Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Bakugo Expelled

Chapter thirteen: Sadness and Sorrow

Shouta Aizawa was surprised that he got a call from his student Mina Ashido, asking her to meet her, as well as Sero and surprisingly enough Bakugo, at a café as they wanted to talk to him. The underground hero still felt that he owed the explosive teen that had once been one of his students an answer, a proper apology. As such, he decided to humor Mina and agree to meet with her, Sero and Bakugo as the specified café.

When he got there, Aizawa noted that the café was a cat café different than the one that he usually went to. Aizawa figured that this one was picked in order to make him more agreeable to talk to his students, to tell them what they wanted to know. "Trying to lay things as much to your advantage, eh Ashido?" Aizawa thought with a bit of good humor, "A very rational idea. Well played, young lady." Without wasting time, Aizawa strolled into the cat café.

Aizawa didn't take long to find Mina, Sero and Bakugo, as they were the only other party in the cat café at the time. Seeing his former student Bakugo sitting there actually made Aizawa a bit on the nervous side, given that it had been Aizawa who led the charge at U.A. that saw to having the explosive teen expelled, a decision that the underground hero found himself starting to regret and second guess ever since an incident at the 1-A dorms where, due to Mineta's antics, Kyoka blew up at Kamin-

"Oh god," Aizawa realized, stopping short mid-thought, "Sero and Ashido must have told Bakugo about what happened to Kaminari and the others." The underground hero remembered that Bakugo, back when he was still a U.A. student, had been friends with Mina, Sero, Kaminari and Kirishima. Aizawa also remembered with a heavy heart what had happened when he had his class on the international field trip to the United States, which they got back from just before the recent monster siege on the city.

Aizawa, still able to keep himself calm enough and appear stoic enough, walked over to sit down with his students, two current and one former. Aizawa opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get a single word out, he was cut off by Bakugo, who spoke in a quiet, subdued tone that showed that he was hurt, that he was grieving.

"How did they die?"

Aizawa closed his eyes, inhaled then exhaled through his nose, as he rested his arms on the table. "…The boys were in a group of five, doing some sightseeing stuff since we were on a field trip. During their walking around, they unintentionally got in the way of a local quirked hero who was pursuing someone that was caught committing sexual harassment. The guilty party ended up getting away from the quirked hero who was chasing after them, mostly due to how, from what I had been able to gather on the matter, Tenya had deliberately held the quirked hero up."

Bakugo, along with Sero and Mina, gave curious looks to the underground hero. Bakugo even leaned back in his seat a bit, a hint of suspicion in his expression. "…So what the fuck does all of that have to do with five of my former classmates, two of which were still close friends of mine, being killed?"

The homeroom teacher of U.A.'s class 1-A let out a resigned, troubled sigh before he went on to explain. "In the area where we had our field trip, the locals take cases of sexual harassment and especially rape far more seriously than pretty much any other placed you can think of. According to experts on the matter, it's partly due to how that area just very recently started establishing its usage of quirked heroes to help fight crime. Local traditional values also play a very big role, and the locals living in that area fear that the innocent quirkless among their number would be easy prey for evil-intent persons that have quirks."

"But the guys weren't up to anything," Bakugo began, "Were they?"

"No, but since they were responsible for allowing a guilty party in a sexual harassment crime get away, local laws stated that they were guilty of 'aiding a sex criminal'," Aizawa explained in a clearly resigned tone, one that had a hint of heartbreak in it. "It didn't help those five at all that Tenya, as I had said, deliberately and knowingly held the quirked hero up."

Leaning back in his seat, Aizawa continued, "The local government in Royal Woods gives its quirked heroes absolute free reign in how they handle criminals they caught being guilty of sex crimes. Most of the time, the local quirked heroes in Royal Woods, heavily influenced the very traditional values of their town, decide to just simply kill parties guilty of sex crimes on the spot, provided that they have solid proof that the party is in fact guilty of a sex crime."

Bakugo, as well as Sero and Mina, went wide-eyed with surprise with the extremist way that the quirked heroes in the town that class 1-A had their international field trip to had when it came to dealing with criminals they caught being guilty of 'sex crimes' as Aizawa had put it. It sounded little better than straight up violent vigilantism to the three heroes-in-training. And yet the town where those quirked heroes operate actually permits this sort of action.

