BenchBeYolking here! With a surprise chapter right outta left field!

I'm back! I'm rested, and I've given up on school and have neglected all my assignments to write fanfiction instead. (It sound so much worse when I actually type it out...)

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy, finally, with Lazarus in UA the real adventure can begin! I'm excited to kick off Lazarus own story and start getting some more familiar faces involved. Thank you to everyone who's followed and liked this story, and if you haven't, I hope I can convince you to stick around to see what's next!

As always, leave a review if you have any questions, criticisms, thoughts, theories, words of wisdom or what-have-yous. It always makes my day to read what you guys have to say!

Also, I may delay next chapter (slightly) in order to go back and do some editing on the first few chapters, as now that I've gotten into the writing grove, I kinda want the first couple chapters to not suck, so I can trap people into reading the whole thing! Haha!

That's enough blabbering from me! Without further ado, I'll let the chapter, speak for itself.

Lazarus felt an uncomfortable itch in the jumpsuit that UA had provided for him, he knew his body wasn't bulky enough for a large, but his height and mass made a medium uncomfortably tight. He was trapped between two sizes, the other boys had spent the whole time in the locker room laughing at him frantically changing from one size to the other. He grimly remembered their 'helpful' advice the whole time he was trying to decided.

In the end, he had reasoned that being a little tight was preferable to tripping over his own pant leg. He saw the rest of class B gather around the courtyard, each muttering to themselves about what they thought was going to happen. Tetsutetsu was clearly ready for a brawl, with his fists already balled up and ready for combat. Other students stretched absentmindedly, going for general preparedness over any specific workout. Lazarus asked himself what he could do to prepare. He chuckled, "What can I do to prepare to die?"

"Students! Assemble!" Kan's voice washed over them, demanding silence, Lazarus obeyed, turning his body and locking his hands behind his back, his eyes following Kan's movement in front of the group. Kan was clearly irate, he clenched and unclenched his hands every few moments, his eyes already darting around.

"It's come to my attention that Mr. Aizawa, the homeroom teacher of class A has already taken it upon himself to begin testing his students," Kan paused, letting the information sink into the crowd, "Here at UA, we pride ourselves on pushing our students to their greatest potential, and I will not fall behind as a teacher by allowing class A to so easily surpass us; as of right now, class B hero training begins!" Kan finished with a dramatic point to the sky, as the energy rose, Lazarus felt it carry him away, he could almost visualize his goal in the sky above, his dreams realized in the bright blue world so far away and yet seemingly within reach.

"Let the fitness exam, begin!" Kan cried out, bringing his finger down to point at his class, who Lazarus felt, as a single unanimous entity, groan.

"A fitness test?" Lazarus heard someone from the back complain.

"Something so ordinary?" Someone else moaned.

"Man, I thought I'd be done with those after middle school…" Yet another voice chimed in.

Kan seemingly had enough, stopping on the ground to silence the class, "It may be ordinary, but hold yourselves to a better standard! You are heroes in training now!" The grumbling stopped dead. Kan sighed, "It's not just another ordinary fitness exam, here at UA, you are not only allowed to use your quirks to improve your results, but in fact, it's encouraged that you use them!" Suddenly, Lazarus felt a new wave of excitement arrive in the class, one that Lazarus didn't really share.

Neito chuckled, "So we're being given permission to cheat the results?" He spoke with a casual ease that betrayed a little excitement underneath. Kan nodded.

"You were born with your quirk, a power that is yours to control, your power is as much a part of you as you are a part of it. To not use such a massive part of yourself is pointless, everyone has their own unique ability, don't repress it, express it! Take this chance to use your quirk without fear of consequences! Use it to go beyond!" Kan paused, as if waiting for a response, Lazarus knew he wouldn't have to wait long.

"Plus Ultra!" Lazarus cried along with the rest of the class, a cheer, and a promise to work as hard as they could. Thought Lazarus knew his quirk put him at a disadvantage, he could still put up a competitive result.

