Death
is an expanded AU fanfic of My Hero Academia written by tmb1112 and published in 2018. The story follows Zach Sazaki who manifested the Quirk Death which lets him instantly kill any living thing he touches. Despite his dangerous Quirk, Zach is determined to become a hero. He quickly learns that his path is filled with difficult decisions and sacrifices.
Death is a very dark story filled with action, adventure, suspense, and tragedy. It touches on many real-world issues which can be triggering.
As of June 29, 2021, Death is one of the longest fanfictions ever with 4,116,337 words. The story was completed as of June 26, 2022
Death contains examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy:
- Kaminari is the U.A. traitor and has been working with the League of Villains since the start. Kaminari wants to destroy Zach’s life and has directly or indirectly killed a lot of the people close to Zach.
- Tomura Shigaraki, Kurogiri, and Dabi are much crueler. They tortured Zach for weeks and burned his neighbours alive, the only people he considered family.
- Afraid of Their Own Strength: Zach hates that his power only lets him kill people, and he thinks of it as a cursed power. Later on, Zach becomes much more powerful and unstable, but he is worried he may snap which would cause people to die.
- Anti-Hero Team:
- Webb, Ganji, and Lavamander were part of a secret anti-hero society that would sometimes handle special situations if needed.
- The Army of Death could be considered a large team of anti-heroes or terrorists, depending on who you ask. The Army of Death took down villain groups across the world.
- Bad Powers, Good People:
- Zach has a great Quirk for villains. People have died or suffered because of him, so he wants to become a hero to try and be a net positive to society rather than a net negative.
- Blackjack’s Quirk, Bluff, tells him when people are lying, but also how to best convince people he is telling the truth. While he was formerly involved with villainous gangs, he is willing to reform and joins the Army of Death to infiltrate villain groups and break them down.
- A young boy with the power of a nuclear bomb was to be used to blow up Paris on Christmas night. Zach rescued him, and even after being fatally injured, the boy did his best to stop his radiation from hurting Zach who was carrying the boy.
- Big Brother Instinct: For a time, Zach thought of Dabi as a brother because of how much they had done together. Dabi helped train Zach, and they had each other’s backs and saved each other from near-death situations.
- The Big Damn Kiss: After nearly a million words and many heartfelt talks, Zach and Yaoyorozu kiss in Chapter 81.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Zach on his own defeated the Subspace Devils, the second most powerful villain group in Japan with over a hundred villains, with very minor injuries.
- Diamondfist and dozens of other villains are caught by surprise by Zach’s arrival. He proceeds to knock them all out effortlessly and rips Diamondfist’s arms off, leaving him unconscious and indented into the side of a building.
- Bakugo faces the Sludge Villain who caught him in middle school and blows the villain apart. However, he barely focused on this fight because he found Meta, a top 10 most-wanted villain in Japan and a much bigger threat. With a few Explosions, Bakugo beat Meta without getting a single scratch on himself.
- During the Sleepless outbreak, Zach and Midoriya storm the Fabu’s base who were almost comically weak in comparison. At one point, Zach was frustrated with how easily the villains were being knocked unconscious because it left too few villains to interrogate for information.
- Darker and Edgier:
- Kaminari crafted his Anti-Death armor by killing people Zach revived and using their bones.
- Kaminari lures Class A to fight him with the hope of rescuing hundreds of hostages which they are shown footage of. Unbeknownst to them, the footage was recorded prior to Kaminari killing all the hostages, so there was nobody to rescue.
- Shigaraki was about to Decay Tokyo and kill millions, but Midoriya intercepts him.
- Doorstopper: As of June 29, 2021, Death has 249 chapters and 4,116,337 words, making it one of the longest fanfictions ever.
- Handicapped Badass: Eziano Mozcaccio cut off his own arm and almost managed to stab Zach through his skull the next moment.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Former hero Thunderclap became a villain. After he found out he was hypnotized into becoming a villain, he reverted to being a hero but was killed only a few minutes later.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Zach has been under severe scrutiny for breaking numerous laws and not following proper hero protocol. This includes unlicensed Quirk usage, going beyond what is allowed by a Provisional Hero License, flying locally and internationally using his Quirk, and killing or torturing villains.
- Horrifying the Horror:
- Zach routinely terrified villains during his time as Death in the Army of Death. He would often kill or torture villains, and word would spread to other villains. Other times, he created rumours to make himself seem more menacing. The line ‘Death comes for all villains’ is well known by everyone globally and makes villains think twice about their actions.
- Powerful villains such as Phinx and Lee would rather go to prison than face Zach.
- When Zach turned himself into Tartaros, Takahashi Haruto said he would tell Midoriya and Bakugo anything about All For One if they let him free because he was scared Zach would kill him in Tartaros.
- Villains in Japan fear Shigaraki, Intanzo, and Kaminari for their power and insanity. These three villains will not hesitate to attack or kill fellow villains.
- Intanzo threatened he could easily kill Duke Dread, and Duke Dread knew it was probably true.
- Kaminari does not mind torturing ally villains with electricity.
- Eziano’s own assassins fear him. If they mess up, they know they cannot hide and they will be punished, often with death.
- Zach routinely terrified villains during his time as Death in the Army of Death. He would often kill or torture villains, and word would spread to other villains. Other times, he created rumours to make himself seem more menacing. The line ‘Death comes for all villains’ is well known by everyone globally and makes villains think twice about their actions.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Zach’s father and aunt consider Zach to be a monster for the death of his mother. Zach’s father later commits suicide which makes his aunt despise him even more.
