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 forty: The training camp, part three
The students were still enjoying their dinner, with the moms in another area. Looking over to where his mom and aunt were talking to Tsuyu and Kinoko, Fuyuki scoffed bitterly. "Hmph. I bet that my mom and aunt are both complaining that I'm not playing nice with either of them," the son of Deku said as he sat with Tengoh, Toya, Samidare and Aizawa.
"Yeah, and your folks aren't the only ones to screw the pooch on this one," Aizawa said as his cat ears twitched slightly, "If I recall correctly, every female person here aside from Komaru's mom fell for the lie. ...Wait a minute." Turning to look at Samidare, Aizawa asked, "Dude, what did your Aunt Eri say on the matter?"
"Actually, she didn't hear about what happened to Fuyuki until after she saw the news broadcast that had exonerated him," Samidare explained, "She never got the chance to experience it, so I have no clue if she'd have fallen for Rem's scheme or not." After eating a forkful of food, Samidare went on, "But given how close of a friend Aunt Eri is to Fuyuki's dad, I'm willing to bet that she would not have fallen for the lie."
Great Shadow popped out of Samidare and hung next to him. "Wait, are we going to count the lewd girl among 'every female person here' or no?" Great Shadow asked.
Listing off of his fingertips, Aizawa replied, "No because one, Ichigo isn't affiliated with UA unlike the rest of us, and two she's just as much of a pervert, if not more of one, as what Rem had tried to make Fuyuki look like. Ichigo gets no excuse."
"As much as I can't honestly condone such harsh treatment of one of our schoolmates while Faerun is hosting UA," Tengoh began, "I'm even more unwilling to condone the behavior shown by Ichigo. I would have to say that Ichigo is the female equivalent of a man who 'thinks with his manhood', if you know what I mean."
Shrugging, Great Shadow said, "So she thinks with her hoo-hoo. Fair enough." Great Shadow turned to look at Samidare. "Hey, since we're on the subject of girls scoping out guys one way or another, you didn't hear this from me but I've seen Fuyuki's cousin looking at the special needs boy with a look suggesting that she wants him. Those were bedrooms eyes that I saw her look at him with, mark my words!"
The boys all looked surprised by what Great Shadow had said, what he was suggesting. "...Are you suggesting that Inko might have romantic feelings for Komaru?" Toya asked, looking and sounding surprised, "I mean yeah sure, I've noticed how she's always considerate towards him, but I was just figuring that she was protective of him because he's part of her crew. I wouldn't have ever guessed that she might have romantic feelings for him."
Fuyuki, despite how he was giving off an overall indifferent look, still showed a bit of a smirk. "It would be pretty amusing seeing Inko and Komaru enter into a romantic relationship with one another. After all, Uncle Katsuki is best friends with Mr. Kirishima, so it would be interesting to see how they'd react."
For some odd reason, Fuyuki imagined his aunt and uncle, as well as both Mr. and Mrs. Kirishima, only giving stern warning talks to Inko. Uncle Katsuki wasn't giving Komaru any sort of 'you be good with my daughter' talks in Fuyuki's imagination; instead, Uncle Katsuki was giving Inko a stern 'you be good with my best friend's son' talk. Then again, given what kind of people Inko and Komaru respectively are, there was no need to tell Komaru to be good, as that is his personality by default.
Inko, who is basically her dad but a girl instead, gives a million and a half reasons for the adults to give her a likewise number of-
Fuyuki's imagination stopped suddenly when he and everyone else jumped up upon hearing loads of men shout. Suddenly, a large number of thugs, enough to outnumber everyone who came to the camp grounds on the bus, rushed out and surrounded everyone, keeping them in a perimeter. The moms all got up and were ready to fight off the thugs, but they stopped short as they heard a male voice call out to them.
"That will not be necessary, heroes." Looking over, the women and the teens saw Takuya Moononi enter the perimeter of thugs. He was accompanied by a young adult woman who was around his age, maybe a few months younger. This woman had brown chin length hair, wore a red sleeveless variation of Takuya's outfit, and she had a quirk that made her look like some sort of humanoid lizard.
Takuya stepped forward, his arms behind his back. "...Judging by your reactions and the looks on your respective faces, you have some idea as to who I am."
"Yeah, you're Takuya Moononi," Momo scoffed angrily, "So what are you here for, then?"
