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 twenty-six: Fallen Hero

Things were an absolute mess for the Flame Hero Endeavor, who had been cemented as the number one hero in Japan as of the most recent official rankings list from the hero billboard charts JP. Someone had apparently secretly filmed the training that he did with some U.A. students to prep them to face the Royal Woods High team for the team battle event a while ago, and had gotten said footage out, showing the full extent of what he had done as he worked all of the brats into as much of a fighting shape as he could get them into.

Endeavor didn't see what was so bad about what he did; given the scope of one of the opponents that the U.A. students were slated to face, they needed to be as ready as possible, no matter what measures had to be taken to ensure that they would be prepped. Endeavor even rationalized his 'assault' on Shoto, given that the golden flames of the Samurai Hero made the fires produced by all other fire quirks look like mere birthday candle flames compared to the fucking sun. If Shoto wasn't able to handle Hellflame, then he certainly wouldn't be able to handle Amaterasu.

…Which ended up being confirmed when Shoto was so damaged by an attack from Sengoku that the two-toned boy was actually killed. Enji was a bit alarmed to hear that, and relief did flood into the Flame Hero when he heard that Shoto was similarly resurrected. Endeavor still needed the boy to help him further his ambitions, his advancing in society. Shoto was being resistant all the way, having come to hate his father now more than ever for what the man was doing. Enji scoffed to himself as he sat at his desk in his office at his hero agency.

The Flame Hero blamed Rei, that crazy wife of his who to this day was still staying at that crazy persons' hospital that he put her in. Nobody is aware that Rei Todoroki was actually at the crazy persons' hospital because she was crazy; thanks to some covering up, everyone believes that the wife of Endeavor is in a private health care facility for her health, hence why no one, outside of the Todoroki family and a select few doctors of course, has seen hide or hair of Rei for so long. It helped the rumors of Rei staying at a hospital for health reasons that Rei had a weak constitution; Endeavor believes that it's because Rei has diabetes. Or was it asthma?

The man couldn't for the life of him remember what his crazed wife's health issue that helped to contribute to her weak constitution was, not that he really cared all that much at this point. He got what he needed, but now he had to pull out all the stops to keep what he had struggled to attain and hold onto for so long. All because someone was clearly spying on him while he was training the U.A. brats to prep them to face Sengoku. Luckily for Endeavor, Ryoga Yaoyorozu was more than willing to help him clean things up; after all, in order to boost their respective names even further, they arranged for Ryoga's daughter Momo to marry his son Shoto.

One of the reasons why Endeavor still needed the boy to help further his ambitions.

As the Flame Hero sat alone in his office, there was a knocking at the door that led into his office. He called out for whoever it was to enter, and in walked two persons; one was a male sidekick who worked at Endeavor's agency, and another was a man who worked for Ryoga. The sidekick was carrying a box that had a lid on it; said box looked like what one would imagine when picturing a person fired from a company leaving the building while carrying all of their stuff in a box.

The box had one word scrawled on the side that faced Endeavor, a word that had caught his attention right away; Burnin. "Umm, sir," the male sidekick said, "Some of the guys and I found a bunch of things that had belonged to Burnin." The sidekick had a resigned, mildly sad look on his face. "…I figured that you, being the big boss and all, might want to figure out what to do with Burnin's stuff since, well…"

For the first time since before the tentative rankings list that had pissed him off, Endeavor thought of something other than his ranking among the rest of the pro heroes in Japan. The man had a mildly humbled, mildly resigned look on his face as he nodded in understanding and gestured for his sidekick to set the box containing Burnin's belongings on his desk before being asked to leave, given that one of Ryoga's men was here to speak with him.

After the male sidekick left, the doors leading into Endeavor's office closed behind him, leaving Endeavor and the man who worked for Ryoga alone. The man gave the number one hero a wry, mildly curious look. "…A lot of egg had been thrown onto the Yaoyorozu Conglomerate's face due to what was leaked about you, Endeavor," Ryoga's man said, "This does not bode well at all for Mr. Yaoyorozu, you know."

"It doesn't bode all that well for me, either," Endeavor remarked, equally wry as the man.

Ryoga's employee simply shrugged at that, as if Endeavor's standing weren't as important of a detail at that of the wealthiest man in the nation. Giving the Flame Hero a calm look, the man went on, "Luckily for all parties involved, Mr. Yaoyorozu has come up with a plan that is bound to fix what had happened due to that video leak. It will go a long way to fix the damage that had been done to Mr. Yaoyorozu's investment in you and your agency."

"What about fixing the damage that had been done to me personally?" Endeavor inquired. Once again, Ryoga's man acted like Endeavor's stake in all that was going was a non-factor at best. This did not sit all that well with the number one hero, as he did not like being put down in such a fashion. But he decided to let it be, considering that he needed Ryoga's help to fix the damage that had been done to his reputation.

