her that hesitant or afraid look for her feelings, for once made Yaoyorozu feel vulnerable instead and each of her friends could see it instantly because of how strong she always looked.
"I cared for him and he cared for me," Yaoyorozu whispered. "And we could talk freely to each other. And he made me laugh, and smile," her eyes were pointed down at the table between them. "And… I don't think the person he's become, could be someone I don't pity-" Yaoyorozu said the word and winced. Her lips pursed and her eyes closed for a second, then she squinted them open and whispered, "And I can't imagine going through that. Trying to have a relationship with him but pitying… he's so strong, and I can't imagine pitying him. How he would feel-"
"You're saying," Jirou started slowly. "Do you mean, you would be going out with him out of pity?" She wondered it and looked confusedly at Yaoyroozu for even suggesting it, though it also hurt her that Yaoyorozu was only considering it for that reason. Ashido also bowed her head and looked away for a moment just out of her own sadness and disappointment here.
Yaoyorozu then spoke back up after Jirou's question, "I don't know, how to have any relationship with him anymore." Ashido looked back and Uraraka stared in even more confusion at the way Yaoyorozu said that. It did not sound like she was just talking romantically but any form of relationship with Zach which hurt them all even more to hear. Momo's heart pounded as she said those words aloud that made her feel horrible, and yet she continued to speak aloud because these things had been eating away at her for much longer than one day, even though it was only now that she was getting them out in the open. "When I came back I was ready to be there for him and just, just try to get things back to some sense of normalcy."
She looked up at Jirou as she started saying this, and Jirou just listened to her friend who she for so long had avoided talking about Zach with to the point that she wondered how long Momo had needed this from her. "But he wouldn't see me when he was in prison, and that made me upset- it made me sad, because there was so much I needed to say." Her voice got desperate as she whispered that, thinking on those times of frustration at the maximum security prison where she had traveled to far to get to only to be turned away by the very person she came to see. Ashido nodded her head once in agreement but also looked sadly back at Momo who she felt took it much harder than she had back then.
"But I should have realized why he wasn't seeing me," Yaoyorozu added. Her eyes got watery as she brought up that reason which just made her purse her lips in even more sadness. "I should have understood that the person I knew so well wouldn't refuse seeing me for no reason. It just upset me though. It made me think, he wasn't that person. But I know why Zach couldn't see me now. I know he went mad and…" Yaoyorozu closed her eyes tightly shut that she had given up on him so much back when he was struggling the most.
"He's getting over that though," Jirou whispered back to Yaoyorozu. She opened her eyes back up and the other two also looked to Jirou who said in a low voice, "He's accepting the past and thinking about it and, and-"
"And he's working through it," Ashido agreed, having talked with Zach about this before too.
Yaoyorozu smiled at what they said and wiped her eyes. "And I am happy that he can do that," she admitted with that genuine smile that somehow hurt her friends even more to see.
"And," Jirou continued. She saw that smile and did not understand enough how it could exist and yet this whole conversation still felt so sad. "Doesn't Zach still, make you laugh? And don't you smile with him, and, enjoy his company?" Jirou wondered these things in confusion as to why things would not work out when she could see so clearly the way her best friend felt about their friend.
Yaoyorozu thought back too. She thought on the times since Zach had returned when he would make jokes and despite everything else going on between them, he knew how to make her laugh. He's an amazing person. And I do enjoy his company, Kyoka! Of course I do. He's… He's the best- he was my best friend. My favorite person!
"Every time I would get so angry at him," Jirou continued. "When I yelled about Zach and ranted about all I hated about him," her voice cracked as she said that in a regretful way thinking back on it now. She frowned more and rose her voice, "When anyone would in my position!" Her voice lowered back down and she said softly while staring into Momo's eyes, "You were the first one to defend him. You gave reasons for why he did it and excuses for what he did. And yet here you are, and you're really the last one to accept the new him?"
"The new him?" Yaoyorozu dipped her chin down at the way Jirou phrased that. Is that why I can't accept it? Because he has changed? But he just showed me how he's the same! I- I just don't know. It was so long. Jirou regretted what she said already by the saddened look covering Yaoyorozu's dejected face. "I just know, that I don't feel the same way for Zach as he does for me." She responded quietly and then looked back up into Jirou's eyes and said, "Because I understand what he did to himself. That it's not a new him, at all. Because I know that when he left us he didn't forget us, but he didn't accept that he had left us either."
Uraraka and Jirou got more confused looks on their faces. Yaoyorozu lifted the slightest smile that Ashido seemed to know what she was saying. I was the closest person to him back then. I don't think that's true anymore, Mina. And I'm glad you are there for him as a friend, when I can't just- Yaoyorozu's smile lowered as quickly as it raised. Her eyes lowered and then brought back up to Uraraka who was opening her mouth to ask something. "He never accepted what he had done. Just as he couldn't imagine his friends' deaths and all the horrible things he did, Zach was haunted by Class A for so long." The other three all flinched thinking of a scene in the Wampajawa battle that had shocked and amazed them, but had also left them confused as to why they were the ones who Zach saw so prominently in that villain's Haunt Quirk.
"When I yelled at him to stop in the forest that night, I was terrified of what it would do it him to leave us behind," Yaoyorozu continued in a dejected tone. "And that he wouldn't have me to help him," she added so much softer. Tears were in the corners of her eyes as she thought on it, and her voice cracked as she went on, "And he didn't. And his mind suffered. I was right, and I've never hated that more than right now."
"Zach never stopped caring about us because he never thought on what he did the night of the Lifebringer Incident to a deeper level that it could hurt him enough. He knew if it hurt him that much it might stop him, so he just kept moving forward." She paused for a moment then spoke quicker, "And when he came back to Japan he was still just moving forward. So many goals. So many things to fix." Her eyes shifted towards Jirou for a moment who pursed her lips and nodded in agreement that Yaoyorozu was right about all of this. "And one of those things was his relationship with all of us," Yaoyorozu continued while looking instead to Ashido and Uraraka. Uraraka looked to Ashido who had screamed at them about the number one thing that Zach had given up when he left, and then she nodded in acceptance of this as well.
"But…" Yaoyorozu hesitated and she looked frustrated as she did stop herself. "He wanted to fix something that he never accepted was broken." The way Yaoyorozu described it had all three of the others more lost now, but their eyes grew wide and they stared in shock at the girl who continued on, "I saw him, acting contradictory because he was trying to make us forgive him for something he never fully reflected on. The guilt hurt too much for him to actually accept. And I could tell that so much of it was an act. That he remembered some but didn't, didn't try remembering harder. And I thought he would continue to live like that because when I tried to help him- No!"
Yaoyorozu exclaimed at herself and made all three of the others leaning so far forward to scoot back with wider eyes at that sudden exclamation. Yaoyorozu shook her head and cut back angrily at herself, "I didn't try."
"You did-" Ashido started to counter as Momo was being too hard on herself.
"No, I pushed him." Yaoyorozu denied her pink friend who did not understand what she was saying. "I pushed him to tell me the truth and only the truth from the start. Because it hurt me when he would lie to me, as he never felt like he needed to lie to me before. Did that mean he thought he needed to lie around me now? I- I didn't know, but when Zach started lying to me that was the first time I realized that he was actually gone- but he wasn't gone!" She exclaimed that while looking back at Jirou who suggested the person they knew now was a whole new version of Zach, or a new-and-improved version- but she shook her head as she thought about potentially accepting that.
