Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 232:

Yuranama slammed his gavel down and the audience of the trial sat down. Heroes remained standing around the room and the media in the back focused their cameras now that they had a view of what the room would look like for the majority of the trial. The only big difference in how the room would look for the rest of it was that the witness stand would be occupied at times, and the big screen in the front right corner of the room would be used for any video evidence.

Zach sat down next to Hanuri who took in a deep breath and then glanced next to her at her client and past him. We have not talked about Dr. Rainne. You don't seem to mind his presence. The media speculated a lot about your relationship but Rainne denied that it would be a problem, as long as it wasn't for you. Rivera saw the prosecutor she had faced once before in her most humiliating defeat to date look her way and lock eyes. He's very good. And I've looked into Poloski and Utgardo. Those UN special prosecutors are both undefeated in court. They don't only take easy cases either. It's a tough team to go up against.

Rivera Hanuri lifted a pile of papers and tapped them down on the table to straighten them out. She looked confident and faced the judges with a steady gaze ignoring the three male prosecutors who looked her way after she had just stared towards them.

"Zach Sazaki," Yuranama began while looking down towards the eighteen year old with dark hair. Zach nodded back while staring him in the eyes, and Yuranama continued, "You are being charged with the crime of being Death…"

How do I plead- Zach thought the man was going to continue, but he held back a grimace as Yuranama continued instead.

"…and all of the charges that the terrorist is currently charged with. Your charges are as follows: homicide, murder in the third degree, murder in the second degree, murder in the first degree, felony murder, armed robbery, international terrorism, assault with a deadly weapon, assault with a blunt weapon, assault with the use of a firearm, possession of firearms…" Yuranama read down a list with his voice showing no sign of reaching the end any time soon.

The room remained silent as Judge Yuranama listed off the litany of Death's crimes. It started off dark with most people in the room keeping deep frowns and narrowed expressions at the harsher crimes Yuranama stated. Unfortunately, it was too hard to keep those looks for over a minute or two, and the crimes were so extensive and included every crime that Death was accused of in all countries that he was wanted in. By the third minute there were people laughing in bars and in their houses at the kinds of crimes that Yuranama announced. In the courtroom people stayed more composed, though even many of the heroes and hero students had to mask smirks and wipe off beads of sweat from their faces at the judge's serious voice as he listed some of these crimes.

"…Theft of aircraft, destruction of government property, destruction of private property, hijacking a commercial aircraft, bank robbery…"

"Bank robbery?!" A Canadian man in Montreal exclaimed at a viewing party he was hosting at his house. "Are they messing with us?!"

"They've got to be, right?" One of his neighbors wondered back with a laugh, though a bead of sweat rolling down the back of his neck as he considered it.

Todoroki Shoto wished he could be as skeptical as some people were about that charge. He scratched the right side of his chin imagining the bank robbery that led him and his father to arrest some very influential South American villains in the following days. It's still bank robbery, even if he was just stealing from villains' accounts.

"…Armed robbery, mail fraud, tax evasion…" Yuranama continued listing.

With all my charitable donations, I probably wound up not dodging any taxes at all, Zach countered in his thoughts as he wondered if one of those crimes might not actually be true. I didn't file any taxes though so I guess it's still illegal.

"…Conspiracy to commit treason, acquisition of class 8 weapons, production of class 8 weapons, distribution of class 8 weapons, personal use of class 8 weapons. Acquisition of class 9 weapons…" Yuranama finished a sentence and moved a page in front of him to put below the pile, and he continued with the next page that started with the class 9 weapons and made everyone in the room stare towards him in a way questioning how long this was going to go on for. Yuranama remained serious though even as he read out the same charges only for class 9 weapons this time.

"Jesus! He just keeps going!" Bobo Cambri called out while shaking his beer can into the air over him. "Do they really think my man Zach did all that?!"

"You think he didn't?!" Bobo's older half-brother yelled back his way, and Bobo started laughing at the top of his lungs with some other Italians at their gym who all laughed even harder and cheered at how Yuranama continued on the international broadcast.

"…grand theft auto, blocking traffic, bribery of border patrol officers in the United States, Mexico, Canada…" Yuranama trailed off then cleared his throat as he stopped for a moment. Everyone wondered if he was at the end of the pages, but it sounded like he was not even finished with the list of countries that he was accusing Zach of bribing their border patrol officers. Yuranama lowered the page and mentioned, "For certain charges there are too many counts and variations of the crime, so I will continue on. Car theft, helicopter theft, theft of a fire truck, breaking and entering the White House, trespassing in the Kremlin, stealing classified documents from… 18 different countries' governments. Breaking into the Louvre, art theft, jewel theft, bicycle theft, motorcycle theft, speeding, illegally parking, construction of military-grade missiles and aircraft beyond Class 9 association which is the highest association on the UN scale…"

Zach made sure to keep his lips flat, but he did wonder, Was that a joke? Putting illegally parking next to that one? There's no way he's making a joke. Maybe whoever wrote out the list he's reading off thought that would be funny. Also, what country charged Death with parking illegally? I'm sure I did a few times… well, actually? I feel like I was careful not to park illegally and draw unnecessary attention. I guess for quick extractions I might've had cars pull up in firetruck spaces. I doubt anyone parked in a handicap spot though, I hope.

Zach could not keep his lips from rising at least a little at the corners, as Yuranama mentioned, "…Jetski theft." I remember that one. Admittedly could have asked a little nicer, but Darling needed a ride out of there and the guy was close enough to shore to swim. She didn't wreck the jetski anyway so the guy got it back.

"…Extortion of the French head of state, hacking hero agencies' emails, environmental terrorism, use of C4 explosives in a populated area, use of D6 explosives, bombing a clothing factory in Argentina, arson, theft of hero support items, theft of hero costumes, malicious use of stolen hero support tools, poisoning, assassination, killing an endangered and protect species, destroying a gas station, kidnapping, and 209 counts of vigilantism, one for each country that Death carried out operations in."

Yuranama lowered the pile of papers he had gone through completely so the first page was back at the top which told him the list was over. He placed them down and the room became instantly as intense as ever as everyone really considered all those crimes just mentioned. A few of them on their own could get someone thrown in prison for the rest of their life as a villain, and Zach Sazaki was charged with hundreds of those kinds of villainous crimes.

In one of the rows on the left side of the courtroom, Nagiso Mondo glared towards the back of his middle school classmate's head. The sidekick sat closest to the aisle in a row with his pro hero Bikergang, Bouncer Man, Herobro, and the Feisty Foursome who sat together on the opposite end of the pew. Jelloman glared harshly towards the kid a year younger than him who he knew before anyone else, was dangerous. The moment Sazaki reached for his glove when that villain we bumped into grabbed me. I saw the fear in his eyes of having to use a Quirk I didn't even know he had. A Quirk I could tell he thought was going to kill that villain, but he was going to use it anyway. I didn't like him already, but the moment he reached for it I knew something was off about him. I failed as a hero though.

When I heard what his Quirk was called two years later, I was surprised but angry at myself that I did not do something sooner to stop him from ever attempting to be a hero. I was just a kid- that's no excuse. I saw that Sazaki was willing to use that Quirk before, and I knew the twerp was hiding it because of the excessive danger and stigma it would put on him. I didn't say anything to anyone else though. I thought it wasn't something a hero would do and that only I considered speaking up because I didn't like him. Sazaki was popular in middle school. Everyone knew him by his first name. The fastest on the team and team captain as a second year, and I remember how that kid in his first year of middle school had beaten me in our first race together. Nagiso bit down as he glared towards Zach's back when his old middle school classmate stood up to make his plea. We raced and he had the gall to claim that he'd been training to be a hero and that's why he was so fast.

I was training for that too! Nagiso thought, once again feeling the anger that he had felt as a younger man which he knew was immature but was impossible to kick. I was so angry that the Quirkless kid was faster than me and somehow felt like that qualified him to be a hero. But I felt regret about talking down to Sazaki for thinking he could do it, thought I should have been more of a hero at the time. Now though, I see that being more of a hero back then would have been convincing him he couldn't. Really convincing him, rather than just being a bully. I should have been more careful and stopped him back when I still could, back before Sazaki became the danger he is today…

"Zach Sazaki, how do you plead?"

"Not guilty," Zach said in a steady and loud voice. He took his seat again as Yuranama nodded back at him.

"I will now take opening statements beginning with the plaintiff," Yuranama motioned for the prosecution to make their next move. He wasted no time and gave the three men there a discerning look which they all took in stride.

Dr. Rainne was the one to stand up and step around the table. Zach tuned the man out immediately and thought instead on the plea he just made. Not guilty. I can't be. It would make too many people sad. It would make the coming fights harder for us all. This is something that had to happen and yet it cannot be allowed to finish with my arrest. Zach did not change his expression as Rainne brought up Lifebringer's previous trials and how he had escaped justice before. The prosecutor accused the people who formerly had control over his fate of being remiss in their duties to allow him to continue on and commit the "horrendous" list of "atrocities" that Yuranama had just revealed.

The people of Japan care about me. Even if they disassociate with me at times, for the most part they care. They got me pardoned for the Lifebringer Incident. It wasn't Nikko. His appointment was the combined will of the people who voted him into his position. They did it for me. They look up to me. Zach took in a deep breath and looked next to him at Ms. Hanuri who nodded back also with a calm expression even after Rainne talked about the inescapable proof that Lifebringer was Death which the prosecution was going to bring forward today. I've heard myself called "The Hero of the People." I've seen kids in outfits with 'LIFEBRINGER' written across them.

And Siri, Zach thought back on a boy he had met during the licensing exam back what felt so long ago now. I was a different person then too. But I remember the way I felt when he told me. "…We were up- my family and I, all night until they made that press release that you were going to be alright." He'd seen me wince from the gunshot wound I got not a week earlier before the test. I asked him if I had brought anyone he knew back, but I knew that I hadn't. Regular people like him think that much about me. And they care that much about me. A lot of them have problems with what I've done. But they still care. And I will not let them down here by showing the person they look up to and care for is guilty of those things.

"I do not know what proof you have that makes you think I am Death," Zach started, looking towards the prosecution after standing from his seat. He did not walk out or look around at everyone and the judges in the same way that his opposing lawyers had. "But I am not him. I did not do the things I have been accused of. And I know that this trial will find me innocent, because I am innocent. I am not Death." Zach lifted a small smile and finished, "I've been saying it all this time. Sorry to disappoint you," Zach tilted his head to the right then took his seat still with a half-grin on his face as if this was a humorous situation he found himself in.

Yuranama's glare could not get harsher as he stared down the boy making a mockery of his court. Zach's smile flattened out and he turned to the side to Hanuri who whispered something to him. He moved his head and whispered back into her ear while the prosecution murmured amongst themselves too. The prosecuting attorneys had expected a longer defense from Lifebringer to start with, but they quickly moved on and opened their three briefcases to grab out new papers inside that they put down in front of themselves.

Yaoyorozu sat in the first row almost directly behind Zach. She looked towards the right side of his head and then to his hands as he lifted up a paper as well that Rivera Hanuri pointed down at some writing on. Yaoyorozu could not see the page, but she felt relieved as Zach spoke to his lawyer with a focused look on his face showing the smile before did not indicate he was not taking this seriously as she had been concerned about. The smile is so that normal people see he is not taking it seriously. Convincing them that he really doesn't feel the need to defend himself that hard, because he knows that he's innocent! But I know how much this means, Zach. Fleeing you could have avoided the situation entirely. Avoided the worst case scenario. But it's only by coming here and winning the trial that you can have the best case scenario. The option that a hero would choose to go for! You always try to mitigate disaster by picking solutions that aren't the best but give you the highest chance of success. Instead of going for mitigating disaster though, you're actually looking to make this a victory. Put to rest the fears and doubts about you. Prove to everyone that you aren't him.

Whatever evidence they have against you, I believe that you can do this, Yaoyorozu thought with a small smile of her own breaking out this time at the confident grin that emerged back on Zach's face yet gave her no worry that he thought this was a joke. I know that you can.

"The prosecution calls Star-Spangled Man to the stand," Poloski started. The Caucasian man stood up as he made the announcement after Yuranama told them to call their first witness or bring forward their first piece of evidence.

The doors on the right side of the front section of the room opened up. Zach looked to the right and at the double doors before the corner of the room where there was a giant tv screen crossing the corner from the back wall to the side wall. It was a black screen for now but one that he could tell was on already and just did not have anything up on it yet. The side doors opened between two heroes who kept facing forward even as one of the strongest and most well-regarded heroes in the entire world stepped into the court.

Makes sense they'd call him first. He probably asked them to so he can get back out there early rather than have this hanging over his head all day. Zach thought while watching the man walk through the front of the room and then to the bench and up to the witness stand to be sworn in. He may not even be staying here to deal with the rest of the trial. Once everyone knows he's in Japan he can try to catch them all off guard when they abuse that fact. The ADTF. Gondorhan. Freedom Fighters- They're getting weaker but still exist as the strongest in America. Most likely the ones who will get blamed if Gondorhan remains a mystery. Star-Spangled Man will not stop before finding the truth though. Blitz nor Coola nor Captain Celebrity either. Nor Vannessa. They're all working hard. I wish them luck.

"Star-Spangled Man. Thank you for coming out here today," Poloski walked up to the stand and greeted the top American hero who was wearing his full hero costume and smiled around the room after his entry. He gained a more serious look after his entrance to the lawyer before him and greeted him back in a formal way. "You have been ranked the Number 1 hero in the United States for the past three years. You have stopped many infamous villains and villain organizations. And as of this past month, you are the Lead Investigator of the Anti-Death Task Force. Is that all correct?"

"I believe it is," Star-Spangled Man replied. Many different things were just mentioned but all of them sounded true to him. He smiled as he said it too thinking of all he had accomplished as a hero since rising through the American leaderboards. He was still a young man, only in his mid-late twenties. He was wide at the shoulders and his body pushed out into the blue fabric of his costume to accentuate his muscles. On his back he wore a cape in the design of the American flag. He smiled a smile of pearly white teeth, and his brown hair stayed flipped up perfectly in the front in a swirl reminiscent of a hero of his from when he was a teenager and a man who had vied for top American hero with Blitz before he rose past them both. His look was only partly based on Captain Celebrity's though, as Star-Spangled Man had a much more patriotic vibe to his red, white, and blue costume that he wore proudly on the most watched television broadcast in the world.

"In your opinion, is the defendant, Zach Sazaki, Death?" Poloski came out and questioned to start off.

Star-Spangled Man looked towards the defendant in question who was looking up towards him as well. The American hero nodded his head in a serious way, and he said, "He is."

"When was it that you started to believe that?" Poloski questioned.

"The Anti-Death Task Force has always operated under the assumption that Death was Zach Sazaki," Star-Spangled Man replied.

Find a moment to object. Something those lawyers try to push that isn't relevant. Something to cut off their momentum. Everything that could, Hanuri hid her anxiety well as she felt she needed to in front of everyone and in front of her own client who she wanted to make confident in her abilities even in this trial. Every time she dealt with him the trial got bigger and more intense, and today's was as big a trial as any lawyer could dream to be a part of. I wanted you to plead innocent for the Lifebringer Incident, Hanuri's eyes shifted next to her at the boy she was defending. But you told me back then that you were not Death, and I believe you.

You were the most mature person I knew to accept that you were guilty when I didn't believe you were. I wanted you released or to at least try for, for something! But you didn't want people to believe that your past crimes were acceptable or justified. I admire that, Lifebringer. I admire you. And I won't let you go to prison for crimes you did not commit! Hanuri's focused look narrowed in on Poloski whose questions were starting to be too heavily lifted towards 'yes' or 'no' answers to weighted questions that stretched with too much conjecture in them before the final yes or no part.

"…And through all that time in the ADTF your group never once was able to rule out that the defendant couldn't have been at the scene of the crimes that Death had committed, is that correct?"

"Yes…" No? Yes- Star-Spangled Man said it confidently and hid any doubt he had after saying it, even if the wording had too many negatives in it before the 'is that correct?' He nodded after a moment though as he was fairly certain he answered as he was supposed to considering the way Poloski looked afterwards. He knew what the man was asking after all, and he never had ruled out the possibility that Lifebringer was the one involved.

"Objection," Hanuri called out. "None of this is admissible evidence-"

"The experienced opinions of heroes is often used as trial evidence," Dr. Rainne countered before she could finish. "You should know, Ms. Hanuri."

Rivera's eyes darted towards her opposition who referenced the original trial that Hanuri and Lifebringer had been a part of together. Judge Wilson hummed himself as he thought of Vlad King's testimony about what happened when the villain Dabi killed Kirishima Eijiro, and how Lifebringer had acted in that time which Hanuri had argued could have saved many lives and which Vlad King agreed was possible. The experienced hero's opinion was used then, and it had also been used by the prosecution in regards to Vlad King and Zach's other teachers as well.

"Anything Star-Spangled Man has to say regarding his thoughts on Lifebringer or Death is all admissible. Overruled," Yuranama shut down the defense attorney who sat back down with a 'ch' and pull of her lips to her right cheek.

"I'll move forward anyway onto more visible evidence anyway," Poloski continued with a glance over his shoulder. "I was only making it clear that Star-Spangled Man, in all his hero's wisdom, has suspected that Lifebringer is our terrorist Death from the beginning. And now I will ask him directly," Poloski faced Star-Spangled Man, and he wondered, "what evidence did you have that made you believe Death's identity was in fact the defendant in our trial today."

Not a yes or no this time, Zach thought. Though this is even worse. Not even making an attempt to put a loaded question in there for us to argue with. It's just Star-Spangled Man's reasoning. Somehow he's going to leave out the new "evidence" they have for later. I was in Terra though so whatever that "evidence" they have can be, I know it's been planted. Convincing everyone of that is all determinant on how concrete the villains made their fake proof. I get that Death cannot have a face and it can't be a single person, but I wish they had done more to shift suspicion from me.

"In the ADTF from day 1, we all had our suspicions that Death was Zach Sazaki," Star-Spangled Man spoke in Japanese as the trial was taking place in. His Japanese was great and had barely any accent at all to indicate that it was not his first language. He went on while lifting up his right hand from the stand, a hand gesture very unconventional in Japanese conversation which was the biggest indicator (other than his super American costume) that gave away him not being Japanese. "Their Quirks were the same. Based on all accounts from inside of Saudi Arabia during Death's invasion 18 months ago, Death had the ability to create dark clouds of gas that could knock out enemies. The lengths of time that villains captured by Death were unconscious for varied, however this was also akin to Lifebringer's Quirk."

"What threw off the idea that he was Lifebringer were two things in particular," Star-Spangled Man went on. He sounded less like he was testifying to the prosecutors but more like he was acting as one himself and revealing the evidence that he had against Lifebringer who he was trying to get charged here. It was his job as the leader of the ADTF though to capture Death, and here was Death on the verge of being convicted for his crimes that Star-Spangled Man had spent 17 months chasing him for. "The first was his choice of English writing for the 'Death' on his back and the language he chose to speak in on the walls of Hatto. His English sounded Americanized, natural and smooth with professional linguists indicating that he had most likely been taught in the American southeast."

"Other members of the Army of Death had different writing on their backs including Japanese writing, and it was the ADTF's assumption that the members used their own primary languages for the writing of 'Death' that each member branded themselves with." Star-Spangled Man paused then continued after a moment without arguing against the first exception to their overall assumption, "The second thing that suggested that Death may not have been Zach Sazaki, was the height difference between Lifebringer at the time of the Lifebringer Incident and of Death who was first seen under four months after. Even with a remarkable growth spurt, Lifebringer should not have been able to grow as tall as the Death we saw on the walls of Hatto. His height when he turned himself over last July was shorter than Death's nearly a year earlier."

"However!" Star-Spangled Man continued strongly. He stared towards Lifebringer and said to the teenager whose hazel eyes he looked into, "Upon coming in contact with him in Panzerstan on the day we raided the League of Shadows' Headquarters, I noted that unlike on the walls of Hatto, Death was shorter than the dark soldier with the purple visor who had stood next to him that day and who I met three months later. After three months, Death had apparently shrunk. His publicized broadcast in Saudi Arabia showed him standing over six feet tall when at the time of our meeting he was only around five foot seven, give or take an inch or two."

Why would Death have made himself out to be taller? Dendo grimaced but then quickly flattened his lips and stared towards the front of the room with an impartial expression. Zach proved to me that he was not Death. He proved that he was a good person. There are many reasons, I'm sure. There must be- and Zach will be sure to mention them in his defense! Dendo kept himself from coming to any conclusions until the defense had countered what the prosecution was getting right now.

"…When Zach Sazaki turned himself over it was a shock to the ADTF and myself especially," Star-Spangled Man continued to the courtroom. "Most of all, because that same day the Army of Death were in China and Death himself had revived people killed in a villain attack. Over the next several months and up until three weeks ago at the most recent occurrence, Death had continued to revive people almost everywhere he showed up. And yet recent revelations have come to light that the ADTF have investigated thoroughly."

"Hisang Wang was among the first revived on the very day that Sazaki turned himself in last July. This same man admitted during the Sleepless Outbreak that he had never died before." Star-Spangled Man pulled out a piece of paper from his costume and said, "I hold in my hands a transcript of an interrogation that occurred only three days ago after the revelation, as Hisang Wang has been charged with filing a false police report back last July. The Chinese citizen admitted under interrogation that he had been asked by the Army of Death to claim that he had been revived. After they had saved him from the villain attack he had been caught up in, Hisang Wang felt obligated to lie to the police as was requested of him by those terrorists."

"Conspiracy to file false police reports" was in that list, Todoroki thought. Though I'm sure there are hundreds of instances where Zach lied about what really happened to the police. Thousands, actually.

