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-nine: Albedo
Fuyuki woke up one morning and went down stairs to the ground floor of his family's house. He made a beeline for the kitchen to get a mug of coffee, but he was stopped when he was met up by his mom Ochaco. "...I was just getting some-" Fuyuki said, but was cut off when his mom, to his shock, lifted up his shirt. There Ochaco saw that her son's ribs were noticeable to a degree; not a really intense one, but still it didn't escape her eye.
"What you were getting is something to eat for breakfast," Ochaco said firmly as she lowered her son's shirt back down, "I had my suspicions that you weren't eating enough." She then gave Fuyuki a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry for having done that out of the blue, Fuyuki. It's just that I wasn't able to eat as much as I should have due to financial circumstances growing up, which I was able to get out of due to a mix of becoming a pro hero and marrying your father. You have no need to worry about getting enough to eat, so you have no excuse to have visible ribs."
Fuyuki, after he calmed down from his shock, realized that his mom was just showing concern for him and his well-being. "...I was actually going to say that I was going to get some coffee, but I suppose I can get some leftovers from last night's dinner to eat as well," Fuyuki replied, putting a relieved smile on Ochaco's face. The two of them went into the kitchen together, both aiming to get some breakfast.
...
"So Marley, Ragna and Komaru told you and your friends about the clones of dead pro heroes, huh?" Ochaco asked as she and her son talked during breakfast. Both were nursing mugs of coffee, although Ochaco was eating some heated up baked chicken breast while Fuyuki had the same plus a roll.
Fuyuki nodded once in confirmation. "Yeah, it sounds pretty dark. I was at first under the impression that the darkest act of evil that I would have seen unfold is what all that Fine Wine guy who turned out to be an old disgraced classmate of yours had gotten up to. But this talk of clones of dead pro heroes reminds me of some of the stories that dad told me about this one guy who was a villain back when you and dad were my age."
Ochaco wasn't about to argue with that. She only knew vague details about the evil that was All For One, but from what she had heard, what conclusions she could come to, Ochaco agreed that this was of a comparable level of evil. At the very least, whoever is behind all of this, they had accomplished the task of out-eviling Minoru Mineta. Ochaco looked up from her breakfast and to her son, who looked down at his as he ate.
The pro hero Uravity still couldn't believe how lucky she was; her son was sitting with her, eating breakfast with her. After what she had done, she thought that he would never want to associate with her ever again; by all rights, no one would be able to blame him. And yet here Fuyuki was, tearing a bite out of the reheated baked chicken breast he got. He was still a bit wary of Ochaco to be honest, but he had calmed down, he had forgiven some (but not all) of her errors.
He was okay with her being his mom again.
Ochaco intended to make the most of it; she would be borrowing heavily from the example of how Kinoko cares for her son Komaru, that much she was certain of. As Ochaco took a sip from her mug of coffee, she heard Fuyuki speak up. "...You know, mom, I was a bit freaked when you forcefully lifted my shirt that I'm wearing up."
"Sorry again about that, sweetie," Ochaco said, "It's just that I'm worried that-"
"You having me eat something reminds me of how me and a few of the others had Hikari eat something because she had deliberately starved herself skinny," Fuyuki went on, "You actually showed care for me, albeit in a space invading manner. Also I'm probably a bit hypocritical, as I helped to make Hikari eat more even though I had let myself get close to as skinny as she was."
Ochaco smiled gently, touched that her son was able to see she cared for him. "I'm pretty sure that you aren't being as hypocritical as you may think, Fuyuki," Ochaco said, "After all, you didn't let yourself get skinny like that intentionally, unlike with what Hikari had going on."
Fuyuki nodded in agreement. "...Yeah. Oh, how is Hikari doing as your intern, by the way?"
"Oh, yesterday I had her help me manage some of the reformed villains in that program that your dad had started up and is currently running," Ochaco explained in a conversational tone, "It helped that the two former villains in question are Makoto and Ryumaru."
Fuyuki nodded in acknowledgment to that. "Her older brother and said older brother's best friend. I can see how they'd behave themselves around Hikari."
"Yeah, family is best when it comes to helping someone," Ochaco said. The pro hero Uravity then asked her son what all he was going to be getting up to today during school. According to Fuyuki, Aizawa-sensei was reviewing what info from the quirk assessment test that Kababah-sensei had run on the first day of school at UA, heavily suspecting that Kababah's bias against the male students may have had an impact on the placements.
The underground hero would be reviewing the scores and seeing if changes had to be made to who placed where. Ochaco remembered when she and her class had done that very same test on their first day of UA, and hoo boy Aizawa-sensei was scary. Hopefully the old teacher won't be as harsh on the newer generation.
