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-one: The training camp, part four
Fuyuki was shocked to see that his Aunt Pony, who he dismissed as someone who thought of him as nothing more than the lewd pervert that Rem had set him up to look like, had actually taken a hit for him. Fuyuki himself was already taking the hit for Hikari, as she was targeted by the lizardman girl who had previously held her hostage a short while ago. But before Fuyuki could have gotten struck by Rumi's wazikashi, the half-American woman dove in and took a bad slash wound across her back to protect her nephew.
Inko, pissed at Takuya Moononi's right hand thug, aimed her horns at Rumi. She fired them, and when the horns struck the ground at Rumi's feet, they detonated, blasting Rumi and sending her flying back until she slammed her back into a tree and fell to the ground, knocked out cold. By that point in the fighting, the remaining thugs were too exhausted to continue fighting, as they not only had to deal with each other due to being from rival factions to one another, but also the thirteen women heroes who were present.
As such, the remaining thugs who weren't knocked out ended up trying to flee, with the ones under Makoto's command withdrawing at the command of Makoto himself. As for those under Takuya's command, they were a bit on the disorganized side of things as not only was Takuya not around to lead them due to taking Ichigo Mineta out of there, but their faction's second in command Rumi was knocked out cold. As such, while most of Makoto's men were able to withdraw (only those knocked out were not able to get away), only around half as many thugs under Takuya were able to get away.
As the teens and most of the women proceeded to round up the knocked out thugs and restrain all of them, a few people gathered around where Pony laid on the ground face down, her horrific back wound exposed for all to see. "...It's pretty deep," Momo said in a grim tone as she took a quick look at Pony's wound, "From what I can figure, Pony will most likely die from the blood loss before we can get her to a hospital for proper medical treatment."
Those who were gathered around where Pony laid on the ground were shocked to hear what the pro hero Creati said; Pony was most likely going to die due to how she had taken one for her nephew who she had wronged. Fuyuki himself was struck by the gravity of the situation, even more so considering how he himself had almost suffered the same fate due to how he had put himself in Rumi's way to protect Hikari.
The son of Deku wasn't sure if it really was his Aunt Pony, because she had reviled him when he was framed by Rem's scheming. From what he figured, she would never go to any length period for his sake because as far as he knew, his aunt saw him as nothing more than a lewd pervert. As such, Fuyuki was wondering in his mind why Pony took a hit in his place like that. Was Pony actually sorry for her part in how he had been treated while he was framed, how he had been pushed into running away from home?
How he had ultimately become the assassin Entreri, though only Fuyuki himself knew that?
As Fuyuki looked around, saw Inko looking on grimly while Ochaco softly cried over how she was seeing her sister-in-law bleeding out, everyone looked up when Eri pushed her way through into the scene. "Did someone order a rewind?" Eri declared then, before she could be stopped, she used her quirk to cast energy from her horn onto Pony. Everyone saw it as the wound that was on Pony's back sealed up, as if it was never there to begin with.
Suddenly, Pony got up, a confused look on her face. "...What was that funny feeling just now?" asked the half-American woman, "Was I under anesthesia during surgery to fix the wound on my back that I got to protect Fuyuki?"
A number of the people around Pony relaxed, with some laughing and or crying out of relief, as Momo explained, "Actually Pony, Eri used her quirk Rewind on you. It returned you to the form you were in before you got the wound across your back."
"And it won't reappear again unless someone tries making it again," Eri pointed out, "Trust me, all of the years I spent working on my quirk has allowed me to fine tune it. I got everything worked out to a T."
"I think this goes a bit beyond having things 'worked out to a T', Mrs. Asui," Inko said in a tone of disbelieving shock, "You basically saved my mom's life just now! She got an injury that would have otherwise killed her!"
Shrugging, Eri said, "It wasn't the first time I saved someone's life by rewinding them to a state they were in prior to the near-death state they were in."
Ochaco perked up at what Eri said just now. "...Wasn't the first time? What do you mean by that, Eri? What happened?"
Eri held a finger in front of her mouth. "Sorry Ochaco, but I'm not allowed to say. Orders from the commission."
"Well regardless, Inko's mom is a-okay now," Ragna said, clearly trying to lighten the mood, "I think that's cause for celebration."
Momo nodded, then gestured for Itsuka, Setsuna and Mina to gather around; the four of them are the highest ranked pro heroes present, after all. After a quick huddle, the four of them broke away, then looked at everyone. "...Given the circumstances," Momo said, "What with the training camp being attacked by both of the remaining factions and how one of the faction leaders had kidnapped Ichigo, we're sadly going to have to cancel the training camp now so we can all go back home. Sorry kids."
"You and the other adults need to file some reports on the matter, as well as come up with a plan to track down and rescue the naughty girl, huh?" Komaru asked.