"…Through further investigation and administering pressure on other supposedly revived citizens across the world after Lifebringer's previous arrest, using the confession of Hisang Wang to suggest what had likely happened to them as well, we have uncovered that 12 others from July of last year admitted to having faced identical circumstances. All thirteen have been charged with filing false police reports…"

Zach's eyes stayed steady but his heart beat slower and darker as he glared towards Star-Spangled Man. Punishing those people for what Death did to try and help me, you think you're punishing me. You think it will make me not want to fight this anymore and let you drag in any more people into my supposed crimes. If you will not hold your punches against me then I will not… hold back as much, as I may have otherwise. Zach eased back his frustration and released a calm deep breath from his nose.

"…We know that it is true that Death revived people for real before Lifebringer turned himself in, as there were hundreds of witnesses and video proof in several instances. Since he turned himself in however, not once can we independently corroborate that a revival by Death has truly happened with the same amount of certainty as we were able to beforehand." Star-Spangled Man paused for a moment and then continued in a stern tone while looking from Lifebringer to the judges behind him and on his left, then back to the prosecutors in front of him, "The ADTF now acts under the belief that the new Death is the Gentle Criminal, Zach Sazaki's known associate, Danjuro Tobita."

"Why is that your new belief?" Poloski questioned quickly.

"Reports of Death's actions over the last nine months coincide with a similar disappearance from the AoD of a figure often seen with Death who was adorned with a purple cape and had a unique purple visor, as well as the Japanese Kanji for Death on his back."

"The Gentle Criminal is this man," Poloski said, lifting up a remote he had in his hand already and pointing at the screen in the front right corner of the room. "Notice the purple in his costume," Poloski held an arrow on the remote and turned the image of Gentle that had been displayed up on the screen in an old video of him out front of a convenience store that had all the front windows shattered.

"Everyone knows that Zach Sazaki and the Gentle Criminal are associates," Utgardo began. The lighter-skinned Caucasian man from one of the Nordic countries had long blond hair that fell straight behind his back just below his shoulder blades, and stubbly blond facial hair around his chin and mouth. "Tobita still has a warrant out for his arrest from the various crimes he committed as a villain before the Lifebringer Incident, however he is most wanted for his assistance in that event that resulted in the deaths of six villains at the hands of the defendant."

"One of Death's most trusted advisors would be someone who was there with him from the start," Rainne continued on while Poloski looked back and nodded at him. Rainne spoke up towards the three judges overseeing the trial, "It would have been someone who stood at his side not only on the walls of Hatto, but in Panzerstan where Star-Spangled Man saw the two standing next to each other, is that correct?" Rainne looked back to the witness still sitting at the witness stand while the prosecutors made their analyses and pushed their claims to everyone else.

"The man in purple was one of six who we believed to be Death's most trusted advisors based on their closeness to Death during the raid in Panzerstan," Star-Spangled Man replied.

There it is, Zach thought. He kept any smug look from his face while just noting something to himself and continuing to watch the prosecution do their work. They have the burden of proof. I just need to poke holes. And I've got a box of needles.

"I have in my possession a report from Principal Nezu of U.A. from the day of the Sports Festival Invasion two years ago," Dr. Rainne continued. He held up a piece of paper and then took four copies that he walked up to the bench with. He handed three off to the judges then before Hanuri could call out how she demanded one, he walked her way and dropped it down on the table between her and the defendant who Rainne's eyes looked into from up close. Dr. Rainne showed no fear of the terrorist he stood in front of, something Zach had to respect since the man clearly believed he was Death yet was doing it anyway.

I haven't given normal men like him any reason to fear me. They don't fear Death. Why should they? Zach tilted his head wondering what Dr. Rainne was waiting for, then he looked down at the report that the man had given him from Principal Nezu. He glanced right back up with his eyebrows raising wondering if Rainne thought he did not know what was on the report already that he needed to read it himself.

Rainne saw that Sazaki knew already and he spoke up louder suddenly with a turn back to the judges who were already reading the report, "As you can see in the report…" Rainne lifted his own remote that controlled the screen in the corner of the room and flipped to show the piece of paper that had very small writing since Nezu's report was long-winded as with everything he said. Only a few lines of his statements were highlighted though as important, and Rainne summarized them aloud, "Mr. Principal came into contact with the Gentle Criminal on the day of the SFI. A little known fact, due to the many other larger events that happened that day which kept this from being brought to light. As well as, I'm sure, the desire to keep any actions from villains as appearing heroic in nature."

The prosecutor admitted the second part with a small tilt of his head to the right that even Yuranama had to admit was true in this instance. "U.A.'s long-time principal questions in his report what connection the Gentle Criminal may have had with Zach Sazaki that brought him to do what he did that day…"

Mr. Principal realized it already? I guess he wasn't sure, and it's not like there was much of a connection but it's still amazing. Zach was surprised by what he was hearing and reading up on the screen in Nezu's own words. His U.A. principal sat behind him seven rows directly next to his former principal from Shiketsu who had come to the trial as well. Memuria glanced next to her and down at the mouse man whose expression she could not read to see if he was upset at all about his words being used to prosecute one of his students.

"Objection," Rivera Hanuri jumped up while Rainne was trying to continue right on. "If you are going to admit this as evidence, then I would have you read out the whole quote that you are referring to. Including that next un-highlighted line eight down from the top."

"I did not believe that line to be relevant to this case in particular," Rainne countered. "What is important is that the Gentle Criminal and the defendant had a long history-"

"Mr. Principal does not say that," Hanuri snapped back. "He only questions whether or not it is possible. What he says after though is as important and should be added to the record as well," Hanuri looked towards the judges for one of them to tell her to go on.

"Sustained," Judge Wilson replied, only glancing for a moment to Yuranama before saying it as he did have that power as one of the trial judges.

Yuranama just hummed as he had read the lines himself already, but he allowed it too as Hanuri nodded and then started in a louder voice as she lifted up her own remote for the first time that she had been given before the trial started. Zach looked to her as she zoomed on the screen, Why didn't I get one of those?

"Principal Nezu accredits here the Gentle Criminal and his associate La Brava for taking down Hackerman, one of the top League of Villains' members responsible for hacking into U.A. systems on multiple occasions. He was also responsible for taking over the Sports Festival's stadium screens as well as all the cameras broadcasting that national tragedy. It's odd that I never heard about this," Hanuri said with an intrigued tone and raise of her voice. Rainne had already mentioned it but she brought up in a more upset voice to show that she was upset about not knowing like many people around the room and world felt after hearing that last sentence. "Gentle and La Brava cut off those horrible images that I remember that day, and they instead played the video of my client at his strongest."

Hanuri paused while Zach looked to his side and up at the woman who said that firmly and proud of him in her tone. Zach kept quiet and allowed her to speak on his behalf, smiling even ever so softly at the look on the woman's face as she defended him, "This is not an early indicator that they knew each other, rather it was something we all needed in that moment! And you can assume it meant a prior relationship between them, but I believe that my client saw what they did as an indication that they were people he could trust."

Now that's going a little far, Zach kept his smile but looked away for a moment. I need to take control of this myself. Having her defend me may come to be contradictory. I'll let her know I'm taking charge of the defense from here on. You're my legal counsel, but I need to defend myself today.

"Hanuri," Zach stopped his lawyer before she could continue. He cut her off and she looked to him, but he shook his head at her and motioned at her to sit down at his side.

Hanuri hesitated but then nodded and looked back to the judges before sitting down respectfully ending her objection. The prosecution looked Zach Sazaki's way interestedly, and they quickly ended their questions for Star-Spangled Man so that the defense would have their turn.

Does he not agree with her?

We'll hit him with the heavy questions here when he's cross-examining Star-Spangled Man.

Sazaki's smart, but he isn't a lawyer. He doesn't know what he's doing.

Zach got up from his seat as Yuranama asked the defense for them to begin questioning the witness too. He stepped past his table and towards Star-Spangled Man at the witness stand in front of the plaintiff's table more than it was in front of his own. He stopped before reaching them though, and he looked over towards the screen that had Principal Nezu's SFI report still up on it and zoomed in. He looked back at the prosecution and started, "Before I begin questioning Star-Spangled Man, I'll admit that I had come into contact with Gentle already before the SFI." He looked Hanuri's way apologetically for countering what she had just defend him with, but she looked at him more interestedly that he would come out with this just because it was the truth which is what it seemed like Zach was doing.

"But only once," Zach continued. "Just a brief meeting, and I don't really think that interaction caused Gentle to do what he did that day-"

"When was this?" Dr. Rainne called out.

"Unimportant-" Zach started to reply.

"You must say-" Poloski started back.

"If you want this to be taken into account then you must testify," Kanno stated down at the boy closer to his side of the bench right now. Yuranama nodded while giving the boy a dark look as Zach turned to face them. "Anything you confess to without being on the stand is not under oath and therefore inadmissible," Kanno reminded.

"It is your decision whether or not you believe me. I will be defending myself today though and I will not be taking the stand. I have the right not to," Zach reminded Kanno back. "You don't need to take my words as evidence then, rather just the same conjecture and argument that any prosecuting or defense attorney could make during a criminal trial. I did meet with Gentle though, but the nature of my relationship with the Gentle Criminal was just as acquaintances until the weeks leading up to the Lifebringer Incident, when I contacted him through messageboards online."

"Do you have any record of these messages?" Yuranama wondered. If Sazaki at least had that he would be more willing to listen to the teenager here.

"No," Zach replied. "I made sure to leave very little evidence with everything I did outside of the law. If it were that easy for me to prove my whereabouts and my actions, we would not need to have this trial in the first place. I spent years hiding everything I did though with no contingency for when I may need evidence of where I was. I never expected to need to provide an alibi, nor did I plan for this trial before two days ago." Zach admitted these things suggesting reasoning for why he was not going to have proof to defend himself with throughout the trial. To many around him though, it sounded like an excuse for not giving evidence for anything he was saying.

"And what of your nature with the Gentle Criminal after the Lifebringer Incident?" Yuranama questioned. The head judge glared down into the defendant's eyes as he was questioned harshly while he was supposed to be questioning a witness himself. "He is believed to be the leader of the Army of Death now. What do you think of that?"

"I fled the country with my associates from the Lifebringer Incident, but I broke off from the Gentle Criminal and La Brava shortly after."

"And what about the fourth member-" Dr. Rainne began.

"Again, relevance to this trial?" Zach countered back towards the prosecutor.

"All of your associates and actions while you were outside of Japan on the run are important to the trial-"

"I am not here to answer every question you have about my time between the Lifebringer Incident and returning to Japan," Zach replied plainly to Rainne who stood up and glared back at him for that denial.

"Yes, you are. That is exactly why you are-"

Zach shook his head with his lips pursed and then he looked into Rainne's eyes steadily but with a condescending appearance in them as he stared down the opposing attorney. "I have a right to say nothing to you about what I was doing all that time. And that is what I will do if I decide to." Rainne's mouth opened but Zach spoke over him louder, "It is on you to present the burden of proof that I am guilty. Not the other way around. I am innocent until proven guilty. That is an undeniable fact of this justice system. I could stand here all day presenting reasons why I'm innocent and telling you a massive story about where I was and all I did, but I'm not going to."

"I am only here to counter your points. Prove that your evidence is insufficient to try me as something I am not." Zach smiled and continued on confidently, "I know that our justice system is strong and would not convict an innocent man. And while I am far from innocent, of being Death I can firmly state that I am not guilty."

Zach turned about-face and walked towards Star-Spangled Man. "Star-Spangled Man, you made an announcement after the League of Shadows' HQ Raid that you were killed during the attack on their base. You claimed that Death revived you. Is that correct?"

Zach moved on too quickly for the prosecution to argue with what he was just saying, and Lifebringer was right in what he was saying anyway even if some of them wanted to argue how an innocent man would not have so much reason to hide and not tell them all those things anyway. They were caught back up though as Lifebringer interrogated Star-Spangled Man in such a way it seemed more likely to hurt him than help his case. Hanuri also hesitated herself after Zach questioned the American hero.

Star-Spangled Man paused after the question then his expression softened and he nodded his head. "It is. You did revive me that day, and I am still grateful-"

"I am not Death, and I would have you refrain from referring to me as such," Zach scolded the hero in front of him whose eyes opened wide at Lifebringer's quick rebuttal against him. Star-Spangled Man started to frown and open his mouth, but Zach continued with a sharp tongue, "In this trial I am innocent until proven guilty. As an upholder of law in our society then you must understand that I am not guilty of being Death yet, no matter how much you might believe it to be true. As I am still innocent until the verdict is given, I would ask you not to refer to me as a terrorist when I am currently only accused of being one."

Star-Spangled Man blinked a couple times while staring at the teen in front of him in surprise at how much he was scolding him for that when he was just trying to thank the boy. He nodded after a few seconds though then replied, "Very well then, Lifebringer. Apologies. Death did revive me that day, as you say. He revived several heroes in the Task Force during that battle."

"You say 'he,'" Zach stated. He changed the line of questioning instantly with seemingly no relation from where he started onto this line now that shook off the prosecutors a bit as they were not expecting the sudden jump. "Why do you assume Death is a man?"

Huh? Mineta tilted his head to the side. What is he trying to do?

Everyone knows Death's a man- Kirishima thought, also lost as to Zach's attempt here.

"Death's body size…" Star-Spangled Man started after hesitating for a moment too after getting caught off-guard by the question.

"His size?" Zach wondered though before the witness could finish. "That's a strange thing to mention, Mr. Hero. You mentioned Death's size earlier, in regards to his height. You say that on the walls of Hatto you saw Death looking to be over six feet tall, and the next time you saw 'him' he was only five foot seven-ish. Is that right?" Star-Spangled Man nodded and replied affirmatively. Then Zach wondered to him, "Star-Spangled Man, have you ever heard Death's voice?"

"I have-"

"Death's real voice?" Zach wondered. "Everyone knows that Death spoke with a voice modulator on the walls of Hatto. A device that made their voice intentionally lower, and one that I assume Death used again when you heard him a second time in Panzerstan?"

Star-Spangled Man paused but he nodded after the hesitation. It is you, Sazaki. You are trying so hard to prove something that you must know that we know already!

"So you never heard Death's voice," Zach said, changing Star-Spangled Man's answer from a few seconds ago that he had cut off the hero from finishing anyway. "Tell me, is it impossible that Death's armor could be hiding breasts? Is it impossible, Star-Spangled Man, that the armor of the Army of Death could make a soldier hidden inside look to be a man while really a woman?"

"It is, possible that the armor could," Star-Spangled Man started. But not that Death was hiding them. Because you are Death! I am not the evidence that proves that though. Even though I have seen that evidence, it must be submitted here before I can comment on it.

"Why did Death attempt to look taller on the walls of Hatto than he or she truly was?" Zach wondered at the hero before him.

Star-Spangled Man had expected this question from the prosecutors. With a steady look he replied back at the teenager, "Because he did not want to be recognized. Because his height could have given him away to people who knew-"

"Then why didn't Death try to hide his height in Panzerstan?" Zach wondered. He interrupted Star-Spangled Man again but this time the hero's look slowly turned confused after the question. "I'm asking you, why did Death try to hide his height one day and then stop trying to hide it the next time you saw him? I guess, it would make sense that Death was not focused on masking his height and appearance while in the middle of a fight with villains when you came across him that second time… Except, that's not how things happened in Panzerstan, was it?" Zach wondered at the American hero whose eyes opened wider in confusion as his thoughts raced wondering what Lifebringer was saying.

"Objection," Rainne began at the confused and somewhat nervous look that Star-Spangled Man had all of a sudden. "He's making conjecture-"

"Am I?" Zach wondered, not at Rainne but to Star-Spangled Man who met his gaze then looked towards the judges behind him who were also waiting for his answer.

"You… how would you know, exactly what happened that day?" Star-Spangled Man wondered, flipping the interrogation over with his tone getting more stern. It sounded like Lifebringer was onto something here, but what Star-Spangled Man said also made it out like even if Lifebringer had something to say about it that would just prove further that he had been there.

"You think I don't know everything about your investigation into Death?" Zach wondered. "That information directly impacts my freedom, and so it is all relevant to this trial. Many of your current and former ADTF heroes have provided me with classified files regarding your investigations over the last year and a half, Star-Spangled Man. I know everything that happened between the ADTF and the AoD, and my knowledge of these events does not indicate in the least that I am Death. It will help me prove my innocence though, which begs the question of why every last piece of this information was not brought before this court in the first place when it holds so much relevance to this trial."

"I don't know what kind of sensitive information-" Star-Spangled Man started.

"You've already answered my question anyway," Zach cut off the American hero in a stern way and glared at him to stop talking when he was only here as a witness and not a prosecutor. "When you arrived in Panzerstan, you did not find the Army of Death fighting the League of Shadows as is currently believed, did you?"

"They were in the middle of conflict-"

"But at that moment of your arrival, they were not yet fighting. Am I wrong?" Zach asked, raising his voice and demanding the truth from the hero before him.

Star-Spangled Man took in a deep breath then let it out in a sigh. "No. You are not wrong."

"When you arrived, what was the Army of Death doing?" Zach questioned.

Star-Spangled Man frowned at the boy who already knew the answer because he had been there. He replied to the teenager whose eyes his had locked onto with the two of them looking deep into the other's as if they were the only two there. "They were waiting for us. They did not believe they could take on the League of Shadows by themselves, but with our assistance they believed they could fight them. The base of the League of Shadows was underground not far from where the Army of Death had set up camp."

"They were waiting for you," Zach repeated what Star-Spangled Man said. Out of all the information Star-Spangled Man was revealing about the true events of that day, stunning many people in the courtroom and far more outside of it, Zach latched onto something that did not seem the most interesting. "Death was there, waiting for you. He or she knew that the best heroes in the world were coming- Death was planning on it! Heroes who Death would have known were the most perceptive in the world. Ones who, if Death was truly trying to hide his real appearance and height, he would have tried much harder to hide his true appearance from than he would have from the top of the walls of Hatto's Royal Palace."

"You claim that Death was trying to hide his appearance, because I didn't want people to see how tall I was and match that up with how much taller Lifebringer may have gotten since the Lifebringer Incident. Yet in Panzerstan you say that Death was at a height that would make much more sense for me to be at in January of last year," Zach stopped and he turned to look out at the gallery as he continued. "But if I was Death, why would I have altered my height on one occasion and then left it to the heroes to easily find out who I was on the very next occasion? Star-Spangled Man saw Death twice in the course of 4, 5 months, and in those two instances he saw a figure that had different body shapes and heights, speaking in a voice that he could not tell was a man's or a woman's due to the modulator. The first time he saw Death, Death was taller, then he was shorter, and the next time most people have seen footage of him which is when he was reviving people in Qingxiao, he was taller than five seven, right? So he was taller, then shorter, then taller again- You don't know his or her height. So don't say that the second time you saw Death you "noticed" that Death was actually shorter, because you have no idea if that was the time that Death was messing with you to make you think that he or she was shorter than the first time. You don't know and yet you have already explained why it is you made this assumption, and that's because all of you in the ADTF were trying to pigeonhole Death into the frame of being Zach Sazaki. You assumed that Death's true height was the height you saw the second time because that was a height that made more sense if Death was Zach Sazaki, and that's the only reason you believe that his height was real that second time and not the first."

"Even though the second time, you knew that Death was waiting for you. You knew that Death was there waiting for heroes who were going to be up close and personal with him. If you really believe that Death was trying to hide that he was Zach Sazaki all that time, why would Death have done that?" Zach wondered it curiously at the hero who hesitated while staring confusedly back at the teen before him.

Did he, expect this to happen? Was the reason he didn't change his height the second time so that he could… in this very moment? Star-Spangled Man gained a more uneasy look on his face while looking back at the teenager who he had forgotten something very simple about. He's a master manipulator. In this trial, I know why it is he's trying so hard. He may really think he can convince everyone that he's not Death- he might even think, he can convince me?

"There are around 9.6 billion people in this world," Lifebringer continued as Star-Spangled Man took too long to give him an explanation. "8.4 billion of them are believed to have Quirks. Now, no one has ever heard Death's real voice, and their armor could easily hide the fact that Death is a woman if Death chose to hide that. 8.4 billion people, and any one of them could be behind that mask. Any man or woman, of any height or age, because these things are all unknown when Death is constantly wearing a helmet. Death could be anyone! There are not 2 things that indicated that I might not be Death. There were only 2 things that suggested that I was. One, that I was missing and Death appeared while I was gone, acting in such a way as people believed I could possibly act myself. The second reason is that Death had the Quirk Death just like I do. 8.4 billion people in the world. Tell me, Star-Spangled Man, how many 'unique' Quirks do you know of?"

Zach wondered it to the top American hero. He looked back at the man and questioned him, "How many Quirks do you know of, that truly have no equivalent anywhere else in the world? Quirks that you've seen in your life that people did not know of beforehand. Ones so unique that nobody else's even closely resembled them?"

Star-Spangled Man did not feel like this question needed to be targeted at him directly. He was the one being asked though, and he replied, "A few-"

"Only a few," Zach spoke up, adding 'only' himself and then continuing straight on from it to show why he used the word. "Out of hundreds- thousands, no. Out of hundreds of thousands of people in this world who you know: villains you've fought, heroes you've worked with, citizens you've saved, only 'a few' have had Quirks that you have seen with no counterpart. You've been all around this world as part of the ADTF, you were here in Japan to help us rebuild after the SFI. And yet even you barely know anyone like that."

"But because Death had a Quirk similar to mine, and no one else had seen one like Death before me, they acted under the assumption that I was Death. They built their case around the evidence that the ADTF has gathered to make me out as Death." Zach stopped for a few seconds and let out a deep breath himself. "I have said this many times myself, but I'll ask it of Star-Spangled Man whose opinion as a great hero we are to take into account as admissible evidence. Star-Spangled Man, tell me." Zach looked into the American hero's eyes, "Is it possible someone else on Earth has a Quirk like my own?"

