Disclaimer: I do not own Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
If Aizawa expelled…
Chapter two: Daddy Dumbest
Everyone that was seated in the theater room, as well as both the Realmcrafter Talespinner69 and his summoned helper Kotaro, could hear the angry shouting of Aizawa at Toshinori coming from the break room that the two of them had gone into. No-one could make out exact words due to coming from behind a closed door, but some of Aizawa's students could feel it in their bones what the underground hero was shouting at the former Symbol of Peace.
After a few moments, the door opened to reveal a steamed-looking Aizawa coming out, followed by a very clearly cowed Toshinori. The two men both got back to their respective seats in the audience, with Aizawa saying, "There's more I want to go over with you when we next have a break between realms, you blonde skeleton."
Sighing in a resigned tone, Toshinori replied, "Yes, Aizawa."
Over where he sat in the audience, Endeavor folded his arms over his chest as he wore a smug smirk on his face. "Hmph! All Might must have screwed up big time concerning the green-haired boy's training. You'll never see me messing up when it comes to training Shoto!"
"If you can refer to what you've done as quote unquote 'training'," Kotaro muttered under his breath where he stood next to Tale in front of the big screen in the front of the theater room.
Gently shaking his head, Tale said, "Well anywho, the next realm's ready to get going."
"I wonder which of us will be given the axe by Aizawa-sensei next?" Hagakure wondered aloud as the second realm started playing.
...
(If Aizawa expelled Shoto Todoroki)
"Feh, so IcyHot's the second one, eh?" Bakugo in the audience scoffed, folding his arms over his chest as he and the rest of class 1-A looked on to see what would come of their homeroom teacher kicking Todoroki out of UA.
"It...would seem so, Bakugo," Aizawa replied, a hint of dreading worry in his tone; Aizawa had already seen what would happen if he had expelled Izuku, and the consequences of said move were not pretty. He had a dreading feeling that expelling Todoroki would similarly not go over all that well.
It was a lovely enough day over at UA, the top hero academy in Japan. Aizawa was in the teacher's lounge with Hizashi, Nemuri and Toshinori. The eighteen only hero was giving Aizawa a mildly disappointed look. "Shouta, why did you think expelling the Todoroki boy was a good idea again?" Nemuri asked, the sound of worried concern clear in her voice.
Sighing, Aizawa explained, "Because he very clearly was refusing to get over daddy issues that he very clearly has. It won't so him any good if he's in the field and he freezes up out of some inner emotional turmoil because he felt that Endeavor was just a tad too rough in training him."
"Don't..." Hizashi began, a hint of concerned curiosity in his tone, "...Don't you think that maybe Todoroki has said issues for a good reason? I mean, Endeavor very clearly is no saint. I have a gut feeling that maybe Todoroki's beef with his old man has some justification."
Everyone seated in the audience turned to face Endeavor, shooting him a good number of dirty looks that made it clear they were suspicious of him. The flame hero himself merely scowled in an annoyed manner, growling as such.
"You forget that Endeavor is the number one hero right now," Toshinori pointed out, "It won't do us any good to give him any-"
Toshinori was cut off when the door to the teacher's lounge opened, allowing a resigned looking Sekijiro to walk in, accompanied by Hound Dog who wore a disappointed scowl on his face when he shot a look at Aizawa. The two UA staff members entering the lounge like that got the attention of the others already in there, with Aizawa arching a wry eyebrow at Hound Dog when he saw the look that he was giving him.
Gesturing to the two men, Aizawa said, "What's up with you guys? And why are you looking at me like that, Hound Dog?"
Hound Dog merely inhaled and exhaled through his nose, although Sekijiro gave a troubled sigh before he spoke up. "Let's...just say that a whole bunch of crow had just been thrown into Endeavor's face over the last few hours or so."
"...IcyHot's daddy did something to screw up big time," Bakugo in the audience said, "Didn't he?"
"Maybe he lost his temper on Todoroki due to how Todoroki had been expelled by Aizawa-sensei in this realm?" Izuku offered.
"Sekijiro's students and Aizawa's are all getting ready to go and join the protesting outside of Endeavor's agency," Hound Dog remarked, "We...should probably go talk to them." The UA staff members all left the teacher's lounge and went to go see where all of the 1-A and 1-B students had gathered together.
