Disclaimer: I do not own Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
Logical Ruse
Chapter two: A people in mourning
It was the third day of the current school year for U.A. High School, and yet spirits weren't exactly all that high right now. But who could blame them? All Might resigned from the staff after only a day, the wealthiest man in the nation was in the process of bringing charges against the esteemed hero academy, a former student had gone villain and was now wanted, and six former students had all sadly taken their own lives.
Aizawa, who was the trigger for all of that, was surprised that the rest of the staff weren't grilling him as hard as he was expecting. Then again, Nezu did point out that there was no predicting that all of that would occur because Aizawa expelled the whole lot of class 1-A on the first day. It also helped U.A. avoid too much trouble that All Might agreed to keep up a charade of him still being a teacher working at the school, as word of him leaving would be a political blow U.A. can't afford.
Aizawa was having his lunch in the teacher's lounge that day, with Hizashi and Sekijiro as company; Nemuri wasn't exactly willing to socialise with the underground hero at the moment, so it was just the guys. "It's as I told my students," Sekijiro said, "They'll have to wait until the special assembly at the end of the school week to learn who had taken their own lives."
"I heard that Nezu had asked Endeavor and Ingenium to not come here until the assembly," Hizashi said, "Out of worry students might deduce that Iida and Todoroki are among those who took their own lives, due to seeing the pro heroes here."
Aizawa was about to speak up, but he was cut off before he could even get one syllable out when the alarms went off. Right away, Aizawa and the others leapt into action. "Did someone get onto U.A. campus?!" Aizawa snapped, "We need to act now!" The men all rushed off, ready to deal with whatever villain threat may have been so brazen as to storm U.A. campus.
...
As it turned out, no manner of villains had forced their way onto campus. Rather, it was the news media, and a lot of them. They were all clamoring for a scoop with All Might, although a few of the news media persons also voiced an interest in asking Aizawa one or two questions. It took well over and hour and a half to even begin forcing the news media off of U.A. grounds, with a good bit of damage having been caused, and many traumatized students because of the mad rush of news media persons storming the school.
Nezu ended up having to call for all classes to be canceled for the rest of the day so that the U.A. staff could deal with figuring out what all had happened. It was Aizawa and Hizashi who came upon a large hole that had been seemingly decayed into a portion of the wall surrounding U.A. "Hmm, my gut's telling me that this hole may in fact have something to do with the wall being busted down like this," Hizashi said, holding a hand to his chin.
"Gee, you think?" Aizawa retorted dryly.
Aizawa and Hizashi reported their discovery to Nezu, who came out to look. "...Hmm..." Nezu hummed as he looked at the damage. Turning around to face the guys, Nezu said, "My guess here is that someone must have made this hole in the wall, and let the media in while the hole maker went in to do something else."
The two men there gave their boss curious looks. "You think someone not part of the news media made this hole?" Hizashi asked.
"If it was someone in the news media," Nezu began explaining, "They would have only made it big enough for themselves so they could get in to get an exclusive with All Might. The news media are an opportunistic lot who don't like sharing if they can help it. No." Turning back around, Nezu went on, "This is the handiwork of a person who used the news media's need to get the latest scoop to their advantage to sneak in unnoticed, get and or do something, then leave before being spotted."
Looking at the damage, Hizashi said, "You don't think that the Bakugo boy who Aizawa had expelled could have done this, do you?"
"No explosion was reported having been heard, Hizashi," Aizawa pointed out, "And even if one was, there's no way Bakugo could have pulled a stunt like this. The walls are made too strong for an act like this to have been done with explosives." Turning to look at the damage again, Aizawa went on, "I think that Nezu's right on the money. A villain did this and let the news media in to distract all of us so he or she could do... whatever it was that they did."
Hizashi turned back to look at the damage himself. "...Great, now we have one more problem to worry about."
Nezu turned to look at Aizawa and Hizashi who both stood behind him. "We can worry about more being added to our plate later. For now, we need to fix the immediate problems that we're facing at the moment. For now, the best temporary solution to this hole in the wall is put security around it until the contractor can get here in the morning." Aizawa and Hizashi nodded in agreement before the both of them proceeded to follow Nezu back into the main school building.
