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-eight: Nigredo
The remaining pro heroes who made up the legendary year of UA's hero course were all working together to investigate the sudden case that had popped up before them. Out of the blue, five of their old colleagues who had died in the siege on UA had seemingly returned back to life and were on a rampage until the Baku-squad, backed up by former villains in Deku's reform program, took out four of them while capturing the fifth one, the returned Ojiro, alive.
...If what Ojiro is can even be referred to as being alive, that is.
The scientists working for the commission were hard at work examining the remains of the four returned heroes who were vanquished. A lot of autopsy work was being done, and some of the scientists were even marveling at the remains that they were examining, given that they were very clearly working with the remains of very sophisticated and complex results from cloning, as opposed to comparable data gathered from autopsies done on slain nomu from years ago, showing those monstrosities wrought by All For One's madness as little else than reanimated corpses that were heavily augmented.
The returned heroes, now confirmed to be sophisticated results from cloning, were the fruits of a different kind of madness altogether.
And that wasn't all that the heroes had to deal with, although it was their only concern related to the work they had to do as pro heroes. Late yesterday afternoon, while the parents had the meeting to discuss the topic of the returned heroes, Inko Bakugo had confessed to her entire homeroom class over at Faerun High that she was the true culprit in the scheme that resulted in the framing and expulsion from UA of her own cousin, Fuyuki Midoriya.
The heroes wanted answers to the whole situation, and they were looking at Izuku, Ochaco, Pony and Bakugo for answers. "Okay, I know full well that there is no way that Baku-bro would put his daughter up to this," Kirishima said, "He's a cool dude who owns up to what he does as a pro hero. He won't expect his daughter to get revenge for his injury he suffered."
"I said that I was sorry for bringing that possibility up!" Nirengeki declared, "It's just that it wouldn't have been the first time someone pulled a similar stunt for a similar reason!"
Bakugo held up a hand to cut off further arguments from others. "Mines has a point. Some guys, if they were in my position, could be seen putting others up to the task of getting revenge for them like that." The pro hero Dynamight gently shook his head. "...But that doesn't matter. What does matter is how word of what we've been trying to cover up is now public knowledge, at least to everyone in our kids' homeroom. Thank goodness word hasn't spread beyond that."
"What I would like to know is why Toru's daughter was offered as the culprit behind the scheme that got Izuku and Ochaco's son expelled," Tetsutetsu said, looking confused.
"We told you, Entreri took a personal interest out of curiosity," Ochaco said, "And given the kind of reputation he had, we had every reason to fear he'd try murdering Inko. It's part of why we gave Rem as the culprit to Entreri."
Some of the others were beginning to at the very least understand the idea. "...Rem had already died sometime before Entreri demanded answers to satisfy his curiosity," Yosetsu said, "Since Rem was already dead, there's no further damage that Entreri would have been able to inflict."
Folding his arms over his chest, Juzo remarked, "What surprises me is that Toru actually agreed to a plan that essentially posthumously disgraced her daughter."
Toru shook very slightly as she choked back a sob. "...Rem already died. Since someone's life could have been saved in the process, I figured that it would be okay." The plastic headband she wore was the only indication that the invisible pro hero turned her head up, then turned to look over where Izuku stood with Ochaco, Pony and Bakugo. "...However, this is the first I'm hearing that Inko is the true culprit."
"We couldn't risk certain info getting out, as Entreri was and remains to this day still on the loose," Izuku explained, "If you all who have children could do so, would you do whatever it took to ensure their safety and well being?"
The other pro heroes couldn't argue with that. "...You have a point, Izuku," Tenya said grimly, "I just wish that things weren't as bad as they were."
"If we weren't so blindly focused on helping Katsuki recover back when he was injured," Pony said as tears began to slowly run down the sides of her face, "If we were able to see it that Inko was also suffering because of what she was seeing her dad go through back then, all of this could either have been significantly reduced in severity, or flat out avoided altogether."
Some of the other adults, mostly the women, all nodded in agreement. "It's part of why we need to keep an eye on our own children," Ochaco said somberly, "We failed Fuyuki. We failed Inko. We can't keep failing our children like that. They depend on us to make sure that they can grow up in a safe and reassuring environment, to be properly raised to live life as beat as they can."
The other adults all agreed that their kids need as much help as they could give them. They did not want them to have to struggle as the adults themselves had when they were that age. Back then, the adults who were teens themselves at the time had to deal with all sorts of struggles, all sorts of nightmares. The adults, now pro heroes themselves, did not want their kids to have to deal with any sort of nightmares like those.
It was the last thing that they wanted for the teens.