The looks of shock on the three teens' faces was of no surprise to Aizawa at all. "Yeah, I agree on how Royal Woods has a rather extremist way of dealing with parties guilty of sex crimes. Even the fact that the rate of sex crimes in that town is virtually zero percent because of their practices in this regard isn't an excuse in my opinion."

"Do you at least know who it was?" Bakugo asked. Aizawa, as well as Sero and Mina, heard the somber, pleading curiosity in the explosive teen's voice. "…Do you know who it was that killed Kirishima, Kaminari and the others?"

"I do," Aizawa replied, "As Hizashi and I met with the mayor of Royal Woods after we learned that the boys had been killed. The local quirked hero who killed the boys was also there, and the mayor was defending the quirked hero's actions." Aizawa turned his head to look up at the ceiling, letting out a resigned sigh. "…I was shocked when I heard what had happened to the boys, and was further shocked to see that it was one of the local quirked heroes who helped me and Hisashi track down that info broker to get details in the case about the assassins that were trying to go after Uraraka."

Bakugo looked a bit lost, but both Sero and Mina looked like they knew full well what the underground hero was talking about. "It was one of them…?" Mina said, a look of shocked horror and sadness on her face as tears ran down her cheeks, "…Oh…oh my god…one of the heroes who had helped in the case to save Uraraka had killed the boys…" The pink-skinned girl shuddered a bit, the shuddering coming from a sense of dawning horror. Mina shook her head to refocus herself, looked right at her teacher. "It had to have been one of the three girls, given that girls tend to take perverts very-"

"Ashido," Aizawa interrupted, holding up a hand to gesture for Mina to hold her horses. Lowering his hand, Aizawa looked at both Mina and Sero. "…It was actually Sengoku who killed the boys. He had done so prior to showing up with Morgana, Serena and White Mage to help me and Hizashi with tracking down that info broker." He let out a resigned, knowing sigh as he looked up at the ceiling a bit. "I guess that explains why Sengoku looked a bit tense…"

(FLASHBACK)

Aizawa and Hizashi stood before the desk of Royal Woods's mayor, as the mayor herself sat behind it, looking right at the Japanese pro heroes. Aggro Ace, also known as the Samurai Hero Sengoku, stood off to the mayor's left in his hero outfit, his arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face. Aizawa and Hizashi both looked like they had recently cried, and had barely pulled themselves together before arriving at the mayor's office.

All of the persons in the office were speaking in English, given that it's a language all of them knew but it was the only one that the mayor could speak; she needed to be allowed to take part in the ensuing conversation so she could defend Sengoku's actions. "…For what it's worth," the mayor said to the Japanese pro heroes, "I'm sorry that the persons that Sengoku killed were five of your students."

"He killed them because they let someone who he had caught fondling a girl's butt get away from him!" Hizashi said to the mayor while pointing at Sengoku, "Isn't that a little extreme?! Hell, would he have even killed the person who he had caught fondling that girl's butt if he had caught the bastard?"

"…Probably not," Aggro spoke up, making Aizawa, Hizashi and the mayor turn to face him. "From what I was able to see of the guilty party that I caught fondling that teen girl's butt, he had to be an elementary schooler around the same size as my protégé Lincoln-kun if the height was any indication. I would never kill a child, even one I catch committing a sex crime." Giving Aizawa and Hizashi a very serious look, Aggro went on to say, "But that dirty little kid was very clearly feeling that teen girl's butt up, so he was still guilty of sexual harassment. If I had caught the kid, I would have brought him in, present the evidence proving his guilt, then proceed to give him a beating before letting him go."

Aizawa and Hizashi kept their eyes on Sengoku, being careful to avoid his temper since they still needed to get all the details here. "…Did you at least get a good look at the kid?" Aizawa asked, "See what he looked like?"

Aggro gave a grim, mildly annoyed shake of his head in the negative. "The little fucker ran the moment I saw him in the act and shouted at him. All that I was able to see was that he had to be an elementary school-aged kid judging by the height, given he looked to be about as tall as my protégé as I had previously said." Aggro closed his eyes, giving off the air that he was trying to recall a few scant details. "…He also had light skin, and he had his dark-colored hair styled to be in a mohawk. That's all I can remember."

