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 thirty: Cleaning things up

The news of the arrest of Ryoga Yaoyorozu had many, various results. First of all, the arrest of the wealthiest man in the nation took Japan by storm; it not only made the news, but would remain as a topic that would be talked about on said news for quite some time. Second off, his arrest ended up having something of an impact on the Japanese economy, especially as more and more of his dirty laundry was discovered and aired.

This harsh dent into the Japanese economy was felt even by businesses and companies that were in no way connected to Ryoga, due to the fact that the value of the yen saw a slight but notable drop that wouldn't recover for quite some time. As for businesses and companies that were under the umbrella of the Yaoyorozu Conglomerate, they suffered quite a bit as well. Only the most highly advanced of employees, such as the recently promoted Ganma Asui over at Yaoyorozu Offices, didn't suffer much of a sting. But all still felt that sting, nonetheless.

The Japanese government had a lot to do, quite a bit actually, when it came to seizing assets that belonged to Ryoga. Some of his smaller businesses ended up going belly up due to all of the hassle that was going around, leaving many unemployed in an economy that was already thrown into the fire. The wrecking of the nation's economy, all due to Ryoga trying to keep as much of the pie for himself as possible, was something that the country wouldn't be able to recover from for the foreseeable future.

A few smaller details came to light during the initial interrogations; as it turned out, it was Ryoga who sent the mercenaries on both failed attempts to kill U.A. student Ochaco Uraraka, as well as employ the villains that had successfully murdered Uraraka's mother. There was no way to be able to find out which villains specifically were the ones who killed the gravity girl's mother, as Ryoga simply sent the contract to the villains and let them decide amongst themselves who would carry out the killing; Ryoga didn't know or care which villains did it.

It also turned out that the reason why the aforementioned office business, Yaoyorozu Offices, was hemorrhaging money was because the two secret villains that had been doing it were doing so at the behest of Ryoga, as the money said villains didn't account for in their work at the office was funneled to the League of Villains; it was the main way Ryoga, in his role as the Leagues' 'Mysterious Benefactor', got an allowance of funds to the villains so that they could do their work. All that the uncovering of the embezzling did was cause the Villains to become more dependent on carrying out secret jobs for Ryoga, like the killing of Uraraka's mother.

Something else that was uncovered during the investigations into Ryoga threw the populace of Japan as a whole through a loop; the recent escape of notable villains from Tartarus Prison, with three of four released villains still on the loose since Muscular was recently recaptured, was actually orchestrated by Ryoga himself. He did so because it was part of his plan to help Endeavor, who was still alive at the time, recover his reputation which had been shot up due to that video leak that got out a while ago, with the idea being that Endeavor would stop and re-capture all of the escaped villains in order to regain what renown he had lost.

It did little to save what positive opinion Japan had left for the late Flame Hero that it was confirmed Endeavor knew nothing of what Ryoga had done until after the wealthy man acted. In relation to Endeavor's murder, it turned out that he was killed by one of Ryoga's men, who the arrested business mogul gave the name of, when Ryoga deemed Endeavor as too much of a 'lost cause' to try and save. Ryoga confirmed that he made the decision when Endeavor, while he was fighting the escaped Stain on live TV, shouted some rather rude things about not just Ryukyu, but also autistic children like the ones who attend the academy that the Dragoon Hero sponsors.

A police raid on a smaller home not only resulted in the arrest of Ryoga's man who the arrested business mogul sent to kill Endeavor, but also the recovery of the late Flame Hero's head, which had been dunked in a bucket of water large enough to hold it, before said bucket was stuck in a large freezer to completely freeze up. The man of Ryoga's was apparently trying to preserve the severed head of Endeavor, which the police, to their credit, had to be thankful for since the head most likely would have decomposed to an extent otherwise. It made DNA identification a hell of a lot easier, too.

Despite what all Endeavor had done prior to his being whacked on Ryoga's private orders, the late Flame Hero was still, at the time of his death, number one on the hero billboard charts JP, so a rather elaborate service would have to be thrown for him. It was a total pain for Endeavor's children, Fuyumi, Natsuo and Shoto, to have to go to the funeral service, and both of the boys were noted to be a little jealous of their mother Rei, who was able to avoid having to attend due to her health still keeping her at the hospital. At least for Shoto, things were a little comfortable as he was able to bring his girlfriend, Reiko Yanagi, along as a guest to the service.