Meanwhile, Fuyuki was hanging out with his friends Toya, Tengoh, Aizawa and Samidare. The boys were over at the large, stately home owned by Toya's family, and as such there was plenty of room for all of them. As things went on, the subject of what Fuyuki's cousin Inko had done to him came up. "Your cousin had committed a truly reprehensible act, Fuyuki," Tengoh said, "I'm quite frankly surprised that she's willing to show herself to class after her confession."
Shrugging, the son of Deku replied, "She's probably stubbornly refusing to back down from her dreams of becoming a pro hero."
"A dream she by no right deserves to accomplish if you ask me," Aizawa scowled bitterly as his cat tail swished, "I mean, what she did is something that no self-respecting person would ever do. She ruined Fuyuki's life, and over something that he's not even connected to."
As the teens were talking, they heard a knock at the front door, and as such Toya went to answer it. A few seconds after Toya went to the front door, the other boys heard him call out, "What are you guys doing here?"
"We heard some stuff from our folks that we figured you guys would be interested in," the boys heard Marley Kaminari reply. A few moments later, Toya came back leading Marley, Ragna, and Komaru. Upon meeting up with the other guys, Inko's old crew looked at them, serious looks on the faces of Marley and Ragna and a worried look on Komaru's face. "...Boys," Marley began, his tone oddly serious, "The lads here and I have got to tell you something that's totally sick. And not sick in the sense that it's awesome."
...
"Zombies?!" Fuyuki and his friends exclaimed in unison.
Shaking his head, Marley said, "No, boys. Not zombies. That's a mistake that Ragna keeps making, although given the circumstances it's one that many people can reasonably come to." To Fuyuki and his group, Marley explained, "According to what my parents and the other adults say on the matter, they fought mindless clones of some of their late colleagues who were all killed during the siege on UA."
Fuyuki and his friends were still surprised to hear that clones of late pro heroes had been on the loose a short while ago. "Yes," Komaru said nervously, "My dad said that he, as well as Marley's dad, Ragna's mom and dad, and Fuyuki's uncle had all fought Mr. Sato, Mr. Aoyama, Mr. Ojiro, Mr. Shoji and Mr. Koda." The boys in Fuyuki's circle were all shocked to hear that so many late pro heroes had returned to the land of the living, albeit as mindless clones.
Fuyuki himself was also shocked, as he had killed three of those five men during the siege on UA, back in his days as Entreri.
"According to our parents," Ragna said in a grim tone, "There's a very real possibility that more late heroes may pop up in the form of those zom- err, sorry,- in the form of those mindless clones that had reared their ugly heads."
Letting out a whistle, Samidare said, "Hoo boy. So Mr. Sato is one of the clones of dead pro heroes, huh? I can't imagine how Sigurd and Mrs. Sato would react."
Marley let out a troubled sigh. "...The clones aside from the one of Mr. Ojiro were vanquished in the field when some former villains in the reform program that Fuyuki's dad had started up had shown up to help out," Marley explained, "The examining of those remains is what allowed the police and pro heroes to learn that they were dealing with mindless clones."
Fuyuki and all of his friends looked troubled by what they were being told. The very idea that someone would think to desecrate the dead in such a manner, it's the kind of evil that the boys thought only existed back when their respective parents were their age; the worst kind of evil that Fuyuki and his friends thought that they would ever have to deal with would have been Fine Wine and his gang of criminals.
Those criminals, although bad, never got to a level of evil comparable to the stories that Fuyuki had been told by his dad Izuku about a villain from his (Izuku's) youth called All For One.
Samidare's sentient quirk Great Shadow popped out, hung next to Samidare. "Do you boys know anything else about these clones?" Great Shadow asked as he addressed Inko's old crew.
"We got nothing else aside from what we just told the lads here," Marley said as he gestured to Fuyuki and the others, "However my mom is very worried about who all else may potentially rear their heads in the form of those clones. After all, so many heroes had died in recent events, so whoever the asshole who is creating these mindless clones of the deceased is, they''re going to be like little kids in a candy shop."
"Marley's right," Fuyuki said. He spoke from personal experience, not that anyone else there knew about that part. "...Society has lost so many heroes as of late. Seeing them returned, only as mindless clones, will put a dampener on the morale of, pfft, pretty much everyone."
"We should probably write up a list of all pro heroes who had died in recent events," Tengoh said, "That way we can give said list to our parents to help them better anticipate who they may have to deal with if more of these clones come out of the woodwork."