Gesturing to Endeavor, Ryoga's man said, "Mr. Yaoyorozu has already taken steps to set things up for you to do so much good that everyone will forgive and forget what all you had done to leave sour tastes in their mouths. At least that's what Mr. Yaoyorozu had said on the matter."

The Flame Hero cocked a wry eyebrow at that. "Oh? And what exactly has Ryoga arranged for in order to help me recover my reputation?"

"When it occurs, you will know," Ryoga's man said, "Just remember that Mr. Yaoyorozu's involvement in what will transpire will be kept secret. Should word of his involvement get out, then more egg will get onto your face than his. You'll burn down faster than most buildings that you unintentionally destroy while you're fighting villains sometimes." Ryoga's man turned around to leave, allowing Endeavor to remain alone in his office to ponder about just what it was about what he had been told that was eating away at the back of his mind.

Endeavor did not like where this looked to be going in the least.

The following morning over at U.A., Bakugo was standing in front of a shrine that had been set up in the teachers' office, offering a prayer as he stood in front of it. The reason why he was doing this is because of whom the shrine had been set up for; the five boys who were in class 1-A that were killed during the class's field trip to the United States a while ago. One small picture, showing each of the five dead boys back during picture day, was set up at the shrine, to show who was being honored there.

Bakugo was there mainly to offer up a prayer to his late friends Kirishima and Kaminari, both of whom were among the five boys who were killed. Bakugo was able to meet the two boys, as well as the other three, while he was temporarily dead due to being killed. Bakugo learned all sorts of things from his dead friends and classmates, things that he was able to bring back with him to the land of the living when he was resurrected by Sengoku.

Thanks to that, thanks to what he was able to learn from the dead, Bakugo was able to get true justice for them, at least as much as he was able to. And Sengoku was remaining in Japan to help the Japanese pro heroes clean up the last of the villainous taint that stains society, as part of his penance to try and atone for what he had done when he was enraged beyond all reason due to the fact that Mineta, who had since been expelled from U.A. at this point, was incapable of keeping it in his pants.

As Bakugo was praying at the shrine for the spirits of his departed friends, he was met up by his classmates Izuku and Todoroki, as well as their homeroom teacher Aizawa. The underground hero took note of what his explosive student was doing. Not that any of the boys could see it, but there was a hint of a knowing look on Aizawa's face. Still, Aizawa needed to get all of his brats over to class so that they could begin.

But he figured that he'd let Bakugo explain himself. "…Here again, Bakugo?"

"When I heard that this had been set up a while ago but I didn't know of it until just a few days ago," Bakugo began, his tone a bit subdued and humbled, "I figured that I needed to make up for not visiting it regularly. I'll cut the visits back a bit once I feel I made up for the lost time."

Aizawa, as well as Izuku and Todoroki, both looked a bit surprised by the ashy-haired boy's reason for visiting the shrine in the teachers' office once per day. They were all also rather touched that Bakugo cared so much for the dead 1-A boys. Again, a hint of a knowing look had passed over Aizawa's face, a hint that went by all of the boys unnoticed. Gesturing for Bakugo to follow him, the underground hero got him, as well as Todoroki and Izuku, to follow him over to the class 1-A homeroom class.

Since the class wasn't really ready, there was a bit of free time for the class 1-A students to socialize a bit. There was talk going around about the rumors of, in order to save money, U.A. decided to build one large dorm building that would have enough rooms to house all of class 1-A and class 1-B, while the original dorm buildings for those classes would be rented out to whoever needed a cheap place to live. Some students wondered about possible security issues that would arise from allowing civilians to live on U.A. grounds.

Other students, mainly the girls, were all talking excitedly over how they were all glad that Mineta had long since been expelled. They no longer had to worry about putting up with the puny purple pervert, and yes Mina tried to say that three times fast. The pink-skinned girl succeeded, and kept upping the speed until she either failed or Aizawa called the class to attention; the latter occurred, as Mina was up to seven times fast when the underground hero called for all of his students to turn to face him.

Clapping his hands together, Aizawa began, "Alright, brats, here's the deal. The rumors of the big communal dorm building that you and 1-B will share are true, and construction will be over in due time. As for now, we need to go over a few key details pertaining to-" Aizawa was cut off when Hizashi and Edgeshot barreled into the classroom, catching everyone by surprise. The two pro heroes both had panicked looks on their faces.

Seeing this, Aizawa arched a wry eyebrow. "…What happened this time?"

"A number of high profile villains that were being kept at Tartarus Prison had somehow escaped and are on the loose!" Hizashi exclaimed. Aizawa really wished that Hizashi didn't say that, given that he said it right in front of all of his students, who were all now panicking at the news of how a bunch of big name villains were not only somehow able to escape confinement over at the best villains' prison in the nation (if not the world), but were now as they spoke loose on the streets, free to resume what they were all doing prior to their capture.