Although Endeavor's death did mean that a lot of the income that the Todoroki family usually got ended up slowing to a trickle (despite his massive drop in popularity in recent times prior to his death, Endeavor still got a considerable amount of money due to sales of merchandise with his likeness, and that merch, still selling to this day, saw money go to his surviving family), the man still had more than enough assets around to keep his surviving family in the lifestyle they had grown accustomed to for many years to come. Shoto would eventually be able to become a successful pro hero who would make enough income to keep things going, but that's another story for another time.

Even though Endeavor's family would be able to continue on living the lifestyle that they had all grown accustomed to, Ryoga's family, that being his wife Maka and daughter Momo, saw their own fortunes go down the toilet. Maka was able to get a job as a teacher at the aforementioned autistic children's academy, actually being trained and certified to teach such children as it was what she went to college for in the first place; she began dating Ryoga a few weeks prior to her graduating and earning her degree, and she worked for less than a year before her getting married to her husband (who she's in the middle of divorcing from by the way) made working a moot point for her.

As such, Yaoyorozu saw herself go from the wealthiest student at U.A. High School to one of the poorest, something that on its own was already something of a death sentence, but was made all the worse due to how her father being arrested caused a chain series of events that weakened the Japanese economy for the foreseeable future. At least her classmates in class 1-A were there to help her; Mina Ashido even got Uraraka, who was used to living poor prior to the revitalization of her parents' construction company, to help Yaoyorozu learn how to 'live poor'. And it wasn't just class 1-A students who helped out; students in class 1-B, such as Itsuka who saw Yaoyorozu as a valued friend, and Yosetsu who is still dating Yaoyorozu, helped out the formerly wealthy ponytailed girl.

Eventually, enough of the initial dust from Ryoga-gate (that's the name that was given to all of the chaos surrounding Ryoga's arrest) settled down to allow for a lot of Japan's population to move on with their lives. Normally, things would have gone on as normal for the students of U.A.'s class 1-A. However, their homeroom teacher, Aizawa, accompanied by Hizashi, Eri and the Samurai Hero Sengoku, had a meeting with all of the underground hero's students in order to show them a certain something that had been in the works for quite some time…

…

Bakugo, Izuku and Todoroki were the only ones among Aizawa's homeroom class students who were not shocked to see that their five classmates who were killed during their field trip to the United States a while ago had been returned back to life. None of the surprised students in class 1-A were able to say anything when they saw that Tokoyami, Tenya, Kaminari, Kirishima and Ojiro were all alive again, as if they had never been killed in the first place. Tsuyu, Kyoka and Hagakure, who saw that the boys that they were respectively in love with were alive again, were all fit to cry a mix of happy tears and relieved tears.

Bakugo, being one of the few who was not surprised, was able to speak up, deciding to ask how it was possible that the five boys were all alive again. "That samurai bastard said that his power to resurrect the dead has a few limits," the explosive teen began to point out, "One of said limits being that he can't bring someone back if they've been dead for too long." Bakugo gestured to all five of the returned boys. "All of these guys here count towards being dead for too long, so how in the name of fuck are they all alive again?"

"That's…where we come in," Hizashi began to explain, "You see kids, the school staff decided to keep the boys' bodies at a local morgue in the hopes that we'd be able to get ahold of a Sacred Heritage quirk user to resurrect the boys. By the time we did get ahold of such help, that being Sengoku here, they were all dead for too long, meaning even Sengoku wasn't able to do anything to fix things, even though he was willing to do so as part of what he calls his penance."

Letting out a troubled sigh, Aizawa said, "That's where Nezu came up with the idea to try and see if Eri could do anything." The underground hero gestured to where the little horned girl stood. "…Nezu thought that Eri, with her Rewind quirk, would be able to rewind the bodies of the boys here back to the point where they were all alive. Ultimately, she was unable to rewind the boys back to life, but she was able to undo a number of other things, such as physical damage that some of them had, as well as what decomposition that their remains had."

Hizashi took over from there, a bit of an amused smirk on his face as he looked at all of the students in Aizawa's homeroom class. "…In addition to all of that business that Aizawa had just mentioned, something else that Eri was able to rewind was how long the bodies of the boys had been dead. Even though they died well over a month and a half ago, according to all of the testing that was done, they all registered as being dead for only a few hours after the ultimately failed effort to see if Eri could rewind them back to life."