"Your protégé, the Assassin Hero Ezio, is a fifth grader over at Royal Woods Elementary, isn't he, Sengoku?" the mayor asked, drawing an affirming nod from Aggro. "Good, that should help narrow down the list of potential suspects."

"Yeah, I'm going to have to ask Lincoln-kun if he knows anyone at his school who matches the description of the kid I caught feeling up Leni-chan's butt," Aggro said as he cracked his neck, sounding annoyed that he had to do an entire shake-down of an elementary school. The mayor turned to face Aizawa and Hizashi and proceeded to help them with some necessary issues of business in regards to transporting the remains of Tenya and his group back to Japan so that they can be laid to rest. Aggro helped with translating when it was needed, due to the differences in language between Royal Woods and Japan.

(FLASHBACK OVER)

Finishing his story, Aizawa said to Sero, Mina and Bakugo, "So…yeah. There you have it, kids. Some brat who decided that it would be a good idea for him to hit puberty right on that day is responsible for getting five of my students killed."

"That…" Sero said, his eyes wide with a bit of horror, said slowly as the weight of all that he, Mina and Bakugo had learned started to come down on them. "…That's just not fair. Some pervy little shit who lives locally over in Royal Woods is responsible for getting Kirishima, Kaminari and the others all killed…"

"He should have just taken the beating since at least in that case everyone will still be alive in the end, himself included," Mina said as fresh tears began rolling down her cheeks, "But now, due to him running away, we lost five of our classmates." The pink-skinned girl scrunched up, a look of tear-streaked sadness on her face. "I still can't believe that Kirishima is one of the boys who's gone now. He and I had been friends since middle school…"

Aizawa closed his eyes, his expression sympathetic and grim. He called a waitress over since he and the heroes-in-training with him had yet to actually order anything. "…The service at U.A. will be on the same day as the service that the Commission is holding, but there's enough of a time difference in the two events to allow anyone interested to attend both, with the U.A. service occurring in the morning during first and second period, and the Commission's service occurring mid to late afternoon. The service for the boys who were killed while in the States will be the day after, during first and second period like the first service U.A. will be holding."

The waitress that came over took everyone's orders, then went off to send the order in to the people in the kitchen. "…The first two services will be on Monday, putting the third for the boys on Tuesday. I suggest that you all remember to wear black." Seeing the brief look of confusion on Bakugo's face, Aizawa told him that he and Nezu were told by Tensei Iida that he wanted to bring the explosive teen along to attend the services.

The one pro hero and the three in-training ones enjoyed the drinks that they ordered, and all of them paid for their respective orders, although Aizawa was going to offer to cover the whole bill himself. Since they had their drinks and talked about what all they wanted to know, Mina, Sero and Bakugo thanked Aizawa for his time before taking off as a group, deciding to go out for a walk to clear their heads.

"I still can't believe that Kirishima and Kaminari are gone," Mina said sadly as she, Bakugo and Sero hung out in a park, all three of them sitting on swings. The pink-skinned girl gently shook her head. "…To make matters worse, all of us in 1-A who's still alive have been forbidden to mention what happened until after the service for the boys on Tuesday, so only Aizawa-sensei, Hizashi-sensei, the rest of us in 1-A, Mrs. Midoriya and Bakugo knows what happened."

The explosive teen, who sat in the middle on the swings between Mina and Sero, turned his head up and looked over to Mina on his left, the look on his face being one of shocked surprise mixed with a bit of…heartbreak? "…You mean only those guys you mentioned knows? No one else?" Bakugo asked, "Not even anyone in 1-B?"

"That's right, dude," Sero confirmed, his tone somber and lame, "And I'm pretty sure that Aizawa-sensei would appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone." Turning to look at Bakugo with a curious look, Sero asked, "You didn't tell anyone yet about what had happened to Kirishima, Kaminari and the others, did you?" Bakugo confirmed that he hadn't told anyone outside of the know as of yet. Sero let out a relieved sigh. "Good. It's bad enough that U.A. already lost some staff and students in the monster siege. It would probably break the rest of U.A. if word got-"

"Pony's classmate Shrooms is in love with Kirishima."