Kan paused, then smiled in a way that instantly set off Lazarus's warning flags, "Oh, and by the way, also like class A, whoever comes in last? They'll be expelled, instantly." The energy in the room didn't just die, it imploded into a black hole of silence. Lazarus felt the chill not only run down his own spine, but the spine of almost every member in Class B, UA didn't wait a moment before culling the weak it seemed. Still, he reminded himself that he didn't have any reason to fear.

After all, he was reasonably fit, even if he couldn't use his quirk to his advantage here, how outclassed could be be.

"One hundred meter dash, go!"

Lazarus launched himself like a spring, taking short quick steps to build up enough speed to take longer more powerful strides. He couldn't help but smile, he was the track all-star at his school back home, he'd put up a good time here at least.

Lazarus suddenly felt a blast of wind hit him, as a mess of blond hair galloped at high speeds past him. Lazarus grimly realized why she had been named 'Pony-chan', as he was left in the dust.

"Sit ups, go!"

Lazarus gasped, his core feeling like jello as he leaned against the wall. Still, he had in fact sat up, many, many more times then he ever had before.

"Try and beat that…" Lazarus chuckled as he looked at the next group go.

Instantly, Juzo turned the ground to mush under his feet, his legs sinking slightly into the ground, giving him a stronger base to go from. A girl with green vine for hair had somehow planted her hair into the ground and was sitting up at a massively accelerated rate, using her hair to lift her up and down, and Tetsutetsu… was just screaming while going faster then Lazarus thought possible.

"Oh come on!" Lazarus sighed as he grabbed a towel, dabbing at his forehead with a sigh. Resolving himself for the next event.

"Long jump!"

Lazarus hit the sand, laughing though his fatigue, "Beat that! No one's got longer leaping legs than this guy!"

Lazarus turned around just in time to see a black haired girl grow to quadruple her normal size and easily leap twice Lazarus's own distance. Looking blankly forward, Lazarus layed down in the sand and began groaning loudly.

"Hey no sleeping on the job! Get out of the way!" Kan shouted, Lazarus screamed in frustration.

It turned out, very, very outclassed was the answer to his original question. Lazarus realized this fact between gasps of air, feeling lightheaded from his sprawled position on the dirt, the scent of sweat and cheap deodorant being everything his tired senses could detect, fatigue quickly overtaking him. He had never pushed his body so hard in his life, twisting every last ounce of energy out of him to keep up with the rest of his class. Even then, he couldn't do it, he had put every last ounce of himself into the test, and while he surpassed his previous accomplishments, he had failed to get any one score that topped the charts. Even Speech-for-face had managed to beat him in the push up event, how that even worked Lazarus had no idea. Yet the results spoke for themselves, he was never outside the top twelve scores, but he never broke the top three. In every event, even if he hadn't failed by any stretch of the word, Lazarus was forced to confront the fact that he had a long climb ahead of him… if he didn't get expelled.

"The last student has finished; now, it's time to look at the results! Remember, no matter where you place, there is always room to improve, these are your first results, but they are not your last." As Kan spoke, Lazarus wondered if Kan was aware of the irony that for one of them, it would in fact be their last results.

As the device in Kan's hand beeped, then projected out the results, Lazarus took a sharp intake of air, a gesture mimicked by several other members of the class, before he darted his eyes over the list, looking for where he ended up.

Number ten. Tenth place.

Utterly, perfectly, dead-center.

He didn't really know how he felt about it, on one hand, he had, with no power other than his own body, saved himself from expulsion at put himself in a respectable place, however, as far as he was concerned, the result basically put him at dead last.

"It was because I had no physical weakness." He spoke quietly to himself, defeat cutting into his skin, "And because the scoring system weighed all components equally, my jack-of-all-trades athletic ability...if even one activity I failed to do right…" Lazarus spit, feeling anger crawling across his skin and over his wounded pride, he wasn't very bright, but he could do basic math. It wasn't that his results were good, even the people below him had one fantastic score and a bunch of weak scores, and everyone above him had one or two fantastic scores and some strong and weak areas, Lazarus's own results were completely mediocre. While for someone of his age, his results were above average and impressively consistent, they were still nothing inhuman, nothing special.