Later that morning at Faerun High, the 1-A class for UA was in their homeroom they were using at Faerun when Shouta walked in. "...As I had suspected when I first got a hold of the data from the quirk assessment test that was run by that sexist idiot Kababah," Shouta said as he made his way to the front of the class and stood before all of his students, "She had allowed her bias to affect how she had placed all of you."
Looking to where his godfather and namesake stood, Aizawa shrugged and said, "Well I sort of figured that sir, given that all of the girls were at the top of the list Kababah-sensei had while all of the boys were below the girls."
Shouta nodded in agreement with his godson. "We can't do a proper quirk assessment test, so I have to rely on what data I was able to gather on the class, prior to most of the girls in class being killed during the siege on UA." The underground hero then put the info up on the board for everyone in class to see. "This is how I would have ordered you all on the list," Shouta said, "If I had been the one running it."
To everyone's surprise, Toya Todoroki was ranked at number one on Eraserhead's revised quirk assessment test list. Following him was Fuyuki at number two, then Tengoh at number three. It was clear that Shouta didn't let bias affect his judgement as Aizawa placed seventh. The first girl to appear on the list was Inko at number nine, with Kurama between her and Aizawa. What really surprised the class was that, aside from Inko at number nine, Hikari at number eleven, and the late Rem at twelve, all of the girls in the base form of class 1-A occupied all of the bottom spots on the list.
"So the girls aside from my cousin, Hikari, and Rem were the overall worst in the class at the quirk assessment test," Fuyuki said, "But Kababah-sensei placed all of the girls in all of the top spots because she thought men could do no right and women could do no wrong."
Shouta nodded in a commending manner towards Fuyuki. "It still escapes me why Sekijiro had hired a misandristic, sexist idiot like Kababah in the first place. But that's aside from the point."
"Although I don't like what happened to Kababah-sensei, I still think that the class will do better since we no longer have a biased homeroom teacher running the show," Goukazaru remarked, "For a second, I was worried you'd place Aizawa at the top since you're his godfather."
"If he babied me like that, I'd stomp on his good foot," Aizawa said dryly.
Shouta nodded commendingly at his godson. "And that declaration of yours is a sign that my efforts to help your dad raise you have paid off splendidly." To the class as a whole, Shouta said, "There is no need to worry about me being biased unlike Kababah. If you want to do well in my eyes, then you had better put in the effort to earn it." The class seemed to be more agreeable to the underground hero being their homeroom teacher, especially since he was clearly leagues better than their old one who was killed in the siege on UA.
After classes for the day at Faerun were drawn to a close, Shouta was gathering his stuff when he was met up by his godson and said godson's friends. "I remember stories my parents had told me about you from their very early days at UA, Aizawa-sensei," Samidare said, "They said that you were fair, but could be very harsh. During today as well as what time we've had with you thus far, I could see both points, although you haven't shown to be as harsh as what my parents had told me."
The old underground hero let out a troubled sigh. "...Yeah, I will admit that I came off pretty strong a lot of the time back when the legendary year were still first years at UA. Looking back on all of it, I now see that in certain cases, I had crossed some lines that made me come off as something of an ass." Shouta scowled to himself. "...There was also one case where I should have been harsher than what I had really been, as well as acting sooner in said case."
"But overall, you're a lot more mellow than what you used to be," Tengoh said.
Shouta nodded in agreement. "I would pin the blame for that on three things, Iida." Holding up his right hand, Shouta said as he began raising fingers, "The first thing is my age. Me getting older has made me softer, as I had partly feared back in my heyday. The second is some regret that I have developed due to looking back on some mistakes I had made in certain cases, which makes me think twice before I make certain choices."
"And the third, sir?" Aizawa asked.
Shouta offered his godson an amused smirk. "The third point is you, mini-me." Aizawa's eyes widened a bit out of surprise. Shouta chuckled a bit as he explained, "Me becoming a godfather to you has also had an effect on me, I will admit."
"Yeah, I legit thought that you were actually the catboy's grandpappy at first," Great Shadow said as he popped out of Samidare and hung next to him.
Chuckling himself, Aizawa said, "Yeah, I remember my godmother Emi would occasionally cheer about how she and Mr. Shouta were grandparents."
"Since Emi and I never actually had our own children, she took to being a godmother very seriously," Shouta remarked, "But that's beside the point. Yes, I'm far more mellow than I used to be, but that still won't stop be from running things fairly, as well as being sharp when need be."
"And we're looking forward to having a fair teacher," Fuyuki said as he gave a nod to Shouta. The son of Deku was especially appreciative of having the fair and sharp but still mellow Shouta as a homeroom teacher; hell, if Shouta was around when Inko had framed Fuyuki, then Shouta would have forced Sekijiro to wait and do a proper investigation into the case before he made any matter of judgement, while also insisting on getting Commissioner Naomasa to help with looking into things.
