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-eight: An einherjar returned

Bakugo was a bit groggy when he woke up in bed the morning following a truly massive screw up on part of Endeavor, the current number one hero in Japan. The Flame Hero, while fighting one of the notable villains that had escaped from Tartarus recently, shouted some rather damning things not just about Ryukyu, but also blatantly insulting the autistic children who go to the special academy that is more or less protected by the Dragoon Hero. The fact that the villain who Endeavor was fighting, Stain the Hero Killer, was able to flee the scene rather easily had flung nowhere near as much egg into Endeavor's face as what he did to shoot himself in the foot.

Oh, and all of that just so happened to have taken place on live TV as the breaking news report was broadcasting the eye in the sky footage that was being filmed as Endeavor was in the middle of his fight against Stain. Yeah, a snowball in hell has better odds of recovering than Endeavor's precious reputation at this point. The ashy-haired boy wondered with a bit of honest curiosity on how Endeavor planned to recover from this setback.

Before he was even fully awake, Bakugo was startled when his friends Sero and Akuma came barging into his dorm room, startling him into fully awake status. "Damn it all!" Bakugo barked as he shot upright while sitting in bed, "Dudes! Have neither of you ever heard of-"

"Endeavor's dead!" Sero exclaimed, a wide-eyed look of shocked surprise on his face as he interrupted Bakugo, catching him off guard with what he had just practically shouted.

The look of stunned surprise on his face made it clear to all who saw it that the explosive teen was by no means expecting to hear that the number one pro hero with the tarnished reputation was now dead. "…Pardon?"

…

Bakugo, having been collected by Sero and Akuma, were down in the living room area on the ground floor of the Heights Alliance dorm building, where everyone else in class 1-A resided until the construction for the big dorm building that their class will be sharing with class 1-B is finished. Everyone was staring with varying expressions at the TV screen as the news was on, playing a breaking news report that included showing a portrait picture of the late Flame Hero.

According to the news, Endeavor died late the previous evening when someone impaled him in the back while he was sitting in his chair at his desk in his office at his hero agency. After that, the news also included, to the shock of the 1-A students, that Endeavor's killer had also gone so far as to decapitate him, given that his head had not only been cut off but was nowhere to be found. Hearing this sent shivers of fright down the spines of all of the 1-A students.

The news further went on to say that Endeavor's remains were not discovered until earlier the current morning, when one of the male sidekicks working at Endeavor's agency discovered the Flame Hero's headless body upon entering the big man's office at the agency. And the only reason why that male sidekick bothered to go into the office at all was because he caught the whiff of a peculiar smell when he walked past the large double doors that led into the room.

The breaking news report finished by saying that the investigation into Endeavor's murder, as this was obviously a murder case, was currently open and ongoing. A memorial service was going to be held for the late Flame Hero sometime over the next few days. As the news caster said that more on the Endeavor murder case would be brought to the viewers as soon as it was made available, some of the other 1-A students in the room turned to regard Todoroki.

"Umm, I sorry about your loss Todoroki," Mina said, the wincing look on her face and hint of being unsure in her tone making it clear that the pink-skinned girl wasn't sure if Todoroki cared all that much that his father, who had been nothing but a complete and absolute bastard of a man right up to the day he was murdered, had been murdered.

She got her answer when the two-toned boy held up a hand in a gesture to cut off further argument. "No need to apologize. After what all he did to make my life a complete and total hell, especially all that he had done as of late, all I see of what had just been announced is that I no longer have to worry about being nothing more than a tool to my father for him to use to further his own precious ambitions." Todoroki, who spoke in a bitter tone as he remarked about his late father, crossed his arms over his chest.

"Still, as much of a bastard as your daddy has been IcyHot," Bakugo began, "There's still the fact that not only was he murdered, but his killer cut his head off and apparently took it with them." Crossing his arms over his chest, the explosive teen remarked, "There can be no ignoring of the fact that there's a killer on the loose who likes to cut off his or her victim's heads and take said heads with them as trophies."

The other 1-A students all agreed that Bakugo made a point, before some of them began to wonder aloud who the potential killer could be. Thoughts immediately went to the Hero Killer, but both Izuku and Todoroki shot that theory down, as taking macabre trophies like that had no place in Stain's profile. All that he did was kill pro heroes who he felt did not live up to what it means to carry the title of hero; he never cut off body parts from the heroes he killed to take with him for whatever reason.

Such strange goings on.