Sero stopped mid-sentence when Bakugo interrupted him. Both Sero and Mina, the latter covering her mouth with both her hands as she wore a heartbroken look of shock on her face, turned to look at the explosive teen. "…She really does love him," Bakugo said, sounding like he was steading breaking emotionally. "The way that I love Pony, the way that Round Face loves Deku. Kirishima, he…" Grunting a bit at some cosmic injustice, Bakugo said, "…He was hoping to eventually find and convince a girl that he was worth her time, so that he could enjoy what me and some other boys had been enjoying." Tears then started to fall down from Bakugo's face, splattering onto the dirt below.

"…Kirishima died never knowing that there was already a girl who was in love with him."

"Oh my god…" Mina sobbed, barely able to get out coherent words, "…And you said that it's Pony's classmate Kinoko who's in love with Kirishima, right?" The ashy-haired teen nodded grimly in the affirmative. The pink-skinned girl shuddered as she tried to hold back a fit of crying, crying for the loss that U.A.'s class 1-B's resident mushroom expert does not yet know she had suffered. "Kinoko's going to be totally devastated on Tuesday when she and everyone else at U.A. learns what happened."

The three friends, formerly five friends, saw that it was getting late, and after exchanging last-minute good-byes, took off for their respective destinations. This meant for Bakugo that he would be going home, and would not see Mina and Sero again until Monday. Classes would resume at Vulcan High on Monday, but Principal Hojo had set it up so that her school's many students would have the time necessary to attend the Commission-held service.

Tensei had called her and got the okay for Bakugo to go to both services that would be at U.A., although he kept the nature of the one on Tuesday a secret, saying that U.A. did not want to be responsible for any of the story-hungry press to disrespect the families of the fallen if they were able to help it. Kagura Hojo, understanding and appreciating the crippled pro hero's story, was more than glad to take the story at face value, never even bothering to dig into it.


When that Monday rolled around, Bakugo strolled through the front entry gate of U.A. He had not done so since he and the rest of the party from Vulcan High had come over to compete in the tournament against U.A., a tournament that ended up being a flawless win for Vulcan. This time, the explosive teen, dressed in funeral black, walked in with Tensei and his entourage. A sidekick from the agency Tensei ran before having to step down was pushing Tensei's wheelchair.

Everyone in the party was issued guest passes before being allowed in. As they made their way to the school's auditorium, they were met up by Principal Nezu, who was accompanied by Aizawa, Hizashi and Toshinori. "Thank you for coming to give your condolences, Ingenium," Nezu said as he and his group greeted Tensei's entourage, "I understand that you and Higari had been close friends for a few years before he was killed."

"Yeah, he helped with a lot of the tech that my agency uses," Tensei replied.

"Oh, Bakugo," Aizawa said as he turned to look at the former U.A. student, "About what we talked about a few days ago…"

Nodding a few times, Bakugo said, "Relax, Aizawa. Sero and Pinky clued me in." The ashy-haired boy gave a thumbs-up to his former homeroom teacher as he spoke. Though it was unspoken, Aizawa got confirmation that Bakugo didn't tell anyone anything about the talk at the cat café that the two of them, plus Sero and Mina, had gone to.

Judging by the looks on the respective faces of Nezu, Toshinori and Hizashi, they all were likewise worried about a potential leak, but they all relaxed when they likewise saw the silent confirmation for what it was.


Bakugo was surprised by how quiet it was in the U.A. auditorium during the service as Nezu and a few other U.A. staff members gave eulogies. Only crying came from the audience as the eulogies were being given, but people crying during a memorial service was par for the course. Bakugo looked around the audience when he felt he could do so without looking disrespectful; a group of Support Course students had cried out when the eulogies for Power Loader and that class 3-G girl Bibimi were given, and Bakugo felt that he could pick out Pony's crying when the eulogy for Vlad King was given, as there were a few cries from where all of class 1-B sat.

It broke Bakugo's heart to hear the half-American girl cry.