"Simple," Takuya explained, "My men here and I intend to hold you all for ransom to coerce the police and your fellow pro heroes into releasing Minoru-sama from jail. Given that we have you vastly outnumbered, I highly doubt that you're foolish enough to try and pull anything that might get one of you killed. Oh, there's one thing that I forgot."
Looking around a bit, Takuya spotted where Ichigo was still standing next to Eri at the cooking station. "My men and I will be taking Minoru-sama's daughter to safety, given that not only is she Minoru-sama's heir, but also because I have every reason to believe that Makoto Veldora, if he were to get ahold of her, would do to her what I know he'll do to Minoru-sama. You ladies can be assured that no harm shall come to her on my watch."
"Aha! She was a mole this entire time!" Ragna exclaimed.
"No I wasn't!" Ichigo snapped back, "They're clearly doing this on their own!"
"Kids settle down!" Momo yelled as she and the other adults got up, ready to fight the thugs if need be, especially since one of them is a high priority target to capture. Things were already looking dicey, given that they were surprised ambushed by enough thugs to outnumber them, and they had their kids to protect. Hell, chances were that they were going to have to let all of the kids fight, but given that a number of the thugs were clearly armed, the women worried that some of the teens might get hurt.
Over where Takuya stood, his lizardman girl companion cast her glance to him without turning her head. "...Should we extract Minoru-sama's daughter before we begin, Takuya-dono?" she asked him in a quiet tone.
"It wouldn't hurt, Rumi," Takuya muttered back. At Takuya's cue, Rumi proceeded to turn to face where Ichigo stood, but before she could get one step towards the strawberry girl, everyone had stopped short when a blast of fire shot up into the air from behind the thugs under the orders of Takuya. It wasn't the fires in and of themselves that had made them all take pause, but rather the color of them, as they were of a black and purple coloration.
Before anyone could ask what's happening, a number of other thugs, roughly equal to what had been brought by Takuya, had swarmed on in. Among the thugs swarming in were a green-skinned girl and a lizardman guy who looked like a male Rumi. "Yeah, we're here to take all of the campers hostage so we can force the good guys to give us the old boss," the green-skinned girl said to everyone, "Makoto really wants to introduce his odachi to the old boss's neck!"
The women were now even more worried, as now in addition to Takuya's faction, now Makoto's faction was here as well. Ideally, the two factions will be too distracted with fighting each other to pay them and the teens much mind. But there wasn't much chance of that, especially since at least Takuya wanted to take Ichigo away. Things were going to be very difficult as, with the two factions and the heroes, the situation was now a three way conflict.
Suddenly, the fighting began with a burst. Takuya's men, the thugs working for Makoto, and the pro hero women jumped in, with Momo shouting at Eri to get the teens to safety. Seeing Eri try to lead Ichigo away, Rumi tried going after her. The teens and Eri even saw this, but before the lizardman girl was able to get to them, she was cut off when a stream of fire hit the ground a few feet to her right.
The teens, Eri and Rumi all stopped to turn to look up and see who it was. To their surprise, it was the lizardman guy among Makoto's men. Surprisingly, he had a pair of wings now that he was using to fly. Rumi scoffed bitterly at this. "...Long time no see, Rumi little sister dear," said the lizardman guy as he addressed Rumi, a hint of knowing sarcasm in his tone.
Rumi growled in annoyance as she looked up at her older brother. "Same back to you," Rumi said as she replied in a likewise tone, "Jun older brother dear."
"I'm not sure what it is you plan to do with those teens, but I can't let you leave the fun," Jun said as he landed. He cast a quick glance at the teens and Emi, wondering what it was about any of them that would prompt his younger sister, who is loyal to Minoru Mineta ultimately, to want to go after them. It was then that he spotted not Ichigo, but rather Hikari. Although she didn't look exactly familiar, the pair of slender white horns growing out of her head reminded him of what he and Juri had been told by Makoto.
Quickly, Jun called out, "Oi, Juri!" At that prompting, Juri came running over. Jun jerked his head in the direction of the teens. "Makoto's got a relative among the teens there. The girl with the white horns growing out of her forehead. Takuya probably found out and wants her captured so she can be used as bait to coerce Makoto into playing nice with the old boss. I need you to get her to a safe place."