Aizawa couldn't help but think that this might be a sign of more trouble to come.
At the end of the school week, the U.A. staff were receiving special visitors to the school who came for the special assembly. These special visitors were not students or staff of U.A., coming from outside. As Aizawa stood with Hizashi, Sekijiro, and Nezu while the last of those three was greeting the various special visitors, the underground hero saw Endeavor, the number two hero, come on over see Nezu.
Aizawa could feel heat, both literal and metaphorical, coming from the Flame Hero. Soon enough, Endeavor had made his way up to the group greeting the special visitors. "Enji, welcome," Nezu said as he held a paw out for a handshake, "I'm once again very sorry for your loss."
"...He was my youngest," Enji said, sounding surprisingly defeated, "And from what Natsuo and Fuyumi had told me since they visit her in the hospital a lot, my wife Rei seemed to favor Shoto the most. What had occurred is something that all of us in the Todoroki household still haven't gotten over, and I doubt some of us will ever get over fully." Gently shaking his head, Enji went on, "To make matters worse, Shoto isn't the first of my children to have committed suicide."
Nezu nodded in understanding. "...Yes. I remember what you had told me about Toya."
Enji nodded, then proceeded to walk into the auditorium. But he was one step away from crossing through the doorway before he stopped. Without even turning, Enji called out, "Eraserhead." Aizawa perked up when the Flame Hero called out to him. He was worried what the country's number two hero was going to say, whether it would be some harsh berating or an emotional punch to the gut. It ended up being the latter when Enji said in his current defeated tone, "...You killed my boy."
None of the guys said anything as Enji continued to make his way into the auditorium. It was only after Enji was gone that Hizashi said, "Well now, he was a lot calmer than I had expected. I mean, I was half expecting him to try going Krakatoa on Sho or something."
"I was actually expecting that as well, to be honest," Aizawa added, sounding a little relieved that Enji didn't erupt, both metaphorically and literally, right at him. As the men continued to greet the special visitors, they were surprised to see Tensei Iida, the pro hero Ingenium, come up. Unlike Enji who came dressed in his hero costume, Tensei was dressed like a man attending a funeral service. "Oh, Ingenium," Aizawa said, "If it-"
*SLAP*
The underground hero was cut off when Tensei slapped him, hard, across the face. Recovering, Aizawa saw the look on Tensei's face, one of fury that was also grieving. Tensei lowered his hand before turning to address Nezu. "...Apologies. I just had to do that to him."
"Believe it or not Tensei," Nezu began, his tone oddly understanding, "You're actually the first person to have physically struck Shouta in any way since word of what all had happened to the class he had expelled got out. Endeavor got here just before you, and we were all afraid he'd launch right on into Shouta. Thankfully, he didn't."
Tensei let out a breath through his nose. "I'd say that I feel lucky, but considering that my little brother had fucking killed himself because of that aloof asshole you had hired onto the staff here at U.A., I don't feel all that lucky."
"Hey now, there's no need for the harsh language," Sekijiro tried saying.
"Sekijiro," Aizawa spoke up, surprising everyone and making them turn to face him. Aizawa let out a resigned sigh, one that sounded with understanding. "...He's grieving. And it's not like he's trying to rough house with someone out of grief or anything, just a little foul language."
"Which... honestly shocks me to hear coming out of Tensei, to be honest," Nezu said, looking a little surprised, "But Aizawa has a point. A little bit of foul language, considering the circumstances and all, is nothing to get worked up over."
Tensei let out another breath through his nose. "...I'll be heading on inside now." Tensei then made his way into the auditorium, leaving the men be.
Turning to look at Aizawa, Hizashi remarked, "Umm... wow. I think that was the first time ever that I have heard Ingenium curse."
Aizawa was about to speak up, but he got cut off when he and the others heard a familiar baritone voice call out, "I have to admit it, Aizawa, I'm still very disappointed in you." The men all turned to see Toshinori Yagi, otherwise known as All Might, come walking up to them in his buff form. "I know that the pro hero profession can be a demanding field, but you were expecting way too much out of those kids on day one," Toshinori went on, "It wouldn't have hurt to cut them at least a little slack."