A few more eulogies were given, one of which was for a class 2-A boy who was killed during the monster siege. The class 2-A boy's eulogy was given by that class 2-A girl Mawata Futa, who was pushed in a wheelchair she was sitting in by Nemuri; just as Setsuna had heard hearsay of when she told Bakugo about it a few days ago, Mawata had most of her right leg amputated. All that remained of her right leg was a stump that made up the upper half of her right thigh, with said stump being well-covered by the ankle-length black skirt that Mawata was wearing.

There were more eulogies and tears later that afternoon at the memorial service that the Hero Public Safety Commission was hosting to honor the pro heroes who had been killed during the monster siege. During the service, Tensei was escorted up to and onto the stage so that he could deliver the eulogy for Enigma. On similar notes, Selkie, who now wore an eyepatch to cover his forever-closed left eye, gave the eulogy for Sirius, and Endeavor, who everyone went silent for as he's the current number one pro hero, gave the eulogy for Burnin.

As Endeavor spoke about all of the good that Burnin had done in her tenure as a sidekick at his agency, Bakugo looked over in the direction of the audience where Endeavor's children sat. The explosive teen forgot the names of IcyHot's older brother and older sister, but both of the sons of Endeavor were silent as they wore grim, somber expressions; as for IcyHot's sister, she was one of many in the audience as a whole who was crying, although hers was a silent crying.

After the eulogies for the only pro hero sidekicks who had been killed in the monster siege had been given, Toshinori was brought forward to give eulogies for Vlad King and Power Loader; as they were both U.A. teachers and pro heroes, the two of them were honored at both memorial services that day. The people in the audience seemed to be affording the former Symbol of Peace and even greater level of respect than what had been afforded to Endeavor. But then again, this is friggin' All Might, retired though he may be, that we're talking about here. It's to be expected.

After the former number one hero was done, he stepped aside so that others could give eulogies. The pair of Edgeshot and Mt. Lady came up to deliver a eulogy for Kamui Woods, their fellow member on Team Lurkers. Remembering seeing the tear-streaked face Mt. Lady had when he, Akuma and Sakaki encountered her and a few other female pro heroes during the monster siege, Bakugo now had a grim explanation for the gigantification hero's sadness that day.

After Edgeshot and Mt. Lady were done, the president of the HPSC herself, Koharu Gunga, came forward to give the eulogies for Crust and Wash, the other pro heroes who were in the most recent top ten that had been killed in the siege. The president then had Yokumiru Mera deliver the eulogies for the other fallen pro heroes who were not already either covered by that point or other parties were planning to do so.

When the last of the eulogies had been given, a representative of the Commission, acting on the behalf of Koharu as she had to go (if she was around she would have done so herself) stepped up to the podium and announced that the Commission was currently working on a pending rankings list for the Hero Billboard Chart JP. Many in the audience considered such an announcement at that time to be in very bad taste, but no one spoke up as they were at a memorial service.

With the Commission-hosted memorial service ending on a note that left a sour taste in the mouths of many who had come, Bakugo went with Tensei and the others in the crippled pro hero's entourage to leave the large auditorium where the service was done. Tensei had the driver of his car drop Bakugo off at home before he himself returned to the Iida family estate. However, Tensei did not leave without saying one last thing to Bakugo.

"I'll pick you up tomorrow to go to the service for Tenya and his classmates who were killed."

Bakugo nodded in understanding before waving Tensei's car off. After the car was out of sight, the ashy-haired boy turned around and walked into his house, where he was greeted by his father Masaru. They ate dinner, and after that watched TV where they saw a news report that went on about the bad move that the Commission representative had made on Koharu's behalf during the memorial service for the fallen pro heroes.


The following morning, Bakugo was already dressed for the memorial service that was going to take place at U.A. for the five boys from class 1-A who were killed during their class's recent field trip to the United States. He slung his backpack, which held a change of his Vulcan High uniform for when he went to school later that day, over his back as he walked out the door to see Tensei's car already waiting for him.