…

Since Hizashi also spilled the news to Edgeshot's students over in 1-B, a huge meeting had to be called between class 1-A, class 1-B, Aizawa, Edgeshot, Hizashi, Nezu, Toshinori and Sengoku. The five staff members and one American quirked hero stood in the front of the large classroom where the join math exam was held some time ago. After all of the students had been seated, Nezu decided to kick things off.

"Now students," the quirked animal principal of U.A. began in a reassuring, understanding tone, "I'm certain that a lot of you are worried about the recent news that all of you had received in regards to a number of select villains that were being held in Tartarus Prison somehow being able to escape confinement and are all now on the loose once more. Regardless of this, rest assured that there is nothing too big to worry about."

"First of all," Toshinori began, "The villain that I had fought in Kamino in what was my last act as a hero before I had to step down is NOT among those who had escaped. It's been confirmed that he is still locked up down in the deepest reaches of Tartarus." A number of the first year hero course students, Izuku most of all, let out sighs of relief at that news.

"The few notable villains that did somehow manage to escape are also not too big of a deal, given that they can be handled by some of the top pros in the country," Edgeshot went on, "You all just need to keep your distance from those notable villains."

Raising a hand into the air, Itsuka asked, "Who exactly are the villains that escaped, and what should we do if we see any of them?"

It was at this point that Nezu let out a mildly troubled sigh. "…The notable villains that had escaped from Tartarus are Kurogiri, Muscular and Moonfish." The others who stood before the first year hero course students, aside from Aggro who didn't know too much about those villains, all had troubled looks on their faces. Aizawa and Hizashi looked particularly troubled by the fact that Kurogiri is among the escaped villains.

Looking to the students of his school, Nezu said, "We will provide pictures of what the notable villains all look like. Therefore, you will all know what they look like so that you can avoid making contact with any of them. If you see any of them, do nothing to get their attention, and get away as quietly and discreetly as you can. Also, after getting away, you are urged to contact one of us and inform us of the incident so that we can arrange for a pro to deal with the villain. It goes without saying that none of you are to even attempt to engage any of these villains."

"The escaped notable villains are so dangerous," Edgeshot said to the first years, "That when the HPSC got word of their escaped, they summoned the six of us up here to meet with them at their headquarters to discuss a game plan." Gesturing to Sengoku, Edgeshot went on, "Part of said game plan involves not only conscripting Sengoku into helping out with the incident, but at the same time grant him permission to use lethal force on any of the notable villains should he see any of them in the field and live capture doesn't work out."

The first year hero course students all went wide-eyed at this revelation; while they were shocked to hear that permission to use enough force to kill has been granted by the HPSC in order to deal with the crisis that is the villains having escaped from Tartarus, they felt a sense of relief wash over all of them, given that they now had a Sacred Heritage quirk user helping out. People with quirks of that level, while making for the worst possible enemies one could ever face, at the same time made for the ultimate ally that anyone would want to have on their side.

Indeed, the first year hero course students all began to relax. …Up until Hizashi decided to open his mouth. "So wait," the cockatiel-haired pro hero began as he turned to face the others who stood at the front of the classroom with him, "We told them about how Kurogiri, Muscular and Moonfish had gotten out of Tartarus, but we aren't going to say anything about how Stain is also one of the villains that had been able to escape?"

Nezu, Aizawa, Edgeshot, Toshinori and Sengoku all looked at Hizashi with pissed off looks on their faces, all expressions making it clear that Hizashi had just said something that they did not want to have get out. Which is understandable, given that all of the students began to panic now that they all knew that the fucking Hero Killer is now loose in the streets of Japan once more. To his credit, Hizashi saw that he had screwed up big time.

"..Heh, heh. Oops."

So that is what Ryoga's man meant by what he had told him earlier. Endeavor let out a resigned sigh, gently shaking his head at it all. It seemed to the Flame Hero that his intuition earlier had been right on the money, as this escape of notable villains from Tartarus was what the wealthiest man in Japan had cooked up as part of the plan to help Endeavor recover his blasted reputation; taking down some of the biggest villain names in Japan, and after said persons were able to get out of Tartarus, was bound to get Endeavor's reputation back.

Still, Endeavor didn't like this. He didn't like this at all. He felt that he had made a deal with a devil in order to get back to the top of the hero billboard charts JP, a devil that must have been behind the liberation of some of the biggest villain names from Tartarus. Endeavor also know knew why he couldn't speak up about what all involvement Ryoga has had in the ongoing issue at the moment, given that if Endeavor tries to take him down, then Ryoga will fire back and take the number one pro hero in Japan down with him.