"Eri rewinding all of the physical damage," Aizawa began, "Decomposition, and most importantly amount of time that they had been dead, put all of the boys in range for Sengoku to resurrect with his power." Gesturing to where the five returned boys all stood off to the side as a group, Aizawa was unable to hide a smile, so he allowed himself to crack a bit of a smirk. "As such, we were able to bring the boys back. There are a number of things that have to be done for all of the boys here, such as making corrections to legal documents concerning their passing and so on, but aside from that, they'll be able to rejoin us in classes over at U.A." He crossed his arms over his chest, a contemplative look on his face. "I would say that the process would take no more than a week for the five of them combined."

"In the meantime, little listeners," Hizashi said, "You all better help the boys here get moved into the big communal dorm building that you all will be sharing with class 1-B!"

The five returned boys all had confused looks on their faces as they turned to look at Hizashi and Aizawa. "Hang on a minute there, Hizashi-sensei," Tenya remarked, 'What do you mean by a big communal dorm building that the 1-A and 1-B classes will be sharing? Is there something that I missed?"

"Glasses, you and the others here missed a hell of a lot," Bakugo remarked dryly, unable to hide a hint of amusement in his expression, "But I'm sure that some of us will fill you and the other guys here in on everything."

Over at the Heights Alliance dorm building, as a lot of class 1-A was finishing up the process of packing up to move out of Heights Alliance and into the big communal dorm building, Bakugo and his squad were hanging out at the island counter in the kitchen. In addition to Sero, Mina, Akuma and Sakaki, Bakugo also had the returned Kaminari and Kirishima siting with him. The Baku-squad had never looked better.

"So after Vulcan High was shut down by the Commission," Kaminari began, "You were accepted back into U.A., and you also brought Akuma and Sakaki with you." There was a mildly confused look on the face of the electric quirk user. "…I knew that you got back into U.A. since you told me as such while you, Izuku and Todoroki were in Asgard with me and the lads, but you never gave us the exact details."

"Yeah, and what's this you mentioned about Mineta being expelled from school while the guys and I were dead, Baku-bro?" Kirishima asked, a curious look on his face as he and Kaminari leaned a bit closer to the ashy-haired boy.

Bakugo smirked a bit as he leaned back a bit in his seat. "Yeah, after I said the right things after I was returned by that samurai prick, I was able to get an investigation into Grape Head's past actions launched. It was confirmed that he was the real reason all of you guys were killed, so the school got its shit together and gave Grape Head the boot." As the Baku-squad all hung out and talked, they were approached by Kyoka.

"Hey Bakugo, I need to borrow Kaminari for a minute," Kyoka said. Smirking as he knew what the rock music lover had in mind, Bakugo nodded in agreement as he signaled for Kaminari to get up and go with her. After Kaminari had left with Kyoka, the explosive teen looked to the others who still sat at the island counter with him.

Giving off a chuckle, Bakugo said, "Methinks that Kaminari might successfully score Earplugs as his girl this time. And with no Grape Head around to fuck things up, I'm pretty certain that things will sail rather smoothly this time around."

Akuma gave off an amused hum as he turned to look over where Kyoka led Kaminari off to. The satanic student saw Kyoka hop up a bit to throw her arms around the electric quirk user's shoulders, pull herself up so she could kiss Kaminari on the lips. To his credit, Kaminari did not object, and he seemed not only a bit happy by Kyoka's gesture, but also a little relieved as well, as if a weight of worry had been lifted from his shoulders.

The Satanist of class 1-A turned back to look at the rest of the squad. "…It would seem that the return of Kaminari has made that Jiro girl quite happy. Similarly, Asui has scarcely left Tokoyami's side, and Hagakure is no longer borderline harassing the boys in 1-A and 1-B now that Ojiro is back in the land of the living from the Viking afterlife. Hell, even that straight-laced Tenya fellow seems to have gotten lucky with the ladies, given that I saw him, to some extent, reciprocating the feelings of that Sirknight girl when I saw her hand him a confession letter."

At the mention of the autistic girl in class 1-A confessing to Tenya, and furthermore him seemingly returning the feelings, the rest of the Baku-squad lit up with mild surprise. "You're kidding me," Mina said, her tone making it clear that she was rather surprised by what she had just been told, "I never would have imagined Tenya of all guys being keen on the idea of dating anyone at all. But he not only agreed to return feelings that a girl confessed to him, but the girl in question is Eunice of all people?"