Although Bakugo has already had to mourn many more times as of late than anyone should ever have to be put through, he knew that he owed it to those who had been killed over in the States. He especially owed it to Kirishima and Kaminari, the two among the five who were killed that were actual friends of his. Bakugo did not want to let those two down, so despite how much he had already grieved ever since the memorial service for his mother Mitsuki barely more than a month ago, the explosive teen sucked it up and forced himself to trudge along.

Bakugo and the rest of Tensei's entourage were the first to enter the auditorium, with some of the blown-up portraits of the dead 1-A boys, all adorned with the appropriate ribbons, were still being set up. Bakugo even lent a hand to Toshinori, who he saw struggling a bit to set up the big portrait for Kaminari. "Thank you for helping, Young Bakugo," Toshinori said in a sincerely touched tone, "It shows that you have a great deal of care on your part that you wanted to help with setting things up here."

Bakugo didn't respond right away, instead turning to look at Kaminari's portrait. The portrait showed the late electric quirk user with an amused smirk on his face. Bakugo's expression became a bit downcast as he looked at the still image of a friend that he would never get to hang out with again. The explosive teen turned his head slightly to the right, as the big portrait for Kirishima was right next to Kaminari's. Two of the Baku-squad had died, a realization that made Bakugo himself wince out of sad heartbreak.

The ashy-haired boy turned back to look at the former number one hero, his expression now showing heartbreak and the threat of tears. "…I still can't believe that they're gone, All Might. My friends, some of my former classmates, they're…they're…" Bakugo turned his head to look to the floor of the stage he was on, shuddering as he began to silently cry, his tears falling down to stain the stage floor beneath him.

A 'poof' noise and a slight gust of wind emanated from a source in front of Bakugo, and before he knew it a large, muscular figure wrapped their arms around him. "There's no need to hold back how you are hurting, Young Bakugo," the familiar, confident and reassuring baritone of the Symbol of Peace said as he hugged the crying explosive teen, comforting him as a parent would comfort an upset, crying child who was suffering.

A few minutes after Bakugo had calmed down, he rejoined Tensei and sat down with him and his entourage as the first of the classes of U.A. began to file into the auditorium. Many of those who were entering the auditorium were confused, not to mentioned worried, as they walked in, given that the memorial service for those of U.A. who fell in the siege was yesterday. But when Setsuna Tokage of class 1-B saw the five portraits that were on stage and pointed to them while yelling "WHAT THE FUCK?!" at the top of her lungs, everyone else who was filing in looked and saw what had set off Setsuna.

The first thing that Bakugo heard after Setsuna crying out in shocked surprise was a different girl letting out a glass-shattering scream that went right into full-on crying. The explosive teen could tell from the sound of the scream that it had come from Pony's classmate Kinoko. The now very upset mushroom girl must have been able to put two and two together upon seeing Kirishima's portrait up there on the stage along with the other four that had also been set up.

After the chaos of the next few minutes had passed, Principal Nezu walked up to the podium on the stage to begin his piece. "I am very truly sorry that you all had to return here for the same reason you were here yesterday, but I have to make the painful announcement that your fellow students Tenya Iida, Mashirao Ojiro, Fumikage Tokoyami, Denki Kaminari and Eijiro Kirishima were all killed during the field trip that their class took to the United States."

Confused and upset murmuring began to go around the student body that was in the auditorium. The only thing that Bakugo was able to pick out was the loud crying of some of the girls in the audience; he recognized Kinoko's crying, but the explosive teen was also able to pick out the respective crying of Hagakure and Tsuyu, who saw the portraits of their respective boyfriends up on the stage. Bakugo was also able to pick out the crying of Mina, who was clearly crying over the deaths of her fellow squad members. Bakugo also heard Kyoka cry as well; was the rock music lover crying over Kaminari's death?

Nezu was able to get the talking students to hush up, and gave the kind of eulogy that one would expect a school principal to give at a memorial service for five of his school's students. After the quirked animal principal had said his piece, he stepped aside so that Aizawa could step up to speak about his five students who had been killed. The underground hero, in an extremely rare moment of his usual stoicness slipping, choked up a few times and was barely able to finish his piece before he hurriedly left the podium, crying brokenly as he did so.