"You aren't going to try to rope me or any of my classmates into helping with the rescuing of the ultra-thot, are you Mrs. Awase?" Ragna asked.
"...Yeah, I'm going to have to ask that I be left out of any Ichigo rescue missions too," Fuyuki said, "I...I don't think I'd be much help anyway, especially considering how I'm still trying to get over the fact that I almost saw my aunt die in front of me." The son of Deku really was shocked that he cared so much about Pony almost dying, especially considering that not too long ago, he would have taken glee in being the one himself to claim his aunt's life.
He had no idea how he would have felt now if he really did do that back then.
Momo laughed a bit in amusement. "Yeah, I'm going to have to say that I'm certain I speak for all of the adult women here when I say that the matter of rescuing Ichigo from Takuya will be a task handled exclusively by the adults. None of you kids will be allowed to take part."
"And given what the parents of some of you did back when they were your age kero," Tsuyu began, "We'll be keeping an eye on you to make sure you don't get any funny ideas."
Inko scoffed a bit. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, my dad told me how some of his classmates had to save his sorry ass from villains when they kidnapped him." Looking at the women, Inko said, "Mom, Aunt Ochaco, other ladies, trust me when I say that I have no intention of sticking my neck out like that for Strawberry short-bitch." The other teens all said in their varying own ways that they had no intention of trying to rescue Ichigo themselves, due to a mix of reasons.
Fuyuki himself was still trying to process how Pony had actually acted like an adult figure who actually cared about him.
The following day, after all captured thugs were transported to the city and put in jail, the teens all were sent home while the remaining members of the legendary year of UA's hero course got together to discuss coming up with a plan to track down and rescue Ichigo. Not only that, but there was also discussion on trying to make sure that none of the teens got the idea to try to do their own rescue mission to save Ichigo.
"Yeah, I'm certain that Komaru won't try to follow in my footsteps here, so to speak," Kirishima said during the meeting, "He's still a bit rattled by what all happened at the training camp. Not to mention how Kinoko and the other women told him not to try anything."
Folding her arms across her chest, Kyoka remarked, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure none of our respective kids care enough about that lewd little harlot of Mineta's to try any sort of rescue mission. Makes me wonder what it would have been like if it had been Mineta who had gotten kidnapped by the villains back then rather than Bakugo."
"I can tell you right now with one-hundred percent certainty that I would not lift a finger to save Grape Head's sorry ass," Bakugo declared casually, "But we're getting off subject with small talk. We ought to come up with a game plan to ensure the kids stay put while we track down and rescue Grape Head's slutty brat."
Shrugging, Izuku said, "I honestly can't think of anything other than having an adult keep an eye on each of them until we find and save Ichigo. Sure it'll reduce the manpower available for when we find Ichigo and begin rescuing her from Moononi, but it will ensure that we can keep all of our respective kids from trying anything, or at the very least we can let others know if any of us sees any of the kids try anything."
"We'll get back to that, but it sounds viable," Momo said, "Anyway, we need to come up with a plan to find Moononi. We find him, and we find Ichigo. Has anyone heard hide or hair about him in the last few days?"
After a few moments of silent consideration among everyone, Kinoko spoke up. "Oh! One of the sidekicks working for Eijiro at his agency had picked up something! He said that a report said that Moononi was seen going in an out of this one warehouse every so often." Kirishima nodded in confirmation with what his wife had just said.
Bakugo clapped his hands together and rubbed them. "Well alright! Now we're cooking with fire! Kirishima, find that sidekick of yours and get the details! We got us an Entreri wannabe to track down and kick the ass of!"
Kirishima nodded in agreement as he went about calling his agency to get ahold of the sidekick who reported the sighting of Takuya. While he did that, the other pros went about fine tuning the plan Izuku had come up with to ensure that none of the teens got the idea to try and pull their own rescue mission to save Ichigo. Izuku, as well as Todoroki, Tenya, Kirishima who was busy at the moment, and Momo were especially keen to make sure none of the teens tried to do what they themselves had done when they were their age.
They've seen it before. They've done it before. Age and experience brings wisdom, after all.
Later, as some of the adults went about working out the kinks of the Ichigo rescue mission, some of the others focused on keeping an eye on the teens. Just as some of the women had predicted, the teens showed no interest in trying to rescue Ichigo.
To list a few examples, Tengoh said that he will trust his father and the other pro heroes to rescue Ichigo, Komaru was too excited about how Kinoko said she was going to be spending a lot of time with him to focus on the rescuing of Ichigo that the adults were going to do, and Aizawa who had been told the tale by his godfather and namesake firmly declared that he by no means would try to pull such a stunt himself, saying he was following the will of Eraserhead.