Nothing special. That was exactly how Lazarus would describe how he felt in this class of Pros to be.

"Why UA?"

"Oh, yes, another thing I took from Aizawa was his famed 'rational deception' as he calls it," Kan put his hands on his hips, "No one is getting expelled today! It was simply a way to push you to give one hundred percent!" As Kan spoke, Lazarus suddenly lost the ability to breath.

Neito began to laugh, and as Lazarus turned to face him, horror still written across his face, Neito just started laughing harder, placing a hand across his stomach and wheezing uncontrollably, "You all actually believed him? That one of us would be expelled if we came in last?! HAHAHAHA! Are you all stupid? They wouldn't take twenty students in a class if they were going to expel one from each! It would leave them with an uneven number! HAHAHA! The whole test was obviously a sham!" As Neito continued to lose it, Lazarus took a second look at the scores, suddenly understanding Neito's sudden outburst.

"Ah, okay! I didn't realize you came in last, I guess that was because you knew it was all a sham?" As Lazarus quipped, Neito froze, his expression ugly and stressed for half a second before he recovered, returning to his normally relaxed appearance.

"Obviously." Neito spoke, suddenly quieting down and moving away from the center of attention. Lazarus scoffed, suddenly feeling he had a much better understanding of Neito Monoma's personality.

Kan looked unimpressed, "A sham? That is the wrong word to use, don't get me wrong, these results are not things to be proud of," Kan hit another button, and a second list of result appeared, "These are the results of class A."

Lazarus felt himself recoil, and he struggled to put words together into a sentence, "Are you kidding…"

Tetsutetsu growled, his stamina seemingly unending, "All of class A…"

Juzo placed his head in his hands, still breathing heavily, "Both in average and on an individual level.."

Reiko spoke, her face blank, even as sweat dripped down her brow, "Beat us by that big of a margine."

Lazarus felt like swearing, "Someone scored an infinity!? Who does that!? What does that even mean!?"

Lazarus felt the wall that he needed to overcome grow larger before his very eyes, if he was average by his own class's standards, he was a toddler compared to the results of class A. While the fluctuations in scores followed the same pattern that their class did, the scores were just higher. Even the last place of class A had one score that put all of Lazarus's other scores to shame.

"Izuku." Lazarus spoke to himself, muttering the name under his breath as a challenge, if he ever wanted to survive UA, he would have to climb his way up from the bottom, and that would start with overcoming the lowest rung first, that would start with Izuku Midoriya.

"Izuku?" Lazarus muttered again, something flickering in the back of his mind, some repressed memory that tried to force its way to the surface, as he rubbed his chin, trying to place the stray thought just out of his reach, "Why the hell does that name ring a bell?"

"This is shameful!" Kan spoke, shaking his head, snapping Lazarus out of his thoughts, "To be outdone by your competition on the very first day? You are now the underdogs in this race to the top." Kan lectured, shutting the projection down as everyone mesmerized by the results forced themselves to turn away.

"Well at least everyone roots for the underdogs…" Lazarus mumbled, kicking the ground with his toe.

"What did you say, American boy?" Kan spoke loudly as the crowd split to open a sightline between Kan and Lazarus. Lazarus threw his hands up defensively.

"Oh me? Nothing! Just that… I have...to...surpass class A! Yeah!" Lazarus smiled and pumped his fist, praying that he be granted mercy.

Kan said nothing, simply squinting his eyes at Lazarus before turning back to the class, "This is our starting point, this is what we have to overcome. We will work, we will train, and we will overcome class A!" Kan finished with a firm cry, a call to battle, that Lazarus knew the class was willing to answer.

"Plus Ultra!" All of class B cried in unison, the previous tiredness forgotten in the pulse pounding cheer of victory.

Lazarus cheered along, but in his heart, he felt something else, something hard, something determined.

This was his mountain to scale, victory was uncertain and failure meant the end of all his dreams. He knew the rule now, the board had been wiped clean and the pieces were back in place. One final game, with his life on the line.

Lazarus Poe had one shot, and it was time to take it.

