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-seven: I shouldn't be here

The Baku-squad couldn't believe their eyes as they saw what they were dealing with; a number of their old classmates, their old colleagues, their old friends, who had fallen during the siege on UA had seemingly returned to the land of the living. But it was clear that they, or whatever these things masquerading as them were, were not human. Their eyes were blank white ovals that were standing on end, they were somewhat slouched in their posture, and their preferred way to greet their still living counterparts were inhumane roaring cries.

"...How..." Mina said in a heartbroken, horrified tone as she saw her returned former classmates saunter over towards her and the boys, "...How did they come back..."

Bakugo pulled his hands back, letting off tiny explosions that sounded like firecrackers going off. "Don't know," Bakugo replied grimly, "What we ought to do right now is beat these guys into submission and take them in."

Gently shaking his head, Kaminari said, "I think we ought to try killing them here and now, as bad as that may sound. I've been made familiar enough with fiction involving the dead being brought back to life to know that letting them continue existing is not a good idea.

Kirishima grimaced in a bitter, heartbroken manner. "... He's got a point, guys. I think that we ought to destroy four of them while catching the remaining one alive." The pro hero Red Riot looked to where his returned colleagues were sauntering over to him and the rest of the squad from. "...If what they are now can even be referred to as alive."

"Capturing one alive will be easy for me," Sero said, then looked over at where the returned Sato, Shoji, Koda, Aoyama, and Ojiro were walking over from. "...I think that Ojiro would be the overall easiest to capture and keep restrained."

"So kill the other four zombies while capturing Tailman alive!" Bakugo declared as he got a simplified version of what he and the others had to do, "Sounds simple to me!" Without warning, the pro hero Dynamight rushed the returned heroes, blasting them with explosions that sent all of them aside from Sato and Shoji reeling back.

Without giving the mindless faux-heroes a chance to recover, the rest of the Baku-squad rushed in, with Kirishima still in Unbreakable rushing Sato and striking him across the face with a very devastating punch. Koda was about to open his mouth, but Mina shot a lot of acid at him, with most of its getting into his mouth thus preventing him from using his quirk. Assuming that he still had it; given that he had returned, things weren't as certain as before.

Kaminari turned up the voltage as he electrocuted Shoji, but it didn't seem to be exactly as effective as Kaminari was hoping for; while Shoji did indeed reel back a bit, he looked nowhere near as stunned as he should have been. After a few seconds, the returned Shoji recovered and set his sights on Kaminari, who was close to going dumb from using his quirk too much. The electric pro hero took a few steps back as Shoji proceeded to take a few steps closer.

However, before Shoji could get close enough, a figure cloaked in white rushed in so quickly he seemed to be a blur, then proceeded to quickly swing a sword around with equal parts speed and skill. Parts of Shoji were lopped of left and right, although they very slowly started to grow back after being lopped off since they were all duplicated parts. Even so, the returned Shoji took a step back when someone had rushed in to save Kaminari.

"Still as reliant on quirks as ever," a certain older male voice said, "That's part of why you younger men tend to get into as much trouble as you all tend to do." To the surprise of Kaminari and the others, it was Hochu Sunoni who had rushed in to make the returned Shoji back away from Kaminari. A loud draconic roar cried out from overhead, making Hochu look up with some degree of amusement. "...Although I will admit they can help to make for some good shows."

Ryumaru, in his dragon form, flew overhead as someone who was riding on his back jumped off. As that person jumped off, Ryumaru fired his breath weapon at the returned Sato, blasting him and sending him crashing back first into the side of the nearest brick building. "These guys are part of that reform program that Deku started up!" Bakugo called out to his fellow heroes, "We can trust them to help!"

Mina, who was struggling to keep distance from the returned Koda, hopped back as she called out, "Well any help to deal with our returned colleagues would be-" Mina stopped short as Koda suddenly jerked as he was quickly tied up by wires that seemingly wrapped around him out of nowhere. Standing behind him was Takuya Moononi, a grim look on his face.