"Makoto's got a relative here?" Rumi said in a surprised tone, "I was told by Takuya to secure Minoru-sama's daughter, that girl with the strawberries for hair. I had no idea until just now that Makoto's got a relative here."
Scoffing in annoyance, Jun replied, "Well I'm not the only one to screw up by divulging info here. We had no idea that the old boss's daughter was here either, or that he even had a daughter. We just came to capture the teens and pro heroes to use as hostages so we can coerce the police and heroes into releasing the old boss from jail so that Makoto can kill him."
"Takuya led us here so we can do the same, minus the part about killing Minoru-sama," Rumi admitted.
Juri giggled a bit in amusement. "Wow, you guys are, like, super similar."
"Well we are siblings," Jun said, "It would make sense if-" Jun stopped short when he, as well as Rumi and Juri, saw that the teens and Eri were all now missing. "We need to secure Makoto's relative!" Jun exclaimed.
"And I need to secure Minoru-sama's daughter!" Rumi yelled as she ran alongside her brother and his green-skinned friend. Though they had different goals, they had similar paths, and as such they ran together.
In a safe clearing, Eri had led all of the teens to safety. They were all panting hard, trying to catch their breath. "Wow, it's a good thing that I had lost my excess weight," Hikari panted, "I'm pretty sure that I'd have slowed the group down otherwise."
"Given how the two factions that came here are not only occupied fighting one another but also the women," Eri replied, "I'm pretty sure that we'd have plenty of time to get away regardless."
Fuyuki caught his breath, looked around at the surroundings. It was him and everyone in his class at UA, plus Ichigo and Eri. Other than being rattled and some drenched in sweat, everyone was accounted for. As Inko moved to try to calm down a panicking Komaru, something going off in Fuyuki's head alerted him to the presence of someone approaching. No one else seemed to notice the presence coming, but Fuyuki did.
Acting on an instinct that he had developed, fine tuned and sharpened to the highest degree while he was working for Mineta, Fuyuki turned to face the direction that the presence he sensed was coming from. His classmates, Ichigo, and Eri were all confused by how Fuyuki was acting, but they got their answers when Takuya appeared, walking from the direction that the son of Deku was firmly looking at.
"I saw Rumi distracted by her older brother and that goblin-looking girl on the way here," Takuya said, "So I guess I'm in this alone."
Eri, being the only adult there, turned to face the assassin-style thug. "Takuya," Eri scowled in a bitter tone.
"Like I have previously said," Takuya explained, "My primary goals here are to hold all of you heroes and the teens hostage to coerce the police and other heroes to release Minoru-sama from jail, and to make sure his daughter here is protected. There shall not be any injuries on my watch if you all play along. Otherwise..." Takuya drew both of his wakizashi out, wielded both of them. "...I'll prove why the method that both Entreri and I favor proves that quirks are not really necessary to take lives."
The teens grew tense, although Eri stood to stand between them and Takuya. As the quirkless, assassin-style thug stepped closer, he and Eri jumped back when a stream of black and purple flames struck the ground on Takuya's left and Eri's right. The teens were likewise surprised by the blasting of the black and purple flames, so everyone there turned to see the source of those sinister looking flames.
"I got tipped off by Jun on my way to chase down your sorry ass, Takuya," a voice that struck both Takuya and Hikari as familiar spoke out, "That among the group you were going after was a teen who looked like she was related to me." Everyone was struck with shock when Makoto Veldora, the leader of the third faction made up of the remnants of Mineta's gang, as well as the older brother of Hikari, came walking over.
Stopping a few meters from Takuya, Makoto turned to look at the teens. His eyes soon spotted Hikari, but he looked a bit confused. After a moment, a look of dawning surprise appeared on his face. "...Hikari? Is that you?" Makoto said.
Gulping a bit nervously, Hikari replied, "Y-Yes, big brother. I guess I'm a bit hard for you to recognize since I grew a little, not to mention how I lost a lot of weight."
Makoto smiled calmly. "...I really am glad to see you, sis. And you're training to be a hero now. I guess you really were inspired by the crush you had on Deku's son, huh?"
"Ah heh heh heh, now's not the best time for that, Makoto," Hikari said hastily, blushing kind of hard with embarrassment.