Aizawa was a bit amazed to see the combined forty of them working together without issue, even more so since Sekijiro's boy Monoma was not acting like he had a hate boner for 1-A like he usually does. The underground hero also had a bit of a passing thought when he saw Shinso working so well with everyone despite only very recently being added to 1-A that he was amazed to see how quickly Shinso had taken to acting like one of the team.
"There's me being placed into 1-A again," Shinso in the audience remarked dryly as he gestured to the big screen.
The UA staff got the attention of the first year hero course students. When that happened, a teary-eyed Reiko got up and marched right over to Aizawa, prompting a worried Itsuka and Setsuna to get up and follow her.
Arching a wry eyebrow as some of Sekijiro's girls approached him, Aizawa began, "What the hell are you and everyone else here-"
*SLAP*
The underground hero found himself cut off when Reiko slapped him across the face really, really hard. It was hard enough to fracture a bone in her hand, not that she was focusing on that at the moment. Aizawa was about to ask Reiko what she was thinking, but he was cut off when the ghost girl of 1-B yelled at him as tears ran down the sides of her face, "It's all your fault he's gone, you monster!"
Aizawa was more shocked that Reiko would slap him, so he didn't react with annoyed anger. "What...what do you mean, Yanagi?" Aizawa asked.
"Aizawa-sensei..." Izuku spoke up, prompting the underground hero to turn to face him. Aizawa saw the look of resigned sadness on Izuku's face, the hint that tears were starting to pool up in the corners of the green-eyed boy's eyes. What Izuku said next took Aizawa by surprise, more than he would have expected from any other kind of news.
"...Todoroki hung himself late yesterday evening. He's gone."
"...Huh, so I committed suicide in this realm," Todoroki in the audience said in a mildly interested tone, "Go figure."
"Todoroki-san, how can you be so blase about your alternative self committing such blasphemy?" Ibara asked when she turned her attention to regard the two-tone boy in 1-A.
"Ibara, please quit thinking with your bible," Shihai remarked to his religious classmate, "It's getting on my nerves."
"To...Todoroki committed suicide?" Hizashi asked, with the other staff members there all looking shocked; Sekijiro and Hound Dog both looked heartbroken, and Nemuri looked like she might start crying.
Nodding grimly in the affirmative, Izuku took out a folded up letter. "...Todoroki sent me this, as well as one to Reiko, out of worry the one he left behind at his home would be uncovered by Endeavor on suspicion that Endeavor would cover things up." Izuku then handed the letter to Aizawa, who soon saw that it was a copy of a suicide note.
Reading it, the underground hero saw how the late Todoroki, upon being brought home following his expulsion from UA by Aizawa, wrote about how Endeavor placed all blame for the expulsion solely on the two-toned boy, saying that the expulsion was because Todoroki wasn't strong enough, and proceeded to force Todoroki into the harshest training yet, which according to the suicide note was nothing more than Endeavor physically beating Todoroki for a few hours straight, yelling angrily at him all the while.
Once again in the audience, a number of dirty looks were shot in Endeavor's direction. Even Toshinori was looking rather angry at the man who took his place as the number one hero.
"Todoroki's siblings were the first to discover his body hanging," Izuku said, "And soon the police showed up. Luckily, the copy of Todoroki's suicide note that he left behind at his place was found by Todoroki's older sister Fuyumi and later collected by All Might's detective friend Mr. Naomasa."
"The contents of IcyHot's note prompted the police to investigate Endeavor," Bakugo went on, "And as a result they uncovered all of Endeavor's abuses. ALL of them."
"Word of said abuses had been made public kero," Tsuyu said, "Hence why there are so many protesters gathering outside of Endeavor's agency, as well as why all of us here plan to go join the protesting."
Turning to look at the now softly crying Reiko, Aizawa said, "And she slapped me in the face and is now crying because..."
Gesturing to Reiko, Itsuka explained, "Reiko...was in love with Todoroki. They had been dating for the last few months."
"Todoroki and I were dating in this realm?" Reiko in the audience remarked, looking more surprised than anything.