"Yes." Star-Spangled Man did not need to wait after hearing the question. The way Zach worded it made it impossible to answer with anything else.

Zach nodded back at the hero who said that. He looked to the judges, then back at the courtroom behind him who he did not know if they were more or less convinced of him being Death than before his cross-examination. "Someone else has the Quirk, Death. The reason they only appeared when they did is because no one would have known that the Death Quirk could be trained to be something else before me," Zach admitted. "I proved that it was possible to use Death to fight with. Anyone else among those 8.4 billion could have had Death. And they could have- they started using it after I disappeared, as the leader of the Army of Death. They started using their Quirk while I was missing, while I was gone, and so there was only one person here with the Quirk Death at a time."

"While you were gone-" Star-Spangled Man started.

"And when I came back, it was after the Villain Summit. After an incident in which I believe Death may have been killed based on what I know about that day," Zach continued over the American hero. "And I went to Europe after returning. I tried to continue being a vigilante and reviving people, in the months after I returned but before I turned myself over. So once again, there was only one person in this world who was reviving people. One person, maybe. Or maybe the leader of the Army of Death was still out there, though the revelations about fake revivals came as only a small surprise to me as I had believed for some time that the Death I had wanted to meet. Someone who may have my own Quirk… I believed was long dead."

Zach stopped speaking. He looked back to Star-Spangled Man then up at the judges, "No further questions for the witness."

Someone else on Earth could have the Death Quirk, Dr. Rainne thought as he watched Sazaki returning to his seat. Do I ask Star-Spangled Man if he thinks it's possible one of those other people is Death? Having him repeat that he is confident that Death is Lifebringer may make things worse. Sazaki turned the overarching assumption of the ADTF that Death was Lifebringer, something they acted on for a year and a half, against them. Nothing in all that time came to counter their belief, and yet due to their initial assumptions it could be said that they linked things to him that were not there. And any opinions from the ADTF heroes, after it being drilled into their heads for so long… it'll all just sound like they're trying to point the finger at Sazaki rather than they actually have proof. We need to switch the momentum and get Lemillion out here.

Dr. Rainne looked to his left and whispered to the UN lawyers who were getting ready for more questions to hit Star-Spangled Man with. The men murmured amongst themselves for a minute before coming to an agreement and standing back up to go in front of the current ADTF leader once more.

Yuranama shifted his gaze from the prosecution's final questions and gratitude to Star-Spangled Man who they talked back up again as a key reliable witness. He looked towards Zach Sazaki who was watching the prosecutors closely but still looked confident about the situation he found himself in. This trial is simplistic in its style. Very few understand completely how it will run from start to finish. The prosecution, Lemillion, and some of my colleagues know how this is meant to happen. First, the prosecution will make it seem obvious that Lifebringer is Death. Then they will provide the proof. Hard evidence to back up what is already a sure thing. I know they have it. They waited until it was in their possession, in order to make this final. But Death continues to struggle and lie. I am sure he can see what the prosecution is attempting and he is forcing the trial to be dragged out. Forcing them to reveal everything they have and want to hide, things I thought you would want to hide yourself.

Lifebringer. Death. You will not get away with your crimes. I will not let you, Yuranama stared down the boy who looked next to him at his attorney and shook his head when she wondered something at him.

Let's get Star-Spangled Man out of here. I don't want to tarnish his name at all, and he wasn't in charge of the ADTF all that time they kept quiet the methods of the AoD and their task force. It was myself and Endeavor who kept quiet the way the world was truly going. Zach shook his head when questioned if they had another cross examination for the witness who was questioned follow-ups by the prosecutors but only a couple and nothing that added much new to the trial.

All the members of the ADTF understood in some way and form though, Zach reminded himself even as Star-Spangled Man looked his way once more before leaving the courtroom. A piece of him wondered if the American hero questioned if he would ever see Lifebringer again outside of a prison cell, if that. They were looking for me- for Death. They were on the lookout for him so they would have noticed him all over. And they did not treat Death as an enemy as much as the world thought they did. Bringing up Panzerstan was necessary because he brought it up first. I hope the rest of you think about that. I hope you consider what you say before it comes out of your mouth, Zach's head turned slightly to the left but his eyes looked behind the prosecutors and to Lemillion who had shifted attention his way in that moment. Be careful, Lemillion. I've made it clear that I "know" everything that you all know happened out there. You already knew that I knew it. But the fact that I said I knew aloud, you know that means I will say certain things that you all don't want people to know. Things you've kept hidden because of a "lack of proof." When really, you just never wanted to investigate further.

They're things I always wanted to keep from everyone too, Zach's thoughts darkened as Lemillion and the heroes were not the only ones who had been trying to hide those things from the world.

Lemillion looked away from Lifebringer and leaned forward towards the backs of the prosecutors in front of him. The three older men looked back at the Japanese hero who said something that the men agreed with after a moment of discussion. "The prosecution asks the bench to allow Lemillion to step forward to assist with the trial moving forwards."

"Your reason being?" Kanno wondered, looking past the prosecutors to Lemillion for a second.

"Lemillion's position as the Lead Investigator into Lifebringer's actions since he was released from Tartaros," Dr. Rainne continued. He announced that position that was not public knowledge and added, "And the hero who acquired the warrant for Lifebringer's arrest for all charges attributed to Death."

Going all in then, huh? Zach's upset thoughts towards Lemillion a moment ago subsided. It's something you feel you need to do. No matter what it does to your public image, you're following through with this. You're not half-assing it and maybe I shouldn't either. I'm playing softball to try and protect your images as heroes. If you don't care about that though, then I'm not going to either. I'll play dirty. General Faraz and Shogun Raxlaski showed me how sometimes it's the only way to play. You're going to regret taking me on. They called me the Dark One in Terra! You're just a hero trying to pin my crimes on me. I'm not going to let you do that.

I haven't given any proof of my actions to most people in this room. Whatever else they have to say beforehand isn't substantive proof and needs to be seen as nothing but conjecture before they introduce the new piece. Keep it at only that one thing and you'll be set, Zach calmed his thoughts as he was starting to treat this too much like a challenge. Relax. Counter every point one by one. Star-Spangled Man thinks I'm Death, but he's always thought I was Death. That height thing means nothing.

"The next witness we wish to call up," Lemillion started after coming forward and being introduced into the trial proceedings. "Is Morro Noire."

Farther back in the courtroom, a hero official with dark skin and blacker horns that stuck up off the top of his head stood up. Morro stepped out into the aisle and walked forward, an older bald man who was hard to tell how old he actually was just by looking at his large stature and intimidating pose. Lemillion introduced the man who stepped forward, "Official Morro is known for his specialization in decommissioning former militarized vehicles and weaponry. He has a long history involved with the changing of laws regarding how armed the Police Force are, decreasing firearm usage across Japan, putting heavier penalties on illegal firearm production and high crimes on even discharging one once. Morro was responsible for the full decommissioning of remaining former JSDF naval vehicles, removing turrets and restructuring old aircraft, and recycling weapons' parts of all kinds to instead use those materials in hero support tools."

"Obtaining a hero license himself over forty years ago, Morro spent five years as the hero Bullwark before moving into the political field of heroes," Lemillion continued to introduce a key witness of theirs who took the stand at the front of the room. "As a hero official he not only changed laws and worked actively to destroy and recommission the parts of old weapons, but he acted as an ambassador to the UN for a time and made the push for final hold-outs of militarized countries such as China and the United States to agree to international standards, which he was successful in. Official Morro, is everything I said true?" Lemillion wondered to the man who just stepped to the stand.

"Yes. You are correct," Morro replied, speaking into the microphone right in front of where he sat down.

"Your focus over much of the past four decades has been primarily on weapons and weaponized vehicles. One could say that you are perhaps the most experienced man in the country when it comes to that specialization?" Lemillion wondered.

Togata, Midoriya thought while staring towards his older friend in front of the witness stand. He sat two rows behind Zach but close to directly behind his back with Kirishima right in front of him. You sound so much like a lawyer right now. Have you been preparing for this trial… How long now, have you been getting ready for this?

"One could call me that. Though I do not know if I am the most experienced, I can certainly answer most questions you may have about illegal weaponry in this world," Morro answered the young hero in front of him. His voice was deep and raspy, but he spoke in a firm way. He looked into the eyes of the young man who he had given permission to start this investigation as he had felt Endeavor was remiss in his duties by no longer treating Lifebringer as a suspect to be Death several months ago. He had also warned the younger hero though about the risks that going after Lifebringer would bring for him and his reputation, but he saw no hesitation on the face of the hero who was surely making more than half the world hate him right now as he prosecuted Lifebringer.

You are a mature and unwavering hero, Lemillion. I believe you will succeed today, and it will negatively affect you for the rest of your life. You will watch your comrades and innocent people die. Others will see it happen and blame you because of this. But Lifebringer broke the laws that you swore to uphold, and you are upholding them right now. Morro nodded at the young man to continue his questioning and Lemillion did.

"On the screen to your left," Lemillion told the man facing out in the courtroom, so most everyone else turned to the right when he said it. Morro Noire turned left and looked to the screen with his look souring at the sight of the vehicles that Lemillion put up on display. "…Are some of the vehicles that the Army of Death is known to use. Attack helicopters, supply choppers, armed motorcycles, jeeps and trucks with turrets attached, and Super Jets. Villain bases have been discovered by heroes where the villains were already defeated but the Super Jets that they were responsible for stealing had not been there." Zach started shaking his head but stayed silent for now while glaring towards Lemillion's back at his current line of questioning.

Lemillion asked Morro to describe the kinds of vehicles that he was showing pictures of. Morro replied calling them Class 7, Class 8, and then mentioning how arming Super Jets that were almost all recommissioned already from former fighter jets would turn them back into Class 9 weaponry due to their speed and maneuverability.

No proof of production of those weapons. They charged me with some crimes that they're not even sure Death committed. Stealing a Super Jet too Lemillion didn't provide "proof!" Hold it back. Wait until he calls up Enorma-sensei. Zach watched calmly as Lemillion questioned about smaller arms, heavy weaponry, other vehicles, and then he showed a blurry image that was focused on the screen to give a better view up into dark clouds of the silhouette sticking out of them.

"What weapons' class would you classify a vehicle like this?" Lemillion asked in a low dark voice. "The image here shows only part of what was believed to be the Army of Death's mobile headquarters. An airborne aircraft carrier, using wind turbines and cloaking technology as it remained up in the air, always obscured by dark clouds in the few instances it was seen. It is the same airship believed to be here," Lemillion switched the image to show wreckage on a decimated landscape covered in huge crevices, littered with bodies and destroyed planes and vehicles. The wreckage Lemillion pointed out and highlighted with a red circle was a mess and hard to even imagine was the same as the huge airship high in the sky that everyone had just been staring at in amazement. "Believed to have been destroyed during the Villain Summit, it was still a weaponized vehicle that the Army of Death built themselves as no other of its kind exists in the world…"

Well they got me on production of that weapon, but that's not Class 8 or Class 9. Guess it would have been Class 10, so they just used the lower two… Unless they have records from Sci-Psi. They could have recovered them and linked them to Death somehow, Zach frowned but wondered if he would be able to argue against some of these charges as well as he thought before. I doubted he'd bring the Cloak into this. They spent a long time hiding how powerful the Army of Death had gotten. By mentioning how it's been destroyed already they do remove some of the fear or intrigue about it, and it makes it seem less impressive when it's gone now…

Do I argue against production? I don't want him to bring up Norway. If I get those families of the researchers involved, they can never return home, Zach stood up from his defense table and walked towards Morro. They did produce Class 8 and Class 9 weapons. The cars and motorcycles. The Ecliptor! Zach's left hand moved subtly at his side as he came up with a rebuttal for what Lemillion ended on before his turn for cross-examination. Too many of those weapons were completely wiped from the world before my war. Recommissioning the old ones is the same as producing new ones. I'll just go with what I can.

"Morro," Zach started to the older man who glared down into his eyes at the way he started. "…san," Zach added, using a polite tone for the hero official who he nodded his head at respectfully in greeting rather than using as abrasive a voice that it seemed like he may be starting in. "You're an expert in weaponized vehicles. No one's arguing that. And it sounds like you've done a lot for declining the dangerous numbers of weapons of high destruction that existed in this world still up until the past half century. So no one would doubt you when you say that this vehicle is Class 9," Zach motioned at the screen, and he pointed the remote he got from Hanuri which he used to flip the screen back several slides that Lemillion had produced himself as evidence over the past few minutes.

Zach circled a black military jeep that had a turret sticking out of the top of it. "You claimed that this vehicle is a weapon of Class 9 capabilities. Due to it being deadly from a range farther than fifty meters, carrying the capacity to kill dozens rapidly, too fast for a hero to stop in many cases which requires that it be decommissioned-"

"That is correct," Morro stated firmly and glared down into Zach Sazaki's eyes as he said it.

"That minigun on top of the jeep must be incredibly dangerous for you to label it as the highest danger a weaponized vehicle could be. Same as a Super Jet-"

"It has the capacity to kill hundreds at a time-"

"Does it now?" Zach cut off Morro this time with his voice raising louder and talking down to the man who had been speaking harshly and condescendingly towards him. Zach's question made Morro hesitate, but Zach looked towards Hanuri who nodded at him as he walked back her way. She grinned as she handed him a sheet of paper. Zach cleared his throat while lifting it up to read, and he said, "Inside the headquarters of the Desert Boys Hero Agency, a newly founded hero agency in Saudi Arabia emerging six months after the fall of Mongoloid, Endeavor came with Stretch and Michelangelo to learn more of the Army of Death's actions in Saudi Arabia during that invasion to better understand the terrorist organization. That's what this file here says is the reason for Endeavor's visit-"

"Objection," Poloski called out. "Relevance to this particular witness!"

Zach looked to Yuranama and said, "I am getting to that."

"Then get there quickly," Yuranama said, suggesting he was not overruling the objection nor sustaining it, though he may cut Sazaki off if he did not relate what he was saying to Morro in some way soon.

"I'll get to what The Mighty Cactus told Endeavor then in regards to his role assisting the Army of Death during their push through Rotta. Many Saudi citizens who assisted in overthrowing Mongoloid would later become the first class of heroes like the Desert Boys," Zach explained to people who may not know why he was saying these heroes had fought alongside the AoD. Zach continued louder while focusing back on Morro, "The Mighty Cactus told Endeavor that the Army of Death announced how Mongoloid had killed all the Saudi heroes they had called away from Rotta to the capital, and how his force of villains and the Seven Demons were conquering Saudi Arabia. One of the Demons who would die that day, KillFlame, was in Rotta with a force of over two hundred villains and former military personnel who were charged after the invasion with insurrection against the state. Those who were still alive, at least."

Zach continued calmly to Morro whose expression got angrier as he glared down at the teenager who continued, "The Mighty Cactus informed Endeavor that a jeep with a turret on it much like the one you just described as Class 9 was there with the Army of Death who came into Rotta. When KillFlame and his forces tried to put down the insurrection, the Army of Death fired from the turret into the crowd of villains… Using rubber bullets." Zach's voice dropped and he tilted his head to the side while finishing to the hero official who hesitated at what Lifebringer just told him.

"KillFlame and his soldiers who died that day, The Mighty Cactus claimed were solely killed by the citizens who rose up inside Rotta and fought against them. It was the Army of Death members who used more non-lethal tactics. Who used a weapon that you just claimed could cause mass fatalities, to stop those villains non-lethally. Now would you call that jeep a Class 9 weapon without the minigun on top of it? No. It would just be a normal jeep at that point. What makes that vehicle into a weapon, the very kind of weapon you spent your life dismantling, is the gun on top that turns it into a weapon of death. That is not a weapon of death!" Zach pointed back to the screen with the remote and shook his head at the hero official. "That's a riot control tool, at best. It may look like a weapon of high destruction. It may 'appear' to be Class 9, but as much as you are a specialist in these kinds of weapons, I also doubt you have seen a militarized vehicle like this built by villains with the intention to be non-lethal. Yet if the Army of Death attached a turret full of rubber bullets to this vehicle, then what class of weapon would you call it? What class, Official Morro?"

Morro stared down the boy in front of him for a few seconds silently. Then he nodded in understanding of the question and looked back towards the screen, and he replied, "Class 7. Still illegal by international standards-"

"Yet not what you just charged me with," Zach said. His voice lowered more and he wondered, "If this is an example of a Class 9 weapon that I supposedly produced, acquired, utilized- And yet it isn't even what the prosecution claims it to be?" Zach wondered that interestedly with his eyebrows raising. He turned and looked around the courtroom, stared into the gallery and saw some grins from classmates of his though a lot of surprise from others who were not expecting this kind of defense from him. "The Army of Death had many of those weapons you call beyond legal class, but they were not building weapons of mass destruction. They did not use weapons with rapid fire rate to put down every villain they came across. You want to charge me for being Death, then that's fine. But at least charge me with crimes that Death committed. And if you have the information already, Lemillion," Zach looked towards his prosecuting hero who should have had records of Endeavor's meetings with The Desert Boys. He looked towards Lemillion like he was accusing that hero of intentionally hiding information, and he finished, "Then you should be sure to include it in your prosecution."

"One of the vehicles in one attack by the Army of Death used rubber bullets," Lemillion stepped forward from the prosecuting table he had been standing just in front of. "That does not mean every one of those jeeps and trucks that had turrets on them used non-lethal rounds. Live ammunition and actual bullets were found at other locations the Army of Death is believed to have passed through, not just their attack in Saudi Arabia."

"But that picture is of one of the jeeps used in the invasion of Saudi Arabia, no?" Zach called back.

"The 'invasion' of Saudi Arabia?" Lemillion questioned the teenager. "Is that what you called it?"

Zach did not let himself pause despite phrasing that in a way that the rest of the world did not usually refer to it. "It's how I would describe it, yes. They call themselves an Army and invaded a nation that was under control of a villain, who had control of that nation's military. Whether or not it was just two villain groups fighting each other, it was a force of armed combatants taking over a country. That's what I would call an invasion."

Lemillion stared down Lifebringer for a few more seconds in the complete silence that filled the room. "Any further questions for Morro-san?" Yuranama questioned, breaking the silence and glaring down at the two who looked back his way and lost their harsher expressions at the dark sharp way Yuranama glared right down at them for turning his courtroom less into a proper court to instead argue directly at each other.

Lemillion looked back to Morro then to the screen with the vehicles on it with many pictures Lifebringer did not argue about. "No, Your Honor."

"No further questions from me either," Zach added.

Morro was dismissed from the stand and returned back to his seat in the gallery. "As the defense has no witnesses they wish to call," Yuranama announced, already in the know that the defense's witness list was empty, he looked back the prosecution's way again. "The prosecution can call up their next witness to the stand."

"The prosecution calls Enorma to the stand…"

Thought so. Makes sense to call her after Morro. She doesn't have much to add but has been holding onto this one piece of evidence like it's a key piece. Sorry, sensei. You're about to look foolish. Bikergang will be next. Zach leaned over to Hanuri and had her open back up the folder with various files in it, and he wondered in her ear, "Did you copy these into digital copies?"

"Tap the input button at the top and it will switch us over to our presentation," Hanuri whispered back as Enorma took the stand.

"Good. Thank you," Zach told the woman at his side.

Hanuri grinned back and then she whispered towards him, "You're doing a great job."

"I learned from the best," Zach finished, looking towards his former teacher now while Hanuri stared at the side of his head in surprise at the praise he just gave her. She smiled brighter herself after a moment then looked ahead as well preparing for the following testimonies.

"…Lifebringer claimed to have flown and crashed a Super Jet before…" Enorma said while giving her old student a look partially apologetic for what she was doing to him now. Zach had to keep from smiling at the way in which she actually thought that this was going to be evidence against him.

He stood up after Lemillion and Rainne's short questioning of her. "I have flown a Super Jet before. And I crashed one," Zach announced. "I was not lying… or maybe I was." He added that while looking right back to his teacher on the stand who looked confusedly back at him. "I wasn't on trial then. And I'm not on the stand now like you are. Enorma sensei told the truth in that I told her that I had flown and crashed a Super Jet before. I said that I stole it, and I insinuated that I lost my arm in the crash. I thought it would be a funny moment-"

"You were confessing to crimes," Yuranama stated down at the boy who was saying this with too much of a smile on his face.

"I could have been making up stories about my time missing," Zach suggested back towards the judge directly. "Did I mention a specific time? Did I mention where and when I did these things?" Zach looked to Enorma as he wondered the questions at her. "Did I give any indication of a particular incident? Something that you could have looked into to actually check if I had committed the crime I claimed to have committed? Anything?"

"No," Enorma replied. She had thought about that herself many times as she wondered how she could possibly use his admission against him. "I did not know if you were telling the truth then," she admitted as well.

"The Army of Death used Super Jets-" Lemillion started, stepping forward.

"It is not the prosecution's turn to speak," Yuranama's voice cut through the courtroom and shut Lemillion up instantly.

Zach tried hard to hide the smirk as he looked back at Lemillion. He turned towards the blond hero though and wondered at him for what he had started with but could not finish now or even reply to him about, "Even if it was true and I had used a Super Jet before, what proof is that that I am Death? You 'suspect' that the Army of Death were at places where villains were defeated an Super Jets were missing, but you don't say anything about people actually witnessing the Army of Death at those places. You don't say that anyone saw them steal Super Jets. They went missing, and I once said I have flown one, and so that somehow by some huge leap of the commutative property makes me Death? That's not proof. That's not even circumstantial evidence. That's as far a leap as you could make to claim I'm Death as anything that even conspiracy theorists would have attempted. No further questions Your Honor," Zach shook his head and walked back to the defense table like there was no further need for him to be up there trying to defend himself for this.