Toya nodded in agreement. "I think that going as far back as Entreri's first known appearance, where he assaulted Sebas's mom that day, and going out from there to this day will be sufficient to come up with a list of pro heroes who had died in recent events." The boys all nodded along in agreement, then they all got to the task of writing up names that their pro hero parents ought to keep in mind when it came to dealing with the clones.
A short while later, after the pro heroes had finished their meeting, Momo, Ochaco, and Kinoko all returned to the cubic zirconium creating plant so that Momo could apologize to Van Nicolas about having to bail on the meeting that they were having, as well as try to talk business about the potential partnership between Van Nicolas's company and the Yaoyorozu family. The three pro hero women entered through the front reception area, then made their way right over to the counter where a receptionist was stationed.
The receptionist was a slender older woman. Fair skinned, and with graying darkish hair of a color that the ladies weren't quite able to identify properly (Ochaco at a glance thought that the hair was darkish green), with her hair pulled back into a simple ponytail worn down. The older woman wore a simple, loose-fitting pastel pinkish long sleeved blouse, a dark bluish skirt that reached halfway down her shins, stockings that went up and disappeared into under the skirt, and simple slip on shoes.
The older woman looked up with a somewhat spacy expression on her face as she sensed that she had been approached. Ochaco got the feeling that this older woman was familiar, and yet she couldn't quite place her finger on it. "Excuse me, ma'am," Momo said, "But we're here to see Mr. Van Nicolas. I'm Momo Awase, and I was meeting with him earlier before I got pulled away to help with hero work."
The older woman, without even saying anything, pressed a button that made a slight buzzing sound come out from somewhere. A few moments later, Van Nicolas came out into the area to see who was here to see him. "Oh, Creati!" Van said in a mildly surprised tone, "I wasn't really expecting you to come back so soon after you, Uravity and Shemage left like you did earlier."
"Yes, and I would like to apologize for having to leave right in the middle of our discussion like that," Momo replied in an apologetic tone, "It's just that the nature of the work we did...turned out to be of a rather unpleasant nature."
"...I think I might know what it is," Van remarked grimly, "One of my employees here saw a video on their phone that was posted to the internet showing a few heroes thought to have died now back and going on a rampage."
Momo snapped her fingers. "Damn it. Info had already started leaking to the public." Looking to Van, Momo explained, "Although that is true, rest assured that my fellow pro heroes and I have already dealt with them. Four were destroyed on the spot, and the fifth one who resembles the late Tailman was captured alive and is now being studied, although it had to be roughed up a bit when it tried to escape from holding."
Van looked grim at that news. "...It's a damn shame that fallen heroes are being desecrated in such a reprehensible manner."
"And we're putting all of our efforts into getting to the bottom of things here," Ochaco said, "But that's besides the point."
Momo nodded in agreement. "Yes, we came back here mainly so that I could apologize for having to leave you like that earlier, as well as potentially continue discussing business if you're still interested in the partnership."
"I still would very much like to discuss that, Creati," Van replied, lighting up a bit.
"You're honestly going to have to discuss things with my father," Momo said, "But I talked to him on the way here on the phone, and from what all I heard him say he sounds very interested and will undoubtedly agree. You'll just have to explain some finer details to him first."
Nodding in an understanding manner, Van remarked, "Yes, that sounds reasonable. And I like it that your father sounded agreeable to the idea of the partnership, Creati." The man running the cubic zirconium creating plant discussed a few more points with Momo, answered a few more questions that all three of the women had, then when all was said and done Momo left, both of her fellow pro hero women following her.
As the women walked past the receptionist who was focused on her work, Ochaco looked like she still couldn't shake the feeling that the older woman was somehow familiar. As the women walked out of the cubic zirconium creating plant, Momo noticed the look of uncertainty on her friend's face. "...Are you alright, Ochaco?" asked the wealthy pro hero, "You seem like you're lost on some sort of matter."
"Sorry, Momo," Ochaco apologized as she gently shook her head, "It's just that I can't help but shake the feeling that the receptionist that was working back there for Van was someone that I'm familiar with."
"Things like that happen, Ochaco," Kinoko replied in a reassuring tone, "You're not the first to think that someone is someone else." Kinoko then offered a bit of a chuckle. "Why, there's been a few cases where Komaru got mistaken for me actually."
Momo nodded in understanding. "Well the two of you are around the same height, you're both similarly as slender, and you both have long honey brown hair of similar styles. If it counts for anything, I think it's adorable how much more Komaru takes after you." Kinoko offered some amused, cute chuckling as thanks. The three pro hero women made their way to the corner of the street before they took off from one another, leaving to go their own separate ways.