"Also, faith in the pro heroes has been greatly shaken in light of the fallout from what the media has dubbed as 'Endeavor-gate'," Juzo pointed out, "Because of how the airing of all of Endeavor's dirty laundry prompted investigation into all other pro heroes in Japan, airing all of the dirty laundry that was uncovered as such."
Counting off of his fingers, Yosetsu said, "Uwabami can kiss her pro hero career goodbye, both Mt. Lady and Mirko are on some seriously thin ice and under intense scrutiny..."
"Ryukyu..." Izuku added, "...Is actually okay, and in fact was discovered to be so good that she's being set as the standard as how the citizenry of Japan expects pro heroes to behave." Both Uraraka and Tsuyu looked proud to hear such praise about the pro hero who employs the both of them as interns.
In the audience, a mildly peeved Mirko turned to look at Ryukyu who sat next to her, thus seeing the dragoon hero shoot her a mildly smug look. Scoffing in a mildly annoyed tone, Mirko turned to look away as she said, "...Shut up, Ryukyu."
"And that's just pro hero women who don't work at hero academies," Tenya said as he pulled out his smartphone to pull up the internet, "As we speak, article after article about the failings of pro heroes being uncovered are coming out from various news outlets." Shaking his head, the class 1-A rep said, "Hoo boy, imagine what the Hero Killer would do if he was loose and had access to all of this outcoming information."
"Party," Stain in the audience said, making a number of others turn to regard him, "I'd have a fake hero hunting party, starting with Endeavor." Turning to regard the other villains, Stain added, "And I'd invite all of you aside from Handjob to join me."
"Fuck you," Shigaraki said as he flipped Stain the middle finger.
Sucking in a cringing breath, Hizashi said, "Yeesh, this is really going to knock a good fair bit of change out of the coin purse of hero society here in Japan, don't you-"
"All UA main staff please report to see me for an emergency" Nezu's voice called out over the intercom system, "Classes for the rest of the day have been canceled."
"Woot!" Mina cheered as she pumped both fists into the air, given that she and the others were essentially just given a free pass; this allowed all of them to go join the protesting outside of Endeavor's agency. Aizawa and the other teachers all realized that they had to go to a meeting that Aizawa had a dreading feeling in his gut came about indirectly because he had expelled the late Todoroki.
...
"Things...do not look good for hero society, I'm afraid," Nezu said in a mildly grim tone as he addressed the main members of the UA staff, "As we speak, more and more disconcerting news about many notable pro heroes in Japan are coming out, because of how the airing of Endeavor's dirty laundry caused a search for the dirty laundry of other pro heroes so that all of that could be made available to the public."
"And we should be as worried as you're suggesting we should be because..." Recovery Girl said, trailing off in a manner suggesting that she expected Nezu to fill in the blanks for her.
"At least sixty percent of all pro heroes that are in media trouble are UA alumni," Nezu explained, "When that connection was made, it caused a lot of shade to be thrown at this academy by the vultures that we commonly know as paparazzi."
"Oh, that would be a media and political nightmare," Nezu in the audience remarked, a number of others in the audience nodding in agreement.
Where he sat at the meeting table, Hound Dog folded his arms over his chest and scoffed in an annoyed, bitter tone. "Feh, this is all Aizawa's fault."
The underground hero turned to regard Hound Dog, a suspicious look on his face. "...What are you on about, Hound?"
"This whole shitstorm never would have happened if you had allowed Todoroki to see me so that I could work with him to help him with his issues," Hound Dog began, "Something that I had suggested to you many times, instead of expelling him because he didn't do as you apparently expected of him to do and automatically forgave Endeavor for all transgressions he had made against him."
Aizawa and the others watched as Hound Dog began listing things off of his fingers as he tore into the underground hero. "You expelled Todoroki, which led to Endeavor's worst act of domestic abuse yet where he had beaten Todoroki, then Todoroki hung himself after writing multiple copies of his suicide note and sent most of them out due to fearing Endeavor would try to cover up the suicide if there was only one note."
"That led to Midoriya and Yanagi leaking the contents of the copies they got to the media, which led to the investigation into Endeavor," Sekijiro continued, "And all that was discovered about Endeavor prompted investigators to look into all other Japanese pro heroes, which resulted in many pros effectively losing their careers as pro heroes and a big handful of others barely pulling along by the skins of their teeth."