Lemillion made to move forward, but Utgardo stopped him behind the hero. He stepped in and allowed Enorma to go back to take her seat, and he whispered something to Lemillion that made the hero take in a deep breath and calm down. He's making me look foolish, Lemillion thought. I forgot, that as long as I've been preparing for this…

Zach's been preparing so much longer, Midoriya realized the same thing as he looked back towards his confident friend who took a seat at defendant's table and put his hands together over it in a relaxed way. I thought Lemillion was showing how he's been ready to produce this evidence for months, but Zach's planned for it since he returned. He knew the last trial he was in they would mention the circumstantial evidence and try to get him for more than just the Lifebringer Incident! And, maybe even when he was doing these things in the first place. He may not have ever planned on returning, but Zach's too smart to just turn it off. It's likely he would have just come up with good defenses naturally in case he or any of his soldiers were ever captured.

"The next witness the prosecution calls to the stand is Bikergang," Lemillion announced. They waited for the pro hero to come up to the stand as he knew he would have to that day. He sat up there and looked to Lemillion awaiting his questioning to begin, feeling a little better after watching some of the others go so he knew what to expect now. "Before I begin my questioning," Lemillion started, making Bikergang grimace as something new seemed to be happening here. Lemillion motioned to the screen where he changed it to show a video paused with a play triangle over it waiting to be started. "I would have Bikergang watch this footage with the rest of the court that the prosecution has admitted into evidence from the classified archives of the Anti-Death Task Force. This video was taken from the phone of a child in Mundogomo, a small town in the North African country of Frunoco."

Shit, I've seen this video, Zach thought while just looking towards the screen interestedly. They're stepping it up a gear. This is probably the best footage they have of Death in action. It's from a distance but it's still good footage. Might make Hanuri suspicious even, so I've got to look real interested and amazed here. Unless I want to act like I've seen it before? No, using that too often will make it out like I was there when it happened.

On the screen as Lemillion started the footage, people could hear the voices of two children behind the shaky phone that steadied out more and zoomed into the distance. In the background there was a siren going off and an emergency announcement broadcasting over the village. Lemillion said as the boy holding the camera zoomed in on sand-colored vehicles in the distance, "The Immortals. A villain group that stretched across much of Africa though centered in their operations in North African countries."

The boy turned the camera that was zoomed on villains not heading towards the village but looking like they would be driving past it. The kids behind the camera whispered in awe just as most people watched closely in shock at the convoy of pitch black vehicles larger than the group of Immortals' vehicles ahead of them. There was one vehicle at the front of that larger pack though that broke off from the rest of the vehicles while the kids were filming. The single motorcycle shot forward from the pack and the front tire lifted off the ground and flipped sideways, blue light coming out of the bottom and then out the back wheel too to turn the motorcycle into a hoverbike.

Bikergang's eyes opened wide as he realized why he may have been called up to the stand for this, but at the same time he had never seen a vehicle quite like the one shooting across the landscape much faster than the rest of the convoy behind him that cut in towards Mundogomo more but still across the desert, looking more like it was blocking the Immortals off from deciding to cut towards the village themselves. That hover-cycle shot straight after the slower sand-camo vehicles though, with a dark soldier on the back of it who zipped at the villains moving too fast for them to ignore him for long. Before he reached them though and a fight could start that everyone watching the trial imagined they were about to see, the motorcycle chasing the Immortals covered in black flames.

A dark aura surrounded the soldier on the back of the bike. His entire hoverbike surrounded in the dark flames as the African kids filming leaned back then leaned back forward and zoomed in all the way on that dark soldier who was close enough now that the motorcycles in the back of the villains' motorcade were just in front of him. The villain on the right of Death pointed a submachine gun back and unloaded at him. Death snapped his right arm forward and created a black whip that he used to throw a man off his bike while dodging bullets using his own. He threw the villain towards another motorcycle that pulled away and tried driving towards Mundogomo, but Death punched his left arm to the side and extended an arm with a huge hand of Death opening up in the shape of a claw that broke off his arm and took the villain off the motorcycle.

Death shot past the two men bouncing on the sand and their discarded bikes. He kept racing forward towards the jeeps and pickup trucks and other motorcycles ahead of him. Everyone in the courtroom and watching on tv stared in amazement as Death dodged bullets and took down other vehicles, leaping from his own hover-cycle at one point as it was lit up and sent flipping over. Death flew up in the air and slammed down on the vehicles he sent rolling. Death reached through the windows of the trucks as well when others started firing towards him even when he was close to their comrades, and Death threw the villains off the moving vehicles but at least away from gunfire. Some people noticed the way he fought was trying not to kill the villains, but the brutal nature of throwing men from moving vehicles and destroying those vehicles that were getting fired upon by other Immortals was still worse than what heroes would do.

The clip went on for a couple minutes before Lemillion stopped it, saying that after that the kids just filmed the Army of Death getting farther away as they continued racing the same direction both they and the Immortals were going when they passed the Frunoco town. Lemillion then turned from the judges who he said that to explaining why he ended the video there, and he said to the people in the courtroom, "Not all those villains survived that chase. What you just saw was Zach Sazaki, in an illegal costume that he used to commit acts of international terrorism and vigilantism, killing people in Frunoco. The Quirk that Death displayed on that video is no doubt the same as Lifebringer's Death. It acted to render unconscious many of the villains he discarded from their vehicles for over a day after heroes of Frunoco captured them. Many of those villains sustained severe bodily harm such as broken limbs and internal bleeding, and Death and the Army of Death left them there to suffer and die."

"Zach Sazaki is known for his proficiency with the use of grappling hooks," Lemillion continued. During the footage there had been instances where Death used a grappling hook, and Lemillion pointed it out while continuing to the court, "…Along with the costume Death wears, so similar to a strange costume Lifebringer had gotten for himself while at U.A. which no one knew he had," Lemillion changed the clip to show a slide that had image of Zach Sazaki holding up a girl and Kaminari Denki outside of the War Boys' secret base.

Zach's eyebrows narrowed in and his breath seethed out between his teeth as Lemillion used that picture of him. His dark eyes stayed locked on Lemillion who looked his way for a moment then turned to Bikergang, "And then there is the motorcycle that Death was showing great control over. Now, a terrorist like Death has no need for obtaining a motorcycle license, however one would imagine that someone with prior training in using one could use that proficiency for acts of terrorism. Bikergang, you taught Zach Sazaki how to drive a motorcycle, did you not?"

"I did," Bikergang replied.

"And Sazaki showed proficiency in riding one?" Lemillion questioned.

"He did," Bikergang answered again.

"Zach Sazaki had in his possession a motorcycle license, one that he left behind in the Enudora Forest the night of the Lifebringer Incident," Lemillion announced. "He himself once possessed a motorcycle registered under his name, one that was stolen from him by the villain Raijin on the day he was uncovered as the spy of U.A. and fled the school campus on that vehicle." Lemillion turned and glared at Zach Sazaki himself, "Sazaki's fighting style resembles that of Death. His weapons and costume are the same. His Quirk, is the same. Lifebringer went missing and by all accounts from those at the Lifebringer Incident with him, intended to go out into the world to continue acting as a vigilante and fighting and killing villains as he had in the Lifebringer Incident. This footage shows what Zach Sazaki was doing. How he was doing it. And the only thing he did to hide who he was during all that time, was to put on a mask, and change his voice."

"The defense?" Yuranama questioned after Lemillion finished. The pro hero's speech right there left many people in the room fully convinced. The video they had just watched showed someone fighting exactly how many of them had seen Zach Sazaki fight before. His Quirk was the biggest thing though. Despite reports from Hatto after the Army of Death's fight with Mongoloid in Saudi Arabia that said the same thing, most people had not seen Death himself using his Quirk. They knew Death could revive people, but this was the exact kind of Nightmare Form that they had all seen Lifebringer use before.

Zach Sazaki stood from his table without looking to Hanuri first to see what she was thinking about. He looked back at the gallery. His eyes scanned around Class B students and Class 1 kids as well who were stunned and looking towards him in disbelief. Most of Class 1 was fully convinced by my lies. They didn't know me well enough beforehand to doubt it. Like the prison guards who must be so confused right now if they're watching in Tartaros.

Zach looked to Lemillion then to his former pro hero Bikergang who he had interned with before. "I don't really have many questions for Bikergang. But I'll repeat what I said before as a rebuttal for my prosecutors," Zach looked to the judges to see if that was fine, then he looked in Lemillion's direction after receiving a dark nod from a convinced Yuranama who had seen enough already that Zach figured the man just wanted to announce the conclusion to the trial already. "Your evidence is again not evidence at all."

"The AoD wear dark costumes. My Quirk is black and so I thought they went well together when I was making my anti-hero costume black back when I was younger-"

"Your anti-hero costume?" Yuranama questioned down at the teenager.

Zach looked back towards the judge then away at the prosecution again. He did not respond to the judge's question, making the man directly behind him extremely angry though he hid it… somewhat well. Yuranama's dark gray eyes were piercing through the back of Lifebringer's head though as he continued. "I chose black for certain reasons that could be the same as why the AoD chose it, or maybe why Death himself or herself chose it, because it went well with their Quirk. I don't know. What I do know, is that the grappling hook is a multi-functional weapon that is great at getting yourself out of a tight pinch, moving quickly, wrapping up enemies, and reaching high places. There are so many uses to one that I also showed off during the Sports Festival two years ago before the Invasion."

"In that Sports Festival I made it into the semi-finals that never happened, despite not using my Quirk once," Zach boasted. He said it not as a boast though but to lead to what he was going to say next, "And that was against some of the best new heroes preparing to enter the hero workforce this year. I displayed the amazing utility to a grappling hook like the one I used that day, and the amount of heroes around the world who have picked up using grappling guns has increased 18 fold since the Sports Festival Invasion." Zach paused after saying it, and he lifted the remote in his right hand and flipped onto a slide showing a graph he had already prepared and which Hanuri looked at and remembered with her own heart rate slowing back down as she knew already the kind of circumstantial evidence the prosecution had that Sazaki had done his research to counter against.

"Even with a dramatic decrease in the total number of heroes around the world," Zach continued. He clicked onto the next slide of his and Hanuri's defense, and he mentioned louder, "And in Japan that number increased more than anywhere else in the world. Isn't that right, Bikergang?" Zach wondered, looking back to the pro who always rode on top of a motorcycle, but who had recently been using a certain hero support tool more often. Bikergang hesitated for a moment but never got a chance to answer before his old intern continued.

"And a motorcycle license?" Zach called out, his voice sounding more skeptical now than a moment ago. He showed another graph with a less sharp increase over the past few years than grappling guns, but he mentioned as it appeared, "Purchases of motorcycles and applications for motorcycle licenses are up over 5 times what they were two years ago, after I first started riding one. Maybe I made it more popular to drive motorcycles, or maybe it had nothing to do with me! Either way there are millions of people around the world with licenses to drive motorcycles, but as Lemillion suggested I doubt Death even has one. It's not like he or she wouldn't drive one if they didn't have the license. Haha," Zach chuckled and shook his head while looking back Lemillion's direction. "Maybe you should add driving without a license to the litany of supposed crimes against me. Because maybe Death did have a license but you don't know that they did, so why not charge me with it? You've got as much proof there as you do about anything else!"

"You know that there is more evidence than that against you," Lemillion snapped, unable to hold it back though Yuranama did not stop the younger man this time as he was upset at Lifebringer too. "This is a trial charging you with high crimes that will result in your imprisonment for the rest of your life, Lifebringer. And you're not even taking it seriously0"

"I'm not," Zach replied harshly. He glared at Lemillion who he stepped towards after Lemillion had just stepped towards him. "Because the prosecution is withholding the final piece of evidence. The new piece that you have which you think can really put me away." Lemillion froze and stared at Lifebringer trying to keep his expression the same though his heart was racing faster than Lifebringer was calling him out on this. "You're wasting everyone else's time on the circumstantial evidence to change everyone's preconceptions to be already against me before you show the 'actual' proof that you never admitted yet so that it can be the bombshell trump card evidence you reveal at the end of the trial. Something you believe I can't defend and that will create a guilty verdict."

"Lifebringer, stop this speculation," Judge Wilson started.

"The prosecution has had all of this information for a long time now," Zach countered Judge Wilson who he looked back towards. "Nothing they have shown so far is anything the ADTF did not have for months to years. I'm speculating? Most of what the prosecution has said so far is speculation and circumstance. And if this was all they had but they thought it was enough, then I would have been charged with being Death the day I turned myself in 9 months ago. Instead they chose now. Today. But I haven't heard or seen anything that suggests why I was charged now and not back then."

"Lifebringer," Yuranama's voice was cold and forced Lifebringer to turn back to the head judge of the trial. "You do not decide the order in which the prosecution presents their evidence against you. Nor is this the time to criticize your prosecutors or their methodology. Do you have any further questions for the witness?" Yuranama's voice was harsh and daring Lifebringer to say something that he could use to add charges of contempt of court against the boy.

This is some bullshit right here. I know you're just taking your sweet time- cool it. Everyone's watching. "No, Your Honor." Zach looked towards Bikergang once more and gave his old pro a small smile before turning to head back to his seat. What am I getting upset over? The gradual breaking down of things I spent months, years trying to protect? If I can cast enough doubt on everything they mention… What's more important? Hiding what Death did, or hiding that Death was once, me? That I had once worn that costume, not that I was- I was in Terra. You're in a courtroom! Tsukauchi and Norasaki are in this room. Remember. Terra. Arcasia. Space wars. The Battle of the 6 Armies. Siege of Razmatan. General Faraz and his torture sites. The Colosseum.

That clip Lemillion showed, Kotsumura furled his lips and looked towards the back of Zach's head with his expression steadier than most of his classmates' were. That really seemed like you fighting out there. I can imagine it. In the bathroom that day you told me about what happened to you. In the Pit, that you kept trying to call the Colosseum. That you said you lied to Oda sensei about before he wrote his book. Forced to fight and kill other people as a slave. And you killed everyone who put you there. That's what I think happened, when you said you weren't forced to do it anymore once you got the collar off. Zach, I wanted that to have happened in a different world. You told me about it and I felt like an idiot for all my fears over asking Tiona out. I still feel like an idiot for not noticing sooner how you were bringing clothes to school and all that stuff you should have been leaving home, at the "new apartment" you lied about.

But if you really were on this world all that time, and you were Death, Kotsumura lowered his gaze down to his lap for a moment. Then what the hell were you doing back here?

Death can ride a motorcycle, Roady leaned back into his seat. But Zach's right. That doesn't mean shit. His grappling gun… I didn't even know Bikergang started using one. The way the boss reacted though, he must have just started up. That graph must have been exaggerated though! Or, maybe not. Do that many people copy him? He says it's because of the uses for it that he showed off that made so many people pick it up, but you're just too damn popular!

Death alone took down that whole group of Immortals, Muoko Kimi thought farther back from most of her classmates. She sat next to her boyfriend and vice rep of their Class 1, and she glanced towards him thoughtfully only for Tomoki to shake his head suggesting he still was not convinced. They had both gone into this in agreement that they believed Zach's stories that had been far too thorough and detailed over the past few months for him to have been lying all that time. Muoko was hesitating now though, Just like Zach defeated the Subspace Devils.

Death and Lifebringer are both really strong, Tsuburaba Kosei told himself. It's not like we can see Death be super badass and kick a bunch of villain butt, and just assume that that means he's Zach! Death's amazing too. For no heroes to ever have been able to catch him… Though, no heroes ever caught Zach either. We'd be kidding ourselves to call what we did the other day "catching" Lifebringer. He turned himself in again. Why? Why would he do that if he was guilty? He would have known that they had real proof against him. Which means that whatever Lemillion's guys have, it's not real proof… But would Lemillion have done this if he wasn't sure he could get Zach?

Zach's right, Iida thought while looking towards the prosecution who were discussing their next moves. Zach and Hanuri were speaking as well, though it seemed to the tallest boy in Class A that they did not have much of a defense to go on. Togata senpai must have something new that he plans to bring against him later on in the trial. He would not have gone through all the trouble of arresting Zach and creating this whole affair if he was not certain that the trial would go the heroes' way. If they wanted to charge him right off the bat and get him arrested because of the danger he posed or the immediate threat, they could have. They could have attempted to pin anything and everything on him, but they waited. He waited, Iida looked specifically at the hero who was staying up with the prosecution now to deal with this trial himself. He caught Zach. Something. He has something that will stick and send Zach to Tartaros.

It is not what I want for him, Iida's expression hardened and he pushed those feelings aside. But I must ready myself for when that inevitability comes. It was always a possibility. Today, he'll be going to prison again.

Zach's probably Death, Kuroiro stared towards his old friend. He looked at someone who had been one of his closer friends longer than most of his other classmates. Kuroiro pictured himself in Camino Ward to save Zach from the villains. His imagination faded and he looked ahead in a place Zach needed no saving from, as he was doing a great job of doing that himself. But it doesn't matter, Kuroiro continued to himself. Because he's right. The stuff Lemillion is saying about him is not technically evidence. It makes him look super suspicious. And it makes sense that he was always the ADTF's number 1 suspect, but I also understand why the heroes never tried this before. Zach's too good. Even with those judges in charge of Zach's fate, they can't convict him if Lemillion doesn't supply some real proof here in a minute. Zach's Death and he's going to get away with it.

Utgardo stepped forward from the prosecutors' area and brought the attention of the court back to the screen where he projected an image of Zach Sazaki's hero costume. "Super Costumes for Super Heroes' kept detailed designs of the costume Zach Sazaki had registered days after his release from Tartaros. A costume he said was sent to him anonymously as a gift, just so happened to have much of the same equipment as armor found on the dead body of a member of the Army of Death seven months ago."

"His costume also has woven in a unique Quirk blend that was identified under closer inspection, to be an identical match with material used to make that Army of Death's dark uniform," Utgardo said that declaratively and snapping his head to glare towards Sazaki when he said it. "The defendant uses the same material as an affront to our laws. As if shoving in our face the illegal methods he used in the past by wearing the same costume today. I bet it feels familiar. I suspect you were very used to the gear in your new costume. And my suspicion is matched by this quote from Hachiman, your homeroom teacher from Shiketsu who was brought in on the investigation into Lifebringer several weeks ago."

Zach turned for a moment and glanced towards his old homeroom teacher who averted his gaze at first but then looked right back into his student's eyes. "'Without using his Quirk, Lifebringer defeated many of the strongest students of Class 1. I believe it was due to his vast experience and masterful control over the various pieces of high-tech gear in his costume that allowed him to do this. It was his first time using the costume since he received it, and yet he knew how to use every gadget and function perfectly as if he had been using them for years…' Now if you were 'off-world' as the book about you claims, and which you have alluded to before, when was it that you spent so much time training using this gear? The same kind of gear that the Army of Death abuses?"

Utgardo asked a question and it sounded like he wanted to hear an answer. This was also just his presentation of evidence, but Zach stood up from his seat anyway with a glance to the judges. "Would you like to take the stand now?" Yuranama questioned.

"No," Zach replied. "But I do have a rebuttal for my opponent, if you'll allow me?"

Yuranama frowned at the boy whose testimony he was going to doubt every word of. He nodded though after a moment and said in an abrasive voice, "Proceed."

"Didn't you say in the list of crimes that you brought before me," Zach began towards the prosecution. "That the theft of support items was one of the Army of Death's crimes?" He wondered it skeptically towards their whole previous argument. Zach stared towards Utgardo alone, "If they have advanced weaponry and stolen material for hero costumes, I'm sure tons of heroes have hero equipment that the Army of Death also has."

"But the specific Quirk blend-" Dr. Rainne started quickly to stop Lifebringer's momentum.

"Is being used in many modern costumes made in the past 4 months, which I understand that you might not know as they are not legal in Japan- And no, that doesn't mean I am using an illegal costume. It is illegal to produce those costumes in Japan, because non-heroes cannot use Quirks to assist with their jobs. There are no laws in Japan preventing me from using a costume that was produced using Quirk-assisted technology or production which is putting foreign competitors in hero-support-tool production far ahead of our Japanese companies. Now I wish I could support Japanese companies and help out our people, but I won't use a worse hero costume and put lives at risk because of our outdated and stupid laws on the matter." Zach spoke quickly and in a sharp voice at his prosecutors who did not even know what Zach Sazaki was talking about anymore, as it sounded like the teen was advocating policy change and not defending himself in a criminal trial. Everyone else who realized that Zach was doing just that dropped their jaws or had to smile and laugh that he would pick this moment to make the attempt.

Is he seriously doing this now? Memuria wondered, a small bead of sweat sliding down the side of her face closer to Nezu who had read the report Zach sent her and had to suppress a tiny smile of his own.

"If the Army of Death has stolen material for hero costumes," Zach said in a lower deadpan voice back at Utgardo. "Then are you going to accuse any hero who has similar gear as those thieves of being the thieves themselves? 'Oh an Army of Death member used a grappling gun that looks like Lifebringer's, he must be Death!' 'The Army of Death is using high-tech equipment, and so are those heroes! Coincidence? I think not!'" Zach paused and smirked at his opponent, deciding against using a third example as he was already showing too much confidence. "Your argument, again, has zero basis in proof and evidence and is rather just to show another coincidence that you think will make me look more like Death. It is just a coincidence though."

"And the reason you knew how to use your costume immediately-"

"Is something I don't have to tell you," Zach retorted. He said it lower and the looks of unease reappeared across the courtroom. Zach shut Utgardo down and then said in a harsher tone, "But you cannot just assume that I am guilty of being Death because I'm good with my own costume."