After that, it was to Bakugo's surprise that Izuku was urged by Nezu to walk up to the podium. The green-haired cinnamon roll, clearly resigned in an upset manner, took some folded up sheets of paper from out of his uniform's blazer jacket, unfolded them, and laid them on the podium. He then nervously cleared his throat with a forced cough before he began.

"Umm, hey everyone. Just like Principal Nezu said, I'm Izuku Midoriya of class 1-A. I was chosen by my class to do this since I was voted by them to do so." Izuku let out a sigh before he went on. "I never thought that I would be doing something like this. But then again, I never thought that five of my classmates would be killed while we were all on a field trip that by all means should have been completely safe." Izuku sighed, gently shook his head at the unfairness of what had happened.

"Tenya, Ojiro, Tokoyami, Kirishima and Kaminari were all really great people. They all helped to cover the others in class, inspiring us to do better, to go that one extra mile, that one extra step. We were all really close to those guys. I personally was close friends with Tenya, Tokoyami and Ojiro were close with our classmates Tsuyu and Hagakure, and Kirishima and Kaminari were both close friends with our classmates Sero and Mina, as well as our former classmate who was expelled from U.A. a short while ago."

Izuku let out a shuddering sob that barely avoided letting out tears, a Herculean feat on Izuku's part, considering that this is Izuku holding back tears. "But those are just a few examples. All of us in class 1-A, all of us here at U.A., had lost something, something dear that can never be recovered. All that any of us can do from this point moving forward is try to live our lives a little bit like how the guys would have lived, try to see things as they saw them, appreciate the things that brought joy to them. I'm pretty sure that Tenya, Ojiro, Tokoyami, Kirishima and Kaminari would all appreciate that."

Seeing that Izuku had folded his papers back up and put them away, everyone took that to mean that he was done, so a fair portion of the audience applauded the green-eyed boy as he walked away from the podium. After that, Nezu walked back up and announced that, in light of what had happened, classes at U.A. would be canceled for the rest of the day, allowing the students time to properly mourn their fellow students from class 1-A.


Although the students of U.A. had no more classes for the day, Bakugo had to go to Vulcan to do his classes. As he was leaving with Tensei's entourage, he and the group stopped when Izuku's voice called out, "Kacchan, wait up a minute!" Bakugo turned to see Izuku run up to him and the group, taking a moment to catch his breath. "You…so you were here after all," Izuku said, "Just like what Sero and Mina had both told me."

"…Yeah, Deku," Bakugo replied, "I was here."

"I guess that you came because you wanted to pay respects to Kirishima and Kaminari, huh?" Izuku asked, "You were close friends with them, even after you were expelled."

Bakugo rolled his shoulders a bit. "…Mostly for them, yeah. But I also feel that the others didn't deserve the hand that they were dealt either." Bakugo began to turn to continue with Tensei's group, but stopped halfway so that he was half-facing Izuku. "Hey Deku, could you and Round Face do me a favor and check on Pony's classmate Shrooms for me? She's hurting a hell of a lot more than either of you can imagine, unless Sero and Pinky told you what I had told the two of them about her."

There was a look of confusion on Izuku's face before he said, "Sero and Mina didn't tell me anything about you telling them something about Kinoko. But if she's hurting like you say that she is, then I'll go get Uraraka, and then the two of us will check on her for you."

"…Thanks, Deku," Bakugo replied in a casual yet sincere tone, "I'd do it myself, but I have to get back to Vulcan. Unlike you and the rest of U.A., I still have classes today."

"Good luck with that, Kacchan," Izuku said as he waved Bakugo and the rest of Tensei's group good-bye. With that, the entourage took their leave from Japan's top hero academy. Bakugo had a bit of an emotionally drained look to him as he left U.A. grounds and was being taken right to Vulcan. The explosive teen hoped that the dull monotony of school at Vulcan would help to take his mind off of all of the grieving he had done as of late.

He could really use the relief from seemingly constantly grieving.

END, CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Author's notes;

Well this had been an emotionally-pack chapter. It's also the last chapter in the 'Funeral arc', as the next chapter will be the start of the 'Returning arc'. The meaning of the third arc's name will be made apparent over the course of the next couple of chapters. Until then, I'll see you all later. Stay safe, everyone.