"Class dismissed!"

Lazarus threw open the rusty door with a loud, earth shattering creaking noise, followed by a massive reverberating bang. Taking a deep breath, his body near the breaking point after having to climb the six rickety flights of stairs to get back to his apartment.

"Honey! I'm home!" Lazarus called out to no one, listening for the tiny echo of the empty space. Lazarus dropped his schoolbag with a thud on the cheap coffee table he had placed on the other side of the rusty front door. The table wobbled unsteadily for a moment, protesting the unexpected weight, before accepting the load placed on with silent indignity. Lazarus looked around the sparse room, noticing that the kitchen space was still dirty, the 'living space' was very cluttered and the only two side rooms; a pathetically small bathroom; and a small bedroom, were both messy as all hell.

Lazarus felt trapped by the metal pillars and beams jutting upwards and crisscrossing a ways above his head, it gave him and the whole room the feeling of a cage. He had hated it when he first moved in after leaving the Sero residence, but he had soon come to appreciate it as another 'feature' of his inexpensive home, guest deterrent, he liked to call it. Lazarus chuckled to himself as he danced across the floor, letting the flow of the music inside his own head guide his steps, humming as he stepped over strewn shirts and pants, making his way to the kitchen area to grab a snack.

He looked over the tiny kitchen area as he arrived, the aroma of coffee and instant noodles would have been simply repulsive to most, but Lazarus knew that unique mix of smells as the scent of freedom and independence, as well as repulsive. He looked at his sink, noticing the pile of plates he had used and discarded over the last few days, and the growing pile of sticky notes in increasingly intense pen shades that he had left himself to remember to do the dishes.

Lazarus quickly wrote another one and stuck it on the pile, reminding himself to do the dishes tomorrow.

Satisfied with that particular responsibility out of the way, he turned to the small, but not quite mini, fridge he had purchased for dirt cheap online, it was a gaudy yellow colour, but he had been assured it was white when the original family bought it. Taking a moment to shift the aging toaster and old-school coffee machine out of the way (carefully not knocking over his tower of empty energy drinks), Lazarus finally managed to open the refrigerator.

"What's on the menu today…" Lazarus chuckled as he opened the door to reveal four empty takeout containers and a post it note reminding him to go buy more food, regarding his barren fridge, he nodded sagely, "Going hungry, going hungry is on the menu today." Taking a deep breath, Lazarus shut the door and took out his budget booklet, utterly displeased with himself.

"Well if I cut into my social fund for next-next-next week, I might be able to afford eating out tonight…" Lazarus spent an agonizing two minutes trying to magically make more money appear in his plan, before the grumbling of his exhausted and overworked body simply led him to throw planning to the wind. Taking out his phone, he quickly searched up a local food joint that had the keywords 'delivery' and 'fast' somewhere on their page. He dialed in the number and hit call, waiting for the other end to pick up, before his phone made a sudden screeching noise. Lazarus thrusted it away from his ear, wincing, before the sound died and the other end picked up.

"Hello, you wouldn't happen to have any starving student deals here, would you?" Lazarus joked as soon as he heard a connection.

"Found- oh!" The man on the other end sounded a little caught off guard with Lazarus's quick greeting, Lazarus chuckled.

"Sorry, didn't mean to steal your thunder fast-food man sir, but my body's turning in on itself out of hunger. Any suggestions from your menu?" Lazarus wandered over to the entrance to his 'balcony', safely tucked behind a cracked glass panel, boarded up with the finest discarded planks of wood, Lazarus could only guess that the owner's mantra was 'you get what you pay for' in this building.

The man said nothing, before suddenly replying with a start, "Uh! Right! We do have excellent... stir- uh, stir fry! Very reasonably priced and-and-" Lazarus cut the nervous sounding guy off with a chuckle.

"Say no more, you had my heart at 'reasonably priced' pal! I'll just send over my location…" Lazarus fumbled with the display on his phone for a moment, before sending off his location to the other end of the call, "Done! Have a good day." Lazarus spoke quickly, already feeling his mouth salivate at the thought of food.