He said he had stolen the costume himself, Mineta thought. Wait! That was a lie though, and he really was Death and using that as Death. Geez- but he's talking- oh man! That's what it is! That's why I thought of it. Mineta gulped at the realization he was having. Anyone else who knows what he said about "stealing" the costume, when it was really given to him as a gift, but he said he stole it because he doesn't want to get those people who gifted it to him in trouble! That's why he'll say so brashly that he's not going to say anything. Because it's a crime that everyone would understand, even if it came out. One that might make him look even more sympathetic that he tried hiding it despite how it made him look right there! Damn, he's so fucking slick!

Zach doesn't want the people who gave him the costume while he was gone to get in trouble… Ojiro frowned at the thought. Toru says Mysti called him Death though. He said on tv that she was just crazy and calling him it, but Toru said the things they were talking about, when Mysti thought she was talking to Death, were things that Zach responded to. I can accept that Zach may have had contact with villains that Death also faced. I could have accepted that! But, what you talked about is proof.

"The prosecution calls to the stand, Japan's Number 1 Hero, Endeavor." The prosecution announced after their latest failure that they did not want to linger in people's minds for too long.

Zach looked to the same double doors Star-Spangled Man came in and went out of before. Japan's top hero entered the courtroom. His body was enflamed in his normal costume that had been upgraded over the past years, though most of the flames went away as he reached the bench that was made of wood. Only the flames on his face remained and kept his expression looking firm and intimidating as he got up there. People had been put-off when Endeavor tried smiling more for a few weeks a year ago, but it wasn't until he smiled during a fight with villains with the right corner of his lips twitching, and the villains he was beating on started laughing at him, that Endeavor stopped with the attempts to change his image altogether. He let his actions do the talking, and people loved the new Endeavor much more than the old one anyway.

"Endeavor," Dr. Rainne started after the hero took the stand and swore to tell the truth. He faced the prosecutor and Rainne hesitated for a moment as Endeavor's cold glare met his eyes. You've destroyed many a good hero, Todoroki Enji thought. For things that I myself have done to villains and got away with, solely because I was taking down more than anyone else so you could not touch me. Or rather, you never attempted to touch me. If you did your job out of moral conscience it would have mandated you to come after me before. Instead of a single father mourning his wife and trying to raise a son on his own. A difficult job. Endeavor kept from looking towards the defendant despite his thoughts and just awaited Rainne to give him the introduction he was expecting.

Rainned turned away from Endeavor to continue his introduction to everyone else instead, "…As the leader of the Anti-Death Task Force, Endeavor was in charge of tracking and following Death's actions for all the time that this court charges Sazaki for being Death. For nine months Endeavor tracked down Death and chased him to all corners of the Earth. Endeavor was also the man put in charge of the team chasing Lifebringer after the Lifebringer Incident. Endeavor was also the hero responsible for taking in Zach Sazaki when he turned himself over to the authorities in July. No hero in the country has a closer repertoire with Death and Zach Sazaki than Endeavor himself."

I'm going to need to interrogate him here, Lemillion could tell just by looking at the former ADTF commander. Why did he quit being the Task Force commander? I thought it was our failure, but he has been uncooperative ever since when it comes to Lifebringer. He could not deny being a witness here, but would he have? No. Endeavor's the top hero. He's not the kind of man to lie to help Lifebringer. I didn't think he was the kind of man to try to help him at all though.

"Endeavor," Lemillion started. Rainne looked back then moved out of the way as Lemillion stepped forward. The lawyer allowed the hero to take this rather than him as he was feeling the cold gaze of the hero bore into his soul even without looking his way anymore. "You were the leader of the ADTF for longer than Lifebringer is suspected of being Death, correct?"

"Yes," Endeavor replied.

His expression was the same but his eyes felt less severe to Lemillion who wondered for a moment if it had to do with Rainne or if this was just courtesy between heroes for Endeavor to hide more of his disdain for these proceedings. Togata did not know but continued on to the top hero in the nation, "My first question regards Eziano Mozcaccio. The former Shadow Boss who has been targeting Zach Sazaki," Lemillion continued with a look to the bench then back at the gallery. "And one of the enemies of Death. Isn't that right?"

"Eziano Mozcaccio and Death are believed to have been in contact and are enemies," Endeavor stated. "Interrogation of several villains the ADTF arrested and questioned suggested the two of them were facing each other in the shadows, however none would ever give information on the two of them."

"But they were fighting each other. That much we knew," Lemillion said. "Eziano was a Shadow Boss, and the Army of Death were responsible for leading the Task Force to the Shadow Bosses' Headquarters so that we could all face them together."

"That is true," Endeavor replied. "Death himself took down Turbo and Zolo on the day of the raid. Two of the five leaders of that shadow organization. He was the enemy of the Shadow Bosses."

Lemillion paused for a second. He's mentioning unnecessary things. Didn't you say we should keep most of it from the public- Lemillion stopped questioning why Endeavor was speaking out now, instead focusing on the questions the prosecution had prepared instead. "Endeavor, when you last met with the Army of Death in Turbonya, was there any sign of Death?"

"…No."

"Death's whole Army was believed to be there at the time, but their leader was not?" Lemillion asked.

This is it. An odd calm fell over Endeavor at the thought he had. "Death!" That was the Gentle Criminal. He is their leader now. "Not if their leader is still the one with the Death Quirk," Endeavor replied after his moment's hesitation. "I do not believe that person to be with the Army of Death any longer."

"So the Death you were chasing, the one whose Quirk you would recognize well," Lemillion continued. "You have not seen Death use that Quirk since Lifebringer turned himself in."

"No one has seen Death use that Quirk since the Villain Summit," Endeavor responded. "It was believed that he was still alive due to reports of revivals after the Villain Summit. However due to new reports of revivals in May being lied about, as well as the ones in July, August, and October that were discovered to be less verified than once though, I would be unable to give you a point when I imagine Death was no longer with his Army."

Bouncer Man leaned back in his seat and lifted his eyebrows up at what Endeavor was saying. He glanced next to him at Bikergang who also got a more thoughtful look on his face, as he had been semi-confused by the Death revivals he heard had been lied about in May before Lifebringer turned himself over. He had not thought much of them or just considered that people who really were revived were just trying to throw some confusion into the mix, but Endeavor seemed less certain about that.

Endeavor's the hero who was chasing Lifebringer all that time, Dendo thought. He frowned more at the way he just thought his friend's name, and he grimaced deeper still that he was upset about using 'Lifebringer' and not that he had assumed Endeavor was chasing him and not Death. Dendo shook his head around, He was the man chasing Death around, and he doesn't think it was Zach. At least he's not responding as if he's trying to help Lemillion at all.

That was not the answer you wanted, but it is the truth. The truth in relation to your proof, Endeavor countered himself as he could not help but feel some guilt at what he just testified on like he was not convinced Sazaki was Death. No one saw Death use his Quirk after that incident. No one who we can prove really saw it. Very little footage came out about the Army of Death after the Villain Summit. So many of them were killed. Death acted like it was coming when I saw him days before. One final battle. One that took so many of their lives.

"Endeavor," Lemillion continued. He rose his voice louder and questioned the hero before him who was casting doubt on his questions even though Lemillion knew that Endeavor had already seen the proof. "Is not Lifebringer's hostile relationship with Eziano Mozcaccio indicative of connection between him and Death-"

"Not at all," Endeavor replied. He shut down Lemillion and stated to the younger hero, "Lifebringer and Eziano had a relationship before the Lifebringer Incident. Eziano Mozcaccio was at the Sports Festival Invasion and attempted to kill All Might." Others in the courtroom stared towards Endeavor with huge eyes at what the top hero was saying. All Might was sitting there in the courtroom and suddenly felt anxious with all eyes pointing towards him. Endeavor continued, "Death was in conflict with the Shadow Bosses. Lifebringer spent time in the shadows while in Japan before the Lifebringer Incident, where I believe he became familiar with the name, Eziano Mozcaccio. And it was during this time that Lifebringer first incurred the wrath of that particular Shadow Boss. Both Sazaki and Death have done things to anger Eziano Mozcaccio, but Lifebringer knew of Eziano before the Lifebringer Incident, so their relationship and Death's conflict with Eziano are separate."

Well then, Endeavor. I'm glad you're trying to help me, but you shouldn't lie in court. Unless you really don't know? It seems like you do, for you to defend me like this. To some it probably just looks like you're trying to be impartial, more-so than anyone else who's been taking part in this trial thus far. Zach kept his lips flat though and he grit his teeth behind those closed lips. Either way, you have set me up. I have people doubting Lemillion and doubting whether or not I am Death, now that they see coincidences that really do look suspect but are apparently true. And it is true, that both Zach Sazaki and Death angered Eziano. If I was not him then that would have been great counter evidence. I'm sure the ADTF have argued about it before, which means Lemillion was trying to bring it up just to change opinions too. Both Lemillion and Endeavor hide things. Star-Spangled Man did not give the full picture. All of you heroes willing to bend the rules, based on how badly you want me thrown in prison…

Lemillion grit his teeth while staring straight at Endeavor. He did not want to turn and let everyone else and the cameras see his frustrated expression. The top hero did not look back at him sympathetically or apologetically for his statements that was not the testimony Lemillion hoped it to be. After introducing Endeavor as someone so knowledgable on Death and Lifebringer, for Endeavor to consider them different people made Lemillion's job considerably harder. This was just supposed to be the time to open everyone up to being fully convinced later on. If Endeavor isn't going to help out, then I should get him off the stand.

Lemillion looked to the judge, "No further questions for the witness, Your Honor."

Yuranama frowned down and to the side at Endeavor whose testimony he also disagreed with. Lemillion may be making assumptions, but to say that their relationships are separate is also too broad an assumption for you to make. The coincidence does not exclude connection, Yuranama thought suspiciously. The word of the top hero will hold much sway and we've already determined that their opinions can be admitted as evidence.

"I have a few questions for the witness," Zach started. He got up out of his seat and moved around his table, looking towards Endeavor sternly and then over at Lemillion in a similar way that made Endeavor feel a bit uneasy about what he just did. Lifebringer turned back towards the older pro and frowned at Endeavor who looked back confusedly at the teenager.

What am I doing? Zach stopped himself. His look shifted as he stared into Endeavor's eyes. I'm on trial. I need to make them doubt that I'm Death. Doubt it so much that when it comes time for the final defenses, I can really convince them it's not true. I have to do this. It's not about being upset with them. It will just, look like that. Zach lowered his gaze for a moment before wondering, "What evidence have we seen so far? Evidence?" Zach emphasized the word and he looked away from Endeavor and at the prosecution then past them into the gallery on the prosecution's side. "I have heard nothing but conjecture and assumptions of my guilt. Coincidences that the heroes in this courtroom have said like they are undeniable proof of my guilt."

He's sounding frustrated. Is this part of his plan, or is he really getting upset? Todoroki stared towards his classmate whose every move and every word he doubted while under this much scrutiny. Or is it both. Is he making himself frustrated so it comes out clearer on the cameras?

Don't do anything you may regret later, Zach, Yaoyorozu thought towards her ex-boyfriend whose eyes were narrowing towards the heroes on the other side of the room as her.

"You can introduce as much circumstantial evidence as you like. Things like my shaky alibi and the similarities between myself and Death that you think match up just too well, but I know this trial would have gone on months ago if you actually had proof of my being Death. The only new evidence that I see being presented is the information you have that some of Death's new revivals may not be as reported, but there were far more than 13 people brought back over the past 9 months and you haven't been able to prove that the others had not occurred. And if they haven't, and I don't really know if they have or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Army of Death had people lying about it. I can think of a hundred reasons why they would do so that don't have to do with me being Death!"

"The Army of Death lost their leader but continue telling people to say they're revived, that way villains don't think they're any weaker and try to attack them? Or I turned myself over and the Army of Death thought I might get charged with their crimes if they didn't tell people to keep saying they were revived, even though Death was long dead by that point? They wouldn't have wanted me charged with their crimes. Crimes I did not commit." Zach shook his head and said, "Even if you could prove that all those revivals did not occur, it's not evidence of anything. It has nothing to do with me. We have no idea why the Army of Death would lie about that, and maybe they only got some people to lie so they could act like Death was dead and he or she is really just in hiding. Maybe we're assuming that Death is no longer with the Army of Death, because the Army of Death wants people to think that!"

"You know that those fake revivals don't count as evidence, and you cannot prove that I had anything to do with it because there is no proof of that. You know it won't hold up on its own, the same that all the other circumstantial evidence that was hotly debated for over a year and a half hasn't been proof that I am Death. I don't know what it is that made you think you could come after me now, but whatever it is won't prove anything. Because I'm not Death. I have said it a thousand times and I will say it a thousand more. Maybe the one who brought people to life with the Army of Death died. And maybe they didn't want their enemies to think they were weaker, because even villains are convinced that I am Death too. So when I turned myself over and was put in prison, wouldn't it make sense that the Army of Death would want villains to still think that Death was out there and as strong as ever? If Death had really died, the one person with a Quirk like my own, then it is not a far stretch to imagine the Army of Death would not want that being public knowledge."

"You want to use the shaky revivals as the final proof to show that I am Death. It's what people all over the media accused me of for the past week, and it's the only reason I can see right now for why you chose now to charge me. But how many revivals that Death carried out could really be confirmed in the months leading up to my arrest?" Zach wondered it and then looked towards a different part of the courtroom, "I know that the heroes in the League of Shadows' Raid were seen by others getting revived and some like Star-Spangled Man admitted they were too. And in Qingxiao after the earthquake and flood, recordings came out of the Army of Death and some videos of Death reviving people came out later. But after that, I don't know how much can be 'confirmed.' If you're going to argue that all the revivals after I was sent to Tartaros were fake," Zach said while looking to the prosecution who were making this accusation just by the fact of the trial going on right now. "Then that's hundreds of revivals, which had hundreds of people as witnesses to them too!"

"And not all of those were retracted, which means the prosecution is claiming that having hundreds of witnesses doesn't necessarily mean it can be confirmed that revivals actually occurred. But you won't mention the revivals that happened back in early July, or in June, May, April- you won't say it." Zach said that coldly towards the prosecutors and Lemillion himself, "And why is that? Because those revivals have the same amount of proof the back up that they really happened as the ones after I turned myself in. And on days that Death had supposedly revived people, you already have evidence that I was in Italy at the time."

Zach called that out at Lemillion who he narrowed his eyes at. "I know that you have reports from Metallore who saw me in Sicily, the same day that Death fought the Penguirs down in the Falklands and revived eight people. Metallore saw me, when I was acting after I returned to this world not as a soldier of the Army of Death, but as a fugitive on the run from authorities as I was already charged with 9 months ago!" Zach called that out and Reika's eyes started to narrow, glaring in Lemillion's direction as she had already known about Italy but did not know that the heroes also knew that Zach was there as well when Death was still acting elsewhere.

"The fact that you know these things-" Poloski started while standing from his seat.

"Do you think I wasn't privy to the information?" Zach wondered. "Even information that I was not sent myself by concerned parties who considered that this trial may be a farce, I already knew much of it that I learned while out there myself." Zach tilted his head back and wondered, "I know that much of it is 'classified' and 'private,' and this is not all evidence that was shared and submitted for the trial. But do you think I did not do my own research while out there? Without any oversight or restraint, I had considered going after the Army of Death myself." Zach said that darkly while glaring down Poloski who leaned back at the statement. "I was on my own and had considered joining them too back before I left this world, and when I returned and heard some of the worst things they had done, I also considered taking them down on my own and I had different information than the ADTF from where I lurked in the underworld."

Enorma felt her mouth dried out as she stared towards this teenager whose imposing tone somehow made her forget that much of what he was saying suggested illegal activities. He was discussing lurking in the underworld, but that was not what he was on trial for today. Too much of what he was saying sounded sincere too, especially with him admitting to things he was doing "in the underworld" that they doubted he would mention if they were not true.

"I also wanted to meet someone who had my same Quirk," Zach admitted. "In the end I left it alone-"

"Enough, Sazaki," Yuranama cut off the boy and made Zach turn to face him. "Without providing Metallore's report yourself as evidence, the I am going to dismiss this thread of argument and scratch it from the record. You say that the prosecution decided not to submit the report as evidence, in an accusation that they did not do so to attempt to make this trial unfair. But if you had the report yourself and did not choose to submit it then it is because you must already understand yourself. Being seen on the same day that Death was seen somewhere else entirely across the world does not exonerate you, when you have shown your ability to fly to distant countries in short amounts of time recently. Several occasions that I could name off the top of my head if you need to be refreshed."

Zach shook his head at the hostile judge and responded politely, "I do not need a refresher. But my original point remains." He continued looking straight into Yuranama's eyes, "The prosecution have brought forward a case now after holding off for so long and there can only be one reason why. They have new evidence. Until we see the one piece of evidence that they think can convict me, we are going to continue hearing speculation that proves nothing."

"Lifebringer," Lemillion started. He stepped forward and his expression was dark as he looked at the teenager who was defending himself while also getting harsher towards the prosecution. "Do you not have anything to ask the witness?" Yuranama was about to ask the same thing, as Lifebringer sounded finished with his points even though he stood up initially to question Endeavor who had been sitting silently through Lifebringer's last monologue.

"Only this: How did the Army of Death get away in Turbonya?" Zach wondered it with a look back at Endeavor then ahead at Lemillion who had stepped closer to him. Lemillion frowned himself but Zach recalled that Lemillion had not been there that day and was still in Japan for that horrible weekend of the Koimou Massacre. "When I wonder why this attempt to charge me came now rather than any other time, I start to question about the failed attempt at capturing the AoD in Turbonya. Reports show that Death's Army was completely surrounded. Yet the ADTF allowed them to escape, again."

Zach looked at Endeavor for an answer but he did not really care to hear one or wanted Endeavor to have to defend it as the man had already resigned from his post over the failure, supposedly. Zach spoke louder while turning to the judges for a moment, "A year and a half of UN funding for an enormous task force meant to take down the Army of Death, and the ADTF has not captured a single one of them."

Even if Lemillion was not in Turbonya, he had been in the ADTF for the full time of their existence and this was directed towards him too. Zach looked at Lemillion and then past towards other ADTF members in the gallery who he stared at harshly and accusingly, "They couldn't capture them in the act, so they grabbed me and pinned me with being Death while Death is still out there. Charging me with hundreds of crimes that they don't even have evidence to prove." Lemillion opened his mouth but Zach called out louder, "The only AoD member that's ever been caught was captured by Deku! And he's not even in the Task Force!"

Deku opened his eyes wider and glanced around him at others who shifted gazes his way for a second. They all snapped their attentions right back to Zach though as he was sounding defensive but making as much sense as ever as he called out what some talk shows had been questioning. Some people there had been suspicious about it, but what was conspiracy suddenly became a mainstream thought process that the ADTF might be doing this as part of an attempt to justify their failures.

"The ADTF has failed for a year and a half. How is it that you failed in that trap?" Zach asked with a look back towards Endeavor. "I wonder if they were even trying to capture the Army of Death, since it's not like Death or his Army fought the ADTF in Turbonya. Not a single hero was injured that day, and your reports claim that you had surrounded the AoD, but somehow those villains escaped from them?" Zach wondered that confusedly and looked to the judges. He focused on Judge Wilson who looked for a moment in Endeavor's direction to see what the former Task Force leader's response to this would be. "These 'villains' who Star-Spangled Man has repeatedly called incredibly dangerous because of those missiles they fired. Missiles that didn't hurt anyone?"

Zach rose his pitch in even more of a question as to what they were all being led to believe about the Turbonya attempt to trap the AoD. He shook his head and continued, "Those heroes may really believe that it's me, but the reason why they're doing this now is either because they think they have some new proof, or because they have to show results. They have to show some kind of results for 18 months of investigations that have led nowhere, except to the same person they apparently assumed was Death at the start but could never prove was!" Do it Lemillion. Show your evidence now. Do it at your weakest moment and it will look like you're grasping at straws. This argument will still be on everyone's mind, and you'll be showing that evidence to prove that it's not just because you're trying to show results. I'll be able to counter that too though.

"You're throwing everything you have at me," Zach said with a look back straight into Lemillion's eyes. "And everything you have, is looking very thin. It's not much to go on." Zach looked back to Endeavor, then he said with a shake of his head, "I don't have anything else to ask the witness. There's nothing to ask, because there's nothing I need to defend myself for." Zach turned to the prosecution to see if Lemillion would counter him there.

Lemillion's eyes were dark as he looked back into Zach Sazaki's. He will not get away with this. I cannot allow him to abuse our justice system. Yuranama is a strict official and will carry out his justice severely if I can prove Lifebringer is Death, but sending him to prison alone is not enough. I have to convince everyone that he is Death before we send him there. I cannot allow him to convince them otherwise.

Endeavor stepped down from the stand but did not leave the courtroom. He walked back to the row behind the prosecution's table and other heroes scooted over to give him the end seat where Gang Orca had been. This was decided beforehand as Endeavor had to keep his location an unknown to villains before the trial, but having him leave afterwards would lead to any potential attackers following him and keeping tabs on his position anyway. Besides, Endeavor may not have wanted to be there, but should Sazaki be convicted with a guilty sentence he had agreed that he would help them bring him to Tartaros, should there be any further struggle this time.

Zach looked towards where Endeavor took his seat and his expression stayed steady though much more serious than before. That should have taken longer. Endeavor saw months worth of my activities. He can bring forward the evidence about so many of my crimes. Lemillion doesn't care about proving those charges though. That's something that should help me, but it doesn't help with the one thing I need to prove above all else.

"Lifebringer," Lemillion started. There was no one on the stand but Lifebringer was still standing, and so was the lead investigator into him for the past several months. The two stared at each other in such intense ways that Yuranama held his right hand to the side and stopped Kanno from interjecting or mentioning how they were going to continue the trial.

Let them argue, Yuranama thought with a glance to his colleague then back at the young men facing each other at the front of the courtroom. Lifebringer has made good points. Enough that in a usual case I may have considered his arguments legitimate. Lifebringer is a professional liar. Every statement he makes is a lie. The longer he talks, the more that will become clear when they all see that he was lying. Once they understand he was lying at one time they thought him to be entirely truthful, they will never be able to believe in him again.