"For the first time he was back, and different- not new. He'd just been through a lot. I went to his apartment to help him when he was sick, but even though he was a little delirious and telling me all sorts of things," Yaoyorozu glanced at Ashido who had come to visit then and was looking at her with wide eyes and wishing she had stayed for this. Yaoyorozu said in a pained and quiet voice though, "He only told me good things in his sickness. The most amazing things he could have said. About those charities and- and… Our relationship had become different. I knew it. I still care so much about him but, but I'm not the closest person to him anymore." Yaoyorozu kept looking at Ashido through saying that, though she even looked to her right and at Jirou for a moment too before staring down again. "And it's not his fault. Nor, mine. People grow apart. It happens. And it happened to us because he left. And he comes back and tells me this?!"
Yaoyorozu thought she had it all understood. What she was just saying about how he had people closer to him and how they had grown apart was countered by the final thing she added which had her face scrunched in confusion and frustration and fear and sadness all at once. Her body curled up a little as if by defensive mechanism, her head lowering with her shoulders as she leaned in closer to the table that her knees were stuck under. I don't know how to handle it. When Mina hinted at me why I declined Nagiso senpai's offer for the prom a year ago, I denied it. I denied it all the way back then but I think now, I still had not gotten over him. But just as I hadn't back then, almost ten months after he had left… for Zach has it been any time at all? She wondered painfully at the way she imagined him looking at her last night after her rejection. "I don't know how I feel," Yaoyorozu admitted.
"But I know that to Zach, finally getting over those things and really being back here," Yaoyorozu looked to Jirou who had tried suggesting that that was what Zach was doing now. Jirou leaned back as she finally understood as Yaoyorozu kept on to her, "Then he feels like he did back then? Because I don't- I changed, but- I… I don't think he had any time between. I don't know if any of this makes sense or if it's really how he feels, but if Zach couldn't handle throwing his entire life away- if he couldn't look back on that at any time and remember all he had given up voluntarily, that pain he had inflicted on himself, and accept what he had done…" Yaoyorozu quieted down while the other three girls all now looked as dejected as she did just by this whole situation itself.
"I thought he accepted it that night when he looked away," Momo whispered. "The rest of us went through stages of grief over that traumatic incident though. I understand it when I think about how angry and depressed we were, and how we all finally accepted it… some of us, taking longer than others" She paused as Jirou just nodded while still looking down at the floor, and then she continued in a pained voice to the other pained girls, "But when Zach left he was on the run. He fled the country and fought villains and then fought more villains. Constantly. And he had no time to think back because he believed that every second was vital and he could use it to save lives. And he did! As he fought more villains, and more and more… faster and faster… until he was in the Void, and then- then he was back."
Ashido closed her eyes and tears spilled from them while Uraraka just nervously turned her head and looked back towards Yaoyorozu with panting breaths. Jirou had not heard much about it, though Zach had told her when it was he had decided to save Airi and about some "dimension" that she got confused by. Jirou winced though at the tears that fell from Ashido's eyes at the sound of a place that made Ashido's heart rip apart whenever she thought about it.
"Giving someone time to grieve is important," Yaoyorozu stated in firm belief. Grief is one of the most important things to moving forward, in a healthy way. "He needed to go through grief and never did. He didn't have the opportunity to. Not a moment to rest… Or maybe, one moment. The night of the betrayal." Yaoyorozu imagined being in his room that night and she shook her head at the thought of how horrible the things he said were that she could have possibly not seen the Lifebringer Incident coming. "But there was so much horror that happened that one month that I imagine in any moments of rest he had, he grieved his mentor, his dead cousin and aunt-" Momo's eyes watered up as she mentioned them. "Things that he did not mourn at the time they happened because he was planning that night in Enudora. Things that would be the first on the list that he would grieve, if he ever took a single moment- ahh," she sucked in a sharp breath in consideration of all this.
Yaoyorozu's low voice cut her friends deep, "How much grieving Zach would have needed just for things he already knew that night alone. But also for all the people he called 'brothers and sisters' in his army who he never mourned. Who even now he tries not to show us how badly it hurts…"
Ashido bowed her head and thought about all the people Zach told her about the night of the trial. Even in those stories where Zach would tell them who they were and how he recruited them, the things he left out the most were the ways that those people had died. The deaths that she and Kirishima could both see him imagining when he would get broken up but try to just mention their "second death" without delving into what that death he had witnessed really encompassed.
"I know that the new 'normal' we all see from Zach even after the trial, is still him hiding his feelings from us, but he needs to because he's actually grieving now." Yaoyorozu admitted it and sounded as sad as ever even while her friends got confused as this should have been a good thing based on what she was just saying. She continued and their confused looks turned back just depressed, "He's actually remembering all those friends and the fact that they died, and the fact that he brought them into battle and recruited them himself, and ordered them to their deaths… And that's why I know it won't work."
The others lifted their heads again sad for so many reasons, including the tear that slid down the right side of Yaoyorozu's face down to her chin where it dripped off. She breathed out, "I can't look at him without thinking about this. About how badly it's all hurting him. How the despair he feels… I could never make up for just by being with him and trying to be happy-" Yaoyorozu bit down as she said that aloud. She bowed her head and hissed out through a strained voice, "I just imagine that there's too much sorrow. And if I go with him, if I had just accepted his feelings… what if it's just because I want to help him feel a little bit of happiness? What if, it's just to make him happy? Out of, obligation?" Her voice shook and she rose her right hand up to her breasts and grabbed over her heart.
Her chin bowed to the top of her chest and she gasped out in pain at the thought of what she just said. It was more than what she was suggesting though that filled her chest with such agony, and Ashido covered her own mouth while leaning back in her seat at the realization of it too. Momo shook her head while squeezing her chest hard, How amazing are you, Zach? That you had to feel this horrible, conflicted feeling, for over a year?!
Jirou realized what it was Yaoyorozu was thinking about as she saw that the look on her friend's face was not for herself and the predicament that she found herself in. The pain that Yaoyorozu was feeling right now was so intense, but the thought of how intense and painful it was just made her hurt even more because that meant Zach had been through all of this extra pain that no one else could possibly imagine if they had never been in these shoes. "As much as I want to help him and- and might even want to be, with him… I know that a part of me would always wonder if I was doing it out of pity, and that alone is enough to stop me. Because to be with him out of pity would be the worst thing I can imagine doing to someone who- who says that he loves me."
Yaoyorozu shook her head again but steadier this time in assurance towards what she just said. I know that Darling loved Zach and he never once trivialized that love. She broke his cover, but he was willing to leave this world again if it meant protecting her. He said things he shouldn't have said while in front of us but didn't care because Darling mattered far more than every other goal that he had at the time. All those other goals that what happened on Inazuma could have ruined, but he was focused on that most important thing. She mattered more than everything to him, and that was him still not willing to just tell her that he loved her back and be with her. I can't imagine being confident enough in my feelings for Zach that I would be able to do what he never did for Darling, because he knew that the way she loved him was different from how he loves her.
And as much as I care for him right now, and want him to be happy, and want him to be able to live a normal life… I don't know if I love him.