"...This is the pro hero Anima, if I recall correctly," Takuya said, "But isn't he supposed to be dead, though? How is he here?"

"We aren't sure if these guys really are our old classmates, Moononi!" Kirishima called over from where he was now helping to physically restrain Ojiro, "But we're going to find out! We're taking Ojiro here in alive, but the other four ought to be destroyed!"

Looking down at where the returned Sato fell out of the wall he got thrown into, landing face down on the ground and showing the back of his head had been bashed in by the impact, Ryumaru called out in his draconic voice, "Well I just destroyed the returned Sugarman." Looking over a bit, Ryumaru spotted the returned Aoyama aiming to fire lasers at the heroes. "...And that bastard who botched the investigation into Kolulu-chan's suicide is among those returned as well it would-"

Ryumaru stopped short when Makoto, who had been the one riding on his back, came up to behind the returned Aoyama and lopped his head off with his odachi. The first born child and only son of the Veldora family's main branch looked up to his closest friend. "You got Can't Stop Twinkling last time," Makoto called up in a knowing, playful tone, "It was my turn."

The dragon gave an amused hum of a chuckle. "Fair enough."

The reformed villains proceeded to swiftly eliminate the returned Koda and Shoji in quick order, with Takuya piercing the back of Koda's head with one of his wazikashi, and Hochu swiftly swinging his cane sword at the returned Shoji. "Try regrowing from this," Hochu said simply but grimly as he lopped off the head of the returned Shoji, allowing the body to fall lifelessly to the ground. Soon after, Sero used his tape to tie up the returned Ojiro, who struggled and roared in vain as he was wrapped up.

Looking around, Bakugo sucked in a cringing breath. "Hoo boy," Bakugo said, "We're totally going to need a clean up crew here, as well as morgue workers to handle the dead bodies of our old classmates who shouldn't have come back in the first place."

The reformed villains came over to the Baku-squad, with Ryumaru, armed with his kanabo, back in his human form. "Do any of you heroes know what even are these things masquerading as the dead? I know for a fact that whatever the thing that Makoto had decapitated is can't be Can't Stop Twinkling." Gripping the handle of his kanabo, Ryumaru went on, "I know that better than anyone else here."

"No, but we'll find out when the remains of the ones we destroyed here are examined," Bakugo replied. Turning to look were Kirishima and a mildly winded Kaminari were keeping an eye on the bound returned Ojiro, Bakugo said after turning back, "It's also why Tailman, if that thing that looks like him can be called that, was caught alive. A living example to examine would go a long way to cracking this case."

Ryumaru nodded in agreement. "...Yeah. Anyway, Deku heard what's going on here and is on his way to help with backup. He also called some necessary emergency response workers as well, so we'll be taking care of things here." As Bakugo nodded in thanks, he and his fellows turned to look when they heard Momo, Uraraka and Kinoko come running over.

"Bakugo!" Momo called out, "The girls here and I came as soon as we heard Oh my goodness is that Ojiro that Kirishima and Kaminari are guarding?!" Similarly, Ochaco and Kinoko both had big reactions to seeing a dead colleague having been returned to the land of the living.

The pro hero Dynamight had a grim look on his face as he regarded the ladies who had just shown up. "...Yeah, the rest of our graduating class is going to want to know about this."

A short while later, the remaining pro heroes from the legendary year of UA's hero course had gathered at a meeting at the HPSC building, with President Mera and his two assistants there as always. Off to the side stood Ryumaru, Makoto, Takuya and Hochu, closely monitored by some guards among which was Izuku's sidekick Ichimichi who was holding all of the weapons owned by the reformed villains.

"How in the name of God is this even possible?!" Ibara exclaimed, "My husband and the other men having come back to life! Not only is this a slap to the face of the lord, but it also cruelly twists knives into the hearts of the still living loved ones of those who had died!"