Over at the local hospital, Hizashi and Edgeshot were waiting outside of a closed door that led into a private (and fairly large) room. After a few moments of them waiting, their patience had paid off when Aizawa, followed by Aggro and Eri, came walking out of the room. The party of three closed the door behind them as they left before anyone had a chance to peek inside to see what all was awaiting within. Eri gently rubbed the area of her forehead where her horn was located, with said horn currently being little more than a round bump with a point that barely could be seen.

With a single nod, Aizawa turned to face Hizashi and Edgeshot. "…With the work that had been done today, we're finally at one-hundred percent."

The two pro heroes, Hizashi especially, cheered a little bit in celebration. Eri, despite looking very much tired and exhausted, was also nothing but smiles, her smiling being sincere. As for the Samurai Hero himself, Aggro had a look of relief wash over him as he let off a light sigh. "So do we go on ahead and break the news?" Hizashi asked.

"We still need a few days until everything is ready," Aizawa explained, "Given that the last of the work had just been accomplished less than a few moments ago. A cooldown period is needed for now." The underground hero crossed his arms over his chest, a wry smile spreading across his normally stoic face. "…But I think that what we have here will be met with great surprise by all of the students, no doubt about that."

"At least the cooldown period you advocate for should give us some time to help look into the matter of Endeavor's murder," Edgeshot remarked, reminding everyone that the number one hero, as badly as he had ruined his own reputation as of late, had still been murdered late during the previous evening. And he still died as the official number one hero in Japan, so some degree of respect had to be afforded to him.

Shrugging casually, Aggro remarked, "Normally, I could be of really great help with the investigation into Endeavor's murder. After all, if I got to his body in time, I could simply resurrect him and then we can ask him what all had happened moments before he had been murdered." Gently shaking his head in mild disappointment as he crossed his arms over his chest, the Samurai Hero went on, "But whoever his killer was had cut Endeavor's head off and took it away. There's no way that I can resurrect Endeavor now, not with damage like that having been done to the man."

This is true; as a Sacred Heritage quirk user, Aggro was able to develop a super move that was basically a resurrection spell that allowed him to return the dead back to life. But that power has its limitations; if the target of the resurrection had been dead for too much time, or if the body has sufficient physical damage (like in this case, the head was cut off and taken away), or if the body was prepped for a funeral in any way (such as cremation or embalming), then resurrection cannot be done in that case.

"I guess that we and the others looking into the matter will just have to do things the old fashioned way, then," Hisashi remarked with a shrug, "Now, I believe that we can really narrow down the list of potential suspects if we think about who all would have a reason to want to see Endeavor dead."

Aizawa and Edgeshot both looked around, mildly uncomfortable looks on their faces. "Hoo boy," Aizawa said as he let off a sigh, "Hizashi, that really doesn't narrow the list down all that much. Given what all had been revealed about Endeavor over the last few weeks, saying that we ought to look into who all would want him dead in order to narrow down the list of suspects is like trying to find a single red jelly bean in a gallon-sized jar of pink jelly beans."

"Perhaps we ought to look into who all had the means to carry out Endeavor's murder first," Edgeshot suggested, "From what I heard on the news, he was impaled in the back while he was sitting in a chair at his desk, and then his head was cut off. This means that whoever his killer was, he or she is very much skilled with a sword."

Crossing his arms over his chest, Aggro spoke up, "The only person that I can think of who fits such a description would be that Hero Killer fellow, Stain. After all, given the info I read about him in the files I was provided concerning all of the notable villains that had escaped out of Tartarus Prison, Stain has incredible skills with a sword." The Samurai Hero then gave a gentle shake of his head. "…But that is not the case here."

Nodding in agreement with Sengoku, Aizawa remarked, "Indeed. The killer not only cut Endeavor's head off, which already doesn't fit Stain's profile, but the killer also took the head with him or her, something that, again, doesn't fit Stain's profile as he was never noted to cut off body parts and take them with him. We're looking someone who is a completely different killer here, I'm afraid to say." The three Japanese pro heroes and the one American quirked hero all nodded in agreement with the assessment.

As for Eri, who had trouble following along with what all of the older persons were talking about, she gave a sleepy yawn.

The large single dorm building that would house both class 1-A and class 1-B was getting close to completion, so a lot of the students were really kicking it into gear to get ready for the mass move into the big dorm building. Walking outside of the area where all of the dorm buildings were located, Bakugo, with Izuku and Todoroki following him, saw a curious sight outside of the dorm building for class 1-B.

They saw Nezu, the quirked animal principal of U.A. High School, walking and talking with a guy who looked to be in his very early twenties. The man was somewhat below six feet in height, but then again there are some rather tall students at U.A. The man wore a sleeveless yellow men's shirt under a brown sleeveless vest that was open in the front, a pair of jeans, a pair of what looked to be boots, and he wore a headband over his forehead. The man's orange hair stuck up like broom bristles, and he had a number of curious, tattoo-like yellow markings covering a good number of spots on his face.