Van Nicolas, after he had seen the women off, turned back around and went back through the door he had come out of. He passed a few of his employees who were single-mindedly focused on their jobs as he walked through the warehouse floor. He eventually made his way to a desk near an elevator door. The desk was manned by the woman who went to Faerun High to locate Momo for her boss in the first place.
Van looked to the woman, got her attention. "Number One, you're with me. We're going to take a ride in the elevator."
"You wish to speak with me privately in your office at the top floor of the building?" asked the woman, identified by Van as Number One.
The business man gently shook his head in the negative. "No, we're going to be having a private talk down in the lowest reaches of the company." Number One nodded in understanding as she got up and accompanied her boss into the elevator after the doors opened. Van and Number One entered the elevator and waited for the doors to close. One the elevator doors were closed, Van pulled a key tied to a string around his neck out from under the dress shirt underneath his business suit top.
He stuck the key into a mysterious keyhole in the button pad inside of the elevator, located under all of the numbered buttons. The edges of the button pad lit up as the key fully stuck in, the the elevator proceeded to go down as Van pulled the key back out and replaced it where it had originally been. Van stood back and simply stood next to Number One as they rode the elevator to the absolute lowest level of the company.
...
The bottom basement level of the company looked like a somewhat more sinister version of the company's main warehouse floor, with the various machines needed to create cubic zirconium stones. However, the employees that were all working down here, while also single mindedly focusing on their jobs like their counterparts above, all looked like folks who are known to have already died quite some time ago.
Some men working wth one machine resembled the late pro heroes Tsuburaba and Spiral, while two women working near some large glass pods looked a lot like the late villains Ibuki and Yomi, both of whom were killed during the siege on UA. A younger looking woman, probably a teen girl, who was working with the Ibuki and Yomi lookalikes, had a slender body and long, frizzy pink hair. She also had a pair of slender white horns growing out of her forehead.
"It's rather unfortunate that Numbers Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, and Eleven were taken out by the pro heroes," Van said grimly in a businesslike tone, "With Number seven being captured and the others being killed. A lot of work had gone into making those homunculi."
"How much does it take to grow a homunculus again, sir?" Number One asked.
Shrugging, Van replied, "Depends on how much cognitive prowess I bother to have them start off with. The five that had tangoed with the pro heroes a short while ago were little more than mindless monsters, not unlike certain kinds of undead from works of fiction." Nodding once, Van went on, "Low cognitive homunculi like those average a week of time needed to grow. The ones I put more effort into, such as you Number One, takes a little over twice that time."
Number One nodded in understanding. "Yes." Looking up at the large glass pod that the Ibuki and Yomi lookalikes stood in front of with the mystery homunculus girl, Number One asked, "And what of the homunculus of Vantablack that you're growing in this growing pod right here? How much effort will he receive, sir?"
Van turned to look at the large glass pod the three homunculi girls stood in front of. Floating inside was a clone, or rather homunculus as Van prefers to use, of the late Shihai Kuroiro, also known as the pro hero Vantablack. There was a mask with some air tubes attached secured to Shihai's face to help with breathing, and he wore only a pair of white underwear. Shihai looked to be sound asleep as he floated in the green liquid filling the growing pod.
The three homunculi girls were gently shooed away by Van as he and Number One stepped closer to the growing pod. Van gently placed his left hand against the growing pod, as if giving an affectionate gesture. Van smiled gently, as if out of sincere appreciation. "...Oh, he's going to be given a good deal, Number One," Van said, "After all, he has proven to be rather invaluable for the Nigredo phase."
"That's phase one." Van nodded in confirmation to Number One's statement.
Smiling on, Van said, "I'd have preferred enough blood from the real deal, but blood from the homunculus will be just as sufficient. I still need some blood from many others, with three very specific persons in mind. Gathering that blood will be very tricky, especially since many that I need some blood from are still alive." Van nodded as he looked at the Shihai he was growing in the growing pod before him.
"...But I will get it from all of them, just as I had gotten what blood that I needed from you. My dear Vantablack."
END, CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Author's notes;
This arc actually takes some inspiration from Apotheosis by Lord Wolfe; I discussed things with him, and he didn't mind that I was borrowing a few cues from him. But that's beside the point; the point here is that Van has officially been revealed to be the main antagonist of this arc, and the clones of characters who had died thus far are all his doing. He also refers to all of his clones as homunculi, which can be taken as a hint as to what's going on.
The chapters to come will see some characters fighting more of the deceased who have come back in the form of Van's homunculi. It will also see Van try to get one step closer to his big end ultimate goal. Even though they don't know they're fighting Van's efforts yet, the heroes will still try to stand in the way, if only by fighting off what homunculi comes their way.