Chapter 41 – Opinions

Raiko's POV

After Class

I had just finished my class for the day, my last class was with 3-A where I met the Big Three for the first time and I had to agree that they were pretty impressive, I'd even say that nearly all third years would be excellent heroes.

I went to Nezu's office, as I had a meeting with him and Aizawa about Bakugou and what do to with him. I had told him to go home for now and that he would know the consequences of his actions soon.

If I had the final say in this, I would have expelled Bakugou on the spot, but I didn't, it would be up to Nezu to decide what to do with him, and he probably wouldn't expel him.

I entered the dog-mouse-bear chimera's office and saw that he and Aizawa were already there, I was the last one to arrive.

I politely refused some tea that Nezu offered me and he started to speak after he was done brewing his own beverage.

"I understand that student Bakugou had an unacceptable behaviour today in class, M.Shuzenji. Would you please explain in detail what he did?"

"This morning, we had a class of quirk analysis where I brought the Sludge villain for students to fight and train against. Obviously, I knew that Bakugou and Midoryia add some history with this villain and that was part of the reason why I chose this villain. I had the intention of showing to Bakugou through actions rather than words, as words don't seem very effective in his case, that no-one can deal with everything on their own, you need allies and teamwork," I began my summary of what had happened.

"We went to training ground Beta, as most villain battles happen in an urban environment, and I freed the Sludge villain. Bakugou's team was the first to fight him, but Bakugou decided to fight against the villain, alone, not even consulting his teammates. I had expected that, as he had a previous experience with this villain, so I let him continue while his teammates started to rescue the civilian bots. Bakugou continued his onslaught, to no avail, as the Sludge villain is much immune to physical attacks under most circumstances, that's why he had teammates, I had made his team so that they could easily defeat the villain if they worked together."

"Sadly, he continued to fire explosions at the villain for long, completely disregarding the civilian bots, while his teammates did their best to bring him and back to reason and save the civilians bots. I let him continue, hoping, in vain, that he would learn his lesson, but he didn't. I decided to stop him when a debris caused by one of his attacks injured was of his teammates. Bakugou didn't even realize that he had injured someone, he kept mindlessly attacking the villain, to no avail. I told them, Bakugou and the villain to stop, three times! Only the villain listened, Bakugou continued. At this point, I had enough, so I approached him and lifted him in the air, hoping to bring him back to reality, but he fired a blast at me instead, and a powerful one, it would've injured me pretty seriously if I hadn't dodged. Then, he came back, and realized what he had done. But I couldn't see culpability or regret in his eyes, no, only fear, fear of the consequences of what he had done. He wasn't even sorry. I sent him back to the classroom and continued my class. Also, I have video footage of everything if you want to see it yourselves," I stopped talking, letting think about what I had said.

The two people listening to me frowned deeply, in thought about the troublesome student.

"That is indeed appealing, such behaviour obviously can't go unpunished, but you did make him face a villain that possibly traumatized him, you were also at fault in this matter," Nezu replied.

"I know, I had chosen the Sludge villain purposefully, but his actions weren't motivated by a deep trauma, he felt pleasure during his fight. And he didn't stop even I told him to and that the villain had completely stopped moving. He was motivated by vengeance, and I am not saying that vengeance is always a bad thing, but it is when you endanger others in the process", I coldly retorted, unhappy and not bothering to hide it.

"I understand, but aren't you a little too harsh on him? He is only a student after all," Nezu asked, he probably was just testing me, wanting to know my opinion.

"Harsh? A hero's life isn't fun and games, reality is harsh, I'm sure that Aizawa here agrees with me, and is harsher on his students that I am on mine. After all, if a student attacked him, he would immediately expel him. I've seen his records, and he has expelled for less than this."

"So what do you propose as a punishment for student Bakugou?

"Simple, expel him. It's the second incident like this that Bakugou is the cause of. In two days! This first one was during the battle trials, I'm sure you know about it already. And even his behaviour outside of class is unacceptable, he constantly insults students, tries to make them feel inferior to him, clearly is a narcissist and has a superiority complex. I have proof that he was like this before, that he bullied students at his primary school for years but that the teachers let it slip because he had a powerful quirk. The worst in this, he took pleasure in it, the suffering of others. He is a bully, someone with complete disregard for everyone's safety, the only thing he wants is to win and be number one, he has no interest of saving others like a hero should." I stated with cold fury.

Bakugou wasn't a hero, not one bit, in my opinion. I didn't even bother using Emotional Manipulation to calm my anger, I was still in control of myself.

"You know what's happening with Endeavor right?" I asked, "If he continues like this, he'll be even worse than Endeavor. Although Endeavor was a horrible person, he was a good hero, but Bakugou will be a bad person and an even worse hero. He has no place in a hero school, he isn't a hero at all. Hero saves people, Bakugou hurts them, and takes pleasure in it. That's the behaviour of a villain if you ask me." I finished my tirade, I had given my opinion, it was up to them to see if they would listen to me.

"Isn't that a little too much? Expel him, he did score second place at the Entrance Exam, he would make a very powerful hero. We could give him a second chance," Nezu answered me.

"There are no shortages of powerful heroes, but what we don't have enough of are good heroes. Bakugou won't be a good hero, he will do more damage than anything else as a hero. He hasn't proven me wrong on this point so far, he's more proven me right that anything, really. Do we want him as a model of what hero should be? No, we don't." I would not change my opinion, not on this matter.

"I must disagree with you on this point, M.Shuzenji, but I understand you. Aizawa, what do you think of this mess, you haven't said a word since the beginning of this discussion, Nezu asked Aizawa.

"I also disagree with Shuzenji, I think we should give Bakugou a second chance. Only one other chance, if he doesn't manage to change I'll show him to door myself. And visits to the school therapist, he clearly needs one. I think he has potential. But we still need to punish him appropriately, he needs to understand that his actions have consequences," Aizawa declared, ultimately disagreeing with me.

It was my turn to frown, but if they both didn't want Bakugou to be expelled now, he wouldn't, I had no say in this matter. I was displeased, to say the least, but the decision wasn't in my hands and I wouldn't cause a scene only for this, I chose my battles, and this wasn't one of them.

"As for his punishment, I'd say we suspend him one week, mandatory therapist consultation until he improves his behaviour, and if he still doesn't improve how he acts, further punishment or expulsion. And if he causes another incident like this, expulsion, there are limits to my benevolence," Nezu stated.

"Fine, but he'd better improve himself, because I have no time to deal with him," I conceded.

"I also agree with Shuzenji on this," Aizawa said.

"Good, I believe that matter I closed now, I will contact Bakugou and his parents to explain everything to them.

While it didn't end like I would've preferred, it was still appropriate, Bakugou would get one last chance, but I feared that he would just hurt people more and be a bad example. He still received quite a severe punishment, there was nothing more I could do.

Maybe I was too harsh on him…

I had seen the bad side of heroes too much as Knockout, and I also feared Bakugou would be in it if he became a hero, but if they really insisted, I would give him one last chance.