"Oh, that reminds me," Bakugo said. Turning to face where Kirishima was sitting, Bakugo said, "Kirishima, dude, remember what I told you back in Asgard about how Pony's classmate Shrooms has the hots for you? Yeah, that's still valid, so once we get the okay from the senseis to reintroduce you, Kaminari, Glasses, Tail-boy and Bird Head to Pony's class, I'm going to be looking into getting you set up with Shrooms. Knowing Pony and some of her friends in 1-B, they would be ecstatic to help out with things."

The crimson-haired boy blushed a little bit as he wore an embarrassed expression. "…I'm still finding it a bit hard to believe that any girl would be in love with me, dude. I wasn't exactly the kind of boy that girls would pay attention to during elementary and middle school."

Kirishima would have gone on, but he was cut off when Mina pointed a finger right into his face, catching him off guard. "Kirishima, trust me and Bakugo when we say that Kinoko will be happier than anyone else here at U.A. to learn that you were brought back to life. She was totally devastated to learn that you had been killed, and is still depressed about it."

…

Over at the class 1-B dorm building, Edgeshot's students were in the process of finishing up the last of their packing so that they could move into the big communal dorm building that they would be sharing with class 1-A, Monoma, Yosetsu and Juzo were carrying a few boxes over to where there was a big group of packed boxes, ready to be moved over. After he sat a box down, Monoma stood back up, popping his back a bit as he held a hand to his back.

As he stood up, Monoma looked over, saw Itsuka and Pony walk on by. "Hey girls," the blonde boy of class 1-B called out to them, getting them to turn and see him. "Is Kinoko still asleep? We need her to help with the process of moving into that dorm building that we're going to share with those cretins in class 1-A."

Letting out a resigned sigh that held a hint of disdain for Monoma due to his apparent lack of caring for Kinoko's being, Itsuka said, "Fine. Pony and I will go up and get her." Gesturing for her half-American classmate to follow her, Itsuka went up a few floors with Pony to the girls' side of the dorm building. Eventually, they reached the door that led into Kinoko's dorm room; it was rather obvious, as a mushroom-shaped door sign that said 'Kinoko' was hanging right there on the front of the door.

Grabbing the door handle and giving it a turn, Itsuka pushed the door open, allowing herself and Pony to peek into Kinoko's domain. "Hey Kinoko," Itsuka called out in a sympathetic and concerned tone, "We're going to need your help with finishing up the packing that we have to do to move into the big dorm building our class is sharing with 1-A. Did you at least finish all of your own packing?"

Looking into the room, Itsuka and Pony saw that, yes, Kinoko did at least finish all of her own packing, leaving the room look bare like it was fresh and ready for someone to move into. The only exception to this was that Kinoko was laying front-side down on her bed, her face semi-buried in her pillows. The mushroom girl was still displaying a lack of energy and care for herself, signs that she was still upset over how the boy who had unknowingly stolen her heart had been killed a while ago.

She slowly sat up on her bed, pulling the bangs covering her face to the side so she would wipe her brow, showing that her face still had a bit of an acne problem. Additionally, her continued stress eating had resulted in Kinoko now being very notably obese; she looked comparable to Sakaki in terms of size. Although she had a different weight than the fat cat girl, Kinoko still looked like she was very much comparable to her nonetheless.

She gave a tired, mildly huffing moan as she stood up from her bed. "…Yeah, I finished packing all of my stuff," the now fat mushroom girl replied to her classmates, her mildly depressed tone a sign of her continued depressed state, "I'll be down in a minute to help with the moving."

Both Itsuka and Pony looked worried about their friend, who was clearly still suffering from the heartbreak that came with learning that her crush had died, and as they regarded her, they were met up by Nemuri, who was helping the girls of the 1-A and 1-B classes with moving their various girls' stuff. "Hey Kendo, Tsunotori, Komori," the eighteen-only hero said, "I'm going to need the three of you girls to help me with getting a few things from the 1-A dorm building."

The girls nodded in understanding. "We come help you in couple of minutes," Pony replied, "We meet you over at 1-A dorm, or we go with you?"