"So Nezu, my good dude," the mystery man began, "When's the soonest that I can expect to move on in?"

"We still need to finish the last touches on the single large communal dorm building that the first years in the homeroom classes of Aizawa and Edgeshot will be sharing," Nezu began to explain as he chatted in a casual, friendly manner with the man as if said man was a close friend of his, "Then we need to so some prep to get the old dorm buildings fully converted over to serve as cheap apartments, but that should take so long as to-Oh!"

Nezu stopped short when he noticed Bakugo, Izuku and Todoroki come walking up to him and the mystery man. The man himself also turned to look at the three boys from class 1-A as they all came walking over. Gesturing to the man, Nezu said, "Boys, this right here is Mr. Hogan. He is one of the first civilian residents that we can expect to move into the old dorm building for either your class or class 1-B, once all of the necessary work is completed. Mr. Hogan also happens to be an old, close personal friend of mine."

Mr. Hogan held up a hand in a gesture of greeting to the three first year hero course boys. "Sup, dudes. I'll probably be seeing more of you once I move in."

The three 1-A boys all looked on in a bit of confusion before Bakugo decided to change the subject. "Whatever. Anyway, Deku, IcyHot and I were just discussing what all could have led to IcyHot's daddy being given the French royalty treatment."

"The only possible person that any of us can think of who had the necessary skills and equipment needed to carry out such a brutal murder on my father would be the Hero Killer," Todoroki said, "But even though he's theoretically capable of decapitating someone, he's never done it, nor has he ever hacked off a body part and took said body part with him. We're not sure if Stain decided to change up his game now that he's escaped from Tartarus, or if we're dealing with an entirely new serial killer altogether."

Nezu had a curiously wondering look on his face as he looked down at the ground, his arms crossed over his chest. The quirked animal principal gently shook his head. "Indeed, I myself am having trouble thinking up what the answer here could be."

"Yo, I got an idea that may help," Mr. Hogan said, raising a hand to get Nezu and the boys to all turn to face him. When he had everyone's attention, Mr. Hogan said, "This may be grasping at straws here, but hear me out for a moment. That Endeavor dude had something of an alliance with the head of that super rich family the Yaoyorozus, right? Especially since Ryoga Yaoyorozu was in the middle of trying to help Endeavor recover what reputation the bastard had left after that damning video recording was leaked."

Crossing his arms over his chest, Mr. Hogan went on, "Maybe Endeavor's reputation was too much work for Ryoga to try and help recover, especially after Endeavor shot himself in the foot with a rocket launcher by shouting what he did while he was fighting Stain, given that the fight was being filmed by a live eye-in-the-sky news crew in a helicopter. Since Endeavor had truly fucked up past the point of recovery, Ryoga might have thought that associating with him would likewise taint his own reputation, so he hired a secret assassin to kill him."

The boys were all looking at Mr. Hogan as if he had just gone on a tangent that sounded like what a conspiracy theorist (one crazier than Todoroki) would say. As for Nezu, he looked like he was giving what his close friend had offered as a theory some serious consideration. "…Given what all I have heard in hushed rumors about miss Yaoyorozu's father, I wouldn't really be all that surprised if that does indeed end up being the ca-"

Nezu was cut off when Aizawa and Hizashi came rushing over to him, both of them with looks of panic on their faces. "Nezu, there's a really big emergency over at the hospital!" Aizawa nearly exclaimed, his normally stoic expression broken due to the sheer panic that he was feeling at the moment, "Muscular showed up and was trying to get inside!" Nezu and the boys all right away became alarmed to hear such news.

"A few heroes were thankfully there at the time, but they're not much of a match for a villain of Muscular's level," Hizashi said, a worried look on his face, "To make matters worse, we were able to get it that Muscular showed up at the hospital to track down and kill a specific person."

"Who's the person that Muscular is aiming to kill, Hizashi-sensei?" Izuku asked, turning to regard the cockatiel-haired pro hero.

Letting out a sigh, Hizashi explained, "Apparently, Muscular is after your friend Todoroki's mother, who was taken there due to-"

"MY MOTHER'S IN DANGER?!" Todoroki exclaimed at the top of his lungs, clearly alarmed to hear that his last remaining parent might be brutally murdered by an escaped villain from right out of Tartarus Prison.

