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 fifty-four: Equivalent Exchange
Izuku, Bakugo, Pony, and Inko all fired ranged attacks at Van, a mix of Blackwhip, explosions, horns, and explosive horns. However, all was rendered moot by Van conjuring wall shields to protect himself. As Van did this, he failed to notice it when Ochaco and Fuyuki were smacking whatever they could find and float with their Zero Gravity quirks. Once enough had been floated, the mom and son pair cast their flying projectiles at the mad villain.
Seeing the rain of rubble, Van curved his wall shield up to curve and block the hail, with some spikes shooting out to impale some of the rubble, shattering some as well. Van then conjured a few attacks at the family, forcing them to scramble around to avoid being hit. Things were now looking rather tough for the heroic family, even though one of the dads is Japan's number one hero. Van couldn't help but laugh at how he had the six of them helpless before him.
"Amazing!" Van proclaimed, "Absolutely amazing! Even four pro heroes and two heroes in training combined aren't powerful enough to defeat me! Truly the power of the Philosopher's Stone is marvelous! I have stepped into the realm of legend that all alchemists of old were only able to dream of!"
Izuku let out a troubled sigh. "This is bad, guys," the top hero said to his family, "He's proving to be a challenge that hasn't been seen since our UA days, long before Fuyuki and Inko were born."
"Maybe we should send the teens out of here so we don't have to worry about them?" Ochaco suggested, trying to sound helpful.
"Yeah, I'd rather not see my daughter get pierced by rebar again," Pony said.
Scoffing, Fuyuki stepped forward a step. "Aunt Pony, you underestimate Inko," Fuyuki remarked, "And mom, you're close to sounding like you're understanding me. The two of us, Inko and I, are both training to be pro heroes, so we're going to be in the same boat as you two, dad, and Uncle Katsuki eventually. If we're going to get into danger regardless, we might as well do it early so we have some idea of what to expect."
Both Ochaco and Pony, as well as both Izuku and Bakugo, looked surprised at Fuyuki. He was getting his act together better than most adult pro heroes would in this situation, as was Inko getting hers together if her moving to stand by her cousin's side was any indication. The four adults couldn't have been more proud of their respective children as Fuyuki and Inko stood side by side, ready to face the mad, powerful villain before them.
The two of them had truly grown up, it would seem.
"Here's the plan," Fuyuki said to his family, his tone a bit louder than what should have been necessary, "You all work on distracting Van while I sneak up and make a jump for him to try to take his Philosopher's Stone away from him."
Inko and the adults looked at Fuyuki with mild hints of concern. "Umm, Fuyuki, little dude," Bakugo began, "That's a great plan and all, but I'm pretty sure it ain't gonna work since that Van bastard probably heard you."
"It will work, Uncle Katsuki," Fuyuki said, "You all just need to worry about what you're doing to do."
"No, dad's right, cous," Inko said, "Van knows you're going to try to make a move for his stone, so he'll be keeping an eye-"
Cutting Inko off, Fuyuki remarked, "Inko, I know full well that your friends abandoning you had to have stung, but you can get them to like you again. Getting them little presents will help a great deal if you're in a pinch." With a hint of a knowing smirk, Fuyuki said to his cousin, "Komaru, for example, likes a lot of the same works of fiction that I do, so stuff related to magic like what wizards use will work."
Before any of the adults could act, Fuyuki rushed forward, making a turn around Van's right flank as the adults and Inko rushed him from the front. Van scoffed at the defiant attempt to bring him down. He couldn't be stopped, now that he had the Philosopher's Stone, and he certainly was not going to let the heroes before him stop him. Van had come too far to be stopped, had come too far to have the holy grail of alchemy taken from him.
He did indeed hear Fuyuki's plan, but even if he didn't he could tell Fuyuki breaking away from the rest of the group was suspicious, so he kept an eye on the son of Deku either way. Van manipulated some hunks of cement to fly right at Fuyuki, making him run around all over. But he always got closer and closer as he ran around, never straying out of Van's line of sight. This had struck the mad villain as odd, as he heard that Fuyuki was supposed to sneak up on him.
Van with a mix of his quirk and the Philosopher's Stone was able to keep himself covered from other attempts to bring him down while he focused on Fuyuki. Eventually, when Fuyuki got to within ten feet of Van, the villain caught him in a very tall mass of cement shaped in the form of a human arm with a hand, with the hand grabbing around Fuyuki and squeezing him, causing the adults to cry out in worry for him. Van gave off an amused, villainous smirk as he looked at the now trapped Fuyuki.