The crimson-haired, horned villain nodded in agreement. "Yeah, big brother's got some business to take care of right now." Turning to face Takuya, Makoto said, "Do you know why I want to kill that bastard Minoru Mineta? It's because he is the sick, perverted assfuck who had driven my younger sister Kolulu into taking her own life. And right now, Takuya, you were primed to kill my youngest sister Hikari."
Makoto drew his odachi from its scabbard, used his quirk to light the blade ablaze with his Kijin Flare fire. "They are my family, Takuya. I love them and everyone else in our family. I would die for them. I would kill for them. I intend full well to kill for them." Makoto aimed his darkly blazing odachi at his rival faction leader. "...And you just put yourself at the forefront of people I want to kill, because you had just been actively endangering the life of someone that I love."
Takuya scoffed. "So that's it. You're a family guy."
"Makoto!" Hikari called out, "Don't kill that guy please! Try to take him out so that the heroes can bring him in alive!"
The crimson-haired, horned villain smiled calmly. "...Well it would take out the leadership of one of the groups in my way of avenging Kolulu."
Takuya arched a wry eyebrow. "...A villain is seriously going to take orders from a teen girl who is a hero in training?"
"You said it yourself, Takuya," Makoto said casually. Assuming a stance for fighting, Makoto said with a hint of amusement in his tone, "I'm a family guy." At that moment, the two men rushed at each other, their blades primed for combat.
Takuya was at a disadvantage and he knew it; he was better for assassinating targets by sneaking up on them, similar to how Entreri had conducted his own business. This was an upfront confrontation, with an opponent who not only had more reach due to his larger blade, but Takuya was quirkless while Makoto had his quirk Kijin Flare spitting out those black and purple flames. And Takuya had no doubt that Makoto wouldn't be willing to allow him to sneak up on him.
As the fight dragged on, with Takuya on the losing end, both men stopped short suddenly when they and everyone else heard a teen girl cry out in panic. Looking over, the fighting men saw that Takuya's lizardman girl Rumi had taken Hikari hostage, holding the cutting edge of her own wakizashi to the slender, horned nerdy girl's throat. "...I believe that now you'd be more willing to play nice with us and Minoru-sama, Makoto," Rumi said as she backed away from the teens and Eri to keep away from them while she had Hikari.
Takuya smirked in amusement. "Excellent job, Rumi. Now we can assure Minoru-sama's safety." Makoto scowled in bitter anger, pissed beyond all reason to see his only younger sibling left be in active danger.
Just as Takuya was about to speak up, he stopped short when he and everyone else heard a male voice call out, "Well two can play at that game!" Everyone looked over and saw that Ichigo had been taken hostage by Jun and Juri, with the goblin-like girl holding Ichigo like Rumi was holding Hikari. Jun cracked his neck as he regarded his younger sister, as well as the faction leader that she worked for.
The horned lizardman fellow, as he retracted his wings since he had them out again, focused his glare a bit more on Takuya. "...I don't think that I have to tell you, Takuya, what will happen to the old boss's daughter if my little sister over there harms Makoto's younger sister." Now it was Takuya's turn to scowl in annoyed anger, cursing his luck. Finally, seeing no other way out, Takuya stepped back, sheathing both of his wazikashi back into their scabbards.
"...Rumi, you're about to take part in a hostage exchange," Takuya said, "I don't suppose I have to tell you what to do once you secure Minoru-sama's daughter."
"Grab her and run like hell," Rumi replied in understanding, "Yes Takuya-dono." Slowly, Rumi and Juri walked up to one another while forcing their hostages along. At Eri's command, none of the other teens moved a muscle, lest something really, really bad happens to either Hikari or Ichigo. After a tense few seconds, Rumi and Juri got close enough for them to actually exchange their respective hostages.
The two women acted quickly, pushing their hostages forward and catching the girls they were respectively saving. Once Ichigo was in Rumi's hold, the lizardman girl turned around and ran, with Takuya following close behind. As Eri shouted for Takuya and Rumi to release Ichigo, the other teens were all alarmed to see Makoto rush in a beeline towards Hikari. After all, Makoto is a rather dangerous villain, as well as one who is notably powerful.