"All Might," Nezu spoke up as he looked around, "I had it down that your protege was going to be accompanying you here, but I see you've come alone."
"He told me he didn't feel right stepping foot onto U.A. grounds anymore," Toshinori explained, "And besides which, he's getting used to how things at Ketsubutsu works."
Aizawa looked surprised at that. "He's attending Ketsubutsu now?"
The Symbol of Peace nodded in the affirmative. "I was able to get him in, along with a few of the other boys that were in the class you had kicked out. For obvious reasons, I couldn't get find and get Young Bakugo in, and from what I've gathered Ryoga Yaoyorozu is aiming to try to get his daughter back in here. There's a few other students who aren't accounted for from what I gather, so all I can do there is hope for the best."
Nezu nodded in agreement. "At this point, that's all we can hope for." With no one else coming, Nezu led the others inside so that everyone could attend the assembly.
The assembly was a somber affair, but then again it was a tribute to the six students from the class Aizawa had expelled who committed suicide. Looking around, the underground hero saw no lack of people crying; he was a little surprised to see Tensei tear up, and was especially surprised to see Enji bawling like a small child. Aizawa, even though he was acting in a way he thought was logical to make sure society was spared future trouble, saw he was instead causing more of it.
Looking around again, Aizawa saw where all of Sekijiro's students were seated, and saw that the one girl with white hair with the bangs covering one of her eyes was the loudest cryer. Aizawa saw Sekijiro near a doorway, so he went to go quietly tell him about that girl in his class. "Oh, you mean Yanagi," Sekijiro said in a regretful voice, "Yeah, apparently Yanagi was in love with Endeavor's son according to Kendo." Gesturing to where Nezu was giving an eulogy on stage, Sekijiro went on, "This is the first she's hearing that the boy she was in love with killed himself."
Aizawa let out a troubled sigh. Now a teen girl is upset her crush is dead. He could only hope that none of the suicides that had occurred because of his expelling the whole of class 1-A on day one will end up causing more damage.
...
It was after the assembly, and Nezu had called for a staff meeting. "Anyway, the first day of the second school week would have seen Aizawa take his class to the USJ so that they could get in a bit of rescue training. But given what had happened, instead Sekijiro will be taking his class to the USJ, with Aizawa and Hizashi going along to help him manage.
"Wait, Nemuri can't make it?" Sekijiro asked, "I did ask if she were available as well."
"She's going to be busy over the next few days, I'm afraid," Nezu replied, "So I will just be Aizawa and Hizashi helping to corral your students at the USJ. At least, she told me that she would be busy."
As Nemuri nodded in confirmation, Aizawa had a sinking suspicion that Nemuri was trying to avoid going to the USJ because he himself was set to go. Picking up a printed hand out on the USJ, Aizawa read it a bit. "...Hang on, it says here that All Might is going to be there to work with all of the students. How will we manage that given he's not working here anymore?"
Sighing, Nezu said, "Actually, All Might isn't going to be at the USJ. Me not changing that part ties into maintaining the charade that All Might still works here."
"What will Sekijiro tell his students at the USJ?" Hizashi asked.
Shrugging, the Blood Hero replied, "We'll tell them the truth. I mean, they already know All Might no longer works at U.A., so there's no point lying to them there."
Aizawa sighed, having a dreading feeling that lying about All Might going to show up at the USJ might somehow blow up in everyone's faces. But then again, the worst that the underground hero could see happening there is some of Sekijiro's students complaining about being lied to, as it's rather common for people to be excited about potentially getting to work with All Might; he's not the number one hero in the country for nothing.
And complaints from the students about All Might not showing up would be no big deal to deal with.
The following Monday, with Sekijiro driving the bus, he, Aizawa, Hizashi, and all of class 1-B were heading for the USJ. "...Maybe we can pass the time by playing a game?" suggested Sekijiro's student Setsuna, trying to sound helpful since there was a bit of gloom in the air.
Gesturing to himself, Sekijiro's student Monoma said, "In that case, I call for a game of I Spy, which I shall start." Looking around, Monoma spotted something and said, "Aha! I spy with my little eye, something that has a pattern on it."