Chckling, the villain floated towards Fuyuki, confident that he had won now that he had in his hold a potential hostage. "...Well now, young man, some plan of yours that was," Van sneered in a victorious gloat, "The distraction would have worked better if I didn't hear that the plan was to distract me, you know."
To Van's surprise, Fuyuki smirked right back at him. "Well you see, here's the thing. The plan to distract you worked because you had heard it."
The mad villain looked confused by what Fuyuki had said, had no idea at all what he was talking about even. Then, to his complete surprise as he wasn't expecting it, some explosions blasted underneath him, catching him off guard and making him fly down and off to the side. Inko, with a self amused smirk on her face, looked up at her cousin and flashed him a thumbs up while Izuku came up to smash away the manipulated material trapping Fuyuki.
Over where he had fallen, Van was trying to pick himself back up when Inko rushed him, knocking him back over onto the ground as she forcefully tried to take his Philosopher's Stone away from him. She pulled on his right arm, pulling Van's right hand out from the pocket in the process, and struggled with prying the Philosopher's Stone out of his clenched hand. Van very clearly was refusing to let go, and did what he could to make Inko back off.
Right as Inko was about to pry Van's fingers open and randomly fling the Philosopher's Stone out of his hand, she was tackled from behind by the homunculus of Granny Inko, knocking her away from the mad villain. Rattled over nearly losing the Philosopher's Stone twice, Van took a cautious jump back away from the heroes, avoiding the moms and Bakugo as they had tried to surround Van while Inko kept his attention off of everyone else.
Inko was laying face up on the ground as the homunculus of her grandmother had her pinned on the ground. Inko's grandmother, her namesake, the woman she by her actions had effectively killed by shocking her more than she was able to handle. Granny Inko was unrecognizable now, having been altered by some manner by Van's cloning process that had returned the kind older lady back into the land of the living. Being pinned like that by her grandmother returned to the world was almost enough to make Inko lose heart in the battle.
Almost.
Inko pulled her right leg in and, with what little space was between her and the homunculus, kicked as hard as she could, successfully kicking her returned grandmother off of her and sending her flying. For good measure, Inko aimed her head then fired some of her horns, which went into the homunculus of Granny Inko and blasted her away, sending her flying into an area with loads of hunks of rubble that was made over the course of fighting Van.
As Inko got back up and regrouped with her family, the combined six of them stood against Van as he seemed to be losing a bit of patience and or sanity. "You...you all shouldn't be able to so much as scratch me!" Van spat, "I'm supposed to be invincible now! I can't lose to a dumb family of heroes!" The mad villain then made his move, floating over towards Fuyuki and the others at a fast speed as he used his quirk to manipulate material as he went.
The family then rushed forward, ready to take Van down once and for all. Izuku threw some Blackwhips forward, tying Van up. Bakugo then threw a bunch of explosions right at Van, which was followed by Inko firing her explosive horns at him, blasting him even further. Van, having lost a lot of his cool, was now slipping up more, allowing more to get through. Exactly what the family of heroes had been hoping for, and they seized the opportunity.
Pony fired her own horns, pinning some of Van's clothes although one horn jabbed into his left shoulder, digging into his person a bit. When the other horns carried him towards the nearest surface that was propped up and pinned him to it, Van was slammed right into the surface very hard; that plus the pain of one of Pony's horns digging into his flesh made the mad villain cry out in agonized, furious pain. He even hacked up a little bit of blood in the process.
Ochaco, having touched a lot of items with her hands, floated all of them and made them rain down upon Van, striking him with a hail of debris. After the pummeling from Ochaco's assault, Van was weakened but still ready to break free and get his revenge against the foolhardy family of heroes who dared to stand against him. He was Van Nicolas, the first man known for sure to have crafted the Philosopher's Stone! He wasn't about to just up and-
All thought processes were cut off in Van when Fuyuki flew over and slammed the bottom of his right foot into Van's right arm, making him cry out in angered pain as the weakened villain had his strength compromised by all that had been dealt to him. Unable to fight back against the efforts of the son of Deku, the beaten Van saw it as Fuyuki yanked his right hand out of his right pocket again, hoisted his right hand up, and then tried prying his fingers open in order to take away the Philosopher's Stone.
Van struggled with all his might to keep his right hand clenched shut, to keep his coveted treasure from being stolen by Fuyuki. Thinking quickly, Fuyuki actually reached forward with his head and bit down on Van's right hand, making Van cry out as teeth dug against skin. When one of Fuyuki's teeth actually started to pierce the flesh on Van's hand and draw some blood, the mad villain, surprised by the flash of pain, was unable to help it as his right hand had opened up, releasing the ultimate goal he had been after for so long.