Whooosh ch. Whooosh, Midoriya paused with his leg extended out in front of him after that last kick. Then he lowered his foot down and pressed it into the crisp grass of the courtyard for their dorm building. The muscular six foot two hero-in-training had on a comfy green long-sleeved shirt. He wore sweats and had his sneakers on unlike most of his male classmates who were also outside and were mostly in their indoor slippers or barefoot. Sero had his slippers on because it was chilly, but to keep them from getting dirty he was up on a tree branch that he had Taped up to. It was only six and a half feet off the ground, so he was not that much higher up than his classmates standing around in the courtyard.
Other than Ojiro, Mineta, and Bakugo, all of the boys of Class 3-A were outside together that night. Midoriya was the only one doing any training. The kicking had stopped for a moment though as he turned and listened to Iida who went on to his friends he was explaining to, "…Tensei nii-san has been assisting me in readying the Ingenium agency for re-opening. His surgeries in America were all successful, and after a lot of PT and heroic determination, I am looking forward to seeing him again on graduation day, no longer in a wheelchair."
"Really happy to hear that, Iida," Zach said up towards the tallest boy in Class A. He was sitting on the grass unlike most of his standing classmates, his back resting against the same tree that Sero was sitting up on a branch of. Sero had to look straight down and to his left to look at Zach when he was speaking, while Iida turned his own head right and glanced towards Zach himself in a grateful way.
"If his surgery went well, does that mean he'll be back-" Midoriya started but he stopped and just gave a sympathetic look back to Iida Tenya who shook his head side to side.
I didn't kill Stain for him. Killed him for good reasons. Important reasons. Not that your brother wasn't important. I feel like Ingenium's been keeping something from you too, Iida. Because those surgeries definitely made Tensei stronger if anything. Zach sighed and he tilted his head back on the trunk of the largest tree in the courtyard, which still was not that big. He brought his left arm in front of him and flicked his wrist down, sliding a knife out of his shirt's long sleeve. He turned the knife in his hand and looked at the blade, It got dulled during that last training. I kept it with me to sharpen in my free time. Why not now?
Zach had nothing else to do so he got to sharpening a knife. Others around him were talking about what was going to happen after graduation and their hero agencies, where they were going to be… He just drowned out those conversations for a little and smiled lightly at the casual action of sharpening a single knife. Koda looked over and got a bead of sweat dripping down his boulder-shaped head though, as Zach was using his own left index finger to sharpen the blade, cutting in the inside crease of his lower knuckle where there was a spot for it.
"Wait, what do you mean, you're going to Shikoku?" Kirishima asked in surprise to the blond boy standing in front of him. Aoyama looked surprised by the response that seemed more than just surprised that he was going to that island. He looked around and saw more of his classmates looking over in surprise too to hear that. "Is anyone else going out there? I mean, just saying," Kirishima realized his rough reaction but he frowned again after pausing. "Figured you'd be more of a Tokyo guy, right?" Kirishima looked to his right for some help, and Sato nodded his head in agreement.
"Or Kyoto," Shoji mentioned from behind his mask.
Zach thought of the geishas and cultural city of Kyoto and nodded in agreement with Shoji while looking towards Aoyama interestedly to hear his response. He was already smiling though as he thought about the possible reason that he figured was likely the correct one. Aoyama did not get nervous or hide his reasoning now that everyone was asking though, and the flashy blond boy threw his hands behind his head and called out, "As the smallest of our four main islands, when Shikoku loses heroes it is a horrendous blow! Crime is up! And so, Can't Stop Twinkling will arrive on the scene to replenish those magnificent heroes who have tragically fallen," his right hand moved from behind his head to in front of his face and his fingers pressed on either side of his eyes. His hand pushed out and he smiled then spun around and pointed his finger in front of him and at Kirishima's face so his finger was just a few centimeters from the redhead's nose. "And I am going to protect those most vulnerable-"
"That's awesome, man!" Kirishima interrupted Aoyama's speech, making him purse his lips as he wanted to continue. He looked around though instead as a few others voiced similar things as Kirishima, then he turned back in more surprise as Kirishima added, "Well, I don't know how often I'm going to make it out to Shikoku- I'll try! But when you're in Tokyo, you better stop by my agency!"
"Yeah, agreed," Zach spoke up from where he sat against the tree.
Zach speaking up made the others look towards him and gain more interested looks. He looked back to his own knife and did another slash across his left pointer finger with a metal scrape filling the air as everyone else fell silent right there. Midoriya, Iida, and Todoroki turned and then stepped closer too as Kirishima just walked towards the tree and Aoyama stepped that way behind him. "And where can we visit?" Kirishima wondered, making Zach look back up and into his eyes. Zach noticed others looking over as well, but he stared at Kirishima who added, "You decide on where you're going to make your agency yet?"
Told you I didn't know whether I was even going to make one or not. Guess you want me to, at least. And since I just suggested Aoyama visit me too when he's in Tokyo, are you thinking I'm going to be nearby? Zach tilted his head back and rested it on the trunk of the tree. That would be nice. Being near a friend would make things easier. I'd have him to get my back at least, even if no one else does. Zach's eyes scanned past Kirishima and then he noted everyone in his peripheral vision too. Or, even if only another 18 people do. I'd hope. Maybe less- OW! Actually, there are some others I can count on too. Even if Tsuyu really doesn't seem to want to accept me.
"Guess I'll take that as a no," Kirishima replied to his own question as Zach said nothing.
"Sorry," Zach said with a chuckle. He stopped sharpening the knife and slid it back up his sleeve with a flick of his fingers. A couple of his friends watching wondered just how he did that and if they could do it themselves. They refocused up on Zach's face though as he stood up from his seat but put his hands in his pants' pockets and kept leaning back on the tree. "I wish I knew. I was really just saying," Zach tilted his head and looked over Kirishima's shoulder to Aoyama. "Don't be a stranger, yeah?"
The sad but nostalgic way Zach worded it made Aoyama nod slowly back towards him. Todoroki glanced down towards the floor for a moment. An odd tension seemed to fill the courtyard after Zach's response. As much as we're all the "Class A" they're talking about right now on every news station, you're Zach Sazaki. You're Lifebringer. You're, Death. Todoroki lifted his gaze back up and stared towards his classmate who shifted his attention back to Kirishima who looked to be having trouble saying something on the tip of his tongue. "If you want," Todoroki started. Zach turned his way as did most others in the courtyard, and Todoroki offered him directly, "You could work with me?"
Zach rose his eyebrows which was a dimmed response compared to most others around him. "As a sidekick-"
"Partner," Todoroki countered, and Zach's eyes widened a little more this time.
He tilted his head back on the tree. "Huh," he lifted his eyes up towards the sky above. "Didn't expect that."
"Yeah…" Kirishima muttered before he even realized it. Todoroki looked towards him then around and got a more confused look on his face by the way the others were all looking at him.
Midoriya and Iida closest on Todoroki's sides each stared at him in surprise as well. They were just discussing how their own agencies they were about to create would work together to track and take on the League of Villains as their main priority. Neither of the other two were expecting Todoroki to suddenly make that offer, and yet they were glad he did considering they already knew that Zach would be doing the same thing right after graduation… or at least, they thought he would be. As they looked back towards Zach from Todoroki though, the tension rose back up from Zach's lack of a 'yes' or 'no' to Todoroki's offer.