The senseis all turned to look at the rattled two-toned boy. Letting out a resigned sigh, Aizawa said to his student, "…That's the case we're dealing with, I'm afraid. From what we've been able to gather on your mother's being at that hospital, she had to be taken there from the mental hospital where she currently resides due to experiencing some matter with her health. From what Hizashi and I heard on the subject, Muscular was shouting something about 'killing Endeavor's wife' in order to 'tie up loose ends', or something like that."

Without even waiting, Todoroki turned around and began to run off, with everyone fully assured that Todoroki was intending to run right to the hospital that his mother was taken to for treatment for her physical health. Letting off a resigned sigh, Aizawa said, "I wish that Todoroki would have waited for me to explain that a number of other heroes, including Sengoku who had legal permission from the Commission to kill Muscular if need be, is already en route to the hospital to deal with that villain."

"You got to see it from his point of view, Aizawa-sensei," Bakugo began to explain, crossing his arms over his chest as everyone turned to regard him. Gesturing in the direction that Todoroki ran off in, Bakugo said, "IcyHot's mommy is the last parent that he has, in addition to being the only one that he was ever really fond of. Can you really blame him for rushing off, consequences be damned, upon hearing that a villain that had escaped from Tartarus might be poised to rip off the woman's head or something?"

The underground hero let off a resigned sigh, understanding that Bakugo had just made a rather excellent point. Pointing to Bakugo and Izuku, Aizawa said, "Alright, you two boys, with me. We're going to go and try to catch Todoroki before he gets himself in over his head." The two boys nodded in understanding before they ran off with their homeroom teacher to go after their friend, hoping to catch up to him before it was too late.

Over at the hospital, the villain Muscular was laughing hysterically as he relished in beating down on all of the heroes who dared to approach him. None of them were strong enough to keep him held up for very long, so soon enough he'd be able to wipe these weaklings out and go on ahead with his goal that he came here with, to find that weak, flimsy woman who had been married to the late Endeavor and send her to meet her late husband.

Not only was he given a job where he had to do what he loved doing the most, that being killing, but he was also being offered a very generous sum by the agent guy that had met with him. Said guy was cleaning a katana blade when Muscular encountered him, and when Muscular asked about the sack that the man had with him, the man, with an amused smirk on his face, decided to open the bag up and show Muscular what was sitting inside.

The severed head of Endeavor.

The man said that he had been given the job of killing the late Flame Hero when his boss felt that Endeavor, with his crashing and burning reputation, was becoming way too much of a liability, so the disgraced pro hero had to be taken out. The brutal ways of dealing with loose ends that the man's big boss had very much amused Muscular, and after the offer was made to him to go and kill Rei Todoroki for a sizable payment, well…there was no way Muscular could say no.

As the villain swatted another weak pro hero aside, he was cut off when his arm that he had used to strike that weakling was suddenly encased in ice. Looking around, Muscular spotted a lone woman, slender and petite, aiming a hand that had a chilling air coming off of it at him. The woman was fair skinned, and long white hair, and looked rather unwell. She wore a simple long-sleeved sleeping top and matching pants, designed to look like a patient at a hospital would be wearing. There was also the fierce look of determination on her face.

Muscular smirked in amusement as he spotted the woman. "Well, well, well," Muscular said as he regarded the woman, "You're that Todoroki bitch that I was told to find here and kill!" His victim took a fearful step back as Muscular began to saunter towards her, alarm clear on her face. "Thanks for saving me the effort of having to-"

The villain was cut off when a mix of ice and fire attacks slammed into his back, making him cry out more out of being startled than anything else. Turning around to see who dared to have the audacity to strike him like that, Muscular spotted what looked to be a U.A. student with mixed red and white hair, and a burn mark over the area of his face around one of his eyes. Speaking of the boy's eyes, they were glaring daggers at the villain; if looks could kill, then Muscular would have dropped dead at that moment.

Muscular wasn't the only one who spotted the boy; the woman that had been identified as Rei Todoroki saw him as well, a look of worried fear crossing over her face. "Shoto! You need to get out of here!" Rei called out, fearful of what this villain that had come here to kill her would do to her youngest child, "This man is too-"

*CAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW*

The crying screech of a bird cut Rei off, made everyone look around in confusion right as Bakugo, Izuku and Aizawa showed up on the scene. Before anyone could have reacted, a large dark-colored figure flew around the hospital from the opposite side that everyone was on, making a curving path as it swooped down while aiming for the fragile Todoroki woman. The figure looked to be a large-winged black bird with piercing yellow eyes, as well as arms growing out of its stomach.

The avian being flew quickly through the area, collecting Rei before anyone could stop it, and flew away quickly, flying back up as if to return to some higher floor on the hospital by going through a window. Muscular cursed violently as his target got away, while the U.A. boys looked on in surprised wonder at what they had just seen. Bakugo, Izuku and Todoroki all looked like they had just seen something that none of them thought that they would ever get to see again.

