Disclaimer: I do not own Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
My Hero Academia: Entreri Gaiden
Chapter twenty-eight: Suffering
Izuku Midoriya, otherwise known as the number one hero Deku, had a somber look of concern on his face when his wife Ochaco, the pro hero Uravity, told him about the meeting she had just gotten out of concerning UA first year hero course student Hikari Veldora. Izuku got all of the details, including how she's been starving herself as a form of self-imposed punishment, and her relation to Kolulu Veldora, whose suicide several years ago is what had compelled Ryumaru Okami to go down the path of villainy.
The greatest hero, however, was surprised to learn one other detail that his wife shared with him concerning the meeting. "Hikari has a crush on our son?" Izuku asked, surprised by the reveal that the slender, horned nerdy girl is in love with Fuyuki.
Ochaco nodded in the affirmative. "From what I've been able to glean on the matter myself, the feelings that Hikari has for Fuyuki are comparable to those that I had for you before they became stronger and truly blossomed." Ochaco's expression became sad at the recollection of the memory of her son. "...It's part of why I can understand where Hikari is coming from. I mean, if I had been tricked into turning on you Izuku, and then you were promptly cleared of any and all wrongdoing, I doubt I'd ever be able to forgive myself."
Izuku nodded in understanding. "...A lot of people were tricked into turning against Fuyuki due to Inko's misguided bid to get revenge against me for what happened to Kacchan. But beating up ourselves over it won't fix the problems at hand, both finding Fuyuki and trying to help him heal from the ordeal he's been put through without any reason."
"What do you think we should do to find Fuyuki?" Ochaco asked, a tear running down the side of her face, "The more time passes that Fuyuki isn't found, the more I feel like I'm breaking apart on the inside, Izuku. I..." Ochaco sniffled a bit, holding back some more tears. "...I just want my baby to come back home, Izuku."
"As much as I would like to have a leading hand in the effort to find Fuyuki and bring him back home," Izuku said, "As pro heroes the both of us are needed more on the hunt for Fine Wine, as per what President Mera of the HPSC says. We just have to have faith that the missing persons unit will have some good results for us, Ochaco."
The gravity hero broke down into gentle crying as she fell into her husband, crying softly into his well-toned chest as he gently placed his strong, powerful arms around her in a reassuring hug. He really did want to put his efforts into finding and bringing his boy home, but Izuku's duties as a pro hero, especially one of note as he's the number one hero, compel him to help the other pro heroes with the hunt for the criminal gang lord in charge of the greatest active criminal gang in the entire country.
Yet one more reason why Izuku wanted to stop Fine Wine, as well as his elite thug Entreri, at all costs and as soon as possible.
Later that night, Fuyuki was with three of Fine Wine's other thugs as they had a female pro hero who had graduated from Ketsubutsu in front of them in an alleyway. The female pro hero had a bear theme from the looks of it, and she had some degree of physical strength. Despite being very much outnumbered, the bear pro hero was determined not to let the four thugs that have her surrounded take her down.
The first of the other three thugs, the same black-haired female thug who bought info from Index on Nezu's location, scoffed in annoyance. "Damn it, this bear bitch is proving to be a huge pain in the ass."
"You think we can take her down?" asked a male bald thug whose light caramel skin denoted a mixed race heritage.
"None of you will take me down!" proclaimed the bear pro hero, "I'll defeat the sorry lot of you, then turn you over to the police! Then I'll laugh about your downfall as I tell my kids at home how I had played a hand in giving Fine Wine a-"
The bear pro hero was cut off when Fuyuki, a wild look in his eyes, rushed her when her back was turned to him, then he jabbed his hunting knife's blade into her throat before pushing it out, then kicking the doomed pro hero over onto the ground of the alleyway. The three thugs looked impressed with the disguised, runaway teen, although the female thug looked a little bit scared by what Fuyuki had done just now while looking as he did.
The mixed heritage thug had an amused smirk on his face. "...Wow, that was some pretty impressive stealth you used to help take out this pro hero, Entreri," the mixed heritage thug said, "Remind me to never get on your bad side, my dude."
As the three other thugs went about searching the bear pro hero who Fuyuki had just killed, Fuyuki himself stepped back, his eyes still a bit wide with wildness. Fuyuki wasn't sure what it might have been, but something about killing the bear pro hero just now felt cathartic to him. The runaway teen supposed that it must be because she had revealed herself to be a mom just before he introduced his hunting knife to her throat.
