The loud creak of the heavy doors have every head in the room turning. All eyes land on Bakugou, and he grits his teeth and scowls, tilting his chin down as his shiny red eyes skitter around the room. He spots just about all of his teachers sitting in the rows of chair and dressed nicely, with the exception of a few who are ready in their hero garb along the walls, standing guard outside the building, and even one or two—Snipe included—in a shadowy and barely perceptible spot with eyes on the criminals in the well of the courtroom.

When Bakugou's gaze lands on this row as he is carefully carted to the front of the room, he sees the back of the head of each of the men he has had nightmares of for so long. The pink hair of Anzhong sticks out like a dangerous and disgusting beacon to Bakugou despite the mesh of bright colors in the room. Feeling his chest rise and fall more heavily, Bakugou clenches the arms of his wheelchair so tightly that he is certain they should be breaking. He assures himself that they would be shattered by now if he had not just been seen to by Recovery Girl.

The slight squeaking of the wheelchair continues making its way down the aisle, and Bakugou, Kirishima, and Aizawa finally arrive at the front of the room. As it is unnecessary for him to go all the way up and through the small swinging doors to the well of the courtroom, Kirishima brings him to the front row of the spectator seats, slowing coming to a halt beside them. Aizawa steps around him, his gaze carefully observing Bakugou's movements, and gestures for Bakugou to sit.

Peering down the row, the blonde boy is faced with his parents, their faces set firmly and their eyes glassy but determined and comforting. Bakugou swallows thickly before, slightly wobbly, whether from stress or healing is unknown, he pulls himself from the wheelchair and slips into the row, scooting down it until he is beside his mother. Mitsuki wraps a hand around Bakugou and gently tugs him the last few inches until he is squished securely against her side while she hugs him there. Bakugou allows the comfort, melting into it a bit despite his body's tenseness, and he looks at his father who sits on Mitsuki's other side. Receiving a small smile of reassurance from Masaru and feeling his right hand be carefully folded into his father's two, Bakugou turns back to look at Kirishima.

The redhead solemnly slips into the same row, right next to Bakugou, offering a bright smile as if to say, "Everything is going to be fine, now," and Bakugou feels his cheeks flush slightly. Rolling his eyes, Bakugou shifts his gaze to Aizawa, who proceeds to head through the swinging doors and to his seat beside their lawyer.

As Aizawa passed fully and someone removes the wheelchair from the aisle, Bakugou finally gets a good look at Anzhong. He almost chokes at the sight, a disbelieving smile tugging at his lips as his eyes widen at the ridiculous sight. No room is left in his chest for nerves at the moment. Now, the multiple policemen surrounding the pink-haired man make perfect sense and fit into the gloomy ambiance of the room quite well. However, the absolutely mummified appearance of Anzhong himself, rivaling and even surpassing Aizawa's wardrobe after the USJ incident, looks, quite frankly, stupid.

The criminal's hair is free atop and behind his head, but, from here, Bakugou can see that it is practically spouting out from the bandages circling the rest of his noggin, making him look like a very distasteful potted plant that belongs in Delores Umbridge's disgustingly pink office amongst cat photos. The man's arms are stiffly held in front of him, looking, in Bakugou's opinion, as thick as elephant legs but with stubby and puffy little worm-looking fingers, also wrapped in white bandaging, sticking out awkwardly from them. That is not to say that his feet look much better, as one is stuck toward the ground while the other protrudes in front of him and is propped up on some awkward-looking thing that seems like it may fall and potentially hurt the cripple further. The rest of Anzhong's body is covered with so much gauze and so many rolls of bandage that he looks like a lumpy piñata.

Only one of Anzhong's eyes is visible at all, the other being completely wrapped up. His face essentially has strips of bandaging with one slit for an eye and two nose holes that only Voldemort could rival in a beauty pageant.

Bakugou slaps a hand over his mouth, and Kirishima looks over at him in worry, leaning toward him as if asking to be told what is wrong. The only explanation he gets however, is a scoff and a condescending sneer as Bakugou tilts his chin toward the criminals' seats.

Looking questioningly where he was directed to, Kirishima's eyebrows rocket upward while his eyes widen. He turns back toward Bakugou and chuckles lightly. "You know, bro," Kirishima whispers conspiratorially. Bakugou side-eyes him questioningly and smirks, hand still sprawled somewhat over his mouth. "I think his new look suits him."

Bakugou scoffs and rolls his eyes. "I could make you look like that anytime you like, Shitty Hair," he replies haughtily, making Kirishima smile, and Bakugou cannot help but feel the slightest tinge of happiness just now, looking at those crinkled eyes and that big, toothy smile. Kirishima catches Mitsuki and Masaru's grateful gazes while they watch the two.

The room goes silent when the judge steps inside. Bakugou and Kirishima straighten themselves up, but when they are all asked to rise they have to focus on not pettily screaming at Anzhong to remind him of his inability to do so, as he does not have much of a choice in the manner. The sound of something breaking and a throaty and indistinct yelp filling the air makes Kirishima choke back a laugh and Bakugou grin a malicious and toothy satisfied smile.