"Thank you, I'll send someone over right away...Have a good evening Lazarus." The man replied quickly, before hanging up, Lazarus slipped his phone back into his pocket, rubbing his hands together as he fantasized about his upcoming meal.

Lazarus paused, taking his phone back out of his pocket and staring at it for a moment, before shaking his head and chuckling, he must have mentioned it somewhere in his hunger induced state and just forgotten saying it.

He heard a knock at the door, and looked over his shoulder, Lazarus knew modern service was fast, but he hadn't expected same-minuet delivery.

"Hey! Rent is due!" A gruff sounding voice yelled far too loudly from the other side of the thin door, Lazarus shook his head and groaned. He had forgotten about having to pay next month's rent.

"Hold your horses, I'm grabbing the cash!" Lazarus called back, moving towards his bedroom, before the man began yelling again, "Oh no! You answer this door right now! I'm not going to let you sneak away you rat!" Lazarus rolled his eyes.

"What am I going to do, throw myself out a window?" Lazarus shouted back, stopping towards the door angrily, stopping short just in front of it.

"Wouldn't be the stupidest thing someone did to avoid rent!" The man shouted from the other side, clearly waiting to be let in. Lazarus paused a moment longer, knowing fully well he was being petty, but not really caring one bit about it, before forcibly turning the aging lock, letting the man in.

The man wore a cheap suit, the kind that said the wearer valued neither style or modesty. Lazarus had heard things about people who just looked like delinquents, but he had always assumed people grew out of it once they stopped being teenagers, this middle aged man proved his assumption wrong.

"You the new tenant?" The man spoke, twitching his head to the side to move his long chestnut hair out of his face, his brown eyes squinting at Lazarus. The man looked like a mugger who had stolen the very shirt off someone's back.

"You treat all the new tenants like that? Explains why rent's so cheap," Lazarus thrusted a finger back at the broken door to the balcony, "It's the only reason rent's so cheap, right?" Lazarus locked eyes with the man and made no move to back down, he was too hungry and tired for pleasantries.

The man scoffed, shaking his head, "Whatever, you don't pay me to do anything else other then collect rent 'round here, otherwise, stuff's all your business. Now pay up." Lazarus opened his mouth to refute, but decided against starting an argument with his landlord.

"You didn't give me any time to get it, so wait a second alright? Pinky-swear I won't throw myself out the sixth story window here…" Lazarus held back the detail that he would 'survive' the fall if did though.

Lazarus walked away from the door, kicking away any discarded garments in his path as he made it to his bedroom, which once allegedly had a door, but if it did, said door was nowhere to be found. Lazarus suspected that it had been transplanted onto the front doorway at some point. Flicking on the single dim light in the room, Lazarus crawled over his crappy metal frame bed and opened the tiny closet, crinkling his nose as the dust and musty smell of the interior hit him.

The light barely reached the tiny side room, all that appeared to be in it were a few shirts which were vastly outnumbered by empty hangers, and a tiny dresser tucked into the corner; However, Lazarus had found one aspect of the apartment that was a feature. Pulling on the dresser, he shifted it towards him, revealing a massive hole in the back of the closet, revealing a little space between the wall and the very minimal insulation in the room. If Lazarus thought the closet was dark, the hidden hole was pitch black, however, Lazarus knew that there was nothing in the darkness that could kill him, at least permanently, so he reached in without fear, grabbing for the familiar shape in the darkness.

Lazarus wrapped his hand around a handle he recognized, pulling out the unassuming green duffle bag, dusting flecks of wall particle off of it as he slung it onto his shoulder, knocking his cube out of his back pocket, but before he could bend down to grab it, he heard his landlord yelling for him from the other room. Lazarus made the snap choice to come back for it later, and carried the bag back into the other room, placing it down on the floor with a satisfyingly loud smack.

"One sec! You'll get your money…jeez." Lazarus mumbled as he pulled on the zipper, opening the bag to reveal it's contents. He heard his landlord swear in confusion.

"The...what...how?" The man babbled, clearly trying to say something, Lazarus couldn't find it within himself to care, however.