The Flame Hero gave a resigned sigh as he lamented all that had led him to this moment; in his haste and anger at losing his spot on the charts in the tentative list (not the actual list), Endeavor had regressed back to where he was before he tried to clean up his act. …No, Endeavor realized. Gently shaking his head, the number one hero realized that he was now a worse person than he was before he had tried to clean things up.

Looking to his right side as he sat at his desk in his office at his agency, Endeavor spotted the box that held things that belonged to Burnin, his female sidekick who had been killed during the monster siege on the city a while ago. Enji could not help but wonder what Burnin would have said about him if she was here to see things today. Curious, he reached over, dragged the box of Burnin's belongings closer, and gently took the lid off.

Looking inside, Endeavor saw a few personal belongings that wouldn't look out of place in the cubical of an office employee; a few knickknacks, a stapler, a small board that had some ponytails wrapped around it, a rubix cube, and a snow globe that had a summer beach scene with a sunglasses-wearing cactus rather than a winter wonderland scene with a snowman. One of the things in the box of Burnin's belongings did catch Endeavor's attention, though; a book that looked like it had been a personal journal.

Endeavor reached inside the box of Burnin's belongings, took the journal out, and cracked it open to see what all his late sidekick had written inside. Endeavor expected it to be nothing more than a read about the kind of person he had known Burnin to be; brash, proud, a little arrogant, and overall very much sure of herself. However, what he read not only showed none of that, it had actually shown the complete opposite of that; shy, a bit insecure, surprisingly modest, and gushing over a crush that she had on a guy named…

"Natsuo?!" Endeavor couldn't help but read that part aloud, he was that shocked to discover that his late sidekick had a crush on his second-born son. Reading onward, Endeavor learned more and more of what he was shocked to discover was a secret relationship that Burnin was having with Natsuo. In the writings in the personal journal, the late Burnin sounded every bit like a bashful schoolgirl. Burnin remarked in her journal that the reason why she and Natsuo decided to keep their relationship a secret was they figured that Endeavor would blow his lid if he knew.

The stated lack of faith in him was a blow to Endeavor that, given how he feels he had made a deal with a devil, left him feeling more guilty than it normally would have. Reading on, the Flame Hero saw that Burnin made at least one journal entry per day, with each entry being dated and timed; if multiple entries were made in one day, then only the first for that day would have the date, with all others for that day following the first would only be timed. The last entry that was made in Burnin's journal was a truly shocking and devastating blow to Endeavor for two reasons. The first was that the entry was dated for the day before the monster siege, so it was the last one that Burnin wrote before she was killed. The second reason, well…

Holy crap, I just discovered that I'm pregnant!

How am I going to explain this to Natsuo since he's the father? How are we going to break this news to Endeavor? I can't imagine that my boss will be happy to hear it that I'm carrying his grandchild right now! Maybe…maybe after I finish my rounds at the agency tomorrow, I can break the news to Natsuo first, then after he gets over the shock we can figure out some game plan of how we can go about breaking the news to Endeavor.

Yeah, that's it! After I tell Natsuo and he calms down from the shock because there's no way he won't be shocked by this, we can tell his father together that he's going to be a grandpa in about nine months or so. Hopefully, things won't be too bad, but then again my boss has been known to have a bit of a temper. Holy geez, I hope that me and Natsuo's kid won't end up developing a temper like the one his or her grandpa has. But that's for later. For now, I just have to worry about how my day at work will go tomorrow.

The journal dropped out of Endeavor's hands, a look of heartbroken shock on the Flame Hero's face as the written words of his late sidekick had made their impact. Endeavor rested his elbows on his desk, let his face fall into his hands, and began to softly sob. What little willpower that Endeavor left after so much of it had been beaten down because of what that devil he made a deal with had done was now broken away.

Broken away by the last written words of his late sidekick, basically saying that she had little hope if any at all that he'd be reasonable with her. Not only that, but said written words that the late Burnin had left stated that she was pregnant. With Natuso's child, Endeavor's grandchild. The day after finding out about that, Burnin was killed in the monster siege. The once proud and mighty Flame Hero was now sobbing quietly as he sat alone in his office at his agency, glad that there was no one to see his shame.

Even though he had no one to blame for where he had gotten to today but himself.

END, CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Author's notes;

Yeah, that happened. I originally had planned to provide a hint to something that I have cooked up for this arc, or at least a bigger hint than what I had provided, but things ended up taking this turn instead. Regardless, things are going to start to be getting a bit hectic from this point moving forward, what with a number of notable villains having escaped from Tartarus in what is vaguely hinted to be the plottings of Yaoyorozu's daddy to help Todoroki's daddy get back his rep. A deal with a devil was made, indeed. Well anyway, the next chapter will show Endeavor having a fight scene with one of the escaped notable villains.

First signed comment to guess which villain it will be gets a shout-out in the next chapter.