Zach bit down behind his lips but kept from flinching. His left hand curled around the small device in his left pocket, but he loosened his grip after a moment as the sensation went away. "Thanks, for the offer," Zach said. He looked back down at Todoroki and just shook his head. "If I'm going to have a hero agency though- or, I mean, if I'm going to be a hero like that, I'd make my own agency."
Sero dropped down off the branch behind Zach to his right and smacked a hand down on his right shoulder as he was landing. "What do you mean, 'if-' AH Ow-" Sero yanked his hand away from Zach's shoulder and stumbled back, nearly losing his balance and falling to the ground.
Zach ground his teeth the same moment Sero exclaimed in pain. "Sorry," Zach said, lifting his hands out of his pocket. His right was open in a palm with his black glove on, but the left was curled around something that he turned over and showed his classmates. Can't touch me and freak out like that, Sero. I swear I saw the split second reaction on Deku's face that him just touching me made him get hurt by Death. Have to show this then, Zach revealed a small device that had four glowing blue bars on the side of it, though three of those bars were dimming until just one was showing again. Suddenly a second flashed along with half of a third, before going back down to one.
"You shocked me," Sero said, though his eyes focused down onto the small black device Zach pulled out. "What is that?"
"I had Hatsume make it for me," Zach explained. "It's a taser that goes off constantly, sporadically hitting me with different levels of power." He glanced around the courtyard at his surprised classmates and just explained without shame or embarrassment for talking about it. He was not planning to draw attention to it but since attention got drawn anyway, he figured he would tell them why Sero yelled out in pain just from touching him. "I've been shocking myself all day."
"Why-" Sato started the question but tried to cut himself off before finishing the first word. He felt stupid for asking as soon as 'why' left his large lips though.
Zach gave him a sympathetic laugh as he understood why Sato cut himself off. His expression lowered down more serious though as the others who already understood why were still just looking at him. He looked back down at the taser that he put into his pocket again before pulling his fake hand out and just lowering it at his side. "If I flinch for a nanosecond too long or Kaminari catches me off guard, I'm dead." I've been getting complacent. I know he's been preparing for me nonstop, while I've been focused all over the place. Even that question, Kirishima. Even that all-important question of what's next is something… something I'm trying not to focus on, by doing this, I suppose. Zach's hands curled tightly at his sides as he argued with his legitimate reasoning for doing this by calling himself out on what he was actually hiding from by focusing on Kaminari instead of the looming problem that faced him at the moment.
I have no idea, Sero. Kirishima. Guys, I just don't know. Zach looked around and his eyes appeared troubled though he tried to attribute it to what he just said about Kaminari. He continued on and kept the conversation on topic, "I want to believe that the power gap is wide enough, but-" Zach looked to Midoriya and he even shook his head at the way his curly-haired classmate was looking at him wondering if Zach was actually taking this seriously. "It's the one aspect of having this much power that I actually appreciate," Zach assured Midoriya who a few others glanced towards though most were just focused on what Zach just said in more confusion about how it was the "one" thing he liked about being so strong. Their eyes grew even wider though as he finished, "That I have a better chance against Kaminari, even though Kaminari's spent 2 years, or 3 years, planning for our upcoming fight."
"You think, his goal is to kill you?" Sero wondered as he stepped back towards his close friend. He wanted to just believe in Zach's strength enough that he did not have to be worried about this, but he trusted Zach's intelligence as much as anything and he believed that Zach was being serious right now. Zach nodded back and Sero wondered immediately, "And you really think he has a chance?"
"Kaminari will use everything. I've told him it before: 'Use everything.' It's a way that I live life-"
"You've said that before," Midoriya whispered. His voice was loud enough though that others looked towards him and were surprised to hear Midoriya say it, but Zach nodded back towards another of his close friends who he had tried to explain that to before even the Lifebringer Incident. "You think he's learned, from you?" Midoriya asked with his eyes getting wider as he wondered if Zach was blaming himself for anything.
"Of course he has," Zach replied. He shook his head as he said it though, not wanting Midoriya to get the misconception he could see growing in his friend's head. "I taught him what it was like to lose. To really, lose. That's the most important lesson he could have ever learned. But also, since I beat him, I think everything else I ever did with him was amplified in his head." Zach's friends started staring at him with wider eyes as Zach delved into this, explaining calmly but calculatingly, "Every one of our interactions is now a memory he looks back at to wonder what made me a person who could defeat him. Everything I ever said about my strategy and my mentality that allowed me to circumvent his plans, are things he's contemplated for two years. He knows all of my weaknesses. He knows what I will and won't do, and now he has a detailed display of many, many of my fighting styles."
The shameless admission that Wampajawa was a display of Zach's fighting styles was not lost on some of his classmates who wished he would at least attempt to keep up the guise that he had not been Death. They were all too focused on what he was discussing to even get caught up on that for more than a few seconds though. Especially as Zach continued, "Kaminari saw his Mjolnir damage me while I was shrouded in Death. Even with my insides fully Death, electrocution hits every cell. And there are replacements for nerve endings inside of Death. Electricity is… I think it's Death's natural weakness. Just based on experience, it's one of the few things that really hurts me."
Kirishima lowered his gaze to the floor as he thought of the way Zach described the most horrible revival ever which was bringing back Tsuyu from getting killed by Kaminari himself. "You can beat him though," Kirishima said.
"You will," Tokoyami stated.
Zach looked towards Tokoyami in surprise to hear that more confident statement from his beak. Kirishima's eyes opened wider as he realized that he may have sounded too unsure, but Zach responded first to Tokoyami, "I will." Kaminari's Quirk is a more natural enemy for your own. There's nothing you could do against him, and you know it. I'm glad you have faith enough in me that you're not concerned about how you can't face him though, Tokoyami. I can see that in your eyes. "But I'll need to be at the top of my game," Zach continued after replying in a more confident way to Tokoyami. "Because Kaminari will use everything to kill me. And that means innocents getting dragged into the fight. Targeting population centers. Taking me on when I'm weakened. Whether that means weakened at the end of a fight against another strong enemy where he can take me out the instant I let my guard down like after I brought back Sato, or some other way I can't predict but will set him up for an easier kill. Using liquids to assist in forcing me to create more solid bodies to not get washed away which will also make it easier for him to electrocute me, for multiple reasons there. Despite my blocks and counters against mental attacks, if he has a powerful comrade hit me it will give him the opportunity in the moment I need to repel them. If there are enough people around us then I won't be able to use all of my strength and I will have to consciously be diluting the considerable upgrade in potency of my Quirk. Or he'll get me where there are no people so I can't strengthen in the fight if he's gotten me weak…"
He's breezing right past so many of these like they're things he's thought of a million times, Iida thought in an amazed way. He frowned deeper after a second of just staring at Zach, frustrated at how little he had planned for a direct confrontation with Raijin in the future. I'm in a suit of armor. I've had the inside filled with less conductive material, but I will need to outrun lightning if I want to survive another encounter with the traitor...