Lazarus began grabbing stacks of small bills from the duffle bag, counting to himself as he became more irritated with every stack that had to leave the bag, after pulling out six stacks of small bills, he stood up, offering them to the man.

"That's this month's and next month's rent. Happy?" Lazarus huffed, shaking the money as the man made no move to reach out and grab it.

"That...that's gotta be...kid, how much cash is in that bag?" The man seemed suddenly on edge, but Lazarus was done talking to people tonight, he just wanted to eat his stir fry and forget about his results.

"I've had a crappy first day at school, and it's enough money to keep paying rent. So take the money, or don't, and I'll live here for free, your call." Lazarus snarked, shaking the money a little harder.

"...What the hell did you do to get that money." As his landlord spoke, Lazarus felt his breath catch in his throat, and decided instantly he was done with this conversation.

"I don't pay you to do anything else but collect rent, my business is my own," Lazarus threw the man's own words back at him, shoving his rent into the man's hand, who hesitantly accepted the cash, "Have a good evening sir, don't spend it all in one place!" Lazarus replied with a harden edge to his voice, practically pushing the man out the front door and slamming the massive metal sheet with a forceful crash, the sound of thunder.

Lazarus stood, huffing, waiting. After a moment, he heard footsteps slowly walk away from his door, giving Lazarus's shaky legs the cue to sink to the ground, leaving him sitting in the center of his apartment.

"I did what I had to do." He whispered, letting the half-truth escape his lips and fill the room, the answer he could never give anyone but himself.

Lazarus turned around, slowly rising to a knee as he looked over his messy living area with a sudden pit in his gut, "This place is disgusting…" He looked down at a sticky note, reminding him to pick up his stuff, picking the note up, Lazarus took a laboured breath, before grabbing one of his shirts and quickly folding it. Lazarus moved to the next shirt, then the next, needing to do anything but let his mind wander.

Lazarus threw the duffel bag back into the hidden space in the back of the closet, pushing the dresser back into place. Covering the hole from prying eyes yet again. Lazarus took another breath, still feeling a little shaken. Pulling out his phone, he debated just shutting down and heading to bed, but the need to eat still haunted him as he put it back into his pocket.

Stepping back into the now spotless living space, Lazarus flopped down on a creaky metal chair he had found shoved into a corner during his cleaning, exhaustion hitting him as soon as he left the bedroom, the chair being the only bit of real furniture he had besides his bed. He ate on the countertop beside the fridge most days anyway, so a table wasn't really needed as far as Lazarus was concerned. Taking out his phone again, he noticed how sick he was of his lock screen. He quickly took a quick picture of himself wearing his sweatpants and white T-shirt, zooming incredibly close to his face before setting the image, hoping that someone would find the close up of his awkward expression half as funny as he did. As he moved to put the phone back yet again, he stopped and felt around in his pockets, realizing why he felt so out of breath.

"I swear to god I would lose my heart if I didn't feel how close I was to it…" He chuckled, remembering that he still hadn't grabbed his cube from his closet. Before Lazarus could turn himself around and grab his most valuable organ, he heard three polite knocks on his door.

"Um! Stir-fry delivery!" A cutsy, if unsure voice spoke from the other side of the door.

Lazarus admitted, he was the kinda guy who could develop a crush on anyone for any reason, but he had never fallen in love with someone just because their voice was cute, until now. Lazarus felt his heart skip a beat (an incredible feat considering it was still sitting in the other room).

There was a moment of silence, before the voice spoke again, a little more assertive this time, but no less cutsy, "Is this the right place? Helllooo? Lazarus-kun!" Lazarus felt his heart leap into his throat (again, a very impressive feat), as he practically floated towards the door, trying to smooth his hair which he had already washed, returning it to the wild bed-headed mess it always was.

"C-Coming! One second!" Lazarus found it in himself to speak, trying to undo the massive lock that guarded his door from intruders.