Looking around, the other 1-B students tried finding what Monoma was talking about, up until Sekijiro's student Yosetsu said while pointing at Kinoko. "Her hero outfit?"
"I was going to say your headband, Yosetsu," Kinoko replied.
"Ding ding, Komori's got it!" Monoma said, then added to Yosetsu, "Yeah, it was your headband, Awase."
Shrugging, Yosetsu said, "Alright, then I'll take the next one." Looking around, Yosetsu said, "Ah. I spy with my little eye, something that looks cool."
The 1-B students looked around, up until Yanagi said, "...Hizashi-sensei's shades?"
"You got it, Reiko," Yosetsu replied, "Those shades are sweet, and I even asked Hizashi-sensei where I could get a pair just like them for myself."
"You know, they actually discontinued making these shades a while ago," Hizashi said, "But because I had apparently brought the style back, they've restarted production while renaming the sunglasses as 'Present Mic Shades'. I'm getting royalty payments because of it."
Yosetsu nodded in understanding before turning to look at Reiko. "Alright, Reiko. You're up."
Looking around, Reiko said, "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with the letter M."
That caught the attention of some of the students on the bus. "The letter M?" Sekijiro's student Nirengeki said, "What on the bus starts with the letter M?"
"Monoma?" Itsuka suggested while pointing at Monoma, but Reiko gently shook her head.
After everyone looked around, Juzo said, "Sorry, but we're not seeing anything that could start with the letter M if it's not Monoma you're talking about."
"Oh really, Juzo?" Reiko said, then added while pointing at Aizawa, "So you're saying Murderer doesn't count as something that starts with the letter M?"
"Oh come on, Yanagi," Sekijiro said from the front of the bus, not seeing what was going on but having a fairly good idea of it, "Lay off of Aizawa. He gets comments like that enough as it is. He doesn't need you grilling him."
"Especially since Nemuri had been doing plenty of that," Hizashi said, "And lo and behold, we've made it to the USJ!" Looking out the bus windows, the people on the bus saw that they had indeed arrived at the Unforseen Simulation Joint, or USJ for short.
The bus pulled up, came to a stop, and everyone got off. The students all waited outside of the bus for the senseis to get off. When they did, Sekijiro said, "Yanagi, I'm going to have to ask that you apologize to Aizawa for that comment on the bus."
Nodding in agreement, Hizashi said, "Yeah, little listener. Sho doesn't need to be roasted anymore, because if you roast him with all of the roasting he gets from Nemuri, then he'll be burnt to an ashy crisp that isn't very palatable."
"She... can apologize by agreeing not making comments like that anymore," Aizawa said, knowing full well forcing someone upset with him into doing something they don't wanna do will only end in disaster eventually, "Let's just get into the USJ and meet up with Thirteen." The twenty hero course students from U.A. then followed the men into the USJ, ready to get started on a day of training in the field of rescue work.
Inside of the USJ, the senseis led class 1-B over to the stairs, where Thirteen was waiting with the helmet of her outfit off and held under her left arm. "Glad to see that you all could make it," Thirteen said, "I hope that you all kids are ready, because you're about to get a crash course in how rescue work plays a part in your future careers as pro heroes."
"What exactly is there to keep in mind when doing rescue work, Thirteen-sensei?" Nirengeki asked as he raised a hand.
Nodding once to Nirengeki, Thirteen said, "Good question." To all of class 1-B, Thirteen said, "Basically, rescue work deals with natural disasters most of the time. Earthquake zones, fires, big storms. Not every threat to innocent people are human villains that one can stop by punching them in the face. You can be just as good of a hero when you're saving others from disaster zones and getting them to safety." To the class, Thirteen said, "Now, are there any natural disasters that any of you are interested in talking about first?"
Itsuka, her eyes going wide suddenly as she saw something, raised a hand and said, "Yeah, do giant dark swirling portals count?"
"Wait, what?" Thirteen said as she and the other senseis turned around. Down in the main area of the USJ, a giant swirling portal appeared, and people started walking out of it. Lots of people, and it was clear that none of them were friendly.