"Oh, and by the way," Nezu said, "We have a press conference that UA has to hold with the media outside in, like, five minutes." Turning to face Aizawa, the quirked animal principal of UA remarked, "I do not envy you in the slightest."
"No, no I wouldn't envy Aizawa in such a situation," Nezu in the audience remarked casually. Aizawa could pick up on the certain familiar hints of sadisticness in Nezu's tone, hints that made it clear that he was going to enjoy the show.
...
Outside in front of the main UA building, Nezu stood in front of a podium on a stage in front of a vast sea of paparazzi and news media persons. Standing behind Nezu was the rest of the main UA staff, with Aizawa feeling particularly nervous. "Thank you all for being here. I know a lot of you here have questions that you want answered, so I'll turn things over now to UA staff member Shouta Aizawa."
Even before he took Nezu's place in front at the podium, Aizawa was already being bombarded with questions. When he finally took his place at the podium, the underground hero picked the first hand that got his attention. "Your name is Shouta Aizawa, yes?" a female reporter said as she was called on, "Are you the Aizawa-sensei mentioned in the suicide note left behind by Endeavor's late son, the contents of said suicide note having been made public?"
Letting out a troubled sigh, Aizawa replied honestly, "Yes. Shoto Todoroki was my student."
"Is it true that you expelled Endeavor's son because you felt that he should have just dropped whatever issues that he had with and or against Endeavor?" the reporter asked.
Aizawa sucked in a breath, knowing full well that he had to be careful with his word choice here. "...It would not have done him, or the innocent civilians he'd be helping, any good if he kept on holding onto his personal issues. He would have frozen up in-"
"So you expect all of your students to be emotionless soldiers," the reporter said when she cut Aizawa off, "Is that what you're saying?"
"Ah ha ha ha!" Hound Dog in the audience laughed as he pointed at the big theater screen, "Your ass is grass in this realm now, Aizawa!"
"Stuff it," remarked the underground hero in can annoyed tone as he folded his arms over his chest, scowling all the while.
Barely able to keep from sputtering, Aizawa replied, "No, that is not what I expect of the students that I teach at all."
"From what the public has been able to gleam, the late Shoto Todoroki had a desperate need to see a counselor to help him work through his issues," a male reporter cut in this time, "Previous statements you gave made it clear that you were able to tell that Todoroki had those issues, so why didn't you send him to see a counselor? Would you even have allowed him to go and see a counselor?"
"...I was trying to get him ready for a future career as a pro hero," Aizawa began to explain, "There was no time for-"
"So you do expect your students to be emotionless soldiers," the male reporter interrupted, "Having all of your students being ready to punch the next big villain in the face if more of a pressing issue to you than letting them have some time to the side to take care of their inner emotional turmoil first."
"I do NOT expect my students to be emotionless soldiers," Aizawa said firmly.
Face palming as he sat in the theater room, Aizawa in the audience said, "How can the me in this realm be so stupid?"
"With all due respect, that is the media," Toshinori remarked as he gestured to the big theater screen. Where he sat in the audience, Nezu was having a bit of difficulty in keeping himself from laughing out loud at the misfortune of Aizawa on the theater screen.
"Were you aware of any of the late Todoroki's issues with his life at home, specifically those that have anything to do with his father Endeavor?" a second male reporter asked, "If you did have said knowledge ahead of time, would you have acted different?"
Sighing in a troubled tone, Aizawa replied, "...No, I had no idea things between Todoroki and his pro hero father were that bad. Yes, I would have acted differently if I did know, but there was no way for me to know outside of either Todoroki telling me or someone else who knew what was going on telling me." The media reporters kept hurling questions at the underground hero, and he wasn't able to get away until he had been fully dressed down.
His experience with the media that day, as well as what happened in the wake of him expelling Todoroki, made one thing clear to Aizawa; he should've listened to what Hound Dog had been telling him many times in the past and allowed Todoroki some time to work through what all issues he had due to how Endeavor decided to be a father to him.
Once again, a lot of eyes in the audience all turned to look at Endeavor over where he sat. And once more, the flame hero merely scowled.