"Don't." A voice whispered in Lazarus's ear. Lazarus looked up, startled and suddenly on edge as he turned his head every which way, trying to identify the source of the voice, before looking back towards the door, seeing Newtonia's phantom image standing in the space between himself and the lock, looking dead into his eyes. "This won't end well. You aren't acting like yourself."

Before Lazarus could speak, another quieter knock sounded at the door, "N-not to rush you...but the food will get cold…" As Lazarus shook his head, Newtonia was gone, and Lazarus's hands were shaking.

"Well, I'm going crazy...let's just chalk that one up to hunger. Hopefully." Lazarus spoke quietly, his eyes wide and honest, praying that it was just a hunger induced vision. He finally finished undoing the deadbolt lock and instantly threw open the door, revealing the girl on the other side.

Lazarus smiled, she was easily almost half a foot shorter then him, he wouldn't put her over 5'6, probably closer to 5'5, she looked up at him, smiling widely in return, her short pink hair contrasting her deep blue eyes, Lazarus was instantly lost in them, that was all he could see, Blue, she was Blue. Forgetting everything he was doing, Lazarus could only just look into her eyes.

"Are you Lazarus Poe?" Blue asked politely from the doorway, holding the bag of food in one hand while the other was hidden behind the bag, most likely supporting it from the back.

Lazarus chuckled, still feeling that warm tingling where most people would have had a heart, "Ye-yeah, you got the right place! I thought I was gonna die waiting for this stir fry!" Blue giggled, and for a moment she closed her eyes, leaving Lazarus empty; However, in that moment Lazarus felt a warning bell go off in the back of his head, his vigilante impulse warning him of danger he couldn't quite see, a gut impulse for avoiding death that had saved him many times before. But very quickly, she went back to looking at him with her endlessly engaging eyes, and Lazarus felt the warning bell fade, then silence.

She shrugged sheepishly, her face turning apologetic, "Well! Sorry I made you wait! Enjoy Lazarus-kun!" Blue smiled a massive smile, and Lazarus felt himself physically recoil, a hand leaping to cover his chest. A smile that cute, from a girl that cute, gave him the same feeling as being shot.

Lazarus continued to smile back, completely forgetting to grab his stir-fry from Blue, however, Lazarus noticed her smile slowly fade into confusion as he continued to look into her eyes, he knew he was hopelessly and utterly distracted from the outside world. Lazarus continued to stare until her face turned into horror, as she looked away from his face to look down at his shirt.

Lazarus blinked, the spell yet again broken as he became aware of his body screaming at him for attention, a dull ache warning him of his injured body. Lazarus slowly moved his hand away from his chest, looking at the deep crimson that coated his entire palm as the bullet wound in his chest continued to leak blood.

"Oh, ah. That was a point twenty-two caliber, right? Silenced?" Lazarus questioned as he put two and two together and made one conclusion. In that same time, Blue dropped the bag of food, and shot Lazarus twice more in the chest.

Lazarus was forced back a half-step by the force of the impact, but he knew there wasn't anything important she could even hit in his chest, so he wasn't that concerned about protecting himself. Instead, he stepped forward, fighting against his body's urge to retreat, grabbing the silencer with one hand while twisting it from her grip, pistol-whipping her under the chin with a single deft move. He grabbed a handful of pink hair in his unoccupied hand as he tossed her stunned body into his apartment, and onto his home turf. Using his foot as a spare hand, he slammed the door shut behind him. Lazarus took a deep breath as he leveled the gun at her downed form, his finger twitching over the trigger as his hand shook, contrasting the cocky look on his face.

"You really thought you could take me, Lazarus; the living-goddamn-Litch, down with a peashooter and a bag of stir-fry filled with lies? You do a disservice to my career so far ma'am." Lazarus grinned as Blue coughed, wiping a bit of blood off her mouth, Lazarus wasn't sure if it was from inside her mouth, or she was caught in the splash zone after shooting him.

She shook, shaking her head, "This isn't fair...this was suppose to be an easy job..." Lazarus snorted.

"Let me tell you, whoever said killing me is easy is the biggest liar since you saying you brought stir-fry." Lazarus shot back, Blue looked at him quizzically.