Calm down. Zach's just saying that as in Kaminari thinks he would recover strength by killing, not that Zach's actually considering it, Todoroki reminded himself. He was still staring quietly towards his friend though as he discussed how their old classmate would try to kill him. Does he actually think Raijin could do it? I heard him talk the other night about the Villain Summit. The real Battle of the 6 Armies. I never thought he could do anything like that. No one did. Even Raijin can't… Except, Zach knows Kaminari. He knows our enemy. More than anyone. Then, is he right about this? Is Raijin really that much of a threat to him, and thereby to all of us?
"Finding Raijin might be hard then," Sato mentioned when he thought about it. He looked to Zach and continued to him, "It might be a while before you can find him. If you think he's that prepared for you?"
"Yeah…" Zach replied, a small smile forming on his face as he imagined what Sato said as a possibility. Sato himself got confused. Most others understood Zach's smile though. It was the fact that Sato was suggesting Kaminari might try to stay in hiding for longer, that made Zach smile at the thought of. Because if Sato thought that, it was not a sign that Zach would struggle longer to find Kaminari as Sato suggested, but that Kaminari might try to hide which would then obviously allow Zach to catch him in that time. His smile did not last though and his lips just curved down after a few more seconds of hope, Doubtful. Don't be optimistic. Kaminari's smarter than Sato. Sorry, Sato. It's true. Whether he thinks Kaminari would go for something so stupid or not… He knows I'm constrained at the moment. I can't leave school. Wouldn't this be the best time… Or does he think I'm going to start a reviving spree? Does he know it will break me? I can take him down first- only if I find him in that time. People will condemn me for searching when I could be reviving. Who cares?
I do, ultimately, Zach corrected himself when he tried to ask why he would care what people think. It's not pride that compels me. Not shame. If they think I should be reviving, then I should. I don't know any better than them. If this is a democracy on how I spend the rest of my life, then I don't even need to wait for a vote. I understand my role. My duty! But, I have multiple goals. Multiple duties. He could wait months. Wait until I'm definitely gone- Is that really how long I think I'll last? Zach slouched into his tree. He slid down it partially and pushed his legs out in front of him. A couple months? Could I even make it that long? I have to. How? I need… I need a…
"Are you going to, revive…"
"Zach," Midoriya started over Aoyama, glancing towards the blond in apology for only a brief moment before locking eyes with Zach who he just started to in a serious tone. Despite the serious voice he spoke with though, Midoriya still had an upset look more sad than anything as he looked in his friend's eyes. I was busy searching for the Fabu. I never even considered it. I just, knew you could handle it. You can't do that though. "When you make your own agency, where are you considering setting up?"
Zach and most others there did not expect Midoriya to ask that when it seemed like he had something intense to say. Midoriya did not say 'if' though as he asked Zach his question. Zach smiled at his friend for the attempt. Taking the choice out of my hands. Making it seem like it's obvious that I should just make a hero agency.
"I would…" Zach stopped himself. He paused with his mouth open then closed it fast and just furled the right corner of his lips down. Why? He asked himself. Why make anything up? Days left together, and I'm going to lie? Just to what? Make it easier? Zach was leaning on the tree and he held back from wincing as he got shocked again especially hard this time. Even the strongest setting she put on here is nothing like getting shocked by Kaminari. She knew what I was going to use it for though. Hatsume just didn't want me hurting myself too badly. She's nice.
Zach rose his right hand up and rubbed it on his forehead. "I don't know, Midoriya." Just tell him a city. Why be like this? They don't need to-
"You shouldn't just revive everyone."
Zach lowered his hand from his forehead and glanced back towards Kirishima. He slid up the tree a bit and stared at the redhead in some surprise at the sound of that. Kirishima frowned deeper after saying it and his eyes squinted for a moment. No! I don't feel bad about that. I won't. Kirishima's expression hardened as he determined himself on what he just said. "You could just say that your Quirk doesn't… or like, something changed. It doesn't work anymore-"
"Lying to everyone isn't very heroic," Zach countered back. He said it with a tilt of his head to the side as if he was seriously countering Kirishima with that response.
Kirishima stared back at him with much wider eyes upon hearing it though. "That's what…"
Is that what's keeping him from- wait! That's not right, Sero frowned more at Zach after a second of surprise of his own. "Neither would be letting everyone die, right?" Sero wondered. He did not ask it harshly or as if suggesting that would be what Zach was doing, but rather he was pointing out how Zach did not use that reasoning to counter Kirishima.
"'Letting' them die?" Zach wondered at the wording Sero used. That is what I'd be doing. It's a conscious decision. Zach's flat lips curved down at the corners. "Yeah, I guess that isn't very heroic-"
"People die, Zach," Sero muttered. He was annoyed that Zach went back on what he thought Zach was already hinting at. His attempt to lead Zach into seeing what he just implied himself was taken seriously instead and made Zach reverse, and he said in a steadier voice than that mutter, "They always will."
"Don't do what they're all…" Kirishima started, his voice getting more assured again though he stopped as Zach looked in his eyes there. The way he started and the way Zach looked at him told him that Zach had already seen all on tv that he was so frustrated by. They don't know! If they did, none of them would be saying it so much- They wouldn't be asking so much of you!
Aoyama closed his eyes thinking of how Zach described the agony of bringing back Tsuyu and the Sleepless victims. Aoyama then thought of all those people who Zach had brought back two weeks ago that still had him in agony just the other night. He imagined the video he had seen circulating online and played on the news of all the people who had thanked Zach for what he did in China. It's not like it's going unrecognized. I can't counter Kirishima though! I… I don't want to. But he can't stop- can he stop? Should he…
"What do you… want to do?"
Zach turned and he looked towards his classmate with a boulder-shaped head who asked that in his unusually high-pitched voice. Koda Koji stepped closer to Zach while Kirishima turned his head and stared with big eyes towards their classmate wondering that. "Zach," Koda continued. His voice was not as quiet as usual, and he wondered when he saw the distant look in Zach's eyes get more focused on him. "What do you want?"
What I want? Zach wondered to himself. His expression eased from the serious look it had that was also exhausted, and a lot of his friends also eased back as well and only then realized just how tense everything was. The air had been thick as they understood the severity of this conversation and the impacts that Zach's responses could have for all of them, Japan, the whole world! Yet Koda's question reminded them each of the simplest thing: his decision impacted himself the most. The reasons his friends were trying to protect him by telling him not to revive, and why some were pushing him towards starting an agency, was because they all already understood that at least a little. No matter how much they constantly considered others though (as was natural for all the soon-to-be-heroes), they were also trying to consider Zach as well.
No one knows what Zach's going to do from here on. Not really, Iida thought as he stared towards his classmate. He had long gotten used to not feeling a piece of metal on the bridge of his nose, yet he still appreciated not looking through any lenses at the moment thanks to his friend straight ahead of him. Some people want him to help everyone all over the world. Others want him to stay in Japan, but the calls for a global Lifebringer are louder, because every life is worth saving. That call is even loud in Japan too. Others still want him to start an agency and be a real hero, but he knows as we all do that that train of thought is not as popular. As they say it: His hero work would take time away from him reviving. Other heroes could do that job.
"I don't really…"
"What are you doing after graduation?" Tokoyami asked bluntly. He was assured that Zach would take on Kaminari at some point in the future, but watching their classmate now he could not see the confidence of a hero who could do something like that.