"...Yes, that's it," Fuyuki thought, "Killing that pro hero just now felt like I was letting off how I feel about my own family. A feeling of catharsis I had been denied last time because Mineta's daughter and Akio were both present at the same time. If I had been able to kill Inko and Uncle Katsuki, then not only would that cover part of my desire for revenge..."
Fuyuki gripped the handle on his hunting knife tighter, Before loosening the grip. "...But it would also have the added benefit of making Aunt Pony suffer. Yes, I want her to suffer. I want mom to suffer. I want all of them to suffer. And not just my family, no." Fuyuki looked up at what sky was visible to him from where he stood in the alleyway.
"All thirteen of the women in UA's 'legendary year' have to suffer. They are all the same, they have the same way of thinking, of behaving. Vine and Invisible Girl already have a head start, so I'll leave the two of them alone. For now." With a single swift swing of his hunting knife, Fuyuki flung all blood off of it. His wide, wild eyes stared wildly up at the night sky, now that he had a game plan in mind on what to do.
The following morning, some police were surrounding the entrance to the alleyway as the scene inside was being investigated by Naomasa, the greenhorn cop, Izuku and Todoroki. "Another case of a pro hero being killed by Fine Wine's men, sirs," the greenhorn cop said in a troubled tone, "We've got evidence suggesting that there were a total of four men involved in the killing of the pro hero, but the killing blow looks to match what Fine Wine's elite thug Entreri has been known to inflict."
Todoroki snapped his fingers in disappointment. "Damn it. Entreri was here."
Looking where the dead pro hero laid on the ground, covered by a white sheet, Izuku scowled grimly. The assassin-style thug was starting to prove to be more of a bogeyman to the pro heroes than the man that said thug worked for. Not only that, but Izuku and Todoroki got it that the dead pro hero had a husband and two kids, who have yet to be informed of the loss that their family had suffered. By killing the bear pro hero, Entreri had deprived a family of both a wife and a mother.
...A stinging bit of news that Izuku and his extended family knows of all too well, given that Izuku's mom Inko had passed away a while ago. Of course, Granny Inko wasn't taken from the family by a villain, but the principle remains the same when you get right down to it. And there are more families aside from just that of the dead bear hero's that had been made to suffer due to actions that, ultimately, can be traced right back to the criminal gang lord that is in charge of the greatest active criminal gang in the entire country.
Looking up from the ground and to Naomasa and the greenhorn cop, Izuku asked, "Is there any evidence at all that can help lead us to Entreri?"
"I'm afraid not, Deku," the greenhorn cop replied with a gentle shake of her head, "He's being just as elusive as the man he works for."
As the number one hero snapped his fingers in disappointment, Naomasa said, "There's no way we're going to just roll over and let Fine Wine and his crew run roughshod over the country. No matter what it takes, no matter how long it will take, we will bring down his criminal empire, and we will bring Fine Wine and all of his men to justice."
Izuku nodded in agreement, determined to do all that he could to bring Fine Wine to justice for what all his machinations had wrought. However, that would have to wait a bit as Izuku was asked by Naomasa to be the one to deliver the tragic news to the family of the bear pro hero on what had happened to their wife and mom. It wasn't the first time that the number one hero had to bring such news to a family ever since Fine Wine's rise to power had begun, and Izuku feared that it was going to be far from the last.
So it was with a heavy heart that Izuku agreed to be the bearer of bad news to the family of the bear pro hero who had been found murdered in the alleyway. It was one of the few things about being a pro hero that Izuku hated, but it was something that had to be done regardless. Izuku was also going to promise the family of the bear pro hero that justice will be gotten for them, that the ultimate lynchpin responsible for everything would be found and made to answer for all that he had done.
And that ultimate lynchpin wasn't the only person Izuku was interested in getting a hold of.
Meanwhile, over at Mineta's primary warehouse hideout, the man himself was watching TV, smirking to himself as he watched a parody news show. The parody news show even did a parody sketch showing someone playing Deku confronting someone playing Fine Wine, ie Mineta himself. The criminal gang lord let out an amused laugh when he saw that the person playing his criminal self was a suave and debonair man of at least 180cm, with slicked back shiny black hair and a wispy moustache.
Mineta couldn't help but wonder about the looks on people's faces if they ever saw that the real Fine Wine was shorter than most middle schoolers and first year high schoolers.
As the criminal gang lord watched the parody news show, he heard a knock on his office door, so he called for whoever it was on the other side to come on in. To Mineta's mild amusement, it was Fuyuki. The disguised, runaway teen wrote on his dry erase board before turning it around to show his boss what he had written.