...
A week later, Aizawa stood in a local cemetery, in front of a grave marker that had Todoroki's name on it. Standing with Aizawa were his students Izuku, Tenya and Shinso, plus Reiko from class 1-B. The ghost girl was softly crying as she visited her late boyfriend's grave, while the boys looked on with grim, resigned expressions.
"...I got it from All Might, as well as Mirio-sempai who was there at the time, that UA teachers are going to be made to go through mandatory training exercises to be able to recognize when students are showing signs of needing help like Todoroki did," Izuku remarked as he and the rest of the group visited Todoroki's grave.
"I heard that Endeavor was stripped of his pro hero status and arrested for the many acts of abuse that he had gotten away with," Tenya commented, "And even some Commission officials are under fire because it was discovered that they were helping to cover up Endeavor's faults due to how effective of a pro hero he was."
"Oh, if the Commission DID do something like that and word of it got out to the general public, it would be a far worse media and political nightmare than a bunch of pro heroes with massive faults being connected to UA," Nezu in the audience remarked, "I would not envy people in such a spot at all."
Gesturing to the big theater screen, Endeavor nearly screamed in a pissed off tone, "And what the hell is up with me not only being stripped of my status as a pro hero, but also being arrested on abuse charges?! What manner of farce is that supposed to be?!"
Down where he and Kotaro stood in front of the big theater screen, Tale gave the flame hero a pissed off look. "...Don't fucking play dumb with me. I know full well what all you've in your bid to be the top pro hero, to take All Might's place as the number one on the charts."
"Is..." Toshinori began in a worried, troubled tone, "...Is all of that really true? Was Endeavor really that obsessed with eventually claiming my spot as number one?"
Turning to regard the former Symbol of Peace, the Realmcrafter explained, "All Might, when he actually did get your spot as number one, Endeavor essentially threw a hissyfit because he got it handed to him when you retired and not because he successfully beat you in the rankings." Toshinori had no idea what to make of what he had just learned, but he did know one thing; he was very disappointed in Endeavor.
"It wasn't just Endeavor," Shinso said, "Many pro heroes were struck on the chopping block. Uwabami is done, and Mirko was barely able to stick around by agreeing to drop her lone wolf attitude and change her hero costume to be less provocative and more modest by covering more of her person."
"Thank goodness that Ryukyu was confirmed to be a golden example of what pro heroes are expected to be like," Izuku commented, "It really helped to restore some of the citizenry's faith in our pro heroes."
Turning to face Ryukyu in the audience where she sat next to her, a very clearly unamused Mirko flipped the dragoon hero the middle finger, to which Ryukyu casually brushed off, too amused by how she's apparently doing so well in the currently playing realm to care.
Aizawa had no idea what to say as he was wallowing in his regret while standing before the grave of his former student; sure, the fact that so much cleaning up of hero society in Japan had taken place is a good thing on paper, but it happened because Todoroki had taken his life to get away from Endeavor's physical abuse, and now the citizenry of Japan has all of its hero society under a scrutinizing eye.
And it's all because Aizawa expelled Todoroki for not getting over his daddy issues fast enough. Hound Dog was right; Aizawa should have listened to him and sent Todoroki to see him to help him work through his issues instead.
FIN
After the realm finished playing on the big theater screen, Tale and Kotaro turned to face the summoned audience. "...Well now," Kotaro said, "That got rather heavy."
"Kind of makes me wonder in a worrying sense what the other realms where Aizawa expels one of his students will be like," Tale commented.
Hound Dog snickered a bit, clearly amused by how he was depicted as being right while at the same time Aizawa was depicted as being wrong. As for the underground hero himself, he had a dreading sense of worry that the realm where he had expelled Todoroki just now was not going to be the worst one.
As for Mineta, the perverted purple midget was silently happy that he got through a realm without being killed off for a change.
END OF CHAPTER
Author's notes;
Yeah, I wanted to go in a direction with the consequence of Aizawa expelling Todoroki being more politically fatal than actually fatal, although there was still an actual death. Luckily, there will be no deaths in the next chapter, that I can promise you. First person to guess who gets expelled in the next chapter gets a shout out if it's signed.