"There are a lot of things, people want me to do," Zach responded. He looked towards Midoriya for a moment then glanced at Todoroki too, "And not many of those calls involve starting an agency. I might though, maybe-"
Sato's frown deepened at the hesitance and uncertainty in Zach's response. He's not lying right now. The thought that Zach was telling the truth in this moment just made Sato angrier though. He did not want to be mad but blurted out in his frustration, "If your goal is to be a hero though, then with that little conviction you can't-"
"I don't actually know if that's my goal," Zach responded. He looked towards Sato apologetically, leaning off the tree as he did since what he just said was a pretty outlandish thing to say for someone on track to graduate from U.A.'s hero course in under a week. "It was always my dream to become a hero," Zach continued. He looked towards Shoji behind Sato and tilted his head a little to the right, "But things change. Feelings change. Goals, change. And dreams…"
"And, what's your dream, now?" Todoroki wondered.
Sero looked closely into Zach's eyes from close on his right side. He's being too real with us. It's not goodbye when we graduate. We have to convince him of that. I heard him talk about Gangwe. If he tries to do that on an even wider scale, he won't make it. No one else knows that so they're pushing him towards it. And he's believing them rather than himself, because no one is telling him he can't. If he has a dream, any dream other than that, I'm pushing him towards it. I'm not losing my friend again.
He doesn't even want to be a hero? Or at least he doesn't care enough… Iida tried to stop feeling so frustrated with Zach's responses here. Zach's lack of conviction about becoming a hero was something getting to more than just Iida though. Anyone else who felt that similar feeling upset that Zach could say something like that and still be considering turning into a hero, found themselves much more focused on Todoroki's question though. What does he care about? Iida wondered. Finding and stopping Kaminari is one thing…
Zach's deflected this question every time we come close, Midoriya thought. He pushes the conversation away from it. I thought it was because he didn't want me to go after him, and he thought that any answer besides becoming a hero would make me turn on him. After all, that was the response he told me on Inazuma Island. The thing that kept me from arresting him that night. Was it a lie then? Or, did things change more recently? He's doing better. Ares and Eziano are gone. What is it? Tell us, Zach.
"My dream- my goal is," Zach started again. "It's really just to stop Kaminari."
"And after you do that?" Midoriya asked. Zach looked to him and into his eyes as Midoriya said, "I know you too well that I know you've thought about what you'll do after that."
"Stopping Kaminari is more of a goal than a dream," Sero added. "They're not synonyms, exactly," he explained when Zach looked right and into his eyes now.
My dream? I don't dream. That's not what he's asking. Zach kept staring into the other black-haired teen's eyes for a few seconds then sighed and rose his eyes up towards the sky.
"What about becoming a hero?" Aoyama asked softly. Zach had sounded unsure about it but not against the idea either.
"Yeah," Zach replied, though his voice was quiet too and he did not sound all that into it. That was my dream from when I was a little kid. That's always been my dream. Dream? I haven't thought about it, but I guess… If I'm not going to lie to them? If I'm going all in tonight, I might as well. It might insult them that I feel this way but, Zach lowered his gaze back down from the sky. "Really," he started. His voice steadied and he spoke to them, "I don't want to be a hero anymore. What I want?"
"A family, I guess." A smile spread on Zach's face right as he said the words that came from the heart that felt so light and assured him he was not lying. "I want children… I want children to be able to grow up in a world that was better than the one I lived in." My, children?
Zach questioned himself afterwards. That thought came easily to me. Why? I almost worded it that way aloud. A dark-skinned dark-haired little girl appeared in his mind that made him smile a little more. "Being a hero?" Zach wondered as he could still see all their eyes locked on him. He shook his head and admitted in a lower voice, "I don't want to be one. My dream is of a world where I don't need to be a hero… My dream then, I guess a wife. And kids too. And I want those kids to be born in a world that is better than the one I was born in. Better than this world… But, not just that."
Zach was coming up with it as he went which his friends could hear as he edited his "dream" while trying to explain it to them. The fact that he sounded to be coming up with it as he went made it sound as real as anything Zach had told them since he returned to Japan. They could not see this as some conversation he had planned out before or thought of for a long time, because they were listening as he formed the sentences out loud instead of hiding any of his thoughts as he always did. "Not just, better," Zach continued after hesitating to look for a word to describe what he wanted to say. He went on, "I want them to live in a perfect world, and I know that's impossible. But as close to perfect as I can get it." He cracked a smile while saying that, and he continued without looking at anyone in particular, "A fair, understanding world. Peaceful and full of kind, loving people, haha," Zach laughed afterwards in a short silence in the courtyard while his male classmates just stared at him.
Of all the "dreams" that Zach could have just described to them, none of the boys considered anything close to what Zach just admitted to them. "I hope something like that is possible," Zach added in a whisper. He said it as if this dream was a one in a million shot in the dark, and yet it also sounded like the one thing that he imagined would make him happiest. The students tried to imagine such a corny world as a reality, but they were too baffled by the idea that Zach could say something like that at all to focus on imagining it themselves.
A perfect world? Todoroki thought in confusion that Zach would say it in as serious a way as he did even if it was light-hearted. I don't… What?
Is he for real? Sato was confused by the way Zach laughed as if his dream was just a distant hope and unrealistic to imagine. Why would he say it out loud though, if it was just a joke? He was being serious! That was definitely, him being serious with us.
You really wanted a world without villains? Sero stared with shaking eyes at one of his best friends. He had heard Zach say something corny like that before, and he remembered the way he responded that had caused Zach to start crying up on the roof of their dorm. I believed the excuse you gave me. That wasn't why you were crying, was it? I did that. Sero lowered his eyes to the floor. But Zach, I mean what I said. That's not even an idealistic world. That's- I mean, you could get close to that. You can't imagine the world will just be full of sunshine and rainbows though. No one can do that. Not even you can… As close to perfect as you can make it? How are you going to do that?
"In this dream I don't need to be a hero, because my dream is a world where heroes aren't needed," Zach confessed to a group of people whose job he was actively hoping would become pointless. None of them got upset by him saying it though as he thought one or two might. They all just kept looking at him for him to continue and explain himself because they knew he was not just saying it to hurt their feelings. He smiled softer and explained, "To dream of being a hero means that I wish for things to continue to go wrong in ways that make heroes a necessity."
"The world will never be good enough that heroes aren't needed," Shoji countered.
Zach hesitated with his lips pursing. His head tilted right then left, and he agreed reluctantly, "Yeah… Yeah." I was always too idealistic with my hopes for a world without villains. That wasn't a legitimate desire. Death wasn't human so he could strive for something like that, but I live in the real world. I need to be realistic. Zach smiled even after agreeing with Shoji, and he added, "Maybe it could be good enough though, that only people who want to be heroes are needed."
The connotation was obvious. No one was angry at him though as they heard it now.
He's here out of obligation, Sato understood as he stared in awe towards his friend and neighbor. Zach's more powerful than anyone. He doesn't want to quit because he knows how much he can help, in a world that isn't like the world he wants.
"People who want to be heroes," so, you really don't consider yourself someone like that? Shoji thought and examined Zach's expression closely. You're the hero the people want. The one they're calling for. And you don't want to let them down.