"When you watched that footage from Frunoco, did you notice certain fighting techniques-"

"Ones that I use myself," Zach finished for Lemillion. "I noticed."

"Not just the armor, or the weapons, but the same exact style that you used at times during your fights since your release from Tartaros." Lemillion spoke louder when Sazaki was agreeing like it did not mean anything, as he felt it did and needed Lifebringer's tone not to shift his own. "The way you combatted assassins who have come after you, and the way you fought the Subspace Devils too are reminiscent- if not identical to the combat style of Death."

"I have said that I believed Death only understood they could use their Quirk after seeing that I could use my own. The weapons they chose? The way they utilized Death the Quirk? All could be based on my own tactics which would make our fighting styles incredibly similar." Zach denied Lemillion's evidence as proving anything at all, but Lemillion's expression got darker still without faltering at Lifebringer's quick defense.

"And your speech to Eziano Mozcaccio after he destroyed your apartment?" Lemillion wondered. "Where you called out that villain? Where you claimed that you would defeat them?" Lemillion's cold gaze stared deeper into Zach's as the teenager's teeth grit themselves at what Lemillion was linking that to. "You announced to the world your intentions and called out your enemies, just like Death once did on the walls of Hatto's palace. And what about the way you managed to stop the missile flying at Japan, directly at Yutapu aimed at you? Your explanation was that you received a phone call from an 'anonymous' person who had control of satellites that they connected you to. They gave you the location of the missile, and you attached the computer to the rocket to give them full control, but you had no idea who they were?"

"Why would they warn me about the missile in the first place if they were going to do damage by taking control?" Zach wondered back, his voice lower but keeping a steady tone to it. Most people did not know the exact details of how Lifebringer had diverted that missile, and they darted their suspicious gazes to Zach before snapping them back to Lemillion who Lifebringer countered back at. "Maybe the Army of Death did have something to do with it! I'm not saying that's not impossible, but they contacted me because they knew I could stop the missile that was coming for me! If I was Death and they were trying to keep people from thinking I was all this time, then they wouldn't contact me directly and suspiciously give up that I'm Death, would they?!"

"Death's actions were in line with your statements in the Lifebringer Incident! He acted as a vigilante as you claim to have been doing before the Lifebringer Incident and continued to do so when you were gone. You acted as a vigilante, using your Quirk Death, and while you were doing it there was someone out there doing the same thing! Someone you claim to be a different person, though there have been no sightings of him since you came back! You were Death, and you have continued to act like Death since you returned-"

"I understand why you think that way," Zach said. His voice lowered and he stopped looking so frustrated. He took in a deep breath and Lemillion shook his head at the boy getting ready to lie more, but Zach told the hero in front of him, "Because I've been trying to convince you of it since I got out of Tartaros."

"Wha-" Lemillion started letting out the question but cut himself off. Don't listen to him.

Zach himself pursed his lips though and glanced towards his own confused defense attorney. He saw the judges on either side of Yuranama looking confused at what he just said, and a sense of uncertainty spread around the room at what he just mentioned. He looked towards Class A with a guilty look for a moment then back towards Lemillion though. "It wasn't just my fighting style that reminded you of Death, Lemillion. Why not mention what else reminds you of Death from all the time you spent following me?"

Lemillion's expression got harsher instantly, but Zach did not stop and Lemillion could not tell him to. "It was the way I dealt with villains too, right? While I knew that you were following me?" Lemillion's harsh expression shook. His eyes widened a little even though he reminded himself not to believe the teenager. He could not help his heart from beating faster though as Zach looked straight into his eyes, "And I'm sorry I tried it. I never thought it would lead to this though, because I knew you would wait until you had actual proof that I was Death. I believed you could never find that proof because I know it doesn't exist, but something has changed, and I'm sorry I led you to believe I was Death all this time."

"Objection!" Rainne called out, but when Yuranama looked at him and everyone waited for Rainne to give a reason, the lawyer just looked confused himself and could not come up with something to say. "He's just, this is not testimony under oath-"

"If Lemillion wants to deny anything I'm saying as fact, he's free to," Zach shut down Rainne. He looked to the judges who motioned for him to continue, and Zach looked back at Lemillion who glared at him but had as much confusion in his own eyes as to what Zach was supposedly confessing to right now. "You've been stalking me from the day I got out of prison. Watching me constantly, even while I sleep-"

"I haven't-"

"You weren't watching me while I slept?" Zach asked. He asked it harshly and gave Lemillion a cold glare daring him to lie right here.

"That was… One time-"

"The one time I ever caught you," Zach replied darkly, though he suddenly wiped that look from his face and shook his head. "Sorry," he apologized as Lemillion just started glaring back at him while flustered and trying to come up with a response. "A part of me is still trying to do it to you, even though I've beyond convinced you at this point that I'm Death."

"Why would you want to-" Lemillion started annoyedly that Lifebringer was talking like this. It's all one big misdirection!

"This," Zach lifted the remote and switched the screen to show weekly numbers of villain incidents in Japan over the past year. "Notice around nine months ago when I turned myself in," Zach said. "Now, I was not charged with being Death, but the media had done a great job of making it out like I might be them. And I don't know if my arrest had anything to do with it, but villain rate dropped 320% in the week after news that I turned myself in. It rose back up slightly in the following months but never to what it was before I returned to Japan."

"Then when Prime Minister Nikko was elected, solidifying the villains' fears that I would be getting out of Tartaros early with a pardon, I noticed another steep drop in villain activity. One that drops even farther after my release from Tartaros, to the lowest villain rates that we have seen in four years. Four years," Zach repeated. He paused and looked from Lemillion to the gallery and the cameras in the back, "When I asked myself what it was that caused those villain rates to drop, I could not help but believe that I had something to do with it. Yet it was not fear of my return to Japan, of Lifebringer's return to the hero scene… no. What scared villains into hiding was the idea that I was Death. An idea that, although I was not happy with it, I understood was part of the reason why crime had dropped so low."

"So yes, I denied being Death because I had to and because it was the truth!" Zach continued while spinning back to Lemillion. "But I didn't try very hard to convince you. I said it once or twice on tv, and then I left the rest mysterious. I intentionally kept my life a secret, because if villains believe that I'm Death then maybe that's a good thing! Maybe, it could keep them from acting up as much. And I believed that. I saw the numbers and had to try to keep those rates low, and I'm sorry Lemillion. I'm sorry because I did to you the same thing I did two years ago. I'm sorry to Class A, and All Might, that I did the same thing I did to them… That I did to all of Japan back then."

He can't be serious! Jirou's eyes were huge and trembling at what Zach was talking about right now that had most people in the courtroom confusedly staring towards him though with heart rates rising out of control.

Is that- Uraraka's eyes bulged in understanding as to what Zach was saying. All the suspicions she had about Zach being Death that were accentuated over the past month erupted in flames as her entire understanding of the situation was flipped on its head.

"I spent the two weeks after Kaminari betrayed me, pretending like he had broken me," Zach admitted while looking from Lemillion back to the rest of the courtroom. "I did it so the people closest to me would look at me like I was broken. I did it so everyone would see me on tv on my last legs, so that I could better trap my best friend. My friend who was the smartest villain I had ever faced, and one I knew I needed to completely convince of a lie."

"The villains in this country are strong. They're powerful and dangerous," Zach looked into Lemillion's beady eyes and told the bland-faced hero in front of him who had an uneasy look on his face that pulled back from Zach's. "And I knew that in order to keep them convinced that I was Death, to keep them from attacking people long enough that I could locate them myself without them hurting anyone else, I had to act like Death. I had to act in a way that the hero who was closest to me, the one who was constantly following me, would fully believe it. In case there was anyone he was reporting to who was on the villains' payroll. In case the villains could see that he 'knew' I was Death. That way they would believe it too. And that way, it could keep them afraid. I know it's not the way a hero should act. I know! That to the public I need to be a beacon of hope, a smiling face and a hero… but I also saw what I did work with the Lifebringer Incident."

"I know what I did then was wrong. I know, that killing those villains was a mistake and one I was rightly punished for," Zach confessed. "But Kaminari is the smartest person I know, and I was able to trick him. I was able to succeed. So what if I did the same thing again, but for different reasons? Not to kill people… but just so I could keep villains from attacking, for just long enough that we could locate them and take them down first?" Zach posed the suggestion at Lemillion who stared back and gulped as he questioned for the first time, if this was actually the truth he was hearing.

If he was Death- he is Death. But since he is, he shouldn't have let me seen all that. Is he that far removed- was he that confident I would never find anything, that he was only acting like Death all that time? If he didn't want me to think he was Death he could have acted in a completely different… Holy- Lemillion's mind was blowing and he blinked over and over while staring at the teen in front of him who was seemingly revealing some master plan he had.

"And I've read your report, Lemillion, that you submitted about the first weekend of your investigation. A weekend in January just after I was released from Tartaros," Zach told the hero in front of him. "How you caught me fighting villains that I happened upon, and which I kept secret by leaving an anonymous tip at the crime scene rather than deal with the aftermath and cleanup myself."

Others around the courtroom darted looks to Lemillion and then back at Lifebringer who was talking about this thing that nobody knew about. Lifebringer continued without slowing down, "And in this report that I'm sure you could have mentioned here to make me sound even more like Death, because these are tactics Death used: knocking out villains and calling in 'anonymous tips' to heroes to come get them? In that report you also claimed that the information villains gave me and that I called in on the tip, was responsible for Spade's capture and the following arrests internationally of Kobold, Ramfeariz, Cardiaccal, and over 400 villains at different ports around the world. Arrests which led to further hundreds of arrests as those villains flipped on clients of theirs or producers of the drugs and weapons they traded overseas through Spade. You claimed that those arrests were due to my actions that you called 'barely acceptable within the law.' But you did call them inside of the law!" Zach added louder.

He did… what?! Jirou stared at Zach unblinkingly. Her mind was racing but she kept looking to Lemillion to see him deny something. Most of the courtroom was looking at the prosecuting hero who they thought might say something against this.

He was doing that, right when he started going to school with us? Porrolo wondered in disbelief. I had no idea… Because he didn't talk about it. How were we supposed to know stuff like that was going on in his life- I heard about all that Spade- I talked to him about it! I literally had a whole conversation… What the fuck?!

Sazaki was doing all of that with only a provisional license, and you waited so long… Ectoplasm frowned towards his old student Lemillion, but he grit his teeth more at the thought instead. Arresting Lifebringer over that would have just resulted in everyone praising him. Sazaki would have kept that quiet forever if you didn't push him. You would have preferred it too, because now either you retract your earlier call of legality of it or you let him keep going. To go back on it now would suggest you're only doing it now for some reason about timing, like if you needed to show results to the UN. He's got you on all sides. Hitting you with everything he has that makes you look foolish and him more like a hero.

"…I know it's how the Army of Death operates, because I was out there and saw how they were operating back in May and June and most of July. I called you out the next day and told you that I knew you were following me all that time," Zach added to the hero who could not even suggest that Lifebringer had no idea he was following him back then, and he did not deny what Lifebringer said as apparently the two had had an actual confrontation about this before. "You know, that I knew you were following me. But you didn't realize that a big part of why I acted the way I did was solely for you, Lemillion. And when the ports the villains operated out of were shut down, ports that we also heard that night that the Subspace Devil executive Sulu had been using…"

Zach trailed off for a moment then posed his question at the hero in front of him quieter, "I wonder if some of their capital was cut off? Cash flow that they needed, and because of the loss of it they decided to risk it all for a heist in Desusuta?" Zach's voice was lower and apologetic but he stated the question that Lemillion himself wanted to deny, but the thought had gone through his head a thousand times before already. "And when I arrived that day, the day they made their attempt, does anyone remember how the villains stopped?"

Zach wondered that as he made his defense. He smiled but only partially and somewhat apologetically to the people around him that he had apparently somewhat convinced he was Death for huge reasons he had never told anyone. "It slowed them down. Just, the idea that I could be Death. By not denying it that much, and by sometimes making myself look scarier to villains than I needed to be, I kept alive all the theories that I was Death which I could have shut down with press conferences and public denials and with arguments against it that I never went into before."

"But any indication that I was Death was a ploy to combat the villains of Japan," Zach said as if admitting it for the first time to everyone he had faced. "The way I acted when I faced the Subspace Devils was to make them hesitate. It was the make them stop and give the people of Desusuta more time to evacuate behind me in case I could not stop them all on my own. It was to give myself and the other heroes more time for top heroes I knew would be on their way to help us. Villains may be a little afraid of Lifebringer just as they are of all heroes, but it is Death who villains really fear. And I had to deny I was Death, because that is the truth and I cannot lie to the people of this country. And yet I also wanted the villains to believe that I might be lying. I wanted them to doubt themselves. Even if just a piece of them imagined that I was Death, I believed that would keep them from acting."

"And after the Subspace Devils fell," Zach continued stronger. "After I had intentionally fought them using styles and methods that I knew Death was oft to use, I measured a marked decline in villain activity at as high a rate of drop than any other."

"I am sorry though," Zach said. He said that in a lower voice while facing the gallery. "I am sorry that I did so well a job that we find ourselves here, now. And I'm sorry for perpetuating the lie as long as I did, even if I was telling the truth. I'm sorry that I even pushed for just villains to maybe believe I was Death, because it has made me look like less of the hero that I have tried to make myself out to be since I returned. It was hard to act like both at the same time, and it was harder to do what I did last time again even knowing how much it hurt people after. But just as I spent 2 weeks deceiving the villains into believing I was weak enough to kill in the Enudora Forest, I have spent months denying that I was Death but without doing so very hard or with any proof to back that up, because I believed I would save more lives by having villains believe that I might be Death… And the best way to do that was the same way I did it last time. Instead of convincing the people around me of my weakness to make them look at me like that though, I pushed them to think of me some other way."

Zach looked apologetically towards his side of the room where a ton of his fellow students were staring at him in shock about his confession here. Many of the Class 1 students thought about dark looks he had had on his face occasionally, wondering if he really was lying all those times they saw him. Others in Class A or Class B who had seen him less often questioned everything, except for those who knew the truth but could not keep their jaws shut anyway when he was telling the perfect lie, because why would he ever admit to something like this if it was not a lie? "I'm sorry to those closest to me. If any of them have felt that I was Death or got convinced of it by things I said and did since I returned, it was all so that they could spread the rumors or look at me as if I was…"

I knew the story about Terra was fishy. I wanted to believe him, but he messed up the first time we ever really talked about it. Uraraka lowered her eyes down to her hands that were gripped over her knees but started to loosen. I thought that meant he was Death, but he knew I thought that and just let me… He didn't try very hard. He acted darker and darker, and he was about to leave! We know he was, and if he left after convincing everyone that he was Death then it would have been exactly what he wanted! It would have convinced them all so much more.

Someone with the kind of rap sheet Zach's been accused of can't just be loose out in the world without heroes doing anything about it, Uraraka told herself. She hesitated though and wondered, But what if Zach was on Earth the whole time, he just wasn't Death? That's… That makes more sense, than anything. He did the same thing before and we were all convinced by it. I just never expected him, to do the same thing again. Uraraka looked back up at him hesitantly, wondering if she was happier that he was not Death or more sad because he had tried lying to them all again.

I could use this, Ashido's huge eyes grew wider after Zach's scanned over her for a moment. All he said about trying to convince us, I could be the one to counter them! Even his confessions could have just been to make me think that way. I could believe that! I could convince myself, just like he can! I can change my mind about it!

Midoriya darted his eyes over towards the pink girl who he saw thinking of something that did not make his heart race very fast at all. This is the main reason I had to make sure none of us were going to testify, Midoriya thought as he stared towards his classmate who he knew cared for Zach too much that it might cloud her judgement. Ashido's thinking about lying for Zach's sake, and now he's given her the chance to use his own defense to back him up. I was worried Ashido would go along with Zach if he came up with this reasoning, say that she knew what he was doing the whole time or that she had suspected it herself, and that everything else he had told our friends was a plan to deceive them. I know she might do it because I can see that she sees as well just how convincing a defense what Zach just said is.

Most people convinced that Zach was Death would feel shaky and betrayed that he had convinced them of it, but they're also likely relieved more than anything as they understand why he would pretend to be Death which makes them think he isn't Death. Midoriya was jumping through the loops in his own head to get to the conclusions he knew Zach would make in real time and understand just based on human nature and his past experience. Deku could not be as deceiving as Zach, but he had been on the receiving end of Zach's lies and explanations too many times that he was finally picking up on it faster. Zach knows that Lemillion must have some new evidence that will convict him but-

No, no I don't know that Zach thinks that for sure. Because Zach did this before. He convinced everyone in Japan that Raijin had broken him in order to get the League to attack us in the forest. Midoriya gulped and looked towards the side of his friend's face that looked back towards Lemillion who was lost for words as he attempted to come up with a response to what was such a solid explanation for why these coincidences might have lined up as well as they did. Deku thought as he stared towards his classmate and friend, Zach was even ready for someone who knows the truth to get on the stand and give him up. He was ready for any one of us to go up and confess, and he would have saved us from getting in trouble for hiding it and saved himself by convincing everyone else that he had lied so perfectly in order to convince even his closest friends that he was Death. Just so we would look at him like he was. The same way Zach acted so horribly around us so we would stare at him in those depressed ways off campus back then, and I know others in class would back that excuse up as the truth or maybe already mentioned it in their reports that next morning to the Police, which means Zach has evidence of precedent of him doing something this devious.

Zach, you are going so far, Midoriya gulped as he considered just how deep a lie Zach was willing to convince everyone of. And I wish you didn't do this. Keeping history a secret is one thing, but actively creating your own history that you'll have to live by for the rest of your life? How many times can you do something like that and still grasp what's real? With the Mindreaders and Truth-Tellers in this room, how much of this do you actually… believe?

"If all of this is true," Lemillion started in a low voice. "Then I would have you go up on the stand and repeat it all. Do so under oath, so we all know that this is not just another lie-"

"I don't have to," Zach replied. He spoke quicker than Lemillion could counter, "And that does not make me guilty! Every man and woman has the right against self-incrimination. Myself included. I have the right not to stand up there and confess, as it's you who has to convince everyone else that I'm Death! I don't have to convince them that I'm not, even though that has been this entire trial. I know there is a mountain of circumstantial evidence that points towards me. I did not present a concrete alibi nor can I produce one. But Lemillion, my denial to incriminate myself cannot be used as evidence in a criminal trial. That is one of the most sacred rules in court. I have decided not to take the stand myself, and you can't use that against me in any way."

Lemillion grit his teeth and could not hide his frustration from the rest of the court this time. Zach turned away from the other hero and walked back to his seat, taking it calmly then letting out a heavy breath after he faced the front of the room. This is going too well for me. Will the villains realize and step in? Zach looked next to him at Hanuri and leaned towards his lawyer, whispering into her ear, "I think we can do this."

"We?" You've been running circles around the prosecution. Judge Yuranama is against you, but you made all that evidence look like less than pure circumstance. You've suggested it was your own doing and gave precedence to explain why you did it. Hanuri smiled at her client and nodded in agreement with his optimism though. Whatever reasons you have for doing the things you do, you've fully convinced me, Zach. Let's get you out of this now.

Lemillion leaned down over the table that Rainne put his hands down on the right side of where he was standing too. Poloski and Utgardo were going through papers they had out, and Lemillion shook his head at something Poloski said while glancing up at him.

Looks like it's going to be our turn in a second, Zach thought while staring Lemillion's way. I thought he would introduce it during the first part of the trial at least. I know he has something, so he needs to produce it for the court. The more I annoy them about bringing it out though the bigger it's going to seem. I've mentioned I know it's there but I shouldn't sound too eager to see it. Because whatever it is won't need much of a defense. Just as much as everything else. If I make it out like it's nothing then that makes it nothing.

"I ask the defense to present any evidence they may have for the defendant's plea of not guilty." Yuranama stated towards the defendant.

Zach frowned and glared towards the head judge of the trial. Not going to wait on them to say it? Do you know they're struggling and want to see what I have that could help them out? Lemillion seems pleased to hear the change in pace. He's really waiting this out. Maybe he just wants a chance to rebuff any defense I have, now that I've spent an hour countering every point Lemillion has made while making myself seem like even more of a hero. That I was willing to make myself look like Death if I could stop more villains, lie to my friends to keep the villain rate down, and that I had been fighting villains and maybe my actions even led the Subspace Devils to attack in the first place. Making me even more responsible for catching them all… I needed to make myself sound amazing, because they'll question if I'm so amazing that I must be Death or if they are just imagining I am and always thought as much for the same reason.

"Ms. Hanuri," Zach spoke softly to the woman next to him. "Could I see your phone?" Zach wondered.

Rivera Hanuri looked at the boy who had told her the day before that he may ask to use her phone during the trial but did not explain himself at the time. His attorney nodded and handed him off her phone, and Zach hopped onto the internet as he stood from his seat. "Lemillion, you have in your possession a video of Endeavor speaking with Sheshou and Fu regarding the Villain Summit." Zach announced this statement while looking towards his opponents in the prosecution.

"Which was submitted as evidence," Lemillion spoke up, frowning at Sazaki for speaking in such a misleading voice after calling him out on hiding things earlier. Lifebringer had constantly called out him and other heroes through the trial for hiding things, and not all were really hidden nor were some even true, but because of the occasional time he had called them out on something unbeknownst to the public it had people trusting Sazaki more than the rest of them right now.