As for Fuyuki, he still had issues that cropped up during the attack on the training camp to deal with, mostly how someone who he scorned because they had rejected him had taken a hit for him that would have taken her life had it not been for the quick acting of Samidare's Aunt Eri.
As such, Fuyuki went over to see his Grandpa Masaru, the only man in the family not caught up in the efforts to try and retrieve Ichigo. Fuyuki, with Ochaco accompanying him to keep an eye on him for the sake of formality, walked into the Bakugo household where Masaru resides now, as Fuyuki's Uncle Katsuki recovering meant that the Bakugos could look after the now older man. To a lack of surprise on Fuyuki's part, Pony and Inko were there too.
"Yeah, Fuyuki wanted to speak with his grandfather," Ochaco explained to Pony who had answered the door. The women noted with come concern that Fuyuki looked troubled when he saw that his aunt had answered the door. Regardless, the son of Deku entered the house and made his way to the dining table, where Masaru was having a late breakfast.
The older Bakugo man looked surprised to see his grandson come in to visit him. "Oh, did you need something, Fuyuki?" Masaru asked.
Fuyuki let out a troubled sigh as he sat down. "...Here's the thing, Grandpa Masaru," Fuyuki began, "For the longest time, I had hated Aunt Pony, had lost all trust that I had in her." Both of the women, Pony especially so, felt stabbing pains in their hearts when they heard Fuyuki say that just now. It served as a bitter reminder to them how they had horrifically failed Fuyuki when they instead should have been doing right by him. Masaru likewise looked troubled by what his grandson had said, but stopped short of speaking up when the teen boy gently shook his head.
"...I hated and had lost all trust I had in Aunt Pony because I thought she hated and had lost all trust she had in me," Fuyuki explained, "But then during the training camp, she went and took an injury in my place, one that would have killed her if it hadn't been for my friend Samidare's Aunt Eri being there. I'm pretty sure that's not an action Aunt Pony would have taken if she hated and had no trust in me." Fuyuki looked up from the surface of the table in front of him and to his grandfather. The troubled look on Fuyuki's face had a hint of heartbroken sadness to it.
"...Now I have no idea what to think about Aunt Pony," Fuyuki said, sounding like he might start crying at any moment, "Why would someone who hates me, who doesn't trust me, willing risk their life for me like that?"
Masaru let out a troubled sigh. "...Fuyuki, your aunt doesn't hate you, doesn't not trust you. She actually cares full well about you. She as well as your mother both love you."
"Then why did they essentially disown me the moment that I had been made to look like I was the second coming of some lewd perverted bastard who was their schoolmate way back in the day?" Fuyuki asked, tears starting to run down the sides of his face, "Did what they had gone through because of Ichigo's dad really mess them up so badly that all it takes for me to lose my family is to simply be accused of being a lewd, dirty pervert?"
As Fuyuki proceeded to pour out how he felt, the women were getting more and more upset with how they were being reminded how they had allowed their experiences with Mineta to paint their world view, and had allowed said painted world view to make them turn on Fuyuki without so much as a proper investigation. Similarly, Inko also felt like crap because it was actually her scheme in a half baked attempt to get back at her Uncle Izuku that had caused all of this.
"Fuyuki," Masaru said in a gentle, understanding tone, "Your aunt, as well as your mother, both care about you deeply. They are both beyond sorry that they had allowed the frame job placed on you to make them turn on you. If your Grandma Inko was still alive today, she would be the same as them I'm sure." Masaru straightened up, regarded his grandson as the son of Deku had a downcast look on his face.
Gesturing to Fuyuki, Masaru said, "Your Aunt Pony had done what she did at the training camp because she wanted to show you that she was sorry for having turned on you, wanted to prove to you that she loves you. All of the women that had fallen for the framing job that was placed on you, your mother especially so, want to make up for how they all had been tricked."
Fuyuki looked down more, the sad look on his face showing that he was trying to work out how he felt about everything. "...It would have been nice if they all had believed in me from the get go, instead of just Mrs. Kirishima being the only one who had believed in me." Pony and Ochaco both felt guilty again over how they had failed their nephew and son. However, some degree of hope was restored when Fuyuki, as he looked back up to his grandpa, said the next thing to come out of his mouth.
"...But now, I think that I can say that Aunt Pony at the very least now trusts that I'm not the lewd perverted bastard that Rem had tried to make me out to be."
Both women were relieved to hear that Fuyuki had now regained at least some degree of trust and faith in Pony. Granted, Ochaco was a bit sad that she was still being rejected by her own son, but progress was being made. She figured that if she had more time to work with him, then he would eventually open back up to him as well. But for now, the women had to take their wins where they could get them from.
Similarly, Masaru looked happy to see that his grandson was slowly opening back up to the ladies in the family. Granted, there was still a ways to go until Fuyuki had fully accepted all of the ladies again, but it was a step in the right direction. Until then, the women all breathed sighs of relief that Fuyuki had at the very least partly accepted Pony back. All that remained now was to get him to see that they all were sorry with what they all had done to make him feel when he had been set up way back when.