"…None of it. Not a single thing in my entire life… ah- if you don't, if you aren't happy then I- I failed." Sero could hear Zach's voice cracking. He imagined watching him stand there with Airi in the forest of Inazuma. And he heard Zach's voice continue, "I want you to live. Live a life you can be proud of. A happy life… And when you're old and gray, come back to me. I'll be waiting to hear all about it. All about your kids, and grandkids, and all your adventures." The life he wanted for her is the life he's talking about. A "happy" life. The life he's living now is just pain. So much pain. Too much, for him to have that kind of happiness.
"If you don't live this life, if you don't live happily, I'll never be able to forgive myself. Alright? For me, will you do it?" Iida was unknowingly thinking of the same thing as Sero was as he put the pieces together himself. "The last thing you can do for me, is to live a full life. A beautiful life. A life, like the ones we told people all over the world could exist if they strove towards it." That's what he finds as fulfilling? The beauty he sees in this world, is in that kind of life? Of course it is. I never even thought of it! Never, considered what he was actually saying… all this time.
Principal Nezu told me I would have "choices." Zach thought while his friends stared at him in a silence where not one could come up with the words to respond to what he told them. If I could make it a full month back at U.A., when I was going to run off that night. Did he know that my options would change back then? I doubt he knew exactly what would happen and where I would be now. He was right though. I have choices. Lots of choices to make. No one in my way to stop me. Only one choice taken off the table… Zach closed his eyes and shook his head at the last thought. But still choices. And no more time to decide.
"I still, want to live… Despite everything, I think I really want to, live. Really live." "Too many of my friends died to save me. Friends who wanted to live long lives. They wanted to get out of the war, one day, and raise families. Live in the new, safer world we had made. And I know that they would want me to live too." Kirishima leaned back where he stood staring at his friend's nostalgic expression looking tired but still smiling. It was always so hard to read him. Kirishima did not know exactly what Zach was thinking at this very moment. But he stared with wider eyes still, as he thought, Zach doesn't need to be a hero. He… He did enough! He could not help but picture Zach standing there with his face half gone and still screaming and spraying blood at an army of villains he ultimately defeated at so much cost.
"I had found reason to live when Monoma brought me back. The desire to have a good life and live it, and in a moment I had to shatter that. You know what I was thinking while I brought her back…" Aoyama looked away as he thought about what he overheard on the fifth floor hallway after Zach's trial. That's your reason for living? Monoma revived you, and you… you found a reason to live? Who thinks about something like that?
He had changed the answer, Kirishima thought, understanding better than most. Shoji thought of it too as they imagined the Sports Festival arena where Zach was dying. He wanted Monoma to let him die, Kirishima continued to himself in pain at the memory that had always crushed him to imagine. Because the reason he had to live was changing that answer. And that day! Reviving Shoji. Saving Uraraka and Yaoyorozu! He was a hero. He'd already changed the answer… But that's not why he lives anymore. Even though he's in so much pain, it's not out of obligation? He's not just fighting this hard, because he feels like he has to?!
I thought, with all the horrible things you said you have done, Iida's eyes shook as he stared towards Zach in even more understanding the longer he thought about it. I thought you were trying to make up for it. Fixing your mistakes was your goal- or, or was it a by-product? Of your true goal? The real reason you stay here and fight so desperately hard for all of our sakes, it's to create that kind of world.
His dream is a better world. That has nothing to do with just being a hero, Todoroki thought. He looked away for a moment and just down at the floor in a small amount of regret. He recognized that it was only a little bit of regret though, and he questioned himself, Why don't I- because my aspirations are not that large. Todoroki countered his own frustration at himself by reminding himself of something simple. He looked back at Zach, I don't take the risks he does, because I don't believe strongly enough in… in anything like that. He believes he can change the world for the better. And through being a hero, he thinks he can make that dream a reality. But he also wonders if he could make it real by bringing back all those who die… or he could do it as Death. This is Zach's real desire. What he wants. It's what he wanted when he was with the Army of Death too. It's what he always wants.
You might say your goals and dreams changed, but you're still here. You could leave and go have that family. You could! No one could stop you. But as much as that might be the ideal future, you know it doesn't exist unless you make it. Todoroki's expression darkened more but he lowered his gaze in guilt instead of keeping it up accusingly. Of course he doesn't trust us to do it without him. He took on the entire world and left Japan to us, and now he's back and their biggest threat. Who would he be to leave us now? He wouldn't be, him.
It should have been obvious, Midoriya thought after Zach's confession. He always talked about that life like it was what everyone wanted to strive for. A life I had given up on the idea of, when I decided to be a hero. That became the future I wanted. Being a hero. A Symbol of Peace, like All Might. I'm willing to make that sacrifice, and not have certain things… Midoriya's eyes shifted up to the upper floors of their dorm but then snapped them back down in a determined way. There was no regret in his gaze despite what he just thought about giving up, but his expression softened as he looked to Zach. I'm willing to do it because I haven't, done anything yet though. Is that it?
Zach has done his fighting, his wars, his battles are all fought, Midoriya's forehead scrunched up as he imagined some of those battles himself. We all might want to be heroes right now, Midoriya thought as he could see the reactions of his classmates as well realizing the same things. But Zach's done that. He's been that guy. Done enough to retire- a hundred times over. Even though we're the same age… It's a weird gap, Zach. Midoriya looked at that tired face that he only now could place after staring at for so long. He'd seen it so many times and it always just filled him with confusion. It's hard to consider that he's just old in spirit. He wants to settle down and is worried about his kids' futures? The futures of kids all over- you're still a kid!
You… you, haven't been a kid in a long time.
Midoriya heard conversations the two of them had had since Zach returned to their world. "…I think the Army of Death really will start shrinking though. If, the reason for proving that is to try and stop them…" "Because, everyone in it wants the same things…The things I spread through the world, the idea of a beautiful life, a happy life, I know that the hurt and damaged and broken people who came and joined my army all started to believe in those things themselves. The more we spread them, the more I could see it." You came to believe it too. It took you longer. And, some of those soldiers who have done, far more than I have for this world, are still reaching this point. You pushed Darling to retire. To start early. You want, a better world. You did so much to make that world a reality, and we all see that the world is better because you did it! I can't deny it anymore. I won't! This was because of you, and it took everything you had to get here. Zach, I've been worried about you for so long. Worried that you can't take it…
I still am worried about that. Midoriya's expression that was just starting to lighten flinched. You gave everything and are still thinking about giving more? Dying even once more for all of us- You've done enough! You have. I… I'm sorry for all the times I pushed you to revive more people. I'm sorry for everything I said that made it harder for you to get here. You don't need to hear that right now. You don't need me to apologize. You always hate it when I apologize to you, and you tell me it isn't my fault. I've never believed that but maybe you're right. You're such an amazing person that you would have taken all that pain and made those sacrifices to get to this point regardless of anything I did. You did. Not 'would have,' you did. You did what no one else could- what no one else even thought was possible! And I know that you know that. I know you know. But, you still don't know if it's- Midoriya's eyebrows pulled up high and his eyes squinted then closed hard.
I don't have the right to say it. So many people won't be able to be saved… Midoriya opened his eyes back up. He released a heavy breath. And that's fine. People die. But Zach, you…
"It's okay, Zach," Midoriya started. Zach looked to his green-haired friend who was the first to speak after letting Zach's confession really sink in. Midoriya's voice was soft, just a notch over a whisper as he continued, "It's okay if you finish here. If this is it."