"Well, while it isn't necessary to watch that full interview," Zach started. Fu and Sheshou don't deserve that. "I have a transcript from that video right here. I'll sum up some of what was said," Zach shook the phone he was holding, and Hanuri looked towards her client hesitantly that he was able to pull that up on her phone. Lemillion noticed the reaction of Lifebringer's lawyer and his heart rate shot up as he glared twice as hard as ever towards the defendant who started speaking. "Sheshou: '…We left most of the heroes on the outskirts of Huangdoo, to protect the city and deal with the damage caused by Death's fight with one of the enemy…' Notice," Zach spoke with his tone changing as he stopped quoting the Chinese hero. "She says that most heroes there on the day of the Villain Summit did not get close to the Villain Summit itself."

What is Zach going to do right here?! He wouldn't, Iida gulped but stared towards Zach in disbelief and confusion as to what event he was talking about.

"Sheshou continues on to say," Zach continued. "'I was in Qingxiao when the earthquake happened. I would never forget what Death did for us that day, but seeing the damage caused by his fight I almost turned- no, I did. I turned against him at the first sound that he was there and part of the reason, but all the citizens who saw what happened said otherwise. Death had taken blows for them, and he had forced the enemy who his Quirk was not working on back out of the city and towards the rest of the madness.'"

Jirou grimaced but thought about this clip she had watched with Bakugo and a large group of other heroes investigating Zach as Death. I don't get why you would bring this up. It has nothing to do with you being Death or anything!

"Then Fu says: 'The two of us left the city… I flew out carrying Sheshou. We couldn't risk getting too close. You have to understand, our priority had to be keeping the villains from getting close to Huangdoo again.'" Zach paused then finished, "And Sheshou says: 'When we got close, and found a spot and determined that the villains ahead of us could not get any farther, the Villain Summit was already out of anyone's control…'" Zach finished and he lowered down Hanuri's phone. "It sounds strange to me what the accounts of those two Chinese heroes claim happened on the day of the Villain Summit. It appears that even those heroes who got closest mostly stayed out of the fight completely, until the very end when they talk about moving in for primarily clean-up. The first heroes on the scene, say when questioned by the leader of the ADTF at the time, that they and other heroes had very little to do with the handling of the Villain Summit."

"So why wasn't this made public?" Zach wondered. "Why is this such surprising news to many people in this room? We do not really know the nature of the Villain Summit, considering reports came from the outside and heroes who arrived later on-"

"If you have more information on what really happened," Rainne Arudo started accusingly towards Sazaki. "Then that's because you are Death and you were there that day."

"That's not true," Zach scoffed back at the man. "And I'm not Death, so I don't know for sure what happened. But! Why is it that every report that came out after the Villain Summit made it out that the heroes and their allies from neighboring countries were responsible for winning that fight? Why is it that the only thing the heroes and the media announced for a year now was that the Army of Death were just another group there, when Fu and Sheshou claimed in their reports that Death had forced the villains out of Huangdoo?! When the Chinese government itself has said the Army of Death were responsible for saving Huangdoo, and not for the damage done to it?"

He's leaving things out of the transcript that he doesn't want to say. Things I was worried he'd say but now wonder if they would be good to inform everyone of, Lemillion was trying to think fast to keep up with this kind of defense he was not prepared for. The rest of that interrogation is too much to show the people. About how powerful Death was, taking down thousands and towering like a monster. It might do worse because I don't know if they'd even believe it's Lifebringer or if they'd be more inclined to try and release him knowing how powerful he is! He's too far ahead of us-

"The reason," Zach answered his own very interesting questions that were making some of the Japanese heroes look towards the ADTF members in the room with less favorable looks. "Is because sometimes, in the effort to push public opinion against Death and gain support for the ADTF fighting them, it appears that Endeavor left out a lot from his public speeches about Death. As the leader of the Anti-Death Task Force, it makes sense to want public support for what he was doing, but if the nature of even the Villain Summit can come into question then how many of those other 'supposed' crimes that there is much shakier evidence for, can the prosecution truly claim they have 'proof' of?"

"The League of Shadows' Raid was different from what the rest of the world heard about. Star-Spangled Man revealed that not long ago in this very trial," Zach added. "It was still the Army of Death and the ADTF fighting together against villains, but it's the subtle differences in what is truth and what we have heard that change everything about Death. Because there was a vote right after the LoS Raid in the UNGA to again decide on whether or not the Army of Death were terrorists, and maybe they would have changed their minds about the legality of the AoD if they knew the whole truth. What about the charges of murder? Can we believe that those are real? Yes, people died, but charges of murder are not brought against Death in Saudi Arabia or Gorran for the first actions-"

"That was before you were designated a terrorist-" Lemillion started.

"What about Kazania?" Zach snapped back with a counter before Lemillion could close his mouth. "I am being charged with murders in Kazania from before the Army of Death was designated a terrorist organization. Over a dozen murder charges from before the Army of Death was labeled a terrorist group."

Don't fall for it, Lemillion, Endeavor thought towards the younger man. He felt bad at the same time though, It was not something I discussed with the entire Army. Lifebringer is correct in how much was kept hidden, and not just from the rest of the world but from the Army too in order to keep them all as motivated as possible. I'm sorry-

"The Army of Death massacred those villains responsible for Riot distribution-"

"Is that really what happened?" Zach asked. He asked it in a low voice, harsh and his eyes narrowing at Lemillion who glared right back though felt a lump in his throat at the way Lifebringer looked at him. Lifebringer lifted back up Hanuri's phone and said, "Because right here I have a transcript that suggests differently. One which casts doubt on the massacre in Kazania right before the Army of Death were designated a terrorist organization, a motion pushed by Xander Carmen who would come to be discovered as a man corrupted by the League of Shadows, like several of his fellow assembly members who most quickly supported him. They pushed the narrative and released the leaked photos from the crime scene of the dead, and yet this transcript describes a conversation in a meeting between Endeavor and other top ADTF heroes where Endeavor claims his skepticism towards the Army of Death really being responsible for what happened there."

Zach lifted his remote while typing away on his lawyer's phone and called out, "I submit this to evidence." And then he started reading when the page showing names of heroes with colons next to their names and what they said in quotes. "On February 12th of last year, almost fourteen months ago," Zach called out. "Endeavor tells Michelangelo, Star-Spangled Man, Outback Man, and Crack that he is 'skeptical' that the Army of Death were responsible for the massacre of the Kazanian villains that has caused them to be so vilified-"

"All of these points," Poloski called out, interrupting Zach Sazaki who was in the middle of changing people's minds way too much. "Are just defending the Army of Death and Death rather than doing anything to prove your innocence-"

"You have already charged me with being Death," Zach snapped back louder than Poloski. "Where I am or not is just as relevant as the crimes I am being accused of!"

"Lifebringer, lower your voice in this courtroom," Yuranama ordered the boy whose voice had just risen into too much of a shout. Yuranama watched the teenager calm himself then he also turned towards the prosecution, telling them while looking into the UN investigator's eyes "And Sazaki is correct." Poloski eased back down into his seat as Yuranama told him, "He is accused of all of Death's crimes. This trial is both to determine his guilt as Death and his level of guilt for each of the crimes he was charged with. Any information regarding those crimes are valid evidence to submit," Yuranama added that while looking back towards the screen himself and a transcript he never finished reading.

Were the Army of Death listening to all my conversations or just overheard that one? Endeavor did not know, but he found his fists unclenching down over his legs as for some reason he had imagined Sazaki already knew about the doubt he held over the events in Kazania. This is what we get for trying to keep the public against them. A circus of a trial where nobody is going to wind up winning, when we ultimately have to throw him in jail anyway.

"Endeavor:" Zach called out as he restarted. He called out the hero's name as if speaking his line out, and he quoted, "'In Kazania, the scene of that crime does not resemble other attacks orchestrated by the Army of Death. The scale of brutality the villains faced suggests an attacker who showed less mercy than the Army of Death in previous and following incidents. The wounds that every villain in that base sustained also appeared to have been inflicted by a single person, causing damage and melting steel with a Quirk that we have not seen any other sign of before or since that incident.' Michelangelo goes on to ask Endeavor, why is it then that the Army of Death were so vehemently decried when it was apparently clear that they were not responsible for the incident."

"And Endeavor says: 'They were there at the scene of the crime. Their group rounded up the injured afterwards for the authorities. They must have been moving on the villains themselves, but since they don't defend themselves they were blamed for it and no one backed them up. Looking back on it now though, after following them for all this time… It does not appear they were responsible for that massacre.'" Zach finished quoting the top hero in the country and looked out into the gallery straight into his eyes in the first row of the courtroom closest to him.

Lemillion turned as well and looked behind him to the older hero who met Sazaki's gaze without looking away. He didn't tell all of us… If I was a better hero, I should have been able to figure it out myself. Just as Endeavor did, Lemillion grit his teeth while looking back forwards to not let that expression be seen by the rest of the room. There was no reason to tell us all. When so many ADTF members had already quit-

"I don't blame Endeavor for trying to keep that quiet," Zach brought up as he looked around the room. "After all, so many of the Anti-Death Task Force had resigned already after fighting side by side with their targets against much worse villains. If Endeavor told them that the main 'massacre' that the UN used and every government representative agreed was enough to designate the AoD as terrorists, if he told them that the Army of Death might not really be the mass murderers that everyone considered them, he might lose even more of his Task Force. And it's not like what Endeavor suggests in that transcript is concrete proof that the Army of Death were not the ones responsible for the killings in Kazania, but it casts doubt! And if that massacre, one that everyone knows about and that I am charged with right now as the first of my charges as Death, coming from even before Death was labeled a terrorist organization! If even that one that nearly no one thought to doubt, was not actually Death's doing? Then how much of my charges can we really believe have the evidence to back them up?"

"Xander Carmen was the one to emphasize the Army of Death's criminal actions and push with his speeches in the UNGA to have them labeled terrorists. Even if him and his colleagues were arrested for their corruption, the amount of worldwide corruption that was uncovered and rooted out over the past year and a half begs the question, if those few ambassadors had enough power to convince everyone the Army of Death carried out that massacre, then could they have framed many other crimes on the Army of Death?" Zach called that out to the courtroom and the rest of the world watching him defend the Army of Death in a way no one else had before.

"Even if those murders are in question," Rainne started. "There is no question that the Army of Death were acting as vigilantes in Kazania-"

"But to what extent?" Zach questioned the prosecutor who was just exemplifying how even in Sazaki's defense he was proving some of the crimes against him really were true. Zach wondered louder, "If Kazania wasn't, was Bogota real? Are any of the charges of murder real? How about any of the other charges in general?" Zach looked towards Lemillion and stated in a lower voice, "It's not like we can trust the ADTF or the investigation into me when so much has been scratched off the record." His eyes turned towards Endeavor darkly, "And when even the heroes involved don't fully believe in Death's 'supposed' crimes. Crimes that you're now charging me with despite all that doubt-"

"It's not just the Army of Death being in Kazania that we know is real," Lemillion countered firmly at the defendant making too broad claims about how little they knew. "We have the concrete proof of Frunoco-"

"I know about those deaths that you just showed, Lemillion," Zach countered the blond hero who stood up in front of him. Zach stood broad-shouldered and defiant as he stared down his prosecutor, "The villains of the Immortals who died were shot and killed by their own comrades. It was not Death who did it-"

Lemillion's expression grew darker than ever at the kind of defense Death was using in front of him. "Death acted as a vigilante and initiated the fight that resulted in those villains' deaths." Lemillion's voice was harsh and loud. He spoke over Lifebringer and said, "Murder is not limited to being the man who pulls the trigger, Lifebringer. You are facing felony murder charges for those dead villains, because the deaths occurred during the acts of other felonies that Death was committing at the time."

Togata Mirio stepped towards the defendant and stated at the boy defending Death, "We are here to charge you as Death. You are right and you have the prerogative to defend yourself from all of your charges, but it will not matter when you are found guilty. Even if you are right and only half the charges listed before we have enough proof for, or only a quarter, or a tenth! One tenth of that litany of charges is beyond enough to put you away. So yes," Lemillion turned from Lifebringer and looked around at others who were starting to feel that Zach was making good points about some of the crimes he was being charged with. "This is a trial for Lifebringer to defend the crimes of Death too."

Lemillion looked back into Lifebringer's eyes and finished in a lower voice, "But when we prove that you are Death, that is when it is over. You can deny that Death committed many of those crimes, but being Death alone is a crime. Death has long been labeled an international terrorist, so when we prove that Zach Sazaki is Death, then after that we can determine the exact number of centuries he will be in prison for."

The fact that Lemillion used "centuries" rather than "years" reminded everyone how extensive the list of crimes were, making some people wonder if "millennia" would have been a better choice of word. Zach stared back unfalteringly at Lemillion though and he even lifted the left corner of his lips closer to the gallery and cameras. "Only if you can prove that I am."

Zach said it in a confident voice bordering on cocky. He smiled and shook his head at Lemillion and then looked to the judges determining his fate, "Despite what Lemillion says, I'll continue to defend the Army of Death and any or all charges I believe they may be falsely accused with. They were masked vigilantes, wearing black armor that could have been replicated by anyone to get their crimes passed off for crimes of the terrorists rather than by their villain group. Even the crimes that Lemillion could say they have solid proof for, do they really know it was Death in incidents where they have eyewitness reports or even video surveillance of dark forces committing crimes? He went down to a 'tenth' of the charges would still get me sent to prison forever, but why was that as low as he went?"

"Putting every single crime that someone in a black costume committed over the past two years on me is absurd. The foundation of the trial is built on all those Death appearances really being Death, but how many can they claim was really the same person being Death each time?" Zach rose his tone and brought back up, "Different reports had him at different heights? And how do they know that Death is a man? Or that they were always a man? His or her voice was modulated!" Zach shook his head and said, "It sounds to me like the heroes have taken every villain scene with not enough evidence and threw it at me to try and find a scapegoat. They want to close all these cases and for years they were able to just say that the Army of Death did it and that was that! They're trying to use me as a scapegoat today just like the ones who blamed the AoD right off the bat for these things initially, but those people put blame on the Army of Death knowing they did not have to prove it, because they did not have the terrorists captured for them to defend themselves!"

"The evidence doesn't disprove any of what I'm saying. The 'evidence' for every one of Death's crimes is shaky and there is very little of it because the Army of Death hid and ran and did not leave evidence behind for most of the crimes that I am being charged with! This is the first time anyone has ever been charged for the crimes of Death. Really charged," Zach emphasized as this was the only trial, even though charges had been getting piled more and more on top of Death for years now. "I have to defend myself for the actual crimes that I did not commit but that maybe they didn't either, and because I am also defending the Army of Death, I am finding that heroes and governments all around the world charged Death with every crime they suspected him of without needing to find proof beforehand. They charged Death with the knowledge that they would never have to prove those crimes! They thought that if they had something with little evidence to go on, but it resembled something that someone else said was Death's fault, then let's blame it on Death!"

He paused then stared down Lemillion who continued to glare at him for making this broad defense of the Army of Death that was taking too much of the focus of the trial off of Zach Sazaki being Death himself. "It's not like they could defend themselves in court for those crimes, so they could always just be attributed with them. Until now."

"Now Lemillion, you're right and I don't need to defend myself for these crimes! Not unless you can prove that I am Death, and I know that proof does not exist because I am not Death. But as openly against the Army of Death I have publicly said I am, I can't just stand here and let you make their group out to be monsters responsible for hundreds of horrible crimes when you don't have the proof to back that up! You want to make me the scapegoat that's fine, but I wasn't even on this world when the crimes occurred that you say I committed."

"And yet, you never presented your alibi as part of your defense," Poloski called out.

Lemillion was already backing up. He looked away and sighed, He's taken too much of the attention off. Put too much doubt around everything I'm saying. He's questioned our credibility when it comes to him and the Army of Death. Yuranama and the other judges have not lost focus, but my goal failed. There is no changing their views to think of him more as Death before we present the video. Up against Death… Up against Zach Sazaki, I lose. He's changed opinions more to his side. And that will make him look all the worse when they see through his lies.

"My alibi? What purpose would I have to present that? There is no one in this world who can validate what I say about my time while I was gone," Zach announced. "No one who saw where I went. No one who could back up that I'm telling you the truth, so you'll just take everything I say and call me a liar."

"Are you saying that what Oda Bunogawa wrote in his biography is true?" Utgardo questioned.

"What point does answering you have when I am not on the stand? When my testimony even under oath would just be laughed at by people like you, who have no idea what I saw on those worlds," Zach spoke down at Utgardo who looked so confusedly back towards the teenager who sounded upset to say it.

"If you have nothing to hide then-" Poloski called out.

"When did I say I don't have anything to hide?" Zach wondered back at the UN prosecutor who froze and looked at him in confusion. Lemillion was walking over to Rainne to speak to him, but he stopped and looked back himself in an uncertain way towards the younger man who was staring towards their group of four harshly. Yuranama himself lifted his gavel a little but looked towards Sazaki's harsher eyes himself in a more hesitant way. "You have to accuse me of crimes and prove that I committed them. I am not here to talk about what I may or may not have done while I was gone. I am simply here to defend myself against your baseless claims. It's not me who needs to provide an alibi for every second I was gone, against some popular belief. It's you who needs to find the non-existent evidence that puts me at the scene of these crimes that you are suggesting I orchestrated!"

"It's you who have to prove that I was really the Death who awaited heroes in Panzerstan to fight the League of Shadows. You cannot prove that though, because I was in Terra facing the Queen of Arcasia and her Generals last January. And when the Villain Summit happened, I was chasing the Queen of Arcasia into a different world already! A world where time passed differently so I spent another year in that world flying through space and fighting wars without my Quirk! Using rockets and space fighters against the Queen who was leading the Empire in that universe- that reality!" Zach snapped it at the lawyers and Lemillion who stared back at him with wide eyes at what he was telling them frustratedly.

Zach shook his head and he added in a lower voice, "And I won't go on the stand to tell you these things, because not everything I told Oda and the other Tartaros guards about my time in those dimensions was real. It wasn't the whole truth. I didn't tell Oda much about the horrible General Faraz who was one of the Queen of Arcasia's most savage leaders. I left out the worst things he did. The torture camps. The slavery. He rarely shows up in the book about me, and I admit that I told Oda many true stories but I was not under oath at that time either."

"Do you expect us to believe all of that-" Rainne started.

"Sazaki," Yuranama said in a booming and deep voice. "If you are not willing to take the stand then this does not count as presenting your alibi-"

"Then don't believe me. It's not all true anyway. After all, I wasn't under oath at the time," Zach told the head judge who he looked straight ahead at while the whole court watched him. "I changed up the details a bit to make it more enjoyable, but I had a very hard time in those dimensions too. Fighting wars against evil armies full of Quirk users. Massive battles-"

"Enough of your lies," Poloski called out, quieting down the defendant who turned back towards him and hid the dark look from his face as he was still a hero in front of a lot of people. One could see the frustration and how upset Zach was that his story was being called a lie though. It was a look on his face like he was doing his best to tell the truth, one that showed he expected them not to believe him anyway, but also one that showed he had wished for once he could tell this without being called a liar.

"You say there's no one who can back up your alibi for all the time you were missing," Lemillion started. He was ready to move on. The hero had already set himself on it but all that Zach just said had his chest tightening up. The looks on Sazaki's face had to be faked, and yet they seemed so genuine that they made Lemillion ask a question that did not matter anyway. "But what about the girl who was with you? The fourth member of your team in the Lifebringer Incident?"

Zach shut his mouth and he walked over to the table to sit down next to Hanuri. Lemillion looked towards him with his frown deepening and he spoke louder towards the defense table, "We know that she was with you for longer than you say the Gentle Criminal and La Brava were, if your claim that they broke off from you shortly after you fled Japan is to be humored. The surveillance footage in November over four months after your Lifebringer Incident shows the two of you together in a convenience store in America."

"This is not long before you claim you had gone to Terra," Lemillion added, lifting his tone and raising his voice to suggest Lifebringer respond. He spoke towards him while everyone else looked at Lifebringer waiting for some sort of response. The two rows directly behind Zach stared at him closest, including those who had been with him on Inazuma Island and met said girl themselves. They looked at the back of Zach's head and the sides of his unmoving face that showed no sign of him responding. "Your accomplice in the Lifebringer Incident? Where is she?"

"Did you take her to that world?" Lemillion asked, his tone sounding sarcastic but with a serious nature to it too that even confused him. It was the way Lifebringer just sat there and did not respond to any of these questions that made him more confused than anything. "Well?" Lemillion asked, wondering why Lifebringer's strategy in defending himself had suddenly turned to staying completely silent. "Is she still there in that world? Is she dead?! What of that girl?"

Zach stared into Lemillion's eyes and did not say a word. He turned the other way after a few more seconds and whispered into Hanuri's ear. His lawyer nodded and looked to Lemillion, stating, "My client has chosen not to answer."

Mineta pursed his lips and tried very hard not to push the air through them as he almost laughed. Tsuyu looked to her side at him and frowned deeper at the shorter boy's reaction to a very serious question. That girl was someone Zach had brought back to life before. Someone who followed him into a life of crime. Did he get her killed? If so, why was he so against telling us anything about her in the hospital? He must be trying to protect her. That does not excuse him of what he did to her in the first place.

Lemillion lost his dark expression and his look became very calm as he nodded at Ms. Hanuri instead of the defendant who chose not to answer. He looked towards the prosecutors he walked back to and they nodded back at the pro hero who nodded in understanding that now was the time. It's the best time for it. He's shown he's not entirely truthful. Cast doubt and mystery over himself. And people remember right now that they can't believe everything he says. Even if they think he was right about most of this, each of them will be questioning it in the backs of their minds. All it takes is something to completely reveal him to make them realize it themselves.

He's a scapegoat, Imino thought while looking towards the front of the courtroom. It sounds obvious the ADTF just needed to find an excuse to arrest somebody for Death's crimes, and those revivals being faked gave them their reason. I thought it meant that Zach was Death too, but Zach's right and that's not proof at all. So why… why is Lemillion's heart rate slow? He's not worried about the outcome of the case.