Taking his mouth away from Van's hand when he felt the hand open up, Fuyuki pulled away and was able to catch the Philosopher's Stone as it fell. The son of Deku jumped away from the beaten and pinned villain as the adults came over. One swift punch to the face from Izuku was all that it took to knock Van out, bringing his madness to an end once and for all. Fuyuki put the Philosopher's Stone into his pocket for safekeeping until the heroes were ready to receive it to decide what to do with it.
As the adults proceeded to go about getting Van down, Fuyuki looked to see where Inko was running off to, so he quickly followed her. To his surprise, Fuyuki saw Inko standing over where the homunculus of Granny Inko had landed after being blasted away. The slender older woman was horribly beaten, with her left eye gone; the area of her face around the left eye was torn up and darkly bloody. A rod of rebar had also pierced the homunculus, and a large hunk of cement rubble had fallen onto the homunculus's left leg, crushing it.
"...To think that I would get to see her again," Fuyuki said bitterly, "But under such-"
"...rry..."
Both Fuyuki and Inko perked up when they heard the homunculus of their grandmother speak up. Both turned to look down at her, and saw that with her one good eye she was looking up right at Fuyuki. There was a sad, spacy expression on the face of the homunculus as she looked to be pleading with the son of Deku. Both teens knelt down, closer to the homunculus of their grandmother to better hear what she was trying to say.
It was clear that the damage dealt was too much, and without Eri present to try to rewind the wounds, it was only a matter of time until Inko Midoriya died a second time. "...I'm...sorry..." The words struggled to get out due to pain and fading life, but the homunculus of Granny Inko had pushed through. "...I'm...so sorry..." Given that she was looking at Fuyuki with her one good eye, the teens suspected that the homunculus might be trying to apologize for how the original had acted while Fuyuki had run away from home.
Fuyuki was torn on the inside, seeing some measure of closure over how he was scorned by Granny Inko being given to him, only for the source of said closure to not only be a clone of his dead grandmother but one who was on the verge of dying herself as she apologized to him. Even so, Fuyuki was not going to hold things against Granny Inko anymore, not the one who had died while he had run away, and not this homunculus before him.
Gently, the son of Deku reached forward, gently placed the palm of his left hand against the forehead of the dying homunculus that was laying on the ground in front of him and his cousin. "...It's alright, Grandma," Fuyuki said, surprised to find himself trying to hold back tears, "Just go back to sleep." The expression on the homunculus's face calmed down a bit as she slowly took some of her last breaths, with Fuyuki slowly wiping his hand down the homunculus's face, and as a result he gently closed the eyelid on her one good eye.
The two teens watched as the homunculus of their grandmother slowly breathed her last; by the time that Ochaco and Pony came running up to the scene, the homunculus had already died, with Fuyuki holding the body, crying out loudly over the loss of what little life had actually been returned to the world, if only for a little bit, as his face was near buried into the left shoulder area of the homunculus's body.
Both women covered their mouths with their hands out of heartbroken shock as Fuyuki cried over seeing his grandmother die right in front of him, die for a second time because of the mad machinations of an even madder villain. But the madness had ended, and now Granny Inko was able to return to her rest. Only this time, her grandson was able to see her off, after she was able to apologize to him. An apology he accepted.
Allowing everyone a chance to heal.
After Van was defeated, it didn't take too much longer after that for the rest of his homunculi to be taken down. After all was said and done, a little bit over one-hundred clones of the dead had been dealt with by the pro heroes. Out of those one-hundred plus clones, over half were killed in all of the fighting, with half of the ones who had survived the fighting soon dying from all of their various wounds anyway. Less than one-fourth of the total number of clones survived, a total of just twenty-three.
Out of those twenty-three, only the one of Kolulu Veldora had shown any sign of remembering anything from her previous life. Seven of the remaining twenty-two such as the one of Nemuri had no memories of their prior lives. The remaining fifteen others were little else than mindless monsters, and there was debate on if they should be destroyed or not. But Kolulu, having begun regaining her past memories, was kept alive for study, similar to the clone of the late Ojiro.
There was no way to tell if either would fully recover, but those who saw the chance for late loved ones of theirs to return to life decided to hold out hope.