"…Goals that could not be twisted," Iida heard in his head. "All decisions going through me. And I swear, I did good. More good than bad, so much good, that I think for decades, centuries even, the things I did that past year will reverberate through them and make this world as a whole a better place." Iida's heart raced and his mouth opened as he heard Zach finish back then, "It's my biggest hope, my truest desire, something I hope to see while living a long life the same way I told Airi to."
"You've done enough," Midoriya continued. Iida nodded while just looking to Zach's closer friend who stepped up in front of him and stared Zach right in the eyes. "It's okay. You can be done now," Midoriya said.
Zach looked him back in the eyes. His expression changed. His lips had flattened out. He's not even saying it in fear that I might break. That's, really great. Zach smiled and shook his head again while actually feeling better at the way that Midoriya was looking back at him. "It's not like I don't enjoy being a hero," Zach started as he was countering Midoriya who frowned more at him when it seemed exactly like that was what Zach was saying. Zach's mood lightened as he tried to ease the conversation back to a lighter tone, "I just don't want to be- no, it's not that I don't want to be a hero, I just don't want to stay a hero." He looked away from Midoriya and to Iida, then back at Kirishima and Sero too. "I'll know the time when I can quit."
"What if that time was now?" Sero wondered.
"We all know it's not," Zach replied with a shorter shake of his head. He looked empathetically back at Midoriya right in front of him after saying that too. He gave his friend a look that told Midoriya to back off of this for now, at least, and Midoriya did ease back at the sight of it. Zach had already told them about the most important thing to him, and Midoriya grit his teeth but accepted that Zach felt he needed to stop Kaminari that much that his attempts would fall on deaf ears tonight.
I'll know though. When the world becomes a place that doesn't need my help anymore, Zach thought while looking back up in the sky. He felt a sting of a zap but ignored it and thought, And when that day comes, I'm going to disappear for good.
Another zap hit Zach and it was much worse this time. Koda just whispered something to Shoji, and Todoroki turned to them as well. Kirishima glanced back at Sero who took a couple of seconds then brought back up Ape Man's agency that he was going to sidekick at right out of high school. His classmates tried to refocus on themselves and each other rather than just on Zach, as they all wanted to remain close and wanted to know what their friends would be up to in the coming year. The night was not over just because of that intense conversation, even if there was an elephant in the courtyard now after Zach told them his dreams.
The fact that they all focused back on talking to each other, or listening, meant they missed the more subtle shifts in Zach's expression that happened gradually and while they were not all staring at him. When Todoroki and Midoriya each looked back over a few seconds after the conversation had ended though, they each felt the pits in their guts as they doubled-back and questioned a different reason for why Zach could, or should stop now. They watched the exhaustion deepen to something else as Zach stared towards the sky above while leaning back on a tree that seemed to hold up his entire weight.
All my talk of a dream like that? Even I know that it's too idealistic. I've believed it before, but that was dumb. Saying it aloud just sounds corny and naive to them because it is. It's the "dream," because it's not real. Zach's dark eyes narrowed towards the darker sky above. In reality, I'm going to succumb to the pressure. As the whole world calls for me to revive them, I'll feel that they're right to do so. I already do. So I'll bring them back, endlessly, or, for as long as I can…
His thoughts got even darker and more exhausted at that last thought. My life's about to end. I've told Mina. I told Himazuri how I can't do it. They didn't have any answers. No one has any answers. I've tried to tell them and they just pity me, but they can't even comprehend it. I tried- I really tried to make them understand! I even told Himazuri that as strong as I am, I know I won't last. That's just an excuse until it happens though. I managed Sleepless. Thousands more lives can still be saved before my own is destroyed. I don't know the limit! So I can't assume. I have to try. Before I reach the point where it has to end, because I'm no longer able to function… And that's an inevitability.
I won't even last that long, Zach thought to himself, his eyes squinting sadly and his fingers curling from more than just the pain from the shocks filling his body. Not even a few days after I start, I bet. I know, I'm going to lose it. His lips cracked into a pained fake smile. And I just found it too.
A/N ;( Sad chapter here for the second half at least. The first half we see some of the end to the final exams of U.A.'s graduating hero class. As well as preparations from various sides... The U.A. school year is almost finished. Tensions are rising! What's coming next?! Let me know what you think in a prediction comment below. Also any comments or questions are welcomed too! Again sorry for the long update. I even had to split up editing this chapter into multiple days because I've been really busy lately. Review response time though:
papaprep chapter 239 . Nov 19
Arsenal secret huh? Its not some kind of robot like ant is it?
0_o Possibly... XD Haha didn't leave you waiting very long to find out. Nezu and Power Loader have made their own counters to the arsenal that Raijin is also building up and Nezu's predicting. Heroes making weaponized defenses though had them some kind of way. Thanks for the review, and hope you enjoyed the chapter (even if the arsenal was predictable to ya).
Yamajiji chapter 239 . Nov 19
Damm. This was an incredible chapter. So much happened. You had the Therapy Session and wow, I didn't expect that. Then you had the sparring match, and I wonder if Izuku did awaken Float? It would be awesome if he did. And the thing with Momo, damm. That was heartbreaking. I really hope they do end up getting together again. Great job.
Thanks a lot! Deku wanted to awaken it during their combat but we didn't see anything mentioned about him using it yet. Glad you enjoyed the therapy session. I had always had the idea of what happened between Zach and his dad that day, and I recently realized I hadn't put it anywhere in the entire story and with the end near at hand... I didn't want anything left unsaid. ;) Some more Momo Zach stuff this chapter, mainly from Momo's side. We'll see what happens there. And thank you again for reviewing!
Todorokiii chapter 239 . Nov 21
I love it, again the drama literally hit me. I squealed when Zach said I love you Momo. I died, like I was Momo being confessed by Zach. Let me live me dreams! Anyway, I want to say that this fic is so well made that even small little details or words that are used, was written for a reason when Zach told about his Dad. It's also very realistic, like how Zach still struggle with his inner demons and omg, Momozaki part really buried me six feet below. I can't blame Momo for her response no matter how much I want them to be together. Zach's weakness is his friends, and Momo? Must be a different level of weakness. I can something like Momo being used against him but either way I want them to be together, to work things out. The letter could really help just like what happened to Jirou. Momo keeps Zach sane and we need that because without Momo, Zach literally gonna revive people everyday until he retires. Also I'm legit scared, if Zach turn into omnipresent shit and end into a tragic story to have peace shit. Bye! Please make a fic about where he lives. Btw, thanks author for another masterpiece! I hope u read this my rant comment. Stay safe author!
Glad you enjoyed it! Lots of fluff in this chapter as well, so hope you enjoyed Momo's scene with her friends there (or not enjoyed it, depending on how you felt reading that part XD ). Zach really does seem like he needs something, maybe Momo, to keep him together. Great call on that. He's even thinking about how reviving people every day is going to crush him. No spoilers about your predictions at the end, but thank you for the praise too. And stay safe back at you! Thanks for the review!
Guest chapter 239 . Nov 23
I'm calling now our boy will die most likely protecting Momo till the end
Nice prediction. Let's hope history doesn't repeat itself though... :) Thanks for reviewing!