If the underground hero Eraserhead was present at UA that day, then Entreri never would have come to be.
...
"So Toya is the true number one in class," Tengoh said as he and the boys left to go home.
"What do you think about that, dude?" Samidare asked as he and the others regarded their white-haired friend.
Toya looked at his right hand's palm as he wore a contemplative look on his face. "...I'm still surprised that I placed in the top spot. I mean, my quirk is just a mix of my mom's quirk and the ice half of my dad's quirk. I'm basically a very high end cryomancer."
"A high end cryomancer that would make Subzero blush with envy," Great Shadow remarked, "I mean, your quirk is absurdly powerful. The whole ice and snow thing of your overpowered quirk, mixed with your white hair here, the fact that you're the true number one in the quirk assesment test, and how you get a lot of lady attention, makes you like, a white knight or something."
While Toya looked a bit embarrassed, his friends chuckled in amusement. "Heh, yeah," Aizawa said, "Let's hear it for Toya Todoroki, the White Knight of UA!" The other boys and Great Shadow all cheered as the son of Shoto started blushing out of embarrassment.
The following morning over at Faerun High, Van Nicolas's secretary, Number One, was seen walking through the front doors and entering the main office area, carrying a business suitcase. While there, she went right up to the woman she had talked to previously. Before she could get close enough to the woman, however, Number One stopped in her tracks when she heard a man call out, "Hey, umm, sorry if this sounds weird to you, but have we met before?"
Curious, Number One turned around to face the man who had called out to her. As such, she came face to face with Hizashi Yamada, the pro hero Present Mic. The older but still loud pro hero looked at Number One with a curious look. "...I can't help but think that you're someone that I know. What's your name?"
"Sylvia Hamsuke," Number One replied, giving the name that she had been given by Van to tell others when they ask her for her name. It was best that they did not know the truth about her existence, or that her true name was nothing more than a number given to her. 'Sylvia' gave the older pro hero talking to her a curious look. "Apologizes, but you must have me confused for some other person."
Hizashi continued to look at 'Sylvia' for a bit, long enough for Shouta to find him. "Hey Hizashi," the older underground hero said, a hint of annoyance in his tone, "Where the hell have you-"
"Hey Sho," Hizashi began, interrupting Shouta in the process. Pointing to Number One, Hizashi asked, "Doesn't this woman strike you as familiar?"
Shouta turned to look at 'Sylvia', gave her a bit of a quick look. After a few seconds, Shouta had a look of mild contemplation on his face. "...Yeah, she does look familiar," Shouta remarked. To 'Sylvia', Shouta asked, "What's your name?"
"Like I told your friend here, my name is Sylvia Hamsuke," Number One said, "And this is simply a case of mistaken identity." Gently shaking her head, 'Sylvia' went on, "Anyway, I was sent here to speak with a UA student, one Toya Todoroki, as my boss is interested in offering him some part time employment. I would like to ask him a few questions first, however."
Both men had curious looks on their faces. "...He'll probably decline the offer, just to give you fair warning," Hizashi said, "After all, his dad is both a highly successful pro hero and from a very wealthy family, so money's no issue to him. He's also aiming to be a pro hero himself. It's why he's attending UA classes."
Shrugging, Number One said, "Either way, I would still like to speak with him, if only so that I can tell my boss when I get back that I had personally delivered the part time employment offer to him. Sake of formality and all that good stuff, you know."
Shouta and Hizashi nodded in understanding, with Shouta leaving to go locate Toya; given the time at the moment, the son of Shoto was bound to be in the classroom used by UA's class 1-A while UA was being hosted by Faerun High. After the older underground hero had left, Hizashi gave 'Sylvia' another curious look, still not able to shake the feeling that he had remembered her at one point or another.
After a minute or so of waiting, Toya Todoroki came by and walked up to where Hizashi was standing with 'Sylvia'. Looking at Number One, Toya said, "I assume that you're that Sylvia lady that Aizawa-sensei told me about?"
"Yes," Number One replied, "And I assume that you're Toya Todoroki?" After Toya nodded a few times in the affirmative, Number One said, "There are a few things that I would like to discuss with you in regards to the part time employment offer my boss wanted to extend to you before you give a yes or no answer."
Toya rolled his eyes, annoyed that this lady in front of him was insisting on meeting with him to discuss something that Toya was already planning to decline. Still, he figured that the lady was just doing her job, and might get scolded or yelled at if she failed to at the very least have the sit down with him. As such, Toya shrugged his shoulders. "...Alright, I'll hear what you have to say," Toya relented, "So what's up?"