"I was actually planning on taking you girls with me when I go over," Nemuri replied, "When we get there, we're going to grab Aizawa's boys Bakugo, Kaminari and Sero to help us with-"

"Wait a minute, back up a bit there sensei," Itsuka remarked, a curious and mildly surprised look on her face. Looking up at Nemuri, Itsuka said, "Did you just say that we're going to be getting Kaminari to help us?" With a slight shake of her head, the class 1-B rep asked, "Kaminari was one of the boys in class 1-A who was killed a while ago, remember?"

Shrugging indifferently, Nemuri explained, "Oh, Aizawa, Hizashi and Edgeshot were able to bring back Kaminari and the other four boys who were killed on that field trip using a mix of little Eri's Rewind quirk and the resurrection power that Sengoku has." Giving the three girls a curious look, Nemuri asked, "What, did Edgeshot not tell you or anyone else in class 1-B about all of that business?"

Itsuka, as well as Pony and (especially) Kinoko, all looked completely and utterly shocked.

By that evening, everyone had moved out of the old dorm buildings for class 1-A and class 1-B and into the big communal dorm building. A few of the first year hero course students saw that Nezu was already getting to work with a crew on fixing up the old dorm building to convert them into cheap apartments for civilians to rent out, thus giving U.A. a source of income that is now more than ever necessary due to the way that the economy is shaky right now.

It was Bakugo who had first spotted Nezu's friend Mr. Hogan among the crew that the quirked animal principal brought in to help with the project.

After class 1-A and class 1-B began the process of everyone moving in, class 1-B in its entirety learned that the five boys who were killed a while ago had been returned to life. Aizawa and some of the other guys were a mite upset that Nemuri blew their plans for the reveal right out of the water, but they decided to try and roll with the punches. At least everyone in class 1-B was glad to see that the five boys had all been returned to the land of the living.

That night, the students all celebrated in the main area of the communal dorm building, partly to celebrate the new digs, and partly to celebrate the fact that Tokoyami, Tenya, Ojiro, Kirishima and Kaminari had all been brought back. During the party, Bakugo, with some help from Mina, Pony and Itsuka, was able to grab ahold of Kirishima and Kinoko and get the ice broken between the two of them. The crimson-haired boy was a bit surprised to see how drastically Kinoko had changed since he last saw her (he remembered what she looked like before he had died), but he didn't complain or said anything mean/rude.

"It's hella un-manly to speak ill of a girl in any manner," Kirishima would later be quoted.

As Bakugo and some of the girls had them together, Kirishima's only question to Kinoko at first was if she really was in love with him like Bakugo and the girls were saying. The mushroom girl, embarrassed that her crush was seeing her as she was, nervously admitted that yes, she was still very much deeply in love with him. What the crimson-haired boy asked next not only surprised Kinoko, but it made her face light up a bit with embarrassed blushing, made her heart flutter, made her feel much lighter than she currently was.

"So…if I were to…to ask you out, ask if you'd be interested in being my…my girlfriend…" Kirishima was looking down at the carpeted floor, an embarrassed blushing on his face. He turned somewhat nervous eyes back up to look at Kinoko, a hopeful hint in both his tone and expression. "…What would you-"

Kirishima got his answer when Kinoko got up to him as fast as she could, threw her plump arms around him to drag him into a hug, and then buried her face into his chest before she proceeded to gently, softly cry in relief that, even with how badly she'd let herself go in her grief, the boy who had stolen her heart was still okay with the idea of dating her. Itsuka and Pony were both touched by how kind and accepting Kirishima was being, and Bakugo, with an amused smirk on his face, gave his friend a pat on the back.

It seemed that things were finally going to settle down into a period of peace.

END, CHAPTER THIRTY

Author's notes;

Well, that takes care of everything that I had in store for this arc. I know that Stain, Kurogiri and Moonfish are still on the loose, but that was intentional as they will be taken care of during the next arc, which is also slated to be the final arc of this story. Yeah, this is the last chapter of the 'Downfall arc', and by now I'm certain some of you can tell why this arc was named as such.

But there was more than just some downfalls in this arc; there was also some returns, as well as a few things set up to give some characters what they deserve; a happy ending. And that's what brings me to the fact that the next chapter is the first of this story's final arc, which I am calling the 'Settling Peace arc'; basically, it's just going to be a collection of adventures stringed together in order to wrap up a couple of things before I draw this story to a close. There's going to be things such as dealing with exams and a wild teen party, but in the end things will be as good enough as can be managed. That's all one can hope for, really.

Catch all of you guys later.