That bear pro hero is dead now. Her death ought to be making the news soon, first providing time for the police and pro heroes to let her surviving family know before the news gets out publicly.
Mineta clapped his hands together in amusement. "Well hot damn, Entreri! You did it again! The name of Fine Wine will be growing more and more until the police and pro heroes realize that it's pointless to try standing up to me!" Fuyuki wiped his dry erase board, then wrote something else to show his boss what he wanted to ask.
What is your ultimate end goal, sir? Provided that you have one. Sorry, but I'm just curious.
Mineta arched a wry eyebrow at his elite thug's written question. "...Let me ask that question right back at you, Entreri. What is your ultimate end goal?" Fuyuki wiped his dry erase board, and actually gave what he wanted to say some thought before he began writing his response. After a few moments, Fuyuki wrote what he wanted to say, then turned his dry erase board around to show what he wrote to Fine Wine.
Ultimately, I want revenge. Plain and simple.
Mineta arched a wry eyebrow at that. "...You don't secretly want to get revenge on me like Ryumaru did, do you?" The disguised, runaway teen gently shook his head in the negative as he wiped his dry erase board, before writing a new message that he showed to his boss when he had finished writing it.
No, sir. I assure you that you are not one of the persons that I seek to make suffer for the hand that had been forced upon me.
The criminal gang lord relaxed at that, if only a bit. "...Yeah, you would have done so by now after you had learned who I really am. It's the reason why Ryumaru never tried to pull anything even though it turned out that I'm the guy he was aiming to track down and kill. He never got it that I'm the guy he was looking for." Fuyuki wiped his board before writing something else that he then showed to Mineta.
You're the person that a lot of people in Japan are looking for, sir. It's just that no one has yet to figure it out that you're Fine Wine.
Mineta nodded in agreement with his elite thug. "True, true. Part of my success as the biggest name that even the police and pro heroes fear is due to how no one knows who I really am. I'll have nothing to worry about so long as I remain anonymous." Giving Fuyuki a wry look, Mineta went on, "Well anyway Entreri, I have another job for you to take care of for me."
Fuyuki watched it as his boss took out a vanilla folder and slid it over to him on the desk. "The number one hero, Deku, has been a thorn in my side one too many times. Furthermore, there's the undeniable fact that Dynamight, who has been restored and has since come back out of his retirement that Akio had put him into a few years ago, is catching up quickly to where he was at when he had left off."
The disguised, runaway teen arched a wry eyebrow when both his father and his uncle were mentioned in the same breath by Mineta. "...This job," Mineta began to explain, "Will be similar in nature to the job where I had the son of Red Riot and Shemage kidnapped, with the ultimate end goal being to liberate some more of my men who had been captured by the police and the pro heroes before being thrown into jail."
Mineta gave the folder a gentle pat, with the last pat keeping his hand on the folder. "...However, the targets for the kidnapping this time will be far rowdier than a well behaved boy who was never even aware we had kidnapped him and held him for some manner or ransom. It's a good thing that my men and I had been able to secure some quirk suppressing collars, because we're going to be needing them for this one."
Fine Wine removed his hand at last, allowing for Fuyuki to pick the folder up, open it and take a look at the details for the kidnapping job inside. When he saw what was inside, who the targets for this second kidnapping job were, his eyes widened a bit out of surprise, especially given who it was that Fuyuki was being put on the team for in order to help carry out the kidnapping to get some leverage for Mineta to use to coerce the police and pro heroes into releasing more of his captured men from prison.
The criminal gang lord smirked a bit in amusement when he saw the look of surprise in his elite thug's eyes. "...That's right, Entreri. We're going to be kidnapping Deku's wife Uravity, as well as Dynamight's wife Rocketti. I figured that two of Japan's most notable pro heroes, especially as one of them is the number one hero, would be more willing to play ball with me if I have the two lovely ladies listed in that dossier right there."
Fuyuki considered the job that he was being put on, the opportunity that it presented to him. He was being sent directly after both his mom and his aunt, two of the people who he wanted to make suffer the most. Judging by the details of the job he was being put on, Fuyuki could tell that both his mom and his aunt had to be kept alive, since a live hostage was more valuable in the business of hostage exchanging.
But the job did say that Uravity and Rocketti were free to rough up a bit otherwise. That was all that Fuyuki needed to accept being put on the job of capturing and keeping a hold of his mom and his aunt. Looking up from the dossier detailing the kidnapping job to snatch Uravity and Rocketti, Fuyuki gave his boss an affirmative nod. The criminal gang lord in charge of the largest active criminal gang in the country gave an amused chuckle as he regarded his elite thug.