As the courtroom proceeds into formalities, the mood is dampened, however, and Bakugou's nerves begin to rise again. He watches the back of Aizawa's head intently, as he allows words to roll over him, the familiarity of having his parents and Kirishima next to him the only things anchoring him to reality.

When Bakugou feels a gentle shake, he notices Kirishima's hand nudging his shoulder. Looking forward again, Bakugou hears the fuzzy words solidifying just in time to hear the judge say, "In just a moment, the bailiff will take you to the jury room to consider your verdict. One of the first things you will want to do is to select a foreperson that will preside over your deliberations the way that a chairperson does at a meeting. It will be the foreperson's duty to sign the verdict form when you have agreed on a verdict. Whatever verdict you render must be unanimous. That is each and every person must agree on the same verdict. The Bailiff will now escort you to the deliberation room."

Feeling like his heart is being clenched in the bony claws of fate, Bakugou takes some deep breaths. He tightens his grip on his father's hand, Masaru squeezing back briefly to reassure him, and his other hand curls into a fist. Bakugou startles slightly when he feels something touch his left hand, his eyes shooting up to meet Kirishima's concerned and wary ones. Bakugou looks back down when Kirishima's fingers prod at his own, and, eventually, he opens his hand a bit to allow Kirishima to hold it properly.

Resting back in his chair, leaning his head back slightly, Bakugou focuses on the hands in his and the arm wrapped around him as he waits for the verdict.

When the jury finally comes back, which does not take too long, Bakugou feels as if his lungs are smaller than ever, struggling to squeeze air into and out of themselves.

The judge nods at the jurors and asks, "Have you reached the verdict?"

"We have, your Honor," the foreperson of the jury responds.

Bakugou's heart races, and it feels like his vision is about to tunnel, worry, nerves, and fear banging on the door at the back of his mind and clawing at it like rabid dogs.

"What say you?"

However, there was no need to worry.

The foreperson clears her throat. "We, the Jury, unanimously submit the following verdicts concerning the charges listed below:

"Concerning the charge of dealing large quantities of narcotics, we, the Jury, find the defendant guilty. Concerning the charge of aggravated assault on over fifty accounts, we, the Jury, find the defendant guilty. Concerning the charge of deadly conduct, we, the Jury, find the defendant guilty. Concerning the charge of manslaughter on multiple accounts, we, the Jury, find the defendant guilty. Concerning the charge of murder on multiple accounts, we, the Jury, find the defendant guilty. Concerning the charge of sexual assault on multiple accounts, we, the Jury, find the defendant guilty. Concerning the charge of rape on multiple accounts, we, the Jury, find the defendant guilty. Concerning the charge of rape of a minor, we, the Jury, find the defendant guilty."

Of course, there are some crimes added on for each of the criminals individually, such as Anzhong's charge for escaping prison. In the end, they list out that the jury suggests Ito Nobuhiko, or the chain user, Ikeda Itsuki, or the green bean, and Higuchi Shingo, the undercut guy, all to around and slightly over one hundred years in prison with no bail and no chance of probation. Anzhong, as the ringleader of the group and the person who committing the most and the worst of the criminal acts, is sentenced to "one hundred forty-five years in a deep level of Tartarus with no bail and no chance of parole."

"Thank you, Jury, for your work," the judge says.

Bakugou gapes as the judge says some final remarks. He feels his mother tighten her grip on him and his father's hand clench his more tightly. Turning, Bakugou finds his head feeling somewhat fuzzy, but that does not matter right now, especially as he hears a gavel hit wood resoundingly and multiple cheers fill the room. What matters is not the tears leaking unnoticed out of Bakugou's eyes nor Kirishima's shimmering red eyes over a big water smile. What matters is that Bakugou is safe now, with his family around him and the knowledge that his attackers will rot away in Tartarus.

Actually, now that he thinks about it, that smile on Kirishima's face and the firm arms that wrap around him certainly feel important to Bakugou right now. That is why he ignores his tears, loosely shifting away from his mother and into Kirishima's hold, tucking his head into his best friend's shoulder and holding onto his shirt.

It felt nice for Bakugou to be able to feel so safe that he could ignore the criminals that he will never see again, even though they have not left the room.

These arms, for him, are safety.

———————————————————————

BOOM THEYRE GETTING LOCKED UP FOR GOOD WITH NO ESCAPE 🤩
And yes I used American procedure things cuz I have no idea how court works even in the US and it'd be even harder for me to try to figure out Japan's

And yes I did show some of my Harry Potter nerd-ness in this chapter. Fight me 😎 Harry Potter is the only reason I started to read fanfic anyway lol

Also, I used a mock trial thing to figure out what to have the judge and jury say so 👁👄👁 sorry if stuff's inaccurate but I tried bro
Hope you liked this chapter! Things are finally wrapping up! Just a bit left to go ;)

I did some edits in this chapter so that's why I got a notification if u did* not substantial at all, just something that was bothering me a lot and would pop up in my head every once in a while so I decided to just fix it :)

~Angry
Word Count: 1877