Zach's going to get away with it, Kendo tried to hide a smile but it rose up the smallest amount at the thought. He's so convincing. If he did not know I was already killed before, I probably would have doubted it myself. Even his own Class A classmates don't know what to believe.

What was all of that about Terra again? Uraraka found her lips pursing and opening back up. She had to wet them then pursed right away again and sucked the liquid off them as she furled her lips forward and back in confusion. He was on Earth through all the time, wasn't he- He was! Don't forget that. He revealed that he wasn't really off world. He didn't even try to argue against it! How can he sound so serious? How can he look so… so trustworthy- even when he's talking about how he was not telling the truth? If anything, he just gives himself room with that statement to show that previous statements he made could be only half-truths, so that he can get away with lying!

He's twenty steps ahead of Lemillion and everyone else in this room, Tokoyami imagined while he looked at the back of his classmate's head just a row in front of him but down to his left as he was at the far right of the first row.

Kirishima leaned forward over the wooden wall separating their row from Zach's seat. "You're doing great. Keep it up!" Kirishima whisper-yelled at the side of Zach's head, making his friend smile at the encouragement that in turn made Hanuri chuckle at the expression on his face. Hanuri glanced back at the spiky-haired redhead who had made a much louder outburst in Lifebringer's first criminal trial that she imagined. The first person Zach Sazaki had ever brought back to life sat back down behind him and kept smiling a toothy grin as Zach kept the whole room on their toes and even amazed him throughout this trial too.

Kaibara Sen leaned back in his seat and hummed to himself as the prosecution gathered themselves for something. Do they really have something that can make those crimes stick on Sazaki? I knew he was good at getting away with stuff, because of all the times he managed to break so many laws and get back to U.A. before. I didn't think he could do it this time too… but I guess I'm not really that surprised. It seems like this time he might not have actually done the things they're accusing him of. It sounds like Death himself didn't even do most of these things.

Why don't they look worried? Yaoyorozu looked more uneasy than the pink girl to her left on Kirishima's other side who whispered towards him confidently and happily about their chances. Yaoyorozu's eyes were on Zach but her peripheral vision had too many of the heroes on Lemillion's side who looked semi-upset but not concerned enough after all of Zach's strong defenses. Everything they have thrown at him he deflected and countered masterfully. I knew he could do it, but there's something else coming that I don't know if he's ready for.

"Your Honors," Lemillion started.

Here we go, Zach thought with his breathing staying calm though his heart rate did speed up a little as he turned towards Lemillion from his lawyer on his other side.

"The prosecution would like to submit a video to evidence-"

"Objection!" Hanuri called out. "I would like time with the defendant to watch the video first and come up with our defense."

"Why would you need to do that?" Dr. Rainne questioned towards the defense attorney. He looked closer than the woman who shot out of her seat instantly as she had been planning on the whole time when this reveal came that Zach had promised her would. All over the room people started frowning towards the prosecution for waiting this long to submit the evidence, but Rainne looked straight into Lifebringer's eyes and said, "When you have claimed so confidently that there can be no evidence that proves your guilt?"

"You're right," Zach agreed while Hanuri was opening her mouth again. She looked down in surprise but Zach nodded at Rainne who wanted to cast doubt on him to the people watching if the defense chose to take time and prepare their defense. Rainne was also fine with this option though, yet he did look more hesitantly towards the teenager who really did seem unfazed by the new video evidence. Zach looked back and up at Hanuri who he nodded at despite how she told him she was going to respond and which he had also agreed with the day before.

What is your strategy? You aren't just changing it in the moment, right? Because you've said too much… Or did you not tell me that you would accept, so that I would object anyway but show that you weren't worried? Hanuri gulped even as she sat down and got ready to watch the prosecution's new evidence herself. How many steps ahead are you, of even me? We're supposed to be working together on this case, and yet it feels like you just used me to… I shouldn't think that way. If he used my reaction to help him, then he's helping us! I'll have to figure out a defense to this video in the moment. Real-time processing that I know you're so good at, but I will do my best to help you in any way I can!

Dr. Rainne sat down at the plaintiff's table and prepared himself for the follow-up to the video. We had planned on stretching out the trial longer before putting this out. The defense should have made more statements that could not be backed up. More lies as they tried proving Sazaki's innocence… Yet the only lies were, so strange. Rainne shook his head with a dark look forming over his face. Titanium, I am about to destroy your son's life as well. It was not intentional. I did not wish for this, but I did not back away from the challenge either. Taking your license should have been a wake up call to you. Changed your ways. Stopped the drinking… I really wished it had been.

But I do not find guilt in what you did, nor in what I do now to your son or any consequences that may come of it, Rainne looked towards Lemillion who made a video appear on the screen that he started announcing to the courtroom. We must charge those who break the law, especially heroes who think they can get away with it. Lifebringer is the most heinous rule-breaking hero who has ever lived. There is no question of morality to be had...

"…The video was sent in to the government by an anonymous source. However it has been verified by five different analysts who find that the original content has not been corrupted or edited in any form," Lemillion announced. "It was taken on a J-Phone-132 that uses enhanced video-stabilization software to provide clear video. The use of Arabic in the recordings allowed us to narrow down the search, and based on buildings in the background we located the source of the video to be Mahrat, Egypt. We have blurred the operator of the camera's face for his own protection, and subtitles have been added on the bottom in both Japanese and English, but other than that this video is unedited. And it provides inescapable proof that Zach Sazaki is Death."

Lemillion pressed Play before Lifebringer could change his mind about wanting to watch the video first. Everyone in the room was staring closely and fully focused after that bold claim Lemillion just made after so much of the trial thus far had proved nothing.

The video on the screen started to play instantly. Lemillion mentioned how the phone had video-stabilization tech, but the recording was instantly shaky as the man holding the camera bobbled it in his hands at the sound of a loud crash behind him. He curled down more, his back up against a wall that had a partially cracked window above him that shattered some more as the whole building he was in shook. "Please, help us!" The blurry-faced man begged into the front-facing camera with a tone of sheer terror in his voice, and he curled down more and held an arm over his head in fear that glass could shatter down on him. "They're all over the city! I barely made it inside, but they're killing everyone outside! Sublima and AnubiGuy are dead and there aren't any other heroes in the city!"

"This footage was taken shortly after the CHAF bombing." Lemillion said, his voice low but still announcing to the room as he had a small microphone on his chest that kept them all hearing him. Not everyone knew when the Egyptian heroes Sublima and AnubiGuy were killed, but some knew that neither had been in the CHAF but were killed in the chaos that followed over all of Africa after the loss of so many top pro heroes.

The man in the video got up into a crouch just inside the window, and he begged while lifting it up to show over his head and outside onto a street that had a single paved strip but was sand over most of it between the two sides of the road. There was another building across the street looking like it had recently been half-destroyed, pieces of it crumbling off still and the man begging into his phone getting more frantic as he saw the appearance of that other apartment. "They're monsters. There are no heroes left, and they've been- shi-" The man holding the camera shut up as people running down the street in panic were gunned down, blood splashing out the fronts of their bodies as they flew down to the ground.

One of the citizens who hit the ground pushed up onto his hands and knees, but a group of villains running down the block did not shoot him. Instead, one of them jumped up with his triple-jointed knees pushing together before the leap that lifted him over the citizen. The citizen on the floor flipped over and rose his arms that turned to yellow mush then sprayed up at the villain dropping down at him. Bang! Before the two could clash, another of the villains put the final shot into the wounded man.

Someone screamed in the distance, and more gunfire rang out as the man video taping crouched down more and the phone stopped showing anything on the street. He barely caught the "fight" that the citizen tried putting up before the villains put him down. No subtitles appeared on the screen but the man was muttering behind the camera he had turned around. He was clearly whispering some sort of prayer when he lifted back up the camera at the sound of louder shouts coming from outside.

This is horrible, Hagakure thought to herself, staring out of the window the man recorded in terror. Is this really what happens when there aren't any heroes left?

They're brutal, Midoriya's fists curled at his sides as he glared out at some men who were standing together in front of a building. The villains were laughing, holding firearms and using their Quirks as the city around them was in complete and utter disarray. Evil.

A vehicle screeched down the road and the man behind the camera stopped whispering. He had stopped praying and started speaking to some foreign heroes, or the UN, or anyone to come save them. They figured he planned on sending the video out after he made the recording to try and get assistance, but he stopped asking for that aid as the man turned his phone a little from where it poked up over the windowsill. A truck screamed down the road from out of frame and slowed near the villains who yelled towards it.

"Where are you going?"

"The outskirts are that way-"

"We have to go!"

"STEP ON THE DAMN GAS!"

A few flying villains shot over the top of the street, and one who could jump very high landed on the cracked rooftop across the street from the videographer then leapt up high again.

"Are heroes here?"

"What are you all running from-"

"It's Death!"

"Death's here?" the guy holding the camera whispered, only sounding more full of dread at the question. He had found hope that heroes had shown up to save them, but instead the Army of Death were there. He did not say anything else against it though and his heavy breathing quieted at the looks on the villains' faces that his camera caught.

"We have to go-"

"We can't run from Him! Quick! Grab a hostage-"

"Hey!"

"She's mine!" A bulkier villain with purple skin and rough bumps all over his body, blood dripping off his fingers, yanked a small girl out from behind a corner and piece of rubble that she was crying around. She was young, probably around ten or eleven years old, and she sobbed louder and reached for her arm that was gripped as the villain hurt her.

"Get her and let's go!"

"Find some other hostages-"

Bang- bu-bu-bu-bu- brrrrr The sound of gunfire got louder, and more screams echoed down the block getting closer.

"Forget it!" The man who had already grabbed the girl yelled. Other villains were flying away and racing down the street, another car speeding down towards him as he shouted. "I'm getting out of here. Stop struggling or I'll snap your arm!" He roared down into the face of the terrified girl whose eyes squinted more as her sobs rang out to the man whose camera shook showing too much fear for him to try anything.

A silver pickup truck with eight villains on the back of it was speeding down the street, and other villains just past the window the recording Egyptian man was hiding under ran out onto the paved strip to tell them to let them on. The large purple guy dragged the small girl with him towards the truck. "We'll use her as a shield!" The villain called to the others he figured would slow for him if he had such a valuable hostage. "And when we get away we'll sell her for-"

As the girl pulled back, screaming out in fear, the villains all over the street froze in place. Out of the sky, a black spear of darkness flew down and through the top of the pickup truck after the driver already put his foot on the brakes. The truck skid and the back wheels slid back and forth, but the truck came to a stop while villains leapt off the sides yelling out in panic right before the spear broke into ten pieces and shot at different villains on the vehicle.

"Where is he?!" The man who earlier finished off the civilian fighting back with his Quirk spun his gun back and forth up in the air, then he yelled out, "THERE!" He unloaded- and a black form flew down into the camera frame and slammed into him at full force, sending the villain flying down the road with his gun dropping out of his hands and getting snagged out of the air by the dark form shrouded in a mist of its own darkness.

"OH FUCK!" The man with multiple knees stumbled backwards and fell as Death replaced his comrade who was a whole block away by the time Death caught the rifle in his hands.

Death swung his left arm in front of him and sent a wave of Death out that the villains in front of him dove for cover from. Two unleashed their Quirks on him, one firing a blue goo from his fingers and the other opening their mouth and screaming out red waves of light- Death's Quirk pushed through both and slammed into the villains who fell backwards. At the same time, he pointed the assault rifle to his right while set on full auto, and he unloaded towards the truck and the villains who had leapt off it and managed to dodge the Death Spear.

Kirishima dropped his jaw, though he started breathing again as he heard screams come from those villains that Death just lit up. The guy holding the camera did not do as good a job as he could have with filming it, but they saw the bullets hit a few villains' legs while mainly hitting the truck near a villain holding a girl as hostage who had managed not to draw any of Death's ire yet. "Stop it! I'll kill the girl-" The villain holding the girl by the arm had pulled her off the ground and had his other hand twitching near her neck, but the gunfire and attacks on the other villains were all to distract this one villain from the pool of Death sneaking into his blindspot that shot up and took out the monster holding that girl hostage.

Up in the sky above Death, another villain flying forward looked down and thought he had Death off guard. He pointed both arms down that had hands on the end in the shape of laser guns that charged up with bright white light. A soldier in dark armor with huge flaming wings out of their back flew into the footage and collided with the villain who Iblis tackled through the air. Across the street and on the roof of a building villains had used to jump across before, another soldier in dark armor landed on all fours and scrambled across, leaping to the next one with a roar as Michael yelled after the villains they were chasing.

"None of them escape!" Death yelled out in English, his voice scratchy and modulated deep as he turned the direction all those villains were running. "Everyone keep after them. Delta Squad secure the city and Support send drones after them to keep the fastest in range. None of them get away with this!" His voice sounded angry even through the modulation, righteous rage in his tone as his helmet shifted down to look at dead civilians ahead of him.

Death turned his head and glanced back through his dark visor towards the girl who had dropped down to the ground in front of the scary villain who fell backwards behind her. More Death he had thrown around took out the injured and weakened villains around them, leaving him alone on that street with close to twenty villains unconscious around him and the only other conscious person there. "Get off the street and somewhere safe-" Death stopped speaking in Arabic, his words translated on the screen to the Japanese people watching and in English for the whole world watching the broadcast.

Hanuri glanced to her side at her client who was watching the footage as interestedly and focused as everyone else. She looked back at the screen too and found her throat drying out at the images she was watching. The monstrous villains and sadistic evildoers who had been ravaging the city were all down, but the girl on the screen looked towards the pitch black figure in as much terror as they had seen her in before Death dropped in.

The little crying Arab girl in the video pulled back from the dark vigilante, pushing her hands down on the floor at her sides even with the bruise around her left arm that made her wince in pain as she tried to get away from him. The man's dark aura vanished but she still pushed away. The figure in his dark armor and covered in knives and swords was still too intimidating and scary even after he had dropped his rifle and aura. "It's okay," he said, but his voice was modulated and the girl shook her head in terror as she stared back at him.

"Death! We're going after-"

"Go!" Death yelled towards others running down the street, while he lifted a hand to his head quickly and tapped a button on the side of it. "Hey, it's okay," his voice got softer and the girl froze where she was, staring towards him as black vehicles and other Army of Death soldiers raced by to keep chasing the villains.

Kotsumura's breath caught in his throat. His heart pounded violently as he watched Death's hands both reaching up to the sides of his helmet. He remembered what Zach said in the forest of the joint training dome while he, Zach, and Sero were talking. "Taking off my helmet-" He couldn't have, Kotsumura's breath was completely gone as Death repeated in all-too-familiar a voice to the girl that it was going to be alright.

"…It was a dangerous game I was playing, doing this again, but I did it and I took my helmet off because I didn't feel like I would really be saving Thompson otherwise." Sero's heart rate skyrocketed and his wide eyes darted from the screen to the back of his friend's head then back again. "And because of that Kaminari saw my face. Because of that, Kaminari told me that he knew I was holding back about what I was doing out there and who those people were, and he convinced me to tell him who they were…"

Ashido's eyes watered as she imagined the regret she heard in Zach's voice the night of the Lifebringer Incident. Why would he do it again-

"Never compromising." Yaoyorozu heard his voice. Momo understood it even as she felt her chest clench up in pain watching Death grab the sides of his helmet in front of the girl looking forward with such scared eyes but ones that were also looking more hesitant as her hands stopped pushing so hard away on the floor. He wouldn't regret doing that. Not even now, Yaoyorozu thought as she could see Zach right now in her peripheral vision even if she could not tear her eyes off the screen Death was on.

All Might's right hand lifted up to his chest and he grabbed over his heart. "You didn't really know, the extent of what Ganji did. What all the anti-heroes did, in the shadows, to keep this society safe! They did so much that people will never know, and I wiped out their entire organization. In different countries, around the world… I destroyed the anti-hero society by trusting Kaminari about Ganji, but it was more than that. I only told him, because I took off my helmet fighting the War Boys. Because as much as I tried to be an anti-hero…"

"I was too idealistic to keep on my helmet and not let that scared girl who almost got raped see my smile, see me tell her that everything was going to be alright. Doing that, to save one person, how many thousands did I doom?"

Everyone in Class A remembered hearing him say in that night. They heard it echoing in their heads as Death removed his helmet. His black hair was tied up behind his head and held tightly to him so they could not see how long it was. He was looking back down the street towards the girl with the building of the man filming him on his right side, so the right side of his face was clearest in the camera. Death was partially turned diagonally though so most of his face was clear, showing the face of someone in the courtroom. Unlike Zach's flat expression in the present though as he stared at the video and the picture of him, that younger version smiled. He stood there only five foot eight or so, and he lacked the scars all over his neck and left side of his face . No sign of the gash across the front of his neck or the red marks, nor the scars that cut down under his chin from the left side of his face that was completely covered in scar tissue in the present.

The little girl in front of him stopped crying as she saw the young man smiling towards her lower that helmet down. He ignored his Army running around him and going after the fleeing villains. The dark soldier smiled towards the little girl and clipped his helmet down to his waist, then he stepped towards her and the uneasy girl flinched and was still hesitant about him. "It's okay now," Zach Sazaki said. He spoke to the girl softly in her native language and lowered down in front of her while extending out his left hand in front of him with his palm up and his body giving off the most unthreatening vibe possible.

He had regretted it so much because it cost him everything! Midoriya thought with his heart racing too hard in his chest that it hurt. Revealing himself that day which Raijin used to betray him! And yet, he's doing it again. Because he has to save that girl…

It was really him, Koda thought in shock as he watched the video. His eyes grew even wider as Death crouched down more in front of the girl he extended his hand more out towards but stopped getting closer to himself.

The courtroom was silent as Death spoke to the scared child in that chaotic city the Army of Death rushed through, "I'm here, it's all going to be okay." He held out his hand and gave the girl a smile, and the girl's hands pushed down but in the opposite direction as she started to stand up. Death lowered to a knee and smiled brighter as she stood in front of him and started lifting a hand of her own, extending it out…

The camera pointed outside lowered down back in the building. Whatever reasons the man had for filming in the first place, everyone in the court understood immediately why that video was not released right away. Even with the kind of evidence it had on it or how big of news it would have been, no one had to ask themselves why this person did not out Death's identity back then after seeing what was on the footage.

What got the man to finally release it? Todoroki could only wonder, while staring towards the back of Zach's head in awe as the video froze on nothing but darkness after the man pointing it down ended the recording.

Lemillion rose the remote and pressed a button that turned the video off and instead showed a frozen image of near the end of the video after Death had removed his helmet. There was a white square around Death's head, and there was a facial recognition match of 100% on the right side of the screen. '100 Percent Match: Zach Sazaki.'

"Yeah," Zach called out before the prosecution could say a word. "That must be a shapeshifter."

A/N Thanks for reading. I had initially planned on continuing this to a different spot, but the chapter is already one of the longest I've ever written. You'll have to deal with the cliffhanger for now! XD I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Zach and Lemillion duke it out, with words! Zach's threading the line between keeping most of what happened while he was gone secret but also defending himself strong enough that he can actually get out of this. He needs to be convincing and look like a hero, but then that video at the end... Zach sounds like he's going to try to defend himself some more, but after 41K I figured this was a good spot to end the chapter. Anyway, let me know what you think of the trial so far and what you predict may come in this next chapter now that Death removed his helmet in that video. Review response time:

cartoonfan9 chapter 231 . 36m ago

This was really cool, I hope you update soon! I'm with Midoriya - I think the League will attack after the trial is finished. Nikko said the villains are watching the trial too, so it's highly unlikely they'll be attacking and watching at the same time.
I'm super unsure of what will happen to Zach, though Lemillion and Star-Sprangled Man being so sure of the evidence makes me feel like Zach might not talk his way out of this one. I thought for a moment that since it's a video, maybe it has a clear shot of Zach's face as Death and maybe Toga managed to impersonate as him somehow. But then I remembered Kaminari bought the USB from one of Eziano's assassins, so that's unlikely.
Also, I hope you kill or jail Nikko at some point. He seems like a good guy deep down, but he's so stupid. Does he not realize that his public image won't matter if the League wins? He won't be in power if they get what they want. He's literally setting Japan up for doom.
One prediction for the future, based on some info from Bakugo and Todoroki in this chapter: Bakugo fights Kaminari and dies/gets badly injured until Zach comes to the rescue.

Thanks a lot! Here's the update an hour later XD! I like all the predictions you've made and there are a few interesting ones that we can see if they happen or not real soon. The video evidence did have a clear shot of Zach's face (great call), but yeah it was Danny "The Devil" who sold Kaminari the footage, so you can be sure it's real. Just seeing what Zach did on it alone is convincing enough for the people who know him best. We'll see what happens though... Thanks for reviewing, hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Guest chapter 231 . Aug 5

Maaan watch Zach say how he'll beat the villains just for the one that was created to fight him in that undergound hell place where paster died just for it to beat Zach a second time and where is it anyway I thought I'd be a type of villain for Zach where it's always tryna kill the guy maybe just maybe it'll show up again?

So thanks for the review... I want to remind you though that the test subject you're thinking of (Hawkins) was killed in that arc. Zach was fighting him down in B16 when God and all the test subjects were fighting everyone trying to escape and Zach's team. He was in the river of blood and couldn't use his Quirk to hurt the monster but he dug his knives into the sides of Hawkins' head and killed him. He dead.

Guest chapter 231 . Aug 2

More! I need more! I need to know what happens!

Here's some more! Hope you enjoyed!

Angryshadow04 chapter 231 . Aug 4

Surely this is going to be the first trial Zach wins right? Because he's 'lost' the other two he's had.

We shall see... though things aren't looking too good right now. :O But Zach's good in a tight spot, so maybe he can pull this out! Thanks for reviewing!