"...Glad to see that you're on board with this one, Entreri," Mineta said, "Yeah, the women will be kept at a secure location nowhere near where I am, as I cannot risk being seen or heard by them. Especially so in regards to Uravity, as she saw me when she accompanied Deku, Red Riot and Shemage a while ago to accost me over how my daughter Ichigo had been acting towards one of the UA boys attending Faerun High for the time being. I think it was the son of Red Riot and Shemage themselves."
Fuyuki was surprised to hear that; he knew that his boss had met with some pro heroes in a parents and parents meeting discussing Ichigo's behavior, but he had no idea at all that Mineta had met with his (Fuyuki's) parents. The disguised, runaway teen was not sure how to feel about it, wasn't sure what he'd do if he encountered them while there wasn't orders from the boss that kept him from acting in certain ways.
All that Fuyuki knew was that, at least for the time being, after his mom and aunt are caught, they both had to be kept alive in order to coerce the pro heroes and police into playing ball with Fine Wine. But Fuyuki figured that they only had to be kept alive for so long; when Fine Wine's men had taken Komaru, Red Riot and Shemage were given an hour to have Akio released before Komaru would be 'left hanging for them to find'.
That being said, Fuyuki figured that there would be a time limit set this time as well, and if said time limit was burnt up wholly then Uravity and Rocketti would be made to expire, to show the pro heroes and police that Fine Wine is serious. As such, if the need did arise, then Fuyuki would volunteer to be the one to void the respective warranties of his mom and aunt. It would be a very good jumpstart on making his family suffer for what they did to him slash allowed to have happen to him.
And Fuyuki was confident he could make his mom and aunt both suffer in the meantime, before they had to be released one way or the other.
Over at Faerun High, Ochaco and Pony had just waved Kinoko off; it was the end of the day, and the students were all heading home for the night. Kinoko was taking Komaru home, and Bakugo had taken Inko home before that, giving her a whack on the back of the head because she's still in trouble. This left Pony free to continue her patrol duties with Ochaco, who was still a bit sad that she couldn't do anything like what Kinoko did with Komaru, what Bakugo did with Inko.
Pony gave her sister-in-law a confident nod. "Don't worry, Ochaco," Pony said, "We'll fine Fuyuki soon enough. And when we get him home, we'll show him all the love that he's needed all of this time, love that we never should have withheld."
"I still can't believe what we did to him, Pony," Ochaco said sadly, "What I did to him. The hell kind of a mother am I? I had allowed a lie to trick me into turning on my own son, trick me into pushing him into running away from home. What if..." A few tears ran down from Ochaco's eyes down the sides of her face. "...What if Fuyuki isn't even al-"
"We will fine him, Ochaco," Pony assured her sister-in-law, cutting her off, "He is alright, we will find him, and we will bring him home." The two female pro heroes then began to round a corner on their patrol around the wall surrounding Faerun High, but they were met with a little bit of a surprise when they ran into a group of men around the back of the school, where there was little in the ways of other kinds of traffic.
The two women instantly went into stances for fighting, but were taken by surprise when they were jumped from behind by thugs who covered their mouths with gloved hands while two men rushed the women from the front, one per hero. High tech collars were placed around their necks, and Ochaco and Pony could both feel their quirks being suppressed. The two of them looked to the mixed heritage thug standing in front of them.
"Yeah, you ladies have been invited to attend a little meet and greet with me and some of the other men in Fine Wine's crew," the mixed heritage thug said as gags were placed over the mouths of the women, "The invitation is mandatory, by the way." Once properly captured, both Ochaco and Pony were thrown into the back of the van that had pulled up, with the mixed heritage thug and a few others getting in as well. The whole snatch and sprint took at most around half a minute to pull off.
As the van sped off to who could say where, Ochaco and Pony were sat upright in the spacious area in the back of the van. When they were upright, the two female pro heroes were surprised to see that Entreri himself was in the back, glaring at the women who had just been kidnapped. The assassin-style thug was behind two other thugs, but both women kept their eyes firmly on him, burning the sight of his crimson red hair and similarly colored eyes into their memory.
Neither of them had any idea that it was just the work of spray-on hair dye and colored contact lenses, and that his real hair and eye color matched those which Ochaco had herself.
END, CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Author's notes;
Well there we go. Fuyuki is now party to the kidnapping of his mother and his aunt. And he'll be there keeping an eye on them while they're held ransom for the release of more of Fine Wine's men from jail and or prison. But while they're held ransom, they'll be talking; who knows what the two women will say? That's for next time.
Later, skaters.