"You seem really obsessed with that stir-fry thing-" Before she could finish, Lazarus snapped a little.

"I was hungry; consequently, now you have to deal with me while I'm hangry." As he spoke, his tone serious and cold, he realized he didn't know the Japanese equivalent of being both hungry and angry at the same time, and had simply blurted the word out in English in a way that couldn't communicate his foodless rage. Before he could try and communicate the difficult emotional state, she nodded.

"Right, forgot you spoke english," She replied in perfect english, catching Lazarus a little off guard, she smirked, "What? You think you're the only person from Japan to ever be to America? I go where the gang does. Been hopping countries since I was old enough to stand." Lazarus stayed silent, weary not to get too comfortable with his banter.

Blue stood, giggling, which led Lazarus to feel a shiver pass up his spine, "I have to admit, I guess I did underestimate you. though," She smiled and clasped her hands together, looking directly at him, Lazarus had the intelligence to look away, keeping his ears alert, his body ready to react at any change, "You would agree that shooting someone in the heart normally does a good enough job killing them, be fair to me! I've never done this before...that means...you are my first, Lazarus-kun." She whispered the end of the sentence, but Lazarus knew he was already far past any genuine feelings of affection he might have had for her, anything he felt now was just most likely her quirk messing with him.

That's what he continued to tell himself as his face went beet red.

Blue kept giggling, and Lazarus felt his gut twist, a sudden wave of bad feelings washing over him, why hadn't she tried to move yet? Lazarus got his answer when he heard a familiar clicking sound. His mind shot into overdrive, did she have another gun? Was he about to get torn to shreds? Lazarus turned his head back, his mind racing with a hundred different ways he could die, just in time to see her clicking her tongue on the side of her mouth, looking at him with those wide blue eyes.

"Got'cha." Blue smiled warmly, breathing a sigh of relief as Lazarus felt his willpower drain away, he futilely tried to turn away, but his movements felt so sluggish and his mind was drowning in the blue of her eyes.

Blue held out a hand, "Please give me the gun, Lazarus-kun." Without thinking, Lazarus shuffled forward, fighting every step he took, but ultimately a powerless observer in this situation. Growing impatient, Blue took a few steps towards him and snatched the gun from his hand, her posture relaxing further as the gun was back in her possession, but her eyes still never left his, "Please kneel, Lazarus." Like a dog, he obeyed, his body dropping to its knees in an instant, his head now gazing up at her eyes, the dark sky and phantasmal moonlight from outside only further drawing him into her eyes.

Blue leveled the gun at his forehead, pressing the muzzle directly against the center of his head, Lazarus felt utterly defeated, his will to resist already completely depleted. However, he never stopped looking into her eyes, and as he did, he saw a flicker of something, something that gave him hope.

Uncertainty.

"...you are my first, Lazarus-kun."

"Please." Lazarus choked out, his white shirt stained with long red lines from his chest, "Don't do this. You can still choose life. It's never too late to choose life over death. Save yourself." For once, he didn't try to break eye contact with Blue, he pleaded, from the depth of his being, feeling emotions he had long buried rise up to his throat.

He could still save one person from choosing death.

Blue's hand shook wildly, and her eyes began to tear up. Lazarus felt the silencer rub uncomfortably on his forehead, her other hand trying to steady the first as she wiped at her tears with her shoulder.

"I- I don't have a-" Blue began, before grinding her teeth, "I have to prove, I'm willing-" She lost her breath, and slowly, she began to lower the gun, taking it away from his forehead. Lazarus took a long breath, hope burrowing deep into his heart.

"...I have a duty. I'm sorry. This is the price you pay for taking what wasn't yours." With tear stained eyes, she smiled sadly, "Lazarus-kun, please, could you close your eyes for me?"

Lazarus felt his whole world drop out from underneath him as coldness began to spread through his body, the command working its way from the base of his spine to his eyelids.

In the darkness behind his eyelids, he recognized his failure, he couldn't even stop one life from choosing death.

Lazarus's ears registered a muffled bang, but by the time his brain could process what it was, he was already dead.