"That…" Izuku said, sounding like he couldn't believe what he had just seen, "…That was Dark Shadow who just swooped in and collected Todoroki's mom to get her out of here."

"What the hell is Bird Head's stand doing here?" Bakugo demanded, "I thought that it had died right alongside Bird Head himself!"

The look of mildly alarmed panic on Aizawa's face was not observed by anyone before he had a chance to calm himself back down and resume his usual expression. "…I'm sure that this can wait until we help deal with Muscular, boys," the underground hero said, sounding like he knew full well that he wasn't going to get out of explaining a certain something to his students, "So for now, we ought to help take down-"

"Kusanagi!" Aizawa was cut off by the shout of Aggro, who casted a large, x-shaped projectile of golden flames that flew right at and slammed into Muscular, sending him reeling back. He was not defeated, but the attack from the Samurai Hero did do a lot of damage. Aizawa and his students turned to see Aggro, his protective cloak of golden flames already up, rush over to stand right next to the rest of them.

Pointing his bokken at the momentarily stunned Muscular, Aggro said to Aizawa, "Are we going to try and spring for live capture, or should I go ahead and use the authority that the Commission gave me and simply kill Muscular?"

"Live capture, we need to live capture you samurai bastard," Bakugo said, "That villain assfuck that you just attacked has info about who all had put him up to try and kill IcyHot's mommy. There's also reason to believe that he has some inside info on the murder case of IcyHot's daddy, so he ought to be brought in alive so that the heroes and police can interrogate his sorry ass!"

Aizawa nodded in agreement with his explosive student as he turned to face Aggro. "Bakugo has a point, Sengoku. We can make a lot of progress in the ongoing case looking into Endeavor's murder if we capture Muscular alive and bring him in for questioning."

Aggro nodded in understanding, before turning to face Muscular who at that moment had just regained his bearings. Looking around, the villain saw Aggro, engulfed in golden flames, and deduced that he was the one who had thrown golden fire at him just now. Muscular hulked up to as buff as he cane get himself to be before he charged right at the Samurai Hero, throwing a very devastating punch right into him.

To his shocked surprise, the attack did nothing, not even make the golden flames cloak waver. As the bloodthirsty villain looked confused, he felt his bulk shrink away. Over a ways, Aizawa was glaring at him while erasing his quirk usage, leaving him a lot leaner than he had been when he charged at Aggro. While weakened due to his quirk being suppressed, Muscular was ganged up on by Bakugo, Izuku and Todoroki, not to mention the Samurai Hero who stood in front of him. Needless to say, Muscular was soon defeated and knocked out.

…

As police loaded Muscular, heavily equipped with quirk-suppressing apparatuses, into the back of a prisoner transport van, Aizawa, his students and Aggro looked on, satisfied that they were able to live-capture someone who clearly held vital information that would be a boon to solving the Endeavor murder case. "The pro heroes and police will soon get to the bottom of what all is going on," Aizawa remarked aloud, "The info we can gleam from interrogating Muscular will go a very long way to that."

Turning around, Aizawa saw that his three students that were there were all looking at him, as well as Aggro. He saw that all t here of them had expectant looks on their faces, so he let out a resigned sigh. "…I suppose you want to ask about how we all saw Dark Shadow fly on by and scoop Todoroki's mom up to get her to safety, huh?"

"Aizawa-sensei, Kacchan has a point," Izuku began in a curious and mildly suspicious tone, "Back when Tokoyami was killed, Dark Shadow died alongside with him. So how is it that the guys here and I just saw Dark Shadow today?" Crossing his arms over his chest, Izuku went on, "Especially since we were told that Sengoku's resurrection move can't bring Tokoyami or any of the other guys back since they've all been dead for too long."

Aizawa, as well as Sengoku, looked at one another, exchanged a silent nod of agreement, before they both turned back to face the three boys. "…Listen up, boys," Aizawa began, "What I am about to share with the three of you has to remain absolutely secret until the rest of the staff over at U.A. and I are ready to reveal it to everyone at large." Bakugo, Izuku and Todoroki all gave agreeing nods before they leaned in a bit closer to hear what the underground hero had to say.

TO BE CONTINUED…

END, CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Author's notes;

The next chapter is going to see a number of things come to light, such as the heroes learning of what is truly going on behind the scenes involving the murder of the Flame Hero. There will also be a really big reveal, which has been hinted at a little bit over the last few chapters and had been heavily hinted at near the end of this chapter. A lot is going to be brought to the table, so I hope that you all are hungry.