Inko knew full well that she had to put in an especially high amount of effort, given that she was really the one who had basically ruined her cousin's life in the first place.
Over at a warehouse at an undisclosed location, Ichigo was placed in a room to be kept safe in. Despite how it was essentially a jail cell, it was well furnished, what with all the furniture that one would expect to see in a bedroom, not to mention a TV so that the daughter of Fine Wine had something to entertain herself with. Ichigo was being treated like royalty, even though she was more or less a prisoner of Takuya's faction.
Similarly, Ichigo's dad Minoru was a prisoner in jail.
The strawberry girl was hoping like hell that the pro heroes would eventually rescue her, even though she sort of expected them to leave her hanging due to what her father had done. Ichigo wasn't even intending to 'get into the family business', as some might put it because even though she loved her dad, doing what he did just didn't sit right with her. She had her own ways of living life, thank you very much.
Right as she was starting to doze off, Ichigo perked back up when she heard an explosion, followed up by the voice of Dynamight yelling out, "DIE!" After that, the sounds of all of the men in the warehouse shouting could be heard as a massive fight broke out. Ichigo had no idea what was going on, although at one point the door leading into her room opened, with a female thug who had black hair in a pixie cut standing there in the now open doorway.
"Young lady, our location has been found and is being raided by the pro heroes," the female thug explained in a panicked tone, "I need to get you out of-" The female thug was cut off when she got whacked in the back of the head hard enough to knock her out, dropping her like a sack of potatoes. Standing over the now knocked out female thug was the pro hero Deku, the top hero in the country. He breathed a sigh of relief to see that Ichigo was okay.
Similarly, Ichigo also breathed a sigh of relief. "Yeah, I'd like to get out of here, like, now," Ichigo remarked. Izuku nodded in understanding as he picked Ichigo up and proceeded to carry her off to safety while the rest of the heroes raiding the place handled the thugs.
A few thugs tried stopping him upon seeing that he had Ichigo, but none of them could even get close enough as Izuku rushed away. Takuya himself was able to get in close, but he was surprised when Izuku had released some manner of smokescreen, obscuring Takuya's vision and allowing him to get out of there without issue. Once outside, Izuku rushed to a secure location where a number of cop cars were all waiting on stand by.
"Wait here," Izuku said firmly to Ichigo, "I have to go back in and help the other heroes take down Takuya and his men." Ichigo was by no means going to argue as she saw the number one hero turn around and rush back off into the action.
...
Soon enough, the heroes had taken down what was left of Takuya's faction. The thugs had put up an impressive fight, and Takuya himself was even able to land a cutting hit on Tenya across the face, but it was more or less moot since Tenya had his costume's helmet on. After all of the thugs were defeated, the police were all called in to help with gathering all of them and take the quirkless thugs off to jail while the quirked ones were transported to a villain's prison.
"That's two factions down, Deku," Bakugo said as he and Todoroki approached Izuku, "Now all that's left is to handle the last one, then the last of Grape Head's influence will have been taken off of the streets for good."
Nodding in agreement, Izuku replied, "Yes, Kacchan. Although I have to disagree on the part saying that the last faction is under Mineta's influence."
Todoroki gave a single agreeing nod. "Yes. The last faction is headed by Makoto Veldora, who wants to get Mineta out of jail so he can kill him." Looking down a bit at the ground, Todoroki had a troubled look on his face. "...Makoto is also the only faction leader that has a quirk, so we need to be careful in tackling him."
Izuku agreed that being careful in handling Makoto was necessary. However, the top hero did have his plan on making Makoto stand down by appealing to his love for his family. Izuku had Makoto's cousin Ichimichi employed as a sidekick, and Izuku's wife Ochaco was employing Hikari as an intern. With two of Makoto's family safely with his agency, Izuku was figuring that the first born and only son of the main Veldora family would be seeing him soon.
Izuku was actually counting on it.
END, CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Author's notes;
This chapter wraps up the training camp arc, as well as make some progress in Fuyuki coming to accept the women in his family again. Sorry if the situation around Pony came off as a bit contrived, but there are two points here; one, Fuyuki has to accept his family again at some point (it'll make a future event all the more potent), and two, how Pony was saved is a hint for something to come at a later time. That something to come has already been hinted at, actually.
Additionally, Ichigo was rescued, with Izuku making use of some stuff revealed in later chapters of the series proper. And now there's only one faction left for the heroes to deal with, although it may prove to be one of the most challenging events yet. Hikari is going to be in for an especially tough time, given that it's her older brother who's in charge of the last faction standing. It will be covered in the chapters to come. Until then, stay frosty.