"A lot of what I need to tell you is something of a more private nature," 'Sylvia' said, "We're going to have to find a room that we can use so that we aren't talking out here in the open."
The son of Shoto had to resist the urge to sigh in an exasperated tone. "I know of an empty classroom that we can use," Toya said, some exasperation escaping into his tone, "Follow me." The two persons proceeded to go through a hallway located in a seldom used section of the main building for Faerun High. After a minute or so, they reached their destination. Toya led the woman inside, and the woman gently closed the door.
"Alright, let me hear what you have to say," Toya remarked, sounding like he wanted to get this all over with already.
Number One nodded in understanding as she proceeded to walk over to the teacher's desk in the room and sit against it. Acting on her gesturing, Toya proceeded to sit in the student's desk directly in front of 'Sylvia'. "So to begin with," the woman explained, "The part time employment pays depending on how much time you're able to put into it."
Toya nodded dryly, understanding already that pay depending on time invested is how pay usually works. Number One was droning on and on about various aspects of the job, with the clear aim to occupy his time as much as possible. The son of Shoto thought that he was going to be passing out from sheer boredom before much longer, that's how boring this talk with the woman right in front of him was being.
Speaking of clocking out, Toya literally felt like he actually was clocking out right now, although he did try to force himself to stay up. But his efforts were being blunted more and more; his vision even started to get blurry, and he thought that there was some manner of violet colored mist that was coming from the woman. A few seconds later, Toya slumped over in the desk he was sitting in, very clearly out of it.
Number One, when she saw that Toya had passed out, relaxed. She walked over to the door that led into the classroom, locked it to make sure that no one would be able to get inside and catch her in the act that she was about to do. There was no need to worry about the mist; it wouldn't have escaped in any form from the room, it was already fading, and it had done its job. Toya will be out of it for more time than what she would be needing.
Right away, 'Sylvia' got to work, placing her suitcase on the teacher's desk before opening it; she removed some items not unlike the apparatuses used at blood drives to take blood out of the donors. She took a handheld device from the suitcase, walked over to where Toya sat knocked out at the desk, then pulled his right sleeve up before sticking a needle into his arm after she found a vein and proceeded to take some of his blood.
She didn't work for very long; all she was aiming to take was 3/4 of a pint, slightly less than the full pint people usually give when donating blood. Once she got what she needed, 'Sylvia' placed her stuff away back into her suitcase, then proceeded to place some treatment products on the knocked out Toya, ultimately covering up the fact that she had performed the Dracula treatment on the son of Shoto.
Since he had passed out while she kept his attention occupied with her taking, 'Sylvia' could very easily claim that her talking must have put Toya to sleep. She would apologize for having come off as so boring, then make what excuses she needed, say what things she would have to say, in order to get out of there without anyone ever having any sort of idea what she had been up to in the first place.
Things weren't too hard for Van's number one homunculus.
Later, in the deepest reaches of Van Nicolas's cubic zirconium creating plant, Van placed the container holding the blood taken from Toya away in a safe. "There, the precious component for my ultimate goal is stored safely away," Van remarked, "Right next to the necessary sample that I had been able to collect from my dear Vantablack."
"So that blood from the pro hero Shoto's son is the necessary component for the Albedo phase of your plan, sir," Number One said as she watched her boss close the safe. The safe held many samples of blood, but most of them were labeled as augmentations or enhancers; the very top shelf of the safe held only the samples taken from the Shihai homunculus and Toya. There was also space enough on that very top shelf in the safe for two more samples.
Van nodded in confirmation to his number one homunculus. "Yes. The Albedo phase, which is phase two, is now assured. A lesser known person will be contributing to phase three, and I know who I want to get to contribute to phase four. Once I have what all I need from them, I will be able to get started on my ultimate goal." The safe holding all of the blood samples gleamed with what little light shown on it in the absolute lowest level of Van Nicolas's cubic zirconium creating plant.
Holding a dark treasure.
END, CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Author's notes;
This chapter makes references to the quirk assessment test that Aizawa did on the first day of class with his students from the legendary year. He reviews the info from Kababah's test, sees that things were wrongly ordered due to sexist bias, then revises things properly. As a result, Toya is shown as the true first place student in the quirk assessment test, with all of his friends cheering for him and hyping him up.
That was all partly necessary, especially what all was said in regards to the color white towards Toya, in order to have him be a candidate for Van's ultimate goal. His number one homunculus, 'Sylvia Hamsuke', got some blood from Toya so that it could be stored for when the time is right for Van to get cracking on his ultimate goal. The next chapter will be seeing this part continue on, with some suspicion placed against Van to heat things up.
Stay frosty.