Surprisingly and thankfully enough, no one who wasn't a clone was killed in the fighting. Granted, there were some injuries, and two of the injured, Nirengeki and one of the boys in the Manly Force, needed to be treated at the hospital. But both of those injuries were minor enough to not be any actual worry at all. The only thing left for everyone to do now was to pick up the pieces and clean up the mess that had been wrought by the madness of Van Nicolas.
As the surviving clones and Van were rounded up, Fuyuki approached Izuku and handed over the Philosopher's Stone, saying that he figured that he and the other heroes were going to want to find it and figure out a plan on what to do with it. The top hero accepted the relic from his son, glad that Van's ultimate goal was recovered as easily as it had been; given what it had been used to do, it would have been a nightmare if it was lost.
Izuku, once the heroes began gathering for a meeting at the HPSC building, found a room to be alone in. Inside, he held the Philosopher's Stone in his right hand as he closed his eyes, focusing his quirk to it. He wasn't actually using the relic, but rather trying to examine it, and his quirk was helping him. ...Or rather, a collection of other persons were helping him, examining what came off of the Philosopher's Stone as they sensed what all laid within.
They were the previous wielders of One For All, operating from within the vestige world.
...
Izuku sat around freely with the past users of One For All in the vestige world as they discussed the relic that they were helping their successor examine. "...Although this isn't in any way connected to the evil my brother had tried to do," Yoichi began, "It feels like it's connected to some evil that was inspired by my brother's evil."
The number one hero nodded in agreement. "Yeah. After an investigation, we were able to find out that the Philosopher's Stone was crafted using a mix of the gear Van used to make his cubic zirconiums, some tech lifted from old All For One owned facilities, and a whole lot of scientific formulas that inserted what was needed when. It's all way over my head."
En gestured to where Izuku sat in the vestige world, as Izuku's avatar there was currently holding the Philosopher's Stone. "I can tell that the DNA, i.e. blood, of many quirked persons had gone into the crafting of this relic. Most of the quirks are augmentation and enhancers, but four stand out to me in particular."
"Yeah, I read those in the notes recovered from Van's lab too," Izuku said, "He took blood from clones he made of my old schoolmate Shihai and that Kababah lady. As for non-clones he took blood from, it's Todoroki's son and Kirishima." Izuku gave a gentle shake of his head. "Using the blood of other people who have quirks as components in crafting a stone that grants oneself a lot of power? It sounds downright evil. I could never see myself doing that."
Nodding in agreement with Izuku was Nana. "Indeed, but we're getting off point. Anyway, we've concluded that the Philosopher's Stone has a few primary powers."
"The first is that when it's used, it replenishes and strengthens one's life force to a degree," Hikage said, "It basically counters the life force burning side effect of inheriting One For All if the person inheriting One For All was naturally born with a quirk. We're not sure if regular use of it will render one immortal, and I'm pretty sure no one wants to find out lest a villain hears of a potential way to live forever."
Holding up two fingers, Nana said, "Second is that it powers up various quirk attacks. Your step-brother Bakugo, for example, would be able to produce explosions fifty percent bigger than what he usually does with the same amount of effort that his attacks are normally given."
"Folks with quirks that can make products," Yoichi said, "For example your friend Momo, can make things without using as much material that they would normally need. Say those metal rods she likes to make with her quirk need ten points of her fat as fuel to make; the same metal rod can be made with, like, only four points of fat instead if she powers her quirk up with the Philosopher's Stone."
Izuku nodded grimly. "...Van's quirk can also make items if components are spent. According to his notes, he'd be able to make a 1kg hunk of diamond out of a 3/4 hunk of coal if he used the Philosopher's Stone."
"Oh, and the Philosopher's Stone is indestructible," En said, "Probably due to the influence of that Kirishima guy's quirk being a part."
Izuku frowned grimly at all that he now knew; the Philosopher's Stone made one live for longer when used, it greatly powers up quirk attacks, it lets one make more without as much material, and it can't be broken. There's probably an untold number of other powers associated with the ultimate goal that Van had crafted as well. This had to be brought up with the others, so that a game plan on how to deal with the Philosopher's Stone can be made.
END, CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Author's notes;
Fuyuki and his family had one hell of a family outing, where they defeated a mad villain wielding great power, and Fuyuki got some measure of closure concerning his grandmother. Things are cleaned up, and some hope is held out for some of the homunculi. There's even a scene in the vestige world of One For All where Izuku talks to past users as they help him examine the stone to figure out what all powers it has.
The next chapter will see some last minute clean up, as well as what is decided in regards to the safe keeping of the Philosopher's Stone. Peace out.