"I know full well how you feel, Ibara," Toru said; under normal circumstances Toru would still be on the leave that had been mandated by President Mera, but due to the sudden appearance of the beings that were masquerading as some of their fallen comrades, all hands were going to be needed on deck. The pro hero Invisible Girl shuddered a bit, said shuddering only visible due to the fact that Toru wore enough clothing to cover everything aside from the neck and head.

Sighing, Mera remarked, "From what I got so far, the returned heroes that Dynamight, Red Riot, Chargebolt, Cellophane, and Pinky had fought are not the bodies of Tentacole, Can't Stop Twinkling, Sugarman, Anima and Tailman. According to preliminary autopsies done by the team I had set up to examine the remains of the returned heroes that were destroyed, they're more akin to imperfect clones. They're artificial humans, like the nomu used by the League of Villains from way back in the day."

The gathered heroes tensed up at that. "The nomu...?" Izuku said, his horrified tone barely above a whisper, "Those monstrous abominations wrought by the madness of All For One...?"

"Who is arguably the only person who was ever worse than Grape Head?" Bakugo snarled in a bitter, very clearly unamused tone.

"Yes, but the returned hero clones are undoubtedly far more complex than augmented reanimated dead bodies," Mera went on, "So much so that we can safely say that the returned hero clones are straight up not any manner of living dead."

Kaminari breathed a sigh of relief. "So no zombie apocalypse will occur. That's a relief."

"There's also something else that's interesting about the returned hero clones," Mera went on, "They're all slightly shorter than their original counterparts when said counterparts still lived." All of the present persons at the meeting had confused looks on their faces. "...Yes. All of them are five cm shorter than their respective original counterparts. The returned Sugarman, for example, is only 180 cm tall, whereas the original Sugarman was 185 cm tall."

The pro heroes looked confused by that. "..They're slightly shorter?" Izuku said, looking mildly confused.

Shrugging, Sero said, "Well President Mera here said that they are imperfect clones. Maybe the slight drop in height from the original is a sign of that."

"Indeed," Mera replied with an agreeing nod. Turning to look where Ibara and Toru sat, the HPSC president offered them a sympathetic look. "...Vine, Invisible Girl, I'm sorry that the both of you have to deal with how the memories of your respective husbands were tarnished so. Seeing any form of them running around like that, especially since they both had long since died, must be a very taxing ordeal for the two of you."

"It's all the more reason why we ought to find whoever it was that decided to commit such heinous blasphemy and take them down," Ibara said firmly, "Rikido has passed. I have come to make peace with that. All that I would like in regards to that now is that he be allowed to rest."

As some of the other present heroes, mostly the women but a few men and even all of the present reformed villains, all nodded in agreement, a panicked HPSC employee came rushing into the office. "President Mera!" the employee shouted, "The faux-Tailman has broken out from his holding cell and restraints and is on a rampage in the underground floors!"

Right away, Mera rose from his seat as some of the heroes in the room rushed out, with Makoto and Ryumaru rushing by Ichimichi to grab their respective weapons before following Deku out to go see what was going on. "Wait! I'm coming too!" Toru shouted as she got up and ran out to go see what was happening with the faux-Tailman. Some of the other women tried stopping her, but she proved too slippery for them.

...

Down in a wide open lab area underneath the HPSC building, the thing masquerading as Ojiro was thrashing about, crying out in those inhumane roars. By the time that Izuku, Bakugo, Mera and Todoroki got there, they saw that half of the lab was already wrecked. "How the hell did all of this happen?!" Mera exclaimed as two lab workers came over, "How did the faux-Tailman get out of his restraints?!"

Shrugging, the first lab worker said, "We were told that all that would be necessary to keep him restrained was throwing him into the holding cell. The guards who brought him in took off all of his restraints and shoved him in quickly."

Face palming, Mera said in an exasperated tone, "Oh you have got to be kidding me! The faux-Tailman was supposed to be kept tied up, and he also was supposed to be fitted with quirk suppressing gear for good measure!"