"Villains?!" Sekijiro said as he and the other pro hero teachers stood in front of the students, "And now of all times?"
As the villains stepped out of the portal, the heroes saw one covered in hands step out, glaring up at them through the parted fingers on the hand on his face. Following him was a large, hulking, brute of a monster that had a beak like mouth and an exposed brain. Following after that were two other villains; one a humanoid lizard dressed like a skilled assassin and carrying a katana on his back, and a dark haired guy with purple patches of burnt skin all over his body, and he wore a black long coat with the sleeves ending at the elbows.
As more villains came out of the portal, the hand villain looked up at the pro heroes. "Hmm... All Might isn't here," the hand villain said, "I had it down that All Might was going to be here today. Was the information I got a lie?"
"He's running late, villain," Aizawa scowled, remembering the charade that had to be kept up, "And who are you guys?"
The hand villain held his arms out. "We are the League of Villains. We came here today with the goal of killing All Might." The 1-B students all took a step back out of fright, scared of the villains who had come confident enough that they could kill the Symbol of Peace. "Ah, but first where are my manners?" the hand villain said, "I seem to have forgotten to give my name. I'm Tomura Shigaraki, and I'm the star of the show here."
The heroes grimaced as the apparent leader of this League of Villains gave his name to them. "So you guys want to kill All Might?" Sekijiro said, "Well I doubt that you'd be able to pull that off even if he were here. He's the top hero in the country, after all."
Shigaraki merely chuckled in response. "Oh? You think that your high and mighty Symbol of Peace can stand up to my League? Well first off, Nomu here was created and designed specifically to kill All Might." The monstrous brute then raised its head up and gave a guttural, inhuman roar that made all but the bravest of the 1-B students not piss themselves out of fright. "And whoever was it that said we were only going to break All Might physically?" Shigaraki went on.
"What do you mean, you villainous cur?" Hizashi snapped.
"First off, the line 'villainous cur' is old and cheesy," Shigaraki commented, "Second, we have two things in mind to break All Might spiritually. One, we'll be killing as many of the fledgling herolings here as possible, and use their corpses to mock All Might as Nomu kills him!"
The teachers stepped forward one step, intending to act as a wall to protect the 1-B students. "Like hell you'll kill any of my students!" Sekijiro shouted.
"You villains won't lay even one finger on any of them!" Aizawa snapped, his capture tape flaring up, "I'd sooner die than see any harm come to-"
"Wow, Aizawa-sensei. Pretty bold of you to claim that you'd die to protect them, considering what you did to me and the others."
Aizawa stopped short when he was cut off, hearing the voice apparently calling him out. He was able to recognize that voice, heard it come from the side of the villains. The underground hero's heart sunk as, to the heart breaking horror of him and the other pro heroes, Katsuki Bakugo came out of the portal, wearing a variation of his hero costume that replaced the orange with dark red. The former U.A. student, now a villain wanted for murder, was among the League of Villains.
Unable to believe what he was seeing, Aizawa said in a horrified tone that was barely above a whisper, "...Bakugo..." Further driving nails into the hearts of the heroes were five more of the students that Aizawa had expelled coming out of the portal as members of the League of Villains; Kirishima, Sero, Kaminari, Mina, and Kyoka. It was bad enough that his actions had driven one of his former students into villainy; but now Aizawa was seeing a total of six, making for an even ratio to compare to the number that committed suicide.
Bakugo looked up at his former teacher, then over to Shigaraki. "...Well Handsy, you're calling the shots here." Turning his gaze up to Aizawa again, Bakugo went on in a dark knowing tone, "Just tell me when the crew and I can have our playtime."
END, CHAPTER TWO
Author's notes;
Here we see the event where the media stored U.A. campus because Shigaraki let them in (because Tenya wasn't there, it took way longer and was more or less a disaster to deal with), the memorial service paying tribute to the six who committed suicide, and now the beginning of the USJ, where the heroes are horrified to see that Bakugo and the guys who end up joining his squad have all gone villain and joined Shigaraki's team. How all of this will be playing out for the heroes will be seen in the chapters to come. Peace out.