However, the teens calmed down, and some showed confusion, when Makoto threw his arms around Hikari and held her close in a tearfully relieved hug. After a few moments, Makoto broke away and rejoined Jun and Juri. "...Hero," Makoto began as he addressed Eri, getting her to look right at him, "Even though that strawberry brat is of the old boss's bloodline, rest assured that I hold no intention to kill her. She's an innocent minor, after all."
"Well I wouldn't exactly say that the ultra-thot is innocent but-" Ragna spoke up, only to receive a smack to the back of his head from Inko, making him zip it.
"...Heh, Hikari's got some funny classmates," Makoto said to himself as he gently shook his head. Looking to Eri again, Makoto said, "Can I trust you to keep my little sister here safe, hero? I still have some unfinished business that I need to settle."
"It would be nice if you and your friends here peacefully surrendered to the pro heroes," Eri offered, "I know for a fact that Deku and a few other notable pros have started up this reform program that takes willing villains wanting to turn over a new leaf in and molds them into pro heroes themselves. You and your friends here can still have a chance to do good for society."
Makoto chuckled, then gently shook his head. "...I still can't rest easy so long as Minoru Mineta still lives. Apologies." Makoto, with Jun and Juri following his lead, turned around and ran off in the direction that Takuya and Rumi took off in with Ichigo.
"Makoto!" Hikari cried out, running right after her big brother. This prompted everyone else to run after the slender, horned nerdy girl who desperately wanted to get said big brother to come back home, given how much she missed seeing him.
In the area where the main fighting was at, the thugs respectively working for Takuya and Makoto were still not only fighting one another, but also fighting the thirteen female pro heroes who were running the training camp. At one point, they saw Takuya and Rumi run by with Ichigo, with Takuya sending Rumi to join their fellows while he continued to take their boss's daughter to the safety of their faction's hideout.
But it wasn't just the thugs who saw this, because the women were seeing it as well. "Moononi is kidnapping Ichigo!" Momo called out, "We need to stop him!"
Some of the women moved to try and stop Takuya, but some of his thugs got in the way, none of them intending to allow any of the heroes to prevent Takuya from preserving the lineage of their boss Fine Wine. However, the hero women soon saw Makoto, Jun and Juri run into the main fighting area as well, hot on Takuya's trail. Despite how they were technically villains, the three of them were actually being a help to the pro hero women.
"Let the brat go, Takuya!" Jun called out, "She ain't involved in our world! There's no need to drag her in just because she's the kid of the old boss!"
"Are...are Veldora and his two friends actually going to help us save Ichigo?" Itsuka asked aloud as she and some of the other women were still caught up in fighting the thugs. At that point in the fighting, Hikari came running in, followed by the rest of the teens as well as Eri. The slender, horned nerdy girl was calling out for her older brother to come back to her.
Since the teens and Eri entered the scene, some of the thugs focused on them, although the ones under Makoto's command refrained from attacking the horned girl who was calling out for their leader, mostly out of confusion for those unfamiliar with Hikari's relationship with Makoto. Among the thugs who were focusing on the teens was Rumi, her gaze focused on the girl that she had previously held hostage.
The lizardman girl took her wazikashi out and ran right for Hikari, intending to strike her with a cutting strike. Seeing this, Fuyuki called out, "Oh like hell you'll harm Hikari!" Fuyuki ran to stand between Hikari and Rumi, his back to Rumi as he intended to shield the girl who had a crush on him from harm. Eventually, Rumi got close enough to strike, but it wasn't Hikari who she slashed with her wazikashi. Nor was it Fuyuki.
"AHHHHHHGGGHHH!"
An adult woman's voice cried out in pain as the lizardman girl struck the target unlucky enough to get in the path of her weapon. Fuyuki stopped short upon hearing the woman's voice cry out in pain. The voice sounded familiar to the son of Deku, and in this situation it was not exactly a voice he wanted to hear cry out in pain like that, his feelings towards the woman in question be damned. He turned to look, saw to his horror that he hadn't misheard that pained cry.
Pony Bakugo had ran in to take the slashing attack across her back in place of her nephew.
END, CHAPTER FORTY
Author's notes;
The training camp arc is still going on here, with the thick of the fighting having kicked off in earnest. There's also a lot of tension, including a standoff and a hostage exchange. And in the end, Pony takes a critical hit in place of Fuyuki who was going to do so in place of Hikari. What this will lead to will be covered in the next chapter.
Later, skaters.