The thing masquerading as Ojiro roared inhumanely as he lifted a slender female lab worker one handed by her neck with his right hand. The female lab worker cried out in fear as Ojiro, staring angrily at her with his completely blank, white oval eyes, roared at her. Before he could get his free hand up high enough, he was whacked in the right side of his head by a swing from Ryumaru's kanabo, making Ojiro drop the female lab worker who proceeded to scrambled away.

As the returned Tailman fell to his hands and knees, looking down so that others weren't able to see his face, Izuku called out, "Don't destroy him, Ryumaru! We still need a living example of whatever these things pretending to be the dead returned are!"

"I know, Deku!" Ryumaru called back, "That's why I only whacked him hard enough to make him let go of that girl! Far be it from-"

"-shouldn't-"

Ryumaru, as well as everyone else, stopped short as they heard speaking from the returned Ojiro. Looking over to where he was on his hands and knees, everyone saw the returned Ojiro turn his head to look at them. To their shock, one of Ojiro's eyes was properly formed rather than be a blank white oval, although the proper eye was murky and the brow above it was tilted to give off a spacy, somber look.

"...I shouldn't be here..." the returned Ojiro sputtered out, clearly barely able to even speak any words period. Those who were hearing this, who were seeing this, were equal parts horrified and heartbroken. "...I...I shouldn't-" the returned Ojiro coughed out before lurching over again, gurgling out some cries before shooting his head back up and crying out in another inhumane roar, before charging at the nearest lab worker, this one also female.

Before the faux-Tailman could get very far, Ryumaru swung his kanabo against the back of his head, downing the returned Ojiro although he still was moving somewhat. The heroes were shocked to see what had become of their former classmate, their former friend. "...Killing my daughter wasn't enough for you," Toru said bitterly to Ryumaru, getting him to turn to face her, "You also had to kill my husband as well."

Ryumaru turned to look back at Toru, offering her a resigned look. "One, I didn't kill this Tailman here. I know how to hold back," the long-haired dragon guy said, "And two..." Stopping a bit short, Ryumaru turned back around to look at were the faux-Tailman was slowly wriggling as it laid on the ground. "...Whatever the hell this thing is, it ain't Tailman. It ain't your husband."

At Mera's orders, some men moved in to properly restrain the faux-Tailman, including a few quirk suppressing items like cuffs and a collar. Some damage had been done to him, so medical experts were being called in. As things were being cleaned up, the heroes were excused for the day, with Mera personally relieving Toru who he had no doubt was reeling from seeing that thing masquerading as her late husband thrashing about before being taken out.

Some of the more savvy heroes, like Izuku and Bakugo, felt that this was the beginning of something far worse than anything that their disgraced former classmate Mineta had ever done in his fifteen someodd years as Fine Wine. They were worried about just what exactly things will turn out to be.

Later, the women of the legendary year of UA's hero course had all returned to Faerun High, to continue their work as security while UA students were hosted at Faerun. As Mina led a group composed of herself, Ochaco, Pony, Kyoka and Kinoko (Mina being the highest ranked one there was naturally the one leading the charge) on their patroll, they were met up by their respective kids, although the four boys were keeping a slight but notable distance from Inko.

This did not escape the women unnoticed. "...Ragna, boys, why are you trying to keep away from Inko?" Mina asked, sounding as concerned as she looked.

Komaru sniffled a bit in a sad, upset tone, making all of the women, Kinoko especially, turn to face him. "...None of us are friends with Inko anymore. She's very mean."

"What did you do to my baby, you little whore?!" Kinoko snapped at Inko, instantly going onto protective parent mode upon hearing her upset son say Inko was being mean and that he's not friends with her anymore.

"Inko didn't do anything to Komaru, Mrs. Kirishima," Marley explained in a resigned tone, "As it turns out, Inko was actually the one who had framed Fuyuki to make him look like a male version of that Ichigo girl. Inko had confessed to having framed Fuyuki earlier." The boys then proceeded to explain everything, with Inko surprisingly putting in a few things to make one or two corrections as needed.

By the time all was taken care of, the women all looked shocked. "...So it was Pony's daughter who had framed Fuyuki," Kyoka said. Turning to face Pony and Ochaco, Kyoka asked, "And you two knew this all along."

"In their defense, the kids here pointed out that a point was made how that bastard Entreri surprisingly enough wanted to know the truth to who had set Ochaco's son up," Mina pointed out to the other women, "That bastard has a reputation, and given the kind of reputation it is, it can be reasonably assumed that Entreri could have been interested in killing Pony's daughter for whatever reason."

"What I would like to know is why Inko confessed what she had done," Pony said in a concerned tone, "I mean, Entreri is still out there somewhere. If he catches wind of what Inko had said, then her life might be in a lot of danger."

Fuyuki wanted to reassure his aunt, reassure everyone, that Entreri wouldn't go after Inko for certain reasons. After all, Fuyuki knew Entreri better than anyone else, given that he himself is Entreri. But he couldn't say enough to fully lower his aunt's fears. "...I saw those notes that had been thrown through the windows," Fuyuki began, getting everyone to look at him, "Mom and dad, as well as Aunt Pony and Uncle Katsuki, showed them to me."

Ochaco and Pony nodded in agreement. "Yes, I remember how we showed those letters to you and your cousin at one point," Ochaco said.

"In the one letter, Entreri claimed he wouldn't have killed whoever it was that had set me up," Fuyuki said, "He would have instead asked a few questions. And from what I have been able to gleam, he's a man of his word. That being said, I'm pretty sure he won't do anything worse to Inko than maybe capture her, hold her hostage, maybe rough her up a bit, then let her go after he asked everything that he wanted to know."

The women nodded in understanding, able to see what Fuyuki was getting at. "...Either way, I get the feeling we're going to need to do a meeting between all of the parents," Kyoka said, "Given how Inko had confessed to what she had done to her entire homeroom class, the other teens are bound to tell their respective parents what had happened. A lot of the parents are going to be wanting answers."

Mina and the other women all nodded in agreement. "Yeah, and from where I'm sitting," Mina went on, "Ochaco, Pony, and their respective husbands are going to have a lot of questions for all of us that they will have to answer.

Ochaco sighed in a mildly exasperated tone. "This is the last thing that we need right now, especially considering the nature of the meeting that we all just got out of."

"What do you mean by that, Mom?" Fuyuki asked in a curious tone, his interest piqued.

"It's...something of a dark, inhumane nature, sweetie," Ochaco said, "Long story short, the heroes may now have to deal with a villain that's trying to play God."

Letting out a cringing whistle, Marley said, "Hoo boy, I'd hate to be that villain when Sigurd's mom encounters them! She'll tear them a new one for that, mark my words."

"Considering how part of the villain's first known act of their villainy can be seen as something of a personal attack on both your friend Sigurd and his mom," Kyoka said dryly to her son, "I'm willing to make that bet as well." The teens, even Inko who was brought somewhat out of her depressed air she was giving off, were wondering just what Kyoka meant by that. But the moms told the teens that things would be explained to them later.

There was a lot on the plate for the pro heroes, with a small side item being added to the dish without the heroes even knowing or anticipating it.

END, CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Author's notes;

This chapter shows the Baku-squad dealing with their returned classmates, getting a bit of help from some of the reformed villains in the program Izuku started up. There was some examining, and the lone returned hero who wasn't destroyed was captured and brought in, only to go on a rampage and had to be beaten for recapture. And then some of the moms learn upon returning to Faerun that Inko had confessed to what she had done to Fuyuki, giving the heroes even more that they have to deal with.

Things will be continuing in the chapters to come, with other deceased characters having a shot at coming back, with a certain one even being guaranteed in the next chapter as the plot will be needing him. Anyone care to guess who it will be?